Index of Industrial Production (IIP) is an index which helps us understand the growth of various sectors in the Indian economy such as mining, electricity and manufacturing.
IIP is a short term indicator of industrial growth till the results from Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) and National Accounts Statistics (Eg: GDP) are available.
The base year of the index is given a value of 100. The current base year for the IIP series in India is 2011-12. So, if the current IIP reads 180, it means that there has been 80% industrial growth compared to the base year, ie 2011-12.
Index of Industrial Production (IIP) is released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
IIP is calculated on a monthly basis.
Data for IIP are collected by various source agencies under different Acts/statutes.
Recently, the output from the eight core sectors which include coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity witnessed a growth of 2.1 per cent in February, compared to the corresponding month last year as per the data from the Ministry of Commerce and Industries.

India has the world’s second largest human population at 121 crore and it leads the world in livestock population at 125.5 crore.
The 20th round of the Livestock Census is to be held very soon.
The importance of a livestock census was first recognised in 1919, 47 years after human counting was started in 1872.
It is held by Animal Husbandry Statistics Division under Min. of Agriculture and Farmers welfare.
It is conducted quinquennially (every five years).
The ongoing 20th round of the Livestock Census involves about 50,000 enumerators and 10,000 supervisors.

In the wake of growing threats and acts of terrorism across the world, recently India and Bolivia have called for an early finalization of Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT).
CCIT is a proposed treaty which intends to criminalize all forms of international terrorism and deny terrorists, their financiers and supporters access to funds, arms, and safe havens.
The CCIT was proposed by India in 1996.
CCIT provides a legal framework which makes it binding on all signatories to deny funds and safe havens to terrorist groups.
The original draft that was tabled in 1996 included following major objectives:
To have a universal definition of terrorism that all 193-members of the UNGA will adopt into their own criminal law
To ban all terror groups and shut down terror camps
To prosecute all terrorists under special laws
To make cross-border terrorism an extraditable offence worldwide.

Bolivia has joined the framework agreement establishing International Solar Alliance (ISA).
India is reaching out to the `Lithium Triangle’ in South America- Argentina, Bolivia and Chile seeking the rare metal Lithium to realize its goal.
The intersection of Chile, Bolivia, and Argentina make up the region known as the Lithium Triangle. The Lithium Triangle is known for its high quality salt flats including Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni, Chile’s Salar de Atacama, and Argentina’s Salar de Arizaro. The Lithium Triangle is believed to contain over 75% of existing known lithium reserves.
The ISA is an alliance of more than 121 countries, most of them being sunshine countries, which lie either completely or partly between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.
The primary objective of the alliance is to work for efficient exploitation of solar energy to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
The alliance is a treaty-based intergovernmental organization.
The alliance is also called International Agency for Solar Policy and Application (IASPA).
The ISA is to be headquartered in India.
The initiative was launched by PM Modi at the India Africa Summit and a meeting of member countries ahead of the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris in November 2015.

Mahatma Phule was a prolific social activist and thinker, who pioneered women’s education in India especially in Maharashtra.
Mahatma Phule founded the Satyashodhak Samaj on September 24, 1873. Through the society, he opposed caste system, idolatry and denounced the need for priests. He also championed the necessity of rational thinking. He promoted respect for all religions but shunned the rituals associated with them.
Phule inspired many latter-day leaders including B R Ambedkar.
Savitribai was also an active participant in the movement and she continued the work after her husband’s death.