The Ministry of Culture is to organize a Global Summit on reimagining museums in India. The summit is first of its kind. The summit is to be inaugurated by the Union Minister of Culture Shri Kishan Reddy.

About the Summit

• The summit is to focus on developing museums in India. The main intention is to cultivate new practices and strategies to develop the Indian museums.
• The summit is organized as a part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav. It is a programme to mark the 75^th anniversary of Indian independence.
• The summit will bring together the experts and practitioners in the field of museum management from all over the world.

Key Agenda of the summit

• To share best practices of museum management
• To share best strategies of museum development
• To identify and understand the needs of museums in the country
• To foster partnerships between Indian and international museums
• To create a plan for renewing Indian museums

Organizers

The summit is organized by the ministry along with Bloomberg. The summit is to be held on February 15 and February 16, 2022. It is to be held online.

Themes of the summit

The four broad themes of the summit are education and audience management, collections curation and conservation, management, architecture and functional needs.

On February 8, 2022, a special Assembly session of Tamil Nadu Assembly re-adopted the anti-NEET Bill. This bill was returned by Governor R N Ravi in January.

Highlights

• Governor’s decision to return this bill was considered confrontational by State Government, because he was not agreed with the bill and also because of remarks of state-appointed expert committee about NEET, which is backed by central government.
• With the re-adopting and sending it again to the Governor, Bill is likely to be forwarded to the President for his assent.

About the bill

The Bill seeks to dispense with NEET, for admission in undergraduate medical degree courses in Tamil Nadu. Bill will provide for admission to undergraduate courses in dentistry, medicine, Indian medicine and homeopathy, based on marks obtained in qualifying examination. It also provides 7.5% horizontal quota in medical admission for students of government schools.

Why was Bill returned by Governor?

Governor had studied the bill in detail as well as report of high-level committee led by Justice A K Rajan, which was basis of Anti-NEET Bill. He also examined the pre-NEET status of social justice in medical admission, specifically for students coming from socially and economically poor background. Governor returned the bill for reconsideration on February 1, 2022 because in his opinion, Bill is against interests of students especially the rural and economically poor students.

Governor’s power on Bill

Article 200 of the Constitution deals with powers of the Governor with respect to assent given to bills passed by State legislature and other powers of Governor like reserving bill for President’s consideration.

Government of India has planned to bring disease-free, behaviourally sound Cheetahs from abroad in India, as a part of reintroduction plan.

What are other qualities that Government is looking for?

• Government is also looking for Cheetahs, that are not overly imprinted to humans but tolerant, predators-wary, and are capable of hunting wild prey.
• Cheetahs should be in the reproductive age.
• They should be “socially tolerant of each other”.

Number of Cheetahs to be reintroduced

Government has planned to reintroduce 12 to 14 cheetahs from South Africa, Namibia and Other African Countries over a period of five years.

How these Cheetahs will be monitored?

All these Cheetahs will be fitted with satellite or GSM-GPS-VHF radio-collars before they will be release in the wild, so that they could be monitored remotely.

Action Plan for Introduction of Cheetah in India

Under the ‘Action Plan for Introduction of Cheetah in India, government seeks to introduce at least 50 Cheetahs in various national parks over the period of five years. Environment Ministry is in process of holding consultation meetings with African countries to bring Cheetah. In the initial phase, around 12-14 wild Cheetahs will be imported to establish a new cheetah population. Among them, there will be 8-10 males and 4-6 females.  The plan to reintroduce cheetahs was first conceived by then Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh in 2009.  Cheetahs were to be reintroduced in 2021, but it got delayed due to COVID-19 pandemic.

When did Cheetah got extinct in India?

Cheetah is the only large carnivore, that became extinct in 1950s in India.

The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways is to develop five light houses in the state of Odisha. Four districts have been identified.

About the Light Houses

The Light Houses are to be built in Public – Private Partnership mode. The identified districts are as follows:

• Gopalpur lighthouse in Ganjam
• Paradip lighthouse in Jagatsinghpur
• False point lighthouse in Kendrapara
• Chandrabhaga lighthouse in Puri
• Puri lighthouse

Background

India had identified 71 lighthouses to increase lighthouse tourism. The plan is to build open air theatre, cafeteria, museum, children’s park, landscaping and eco – friendly cottages in these light houses.

The bill is being brought in the state of Haryana to prevent unlawful religious conversions. Haryana is a BJP ruled state. The other BJP ruled states that brought in the bill were UP, HP, MP and Karnataka.

Need for the bill

Several “Love Jihad” incidents were reported in the state. Love Jihad is a term used in the country to address Muslim men forcing Hindu girls to convert to Islam. These men do this by marrying them. According to several Hindutva leaders, it is a strategy used by the Muslim world to eradicate Hinduism. There are pseudo social organisations that use this strategy to convert vulnerable sections of the society. This phrase is not found in central government laws or state government laws. However, it is common used in politics.

What does the bill say?

It aims to prohibit religious conversions through undue influence, misrepresentation, allurement, coercion or other fraudulent means. The bill includes greater punishments for conversions in women, scheduled caste and scheduled tribe.

If any of the marriages were performed by concealing the religion, the marriage shall be declared void or null under the bill. The designated authority will make enquiries.

Justification

The Right to freedom of religion cannot be extended to interpret collective right to convert. Because it belongs to the person converting. Still there are mass conversions happening in the country. The people converting are mostly the vulnerable sections. Such people are offered allurement for conversion. In some place, the men marry the girls concealing their identity. They reveal that they follow Islam after getting married. Also, they force their wives to get converted.

How will it be established?

The individuals converting from one religion to other should submit a declaration that the conversion is not being done under unlawful means. The term unlawful means by use of force, fraudulent means, coercion, undue influence or under threat.

India has agreed to provide a grant to Sri Lanka for implementing a ‘Unitary Digital Identity framework’.

Key Points

• The Unitary Digital Identity Framework is apparently modelled on the Aadhaar card.
• Sri Lankan government will give priority to the implementation of this Framework as a national level programme.
• Sri Lanka’s Cabinet of Ministers approved this proposal made by President Rajapaksa, to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with India to obtain the grant and launch this project.
• This project comes amid substantive economic assistance from India, worth USD 1.4 billion to Sri Lanka, since the start of 2022 to help Sri Lanka cope with its dollar crunch, and import food, medicines and fuel due to shortages.

About Unitary Digital Identity Framework

Under the Unitary Digital Identity Framework, a personal identity verification device will be introduced, based on biometric data, which is a digital tool to represent identities of individuals in cyberspace. Identification of individual identities can be accurately verified in physical and digital environments by combining two devices.

According to Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Gen. Dr. V K Singh, Government has prepared a draft National Air Sports Policy (NASP 2022) for promoting air sports in India.

Highlights

• Government has received the feedback. It is examining the comments on draft National Air Sports Policy.
• Under the policy, domestic design, development & manufacturing of air sports equipment will be promoted in line with Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.

About Draft National Air Sports Policy

• The policy seeks to make India a global hub for air sports.
• It will cover most of the air sports such as aerobatics, amateur-built & experimental aircraft, aeromodelling, drones, ballooning, gliding, paragliding micro-lighting & para- motoring skydiving, hang gliding and vintage aircraft.

Aim of the Policy

Policy seeks to make India as one of the top air sports nations by 2030. Its mission to provide a safe, accessible, affordable, enjoyable and sustainable air sports ecosystem in country. It seeks to leverage India’s huge potential for air sports because of its diverse topography, geographical expanse, and fair-weather conditions.

The scientists recently found white cheeked macaque in Arunachal Pradesh. The discovery adds a new species to the mammal list of India. The White Cheeked macaque was first discovered in southeastern Tibet.

About White Cheeked Macaque

These macaques are different from the other macaques mainly because of their white cheeks. Also, they have a longer tail, long and thick hairs in the neck area. It has not yet been included in the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. The major threat to the species is hunting, habitat degradation, infrastructure development and consumption by the locals.

Other Macaques in India

Apart from the white cheeked macaque, India has Arunachal macaque, Assamese macaque, Rhesus macaque.

Habitat

It lives in tropical forest, evergreen broad leaved forest, mixed broad leaved conifer forests. It is usually found at an altitude of 1395 meters to 2420 meters. They live in multi – male and multi – female group.

Alarm call

When they find humanns, the white cheeked macaque gives out alarm call, climbs trees and flees. The frequency of its alarm call is different from that of the Assam macaque.

Total mammal count in India

With the discovery of White Cheeked macaque, the total mammal count has increased to 438.

Macaques

The macaques are old world monkeys. There are 23 species of macaques in the world. They are mainly found in Asia, North Africa, Gibraltar. They mainly feed on leaves, seeds, flowers and tree bark. The pig tailed macaques in Malaysia eat rats. Also, there are crab eating macaques.