Kotia Panchayat has 28 villages of which, 21 villages are on disputed zone between Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. The local residents are mostly people belonging to Kondh tribe.Kotia has been in headlines since January after a team of Andhra Pradesh government visited few villages in Kotia panchayat and launched their welfare programmes and distributed old-age pensions and blankets to a few beneficiaries.

The primary objective of GAGAN is to establish a certifiable satellite based augmentation system for safety-of-life applications .The AAI’s efforts towards implementation of operational SBAS can be viewed as the first step towards introduction of modern Communication, navigation and surveillance/Air Traffic Management system over Indian airspace.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has set up Village Resource Centres (VRCs) in association with selected NGOs, Trusts and State Government Departments. Village Resource Centres have provided various space technology enabled services such as tele-healthcare, tele-education, natural resources information etc.. The major benefits of the VRC programme include advisories related to agriculture like crop pest and diseases, fertilizer/pesticides, organic farming, crop insurance etc.

Geographical indication (GI) is a name or sign used on certain products which corresponds to a specific geographical location or origin (e.g. a town, region, or country). India, as a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), enacted the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999 has come into force with effect from 15 September 2003.

Some of GI tags are:

J & K - Pashmina, Hand-Knotted Carpet, Papier Mache, Walnut Wood Carving

Himachal Praesh - Kangra Paintings, Kullu Shawl, Chamba Rumal

Nagaland - Naga Mircha, Chakshesang Shawl, Naga Tree Tomato

Assam - Muga Silk, Joha Rice, Tezpur Litchi

Sericulture is an agro-based industry. It involves rearing of silkworms for the production of raw silk, which is the yarn obtained out of cocoons spun by certain species of insects. Central Silk Board is a statutory body under Ministry of Textiles. Mulberry, Tasar, Eri and Muga are the varieties of silk.

About 80% of the silk produced in the country is of mulberry silk, majority of which is produced in the three southern States of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

Eco-friendly activity:

Waste from silkworm rearing can be recycled as inputs to garden. Dried mulberry twigs and branches are used as fuel in place of firewood and therefore reduce the pressure on vegetation/forest. Being a labour intensive and predominantly agro-based activity, involvement of smoke-emitting machinery is minimal.

The first ever Industry-Academia mission to accelerate biopharmaceutical development in India. The aim of the Mission is to “Enable and nurture an ecosystem for preparing India’s technological and product development capabilities in biopharmaceuticals to a level that will be globally competitive over the next decade, and transform the health standards of India’s population through affordable product development”

Hebron is in Palestine. Armed conflict and war, earthquakes and other natural disasters, pollution, poaching, uncontrolled urbanization and unchecked tourist development pose major problems to World Heritage sites. Dangers can be ‘ascertained’, referring to specific and proven imminent threats, or ‘potential’, when a property is faced with threats which could have negative effects on its World Heritage values.

The listing of a site as World Heritage in Danger should in any case not be considered as a sanction, but as a system established to respond to specific conservation needs in an efficient manner.

If a site loses the characteristics which determined its inscription on the World Heritage List, the World Heritage Committee may decide to delete the property from both the List of World Heritage in Danger and the World Heritage List.