17 February 2020: PIB Summary & Analysis

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February 17th, 2020 PIB:- Download PDF Here

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. 13th COP on Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals
2. Election Commission of India
3. Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana
4. Soil Health Card Scheme
5. Wuhan Coronavirus

1. 13th COP on Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals

Context:

Prime Minister inaugurated the 13^th Conference of Parties on Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals in Gandhinagar, Gujarat through videoconference.

Details:

• The Prime Minister mentioned that with 2.4% of the world’s land area, India contributes about 8% of the known global biodiversity.
• The Prime Minister spoke of the increase in India’s forest cover, which currently stands at 21.67% of the total geographical area of the country.
• He spoke about the various ‘climate actions’ taken by India such as the push towards electric vehicles, conservation of water and smart cities.
• He also said that India is one of the few countries whose actions are compliant with the Paris Agreement goal of keeping the rise in temperature to below 2 degree Celsius.
• Prime Minister also announced that India will launch the Marine Turtle Policy and Marine Standing Management Policy to address pollution caused by microplastics.
• India has achieved its target of doubling the number of tigers from 1411 in 2010 to 2967, two years before the committed date of 2022. Read more about the conservation of tiger in India.
• He called upon the Tiger Range Countries present at the Conference, and also others, to come together to strengthen tiger conservation through sharing of benchmarking practices.
  • Tiger Range Countries are those countries where wild tigers still roam free.
  • There are 13 such countries, namely: India, Bangladesh, China, Nepal, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Bhutan, Russia, Malaysia and Indonesia.
• The PM also talked about the Central Asian Flyway (CAF) for migratory birds, of which India is a core part.
  • This is a flyway covering a large continental area of Eurasia between the Arctic Ocean and the Indian Ocean and the associated island chains.
  • The CAF comprises several important migration routes of water birds, most of which extend from the northernmost breeding grounds in Siberia to the southernmost non-breeding wintering grounds in West Asia, India, the Maldives and British Indian Ocean Territory.
  • The flyway covers 30 countries of North, Central and South Asia and Trans-Caucasus.
  • The CAF covers at least 279 migratory waterbird populations of 182 species, including 29 globally threatened species and near-threatened species.
  • India has a strategic role in the flyway, as it provides critical stopover sites to over 90% of the bird species known to use this migratory route.
  • There are 8 other flyways in the world.
• Migratory species of wild animals move from one habitat to another during different times of the year, due to various factors such as food, sunlight, temperature, climate, etc.
• The movement between habitats can sometimes exceed thousands of kilometres/miles for some migratory birds and mammals.
• A migratory route will typically have nesting sites and breeding sites. Routes require the availability of preferred food and suitable habitat before and after each migration.

For more on the COP on CMS, check PIB dated 10^th Feb, 2020.

2. Election Commission of India

Context:

The Election Commission of India has been awarded ‘Silver’ for Excellence in Government Process re-engineering for digital transformation for the year 2019-20.

Details:

• The award was given by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), Government of India.
• The award seeks to recognize the projects that involved analysis and re-design of workflow and which resulted in improvement in outcomes related to efficiency, effectiveness of process, cost, quality, service delivery or a combination of these.
• The award was given in recognition of ERONET – a common database for all States and UTs with data of 91 crore electors.
  • ERONET standardises forms processing, standard database schema, and offers a standard template for eroll printing.
  • It automates the process of electoral roll management starting from elector registration, field verification of electors, decision support system for electoral registration officers and for providing extensive integrated value-added services.

Read more on the Election Commission of India.

3. Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana

Context:

The fourth national conference on Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana inaugurated.

For more on the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, click on the linked article.

4. Soil Health Card Scheme

Context:

Soil Health Card Scheme completes 5 years.

For more on the scheme, check PIB dated 5^th Feb, 2020.

5. Wuhan Coronavirus

Context:

Letters of appreciation were given to Air India Employees for their dedication in Evacuation Operations at Wuhan.

Details:

• A total of 647 Indians, as well 7 Maldivians, were evacuated from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the Novel Corona Virus Flu.

For more on the Novel (Wuhan) Coronavirus, click here.

February 17th, 2020 PIB:- Download PDF Here

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