• Among the countries that have evinced interest in Tejas, the light combat aircraft (LCA), are the US, Australia, Malaysia, Egypt, Indonesia, Argentina and the Philippines, the Ministry of Defence informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply.
• The single engine plane is manufactured by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), a defence PSU under the Ministry of Defence.
• In case of Malaysia, the HAL has responded to a Request for Information received from Royal Malaysian Air Force, Malaysia, in February 2019.
• Subsequently, in October 2021 a Request for Proposal was issued against tender by Malaysia 18 jets, the HAL had offered the twin-seater variant, said Ajay Bhatt, Minister of State in the MoD.
• Malaysia is procuring the aircraft to replace its ageing fleet of Russian MiG-29 fighter planes.
• To a separate question on whether the government proposes to manufacture a stealth fighter jet, Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt said “yes” and added the “autonomous flying wing technology demonstrator” has been successfully tested by the DRDO.

• The Haryana government has announced a one-time settlement scheme for indebted farmers or members of the District Agriculture and Land Development Bank.
• The state’s Cooperation Minister Banwari Lal said that under the scheme announced for the loanee members, 100 per cent rebate on the overdue interest will be provided mainly in the loan accounts of deceased borrowers till March 31, 2022.
• For this, 100 per cent waiver of overdue interest will be provided to the heirs of deceased borrowers on depositing the entire principal amount in the loan account. Penalty interest and other expenses will also be waived.
• The total number of dead loan holders of the bank is 17,863 whose total amount is Rs 445.29 crore including principal amount of Rs 174.38 crore and interest of Rs 241.45 crore and penal interest of Rs 29.46 crore.
• This scheme will be applicable on all types of loans of the bank. According to the scheme, if the loan holder could not pay his loan due to any reason and was declared a defaulter by the bank till March 31, 2022, he can take advantage of this scheme.
• The cooperation minister further said this scheme is for a limited time, so consumers can take advantage of it on ‘first come-first serve’ basis.
• He said even before this, interest waiver scheme was implemented by the government in 2019, under which Rs 605.22 crore was recovered by the bank.
• Under this scheme, interest of Rs 181.88 crore was waived of 21,881 loanee members.

• The National Virtual Library of India has a total of about 3.04 lakh digital artefacts and more than 34.91 lakh bibliographic entries.’
• This information was provided by Union Minister of Culture, G. Kishan Reddy in the Rajya Sabha on August 4.
• The Union Minister further informed that the Ministry ensures that all its organizations hand over both bibliographical and digital resources to the National Virtual Library of India for integration on the Indian Culture Portal regularly.

About National Virtual Library of India

• The National Virtual Library of India (NVLI) was launched as the Indian Culture Portal (ICP) on December 10, 2019, to showcase all forms of the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of India.
• One of the major objectives of NVLI is to collect, standardize and collate all available digital assets and/or digital information about physical assets in an easily searchable form.
• The portal, https://indianculture.gov.in, is available in the public domain. The content on the portal is presented in 18 curated categories, namely, Rare Books, E-Books, Archives, Gazettes and Gazetteers, Manuscripts, Museum Collections, Paintings, Audios, Intangible Cultural Heritage, Photo Archives, Images, Videos, Content from UNESCO, Research Papers, Indian National Bibliography, Reports & Proceedings, Union Catalogues, and other Catalogues.
• Additionally, the portal also has 12 categories of created content, namely, Stories, Snippets, Photo Essays, Forts of India, Textiles, and Fabrics of India, Historical Cities of India, Musical Instruments of India, Food and Culture, Virtual Walkthroughs, Freedom Archives – Unsung Heroes, Ajanta Caves and The North- East Archive.
• Some of the other features of the portal include – the availability of portal in English and Hindi; can be accessed through an App called Indian Culture, available on both Android phones and iPhones. Further, it is also available through the Umang App.

• A unique antique object, termed “Buddha pendant”, has been found very close to the archaeological site of Mohenjodaro in Pakistan’s Sindh province after the area was lashed by heavy rains.
• Believed to be of archaeological importance, the object was found in the Dikshit South area of Mohenjo-daro.
• Mohan Lal, a former chief engineer of the department of archaeology and museums and currently working as project director of the Endowment Fund Trust (EFT) identified it as “Buddha pendant” and suggested it to be a “unique antiquity.
• An unnamed senior official at the culture department while describing the object said that it appeared like a pendant often worn around the neck by people.
• Mohenjo-daro is an archaeological heritage site discovered by Indian archaeologist R D Banerji in 1922. It is located on the east of the Indus River in the semi-arid region of Sindh province. Extending over 618 acres, it is the largest and best-preserved urban centre of the Indus Civilisation (2600-1900 BC).

• Ministry of Women and Child Development has planned to initiate the involvement of Private Aided Sponsorship wherein interested sponsors including individuals, institutions, companies, banks, industrial units or trusts, etc. can support the children through the Mission Vatsalya scheme.
• Civil society and various volunteering organisations are being encouraged to join the Mission in a systematic and planned manner to stimulate public participation and utilise the resources available for the mission’s accomplishment.
• The Ministry has also proposed a Vatsalya portal where volunteers can register so that State and District Authorities can hire them to carry out various initiatives.

Mission Vatsalya Scheme’s motto: “Leave No Child Behind”

• Formulated in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Mission Vatsalya Scheme is a road map for achieving development and child protection priorities. Its core motto is, “Leave No Child Behind,” which places a strong emphasis on children’s rights, advocacy, and awareness as well as the enhancement of the juvenile justice system’s care and protection.
• It serves as the country’s general framework for child protection services. Improved statutory body operation, strengthened service delivery systems, upscale institutional care and services, promotion of non-institutional community-based care, emergency outreach services, training, and capacity building are some of the components of Mission Vatsalya.
• The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 provisions and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 form the basic framework for carrying out the Mission.
• 472 million children under the age of 18 live in India, making up approximately 39% of the total population, and this mission is to ensure that every child in the nation has a happy and healthy childhood and to foster a sensitive, supporting, and synchronised ecology for children’s growth to make sure they have the opportunities to realise their full potential and help them flourish in all ways over time.

Centrally sponsored scheme

• The program is carried out as a centrally sponsored scheme in collaboration with state governments and UT administrations to assist the States and UTs in expanding access and enhancing service quality throughout the nation.
• The percentage of funds shared between the centre and the states and union territories with the legislature is 60:40, respectively.
• The North-Eastern States of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Tripura, as well as the two Himalayan States of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, and the UT of Jammu & Kashmir, share funds in a 90:10 ratio with the Centre.
• In Union Territories without a legislature, the central share is 100%. In order to ensure that services are provided and that children in the area are cared for and protected, the District Child Protection Unit will operate under the general supervision of the District Magistrate.

The key objectives of Mission Vatsalya are:

• Coordinate and network with all allied systems to promote convergent efforts for seamless service delivery to children in order to ensure appropriate inter-sector response at all levels.
• To improve family and community-level child protection, empower families and communities to recognise risks and vulnerabilities affecting children, and develop and promote preventative strategies to shield kids from danger, risk, and abuse.

• The state government has formed a committee under the chairmanship of the Vice-Chancellor of Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan District to monitor apple prices.
• The committee will keep a check on prices for procuring apple by private stores in the state.
• As apple growers continue protests in the state, the government issued a press note and announcing the release of Rs 20 crore to pay pending subsidies for anti-hail nets and other farm equipment.
• These decisions were taken in a meeting of at high-powered committee headed by the Chief Secretary on July 30.

• Vikas Thakur, who hails from Patnaun village of the Hamirpur district, has won a silver medal in men’s weightlifting 96-kilogram category at Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
• Thakur lifted a total weight of 346 kg. He completed a best snatch attempt of 155 kg and a clean & jerk attempt of 191 kg.
• This is Vikas Thakur’s third consecutive medal at Commonwealth Games. He won a silver in 2014 and a bronze in 2018.

• Indian Judoka Tulika Maan claimed Silver medal in women’s 78 kg category at the ongoing Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham. This is India’s third medal in Judo this Commonwealth Games.
• Indian weightlifter Gurdeep Singh bagged the bronze medal in the men’s 109-plus kg final with a combined weight of 390kg.
• India’s Saurav Ghosal clinched the bronze medal in squash men’s singles. This was Ghosal’s first medal at the Commonwealth Games in men’s singles.
• India’s Tejaswin Shankar won India’s first medal in athletics at the Commonwealth games 2022, by clinching a historic bronze in the men’s high jump final.
• Lovepreet Singh bagged a bronze medal in men’s 109kg weightliftling while setting a national record in the clean and jerk round.
• India is now at 7th position with 18 medals which includes five gold, six silver and 7 bronze.

• Threat of terrorists using emerging technologies and ways to deal with it will top the agenda of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting to be hosted by India in October.  It is a rare occasion when such a high-profile meeting is held outside the United Nations, New York.
• The meeting is scheduled for October 29 and will see members of the 15-nation UNSC deliberating on counter-terrorism measures.
• India chairs the Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) for2022.  Countries like the US, China and Russia are likely to attend the conclave.  India is halfway through the second year of its two-year term as an elected non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.
• India’s tenure at the Council will end in December when the country will also preside as President of the powerful UN organ for the month.
• The current members of the UNSC are Albania, Brazil, Gabon, Ghana, India, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico, Norway and the UAE, along with five permanent members China, France, Russia, the UK and the US.
• The special meeting will specifically focus on three significant areas where emerging technologies are experiencing rapid development, growing use by member states (including for security and counter-terrorism purposes), and the increasing threat of abuse for terrorism purposes, namely Internet and social media, terrorism financing, and unmanned aerial systems (UAS).
• It is not very frequent that the Counter-Terrorism Committee meets outside of New York but the meeting in India will be the seventh time that this is happening.
• The most recent special meeting of the CTC outside of United Nations headquarters took place in Madrid, Spain, in July 2015, focusing on foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs).
• The Committee said further that with the prevalence of technology and rapid rise in digitisation, the use of new and emerging technologies to counter-terrorism is a topic of growing interest among the member states, policymakers and researchers, particularly in the context of the increasing role played by technology in terrorism and counter-terrorism.
• The special meeting would be conducted in the six official languages of the United Nations and be open to the wider United Nations membership and other relevant stakeholders.
• India’s then Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador T S Tirumurti had in January this year assumed the Chair of the Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee for 2022. Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj, the country’s new envoy to the UN, now assumes that role.

• The United States Senate approved Finland and Sweden’s accession to NATO. The vote on easily surpassed the two-thirds majority needed to back the ratification of the accession documents, with 95 Senators voting in support.
• US President Joe Biden in a statement said that this historic vote sends an important signal of the sustained, bipartisan US commitment to NATO.
• He said, it is also to ensuring the Alliance is prepared to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow.
• The Nordic countries, which had long maintained neutrality, launched a bid to join the 30-member alliance in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
• Earlier, France’s National Assembly voted in favor of Finland and Sweden’s NATO memberships. The French Senate had also approved it two weeks ago.
• Several countries, including Germany, Canada and Italy, have already approved the ratification.
• All 30 NATO member states must approve the accession protocols.