02 July 2025
(Current Affairs Notes - Prelims)

Employment Linked Incentive (ELI) Scheme

• Under Ministry of Labour & Employment

• The Scheme seeks to promote job creation, enhance employability, and expand social security

• It provides some monetary incentives to

  • • First-time employees registered with EPFO & and earning up to Rs. 1 lakh/month.

    • Employers to encourage additional job creation in all sectors, especially in the manufacturing sector.

• Being registered with Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is one of the mandatory requirements to get benefits under the Scheme.

Research Development and Innovation (RDI) Scheme

• To be overseen by the Department of Science and Technology

• RDI Scheme will have a total outlay of Rs. 1 lakh crore.

• It will provide long-term financing or refinancing to spur private investments.

• The objective is to encourage private sector participation in research and innovation.

National Sports Policy (NSP) 2025

• It supersedes the existing NSP, 2001 which was unveiled in 1984.

• Pillars of the NSP or the Khelo Bharat Niti, 2025

  • • Strengthen sports programs from grassroots to elite levels

    • Promote economic potential of sports through sports tourism and entrepreneurship, etc.

    • Ensure social inclusion through the participation of women, weaker sections, etc.

    • Driving mass participation, universal access to sports facilities, etc.

    • Integration with National Education Policy 2020 like specialised training for teachers, etc.

• NSP 2025 was recently got approved by the Union Cabinet.

CITES

• Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)

• A voluntary international agreement between governments. India ratified in 1976.

• It seeks to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.

• It subjects their international trade to certain controls covering all import, export, re-export, through a licensing system.

• Although CITES is legally binding on the Parties, it does not take the place of national laws, rather each party implements it through its own domestic legislation.

• Originally conceived in 1963 at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) meeting, it entered into force in 1975.

• Appendices of CITES

  • • Appendix I: Species threatened with extinction, trade permitted in only exceptional cases

    • Appendix II: Species not necessarily threatened with extinction, but in which trade must be controlled

    • Appendix III: Species protected in at least one country, which has asked other CITES Parties for assistance in controlling the trade

• CITES is administered by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) at Geneva, Switzerland.

• Conference of Parties (CoP) is the highest decision-making body. CoP3 was held in New Delhi in 1981.

• The year 2025, marks 50 years of CITES entering into force.

Terbium

• A rare-earth metal of the lanthanide series of the periodic table.

• Can be recovered monazite and bastnaesite. Also obtained from euxenite, a complex oxide.

• Used in solid-state devices, low-energy lightbulbs and mercury lamps, etc.

• Recently, scientists developed a glowing paper sensor to help detect liver cancer. It uses the green glow of Terbium.

Project 17A

• A follow-on Project of the Shivalik class (Project 17) frigates active in service.

• Frigate is a multi-role vessel utilized for fleet surface ship protection against surface combatants or incoming aerial threats.

• P-17A ships have enhanced stealth features and fitted with ‘State of the Art’ weapons and sensors.

• Recently, INS Udaygiri, the second ship of Project 17A, was delivered to the Indian Navy.

Mud Volcano

• It usually occurs in subduction zones, when one of earth’s tectonic plate moves under another.

• It can also be man-made (triggered by mining or drilling for gas).

• It usually releases gases, especially methane.

• It differs from traditional igneous volcanoes as no lava or ashes are produced.

• Recently, a mud volcano erupted in Taiwan.

Operation Melon

• By the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).

• It busted an international drug racket operating through the darknet.

Captive Non-Public Networks (CNPNs)

• A type of terrestrial wireless telecommunication network.

• Established for captive use within a specified geographical area.

• CNPNs are different from public mobile networks operated by telecom providers.

• CNPNs are operated by a private entity and are not accessible to general public.

• It fulfils customised requirements of enterprises with control over data and networks.

• Recently, Department of Telecommunications issued guidelines for the establishment of CNPNs.