08-09-21 Daily-Kerala-KPSC Current Affairs

As many as 1,25,070ration card holdersin various categories have voluntarily surrendered their cards to the government till July 31, after the government urged them tosurrenderif they do not fall in various eligible categories.
In order to weed out the remaining ineligible card holders, the civil supplies department has launched aWhatsAppnumber by which the public can inform any such information about ineligible card holders.

Till July, out of the 5,85,977Antyodaya Anna Yojana(AAY) cards distributed in the state, 9,935 cards have been surrendered and brought under non-priority non-subsidy (NPNS) category, who are offered rice and wheat at regular, non-subsidised rates.

The state had implemented theNational Food Securities Act, 2013, on November 1, 2016. As per the Act, the state has 4,228 fair-price shops (authorized ration dealers ARD) with 90,86,816 card holders. The total number of beneficiaries under the system is 3,57,42,768 (as per the estimates, each card has 4.2 beneficiaries in the state).

As many as 5,95,800 cards under the AAY are allowed in the state, of which the state has already distributed 5,85,977 cards. The remaining 9,823 cards can be distributed to 41,256 beneficiaries. Also, as per the NFSA, the total number of cards that can be distributed in the priority household category is 1,54,80,040.

National Teachers Award 2021 was awarded through President Ram Nath Kovind, September 5, 2021. President Kovind gave the Awards to forty-four finest teachers in the country for their devoted contribution.

Highlights:

The award contributes to those who enhance the niceness of schooling for students and inspire and enrich their lives. This year, the Ministry of Education launched the name of 44 teachers who would be conferred the National Teachers Award. Out of the complete forty-four teachers, 9 of the awardees are Women.

The Manda buffalo has been regarded as the nineteenth unique breed of buffalo found in India by the NBAGR (National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources).

Key Points:

According to research done recently, around 30% of the 557 raptor species around the world are threatened by extinction to some degree. It is an evaluation by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature () and BirdLife International (a international PARTNERSHIP of conservation organisations (NGOs)).

A raptor is a bird of prey. A bird of prey is a carnivore (meat-eater) that kills and eats mammals, reptiles, amphibians, insects, rodents, and other birds.

All raptors have a hooked beak, robust feet with sharp talons, keen eyesight, and a carnivorous diet.

Raptors prey on a large variety of vertebrates & thus, facilitate long-distance seed dispersal. This indirectly increases seed production & pest control.

India is a signatory to Raptors MoU. India has also launched a Vulture Action Plan 2020-25 for the conservation of vultures. India is additionally a part of the SAVE – Saving Asias Vultures from Extinction consortium.

International Literacy Day is located globally on 8th September each and every year. The day spread awareness about the importance of literacy for individuals, communities, and societies and the want for intensified efforts closer to extra literate societies.

The fifty-fifth International Literacy Day theme is Literacy for a human-centred recovery: Narrowing the digital divide. The 8th of September was proclaimed International Literacy Day by UNESCO in 1966 to remind the global neighbourhood of the importance of literacy for individuals, communities and societies, and the need for intensified efforts towards extra literate societies. It was celebrated for the 1st time in 1967.

Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, launched Vidyanjali Portal and several other initiatives in the <a href="https://exam.pscnotes.com/Education-sector”>Education sector.

These initiatives were launched while asserting that they will play a significant role in shaping Indias future.

Initiatives were launched while inaugurating the conclave of Shikshak Parv.

Vidyanjali portal was launched with the objective of facilitating education volunteers, donors or CSR contributors for school development.

Vidyanjali portal was launched to enable community or volunteers to contribute by connecting with the government and government-aided schools of their choice directly.

PRANA Portal will be used to track the progress of the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) in order to comply with Indias commitment to ensure clean air and blue skies to everybody.

This portal was launched on the occasion of International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies in non-attainment cities (NAC).

Non-attainment cities are those cities that failed to meet the National air quality standards in a five-year period.

With Indias efforts, 86 cities showed a better air quality in 2019 and it increased to 104 cities in 2020.

PRANA portal will help in tracking physical and financial status of city air action plan implementation. It will also disseminate information on air quality to the public.

Smog tower was launched at Anand Vihar in Delhi.

Now, ministry would keep a close eye on the results to determine if India need more of such projects in the future.

A smog tower is a structure that are designed as a large or medium scale air purifier. It helps in reducing Air Pollution by forcing the air through filters.

Filtration system used in the smog tower has been designed by University of Minnesota. It has an expected efficiency of 90 per cent.