SARAS Aajeevika Mela
- It is an initiative by the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM).
- It is organised by Council for Advancement of People’s Action and Rural Technology (CAPART), marketing arm of Ministry of Rural Development.
- Its objective is to bring the rural women SHGs formed with support of DAY-NRLM, under one platform to show-case their skills, sell their products and help them build linkages with bulk buyers.
- Through this mela, rural SHG women get vital national level exposure to understand the demand and taste of urban customers.
Dharma Guardian – 2019
- It is a joint military exercise between India and Japan.
- It covers joint training on counter terrorism operations in jungle and urban scenario.
Typhoon Hagibis
- A hurricane is a storm that occurs in the Atlantic Ocean and north eastern Pacific Ocean, a typhoon occurs in the north western Pacific Ocean, a cyclone occurs in the south Pacific or Indian Ocean, a willy-willy in south-west Australia.
- Hagibis, which means "speed" in the Philippine language, is a super typhoon swirling around Japan.
- It made landfall in Izu Peninsula, south-west of Tokyo and moved up the east coast.
- It led to Chikuma river breaching their banks inundating residential neighbourhoods and the torrential rain triggered landslides.
- After it made its landfall, a magnitude 5.7 earthquake shook Tokyo shortly after.
International Cooperatives Trade Fair
- The first ever International Cooperatives Trade Fair (IICTF) was organised in New Delhi.
- It was organised by the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), APEDA and NAFED with the support of Agriculture and Commerce ministries.
- About 35 countries and 150 cooperatives participated in the fair.
- It is conceived as the major platform to promote export of Indian cooperative produce.
- It is a part of its effort to boost farm exports and double the income of farmers by 2022.
NCDC, APEDA and NAFED
- NCDC, with mandate under the NCDC Act, 1963 has been focusing on agri-exports also, in line with the recommendations of the Ashok Dalwai Committee on Doubling the Farmers Income.
- National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) is registered under the Multi State Co-operative Societies Act and was established in 1958.
- Its objective to promote co-operative marketing of agricultural produce to benefit farmers.
- Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) is an export promotion body under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
- It is mandated with the responsibility of development of the scheduled products and monitor the import of sugar.
- “Scheduled products” means any of the agricultural or processed food products included in the First Schedule of APEDA Act.
- It includes products of fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry, dairy, honey, jaggery and sugar, cocoa, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, cereal, groundnuts, peanuts and walnuts, floriculture, guar gum, herbal and medicinal plants.
Ganges River Dolphin Census
- The annual Ganges River Dolphin census is being undertaken by World Wide Fund for Nature-India in collaboration with the Uttar Pradesh Forest Department.
- The census started in 2015, is taken along about 250-km-long riverine stretch of Upper Ganga between Hastinapur Wildlife Sanctuary and Narora Ramsar site.
- Unlike previous years, when direct counting method was used, this year the tandem boat survey method is being used.
- The survey method uses inflated boats which move in tandem with dolphins and provides a more accurate count of the endangered species.
- The animal is known to make strange sounds when it breathes, earning it the sobriquet 'Susu'.
- Being a mammal, it has to come to the surface to breathe.
- It is also called a blind dolphin because it doesn’t have a crystalline eye lens and uses echolocation to navigate and hunt.
- Like bats, they produce high-frequency sounds which helps them ‘see’ objects when the sound waves bounce off them.
Source: The Hindu, PIB, The Indian Express
