Mundapota Kela

• It is a denotified tribal community belongs to the State of Odisha.
• The population of Mundapota Kela is scattered across the State.
• The community is believed to have migrated to Odisha from Rayalaseema area of Andhra Pradesh decades ago.
• Being street performers, they travel from one village to another and bury their heads in soil for several minutes.
• They collect rice, vegetables and money from villagers for putting up the show.
• The community is extremely poor. Not all members have their own houses.
• Till the 2001 Census, they were not enumerated as a Scheduled Caste.

Mars

• Water is essential for life, on Earth and other planets but Mars has no liquid water on its surface now.
• New research from Washington University in St. Louis suggests a fundamental reason that, Mars may be just too small to hold on to large amounts of water.
• Mars was always doomed and headed towards deterioration.

Blue Dot Network (BDN)

• In 2019, the Blue Dot Network (BDN) was announced as a joint initiative of the US, Japan and Australia to certify infrastructure projects that meet international quality standards.
• It brings together governments, the private sector and civil society to promote principles of global sustainable infrastructure development.
• It will help attract private capital to infrastructure projects in developing and emerging economies.
• It is seen as a direct counter to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
• BDN certification will serve as a globally recognized symbol of market-driven, Paris Agreement-aligned, and financially, socially, and environmentally sustainable infrastructure projects.
• But, unlike the BRI, the BDN would not offer public funds or loans for the project.

C.K. Mishra Committee

• International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) has been established as a unified regulator to develop and regulate financial products, financial services, and financial institutions in the International Financial Services Centres (IFSCs) in India.
• IFSCA, in its endeavour to develop the required eco-system has constituted an Expert Committee to recommend approach towards development of Sustainable Finance Hub and provide road map for the same.
• The expert committee is being chaired by Shri C.K. Mishra, Former Secretary to Government of India, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change.
• The committee consists of leaders across the sustainable finance spectrum, including international agencies, standard setting bodies, funds, academia, and consultancies.

Protocol on Trans-boundary Elephant Conservation

• In order to mitigate the Human Elephant Conflicts in the trans-boundary areas, the Government of India entered in to series of dialogue with Bangladesh which resulted in Protocol on Trans-boundary Elephant Conservation between Republic of Bangladesh and Republic of India.
• The protocol was signed between two countries in the India- Bangladesh virtual summit in December 2020 to facilitate smooth movement of elephants between India and Bangladesh and vice versa.