The Ministry of Culture implements the “Global Engagement Scheme” to promote India’s rich cultural heritage across the globe. 

About Global Engagement Scheme 

• It was earlier known as ‘Scheme for promotion of international cultural relations” 
• Global Engagement Scheme has three components: 
  • Festival of India (FoI) is organized abroad to promote people to people connect and bilateral cultural contacts. 
  • Grant in aid to Indo Foreign Friendship Cultural Societies Scheme. 
  • Contribution Grant : Indian contribution towards membership of International Organizations like ICROM, UNESCO, World Heritage Fund and to facilitate Indian participation and hosting of international meetings.  

Apex Court has said religious conversions undertaken solely to avail reservation benefits without genuine belief amounted to a "fraud on the Constitution".  

About Supreme Court(SC) Judgment:  

• SC in C. Selvarani  Versus special secretsary, observed that Every citizen has a right to practise and profess a religion of their choice as guaranteed under Article 25 of Constitution. 
• Further If the purpose of conversion is largely to derive the benefits of reservation but not with any actual belief on other religion, same cannot be permitted. 
• Court earlier In Mohammad Sadique v. Darbara Singh Guru upheld that a person can change his religion and faith but not the caste, to which he belongs, as caste has linkage to birth. 

India tests K-4 nuclear-capable ballistic missile from nuclear submarine INS Arighaat 

About K-4 nuclear-capable ballistic missile 

• Type: Nuclear-capable submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) 
  • Designed to be launched from underwater platforms. 
• Developed By: Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). 
• Range : 3,500 km 
• Significance: India became part of a small group of nations having nuclear triad capability. 
  • Nuclear Triad means having the capability of a nuclear strike  from Land, Air, and Naval (Sea) 
• INS Arighaat is India’s second Ship Submersible Ballistic Nuclear (SSBN) submarine, the first  being Arihant submarine. 

The Minister of State for Communications provided details regarding Digital Bharat Nidhi to a question in Rajya Sabha.

About Digital Bharat Nidhi

• Earlier, it was known as Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF)
• Establishment: under the Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Act, 2003 as per India’s commitment under Universal Service Obligation (USO)
• Mandate: support universal service through promoting access and delivery of telecommunication service in underserved rural, remote and urban areas.
• Department:  It is an attached office of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Ministry of Communications
• Headed by: Administrator, appointed by the Central Government

Koraga tribal community in Kerala is set to receive land titles under Operation Smile project.

About koraga tribe

• Habitat: It is one of the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups found in Kasaragod district (Kerala) and Karnataka.
  • PVTGs are identified by the ministry of home affairs. Currently there are 75 PVTGs communities.
• Status: Accorded the status of scheduled Tribe under Presidential order 1956.
• Traditional occupation:  Basket making
• Language: speaking Tulu language but they have their independent language

About Operation Smile

• It has been launched by the Kerala government with the aim to rehabilitate, support homeless people.

Jarawa Tribe of Andaman & Nicobar Islands has been enrolled in Electoral Roll for first time.

About Jarawa tribe

• The Jarawa tribes with an estimated population of 341 inhabit the Western coasts of South & Middle Andaman islands.
• Occupation: They lead their normal life of hunting and gathering.
• This community is one of the original inhabitants of Andaman and Nicobar Island, others being Great Andamanese , Onge, Sentinelese and Shompen.

Indian Army launches ‘Eklavya’ online digital platform for officers’ training in line with its theme for 2024,i.e., “Year of Technology Absorption.”

About Eklavya

• Developed under the aegis of Headquarters Army Training Command with Army War College as the sponsor agency. 
• Developed through “Bhaskaracharya National Institute of Space Applications and Geoinformatics” (BISAG-N), Gandhinagar with support from Directorate General of Information Systems.
• Benefits: modernize professional military training, offering flexible and specialized education that decongests traditional courses 

Centre is likely to impose penalties on some carmakers in violation of Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (CAFE) norms.

About CAFE Norms

• These norms were first notified by the Government in 2017, under the Energy Conservation Act, 2001.
• Aim: mitigate fuel consumption by lowering CO₂ emissions, reduce oil dependency and air pollution. 
• CAFE norms relate the gasoline equivalent corporate average fuel consumption (in litres/100 km) to the corporate average kerb weight of all the cars sold by any original equipment manufacturer (OEM) in a fiscal year.
• Applicability: for petrol, diesel, liquefied petroleum gas, CNG, etc with gross vehicle weight less than 3500kgs.