National Transit Pass System (NTPS)

The Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change recently launched National Transit Pass System (NTPS) to facilitate the seamless transit of forest produce across the country.

• National Transit Pass System (NTPS) is a One Nation-One Pass to facilitate the seamless transit of timber, bamboo and other forest produce across the country.
• It is an initiative of the Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
• The QR coded transit permits generated under NTPS will allow check gates across various states to verify the validity of the permits and allow seamless transit.
• It will streamline the issuance of timber transit permits by providing a unified, online mode for tree growers and farmers involved in agroforestry, contributing to ease of doing business.
• It will help strengthen the journey towards greater transparency.
• Key features – It is a role based and work flow based application available as desktop based web portal as well as mobile application.
•  Online registration and submission of the applications for Transit Permit (TP) or No Objection Certificate (NOC) through web-portal and mobile app.
•  Online generation of Transit Permit or NOC on the basis of category of species.
•  E-payment system enables payment through mobile app/web portal.

PREVALL

Tata Memorial Hospital recently developed PREVALL which is India’s first oral chemo drug for Leukaemia.

• India’s first oral suspension of the chemotherapy drug is 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP) and it was named as PREVALL.
• PREVALL was developed by Tata Memorial Hospital and Advanced Centre for Training Research and Education in Cancer (ACTREC), in collaboration with IDRS Labs, Bangalore.
• It is poised to revolutionise cancer treatment, specifically hematologic malignancies like Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL), providing a more precise alternative to traditional tablets.
• Advantages - PREVALL is easy to prepare.
•  It comes with a syringe and a Press In Bottle Adapter (PIBA) for precise dosing based on a patient’s weight or body surface area.
• It will contribute to dose optimisation, enhancing adherence, and maximising drug efficacy.
• It can offer a more accurate and kid-friendly alternative to tablets.

Kakad Bhairav

Kakad Bhairav is a stone deity worshipped by the Bhils in Bagh town of Madhya Pradesh that was recently proved to be a fossilised dinosaur egg.

• Kakad Bhairav was a tribal god, a stone deity worshipped by the Bhils in Bagh town of Madhya Pradesh.
• Recently it has been proved that Kakad Bhairav is a 66-million-year-old fossilised egg of a titanosaur, a herbivorous dinosaur.
• Kakad Bhairav is also known as Bhilat Baba and is found at the Bagh town of Madhya Pradesh.
• This site could be India’s first UNESCO Global Geopark tag.
• India has the “largest-of-its-kind dinosaur hatchery on Earth” that stretches 10,000 sq km across Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.
• Over 256 fossilised dinosaur eggs have been unearthed in Madhya Pradesh’s Bagh so far, with 20 nests unearthed recently.
• The fossilised titanosaur egg is in a vault at the local forest office, while the others have been donated to museums and government facilities.
• Tribes in the Narmada Valley worshipped fossilised Titanosaurus eggs, having cattle pray them for healthy offspring or performing animal sacrifices before harvests.
• The tribes in the region believe that Kakad Bhairav protects their village and makes their wishes come true.

ULFA Peace Accord

Recently the ULFA Peace Accord was signed between ULFA, Government of India and State Government of Assam.

• The United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) recently signed a historic tripartite peace deal with the Government of India and the state government of Assam.
• ULFA has links to other insurgent outfits in the Northeast and Myanmar, as well as Islamic terror outfits like Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islami and Al-Qaeda.
• Brief history – The founders of ULFA wanted to establish a sovereign Assamese nation through an armed struggle against the Indian state.
• For over 44 years, this ‘struggle’ has been chequered with kidnappings and extortion, executions and bomb blasts, leading to tragic loss of life in Assam and beyond.
• Operation Bajrang – By Union Government in 1990 that led to the arrest of 1,221 ULFA insurgents.
• Aftermath of it, Assam was declared a ‘disturbed area’, President’s rule was imposed, and the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) was invoked.
• In 1992, one faction, later christened as Surrendered ULFA (SULFA), offered to surrender and engage in dialogue with the government.
• Later, SULFA allegedly carried out “secret killings” of ULFA insurgents and their family members, on behalf of the state government.
• Yet, the ULFA has survived, in some part due to help from outside India.
• It still has camps in Myanmar and previously had camps in both Bangladesh and Bhutan.
• In 2005, the ULFA formed an 11-member ‘People’s Consultative Group’ (PCG) which mediated 3 rounds of talks before the ULFA walked out of the discussions and unleashed a new wave of terror.
• There was a split in ULFA and eventually the pro-talks faction, in 2012, submitted a 12-point charter of demands to the central government, which was finally responded to earlier in 2023.
• This led to the signing of the ULFA Peace Accord.

Pelagic birds

Recently Birders’ network found rare pelagic birds on Karnataka’s coast.

• Pelagic means relating to or living in the open ocean, especially the upper layers far from the shore.
• Pelagic birds most of their lives in the Open Ocean and only return to land to breed and raise young.
• They must be able to withstand salt water, wind and waves and can be found in all oceans.
• The decline in fish populations has a direct effect on the density of pelagic birds.
• Examples – Sooty Shearwater, Brown Skua, Brown Booby, Streaked Shearwater and Masked Booby, Frigate birds, Fulmars, Shearwaters and Tropicbirds.