Explanation :

Context: Recently, the Union Minister of Science & Technology addressed the beginning of Mission Innovation 2.0.

• Mission Innovation (MI) is a global initiative of 24 countries and the European Commission (on behalf of the European Union) working to reinvigorate and accelerate global clean energy innovation with the objective to make clean energy widely affordable.
• It was announced at COP21 on November 30, 2015, as world leaders came together in Paris to commit to ambitious efforts to combat climate change.
• As part of the initiative, participating countries have committed to double their governments’ clean energy research and development (R&D) investments over five years, while encouraging greater levels of private sector investment in transformative clean energy technologies.
• Mission Innovation has identified eight Innovation Challenges which are global calls to action aimed at accelerating research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) in technology areas.

Explanation :

• The Convention on Biological Diversity was opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro on 5 June 1992 and entered into force on 29 December 1993.
• It is a key document regarding sustainable development. It comes under the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
• It has two supplementary agreements, the Cartagena Protocol and Nagoya Protocol.

Main Goals

• Conservation of biological diversity.
• Sustainable use of its components.
• Fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from genetic resources.

Members

• 196 countries are a party to the CBD.
• India is also a party to the Convention. India ratified it in 1994.The Biological Diversity Act, 2002 was enacted for giving effect to the provisions of the Convention.

Cartagena Protocol

• The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity is an international treaty governing the movements of living modified organisms (LMOs) resulting from modern biotechnology from one country to another.
• It was adopted on 29 January 2000 as a supplementary agreement to the CBD and entered into force on 11 September 2003.

Nagoya Protocol

• The Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization (ABS) to the Convention on Biological Diversity is another supplementary agreement to the CBD.
• It provides a transparent legal framework for the effective implementation of one of the three objectives of the CBD.
• It was adopted on 29 October 2010 in Nagoya, Japan and entered into force on 12 October 2014.

Explanation :

• The Red-crowned roofed turtle is native to India, Bangladesh and Nepal. Historically, the species was widespread in the Ganga River, both in India and Bangladesh. It also occurs in the Brahmaputra basin.
• It is a freshwater turtle species found in deep flowing rivers with terrestrial nesting sites.
• Currently in India, the National Chambal River Gharial Sanctuary is the only area with substantial population of the species, but even this Protected Area and habitat are under threat.

Conservation Status

• The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) : Critically Endangered
• Wildlife Protection Act (IWPA) : Schedule I
• The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) : Appendix II

Explanation :

• The Olive Ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea), also known commonly as the Pacific Ridley Sea Turtle, is a species of turtle in the family Cheloniidae.
• The turtle is named for the generally greenish color of its skin and shell, or carapace. It is closely related to the Kemp’s Ridley, with the primary distinction being that Olive Ridleys are found only in warmer waters, including the Southern Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans.
• Olive and Kemp’s Ridleys are the smallest of the sea turtles, weighing up to 100 pounds and reaching only about 2 feet in shell length.
• These turtles are best known for their unique mass nesting called Arribada.
• The Olive Ridley is classified as ‘Vulnerable’ according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), and is listed in Appendix I of CITES.

Explanation :

• The platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus), also known as the duck-billed platypus, is a semiaquatic egg-laying mammal endemic to eastern Australia, including Tasmania.
• Together with the four species of echidna, it is one of the five extant species of monotremes, the only mammals that lay eggs instead of giving birth to live young. These are among the few venomous mammals.
• Males have a spur on the back of their hind feet that is connected to a venom-secreting gland.
• International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) recently downgraded the platypus conservation status to Near Threatened from Least Concern.

Ecological Significance

• The Platypus eats all kinds of insect larvae, molluscs, crustacean, fish eggs and sometimes frogs. Since the platypus is a carnivore, it plays the typical role of the carnivore in an ecosystem. It keeps the populations of species in lower levels of the food chain in check.

Explanation :

• Miyawaki is a technique pioneered by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki that helps build dense, native forests.
• It involves planting dozens of native species in the same area, and becomes maintenance-free after the first three years.
• In this, multi-layered saplings are planted close to each other. This blocks sunlight from reaching the ground and prevents weeds from growing, thus keeping the soil moist. The close cropping further ensures that the plants receive sunlight only from the top thus enabling them only to grow upwards than sideways.
• The approach is supposed to ensure that plant growth is 10 times faster and the resulting plantation is 30 times denser than usual.

Explanation :

• The houbara bustard, which lives in arid climates, comes in two distinct species as recognised by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, one residing in North Africa (Chlamydotis undulata) and the other in Asia (Chlamydotis macqueenii).
• The population of the Asian houbara bustards extends from northeast Asia, across central Asia, the Middle East, and the Arabian Peninsula to reach the Sinai desert
• The species have been categorised as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.
• Population of Houbara is declining due to number of reasons, mainly habitat degradation, habitat loss, fragmentation and hunting.

Explanation :

• The Sumatran rhinoceros, also known as the hairy rhinoceros or Asian two-horned rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis), is a rare member of the family Rhinocerotidae and one of five species of rhinoceros.
• The Sumatra rhino is the smallest of the rhinoceros species and the only rhino with two horns in Asia.
• They are now critically endangered, as per the IUCN red list.
• The Sumatran rhino once roamed as far away as the foothills of the Eastern Himalayas in Bhutan and eastern India, through Myanmar, Thailand, possibly to Vietnam and China, and south through the Malay Peninsula.
• Today, the species only survives on the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Borneo.

Explanation :

Commonly known as paddy frogs, this is the first known species of this genus was originally described from the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. Micryletta aishani is currently endemic to Northeast India but it could very well be present in the neighboring regions of Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Explanation :

• The Royal Turtle, also known as Southern River Terrapin (Batagur affinis), is one of the world’s most endangered freshwater turtles and is listed on the IUCN Red List as ‘Critically Endangered’. Hence, statements 1 and 3 are incorrect.
• It is endemic to South-east Asian countries.