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Prime Minister Narendra Modi, through video conferencing, distributed loans to nearly 300,000 street vendors under the Pradhan Mantri Street Vendors’ Atmanirbhar Nidhi Yojana. PM SVANIDHI The PM SVANidhi scheme was launched in June, with an aim to provide credit for working capital to street vendors who have been affected due to the Covid-19 crisis. It is funded by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs,  PM SVANidhi ensures a working capital loan up to Rs 10,000 for vendors, and rewards digital transactions.  All street vendors who have been in the business on or before March 24, 2020, are eligible to avail the benefits.  For this scheme launched in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic, the Centre has earmarked a stimulus package of Rs 5,000 crore for nearly 50 lakh vendors. THE STREET VENDORS ACT The Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014 was enacted to regulate street vendors in public areas and protect their right...

Panna National Park in Madhya Pradesh (Panna & Chhatarpur districts) has been declared a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Hence, it will now be a site that will serve as a lab to test innovative approaches to eco-conservation and sustainability. PANNA TIGER RESERVE The Panna Tiger Reserve spans 1,5981.sq km, with a 576km Core area. The Panna ‘National Park’ was initially set up in 1981. It was declared a tiger reserve in 1993 under Project Tiger. It lies within narrow belt of table top mountains of ‘Vindhyan Hill Ranges’ and part of ‘Bundelkhand’ region. The region is home to Gond tribe. It is affected by Ken-Betwa river linking project. PROJECT TIGER The number of tigers in the park has varied from 40 tigers in 2001 to 0 In 2009 (except 2 tigress) to 52 in 2020. Under Tiger Reintroduction Project, Tigers were re-located here from Bandhavgarh National Park and Kanha National Park in March 2009. ZONES Core Zone is a legally protected area where human Activities strictly prohibited In Buffe...

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan officially announced the provincial status of Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) on November 1, which is observed as independence day in Gilgit-Baltistan. Khan said that his government had taken the decision to turn the region into a province, “keeping in mind the UN Security Council’s resolutions.” Khan also used the occasion to blame India for the Shia-Sunni sectarian violence in the country, saying “the most racist government” was in power there. INDIA'S RESPONSE New Delhi strongly protested Pakistan’s move to make GB its fifth province and to hold legislative elections there later this month. It asserted that Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, including Gilgit and Baltistan, are an integral part of India. India said that Pakistan had “no locus standi on territories illegally and forcibly occupied it.” GILGIT BALTISTAN AND IT'S HISTORY Pakistan previously consisted of four provinces (Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, and Sindh), two autonomous territo...

Typhoon Rolly or Goni, as it is called internationally, made landfall in the eastern Philippines. It is a weakening tropical cyclone that recently made landfall as an extremely powerful Category 5–equivalent super typhoon on Catanduanes Island in the Philippines.  Goni is the strongest tropical cyclone observed worldwide thus far in 2020 and one of the most intense tropical cyclones on record. It is also the most powerful storm to hit the country since Typhoon Haiyan killed more than 6,000 people in 2013. The country’s weather bureau has downgraded the tropical storm from a Super Typhoon to a typhoon. It maintained wind speeds of over 215 km per hour (135 mph) near the centre and gusts of about 295 kph. CYCLONES Cyclones are centers of low pressure. They are surrounded by closed isobars having increasing pressure outwards.  TROPICAL CYCLONES Tropical cyclones or hurricanes use warm, moist air as fuel and therefore form over warm ocean waters near the equator.  There are f...

An attacker armed with a knife killed three people inside a church on october 29 in the southern French city of Nice. It Prompted the government to raise its security alert status to the maximum level hours before a nationwide coronavirus lockdown. HISTORICAL CONNECTION  The attack took place near the Notre Dame church. The Notre Dame Basilica is less than a kilometer from the site in 2016 where another attacker plowed a truck into a Bastille Day crowd, killing dozens of people. It was the third attack in two months in France that authorities have attributed to Muslim extremists, including the beheading of a teacher. It comes during a growing furor over  caricatures of the Prophet  that were republished in recent months by the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. It renewed the vociferous debate in France and the Muslim world over the depictions that Muslims consider offensive but are protected by French free speech laws. FRANCE & ISLAM France has a long and complex rel...

CHARLIE HEBDO Charlie Hebdo is a French satirical weekly magazine. Charlie Hebdo first appeared in 1970 as a companion to the monthly Hara-Kiri magazine, after a previous title was banned for mocking the death of former French president Charles de Gaulle. In 1981, publication ceased.  The magazine was resurrected in 1992.  Its current editor-in-chief is Gérard Biard.  The magazine has been the target of three terrorist attacks: in 2011, 2015, and 2020.  All of these were presumed to be in response to a number of cartoons that it published controversially depicting Muhammad. WHAT HAS HAPPENED? The recent edition of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo featured a controversial caricature of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan This added fuel to the raging tensions between France and Turkey. REACTIONS The Erdogan cartoon on the cover of the latest edition of Charlie Hebdo features a speech bubble above the character’s head that reads, “Ooh, the prophet!” Soon afte...

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated 17 tourism projects around the Statue of Unity (SoU), now called the ‘Kevadia Tourism Circuit’ The 182-metre-high statue dedicated to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel is nestled between the Satpura and Vindhyachal mountain ranges in Kevadia of Narmada district. It was built at a cost of Rs 3,000 crore and is said to be the tallest in the world. It was inaugurated in October 2018. WHAT IS THE KEVADIA TOURISM CIRCUIT? Kevadia is a village in the tribal Narmada district. It is home to the Sardar Sarovar Dam reservoir on the Narmada river, and was a popular picnic spot even before the SoU came up.  The circuit covers 35 tourist spots. Last year, the Gujarat Assembly had passed a Bill to establish the Statue of Unity Area Development and Tourism Governance Authority (SoUTA). The SoUTA will have powers ranging from acquiring land for any development project in the area, which is predominantly tribal, to taking punitive action against those violating it or...