• Project BOLD (Bamboo Oasis on Lands in Drought) has been recently launched by the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC).
• It is the first of its kind exercise in India which was launched from the tribal village NichlaMandwa in Udaipur, Rajasthan.

Project BOLD

• It is a unique scientific exercise serving the combined national objectives of reducing desertification and providing livelihood and multi-disciplinary rural industry support.
• It seeks to create bamboo-based green patches in arid and semi-arid land zones.
• 5000 saplings of special bamboo species – BambusaTulda and BambusaPolymorpha specially brought from Assam – have been planted over 25 bigha (16 acres approx) of vacant arid Gram Panchayat land.
• KVIC has thus created a world record of planting the highest number of bamboo saplings on a single day at one location.
• The project is aligned with Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s call for reducing land degradation and preventing desertification in the country.
• The initiative has been launched as part of KVIC’s “Khadi Bamboo Festival” to celebrate 75 years of independence “Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav”.

• The Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education will launch National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN Bharat).

NIPUN Bharat

• The vision of NIPUN Bharat Mission is to create an enabling environment to ensure universal acquisition of foundational literacy and numeracy, so that every child achieves the desired learning competencies in reading, writing and numeracy by the end of Grade 3, by 2026-27.
• NIPUN Bharat will be implemented by the Department of School Education and Literacy and a five-tier implementation mechanism will be set up at the National- State- District- Block- School level in all States and UTs, under the aegis of the centrally sponsored scheme of Samagra Shiksha.

• To make Ayurveda based clinical trials, a worldwide visibility, the Ayurveda dataset on CTRI Portal will be launched online by the Union AYUSH Minister Shri Kiren Rijiju.
• This Ayurveda Dataset of CTRI has been jointly developed by ICMR and Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS), Ministry of Ayush.
• Until now the clinical trials in Ayurveda were dependent on terminology borrowed from modern medicine.
• The Minister will also launch four more Portals, AMAR, SAHI, e-MEDHA and RMIS.
• All of these four portals are primarily developed by CCRAS while RMIS is a collaborative effort of ICMR and CCRAS.

Clinical Trials Registry - India (CTRI)

• It was launched in July 2007 and has been managed by the ICMR-National Institute of Medical Statistics, New Delhi, India.
• It is an online, free and searchable system for the prospective registration of all clinical studies being conducted in India.
• In addition, the CTRI also registers clinical studies being conducted in countries which do not have a Primary Registry of their own.
• It is a primary register of Clinical Trials under WHO’s International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP).
• Initiated as a voluntary measure, since 15th June 2009, trial registration in the CTRI has been made mandatory by the Drugs Controller General India (DCGI).

• Over the past few months, Turkey's Marmara sea has been facing an outbreak of sea snot.
• The Marmara Sea that connects the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea has been blanketed with 'sea snot' causing new environmental concerns. 

Sea Snot

• Sea-snot is a thick, foamy layer of marine mucilage formed from the algae present in the water.
• They are a threat to marine life and the fishing industry.
• It was first reported in Turkey in 2007.
• However, the current outbreak is the largest on record.
• The mucilage is now covering the surface of the sea and has spread to 80-100 feet below the surface, posing a threat to the marine ecosystem.

• As many as 194 crocodiles have been relocated from the Panchmuli lake, near the Statue of Unity in Narmada district, Gujarat, in the last two years for the safety of tourists who come to enjoy boat rides there.

Panchmuli Lake

• The lake, also known as ‘Dyke-3’ of the Sardar Sarovar Dam, was developed for tourists visiting the Statue of Unity.
• The lake is situated near 182-metre tall statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in Kevadia.

Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council

• The Sixth Schedule is a provision of Article 224(A) of the Constitution, originally meant for the creation of autonomous tribal regions in Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura.
• The Hill councils under Article 224(A) provision have legislative powers.
• Leh and Kargil have separate Autonomous Hill Development Councils, set up under the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Councils Act, 1997, however this AHDC have no legislative powers.

Spinner Dolphin

• The spinner dolphin lives in nearly all tropical and subtropical waters between 40°N and 40°S.
• The species primarily inhabits coastal waters, islands, or banks.
• They are categorised as ‘Data Deficient’ on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List.
• They are also included in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species and in Appendix II of the Convention on Migratory Species.

Fly Ash

• It is a by-product from burning of coal in electric power generating plants.
• It is called fly ash because it is transported from the combustion chamber by exhaust gases.
• The Fly Ash generated at NTPC stations is ideal for use in the manufacture of Cement, Concrete, Concrete Products, Cellular Concrete products and for Bricks / Blocks / Tiles.

Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR)

• It is located at the India-Nepal border in the West Champaran district of Bihar.
• Situated in the Gangetic Plains bio-geographic zone of the country, the forest has a combination of bhabar and terai tracts.
• Tharu’, a scheduled tribe, is the dominant community in the landscape of the Valmiki National Park.
• Recently, 150 vultures were seen in the Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR), Bihar, which has prompted a vulture conservation plan in the protected region of VTR.

Financial Stability Report (FSR)

• The FSR which is published biannually reflects the collective assessment of the Sub-Committee of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC - headed by the Governor of RBI) on risks to financial stability and the resilience of the financial system.
• The Report also discusses issues relating to development and regulation of the financial sector.
• The Gross Non-Performing Asset (GNPA) ratio of India’s Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) may climb by the end of 2021-22 to as much as 11.2% under a severe stress scenario, from 7.48% in March 2021.
• The GNPA ratio of SCBs may increase to 9.8% by March 2022 under the baseline scenario.