UPSC Daily Current Affairs | Prelim Bits 18-11-2020

Vulture Action Plan 2020-25

• Recently, the Union Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change has launched a Vulture Action Plan 2020-25.
• Conservation project for vultures is being carried out by the MoEFCC since 2006, and the plan is to now extend the project to 2025.
• The action plan was launched after, DCGI banning the veterinary use of diclofenac in the same year and the decline of the vulture population being arrested by 2011.
• Diclofenac is a veterinary non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) used to treat pain and inflammatory diseases such as gout.
• The action plan aims to carry forth what has already been set in motion by ensuring that sale of veterinary NSAIDs is regulated and livestock are treated only by qualified veterinarians.
• The four rescue centres have been proposed for treatment of vultures in the country different geographical areas like

1. Pinjore in the north,
2. Bhopal in Central India,
3. Guwahati in Northeast
4. Hyderabad in South India.

• Under the 2020-25 plan, the ministry will also work for conservation breeding programme of Red Headed Vulture and Egyptian Vulture.
• The action plan will also help states in establishing at least one ‘Vulture Safe Zone’ in each state for the conservation of the remnant population.

Vultures in India

• There are nine recorded species of vultures in India, they are

1. Oriental white-backed - Critically Endangered (IUCN)
2. Long-billed - Critically Endangered (IUCN)
3. Slender-billed - Critically Endangered (IUCN)
4. Red-headed - Critically Endangered (IUCN)
5. Egyptian - Endangered (IUCN)
6. Himalayan Griffon - Near Threatened (IUCN)
7. Bearded Griffon - Near Threatened (IUCN)
8. Cinereous Griffon - Near Threatened (IUCN)
9. Indian Griffon - Near Threatened (IUCN)

Article 32

• Article 32 grants the right to move the Supreme Court by appropriate proceedings for the enforcement of the fundamental rights guaranteed under Part III of the Indian Constitution.
• The rights guaranteed by Article 32 shall not be suspended except as otherwise provided for by the Constitution.
• It allows incarcerated people to directly approach the top court against violation of their fundamental rights.
• It gives Supreme Court the power to issue directions or orders or writs, including writs in the nature of habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition, quo warranto and certiorari, whichever may be appropriate, for the enforcement of any of the rights conferred under Part III.
• Recently, the Chief Justice of India during the hearing of a plea filed for release of Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan, said the court is trying to discourage petitions filed under Article 32.

Article 226

• It is enshrined under Part V Chapter V of the Constitution.
• It gives discretionary power to the High courts to issue direction, order, and writs including the writs in nature of habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition, quo warranto, and certiorari.
• It is invoked not only to for the fundamental rights but also a violation for other rights.
• The Territorial Jurisdiction of the High court under Article 226 is narrower than the Territorial jurisdiction of Supreme Court under Article 32.
• Article 32 is itself a fundamental right (Right to constitutional Remedies) whereas Article 226 is not a fundamental Right.
• However the scope of Article 226 is much wide than Article 32.

1. Article 226 not only gives the power to issue direction, order or writs for enforcing fundamental rights but also for the enforcement of other rights too.
2. Article 226 empowers High court to issue directions, orders or writs to any person, authority, government, or public officials.
3. Article 226 also talks about the interim order for writs and also states the mechanism of how interim order will be disposed of by the High courts.

AICTE Lilavati Award-2020

• All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has established the Lilavati Award.
• The award covers multidisciplinary areas such as women's health, self-defence, sanitation, literacy, entrepreneurship and legal awareness.
• The program will ensure the participation of women and enable them to hold higher positions in educational institutions.
• Recently Union Minister of Education virtually launched Lilavati Award-2020: AICTE's Innovative education program to empower women.
• The objective of the award is to create awareness about issues like sanitation, hygiene, health, nutrition, literacy, employment, technology, credit, marketing, innovation, skill development, natural resources and rights among women.

Lilavati Mathematics Award

• The Leelavati Award is an award for outstanding contribution to public outreach in mathematics.
• The Leelavati prize is not intended to reward mathematical research but rather outreach activities in the broadest possible sense.
• It carries a cash prize of 1,000,000 Indian Rupees together with a citation and is sponsored by Infosys.
• The Leelavati Prize was handed out for the first time at the closing ceremony of the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) 2010 in Hyderabad, India.
• The award is named after the 12th-century mathematical treatise "Lilavati" devoted to arithmetic and algebra.

Bhaskara Acharya’s Lilavati

• Lilavati is written by the Indian mathematician Bhaskara II, also known as Bhaskara Acharya.
• In the book the author posed, in verse form, a series of problems in (elementary) arithmetic to one Leelavati (perhaps his daughter) and followed them up with hints to solutions.
• This work appears to have been the main source of learning arithmetic and algebra in medieval India.
• The work was also translated into Persian and was influential in West Asia.

Bhaskara II

• Bhaskara (c. 1114–1185) also known as Bhaskaracarya was an Indian mathematician and astronomer, born in Bijapur in Karnataka.
• Bhaskara was the leader of a cosmic observatory at Ujjain, the main mathematical centre of ancient India.
• His main work Siddhanta-Siromani, (Sanskrit for "Crown of Treatises") is divided into four parts which are also sometimes considered four independent works called

1. Lilavati – Arithmetic.
2. Bijagaṇita – Algebra.
3. Grahagaṇita - Mathematics of the planets
4. Goladhyaya - Mathematics of the Spheres

• He also wrote another treatise named Karaṇa Kautuhala.
• He is particularly known in the discovery of the principles of differential calculus and its application to astronomical problems and computations.
• He was perhaps the first to conceive the differential coefficient and differential calculus.
• In 1981 the ISRO launched the Bhaskara II satellite honouring the mathematician and astronomer.

Bhaskara I

• Bhaskara I (c. 600 – c. 680) was a 7th-century mathematician, who was the first to write numbers in the Hindu decimal system with a circle for the zero.
• He gave a unique and remarkable rational approximation of the sine function in his commentary on Aryabhata's work.
• This commentary, Aryabhaṭiyabhaṣya, written in 629 CE, is among the oldest known prose works in Sanskrit on mathematics and astronomy.
• He also wrote two astronomical works in the line of Aryabhata's school, the Mahabhaskariya and the Laghubhaskariya.
• In 1979 the ISRO launched Bhaskara I Satellite honouring the mathematician.

India-Nordic-Baltic Conclave

• The Nordic-Baltic Cooperation (NB8) or NB8 is a regional cooperation format which as of 1992 has brought together five Nordic countries and three Baltic countries.
• The five Nordic (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) and the three Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) cooperate in an informal and close way.
• Recently, the Union External Affairs Minister has addressed the first India-Nordic-Baltic Conclave.
• India and the Nordic-Baltic nations have much in common and the shared values have led to a similar outlook towards global challenges and opportunities.
• The India-Nordic-Baltic Conclave will provide for greener, smarter, digital & innovation-led future between India and Nordic-Baltic countries.
• The theme of the first India-Nordic-Baltic Conclave was "An Innovation-driven Partnership for Growth in a New World".

Baltic Sea

• It is an arm of the North Atlantic Ocean, extending northward from the latitude of southern Denmark almost to the Arctic Circle.
• It separates the Scandinavian Peninsula from the rest of continental Europe.
• It drains through the Danish Straits into the Kattegat by way of the Oresund, Great Belt and Little Belt.

Source: PIB, the Hindu, Indian Express