The National Bio Energy Program

• It is an initiative of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

• The program will aid the use of huge surplus biomass, cattle dung, and industrial and urban bio waste available in the country for energy recovery.
• The National Bioenergy Program will comprises of the following sub-schemes:

• Waste to Energy Program – It is a program on energy from Urban, Industrial and Agricultural Wastes /Residues to support setting up of large Biogas, Bio CNG and Power plants (excluding MSW to Power projects).
• Biomass Program – It is a scheme to support manufacturing of briquettes & pellets and promotion of biomass (non-bagasse) based cogeneration in industries.
• Biogas Program – It aims to support setting up of family and medium size Biogas in rural areas.

Dynamic Composite Risk Atlas (DCRA)

• Dynamic Composite Risk Atlas (DCRA) is a tool mainly for static pre-event planning and dynamic response (responding to a real-time cyclone) for cyclone prone States/UTs.
• National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has taken up a project entitled National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project (NCRMP).
• Under this project National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) developed this tool in collaboration India Meteorological Department (IMD).
• This system includes:
  • Development of Probabilistic Risk Assessment Maps / Products for depiction of cyclone risk and storm surge flooding / coastal flooding vulnerability maps for the coastline of India.
  • These products visualized through an interactive map viewer.

Amendments of Electoral Bond scheme

• Recently the Centre amended the Electoral Bond scheme to open a fresh one week window for sales of such bonds.
• The Electoral Bond Scheme was introduced in 2018 as an alternative to cash donations made to political parties.
• This year the Finance Ministry notified changes to the Scheme
  • The Electoral Bonds shall be valid for fifteen calendar days from the date of issue.
  • No payment shall be made to any payee Political Party if the Electoral Bond is deposited after expiry of the validity period.
  • The Electoral Bond deposited by an eligible Political Party in its account shall be credited on the same day.

• Only the political parties that are registered under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 and which secured not less than 1% of vote polled in the last General Election to the House of the People or the Legislative Assembly of the State are eligible to receive Electoral Bonds.

Black Sea Grain Initiative

• Recently the deal was brokered by the United Nations (UN) and Turkey, signed in Istanbul.
• It aims to provide for a safe maritime humanitarian corridor for Ukrainian exports (particularly for food grains) from three of its key ports, namely, Chornomorsk, Odesa and Yuzhny/Pivdennyi.
• The central idea was to calm markets by ensuring an adequate supply of grains, thereby limiting food price inflation.
• Ukraine is among the largest exporters of wheat, maize, rapeseed, sunflower seeds and sunflower oil, globally.
• Its access to the deep-sea ports in the Black Sea enables it to directly approach Russia and Europe along with grain importers from the Middle East and North Africa. 
• The Black Sea Grain deal endeavors to tackle escalating food prices emanating from supply chain disruptions because of Russian actions in the world’s ‘breadbasket’.

Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act

• The Act has been enacted to protect children from offences of sexual assault, sexual harassment and pornography.
•  It will provide establishment of Special Courts for trial of such offences and related matters and incidents.
• The Ministry of Women and Child Development championed the introduction of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012.
• The Act was amended in 2019, to make provisions for enhancement of punishments for various offences so as to deter the perpetrators and ensure safety, security and dignified childhood for a child.
• The Act is gender neutral and regards the best interests and welfare of the child as a matter of paramount importance at every stage so as to ensure the healthy physical, emotional, intellectual and social development of the child.
• Whoever commits penetrative sexual assault on a child below sixteen years of age shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than twenty years.
• However, it may extend to imprisonment for life, which shall mean imprisonment for the remainder of natural life of that person, and shall also be liable to fine.