Swatch Sagar, Surakshit Sagar Campaign

• It  is a 75-day citizen-led campaign for improving ocean health through collective action.
• The campaign has 3 strategic underlying goals that target transformation and environmental conservation through behavior change.
• The three underlying goals of the campaign are to 1. Consume Responsibly 2. Segregate waste at home and 3. Dispose Responsibly.
• The coastal cleanup drive will be carried out at 75 beaches across the country with 75 volunteers for every kilometre of the coastline.
• The campaign will combine both virtual and physical formats for delivering key messages and engaging the target audience in adopting lifestyle and behavioral changes that promote environmental sustainability.
• It is the first-of-its-kind and longest running coastal cleanup campaign in the world with highest number of people participating in it.
• A mobile app “Eco Mitram” has been launched to spread awareness about the campaign and also for the common people for voluntary registration for the beach cleaning activity.

National Logistics Policy

• The National Logistics Policy aims to promote smooth movement of goods across India and boost competitiveness of the Indian goods in the domestic and international markets.
• It aims to bring down the logistics cost, which in turn would improve efficiency of various sectors of the economy, boosting value addition and economic growth.
• Its focus areas are Integration of Digital System (IDS), Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP), Ease of Logistics (ELOG) and System Improvement Group (SIG).
• The IDS will integrate 30 different systems of seven different departments, such as customs, aviation, road transport, railways, international trade and commerce ministries.
• The Integration of Digital System (IDS) aims to ensure continuous monitoring of cargo movement.
• The Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP) would seek to simplify procedures and achieve ease of doing business.
• The System Improvement Group (SIG) would monitor all projects related to logistics in a regular basis and ensure the removal of hurdles faced in the sector.
• An empowered group of secretaries (EGoS) has been constituted under the PM Gati Shakti to monitor and review the implementation of the NLP.

Asiatic Carcal

• The Asiatic caracal is an elusive medium-sized and locally threatened felid (cat) species, which has been widely reported to be on the brink of extinction in India.
• The reasons are large-scale hunting, illegal trading and loss of natural habitats are considered significant threats to the species.
• The caracal is currently included in Schedule I of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 .
• It is in Near Threatened category by the Conservation Assessment and Management Plan and International Union for Conservation of Nature Red list assessment in India.
• The researchers found the most significant potential habitat for caracals in Rajasthan, followed by Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.

Green Fins Hub

• United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and the UK-based charity Reef-World Foundation launched the Green Fins Hub.
• Green Fins Hub is a global digital platform for diving and snorkelling operators .
• The Green Fins Hub is the first-ever global marine tourism industry platform.
• It aims to protect coral reefs through promoting sustainable diving and snorkelling.
• It provides the only internationally recognised environmental standards for marine tourism.

Geo-fencing

• The Centre is using powers under the Indian Telegraph Act to fetch information from telecom companies every 15 minutes to track COVID-19 cases across the country.
• Kerala was one of the first States to use geo-fencing to track COVID-19 cases.
• A geo-fence could be dynamically generated—as in a radius around a point location, or a geo-fence can be a predefined set of boundaries.
• The use of a geofence is called geofencing, and one example of usage involves a location-aware device of a location-based service (LBS) user entering or exiting a geo-fence.
• The government has tested an application that triggers e-mails and SMS alerts to an authorised government agency if a person has jumped quarantine or escaped from isolation.
• The geo-fencing is accurate by up to 300 m.
• The system will collate phone data, including the device’s location, on a common secured platform and alert the local agencies in case of a violation by COVID patients under watch or in isolation.