Marthoman Jacobite Syrian Cathedral Church

Why in NEWS ?

• Kerala government took control of 800 years old Marthoman Jacobite Syrian Cathedral Church at Mulanthuruthy in Ernakulam district, which has been in the focus of a dispute between Jacobite and Orthodox factions of the Malankara Church, a prominent non-Catholic Christian community.

About

• The move by the Ernakulam district administration is as per the Kerala HC direction on August 12.
• The takeover was done ahead of handing it over to the Orthodox faction of the Malankara Church as per a court order.

The Orthodox Tradition Church

Orthodox Tradition Church has three factions:

• The Indian Orthodox Church which is an autocephalous church whose supreme head is in India.
• The Jacobite Church that accepts the Patriarch of Antioch (Syria) as its head.
• The Mar Thoma Church which is also an autocephalous church now.
• The present situation of court cases and police action was a result of about 100 years of dispute between two factions of the Orthodox tradition, i.e. Jacobite and Orthodox churches.

Marthoman Jacobite Syrian Cathedral Church

• It was founded and established in the 11th Century A.D, under the Holy Apostolic See of Antioch, and the Church was consecrated on 3rd Karkkidakkam (July),in between 1100-1125 A.D.
• Church was modified in the 16th Century A.D. The carvings on the main door of the Church, made of granite, on which is inscribed in Syrian script, read as ʹʹthe door of the Mar Thoman Church was re-erected on 9th Thulam 1575 A.D.ʹʹ It is one of the ancient Churches in Kerala.
• The church is a fine example of Gothic architecture. The carvings, sculptures, symbolic icons and lovely wall paintings, are a blend of Indian, West-Asian and European architecture.
• The Althar of the Church with wooden carvings and paintings of unique design, are reminiscent of the Church at Jerusalem.

Launch of Tribal Health & Nutrition Portal – ‘SWASTHYA’

IN NEWS

• A series of initiatives were announced by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, which included the Tribal Health and Nutrition Portal ‘Swasthya’ and e-newsletter on health and nutrition ALEKH; opening of National Overseas Portal and National Tribal Fellowship Portal.

ABOUT

• E-portal on tribal health and nutrition named ‘Swasthya’, is a first of its kind e-portal, providing all health and nutrition related information of the tribal population of India in a single platform.
• Swasthya will also curate innovative practices, research briefs, case studies, and best practices collected from different parts of India to facilitate the exchange of evidence, expertise and experiences.
• The Ministry of Tribal Affairs has recognized Piramal Swasthya as the Centre of Excellence for Knowledge Management (CoE for KM) for Health and Nutrition.
• Ministry in partnership with Facebook though the ‘Going Online as Leaders (GOAL)’ Programme aims to mentor 5000 Tribal Youth across India and enable them to become village-level digital young leaders for their communities.
• ‘ALEKH’, a quarterly e-newsletter. Emphasizing on the commitment of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs to improve the health and wellbeing of the tribal communities was also released.

PURPOSE

• The dashboard is part of Digital India Initiative to work towards empowering Scheduled Tribes and will bring efficiency and transparency in the system.
• The performance of Tribal Ministry and 37 other Ministries who are required to spend allocated amount of their budget for tribal welfare under STC Component as per mechanism framed by NITI Aayog can be seen on various parameters on dashboard.
• The dashboard will also be one-point link to all e-initiatives of the Ministry” The Dashboard has been developed by Centre of Excellence of Data Analytics (CEDA), organization under National Informatics Centre (NIC).

First World Solar Technology Summit Next Month

IN NEWS

• India ranks first in number of organic farmers and ninth in terms of area under organic farming;

ABOUT

• First World Solar Technology Summit being organized by ISA on a virtual platform on September 08, 2020.
• The event will hold four technical sessions that would be available to the participants in different languages namely English, Spanish, French & Arabic.

• Session -1: Vision 2030 & Beyond:
• Session -2: Towards a Decarbonized Grid.
• Session -3: Disruptive Solar Technologies
• Session -4: Solar Beyond the Power Sector

THE OBJECTIVE

• The objective of the event is to bring the spotlight on state-of-the-art technologies as well as next-generation technologies which will provide impetus to the efforts towards harnessing the solar energy more efficiently.
• ISA would also be launching the ISA Journal on Solar Energy (I JOSE) that would help authors from across the globe to publish their articles on solar energy, during the event.
• The articles in this journal would be reviewed by global experts and will reach the Member countries through ISA’s vast network of NFPs (National Focal points) and STAR (Solar Technology and Application Resource centers) centers.

INTERNATIONAL SOLAR ALLIANCE (ISA)

• The initiative was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the India Africa Summit, and a meeting of member countries ahead of the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris in November 2015.
• The framework agreement of the International Solar Alliance opened for signatures in Marrakech, Morocco in November 2016, and 200 countries have joined.
• The International Solar Alliance (ISA) is an alliance of 121 countries initiated by India, most of them being sunshine countries, which lie either completely or partly between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.
• Countries that do not fall within the Tropics can join the alliance and enjoy all benefits as other members, with the exception of voting rights. After the United Nations; it is the largest grouping of states world-wide.

CONCLUSION

• The ISA, an action-oriented organization, aims at lowering the cost of technology and finance and thereby facilitate deployment of over 1,000 GW of solar energy and mobilize more than USD 1,000 billion into solar power by 2030 in Member countries.
• The ISA envisions enabling the full ecosystem for availability and development of technology, economic resources, and development of storage technology, mass manufacturing and innovation.
• The reduced cost of technology would enable the undertaking of more ambitious solar energy programmes. Noting that Solar is key source of affordable and reliable energy, successful project implementation could play significant role in achieving the universal energy access goal (SDG 7).

Partial Credit Guarantee Scheme

Why in NEWS ?

• Government extends partial credit guarantee scheme by three months to Nov 19.

About

• The government has also allowed PSBs to invest up to 50% of total investments under the scheme in AA and AA- rated bonds.
• It will give public sector banks (PSBs) three more months to purchase bonds and commercial papers (CPs) from non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and housing finance companies (HFCs).
• The government has also allowed public sector banks (PSBs) to invest up to 50% of total investments under the scheme in AA and AA- rated bonds. Earlier, the limit was 25 per cent of total investments.
• The decision was taken in keeping in view the progress under the scheme and the fact that the stipulated limit for AA/AA- rated bonds/CPs has been nearly reached while the appetite for lower rated bonds/CPs is nearing saturation considering their lower ticket size, the government said in a release.

Partial Credit Guarantee Scheme

• Scheme was announced to address temporary liquidity/cash flow mismatch issues of otherwise solvent NBFCs/HFCs without them having to resort to distress sale of their assets for meeting their commitments.
• It allows for purchase of high-rated pooled assets from financially-sound non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and housing finance companies (HFCs) by public sector banks (PSBs).
• The scheme would cover NBFCs and HFCs that might have slipped into “SMA-0” category during the one-year period prior to August 1, 2018, and asset pools rated “BBB+” or higher.
• The window for one-time partial credit guarantee offered by the government would remain open till June 30, 2020 or till such date by which Rs 1 lakh crore worth of assets get purchased by the banks, whichever is earlier.
• The Finance Minister would have the power to extend the validity of the scheme by up to three months by taking into account its progress.