UPSC Daily Current Affairs| One Liners 21-03-2025

One Liners 21-03-2025

History, Art and Culture

Guruvayur festival

It is an annual festival at Guruvayur Sreekrishna Temple in Kerala.
The temple is often referred to as Bhuloka Vaikundam (Holy Abode of Vishnu on Earth).
This festival is conducted in the month of Kumbha (Feb-March) and lasts for 10 days.

Social Issues

Measures Against Online Gaming Addiction

Recent amendments – Provisions added in Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (“IT Rules”) under the IT Act, 2000 to address various socio-economic concerns emanating from online games.
It casts specific obligations on online gaming intermediaries, including other intermediaries, social media intermediaries or platforms in relation to online games.
Blocking directions – Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY) has issued 1298 blocking directions related to online betting/gambling/gaming websites between the year 2022- 24.

New Partnership for ‘Scam Se Bacho,’ campaign

Scam Se Bacho – A campaign against online scams and spam.
New partnership – Department of Telecommunications (DoT) collaborates with WhatsApp to extend the safety campaign.
Aim – To enhance digital safety through training workshops and citizen awareness campaigns.
It will include train-the-trainer workshops for DoT officials, Sanchar Mitras, Telecom Service Providers (TSPs), and field units.

Nidaan Portal

Nidaan – National Integrated Database on Arrested Narco-Offenders.
Nodal Ministry - Ministry of Home Affairs.
Aim – To provide data of narcotics offenders involved in narcotics offences under Narcotic Drugs & Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985.
Usage – It is exclusively meant for use of Drugs Law Enforcement Agencies.
It has helped them in connecting dots, previous involvements, fingerprint search, working inter-linkages, busting the network, monitoring habitual offenders and financial investigations.

Polity & Governance

NYPS 2.0

It is an upgraded version of the National Youth Parliament Scheme (NYPS) web portal.
Nodal ministry – Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs.
Upgradation – While the previous version was limited to students of recognized institutions, NYPS 2.0 is open to all citizens across the country regardless of economic status, gender, caste, creed, religion, race, region and place.
Participation mechanism
- Institution Participation
- Group Participation
- Individual Participation.

Agriculture

Revised Rashtriya Gokul Mission (RGM)

Aim - To boost growth in livestock sector.
To conserve and develop indigenous bovine breeds in a scientific and holistic manner.
Nodal Ministry – Ministry of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries.
Revised budget – An additional outlay of Rs.1000 crore, totalling to Rs.3400 crore.
New components – One-time assistance of 35% of the capital cost for establishment of Heifer Rearing Centres.
Encouraging farmers to purchase High genetic merit (HGM) IVF heifers by providing 3% interest subvention on loan taken by the farmer from milk unions / financial institutions/ banks for such purchase.

Nationwide Artificial Insemination Programme (NAIP)

Umbrella scheme – Rashtriya Gokul Mission.
Nodal Ministry – Ministry of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries.
Aims – To provide free of cost Artificial Insemination (AI) at the farmer’s doorstep in 605 districts across the country where the baseline AI coverage was below 50%.
To protect and preserve of India’s indigenous bovine breeds.
Activities – A total of 22 in vitro fertilization (IVF) labs have been set up under the State Livestock Boards (SLBs) or in Universities and over 2541 High genetic merit (HGM) calves have been born.

Indigenous Developments for improving Bovine Breeds

Gau Chip and Mahish Chip – Genomic chips for indigenous bovines, that are developed by National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) and ICAR National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources (NBAGR).
Gau Chip - It helps in identifying high-quality bulls and cows for breeding to enhance the herd’s genetic quality.
Mahish Chip – It is to help in selecting superior buffaloes for breeding purposes.
Gau Sort – It is indigenously developed sex sorted semen production technology developed by NDDB.

Science

Audible enclaves

Concept – They are small pockets of sound that are not disturbed by surrounding noise.
Aim – To deliver sounds that only one specific person can hear, even if they are in a crowd.
Working principle – 2 ultrasound beams are chosen at different frequencies that are completely silent on their own.
But when they intersect in space, they interact nonlinearly enabling to generate a new sound wave at an audible frequency that would be heard only in that specific region.

Indian Biological Data Centre (IBDC)

It is the first national repository for life science data in India.
Located in – Haryana.
Established in – Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science and Technology in collaboration with National Information Centre.
Objectives – To archive all life science data generated from publicly funded research in India.
To develop standard operating Procedures (SOPs) for storing and sharing the data as per FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) principle.