Current Affairs for UPSC Prelims 2025

Topics:

1. Bhagavad Gita and Natyashastra in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register

2. International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA)

3. Green Credit Programme

Bhagavad Gita and Natyashastra in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register:

Context: Manuscripts of the Bhagavad Gita and Bharata’s Natyashastra are among the 74 new additions to UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register this year (2025).

Memory of the World (MoW) Programme:

  1. The Memory of the World (MoW) Programme was launched by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, in 1992.
  2. The Memory of the World Programme aims to:

Memory of the World Register:

  1. The Memory of the World Register is the central project of the MoW Programme. It was started in 1997.
  2. It aims to create a compendium of documents — manuscripts, oral traditions, audio-visual materials, and library and archive holdings — which are of “world significance and outstanding universal value”.
  3. The Register has been biennally updated.
  4. In any year, at most two submissions from a country are added.
  5. With the latest additions, the Register now contains 570 entries.

Some Indian submissions to the Memory of the World Register:

The Register contains 13 submissions by India. Some of these are:

  1. The Rig Veda was added in 2005. 
  2. The collective works of the Shaivite philosopher Abhinavagupta was added in 2023. 
  3. The archives of the first summit meeting of the Non Aligned Movement in Belgrade in 1961 was added in 2023.
  4. The archives of the Dutch East India Company was added in 2003.

NATYASHASTRA:

  1. Natyashastra is an ancient Sanskrit treatise on performing arts. Traditionally, it is attributed to the sage Bharata.
  2. It consists of 36,000 verses.
  3. Naṭyashastra embodies a comprehensive set of rules that define natya (drama), abhinaya (performance), rasa (aesthetic experience), bhava (emotions), sangita (music)
  4. Estimates for its date of compilation range from 500 BCE to 500 CE and it was codified around the 2nd century BCE.
  5. Natyashastra is most notable for its exposition of the concept of rasa, which Bharata says is the goal of any performance art.

BHAGAVAD GITA:

  1. Bhagavad Gita is a Sanskrit scripture comprising 700 verses that are organised in 18 chapters.
  2. It is embedded in the sixth book (Bhishma Parva) of the epic poem Mahabharata.
  3. Traditionally, it is attributed to the sage Vyasa.
  4. The text is generally dated to the first or second century BCE.
  5. The Gita is essentially a dialogue between Arjuna and Krishna, which takes place just before the beginning of the great war of Mahabharata.
  6. Krishna’s responses make the central themes of the Gita, and provide spiritual and ethical basis for leading one’s life.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO

a. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN).

b. Objective: Promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture.

c. It has 194 member states and 12 associate members.

d. It is headquartered in Paris, France.

International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA):

Context: Recently, the Government of India and the International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA) signed an agreement formalising India as the headquarters and secretariat of the alliance.

International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA):

  1. The IBCA was launched in April 2023 at the initiative of India to focus on global conservation of seven big cats - the tiger, lion, leopard, snow leopard, puma, jaguar and cheetah.
  2. India formally joined the IBCA in September 2023. 
  3. After five signatory countries - India, Liberia, Eswatini, Somalia, and Nicaragua - ratified the IBCA framework agreement, the alliance came into force in 2025 as a global legal entity. 
  4. Now, it is a full-fledged treaty-based intergovernmental organisation.
  5. India will be the host for the IBCA headquarters and secretariat.

Green Credit Programme:

Context: The Green Credit Programme (GCP) rolled out by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in 2023 was flagged by the Ministry of Law and Justice before its rollout, over legality of the business model built into it.

What is the Green Credit Programme (GCP) ?

  1. India and UAE officially unveiled the GCP on December 1, 2023, during the annual United Nations climate conference in Dubai.
  2. It was dubbed as a mechanism to incentivise pro-planet actions in response to climate change.
  3. The GCP seeks voluntary participation of individuals, companies, industries, and other entities across seven different activities - such as tree plantation, waste management, and water conservation - that will lead to improvements in the environment.
  4. This participation will be incentivised by generating green credit.
  5. These credits can then be traded on a domestic market platform to potential buyers looking to meet sustainability targets, or existing legal obligations.

Calculation of Green Credits:

  1. To begin with, the Centre has rolled out the scheme through the pilot on tree plantation.

   b. One grown tree raised on the identified land parcels would be accounted as one green credit. This would be subject to a minimum density of 1,100 trees per hectare.

Criticism of the Scheme:

  1. GCP has been criticised for incentivising forest diversion for industries, by generating tradable credits which could also be used to meet legal obligations such as compensatory afforestation.
  2. It also faces criticism for promoting plantations on degraded lands, open forests, and scrublands, which experts say provide vital ecological services.
  3. Recently, the Supreme Court heard an intervention on GCP in a case challenging Forest Conservation Act amendments, questioning the survival of plantations under the scheme.