India and Seychelles relation

•  Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Danny Faure met and They discussed the Assumption Island joint naval project.
• The project will give India a strategic advantage in the Indian Ocean Region
• “India and Seychelles are major strategic partners.
• India is ready to finance three civilian infrastructure projects in Seychelles under Special Grant. Government House, New Police Headquarters and the Office of the Attorney General is included in this.

Assumption Island

• Assumption Island is a small island in the Outer Islands of Seychelles north of Madagascar.
• In 2018, Seychelles and India signed an agreement to build and operate a joint military facility on a portion of the island. The deal for an Indian military base in Seychelles was declared ‘dead’ by the Island’s opposition party.

Water aerodrome in Chilika Lake

•  The Airports Authority of India has proposed to set up a water aerodrome in Chilika Lake for starting amphibious aircraft operations in Odisha.
• The project will most likely face a green hurdle.

Effect on environment

• “For six months between October and March, Chilika turns into a temporary habitat for lakhs of migratory and residential birds
• If an aircraft flies at low height, there is every chance of the birds getting hit. While the bird population will be in danger, safety of passengers of amphibious aircraft will also be jeopardised,
• Noise pollution generated by close to 10,000 boats has already taken a toll on the endangered Irrawaddy dolphins in the lake. The amphibious aircraft operation would add to the woes.
• As many as 155 endangered Irrawaddy dolphins were spotted in Chilika, which is the single largest habitat of this species in the world. After clearing the lake of illegal man-made enclosures, dolphins have now started moving freely in all sectors.

Chilika lake

• Chilika Lake is a brackish water lagoon, spread over the Puri, Khurda and Ganjam districts of Odisha state on the east coast of India, at the mouth of the Daya River, flowing into the Bay of Bengal.
• It is the largest wintering ground for migratory birds on the Indian sub-continent. The lake is home to a number of threatened species of plants and animals.
• In 1981, Chilika Lake was designated the first Indian wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention.

Irrawaddy dolphin

• Irrawaddy dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris) is a highly endangered species.
• Chilika is the single largest habitat of this species in the world.
• The Irrawaddy Dolphin is listed in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) as well as the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS).

‘Operation Sagar Rani’

Context: Fish preserved in formalin seized

• Operation Sagar rani launched to ensure safety and hygiene at fish handling and distribution centres, Food Safety officials.
• Launched by food safety department in kochi.

Remove DEBRIS

• RemoveDebris, the first-ever satellite to test possible solutions in cleaning up space junk has been deployed by the International Space Station (ISS).
• It will try to address the build-up of dangerous space debris orbiting Earth. It was transported to the ISS through the SpaceX CRS-14 launch in April 2018 from Florida.
• The satellite was designed, built and manufactured by a consortium of space companies and research institutions, led by the Surrey Space Centre at the University of Surrey.
• The project is co-funded by the European Commission. The RemoveDebris mission will conduct 4 experiments, that involves harpoon capture in orbit and a net that will be used on a deployed target.
• The team will also test a vision-based navigation system that uses cameras and Light Detection and Radar (LIDAR) technology to observe CubeSats.
• RemoveDebris will deploy a large sail that will drag it into the Earth’s atmosphere and will be destroyed.
• RemoveDebris spacecraft weighs 100 kg. RemoveDEBRIS is built by the world’s leading small satellite manufacturer Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL). The technology on board is designed by Airbus.

Van Dhan Kendras

The Government proposes to set up 3000 Van Dhan Kendras involving 30,000 SHGs across the country under the Van Dhan Scheme of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

Van Dhan Scheme

• In a new game changing initiative, the Prime Minister launched the Van Dhan Scheme of Ministry of Tribal Affairs and TRIFED on 14th April, 2018 during the celebrations of Ambedkar Jayanti at Bijapur Chattisgarh.
• Emphasizing the important role of value addition in increasing tribal incomes, the Prime Minister stated that Van Dhan, Jandhan and Goverdhan Schemes had the potential to change the tribal-rural economic system. All these three schemes in tandem need to be promoted for this purpose by the State Governments.
• Under Van Dhan Scheme, 10 Self Help Groups of 30 Tribal gatherers each have been constituted at Bijapur, Chhattisgarh. They are then trained and provided with working capital to add value to the products, which they collect from the Jungle.
• Working under the leadership of Collector, these groups can then market their products not only within the States but also outside the States. Training and technical support is provided by TRIFED.

Benefits to tribals

• Van Dhan Mission is an initiative for targeting livelihood generation for tribals by harnessing non-timber forest produces, the true wealth of forest i.e. Van Dhan with an estimated value: Rs.2 Lakh Cr. per year.
• It shall promote and leverage the collective strength of tribals (through SHGs) to achieve scale.
• It also aims at build upon the traditional knowledge & skill sets of tribals by adding technology & IT for value addition.
• Further it is to set-up tribal community owned Van Dhan Vikas Kendras (the Kendra) in predominantly forested tribal districts.
• A Kendra shall constitute of 10 tribal SHGs, each comprising of upto 30 tribal NTFP gatherers or artisans i.e. about 300 beneficiaries per Kendra.