07 February 2025: Daily Current Affairs Updates

Santorini Island; GS-1 (Geography) ▪️Why in the News: Greek civil protection authorities have declared a state of emergency on Santorini as natural disaster experts voice mounting fears over the "intense" seismic activity that has rattled the island

> Santorini:

• Santorini is a Greek island situated in the southern Aegean Sea, approximately 200 kilometers southeast of mainland Greece.

• It belongs to the Cyclades island group and is renowned for its volcanic origins.

> Economy:

• Tourism serves as the primary economic driver, with numerous luxury hotels, resorts, and a strong hospitality industry.

• Agriculture also plays a role, particularly in the production of distinctive volcanic wine.

> Historical Significance:

• The island is home to the ancient Minoan city of Akrotiri, often referred to as the "Greek Pompeii."

RBI's Digital Payments Index; GS-3 (Economy) ▪️Why in the news: India's digital payments sector continues to grow, with the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) Digital Payments Index (RBI-DPI) showing an 11.11% increase year-on-year as of September 2024.

> RBI's Digital Payments Index:

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has developed the Digital Payments Index (DPI) to assess the level of digitization in payment systems across the country.

• This index is based on multiple factors and provides an accurate representation of the growth and adoption of various digital payment methods.

• It is the first index of its kind designed to measure the extent to which digital payments have expanded nationwide.

• The index was initially introduced in January 2021.

• The DPI reflects the overall progress of digital transactions across India.

- Base Year of the Digital Payments Index:

• The index has been formulated using March 2018 as the base period, meaning the DPI score for March 2018 1s set at 100.

> Components of the Digital Payments Index:

• The index consists of five key parameters that help evaluate the growth and reach of digital payments over different timeframes. These parameters include:

Payment enablers - Contributing 25 percent to the index.

- Demand-side and supply-side payment infrastructure factors - Each accounting for 10 percent.

- Payment performance carrying the highest weightage of 45 percent.

Gyan Bharatam Mission; GS-2 (Governence) ▪️Why in the news: The Union Budget 2025-26 announced the 'Gyan Bharatam Mission'

to cover more than one crore manuscripts:

> Gyan Bharatam Mission:

• The Gyan Bharatam Mission has been initiated to undertake a detailed survey, documentation, and preservation of India's vast manuscript heritage.

> Aim:

• The mission aims to cover more than one crore manuscripts housed in academic institutions, museums, libraries, and private collections.

• Features:

• A key component of this mission is the creation of the National Digital Repository of Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS).

• This digital repository will act as a centralized platform for archiving and disseminating traditional knowledge, ensuring accessibility for researchers, students, and institutions worldwide.

• By integrating India's ancient knowledge systems-including Ayurveda, mathematics, astronomy, linguistics, and philosophy-with modern education and technology, the mission seeks to promote research, innovation, and sustainable progress.

> Budget:

• To accommodate this new initiative, the budget allocation for the National Manuscripts Mission (NMM), whose aim is to identify and document manuscripts and make the manuscript heritage accessible across the country, has been hiked from ?3.5 crore to 260 crore.

International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA); GS-3 (Environment) ▪️Why in the news: Recently, the IBCA and its Secretariat have become a full-fledged treaty based inter-governmental international organization and international legal entity.

> Launch Date: The IBCA was launched by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on 9th April,2023, during the event 'Commemorating 50 years of Project Tiger'

• Aim:

Conservation of seven big cats - Tiger, Lion, Leopard, Snow Leopard, Cheetah, Jaguar and Puma.

• Out of these, five are found in India: Tiger, Lion, Leopard, Snow Leopard, and Cheetah.

- Membership:

• Current Members: India, Nicaragua, Eswatini, Somalia, Liberia.

• As of now, 27 countries have consented to join IBCA

> Objectives and Scope of IBCA:

• Global Multi-Country Coalition: IBCA is envisioned as a multi-country, multi-agency coalition involving 95 big cat range and non-range countries, along with conservation partners, scientific organizations, and businesses.

• Centralized Conservation Platform: The IBCA aims to establish a common platform for sharing successful conservation practices, technical know-how, and financial resources to arrest the decline in big cat populations.

. Gold Standard Conservation Practices: The Alliance focuses on disseminating gold-standard practices for big cat conservation and providing access to a central repository of knowledge.