Why in news?

• India’s largest reclining statue of Lord Buddha is being constructed in Bodh Gaya, Bihar. The 100 feet long and 30 feet high statue depicts Lord Buddha in a sleeping posture. The statue is being built by Buddha International Welfare Mission.
• The sculptors from Kolkata are building the statue with fibreglass.
• The construction of the statue was started in 2019 and it will be open for devotees from February 2023.
• Bodh Gaya is an important pilgrimage centre for Buddhism and is visited by devotees from all over the world.

Why in news?

• National Dam Safety Authority, has been constituted that seeks to maintain standards related to dam safety, prevent dam-related disasters and resolve inter-state issues related to dams.
• The Centre also constituted a 22-member National Committee on Dam Safety which is headed by the Chairman of the Central Water Commission (CWC)(Present Chairman – R.K. Sinha) under the Ministry of Jal Shakti.
• According to the National Register of Large Dams, there are 5,264 completed large dams in the country, while 437 were under construction.

About National Dam Safety Authority

• The Dam Safety Act has been passed by the Parliament in December 2021 which states that National Dam Safety Authority will work closely with state-level dam safety organisations and owners of dams for standardising safety-related data and practices.
• Under the Act, the National Dam Safety Authority has been constituted on 18th February, 2022 which will be headed by a chairman and assisted by 5 members to lead its 5 wings -policy and research, technical, regulation, disaster & resilience and administration & finance.
• The Authority will be headquartered in the National Capital Region (NCR), Delhi and will be supported by 4 regional offices.
• Functions:
• The authority resolves any issue between the State Dam Safety Organisations of states or between a State Dam Safety Organisation and any owner of a specified dam in that state.
• The Dam Safety Act also provides an institutional architecture for dam safety in India.

Why in news?

• India’s first 100 percent women-owned ‘FLO (FICCI Ladies Organisation) Industrial Park (FIP)’ in Hyderabad, Telangana powered by Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) Ladies Organisation (FLO) in partnership with Telangana government was inaugurated with the commencement of operations by 25 women-owned and operated units represent 16 diverse Green Category Industries at the Park.
• It is the flagship project at a national level with participation open to Chapter Members, and the national members of FLO.

About FIP:

• FIP in Hyderabad, Telangana is around 50 acres and was established by FLO in association with Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TSIIC) with an investment of Rs.250 crore. The FIP began operations with 25 Green Projects in Hyderabad.
• The FIP includes amenities from the electronic sector to packaging, medical services, wellness, engineering and food processing to demonstrate the power of women entrepreneurs.
• The park will also offer a home environment for women entrepreneurs including creches and playschools.
• This paves way for female entrepreneurs to run and operate their business from this park.

About FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO)

• Establishment – 1983 (a division of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and industry (FICCI)) Headquarters – New Delhi, Delhi
• President – Ujjwala Singhania

Why in news?

• For the second consecutive year, Indi has been termed as ‘partly free’ country in terms of democracy and free society, according to the annual report.
• The report titled “Freedom in the World 2022 – The Global Expansion of Authoritarian Rule” by Freedom House, a US-based NGO that ‘assesses political rights and civil liberties.
• India scored 66 out of 100 in 2022.
• The country had scored 67 in 2021. India was a free country till 2020 when its score was 71.
• In Internet freedom, India scored a mere 49,the same score as that of Uganda. Here too, the score has come down. The reasons are – the increasing internet shutdowns by governments, low internet penetration and poor infrastructure.
• India’s freedom scores are similar to that of Bolivia, Hungary and Albania. The countries that have scored the worst include South Sudan, Syria, Tibet, Turkmenistan, Eritrea and North Korea.
• Sixty-nine countries are currently not free worldwide. This makes the situation worse than in 1973 when only 63 countries were not free.
• Apart from the worst scorers, the list also includes Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Thailand and Qatar. This is an increase from the last year when only 54 countries were not free.
• At the same time, there is an increase in free countries from 82 to 85, compared to 2021. In this category, Finland, Sweden and Norway have achieved a perfect 100, besides New Zealand, Canada, Uruguay, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Ireland and Denmark.

Key points of the reports

• In 2022, 85 countries were termed as free, 56 as partly free and 69 as not free.
• The Freedom in the World 2022 evaluated the state of freedom in 195 countries and 15 territories during the calendar year 2021.

About the report:

• The report used 25 indicators, grouped into the categories of political rights and civil liberties to determine whether the country or territory has an overall status of Free, Partly Free, or Not Free.
• The report is published every year since 1973 to assess the political rights and civil liberties of a country through a series of surveys and analyses.

Why in news?

• Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)successfully launched a military satellite, Noor-2, into orbit at an altitude of 500 kilometres (311 miles) from the earth. This is the second military satellite launched by the Islamic Republic.
• The first military satellite, Noor, was launched in April 2020 at an orbit of 425km (265 miles) above the earth’s surface. Noor means light in the Persian language.
• Putting the second satellite in space would be a major advance for Iran’s military, raising concerns about the country’s nuclear and missile programs.
• The three-stage Qased, or “Messenger”, the carrier launched the Noor 2, from the Shahroud spaceport.

Why in news?

• The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC)has designed and installed a supercomputer named “PARAM Ganga”, at IIT Roorkee, under Phase II of National Supercomputing Mission (NSM). PARAM Ganga has a supercomputing capacity of 66 Petaflops.

About National Supercomputing Mission (NSM)

• NSM is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeiTY) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST).
• The mission is implemented by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore.
• The NSM Mission aims to build and deploy 24 facilities with cumulative compute power of more than 64 Petaflops.
• Till date 11 systems have been deployed by C-DAC at IISc, IITs, IISER Pune, JNCASR, NABI-Mohali and C-DAC under NSM Phase-1 and Phase-2 with a cumulative computing power of more than 20 Petaflops.

Why in news?

• Haryana government has announced Matrushakti Udaymita Scheme to provide support to women entrepreneurs, on International Women’s Day.
• Under the scheme, the women whose family annual income is less than 5 lakh rupees based on Parivar Pehchan Patra (PPP) verified data, will be provided access to soft loans by financial institutions to the extent of 3 lakh rupees.
• Subsequently, the interest subvention of 7% will also be provided for three years through the Haryana Women Development Corporation.

Why in news?

• The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M. K. Stalin inaugurated India’s largest floating solar power plant constructed at a cost of Rs 150.4 crore.
• The floating plant is established in Southern Petrochemicals Industries Corporation Limited (SPIC) factory at Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu to provide clean energy.
• The floating power plant has the capacity to produce 42 million units of electricity per annum.
• The solar power plant is owned by Greenam Energy, a wholly-owned subsidiary of AM International.
• lt is the SPIC’s part of Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) progress, to produce renewable energy.
• The 48-acre floating solar power plant has been set up on a large water reservoir that spans 62-acres. The solar arrays are placed on floating structures on a water body.
• The plant provides the energy to the SPIC and Greenstar fertilisers factories.
• The 25.3 MegaWatt Direct Current / 22 MegaWatt Alternate Current floating solar power plant project aligns with their strategy to implement new-age green and sustainable technology.
• The solar panels on the water reduce the evaporation upto 60 percent.

Why in news?

• On 7 March 2022, the Chief Minister (CM) of Chhattisgarh in Raipur launched the ‘Kaushalya Matritva Yojana’ by handing cheques of Rs 5,000 each to five women beneficiaries for the safe motherhood practices.
• It aims to help women financially for the nutrition of themselves and their child after pregnancy. It will also prevent female foeticide.
• Under this scheme, financial assistance of Rs 5000 will be provided to women for bringing up their second girl child.
• The entire expenditure of this scheme will be borne by the Chhattisgarh government.

Why in news?

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released a booklet titled “BE(A)WARE”.
• It provides information on the common modus operandi used by fraudsters and precautions to be taken while carrying out various financial transactions.
• The booklet will enhance public awareness about financial frauds perpetrated on innocent customers.
• It also provides safeguards against commonly used fraudulent techniques like SIM swaps, phishing links, lottery, fake loan websites and digital apps etc.
• According to the Ombudsman Offices & Consumer Education and Protection Cells (CEPCs) of RBI, sharing of confidential information by the customers, knowingly or unknowingly is one of the major causes leading to the financial frauds in India.