• Tech for Tribals, an initiative of TRIFED supported by Ministry of MSME, aims at capacity building and imparting entrepreneurship skills totribal forest produce gatherers enrolled under the Pradhan Mantri VanDhan Yojana(PMVDY).
• The trainees will undergo a 30 days program over six weeks comprising 120 sessions.
• This unique project aimed to transform 5 crore Tribal Entrepreneurs.
• It was launched by TRIFED and IIT-Kanpur along with IIT-Roorkee, IIM Indore, Kalinga Institute of Social Science, Bhubaneshwar and SRIJAN, Jaipurin the first phase of organizing tribal entrepreneurship and skill development program.
• TRIFED under Ministry of Tribal Affairs is establishing 1,200 "Van Dhan Vikas Kendra (VDVK)”, across 28 States engaging 3.6 Lakhs Tribal Forest Produce gatherers.
• One typical VDVK comprises of 15 Self Help Groups, each consisting of 20 Tribal gatherers.

• The Ministry of Textiles is implementing converged Mahatma Gandhi Bunkar Bima Yojana (MGBBY) for providing social security benefits like life, accidental & disability insurance coverage to handloom weavers/workers in the age group of 51-59 years across the country, who have already enrolled under the scheme on 31.5.2017.
• To provide the benefits to all handloom weavers/workers in an effective manner, the Government of India has organized Hasthkala Sahyog Shivirs in handloom clusters across the country in association with State Governments and LIC for creating awareness among the weavers for enrollment under the Scheme.
• The claim benefits are provided by LIC directly into the bank account of beneficiaries through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT).

• Huntington disease (HD) is a progressive genetic disorder affecting the brain that causes uncontrolled movements, impaired coordination of balance and movement, a decline in cognitive abilities, difficulty in concentrating and memory lapses, mood swings and personality changes.
• It is caused by a mutation in a gene called HTT.
• The HTT genes are involved in the production of a protein called huntingtin.
• They provide the instruction for making the protein.
• When the genes mutate, they provide faulty instructions leading to production of abnormal huntingtin proteins and these form into clumps.
• The clumps disrupt the normal functioning of the brain cells, which eventually leads to death of neurons in the brain, resulting in Huntington disease.

• Annual Refresher Programme in Teaching (ARPIT) is a unique initiative of online professional development of 15 lakh higher education faculty using SWAYAM platform.
• National Resource Centres (NRC) will be identified to prepare online training material.
• NRC will be in a mixed range of institutions such as, Central Universities, IISc, IUCAA, IITs, IISERs, NITs, IGNOU, State Universities, UGC‘s Human Resource Development Centres (HRDCs) and National Institutes for Technical Teachers Training.
• It will focus on latest developments in the discipline, new & emerging trends, pedagogical improvements and methodologies for transacting revised curriculum.
• SWAYAM - Study Webs of Active learning for Young Aspiring Minds is a Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) platform launched to offer various online courses for school education and higher education.

• Peatlands, which play a crucial role in regulating global climate by acting as carbon sinks, are facing degradation and need to be urgently monitored, according to a Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations report released recently.
• The report comprised information as well as recommendations to countries on restoring and managing these valuable ecosystems.

Background

• Peatlands are formed due to the accumulation of partially decomposed plant remains over thousands of years under conditions of water-logging.
• Peatlands cover only three per cent of Earth’s surface.
• However, their degradation due to drainage, fire, agricultural use and forestry can trigger release of the stored carbon in a few decades.
• Peatlands contain 30 per cent of the world’s soil carbon. When drained, these emit greenhouse gases, contributing up to one gigaton of emissions per year through oxidation, according to the report.
• Besides climate mitigation, peatlands are important for archaeology, as they maintain pollen, seeds and human remains for a long time in their acidic and water-logged conditions.
• In many countries, pristine peatlands are important for recreation activities. These areas also support livelihood in the form of pastoralism.
• The vegetation growing on pristine peatlands provide different kinds of fibres for construction activities and handicrafts.

• The Hindu Kush Himalayas (HKH) region includes mountain ranges of the Tien Shan, Kun Lun, Pamir, Hindu Kush, Karakoram, Himalayas, and Hengduan and the high-altitude Tibetan Plateau which produce one of the world's largest renewable supplies of freshwater.

• The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is an international organization involving a group of countries in South Asia and South East Asia. These are: Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal.
• BIMSTEC Headquarters is situated in Dhaka, Bangladesh and opened by Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina (13 September 2014).
• The main objective of BIMSTEC is technological and economic co-operation among south Asian and South East Asian countries along the coast of the bay of Bengal. Commerce, investment, technology, tourism, human resource development, agriculture, fisheries, transport and communication, textiles, leather etc. have been included in it.

• The whole coastline of India is vulnerable to cyclones, particularly the east coast. The west coast of India is less vulnerable to cyclonic storms both in terms of intensity and frequency of the cyclones.

• Sometimes, government adopts an expansionary fiscal policy stance and increases its spending to boost the economic activity.
• This leads to an increase in interest rates because it causesinflation. Increased interest rates affect private investment decisions as loans become dearer.
• A high magnitude of the crowding out effect may even lead to lesser income in the economy.