UPSC Daily Current Affairs | Prelim Bits 30-09-2020

SAMVEDNA

National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has launched SAMVEDNA - a toll-free tele-counselling helpline number for children affected during COVID-19.
SAMVEDNA - Sensitizing Action on Mental Health Vulnerability through Emotional Development and Necessary Acceptance.
It will provide counselling and psycho-social support.
The tele-counselling support will cater to children all over India in various regional languages also.
Counsellors have been specially trained by the expert team of National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences (NIMHANS) to address the needs of children in these difficult times.

National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR)

NCPCR was set up in March 2007 under the Commissions for Protection of Child Rights (CPCR) Act, 2005, an Act of Parliament.
It is a statutory body under the administrative control of the Ministry of Women & Child Development.
Under the NCPCR the Child is defined as a person in the 0 to 18 years age group.
The Commission’s Mandate is to ensure that all Laws, Policies, Programmes, and Administrative Mechanisms are in consonance with the Child Rights perspective as enshrined in the Constitution of India and also the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Bharati Script

Script refers to a set of letters used for writing a particular language. E.g. Devanagari, Roman, etc.
Bharati is a simple and unified script which can be used to write most major Indian languages.
It is developed by Srinivasa Chakravathy’s team at IIT Madras.
It is designed using simplest shapes, often borrowing simple characters from various Indian languages/scripts and English.
Scripts supported are - Hindi/Marathi (Devanagari), Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Punjabi (Gurmukhi), Bengali, Oriya, Kannada and Malayalam.
The significance of the script are as follows

It can help the next generation of Indians to easily read in Indian languages.
It is an ideal script for languages like Konkani or Tulu that don’t have their own script.
It can serve as a writing system for the innumerable tribal languages of India, and languages of the Northeast.
It can lead to a new system of Braille (for blind persons) for Indian languages and even a fingerspelling system for the hearing-impaired.
It can shorten the duration of adult literacy programs from 6 months to a few weeks, as the script is easy to learn.

Lantana

Lantana camara is a small perennial shrub, which forms extensive, dense and impenetrable thickets.
It is native to Central and South America.
It is an invasive species which was introduced in tropical regions as an ornamental plant (introduced in India in 1807).
It is generally deleterious to biodiversity and is an agricultural weed.
The thickets covered vast tracts of land, stopping the natural light and nutrition for other flora and fauna.
The toxic substance in its foliage and ripe berries affected the animals.
In some regions, the plant has invaded pastures and shrunk the cattle grazing areas, affecting the livelihood of villagers.
Recently a special drive to uproot the invasive Lantana bushes in the Sajjangarh Wildlife Sanctuary has been carried out.

Sajjangarh Wildlife Sanctuary

It is located in Udaipur (Rajasthan)
It is a part of Sajjangarh Palace (also known as Monsoon Palace) built in 1884.
Flora and Fauna of the sanctuary includes Animals like chitals, panthers, hares, blue bulls (Nilgais), jackals, wild boars, hyenas, and sambhar.
The sanctuary is famous for Long-billed vulture, commonly known as the Indian vulture.

ESG Funds

ESG is a combination of three words i.e. environment, social and governance, it is a kind of mutual fund.
Its investing is used synonymously with sustainable investing or socially responsible investing.
ESG fund shortlists companies that score high on environment, social responsibility and corporate governance, and then looks into financial factors.
ESG fund focuses on companies with environment-friendly practices, ethical business practices and an employee-friendly record.
The fund is regulated by Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
The ESG funds are increasingly becoming popular in the mutual fund industry in India.
The first ESG mutual fund was launched by the State Bank of India - SBI Magnum Equity ESG Fund.

Source: PIB, Indian Express, the Hindu