Electoral Bonds Scheme

The electoral bonds scheme was announced in Union Budget 2017-18 with an aim for increasing
transparency in political funding.

It makes India first country in the world to have such unique bonds for electoral funding.

These bonds are bearer instrument in nature of promissory note and interest-free banking
instrument.

It aims at rooting out current system of largely anonymous cash donations made to political
parties which lead to generation of black money in the economy.

These electoral bonds can be bought for any value in multiples of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 1 lakh,
Rs 10 lakh or Rs 1 crore after fulfilling all existing Know Your Customer (KYC) norms and
making payments from bank account.

It will not carry name of payee. The bond deposited by any eligible political party to its account
shall be credited on the same day.

Electoral Bonds are valid for fifteen calendar days from the date of issue. No payment shall be
made to any payee political party if bond is deposited after expiry of validity period.

Eligible political parties can encash electoral bonds only through their bank accounts. Electoral
Bonds may be purchased by only citizen of India. An individual can buy Electoral Bonds, either
singly or jointly with other individuals.

Only registered political parties, that have secured not less than 1% of votes polled in last election
of Lok Sabha or legislative assembly of state, will be eligible to receive electoral bonds.

The cash donation has been capped at Rs. 2000 and beyond that donations are via electoral bonds.

ASER:

Annual Status of Education Report (commonly known as the ASER report), is a household-based
survey conducted by NGO PRATHAM that collects information on children’s schooling status
and basic learning outcomes in almost every rural district in the country.

Estimates of children’s schooling and learning status are generated at district, state and national
levels.

ASER is the only annual source of data on children’s learning outcomes available in India today.

ASER Centre implements large- and small-scale research studies addressing a variety of domains
both in education and in other social sectors such as health, nutrition, water and sanitation.
Conducted with support from institutions such as UNICEF, the World Bank, the MacArthur
Foundation, and others, these studies seek to generate evidence that is actionable by both policy
makers and practitioners.

Train 18 named Vande Bharat Express

The indigenously manufactured superfast Train 18 has been renamed by Indian Railways as
‘Vande Bharat Express’, which will ply from the national capital to Varanasi.

2. App launched with R-Day highlights

Context: The Defence Ministry launched the ‘RDP INDIA 2019’ app on the 70th Republic Day.

About the app:

The highlights of the republic day can be watched on this mobile application.

The app also had the provision for live streaming of the parade and contains information about it,
including the order of the march, details of the tableaux presented by different States and
Ministries, cultural performances by children, fly past and names of recipients of Pradhan Mantri
Rashtriya Bal Puraskar, 2019.

It is said that this new initiative is in sync with the Digital India campaign of the government.

The app would help people who desire to know the theme and ideas depicted in the tableaux.

National Tiger Conservation Authority

NTCA is a statutory body under the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate change.

It was provided statutory status by the Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Act, 2006 which had
amended Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.

It addresses the administrative as well as ecological concerns for conserving tigers, by providing
a statutory basis for protection of tiger reserves.

It also provides strengthened institutional mechanisms for the protection of ecologically sensitive
areas and endangered species.

It ensures enforcing of guidelines for tiger conservation and monitoring compliance of the same.

It also places motivated and trained officers having good track record as Field Directors of tiger
reserves.

Related Concept – Project Tiger

Launched in 1973, it aims at conserving India’s national animal i.e. Tiger. Currently there are 50
tiger reserves

The tiger reserves are constituted on a core/buffer strategy. The core areas have the legal status of
a national park or a sanctuary, whereas the buffer or peripheral areas are a mix of forest and non-
forest land, managed as a multiple use area.

The Project Tiger aims to foster an exclusive tiger agenda in the core areas of tiger reserves, with
an inclusive people oriented agenda in the buffer.

It is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change
providing central assistance to the tiger States for tiger conservation in designated tiger reserves.

The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) is a statutory body of the Ministry, with an
overarching supervisory / coordination role, performing functions as provided in the Wildlife
(Protection) Act, 1972.

Wild tigers are found in 18 States in India. The All India tiger estimation is carried out once in
every four years.

Institutes of Eminence Scheme

The institutes of eminence scheme under the Union Human Resource Development (HRD)
ministry aims to project Indian institutes to global recognition

The 20 selected institutes will enjoy complete academic and administrative autonomy.

The government will run 10 of these and they will receive special funding.

Only higher education institutions currently placed in the top 500 of global rankings or top 50 of
the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) are eligible to apply for the eminence tag.

The private Institutions of Eminence can also come up as greenfield ventures provided the
sponsoring organisation submits a convincing perspective plan for 15 years.

The scheme is aimed at developing world-class institutions which would put India on the global
education map.

Institutions were offered greater autonomy and freedom to decide fees, course durations and
structures.

The 10 selected public institutions would also receive a grant of ₹1000 crore, while the 10 private
institutions would not receive any financial assistance.

National Clean Air Programme (NCAP)

The Centre has launched the programme to reduce particulate matter (PM) pollution by 20-30%
in at least 102 cities by 2024.

It is envisaged as a scheme to provide the States and the Centre with a framework to combat air
pollution.

The objectives of the initiative

Overcome the deficits of the ongoing government initiatives targeted towards air pollution control

Expand existing air quality monitoring network by – increasing number of existing manual and
continuous monitoring stations and introducing rural monitoring stations, identifying alternative
technology for real-time monitoring network and

Strengthening the capabilities of existing monitoring stations to measure Particulate matter (PM)
2.5 concentration.

Devise air quality management plans for the cities calls for detailed source apportionment
(identification of pollution sources) studies for each city

Constitute a high-level apex committee and working group under the Indian Council of Medical
Research and the MoEF&CC;

Set up an Air Information Centre that would analyse and disseminate monitored data; a
technology assessment cell for evaluation of new pollution prevention and control technologies;
and an Air Quality Forecasting system.

Zika Virus

Zika virus is the virus that causes the infection known as zika fever or zika virus disease.

The virus is a member of the Flaviviridae virus family and the genus Flavivirus.

It was named ‘zika’ because the virus was isolated for the first time in the Zika Forest which is in
Uganda.

The zika virus is related to the yellow fever, dengue, West Nile and the Japanese encephalitis
viruses.

The zika virus, because it is a Flavivirus, is icosahedral and enveloped. It has a single-stranded
and non-segmented, positive-sense RNA genome. It belongs to the Spondweni sero group