About the UNDP and DAY-NULM partnership:

• Aim: To empower women to make well-informed career choices in the field of entrepreneurship.
• It will provide support for women looking to start and expand their enterprises such as the care economy, digital economy, electric mobility, waste management, food packaging and more.
• Focused on fostering entrepreneurship development and accelerating enterprise growth.
• Time-Period: It is a three-year project, extendable beyond 2025 which will cover eight cities in the initial phase.
• UNDP will offer national-level capacity-building support to DAY-NULM.
• This support will focus on knowledge generation and management, such as compiling compendiums of best practices related to urban poverty, to enhance the implementation of national-level schemes.
• UNDP will also contribute to the initiative by developing community business mentors called Biz-Sakhis in selected project locations.
• These mentors, who possess valuable business knowledge, can support new and existing enterprises, and serve as a resource for DAY-NULM at a later stage.

Key facts about the DAY-NULM

• It is a flagship mission under the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
• It has the aim to uplift the urban poor by enhancing sustainable livelihood opportunities through skill development.
• Funding: It will be shared between the Centre and the States in the ratio of 75:25. For North Eastern and Special Categories – the ratio will be 90:10.

 

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Q1) What is Entrepreneurship?

Entrepreneurship refers to the activity of identifying, creating, and managing a business or venture with the aim of making a profit. An entrepreneur is an individual who takes on the role of organizing and operating a business, often assuming financial risks in the pursuit of new opportunities and innovative solutions.

Source: UNDP partners with DAY-NULM towards empowering women entrepreneurs

About Biodegradable Supercapacitor:

• A supercapacitor is an electrochemical charge storage device with a fast charging/discharging cycle, high power density and a longer lifecycle. 
• Features
  • This supercapacitor which can fully charge a device within 10 seconds, has been developed from seaweed (marine macroalgae).
  • The device is of high tensile strength and performance, as well as cost-effective, according to the researchers.
  • The product can be used in electronics, memory backup systems, airbags, heavy machines, electric vehicles, etc.; hence, it holds a huge business prospect. 

What is Seaweed?

• Seaweeds are macroalgae attached to rock or other substrata and are found in coastal areas.
• They are classified as Chlorophyta (green), Rhodophyta (red) and Phaeophyta (brown) based on their pigmentation.
• Among them, Chlorophyta holds more potential components like carbohydrates, lipids, proteins and bioactive compounds in the cell wall.
• Green seaweed has a high amount of a particular type of cellulose in its cell wall.

 

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Q1) What is Algae?

Algae are a diverse group of photosynthetic organisms that are found in aquatic environments such as oceans, lakes, rivers, and ponds. They can also exist in moist terrestrial habitats like rocks, soil, or even on the surface of trees. Algae are not classified as plants but are considered simple, plant-like organisms.

Source: Scientists from Gujarat Institute develop a biodegradable paper supercapacitor from seaweed

About Titanic Tourist Submersible:

• What it is? A submersible is a small boat or other craft, designed especially for research and exploration.
• It is more limited in its movement and how long it can stay underwater.
• A submersible needs a mother ship that can launch and recover it.
• These are small, limited-range watercrafts designed for a set mission, that are built with characteristics that allow them to operate in a specific environment
• These vessels are typically able to be fully submerged in water and cruise using their own power supply and air renewal system.
• While some submersibles are remotely operated and essentially manually controlled or programmed robots, these usually operate unmanned.
• Vessels like the missing Titan are known as human-occupied vehicles.

What is a submarine?

• It is a watercraft that is capable of independent operation under the sea.
• It does not require support ships because submarines can renew their air and power supplies independently.
• When the submarine is to dive water is filled in water tanks and it is made heavier.
• As soon as the average density of a submarine becomes greater than the density of seawater it sinks.

 

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Q1) What is Exploration?

Exploration refers to the act of discovering, investigating, or venturing into new territories, areas, or realms. It involves the systematic search or study of unfamiliar or unknown environments, whether physical, intellectual, or conceptual, in order to gain knowledge, understanding, or practical benefits.

Source: Titanic tourist submersible missing: Difference between a submersible and a submarine

About Ancient Maya city:

• It is located in the Balamku ecological reserve on the country's Yucatan Peninsula.
• This city has been named Ocomtun - meaning "stone column" in the Yucatec Maya language.
• This would have been an important centre for the peninsula's central lowland region between 250 and 1000 AD.
• The city includes large pyramid-like buildings, stone columns, three plazas with "imposing buildings" and other structures arranged in almost-concentric circles.
• It has a core area located on high ground surrounded by extensive wetlands.

Key Facts about Mayan Civilization

• The Maya are probably the best-known of the classical civilizations of Mesoamerica.
• Originating in the Yucatán peninsula around 2600 B.C., they rose to prominence around A.D. 250 in present-day southern Mexico, Guatemala, northern Belize and western Honduras.
• Building on the inherited inventions and ideas of earlier civilizations, the Maya developed astronomy, calendrical systems and hieroglyphic writing.
• The Maya were noted as well for elaborate and highly decorated ceremonial architecture, including temple pyramids, palaces and observatories, all built without metal tools.
• They were also skilled farmers, clearing large sections of tropical rainforest and, where groundwater was scarce, building sizable underground reservoirs for the storage of rainwater.

Where is Yucatan Peninsula?

• It is a Northeastern projection of Central America which is lying between the Gulf of Mexico to the west and north and the Caribbean Sea to the east. 
• The peninsula is almost wholly composed of beds of coralline and porous limestone rocks.

  

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Q1) What is hieroglyphics?

It is composed of pictorial symbols or signs known as hieroglyphs, which represent both objects and ideas. The term "hieroglyphics" is derived from the Greek words "hieros" meaning "sacred" and "glyphein" meaning "to carve."

Source: Ancient Maya city discovered in a Mexican jungle

Why in News?

• The water level of the Beki River is flowing above the danger level mark at several places across Assam.

About Beki River:

• The Beki river originates in Bhutan, and it is one of the right bank tributaries of the Brahmaputra river.
• This river is also known as the Kurisu river in Bhutan.
• A large portion of the Beki river flows in the state of Assam and ultimately mix with Bay of Bengal.
• It flows through the Manas National Park.
• The river and its drainage channels flow through the plains of Assam for about 85 km and drain an area of 26,243 sq. km. approximately.
• Beki river is rich in bio-diversities. It is the home of a variety of food fishes species, ornamental fishes species, amphibians, reptiles, birds, insects etc.
• Discharging a huge amount of water every year, the river turns dangerous during monsoon season.

 

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Q1) Which are the major tributaries of Brahmaputra river?

The tributaries namely Subansiri, Ronganadi, Dikrong, Buroi, Borgong, Jiabharali, Dhansiri (North) Puthimari, Manas, Beki, Aie, Sonkosh are the main tributaries on the North while the Noadehing, Buridehing, Desang, Dikhow, Bhogdoi, Dhansiri (South), Kopilli, Kulsi, Krishnai, Dhdhnoi, Jinjiran are the main tributaries on the south bank of the river Brahmaputra.

Source: Assam flood 2023 updates: Nearly 1.20 lakh people in 20 districts affected | Here are DETAILS