2 Minute Series_11th August 2025

11^th August 2025                                     

1. MERITE Scheme: Recently, the Union Cabinet approved the launch of the ‘Multidisciplinary Education and Research Improvement in Technical Education’ (MERITE) Scheme.

• About MERITE Scheme: Central Sector Scheme, applicable to government engineering institutions and polytechnics across all States and Union Territories.
• Collaboration: Designed in partnership with the World Bank.
• Objective: Enhance quality, equity, and governance in technical education nationwide, in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
• Funding Structure: Total Outlay: ₹4,200 crore (2025–26 to 2029–30) & World Bank Loan: ₹2,100 crore (external assistance).
• Institutional Involvement: Key role for IITs, IIMs, and higher education regulatory bodies such as AICTE and NBA in scheme execution. Focus on skill enhancement for employability through multi-dimensional initiatives.
• Expected Benefits: Around 275 government and government-aided technical institutions to be selected for support, including: National Institutes of Technology (NITs), State engineering colleges, Polytechnics, Affiliating Technical Universities (ATUs) and State/UT technical education departments will also receive support.

2. Sanchar Saathi Initiative: Recently, the Department of Telecommunications’ (DoT) flagship Sanchar Saathi initiative reached a significant milestone, with its mobile app being downloaded over 50 lakh times within just six months of its launch.
   About Sanchar Saathi Mobile App: A user-friendly platform aimed at strengthening telecom security and empowering citizens. It equips users with essential tools to safeguard their telecom resources and tackle telecom-related fraud.

• Key Features: Chakshu – Reporting Suspected Fraud Communications (SFC): Allows users to report suspicious calls and SMS messages directly from the app or mobile phone logs.
• Know Mobile Connections in Your Name: Enables citizens to check and manage all mobile connections registered under their name, preventing unauthorized use.
• Block Lost or Stolen Mobile Handsets: Facilitates quick blocking, tracing, and recovery of lost or stolen devices.
• Verify Mobile Handset Genuineness: Provides an easy method to check the authenticity of a mobile handset, ensuring that users buy genuine devices.

3. Fishing Cat: Recently, a 2024 survey by The Fishing Cat Project in Chilika Lake estimated around 750 fishing cats in the lagoon’s 1,100 sq. km area — a relatively healthy population compared to the sharp declines seen in the Sundarbans. In a notable breakthrough, the species was also rediscovered in Keoladeo National Park, Rajasthan, after being presumed locally extinct.

• About Fishing Cat: A highly elusive wild feline, primarily found in wetlands and mangrove habitats. Known for its strong swimming skills, it often enters water to hunt fish — a trait that gives the species its name.
• Key Characteristics: Size: Almost twice as large as a domestic cat.
• Swimming Ability: Expert swimmer, capable of diving to catch fish.
• Diet: Hypercarnivorous — mainly fish, but also frogs, crustaceans, snakes, birds, and carrion.
• Activity: Primarily nocturnal or crepuscular, but occasional daytime sightings occur.
• Breeding: Can breed year-round; peak breeding season in India is March–May.
• Conservation : IUCN Red List: Endangered; CITES: Appendix II; Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972: Schedule I
• Global Distribution: Found across South and Southeast Asia.
• In India: Foothills of the Himalayas along the Ganga and Brahmaputra valleys, the Western and Eastern Ghats (patchy stretches), Sundarbans, Chilika lagoon and nearby wetlands in Odisha, and the Coringa and Krishna mangroves in Andhra Pradesh.

4. Lepcha Tribe: Recently, Sikkim celebrated Tendong Lho Rum Faat, a centuries-old nature-worship festival of the Lepcha tribe, considered the region’s earliest inhabitants.

• About Lepcha Tribe: Indigenous to eastern Nepal, western Bhutan, Sikkim, and the Darjeeling district of West Bengal.
• Primarily inhabit the southern and eastern slopes of Mt. Kanchenjunga (8,586 m), ranging from 230 m in the Sikkim basin to high-altitude mountain regions.
• Classified as a Scheduled Tribe in Sikkim.
• Identity and Language: Call themselves “Rongs” or “Rongkups”.
• Speak the Lepcha language, which has its own script influenced by Sanskrit.
• Estimated 42,909 individuals (Census 2011), marking them as a vanishing tribe with a declining demographic trend.
• Religious Beliefs: Originally animists and nature-worshippers with beliefs in spirits and witchcraft. Over time, many embraced Buddhism, blending it with traditional beliefs. Kanchenjunga is revered as a divine protector.
• About Tendong Lho Rum Faat: Celebrated to honour Tendong Hill, believed to have saved the Lepcha people during a great flood. Involves ritual offerings, storytelling, folk dances, and prayers to thank nature for its protection.

5. Chitons: Recently, a new study revealed that chitons develop teeth that are not only extremely hard but also tougher than stainless steel, zirconium oxide, and even human enamel.

• About Chitons: Flattened, bilaterally symmetrical marine invertebrates belonging to the phylum Mollusca (which also includes sea snails, sea slugs, and bivalves).
• They are found exclusively in marine habitats, distributed worldwide but most abundant in warmer waters. Around 600 species are classified under the class Placophora, Polyplacophora, or Loricata.
• Key Features: Shape & Size: Typically oval, reaching up to 5 cm in length.
• Color Variations: Appear in shades of grey, brown, red, green, or pink.
• Distinctive Plates: Dorsal surface has eight overlapping plates surrounded or covered by a tough girdle.
• Locomotion & Feeding: Use a large, flat foot to move and cling to rocks, and a well-developed radula to scrape algae and plant matter from surfaces.
• Lifespan: Typically live from a few years up to 20 years.
• Behaviour: Mostly nocturnal.
• Respiration: Gills are located in grooves on either side of the foot.
• Flexibility: Can snugly fit into rock crevices or curl into a ball when dislodged. They cling so firmly to rocks that forceful removal may cause injury.

6. Barda Wildlife Sanctuary: Recently, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, in partnership with the Forest and Environment Department of Gujarat, celebrated World Lion Day 2025 at Barda Wildlife Sanctuary in Devbhumi Dwarka district, Gujarat.

• About Barda Wildlife Sanctuary: Situated in Gujarat, the sanctuary is home to two rivers — Bileshvary and Joghri — and two dams, Khambala and Fodara.
• Communities: The region is inhabited by ethnic groups such as the Maldharis, Bharvads, Rabaris, and Gadhvis.
• Conservation Importance: Identified as a potential second home for the Asiatic lion under the Gir–Barda Project launched in 1979.
• Recognized as a biodiversity hotspot, playing a key role in Asiatic lion conservation.
• Flora: Rich in plant diversity, including many medicinal species. The sanctuary hosts around 650 plant species such as Rayan, Babul, Ber, Jamun, Amli, Gorad, Bamboo, Dhav, and Dhudhlo.
• Fauna: Supports species like leopard, hyena, wild boar, wolf, jackal, blue bull, and several rare birds including the spotted eagle and crested hawk eagle.
• World Lion Day, observed every year on August 10, seeks to promote awareness and action for the conservation and protection of lions globally.

7. H.I.N.E. Initiative: Recently, the Department of Health Research (DHR), in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), held a nationwide open day as part of the S.H.I.N.E. initiative.

• About H.I.N.E. Initiative: Full Form: Science, Health and Innovation for Nextgen Explorers
• Nature: A nationwide student outreach programme by ICMR to spark scientific curiosity, encourage innovation, and inspire future health researchers.
• Objectives: Introduce students to health and biomedical research.
  • Showcase ICMR’s contributions to improving public health.
  • Motivate youth to pursue careers in science and public health.
• Participation: Over 13,000 students from grades 9–12, representing 300+ schools across 39 districts in 16 States/UTs, visited ICMR institutes nationwide.
• Activities: Guided lab tours, research exhibitions, poster walks, video presentations, and live demonstrations of scientific projects.
• Special Feature: Introduction of a mascot, Curio, as an engaging and relatable guide for students.

8. Heptapleurum Assamicum: Recently, scientists have discovered a new plant species, Heptapleurum assamicum, in the Dima Hasao and West Karbi Anglong districts of Assam.

• About Heptapleurum Assamicum: Type: Lush, evergreen shrub.
• Family: Araliaceae — the same family as the ornamental “umbrella plant” ( arboricola).
• Unique Features: Narrow, lance-shaped leaflets (≤ 1.2 cm wide).
  • Striking purple flowers (unlike the greenish-yellow of its ornamental cousin).
  • Compact inflorescences with up to 15 flowers per umbel.
  • Ripe fruit turns deep reddish-purple with orange-red speckles — rare within the genus.
• Flowering & Fruiting: Flowers from January–March; fruits ripen by May.
• Distribution & Conservation: Extremely limited population, restricted to specific localities. Categorised as Data Deficient under IUCN criteria, making it potentially vulnerable to environmental changes.

9. Kasargodia sheebae and Pilarta Vaman: Recently, researchers have discovered a new genus and two new species of freshwater crabs — Kasargodia sheebae and Pilarta vaman, in the Western Ghats of Kerala.

• About Kasargodia Sheebae and Pilarta Vaman
• Family: Gecarcinucidae (freshwater crabs).
• Discovery Location: Western Ghats, Kerala.
• Kasargodia sheebae: Belongs to a new genus named Kasargodia, after Kasargod, the northernmost district of Kerala.
• Features: Brownish-orange carapace with numerous black spots; orange claw-bearing limbs with black spots.
• Pilarta vaman: Named after Vaman, an avatar of Vishnu in Hindu mythology, referencing the crab’s small size.
• Features: More quadrate-shaped carapace compared to Kasargodia sheebae.