UTTARAKHAND
- Pithoragarh on tentative world heritage sites list
- The sacred mountain landscape and heritage routes in Pithoragarh have been included in the tentative list of world heritage sites in India by UNESCO.
- In this regard, the forest, tourism and culture departments will also help in taking this process further in coordination with the Wildlife Institute of India. Rawat directed that the culture department be made the nodal department for this purpose.
- The chances of this landscape being included in the list of world heritage sites are strong. According to UNESCO, the sacred mountain landscape and heritage routes located in the Pithoragarh district cover an area of 6836 square kilometres. The Indian site is part of the larger landscape of 31000 square kilometres referred to as the Kailash sacred landscape constituting the Mount Kailash and Mansarovar lake in the south-western portion of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China and adjacent districts in the far-western region of Nepal.
- The property within the Indian territory comprises key sacred cultural sites, with ancient pilgrimage and trade routes, which leads to the spiritually and historically significant Kailash Mansoravar region.
- Several ancient pilgrimage cum trade routes to Kailash Mansarovar pass through this landscape. In addition to the main pilgrimage routes and associated cultural heritage sites, there are many sites regarded as sacred, religious, or otherwise culturally significant, including lakes and mountains.
- This unique area is significant not only as a religious-spiritual site, but is also host to high-altitude, transhimalayan ecosystems, habitats and biodiversity.
INTERNATIONAL
- Russia withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty
- The Russian President Vladimir Putinhas signed a bill that suspends Russia’s participation in the nuclear arms treaty.
- Putin’s decree formalizes the withdrawal of Russia from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty (INF)with the United States. The move comes after the withdrawal of US from the pact.
- Russia’s withdrawal from INF treaty is a response to the S. withdrawal from the key arms control pact signed by the Soviet Union and the United States in 1987.
US accused Russia of violating the treaty with impunity, covertly developing and fielding a prohibited missile system that poses a direct threat to the allies and troops abroad.
- The U.S. and Europe said that the range of the new cruise missiles from Russia violate the treaty. Russia denied the accusations.
- It is a 1987 arms control agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union with an Unlimited duration.
- As per the treaty, the land-based ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and missile launchers with ranges of 500–1,000 kilometers (310–620 mi) (short medium-range) and 1,000–5,500 km (620–3,420 mi) (intermediate-range) are banned in both the nations.
NATIONAL
- India’s first Design Development Centre ‘Fashionova’ launched in Surat, Gujarat
- India’s first Design Development Center ‘Fashionova’ launched in the Textile city Surat.
- The main objective of this studio is to provide a strong platform to all those who have a flair of the apparel business.
- Fashionava Design Development Centre has been started at Udhana area of the city with all state-of-the-art machinery and other facilities.
- The new centre will fulfil the needs of new designs of the city and all types of brands will be able to connect with emerging designers of the country.
- NITI Aayog launched Agricultural Marketing and Farmer Friendly Reforms Index 2019
- NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayogreleased its “Agricultural Marketing and Farmer Friendly Reforms Index” (AMFFRI) for the year 2019.
It is an index launched by NITI Aayog in 2016. - The main reason is to rank states and union territories based on the implementation of seven provisions proposed under the model Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act.
- Maharashtra ranked first for implementing most of the marketing reforms.
Gujarat secured the second rank with a score of 71.5 out of 100, followed by Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. - The Index scores ranged from 0-100.
- The Minimum value “0” implies no reforms and maximum value “100” implies complete reforms in the selected areas.
- Parliament passed Central Educational Institutions (Reservations in Teachers’ Cadre) Bill 2019
- The Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teachers’ Cadre) Bill, 2019 passed by the Parliament.
- The Rajya Sabha passed the Bill after it got passed in Lok Sabha on 1st July 2019.
This Bill replaces the “The Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teachers’ Cadre) Ordinance, 2019”. - The Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teachers’ Cadre) Bill, 2019 holds as one unit restoring earlier reservation system.
- The main aim of the bill is to implement a 200-point reservation system instead of 1 3-point roster system will pave the way for filling more than 7,000 teaching jobs.
Around 7000 existing vacancies in Central Educational Institutions paved the way for filling up 3 lakh vacancies in the Government (Central and State) Educational institutions. - The compliance of the Constitutional Provisions of Articles 14, 16 and 21.
- The full representation of the Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes is to improve the teaching standards in the higher educational institutions by attracting all eligible talented candidates belonging to SCs/STs/SEBCs/EWS.
- Centre signs MoU with IBM to utilize AI in agriculture
- Government of India has signed aMoU with IBM India to use AI in agriculture. Under the pact, IBM will undertake a pilot study to utilise Artificial Intelligence (AI) and weather technology solutions in agriculture in one district each in three states.
The agreement was signed in the presence of Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and junior minister Kailash Choudhary, and other senior officials.
- The pilot study will be conducted for theKharif crop season 2019 in three districts namely Bhopal, Rajkot and Nanded, in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra, respectively.
- Once the study is done, the Watson Decision Platform of IBM will give solution in the field of agriculture through AI and weather technology at village level/ farm level.
- The platform will provide weather forecast and soil moistureinformation on pro bono basis.
- Hyderabads Rajiv Gandhi International Airport is set to launch the face-recognition facility under Digi Yatra Policy
- For the first time in India Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airportis set to launch the face-recognition facility under the Centre’s Digi Yatra Policy. Trials began on July 1 and will continue for a month. The face-recognition technology will remove the Central Industrial Security Forces (CISF) physically checking passengers’ government issued identification documents at the airport entrance.
- Initially, the passengers should submit the documents and then a face-recognition camera will capture the image of your face.
- The image along with the details of the documents will be stored in a database.
- The passengers will be provided aunique Digi Yatra ID.
- Digi Yatra policy is a biometric based digital processing of passengers at Airports.
The policy aims to provide aconnected ecosystem enhancing the seamless travel experience for the passengers and simultaneously improving the security.