Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve

• Bandhavgarh National Park resides on the extreme north eastern border of Madhya Pradesh and the northern edges of the Satpura mountain ranges.
• Due to the tropical monsoon climatic zone, the park has been characterized by well-defined winters, summers and rains.
• Shesh Shiya is the point of origin of the Charan Ganga River, which is the lifeline of the park.
• The rainfall in the Bandhavgarh zone has been witnessed at an average of 50 inches.
• The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) reported 26 Buddhist caves in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve.

Supreme Court’s abortion ruling

• The SC has extended the right to safe and legal abortion up to 24 weeks to unmarried and single women.
• The court observed:
  1. Rights available to married women under Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971, to abort a foetus is also available to unmarried women.
  2. The distinction between married and unmarried women under the abortion law is artificial and constitutionally unsustainable and perpetuates the stereotype that only married woman are sexually active.
  3. For the sole purpose of Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, the meaning of rape must include marital rape.
  4. Any other interpretation of rape would have the effect of compelling a woman to give birth to and raise a child with a partner who inflict mental and physical harm upon the woman.
• Reproductive Choice of Woman Is a Fundamental Right Flowing From Article 21 Of Constitution.

The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971

• It allows termination of pregnancy by a medical practitioner in two stages.
• After a crucial amendment in 2021, for pregnancies up to 20 weeks, termination is allowed under the opinion of one registered medical practitioner.
• For pregnancies between 20-24 weeks, the Rules attached to the law prescribe certain criteria in terms of who can avail termination.
• It also requires the opinion of two registered medical practitioners in this case.
• For pregnancies within 20 weeks, termination can be allowed if:
  • The continuance of the pregnancy would involve a risk to the life of the pregnant woman or of grave injury to her physical or mental health (or)
  • There is a substantial risk that if the child was born, it would suffer from any serious physical or mental abnormality.

Global Innovation Index (GII)

• It is published by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).
• The Global Innovation Index provides detailed metrics about the innovation performance of countries and economies around the world.
• Its 81 indicators explore a broad vision of innovation, including political environment, education, and infrastructure and business sophistication.
• India, for the first time, made it to the top 40 countries at the Global Innovation Index (GII), led by improvement in information and communication technologies (ICT) services exports.
• India has secured the 40th rank in the 2022 edition of the index, in 2021 India ranked 46th in the index.
• Türkiye and India enter the top 40 for the first time, placed 37th and 40th, respectively. India overtakes Vietnam (48th) as the top lower middle-income economy for innovation.
• India continues to lead the world in the ICT services exports indicator with the first rank while holding top rankings in other indicators such as:
  1. Venture capital recipient’s value (6th)
  2. Finance for start-ups and scale-ups (8th)
  3. Graduates in science and engineering (11th)
  4. Labor productivity growth (12th)
  5. Domestic industry diversification (14th)
• For the twelfth consecutive year, Switzerland ranks first in the GII followed by the US.
• In Central and Southern Asia, India ranked highest among three in the “most innovation economies” followed by Iran and Uzbekistan.

Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI)

• Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI) is an initiative by Ministry of MSME to promote Cluster development.
• Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) is the nodal Agency for promotion of Cluster development for Khadi.
• As per the revised guidelines, the following schemes are being merged into SFURTI:
  • The Scheme for Enhancing Productivity and Competitiveness of Khadi Industry and Artisans
  • The Scheme for Product Development, Design Intervention and Packaging (PRODIP)
  • The Scheme for Rural Industries Service Centre (RISC) and
  • Other small interventions like Ready Warp Units, Ready to Wear Mission, etc.

Objectives

• To organize the traditional industries and artisans into clusters to make them competitive and provide support for their long term sustainability.
• To provide sustained employment for traditional Industry artisans and rural entrepreneurs.
• To enhance marketability of products of clusters by providing support for new products, design intervention and improved packaging, and also the improvement of marketing Infrastructure.
• To equip traditional artisans of the associated clusters with improved skills and capabilities through training and exposure visits.
• To make provision for common facilities and improved tools and equipment for artisans.

Dark Web and Digital Decarbonisation

• Dark data is the information assets organisations or company’s collect, process and store during regular business activities, but generally fail to use for other purposes.
• Dark data could be your multiple near-identical images held on Google Photos or iCloud, a business’s outdated spreadsheets that will never be used again, or data from internet of things sensors that have no purpose.
• This “dark data” is anchored to the real world by the energy it requires.
• Even data that is stored and never used again takes up space on servers – typically huge banks of computers in warehouses.
• Those computers and those warehouses all use lots of electricity.
• This is a significant energy cost that is hidden in most organisations.
• In the drive towards net zero many organisations are trying to reduce their carbon footprints.
• In 2020, digitisation was purported to generate 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
• Digital decarbonisation is the method of reducing the carbon foot prints of the organisations.
• It is key to recognise that digitisation is not itself an environmental issue, but there are huge environmental impacts that depend on how we use digital processes in daily workplace activities.