• Ministry of Civil Aviation launches Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS)- UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik) 5.0
• UDAN Scheme was launched as a Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) under the Ministry of Civil Aviation in 2016, to provide affordable, economically viable and profitable air travel on regional routes to the common man even in small towns.
• It envisages providing connectivity to un-served and underserved airports of the country through the revival of existing airstrips and airports.
• It was formulated based on the review of National Civil Aviation Policy (NCAP)-2016.

UDAN 5.0

• Focuses on Category-2 (20-80 seats) and Category-3 (>80 seats).
• Length cap of 600 km is waived off.
• No predetermined routes would be offered.
• Viability gap funding (VGF) increased to 600km from 500km earlier.
• Airlines would be required to commence operations within 4 months of the award of the route (earlier it was six months).
• The same route will not be awarded to a single airline more than once, whether in different networks or in the same network.

• The State of the Global Climate 2022 report was recently released by World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
• Annual report gives details of climate indicators such as temperatures, ocean heat, sea level rise, extreme weather etc.
• It complements the IPCC Sixth Assessment report.

Important highlights

• Global mean temperature in 2022 was 1.15°C above the 1850–1900 average.
• Years 2015 to 2022 were eight warmest on record despite cooling impact of a La Niña event for past three years.
• Concentrations of three main greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide – reached record highs in 2021.
• Overall, 58% of ocean surface experienced at least one marine heatwave during 2022.
• Glaciers around the world are melting at an alarming rate, with reference glaciers showing an average decrease in thickness of over 1.3 meters between October 2021 and October 2022.
• Rate of global mean sea level rise has doubled between 1993-2002 (2.27 mm∙yr-) and 2013-2022 (4.62 mm∙yr).
• The Antarctic sea ice reached a record low of 1.92 million km2 on February 25, 2022, which is almost 1 million km2 less than the long-term (1991-2020) average.

Socio-economic and environmental impacts

• Heatwaves in 2022 pre-monsoon season in India and Pakistan caused a decline in crop yields.
• Recent assessment around Tibetan Plateau, largest storehouse of snow and ice outside Arctic and Antarctic, found that global warming is causing temperate zone to expand.
• In East Africa, rainfall has been below average in five consecutive wet seasons, longest such sequence in 40 years.

About WMO

• The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) is a specialised agency of the United Nations.
• Established in 1950, it is headquartered at Geneva, Switzerland
• 193 Member States and Territories including India.

• The International Fund of Agricultural Development (IFAD) will set up a new framework to facilitate cooperation between small agricultural producers in developing nations and businesses in Japan and elsewhere.
• The Enhanced Linkages between Private Sector and Small-Scale Producers (ELPS) initiative will be set up with an aim of strengthening developing nations’ agriculture and food systems.
• Enhanced Linkages between Private Sector and Small-Scale Producers (ELPS) Initiative:
  • It is an initiative by IFAD in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan.
  • It aims to connect small-scale food producers and marginalised farmer groups in developing countries with larger agrifood companies to facilitate investment, capacity building and trade.
  • Small-scale producers can greatly benefit from the expertise, knowledge, and technologies of the private sector.

About IFAD

• IFAD is an international financial institution and specialized United Nations agency working in the field of poverty eradication in the rural areas of developing countries providing grants and loans with low interest for allied projects.
• It works with marginalized and vulnerable groups such as farmers with small holdings, foresters, Pastoralists, Fishermen and small-scale entrepreneurs by giving them disaster preparedness, access to weather information, technology transfer and social learning.
• It was created in 1977, which is the outcome of the World Food Conference of 1974.
• Headquarters: Rome, Italy
• It has 177 member countries including India.
• IFAD is the only multilateral development institution that focuses exclusively on transforming rural economies and food systems.
• It brings out the Rural Development Report every year.
• Objectives:
  • To increase the productive capacity of poor people.
  • To increase benefits for them from market participation.
  • To strengthen the environmental sustainability & climate resilience of their economic activities.

• The much-awaited work to construct the Shimla bypass and widening of the Kaithlighat-Shakral section of National Highway-5 kick-started today from Kaithlighat.
• The work involves construction of four tunnels whose total length is 3.7 km.
• Besides, 18 big bridges and 53 box culverts would be constructed.
• An expenditure of Rs 1,850 crore would be incurred.
• The bypass, when completed, will rid the city of accidents, pollution and traffic jams.
• Deadline- project is supposed to be completed by April 20, 2026.

• Indian Air Force will participate in Exercise INIOCHOS-23, a multi-national air exercise hosted by the Greece Air Force.

• PRAYAG stands for Platform for Real-time Analysis of Yamuna, Ganga and their Tributaries
• Prayag is a real time monitoring centre for planning and monitoring of projects, river water quality, etc. through various online dashboards such as Ganga Tarang Portal, Ganga Districts Performance Monitoring System, etc.
• It was launched by Ministry of Jal Shakti, under the ambit of Namami Gange Programme.

• Zombie firms/companies survive on borrowing as they do not have enough profits to cover debt-servicing costs.
• Zombie Bank is a bank that is practically insolvent but continues to exist through hiding bad loans on their balance sheet.
  • These are kept afloat to prevent panic from spreading to healthier banks.
• Zombie banks resort to forbearance lendinge. allows a borrower to temporarily stop or suspend payments of the loan.

• Members of the Hakki Pikki tribal community from Karnataka are stuck in violence-hit Sudan and the government is making efforts to bring them back.

About Hakki Pikki Tribe

• Hakki in Kannada means ‘bird’ and Pikki means ‘catchers’, they are a semi-nomadic tribe, traditionally of bird catchers and hunters.
• They live in several states in west and south India, especially near forest areas.
• According to the 2011 census, the Hakki Pikki population in Karnataka is 11,892.
• They are believed to hail originally from the bordering districts of Gujarat and Rajasthan.
• In different regions, they are known by different names, such as Mel-Shikari in northern Karnataka and Maharashtra.

• Ministry of Health and Family welfare, in partnership with Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, (MoHUA) has proposed the development of 100 food streets in 100 districts across the country.
• To be implemented as a pilot scheme, it aims to promote safe and healthy practices in the food industry, reduce food-borne illnesses, and improve overall health outcomes.
• This initiative will support the “eat right campaign” and food safety and enhance the credibility of local food businesses.
• The initiative will be implemented through the National Health Mission (NHM) in convergence with the MoHUA and with technical support from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
• States and Union Territories will receive financial assistance of ₹1 crore per food street/district, with assistance under the NHM provided in the ratio of 60:40 or 90:10, subject to standard branding according to FSSAI guidelines.

• The Ministry of Jal Shakti recently released the report of its first-ever census of water bodies, revealing crucial insights into the country’s water resources.
• Objective– to develop a national database for all water bodies by collecting information on subject including their size, condition, status of encroachments, use, storage capacity, status of filling up of storage etc.
• Census was launched in convergence with 6th Minor Irrigation Census under Centrally Sponsored Scheme “Irrigation Census”.
• Water bodies include all natural or man-made units bounded on all sides with some or no masonry work used for storing water for irrigation or other purposes.
• Findings
  • 24 lakh water bodies have been enumerated, out of which 97.1% are in rural areas and only 2.9% are in urban areas.
  • West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh are top 3 states with most water bodies.
  • West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district has highest number of waterbodies.
  • States/UTs with least water bodies: Sikkim, Chandigarh, Delhi.
  • Maharashtra leads in water conservation schemes.
  • 78% are man-made water bodies whereas 22% are natural water bodies.
  • 2% are owned by private entities whereas rest are under public ownership.
  • Water User Associations (WUA) has helped in preventing encroachments.