ANSWER: D

• 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.

ANSWER: A

• 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).

ANSWER: C

• 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.

ANSWER: C

• 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.

ANSWER: D

• 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.

ANSWER: C

• Reserve bank of India increased the Repo Rate by 50 basis points to 5.40 percent.
• RBI Governor Shaktikant Das announced the bi-monthly Monetary Policy.
• While announcing the policy, Shaktikant Das said that the Monetary Policy Committee which held a three-day MPC Meeting, unanimously decided to increase the Repo Rate.
• Under Section 45ZB of the amended RBI Act, 1934, the central government is empowered to constitute a six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to determine the policy interest rate required to achieve the inflation target. The first such MPC was constituted on September 29, 2016.
• Accordingly, Standing Deposit Facility Rate was adjusted to 5.15 percent from 4.65 percent. Marginal Standing Facility Rate and Bank Rate revised to 5.65 percent from 5.15 percent.
• The RBI Governor said that the Repo Rate is now back to pre-pandemic level highest since August 2019.
• He said that the real GDP growth projection for 2022-23 is retained at 7.2 percent with Q1- 16.2 percent, Q2-  6.2 percent, Q3 -4.1 percent, and Q4- 4.0 percent with risks broadly balanced.
• The real GDP growth for the first quarter of the ensuing fiscal year is projected at 7 percent.

ANSWER: D

• The first science-Sanskrit film in the history of world cinema, ‘Yanam’ that revolves around India’s successful Mangalyaan mission, is all set to reach audiences in August, 2022.
• The much-awaited science documentary in the classical language, revolving around the success story of India’s historic ‘Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) alias ‘Mangalyaan’, would be premiered before a selected audience on August 21 in Chennai.
• MOM was successfully launched in 2013 by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
• ISRO Chairman S Somanath would launch the premier in Chennai at a function, which would also be attended by former chairman of the space agency K Radhakrishnan and the present VSSC Director S Unnikrishnan Nair.
• Ravi Kottarakkara, secretary, South Indian film chamber, would also take part in the programme, said national award winning filmmaker Vinod Mankara, who helmed the docu-film.
• He said ‘Yaanam ‘ is based on Radhakrishnan’s book “My Odyssey: Memoirs of the Man Behind the Mangalyaan Mission”.
• The objective of the documentary is to project the potentials of the ISRO and the capabilities of its scientists before the world.
• It explains how the Indian scientists have overcome all the limitations and made the complex Mars mission a huge success in the first attempt itself.
• Mankara said the movie was made with the complete support of the ISRO.
• He said the 45-minute documentary is a complete Sanskrit film by all means as the entire script and dialogues are in the ancient language.
• Majority of the ancient texts of the sub-continent including that of space and astronomy were compiled in Sanskrit.
• Besides screening it for the scientists community and in universities and colleges in the country, the director also plans a global premier of his documentary.
• The 4K digital DTS movie is produced by AV Anoop under the banner AVA Productions.

ANSWER: A

• George Miller, 75 years and eight months old, became the oldest player to win a medal at the Commonwealth Games when he bagged the mixed pairs Gold in lawn bowls for Scotland.
• It is also the first time that Team Scotland have won the event.
• Born in 1946, Miller was already the oldest member of any Team Scotland squad in history.
• He has beaten the record of Willie Wood who was 72 at his final Games in 2010.

ANSWER: A

• Education and Art, Language and Culture Minister Govind Singh Thakur said that the seven-day-long international Kullu Dussehra festival will commence from October 5.
• While presiding over a meeting convened for the organization of the festival, he said that for the last two years, Dussehra festival could be celebrated only symbolically due to Covid, but this time Dussehra will be celebrated on a large scale.
• The festival this year would be linked to “Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav”. He asked the district administration to constitute separate committees. He said that the festival souvenir would be published in a new format as it was the pride of the festival and helped preserve the memories of the event. He added that articles of budding writers and historians would be included in the souvenir.
• The leader said that cultural evenings would be organized in the open-air auditorium Kala Kendra.
• He directed communication through the Indian Council for Cultural Relations and Embassies to invite international level artistes for the festival. He said that it was the responsibility of the festival committee to provide opportunities to local artistes in the festival. The artistes should be selected only through auditions.
• Kullu Dussehra is celebrated for seven days after Vijaya Dashami and the speciality of the Kullu Dussehra is the chariot procession of Lord Raghunath.
• The center of festivities of the Kullu Dussehra is the Dhalpur Maidan in Kullu.

HISTORY

• The history of this carnival dates back to the 17th century when the local king, Jagat Singh, installed an idol of Lord Raghunath on his throne on the advice of a Brahmin in order to eradicate his curse, after taking it from Lord Rama’s kingdom, Ayodhya.
• After this, Lord Raghunath was declared as the ruling deity of the valley. According to traditions, a huge statue of the deity is now installed on a beautifully designed chariot, on the first day of the festival, in the presence of other village gods and goddesses.
• The devotees after offering their prayers and respects to the deity take him to different sites across the Dhalpur Maidan.

ANSWER: C

• The National Fertilizers Ltd (NFL) will establish an NFL chair in Chaudhary Sarwan Kumar Agriculture University, Himachal Pradesh (CSKAUHP), at Palampur.
• Nirlep Singh Rai, CMD of NFL, gave this information. He said an MoU would be signed with the CSKAUHP tomorrow at Palampur. The NFL will fund research carried out at its farms by scientists of the CSKAUHP.
• It was the first-of-its-kind MoU being signed by the NFL to fund research in an agriculture university.
• Nirlep Singh said presently, the NFL was producing fertilisers. The company was, however, looking to diversify into other fields in agriculture. The company had already entered the business of selling seeds developed at its farms. NFL is entering into an MoU with the CSKAUHP with an idea that it would help the company develop various varieties of crops, cropping patterns and other technology related to farming that it can further sell in the market.
• Prof HK Chaudhary, VC of the CSKAUHP, said it was common in developed countries that the companies funded research projects in universities. However, it was for the first time in the northern region that a leading public sector undertaking (PSU) would be directly investing in research in a government university.
• The NFL chair would be established in the university after the signing of MoU and the university would soon take up research projects as per the requirements of the PSU.
• Chaudhary further said the university scientists would soon be visiting agriculture farms of the NFL located on the borders of Punjab and Himachal in Una district to start the research projects as specified by the officials of the NFL.