• The National Green Tribunal, Eastern Zone, has directed the Odisha government not to go ahead with ‘illegal’ construction in and around Tampara Lake.

ABOUT TAMPARA LAKE

• It is a designated Ramasar site and one of the largest picturesque freshwater lakes of the Odisha.
• It is spread across 337.86 ha with a length of 5.8 km and a width of 670 metres in Ganjam district,
• It supports at least 60 species of birds, 46 species of fishes, at least 48 species of phytoplanktons, and more than seven species of terrestrial plants and macrophytes.
• There is a patch of forest with width of 2 km that separates Bay of Bengal from the lake.
• The wetland is an important habitat for vulnerable species such as Cyprinus carpio, common pochard (Aythya ferina), and river tern (Sterna aurantia).
• Tampara is already placed in the Wetland Atlas prepared by Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in 2010.

• Union minister for Education and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, recently launched the direct benefit transfer (DBT) in the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS).
• An amount of approximately Rs 15 crore was disbursed to one lakh apprentices.

ABOUT NATIONAL APPRENTICESHIP PROMOTION SCHEME

• It was launched in 2016.
• NAPS had replaced Apprentice Protsahan Yojna.
• A total of 25 lakh youth have been engaged as apprentices up to July 31, 2023.
• Under the NAPS, the Centre reimburses 25% of the prescribed stipend subject to a maximum of Rs 1500 per month per apprentice to the employer.
• Also government reimburses the basic training cost up to Rs. 7,500 per apprentice.
• States like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Telangana have emerged as the top apprenticeship providers in the country with more than 0.9 million trained youth in the age group of 23-26 years.

• National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), the country’s apex advisory body on school education, has initiated the final phase of developing new textbooks by forming a 19-member committee (NSTC), with an aim to align “school syllabus, textbooks, teaching and learning materials” for students in grades 3^rd to 12^th.
• National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) chancellor MC Pant will be heading the 19-member committee.
• A professor at Princeton University and a Fields medalist, Manjul Bhargav will be its co-chair.
• Mandate– To prepare textbooks, and other teaching learning materials, which will be published and used by the NCERT for reference.
• NSTC will be accompanied by Curricular Area Groups (CAGs) in the development of the teaching-learning material for all curricular areas.
• The objective of the committee will be to align the curriculum with the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE 2023), developed by the K Kasturirangan-led committee as a part of the NEP 2020.
  • The NCF-SE, now in the advanced stages, will act as the reference point and guiding road map for the syllabus and textbook developers for school-level education all over the country.

• PM Modi recently laid the foundation stone of the memorial and temple of Sant Shiromani Sri Ravidas ji on 11 acres of land in Bartuma Sagar Madhya Pradesh, at a cost of about Rs 100 crore.

ABOUT SANT RAVIDAS

• He was a prominent mystic-saint of the North Indian Bhakti movement who was venerated as a guru in the modern regions of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, and Haryana.
• He taught removal of social divisions of caste and gender, and promoted unity in the pursuit of personal spiritual freedom.
• He is also the central figure within the Ravidassia religious movement.
• Begumpura City was envisioned by him as a city which is casteless, classless and does not have untouchability. There is no injustice, no worries, no terror and no torture.
• His padas, devotional songs, and other writings are mentioned in religious text of Sikhs, Guru Granth Sahib.
• The Panch Vani text of the Dadu Panthi tradition within Hinduism also includes numerous poems of Sant Ravidas.
• He was also considered spiritual Guru of Meera Bai.

• China’s northern region of Inner Mongolia recently reported 2 cases of bubonic plague.

ABOUT BUBONIC PLAGUE

• It is historically known as the “Black Death” in reference to the gangrenous blackening and death of body parts, such as the fingers and toes, that can happen with the illness.
• Bubonic plague is the most common form of plague, which can be fatal if not treated in time.
• Bubonic plague infection is spread mostly by rodents.
• It is caused by the bite of an infected flea.
• It is caused by bacteria called Yersinia pestis which enters at the bite and travels through the lymphatic system to the nearest lymph node where it replicates itself.
• The lymph node then becomes inflamed, tense and painful, and is called a ‘bubo’.
• Along with the tender, enlarged lymph nodes, that can be as large as a chicken egg, other symptoms include fever, chills, headache, muscle aches and tiredness.
• Bubonic plague can advance and spread to the lungs, which is the more severe type of plague called pneumonic plague.
• Human-to-human transmission of bubonic plague is rare.
• It can now be easily treated with antibiotics.

• Agricultural experts have warned pesticide sellers against the sale and storage of glyphosate as its exposure is known for causing cancer.
• Alternative herbicides are available in the market and the farmers are recommended use them.

ABOUT GLYPHOSATE

• It is a widely used herbicide which was developed in 1970.
  • A herbicide is an agent, usually chemical, for killing or inhibiting the growth of unwanted plants, such as residential or agricultural weeds and invasive species.
• It is applied to the leaves of plants to kill weeds.
• It is used primarily in agriculture but also in forestry and lawn and garden care.
• It is considered a broad-spectrum herbicide.
  • It can effectively control a wide variety of plants, including grasses, broadleaf plants, and woody plants.
• It is also a non-selective herbicide that means it kills most plants.
• Health Concerns–
  • Health impacts of glyphosate range from cancer, reproductive and developmental toxicity to neurotoxicity and immunotoxicity.
  • Also it does not degrade quickly in plants which increase the possibility that its residues can occur in food products.
• In 2022, The Union Agriculture Ministry had restricted the use of glyphosate.
  • The spraying of glyphosate and its derivatives is only permitted through “pest control operators”.

• Sources in the Culture Ministry say the government is planning to introduce the National Manuscripts Bill, 2023, possibly in the Winter Session of Parliament.
• The primary aim is
  • to document and catalogue Indian heritage texts wherever they may be, in India or abroad,
  • maintain accurate and up-to-date information about them, and
  • detail the conditions under which they may be consulted.

ABOUT INDIAN MANUSCRIPTS

• Manuscripts are written on materials such as palm leaf, paper, cloth, and bark on themes ranging from history and religion to literature, astrology, and agricultural practice.
• As per National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM), India possesses an estimated 10 million manuscripts in 80 ancient scripts like Brahmi, Kushan, Gaudi, Lepcha, and Maithili.
• While 75% of the existing manuscripts are in Sanskrit, 25% are in regional languages, according to the NMM.
• India has a large collection of ancient manuscripts, a part of the country’s cultural heritage, but over the years many have been lost or lie in museums abroad. For e.g.
  • The Bakhshali manuscript, an ancient Indian mathematical text written on birch bark, is considered to be the earliest recorded example of the use of zero.
  • The seminal text, dating back 3-4 century A.D., is in one of the Bodleian Libraries of the University of Oxford.

ABOUT NATIONAL MISSION FOR MANUSCRIPTS (NMM)

• NMM is an autonomous body under the Ministry of Culture.
• NMM is mandated with preserving the vast manuscript wealth of India.
• The NMM has digitised 3.3 lakh manuscripts, containing about 1 crore folios.
  • Even though more than 1.18 lakh manuscripts have been uploaded, only about 70,000 have been made available online for public access.
• The Sarasvati Mahal Library in Thanjavur, Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune, Sampurnanand Sanskrit University in Varanasi, and the Oriental Research Institute in Jammu and Kashmir are some of the places which house the largest number of manuscripts in India.

• Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog, in collaboration with Indian Space Research Organisation and Navars Edutech has launched the National Space Innovation Challenge, NSIC 2023, for students of Classes 5 to 12.
• The challenge is open for school students across India.
• The contest aims to foster innovation and curiosity among school students and provide them with a platform to solve modern-day space technology problems.

• World Organ Donation Day is observed annually on August 13^th to raise awareness about the importance of organ donation and to encourage people to become organ donors.
• The theme for World Organ Donation Day 2023 is “Step up to volunteer; need more organ donors to fill the lacunae”.
• It was first celebrated in 2005 by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Society for Organ Donation (ISOD).

• ICAR–Indian Institute of Horticulture Research, Bengaluru (IIHR) has developed a variant of hydroponics, “Cocoponics” or the Soilless production of vegetables, using cocopeat as a substrate, which has been found to be comparatively more successful in many vegetable crops.
• Hydroponics is a viable alternative to traditional farming methods for soil less cultivation for enhancing productivity and water use efficiency.
  • Hydroponics is a new concept in India and gaining popularity among entrepreneurs and innovative farmers, who are looking for sustainable and efficient ways to grow crops.
  • At present, this technology is mostly confined to urban farming, rooftop gardening and commercial farming.