Global Seed Vault
- The Global Seed Vault marks its 10-year anniversary by adding new seed samples from all over the world.
- The Global Seed Vault is located deep inside a mountain on Svalbard, a remote Arctic island in a Norwegian archipelago.
- Dubbed the “Noah’s Ark” of food crops the vault has the capacity to store up to 4.5 billion seeds.
- Click here to know more about Global seed vault.
UAN-Aadhar linkage
- Employee Provident Fund Organization has launched the facility of linking Aadhaar with universal account number (UAN), through UMANG mobile app.
- UAN is a unique 12-digit number assigned to an employee by EPFO India.
- UAN helps employees manage their provident fund accounts online with ease and hassle free.
- When an employee changes an organization, his/her mutual fund member ID also changes.
- UAN was introduced to link multiple Member Identification Numbers allotted to a single individual by the employer.
- UMANG or Unified Mobile Application is an app launched by the government to provide access to various government services at one place.
- Click here to know about EPFO.
- Click here to know about UMANG App.
Ring tailed Lemurs (Lemur catta)
- Lemurs are primates found only on the African island of Madagascar and some tiny neighboring islands.
- Ring-tailed lemurs have powerful scent glands and use their unique odor as a communication tool and even as a kind of weapon.
- It is under the endangered category in the IUCN red list.
- It is listed on Appendix I of CITES.
- Ring tailed lemurs is hunted for food and frequently kept as a pet
UN broadband Commission for Sustainable Development
- International Telecommunication Union and UNESCO set up the Broadband Commission for Digital Development to step-up UN efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
- The Commission was established in May 2010 with the aim of boosting the importance of broadband on the international policy agenda.
- Following adoption of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals in 2015, the Commission was re-launched as the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development.
- Its aim is to showcase and document the power of ICT and broadband-based technologies for sustainable development.
- The Commission has re-evaluated and launched new framework of Targets 2025 in support of “Connecting the Other Half" of the world's population.
- It publishes the “State of Broadband” annual report.
Kaleshwaram project
- The Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project’s enormous benefits come at an irrecoverable cost -- loss of forest cover to an extent of over 7,800 acres.
- The project will forever bisect the contiguous forest between Maharashtra and Telangana and between Warangal and Adilabad, leading to genetic isolation of species.
- The flora of this region constitute of 391 species while the fauna is also a rich mixture of amphibians, mammals , butterflies and dragonflies.
- A total of 22 lakh forest trees will be removed to accommodate canals, reservoirs and other structures of the project leading to habitat destruction of flora and fauna of the region.
- Click here to know more about Kaleshwaram Project
Source: PIB, The Hindu, Times of India
