CONTENTS
- Hornbill Festival
- Exercise Agni Warrior
- Horticulture Cluster Development Programme
Hornbill Festival
Focus: GS I: Art and Culture
Why in News?
Recently, Vice President inaugurated the 23rd edition of Hornbill Festival.
About Hornbill Festival
- This festival usually takes place between the 1st and the 10th of December every year in Kohima.
- The festival gets its name from the Indian Hornbill.
- The Hornbill is a common bird among the folklores and tribes of Nagaland and can be commonly seen prancing around in the forests of Nagaland.
- Hornbill Festival is held at Naga Heritage Village, Kisama which is about 12 km from Kohima.
- This is a very popular festival of Nagaland. Often cited as “festival of all festivals”.
- The aim of the festival is to revive and protect the rich culture of Nagaland and display its extravaganza and traditions.
Great hornbill
- It is also known as the concave-casqued hornbill, great Indian hornbill or great pied hornbill is one of the larger members of the hornbill family.
- It is found in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia.
- Its impressive size and colour have made it important in many tribal cultures and rituals.
- The great hornbill is long-lived, living for nearly 50 years in captivity.
- It is predominantly frugivorous, but is an opportunist and will prey on small mammals, reptiles and birds.
- IUCN status: Vulnerable.
Exercise Agni Warrior
Focus: GS III: Security Challenges
Why in News?
The 12th Edition of Exercise Agni Warrior, a bilateral exercise between the Singapore & Indian Army, concluded at Field Firing Ranges, Devlali (Maharashtra).
About Exercise Agni Warrior
- Exercise Agni Warrior, involved showcasing joint firepower planning, execution and use of New Generation Equipment by the Artillery arm of both armies.
- Exercise also included participation by both sides in a joint computer war-game as part of joint planning process.
- Both sides utilised niche technology and Artillery Observation Simulators as part of joint training phase.
- Expert academic discussions were conducted on modern trends in Artillery and refinement of Artillery planning process.
- Indigenously manufactured Artillery guns and howitzers also participated during the final phase of the exercise.
- The exercise achieved its aim of enhancing mutual understanding of drills & procedures and improving interoperability between the two armies.
Joint Exercises conducted by Army
Horticulture Cluster Development Programme
Focus: GS III: Agriculture
Why in News?
Recently, a meeting was held by the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare for the Horticulture Cluster Development Programme (CDP).
About Horticulture Cluster Development Programme
- It is a central sector programme aimed at growing and developing identified horticulture clusters to make them globally competitive.
- Horticulture cluster is a regional/geographical concentration of targeted horticulture crops.
- It is implemented by the National Horticulture Board (NHB) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare.
- The states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal, Manipur, Mizoram, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand etc. will also be included in the list of 55 clusters, identified with their focus/main crops.
- Earlier, in pilot phase, it was implemented in 12 clusters covering 11 States/UTs.
- Cluster Development Programme has a great potential to transform the entire horticulture ecosystem by creating last-mile connectivity with the use of multimodal transport for efficient and timely evacuation and transportation of horticulture produce.
Objectives:
- The CDP aims to improve exports of targeted crops by about 20% and create cluster-specific brands to enhance the competitiveness of cluster crops.
- To address all major issues related to the Indian horticulture sector including pre-production, production, post-harvest management, logistics, marketing and branding.
- To leverage geographical specialisation and promote integrated and market-led development of horticulture clusters.
- To converge with other initiatives of the Government such as the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund.
- A lot of investment will also come in the horticulture sector through CDP.
