• With an objective to promote Geographical Indication (GI) crafts and heritage of India the Ministry of Textiles is organising Kala Kumbh - Handicrafts Thematic Exhibition in various parts of the country through the Office of Development Commissioner (Handicrafts).
• The exhibitions are planned in various major cities like Bengaluru, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.
• The exhibitions sponsored by Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH) started recently.
• In Bengaluru exhibition, GI crafts like Mysore rosewood inlay, Channapatna lacquerware, Dharwad kasuti embroidery, Kolhapur chappal, Bidriware, Molakalmur handblock printing, Ananthapur leather puppet, Thrissur screwpine, Vishakapatna lacquerware, Sandur lambani embroidery, Jodhpur terracota, Jaipur handprinted textile, bronze casting, Medinipur mat weaving, Birbhum artistic leather and Khurdah palm leaf engraving are being displayed.
• In Mumbai exhibition GI crafts like Chittoor kalamkari painting, Thrissur screwpine crafts, Pokharan terracotta crafts, Kutch embroidery & crochet crafts, Pingla patachitra, Birbhum kantha embroidery, Jajpur photachitra painting, Madhubani Mithila painting, Kolhapur chappal, Palghar Worli painting, Kondagaon wrought iron craft, Agate stone crafts and Krishna handblock printing are being displayed.

GI Products and its State

• Kolhapuri Chappal – Handicraft – India (Karnataka & Maharashtra)
• Madur kathi – Handicraft – West Bengal

• In line with the recommendations of the Rangarajan Commission, on 1st June 2005, the Government of India resolved the setting up of a National Statistical Commission (NSC).
• As per the notification, the Commission comprised a part-time Chairperson, four part-time Members and Secretary, Planning Commission as the ex-officio Member.
• In 2015, the NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India) came in to existence and as a result, the Chief Executive Officer of the NITI Aayog has been made ex-officio Member of the NSC, in place of the Secretary, Planning Commission.

• The Swachh Iconic Places (SIP) is an initiative under the Swachh Bharat Mission.
• It is a special clean-up initiative focused on select iconic heritage, spiritual and cultural places in the country.
• The initiative is being coordinated by the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DDWS), Ministry of Jal Shakti in association with the Ministry of Urban Development, Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Tourism and the concerned State governments.
• Phase I Iconic sites:  1. Ajmer Sharif Dargah; 2. CST Mumbai; 3. Golden Temple, Amritsar; 4. Kamakhya Temple, Assam; 5. Maikarnika Ghat, Varanasi;  6. Meenakshi Temple, Madurai; 7. Shri Mata Vaishno Devi, Katra, J&K; 8. Shree Jagannath Temple, Puri; 9. The Taj Mahal, Agra; 10. Tirupati Temple, Tirumala 
• Phase II Iconic sites: 1. Gangotri; 2. Yamunotri; 3. Mahakaleshwar Temple, Ujjain; 4. Char Minar, Hyderabad; 5. Church and Convent of St. Francis of Assissi, Goa; 6. Adi Shankaracharya’s abode Kaladi in Ernakulam; 7. Gomateshwar in Shravanbelgola; 8. Baijnath Dham, Devghar; 9. Gaya Tirth in Bihar; 10. Somnath Temple in Gujarat. 
• Phase III Iconic sites: 1. Sree Dharma Sastha Temple; 2. Mana Village, Uttarakhand; 3. Vidur Kuti Temple, Uttar Pradesh; 4. Shri Sarveshwar Mahadev Temple; 5. Shri Nag Vasuki Temple; 6. Kanvashram, Uttar Pradesh; 7. Ema Keithel, Manipur; 8. Hazarduari Palace, West Bengal; 9. Pangong Tso; 10. Sri Raghvendra Swamy Mutt Mantralayam

• India’s Minister for Earth Sciences and Norway’s Minister for Climate and Environment have recently opened the India-Norway Task Force on Blue Economy for Sustainable Development.
• The India-Norway Task Force on Blue Economy for Sustainable Development was launched in January 2019.
• The purpose of the task force is to develop and follow up joint initiatives between the two countries.
• The two countries also commenced a new collaboration on Integrated Ocean Management & Research.

• 74 years ago, on February 18, 1946, some 1,100 Indian sailors or “ratings” of the HMIS Talwar and the Royal Indian Navy (RIN) Signal School in Bombay declared a hunger strike, triggered by the conditions and treatment of Indians in the Navy.
• A “slow down” the strike was also called, which meant that the ratings would carry out their duties slowly.
• Somewhere between 10,000-20,000 sailors joined the strike, as did shore establishments in Karachi, Madras, Calcutta, Mandapam, Visakhapatnam, and the Andaman Islands.
• While the immediate trigger was the demand for better food and working conditions, the agitation soon turned into a wider demand for independence from British rule.
• The protesting sailors demanded the release of all political prisoners including those from Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army (INA).
• One of the triggers for the RIN strike was the arrest of a rating, BC Dutt, who had scrawled “Quit India” on the HMIS Talwar.
• The day after the strike began, the ratings went around Bombay in lorries, waving the Congress flag, and getting into scraps with Europeans and policemen who tried to confront them.
• The revolt, however, failed to see support from the Indian leadership who perhaps saw a mutiny, so close to independence, as a danger.
• Only the Communist Party of India and the INC’s Aruna Asaf Ali openly supported the sailors.

• The Uttar Pradesh government in its Budget 2020-21 set aside a fund of Rs 2,000 crore for the upcoming Jewar or the Noida International Greenfield Airport in Gautam Buddh Nagar.
• This will be the third in the National Capital Region after Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International airport and Ghaziabad’s Hindon airport.
• The word Green is also synonymous with the word new, which may allude to new construction projects by companies.
• With Greenfield investing, a company will build its own, brand new facilities from the ground up.
• The term Greenfield refers to buildings constructed on fields that were, literally, green.
• Brownfield investment happens when a company purchases or leases an existing facility.
• Brownfields can be an investment in abandoned, underutilized or contaminated properties, redeveloping these properties into productive projects.

• Sanjay Kothari, the Secretary to the President, has been selected as the new Chief Vigilance Commissioner by a high-powered committee headed by Prime Minister.
• The Central Vigilance Commission was set up by the Government in February,1964 on the recommendations of the Committee on Prevention  of Corruption, headed by Shri K. Santhanam, to advise and guide Central Government agencies in the field of vigilance.
• The CVC is not controlled by any Ministry/Department. It is an independent body which is only responsible to the Parliament.
• It exercise superintendence over the functioning of the Delhi Special Police Establishment insofar as it relates to the investigation of offences alleged to have been committed under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

• Recently, Flamingoes foraging in the backwaters near Dhanushkodi in Rameswaram.
• Hundreds of Flamingoes fly in from the Rann of Kutch, Gujarat every year in December and leave by the end of March.
• Kachchh furnishes 4 diverse geomorphic type of terrain namely (i) the Rann, (ii) the low lying Banni plains, (iii) the hilly region, and (iv) the coastal plains.
• It is connected to the Arabian Sea through Kori Creek in the west and the Gulf of Kachchh in the east, and is very close to sea level.
• The Wild Ass Wildlife Sanctuary, is spread across the little Rann of Kutch where small grass-covered areas, known as baits, forms the flora and is an important source to support the fauna of the region.
• The Asia’s largest oil refinery is located at Jamnagar owned by Reliance Industries in the Gulf of Kutch.

• Recently, 47 new papers were published in a special supplement of The Astrophysical Journal, analysing data from the first three flybys of the Parker Solar Probe, NASA’s historic mission to the Sun.
• Alongside, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is also preparing to send its first scientific expedition to study the Sun.
• Named Aditya-L1, the mission, expected to be launched early next year, will observe the Sun from a close distance, and try to obtain information about its atmosphere and magnetic field.
• Aditya L1 will be ISRO’s 2nd Space-based astronomy mission after AstroSat, which was launched in September 2015.
• Aditya L1 will perform continuous observations looking directly at the Sun.
• NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has already gone far closer  but it will be looking away from the Sun.
• The L1 point is about 1.5 million km from Earth, or about one-hundredth of the way to the Sun.