Prelim Bits 09-06-2019

National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG)

NCGG is an autonomous institute under the aegis of Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, Government of India.
Its head office is at New Delhi and registered office at Mussoorie.
The NCGG has been set up to assist in bringing about governance reforms through studies, training, knowledge sharing and promotion of good ideas.
It seeks to curate training courses for civil servants from India and other developing countries.
The National Centre for Good Governance traces its origin to the National Institute of Administrative Research (NIAR).
NIAR was subsequently rechristened with an expanded mandate, as National Centre for Good Governance, which was inaugurated in 2014.

Areas where Groundwater meets the Oceans

Recently scientists have created high-resolution maps of points around the globe where groundwater meets the oceans.
The analysis may help to protect both drinking water and the seas.
According to the studies nearly half of fresh submarine groundwater discharge flows into the ocean near the tropics.
Regions near active fault lines end greater volumes of groundwater into the ocean than regions that are tectonically stable.
Dry, arid regions have very little groundwater discharge, opening the limited groundwater supplies in those parts of the world to saltwater intrusion.
Freshwater-groundwater discharge is a natural line of defence against saltwater intrusion.
Most of the water that gets to lakes and oceans comes from surface water sources.
The study found that in some parts of the world, groundwater could be polluting oceans and lakes with nutrients and other chemicals.
Groundwater, for example, can carry higher concentrations of nitrates, a key contributor of the types of harmful algal blooms as well as high concentrations of mercury.

Maritime Heritage Museum

India and Portugal has agreed to establish a maritime heritage museum at Lothal in Gujarat.
It is likely to come up on the lines of a similar museum at Lisbon, which is administered by the Portuguese Navy
The Indian Navy is keen to be a stakeholder in the project and will administer the maritime museum.

The project is being implemented by the Ministry of Shipping through its Sagarmala programme, with the involvement of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

Sagarmala Programme

The Sagarmala Programme is a union government initiative to enhance the performance of the country's logistics sector.
The programme envisages unlocking the potential of waterways and the coastline to minimize infrastructural investments required to meet these targets.
It entails to set up new mega ports, modernizing India's existing ports, developing of 14 Coastal Economic Zones (CEZs) and Coastal Employment Units, enhancing port connectivity via road, rail, multi-modal logistics parks, pipelines & waterways and promoting coastal community development.

Lothal

Lothal was one of the southernmost cities of the ancient Indus Valley Civilization,
It is located in the Bhal region of the modern state of Gujarat and first inhabited c. 3700 BCE.
Lothal had the world's earliest known dock, which connected the city to an ancient course of the Sabarmati River on the trade route between Harappan cities in Sindh and the peninsula of Saurashtra when the surrounding Kutch desert of today was a part of the Arabian Sea.
Lothal was a vital and thriving trade Centre in ancient times, with its trade of beads, gems and valuable ornaments reaching the far corners of West Asia and Africa.
The Lothal site has been nominated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and its application is pending on the tentative list of UNESCO.

Source: PIB, the Hindu