Banni Grassland
Central government has approved setting up a cheetah breeding and conservation centre in Banni Grassland.
- Location – Kutch district, Gujarat
- An Arid grassland with an area of over 2500 sq.km.
- Consisting of 2 ecosystems in juxtaposition (wetlands and grasslands)
- Major Flora and Fauna – Invasive Prosopis juliflora tree, Mangrove dwelling Kharai camel (swimming camel), Banni buffalo, Kankrej cow etc.
- Maldharis – Livestock breeders of Banni
Unabated Fossil Fuel | COP28
The COP28 Climate talks in Dubai call for phasing out of “Unabated fossil fuels”.
- No Precise definitions of “abated” and “unabated”.
- Unabated Fossil fuel – refer to burning fossil fuels and letting the emissions be released into the atmosphere.
- Abated fossil fuel – refer to the burning of fossil fuels and simultaneously neutralising the carbon dioxide emissions
- Done either by using them or securely storing the gas underground forever.
Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA)
Odisha invoked ESMA to ban strikes by Health Department staff.
- Empowers the Government to designate any activity or service as ‘essential’, whose disruption would impact the normal life of people (e.g., Hospital, Railways, Post, banking etc).
- Maintenance of supplies and services essential to the community – under the Concurrent list (7th Schedule)
- Empowers the states to choose the essential services on which to enforce ESMA.
- Imposed for a maximum period of 6 months and can be extended.
- Violators can be arrested without a warrant under the act.
Mission-Operation Storm Makers II
It is the first Interpol operation specifically targeting human trafficking-fuelled fraud.
- Mobilized law enforcement in 27 countries to target human trafficking and migrant smuggling.
- Major fraudulent activities – fake job ads, online fraud on an industrial scale