Support for Marginalized Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise (SMILE)

• The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has formulated a scheme “SMILE - Support for Marginalized Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise”, which includes subscheme - ‘Central Sector Scheme for Comprehensive Rehabilitation of persons engaged in the act of Begging’.
• This scheme covers several comprehensive measures including welfare measures for persons who are engaged in the act of begging.
• The focus of the scheme is extensively on rehabilitation, provision of medical facilities, counselling, basic documentation, education, skill development, economic linkages and so on.
• The scheme would be implemented with the support of State/UT Governments/Local Urban Bodies, Voluntary Organizations, Community Based Organizations (CBOs), institutions and others.
• Scheme provides for the use of the existing shelter homes available with the State/UT Governments and Urban local bodies for rehabilitation of the persons engaged in the act of Begging.
• Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has also initiated pilot projects on Comprehensive Rehabilitation of Persons engaged in the act of Begging in ten cities namely Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Indore, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, Patna and Ahmadabad.

Sub Scheme – Comprehensive Rehabilitation for Welfare of Transgender Persons

• The focus of the sub-scheme is on rehabilitation, provision of medical facilities and intervention, counseling, education, skill development, economic linkages to the transgender persons.

The Winter session of the Parliament was adjourned sine die.

Adjournment of Debate

• Adjournment on a motion adopted by the House, of the debate on a Motion/Resolution/Bill on which the House is then engaged until a future day or sine die as specified in the motion.

Adjournment of the sitting of the House

• Termination of the sitting of the House which meets again at the time appointed for the next sitting.

Adjournment sine die

• Termination of a sitting of the House without any definite date being fixed for the next sitting.

Adjournment Motion

• The primary object of an adjournment motion is to draw the attention of the House to a recent matter of urgent public importance having serious consequences and with regard to which a motion or a resolution with proper notice will be too late.
• The matter proposed to be raised should be of such a character that something very grave which affects the whole country and its security has happened and the House is required to pay its attention immediately by interrupting the normal business of the House.
• The adjournment motion is thus an extraordinary procedure which, if admitted, leads to setting aside the normal business of the House for discussing a definite matter of urgent public importance.
• The subject matter of the motion must have a direct or indirect relation to the conduct or default on the part of the Union Government and must precisely pinpoint the failure of the Government of India.

Flight test of short-range surface-to-surface ballistic missile ‘Pralay’ successful.

Pralay Mission

• The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) worked on the project to develop a short-range solid-fuel surface-to-surface missile.
• It can hit the target at a range of 150 to 500 kilometres with an accuracy of less than 10 metres.
• The missile, which can be launched from a mobile launcher, has a guidance system that includes state-of-the-art navigation mechanisms and integrated avionics.
• It is a surface-to-surface missile with a quasi-ballistic trajectory (quasi-ballistic missile is one that will not follow the typical ballistic missile trajectory and is maneuverable during flight) to reach the target.
• It can change its trajectory in midair.

Kuno-Palpur National Park in Madhya Pradesh was identified as the site to relocate African cheetahs.

Minimum Number of States from Kuno-Palpur to Mudhumalai Tiger Reserve

• The minimum number of states one has to cross is 4, when source and destination is included.
• The two routes include:
  • Madhya Pradesh – Chhattisgarh – Andhra Pradesh – Tamil Nadu
  • Madhya Pradesh – Maharashtra – Karnataka – Tamil Nadu

Kuno-Palpur National Park

• It is present in the state of Madhya Pradesh.
• The National Park has been chosen for the reintroduction of the African Cheetahs.
• It was also identified as the site to relocate the Asiatic Lion.

Mudhumalai Tiger Reserve

• It is present in the state of Tamil Nadu.

African cheetahs can be brought into India, rules Supreme Court.

Cheetahs

• Cheetahs are listed as “Vulnerable” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, but after a recent study revealed significant population declines, scientists are calling for cheetahs to be up listed to “Endangered.”
• In North Africa and Asia, they are considered “Critically Endangered.”
• Cheetah is a flagship species of a highly endangered ecosystem of the country — the grasslands.
• Cheetahs went extinct in India once the ruler of an erstwhile princely state in Koriya, Chhattisgarh gunned down the last three Asiatic cheetahs in 1947.
• Cheetah is also the only species to go extinct in peninsular India in historical times.
• Under the guidelines of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), foreign species cannot be introduced.
• But DNA tests of the African Cheetah from Namibia have found that the species’ DNA is 89 per cent similar to the Asiatic Cheetah.
• Former prime minister Indira Gandhi had signed an agreement with Iran to exchange Asiatic lions for Asiatic cheetahs in the late 1970s.
• At the time, there were around 250 Asiatic cheetahs in Iran. Now, there are only around 28.
• Kuno-Palpur National Park in the state of Madhya Pradesh is identified as the site for the relocation of Asiatic lions and African Cheetahs.