Happy Diwali guys😊

🔆Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD):

✅It is a progressive and fatal neurological disease affecting deer, elk, moose, and other cervids (members of the deer family).
✅It's caused by abnormal proteins called prions that damage brain tissue, leading to severe neurological symptoms, weight loss, and eventually death.
✅CWD is part of a group of diseases known as Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSEs), which also include mad cow disease in cattle and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.

✅Transmission:
CWD spreads between animals through bodily fluids, like saliva, urine, and feces, as well as contaminated soil and plants.

✅There is currently no evidence that CWD can infect humans.

✅Treatment: It is always fatal in infected animals. There is no vaccine or treatment.

Biodiversity Hotspot

🌿What are Biodiversity Hotspots?

- Regions with high species diversity and endemism
- Facing significant threat of habitat loss
- Identified by Conservation International
- 36 such hotspots globally, 4 in India

🌿Major Biodiversity Hotspots in India:

1. Eastern Himalayas
2. Western Ghats
3. Indo-Burma
4. Sundaland

🌿Key Facts to Remember:
- India has 4 of the world's 36 biodiversity hotspots
- These regions cover just 2.4% of the Earth's surface
- Yet, they host over 60% of all plant and animal species
- Face rapid habitat loss and destruction

🔆Post-independence poverty estimates:

📍Planning Commission

✅Planning Commission Expert Group (1962), constituted by the Planning Commission formulated the separate poverty lines for rural and urban areas (Rs.20 and Rs.25 per capita per year respectively).

📍Y. K. Alagh Committee (1979)
✅By 1979, it was decided that poverty should be measured precisely based on starvation. Committee was constituted which gave its recommendation as the people consuming less than 2,100 calories in the urban areas or less than 2,400 calories in the rural areas are poor.

📍Lakdawala Committee (1993)
✅In 1993, an expert group constituted to review methodology for poverty estimation, chaired by D.T.

✅Lakdawala, made the following suggestions:
🔰Consumption expenditure should be calculated based on calorie consumption as earlier;
🔰State specific poverty lines should be constructed and these should be updated using the Consumer Price Index of Industrial Workers (CPI-IW) in urban areas and Consumer Price Index of Agricultural Labour (CPI-AL) in rural areas; and
🔰Discontinuation of ‘scaling’ of poverty estimates based on National Accounts Statistics. This assumes that the basket of goods and services used to calculate CPI-IW and CPI-AL reflect the consumption patterns of the poor.

🔆Mission Amrit Sarovar

✅Recently, the Prime Minister of India said that over 60,000 Amrit Sarovars were constructed across villages leaving behind a legacy for future generations.

📍Mission Amrit Sarovar:

✅It was launched on 24th April, 2022with the resolve to build 75 Amrit Sarovars during the 75th year of independence as a part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav.
✅It helps to overcome the water crisis in rural areas of the country.
✅Every Amrit Sarovar will have a pondage area of at least 1 acre with a water holding capacity of about 10,000 cubic metre.
✅It focuses on water conservation, people’s participation and proper utilization of soil excavated from the water bodies to boost infrastructure projects.
✅There is no separate financial allocation for Mission Amrit Sarovar.
✅Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Application and Geo-informatics (BISAG-N) has been engaged as Technical partner for the Mission.

Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY):

Launch and Aim:
• It was launched by the government in 2015 for providing loans up to Rs. 10 lakh to the non-corporate, non-farm small/micro-enterprises.

Funding Provision:
• MUDRA, which stands for Micro Units Development & Refinance Agency Ltd., is a financial institution set up by the Government.
• It provides funding to the non-corporate small business sector through various last-mile financial institutions like Banks, NBFC and Micro Finance Institutions.
•MUDRA does not lend directly to micro-entrepreneurs/individuals.