ASI’s New Heritage Initiatives

• ‘Adopt a Heritage 2.0’ Program: ASI launched an upgraded version of the ‘Adopt a Heritage’ program in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism.
  • Encourages corporate stakeholders to use CSR funds for enhancing historically important monuments.
  • Includes 1,000 additional monuments for adoption.
• Indian Heritage App: The app offers a comprehensive guide to ASI-monitored monuments.
  • Provides details, images, on-site facilities, and geo-tagged locations.
• E-Permission Portal: Simplifies and expedites the approval process for photography, filming, and developmental projects related to heritage monuments.
  • Speeds up permission granting, streamlining operations.
• Compliance with AMASR Act: The program aligns with The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (AMASR) Act, clearly defining permissible activities.

About: 

• Location: Northern borders of India, encompassing areas adjacent to both Pakistan and China.
• Objective: To assess and validate the operational preparedness of the command responsible for these sensitive northern regions.

About Mangri Orang:

• Mangri Orang, a tea plantation worker, was gunned down by British security personnel in 1921 for leading a fight against foreign liquor and opium 
• Mangri Orang, originally from central India, was known as “Malati Mem” among fellow plantation workers.
• She is said to be the first female martyr of India’s freedom movement.

About Central Bank Digital Currencies:

• It is the digital form of a country’s fiat currency.
• A nation’s monetary authority, or central bank, issues a CBDC, which promotes financial inclusion and simplifies implementing monetary and fiscal policy.
• CBDC, being a sovereign currency, holds unique advantages of central bank money viz. trust, safety, liquidity, settlement finality and integrity. 
• RBI is aiming to scale up the number of CBDC transactions to one million per day by the end of 2023. 
  • Currently, around 5,000-10,000 transactions are being done per day using retail CBDC

About Stump-tailed macaque:

• Conservation Status: 
  • IUCN Red List: Vulnerable
  • Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES): Appendix II
  • Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972: Schedule II
• Commonly referred to as bear macaques due to their appearance.
• Range and Distribution: Native to Cambodia, China, India, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam.
  • In India, it is found only in the south of the river Brahmaputra in Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and some other parts of the Northeast.
• Distinctive Features
  • Short Tails: Characterized by notably short tails.
  • Facial Changes: Their faces turn redder as they age, and both males and females experience hair loss, resembling male pattern baldness in humans.