Paper I (General Studies)
Paper II (CSAT)
Categories: POINT IAS
Source: PIB. India’s nomination of Dholavira, the Harappan City in the Rann of Kutch, Gujarat has been inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage list. India submitted the nomination dossier for Dholavira: A Harappan City to the World Heritage Centre in January, 2020. The site was on the UNESCO’s tentative list since 2014. Dholavira: a Harappan city, is one of the very few well preserved urban settlements in South Asia dating from the 3rd to mid-2nd millennium BCE. This follows a few days after the Rudreswara Temple, (also known as the Ramappa Temple) at Palampet, Mulugu district, Telangana State becoming the 39th World Heritage Centre in India. Dholavira is the 40th treasure in India to be given @UNESCO World Heritage tag. With this successful nomination, India has 40 world heritage properties overall, which includes 32 cultural, 7 natural and one mixed property. Countries that have 40 or more World Heritage sites apart from India are Italy, Spain, Germany, China and France.
Source: PIB. The Indian Navy participated in a two-day bilateral Passage Exercise (PASSEX) with Royal Navy Carrier Strike Group (CSG)-21 (United Kingdom) led by HMS Queen Elizabeth in the Bay of Bengal. The bilateral Maritime Exercise was designed to hone the ability of the two navies to operate together in the maritime domain.
Source: NCERT. The atmosphere is composed of gases, water vapour and dust particles. The proportion of gases changes in the higher layers of the atmosphere in such a way that oxygen will be almost in negligible quantity at the height of 120 km. Similarly, carbon dioxide and water vapour are found only up to 90 km from the surface of the earth.
Indian Navy accepted the first two of its MH-60R Multi Role Helicopters (MRH) from US Navy. MH-60R helicopters manufactured by Lockheed Martin Corporation, USA is an all-weather helicopter designed to support multiple missions with state of the art avionics/ sensors. 24 of these helicopters are being procured under Foreign Military Sales from the US Government. The helicopters would also be modified with several India Unique Equipment and weapons. The induction of these MRH would further enhance Indian Navy’s three dimensional capabilities. In order to exploit these potent helicopters, the first batch of Indian crew is presently undergoing training in USA. Source: PIB
Source: PIB. India has launched BHIM–UPI in Bhutan. The services have started in Bhutan under India's neighbourhood first policy. BHIM UPI is one of the brightest spot and an achievement for digital transactions in India during the time of COVID-19 pandemic with more than 100 million UPI QRs have been created in last 5 years and BHIM UPI in 2020-21 has processed 22 billion transactions worth value Rs 41 lakh crore. This launch fulfils the commitment made by the two countries during the Hon'ble Prime Minister of India’s State visit to Bhutan in 2019. Following that visit, India and Bhutan have already enabled inter-operability in acceptance of Rupay cards in each other’s countries in two phases – acceptance of Rupay cards issued in India at Bhutan based terminals in the first phase, and vice versa in the second phase. With today’s launch of BHIM-UPI in Bhutan, the payment infrastructures of the two countries are seamlessly connected and will benefit a large number of tourists and businessmen from India who travel to Bhutan each year. This will enhance the ease of living and ease of travelling through cashless transactions at the touch of a button. Bhutan is the first country to adopt UPI standards for its QR deployment, and the first country in our immediate neighbourhood to accept mobile based payments through the BHIM App.
The Geographical Indication (GI) certified Bhalia variety of wheat has high protein content and is sweet in taste. The crop is grown mostly across Bhal region of Gujarat which includes Ahmadabad, Anand, Kheda, Bhavanagar, Surendranagar, Bharuch districts.
Source: PIB. Recently, five important portals related to the Ministry of AAYUSH were launched. These portals are – CTRI, AMAR, RMIS, SAHI and e-Medha portals.
Source: PIB. The Government of India has prepared an ‘Action Plan’ to make India Aatmanirbhar in Rock Phosphate. The plan is primarily aimed at improving the availability of phosphatic fertilisers (DAP and NPK) and to reduce the dependence on imports.
The Union Public Service Commission today announced that the Civil Services (Main) Examination, 2021 shall be held from Friday, January 7, 2022.
Tax Inspectors Without Borders (TIWB), a joint initiative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), launched its programme in Bhutan. India was chosen as the Partner Jurisdiction and has provided the Tax Expert for this programme.
