National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA)

➕ What is NTCA: A statutory body under the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (MoEFCC), estd. in 2006 under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.

➕ Objectives:
- Provides statutory authority to Project Tiger, making compliance with its directives legally binding.
- Ensures accountability between the Center and States in managing Tiger Reserves through a federal structure.

➕ Members:
- Chairperson: Minister in charge of MoEFCC.
- Vice-Chairperson: Minister of State in MoEFCC.
- Other members include 3 members of Parliament, Secretary (MoEFCC), additional members.

Project Tiger

➕ A Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) under MoEFCC launched on 1st April 1973 for the in-situ conservation of tigers.

➕ Purpose: Provides funding support to tiger range States for the conservation of tigers in designated reserves.

➕ Supervision: NTCA is the supervising agency for Project Tiger

In News: The Centre for Marine Living Resources and Ecology (CMLRE) has developed the Ocean Eyes mobile application to align with the Indian Ocean Biodiversity Information System (IndOBIS).

IndOBIS

➕ What is IndOBIS: The Indian node of the global Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS), managed by CMLRE under the Ministry of Earth Sciences.

➕ Purpose: IndOBIS collects taxonomically resolved marine species occurrence data from the Indian Ocean.

➕ Data Types: Includes species occurrence, abundance records, and genomic profiles.

About OBIS

➕ What is OBIS: A global repository for marine species data, supporting marine science and conservation.

➕ Origin: Emerged from the Census of Marine Life (2000-2010).

➕ Agencies: Established by the IOC of UNESCO and part of the International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE).

➕ Global Data: Provides species distribution, habitat, and environmental information across oceans.

Acid, Base and Salt

1. Acids:
   - Sour taste
   - Turn blue litmus paper red
   - Donate protons (H+)
   - Examples: Hydrochloric acid (HCl), Sulfuric acid (H2SO4)

2. Bases:
   - Bitter taste
   - Turn red litmus paper blue
   - Accept protons
   - Examples: Sodium hydroxide (NaOH), Potassium hydroxide (KOH)

3. Salts:
   - Ionic compounds
   - Formed by the reaction between an acid and a base
   - Examples: Sodium chloride (NaCl), Calcium carbonate (CaCO3)

4. Neutralization Reaction:
   - Acid + Base → Water + Salt
   - pH of 7 is neutral

5. pH Scale:
   - Measures acidity or basicity
   - pH < 7 is acidic, pH > 7 is basic

6. Common Applications:
   - Acids used in food preservation, cleaning agents
   - Bases used in household cleaning products, medicine
   - Salts used in soap, glass production

7. Environmental Impact:
   - Acid rain from sulfur and nitrogen oxides
  

Digital Agriculture Mission

➕ Launch: Approved by the Union Cabinet in September 2023, with a budget of Rs 2,817 crore.

➕Purpose: To create Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) in the agriculture sector, similar to the government's e-governance initiatives like Aadhaar and UPI.

➕ Key Components:
- AgriStack: A farmer-centric DPI consisting of:
- Farmers’ Registry: Digital identities (Farmer ID) linked to land records, crops sown, and benefits availed.
- Crop Sown Registry: Digital Crop Surveys for recording crops planted by farmers.
- Geo-Referenced Village Maps: Linking geographic information to land records.
- Krishi Decision Support System (DSS): A geospatial system unifying data on crops, soil, weather, and water resources for better decision-making and crop insurance claims.
- Soil Profile Maps: Detailed soil maps (1:10,000 scale) covering 142 million hectares of agricultural land.

Hollongapar Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary

➕ In News:
● Assam Govt recommended forest clearance for Vedanta’s oil and gas exploration project in the eco-sensitive zone of the Hollongapar Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary

➕ About Hollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary:
● Location: Jorhat, Assam
● Established: 1997
● Flora:
- Upper canopy: hollong trees
- Middle canopy: nahar trees
● Fauna:
Home to India’s only ape, the hoolock gibbons and Northeastern India’s only nocturnal primate, Bengal slow loris.

➕Hoolock Gibbon
● Population: ~ 12,000,Northeast India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Southern China.
● Gibbon Species in India:
Two distinct species in India’s northeast:
- Eastern Hoolock Gibbon (Hoolock leuconedys)
- Western Hoolock Gibbon (Hoolock hoolock).
● Conservation Status:
IUCN Red List:
- Western Hoolock Gibbon: Endangered
- Eastern Hoolock Gibbon: Vulnerable
Listed: Schedule 1 of the Indian (Wildlife) Protection Act 1972 (Both Species)

International Court of Justice (ICJ)

➕ Type: Principal judicial organ of the UN.

➕ Purpose: Resolves legal disputes between states and provides advisory opinions.

➕ Headquarters: Peace Palace, The Hague, Netherlands.

➕ Established: 1945, operational since 1946.

➕ Composition:
- Judges: 15 judges, elected for nine-year terms.
- Regional Representation: 3 from Africa, 2 from Latin America/Caribbean, 3 from Asia, 5 from Western Europe/others, 2 from Eastern Europe.
- President: Elected every three years from among the judges.

➕ Functions:
- Dispute Resolution: Includes territorial, maritime, diplomatic, and treaty issues.
- Advisory Opinions: For UN bodies.

➕ Indian Judges at ICJ:
- Dalveer Bhandari: Since 2012
- R.S. Pathak: 1989-1991
- Nagendra Singh: 1973-1988
- Sir Benegal Rau: 1952-1953