Prelim Bits 28-02-2018

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