Anti-Doping Bill

• The Bill seeks to constitute NADA as a statutory body headed by a Director General appointed by the central government. 
• Functions of the Agency include planning, implementing, and monitoring anti-doping activities, and investigating anti-doping rule violations. 
• A National Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel will be set up for determining the consequences of anti-doping rule violations. 
• This panel will consist of legal experts, medical practitioners, and retired athletes. 
• Athletes found in violation of anti-doping rules may be subject to:
  1. disqualification of results including forfeiture of medals, points, and prizes
  2. ineligibility to participate in a competition or event for a prescribed period
  3. financial sanctions
  4. other consequences as may be prescribed.  Consequences for team sports will be specified by regulations.  
• This legislation will help India to join the club of select countries like the U.S., China, Japan, and France, which have their own laws related to checking doping in sports.

Ramsar Sites

• India has added 10 more Ramsar sites or wetlands that are of international importance, taking the number of such sites to 64.
• The 10 new sites, six in Tamil Nadu and one each in Goa, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, and Odisha, encompass an area of 1,51,842.41 hectares, bringing India’s total wetland area to 1.2 million hectares.
• The sites are Koothankulam Bird Sanctuary, Gulf of Mannar Marine Biosphere Reserve, Vembannur Wetland Complex, Vellode Bird Sanctuary, Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary, and Udhayamarthandapuram Bird Sanctuary, all in Tamil Nadu.
• Satkosia Gorge in Odisha, Nanda Lake in Goa, Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary in Karnataka, and Sirpur Wetland in Madhya Pradesh.

Minerals Security Partnership

• It is an ambitious new US-led partnership to secure supply chains of critical minerals, aimed at reducing dependency on China.
• India is not part of the grouping.
• Besides the US, the MSP includes Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the European Commission.
• The new grouping, industry insiders say, could focus on the supply chains of minerals such as Cobalt, Nickel, Lithium, and also the 17 “rare earth” minerals.
• While Cobalt, Nickel, and Lithium are required for batteries used in electric vehicles, rare earth minerals are critical, in trace amounts, in semiconductors and high-end electronics manufacturing.
• This new alliance is seen as being primarily focused on evolving an alternative to China, which has created processing infrastructure in rare earth minerals and has acquired mines in Africa for elements such as cobalt.

Going Online as Leaders (GOAL)

• GOAL (Going Online as Leaders) is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and Meta (formerly Facebook), which aims at the digital empowerment of tribal youth and women through the concept of mentor and mentee.
• The first phase of the GOAL program was launched as a pilot project in May 2020 and it was completed by Dec 2021.
• The mentees in the first phase were provided with 40+ hours of training across three-course pillars: (1) Communication & Life Skills; (2) Enabling Digital Presence, and (3) Leadership & Entrepreneurship.
• The second phase of the GOAL Program (GOAL 2.0) was launched on 28th June 2022 with an aim to digitally upskill tribal youth by promoting entrepreneurship and opening up opportunities for them using digital technology.
• The program is fully funded by Meta (Facebook India) and the Ministry of Tribal Affairs has not incurred any expenditure or provided any funds for the implementation of the program.

State University Research Excellence (SURE)

• State University Research Excellence (SERB-SURE) is a new innovative scheme of the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), a statutory body of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), that can foster collaboration for high-end research at state and private universities and colleges.
• The new scheme was launched to augment the research capabilities in a structured way to create a robust R&D ecosystem in state and private universities and colleges, including self-financed institutions working within these universities.
• The new scheme will help bring the university system, which was so far mostly limited to teaching, into mainstream research and enable the young faculty there to participate in cutting-edge research.