National Current Affairs – UPSC/IAS Exams- 16th July 2019

Drones

Topic: Science and Technology

In News: The Delhi High Court has suggested use of drones to aid civic authorities in identifying sites where waterlogging takes place so as to tackle traffic snarls in the city during the monsoon.

More on the Topic: 

• A drone is an unmanned aircraft or a flying robot. Drones are more often known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or unmanned aircraft systems (UASes).
• The aircrafts may be remotely controlled or can fly autonomously through software-controlled systems, onboard sensorsand GPS.

Applications of drones:

• Aerial photography for journalism and film
• Express shipping and delivery
• Gathering information or supplying essentials for disaster management
• Thermal sensor drones for search and rescue operations
• Geographic mapping of inaccessible terrain and locations
• Building safety inspections
• Precision crop monitoring
• Unmanned cargo transport
• Law enforcement and border control surveillance
• Storm tracking and forecasting hurricanes and tornadoes

India- Drone Policy:

• Indi has a defined policy on flying drones or unmanned/remotely operated aircrafts. The policy and the guidelines have been finalized by the Directorate General Civil Aviation (DGCA). This would mean that private operators could now use drones for various purposes and applications. These include agriculture, disaster relief, health and so on, but there are restrictions as well.
• The operators of drones will have to make an online registration and obtain a Unique ID before they start using the drones. There is also the restriction that a drone should be within the visual sight of 450 metres.
• Five categories of drones have been drawn out from the smallest (nano) ones being those less than 250 grams and the largest ones those that weigh more than 150 kgs.

Concerns and Way Forward:

• In India, so many Government authorities are involved in allowing permission. It is inevitable that operators could be slapped easily with real and perceived violations.
• China’s drone economy manufacturing and development will be worth $9 billion in 2020, while the U.S’s commercial drone market is expected to be $2.05 billion by 2023 (Global Market Insights). For India to compete against these giants, it already has a lot of catching up to do.
• Filing a series of applications in multiple copies and waiting for various government departments to respond is not the best way to get started.
• Drones are likely to be the disaster prevention systems, rescue operation leaders, and even public transport providers in the not too distant future. Missing out on working on these applications early enough will likely have serious repercussions to India’s future competitiveness in the field. A policy which ease the growth of drone technology is the need of the hour.

Source: The Hindu

Blue Flag’ challenge

Topic: Environment and Ecology

In News: The Union Environment Ministry has selected 12 beaches in India to vie for a ‘Blue Flag’ certification, an international recognition conferred on beaches.

More on the Topic:

• These beaches are at Shivrajpur (Gujarat), Bhogave (Maharashtra), Ghoghla (Diu), Miramar (Goa), Kasarkod and Padubidri (Karnataka), Kappad (Kerala), Eden (Puducherry), Mahabalipuram (Tamil Nadu), Rushikonda (Andhra Pradesh), Golden (Odisha), and Radhanagar (Andaman & Nicobar Islands).

About Blue Flag Challenge:

• The ‘Blue Flag’ is a certification by the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) that a beach, Marina or sustainable boating tourism operator, meets its stringent standards.
• Its purpose is to enhance standards of cleanliness, upkeep and basic amenities at beaches.
• Under the pilot project, each of coastal state/UT was requested to identify and nominate a beach, which is to be funded through ongoing Integrated Coastal Management Programme (ICMP).
• The FEE is a non-governmental, non-profit organisation promoting sustainable development through environmental education.

Integrated Coastal Management Programme (ICMP)

• ICZM aims to improve livelihood of coastal communities and conserve the coastal ecosystem.
• The ICZM plan involves identification of infrastructure requirements and livelihood improvement means in coastal districts. Conservation of mangroves is among the components.
• The national component of the project includes mapping of the country’s coastline and demarcation of the hazard line.
• It is a World Bank assisted project.
• It is being implemented by the Department of Forests and Environment with assistance from the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC).

Source: The Hindu

Electronic RFID (radio frequency identity) systems

Topic: Science and Technology

In News: Electronic RFID (radio frequency identity) systems that will allow the automatic collection of toll tax and environment compensation charge from commercial vehicles was inaugurated at New Delhi.

More on the Topic:

• Delhi ETCS will incorporate data of all vehicles entering and leaving the city. This will help block blacklisted vehicles.
• It will help curb vehicular congestion in the city and at toll plazas. It enables continuous traffic flow at toll-plazas and thus expected to cut traffic jams in city.
• It will help curb vehicular pollution in the city.

About Radio-frequency Identification (RFID):

• Radio-frequency Identification (RFID) is a general term used for a system that communicates using radio waves between a reader and an electronic tag attached to an object.
• RFID systems are typically made up of three components namely: An antenna (also called reader or interrogator),Tag (transponder) and a software system.

Working:

• When a RFID tag passes through the electromagnetic field of the radio signal, it will be detected.
• Then the reader decodes the data stored in the tag and the data transferred in to the software system for processing.
• The data obtained from the tag may contain information about products such as price, date of purchase, information about location, etc.
• Applications:Currently RFID is widely used for asset tracking, tracking parts in manufacturing processes, tracking shipments in supply chains, retailing, payment systems like road tolls and for access controlling for security purposes.

Source: The Hindu

Comprehensive Census of Orchids of India

Topic: Environment and Ecology

In News: The Botanical Survey of India has come up with the first comprehensive census of orchids of India putting the total number of orchid species or taxa to 1,256.

More on the Topic:

• Orchids can be broadly categorised into three life forms: epiphytic (plants growing on another plants including those growing on rock boulders and often termed lithophyte), terrestrial (plants growing on land and climbers) and mycoheterotrophic (plants which derive nutrients from mycorrhizal fungi that are attached to the roots of a vascular plant).
• The epiphytic orchids are abundant up to 1800 m above the sea level and their occurrence decreases with the increase in altitude.
• Terrestrial orchids, which grow directly on soil, are found in large numbers in temperate and alpine region whereas mycoheterotrophic orchids, mostly associated with ectomycorrhizal fungi, are found in temperate regions, or are found growing with parasites in tropical regions.
• A State-wise distribution of orchid species point out that the Himalayas, North-East parts of the country and Western Ghats are the hot-spots of the beautiful plant species.
• Orchids have complex floral structure that facilitates biotic cross-pollination and makes them evolutionarily superior to the other plant groups.

Protection Status:

• The entire orchid family is listed under appendix II of CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) and hence any trade of wild orchid is banned globally.

Source:The Hindu

Seva Bhoj Yojana

Topic: Government Policies

In News: Sev Bhoj Yojana was discussed in the parliament recently.

More on the Topic:

• Seva Bhoj Yojna is a Central Sector Scheme for providing reimbursement of CGST and Central Government’s share of IGST paid by charitable/religious institutions on purchase of specific raw food items for serving free food to public / devotees.
• The specific raw food items covered under the Scheme are (i) Ghee (ii) Edible Oil (iii) Sugar/Burra/Jaggery (iv) Rice (v) Atta/Maida/Rava/Flour and (vi) Pulses.
• Under the scheme of Seva Bhoj Yojna, the financial assistance will be provided for free ‘prasad’ or free food or free ‘langar’ / ‘bhandara’ (community kitchen) offered by charitable/religious institutions like Gurudwara, Temples, Dharmik Ashram, Mosques, Dargah, Church, Math, Monasteries etc.
• These Charitable Religious Institutions should have been distributing free food in the form of ‘prasad’, ‘langar’/bhandara (community kitchen) to at least 5000 persons in a calendar month for at least past 3 years.

Global Multidimensional Poverty Index

Topic: Important Indices

In News: UN Development Programme released the 2019 global Multidimensional Poverty Index.

More on the Topic:

• It is an international measure of acute multidimensional poverty covering over 100 developing countries.It defines poor not only on the basis of income, but on other indicators, including poor health, poor quality of work and the threat of violence.
• The global MPI factors are measured using 10 indicators.
• The MPI assesses poverty at the individual level.If someone is deprived in a third or more of ten indicators, the global index identifies them as ‘MPI poor’.

Key Highlights:

• About 3 billion people are ‘multi-dimensionally poor’ across the globe, according to the report.
• India has reduced MPI from 0.283 to 0.123 in a decade lifting 271 million people out of poverty in 10 years.
• The number of people living in multidimensional poverty has gone down from 55 million in 2005-06 to 369.55 million in 2015-16.
• It was found that Jharkhand has made the fastest improvement among Indian states in reducing poverty .
• Jharkhand reduced the incidence of multidimensional poverty from 74.9 % to 46.5 % between 2005-06 and 2015-16.
• Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh together accounted for 196 million MPI poor people more than half of all multidimensionally poor in India.
• The report also showed that children suffer poverty more intensely than adults and are deprived in all 10 indicators.

Source: Hindu Business Line

Jalyukta Shivar

Topic: Government Policies

In News: Prime Minister in his latest Mann ki Baat, mentioned about Maharashtra government’s Jalyukta Shivar scheme.

More on the Topic:

• Jalyukta Shivar is the flagship programme of the Maharashtra government launched in December 2014. It aims to make 5,000 villages free of water scarcity.
• The scheme targeted drought-prone areas by improving water conservation measures in order to make them more water sustainable.
• The scheme envisaged to arrest maximum run-off water, especially during the monsoon months, in village areas known to receive less rainfall, annually.
• Under the scheme, decentralised water bodies were installed at various locations within villages to enhance the groundwater recharge.
• Besides, it also proposed to strengthen and rejuvenate water storage capacity and percolation of tanks and other sources of storage.
• Dedicated committees were formed to assist in construction of watersheds like farm ponds, cement nullah bunds alongside rejuvenating the existing water bodies in the villages.

Background:

• About 82 per cent area of Maharashtra falls is rainfed sector while 52 per cent of area is drought prone. This, when coupled with natural rainfall variability and long dry spells during the monsoons, severely hampers agriculture activities.
• Since 2014, hundreds of villages have experienced droughts for consecutive years. The scheme, thus, aimed at addressing these water issues mainly by building decentralised water bodies at local levels, that could aid in better groundwater recharge especially in areas where water scarcity was very high.

How does this intervention work?

• Under the scheme, water streams in a locality are deepened and widened, which would later be connected to the newly constructed chains of cement nullah bunds in the village.
• Besides, efforts would be made to arrest and store water in small earthen dams and farm ponds in such areas. While new interventions are made, maintenance of existing sources like canals and all kinds of wells would be undertaken.
• Activities like desilting of water conservation structures and repairs of canals are undertaken to help improve water storage and percolation at the site.
• Additionally, recharge of dug and tubewells would be taken up in specific locations.
• Real time information of water availability due to such interventions would be gathered from each village of every tehsil from all districts and the same would be fed into a common portal.

What are the outcomes of the scheme?

• While there are both short and long-term outcomes envisioned by the government, the purpose remains to strengthen the rural economy, which continues to be largely agriculture-driven.
• The government plans to achieve this goal of improving farmer income by addressing the basic problem pertaining to availability of water for farming or irrigation purposes.
• Immediate outcomes: reduction in the run-off water and diverting it to some kind of storage, increasing water storage capacity, increasing the rate of groundwater recharge, enhancing soil fertility and ultimately, improving farm productivity.
• The long-term outcomes: Reducing water scarcity in villages that have limited natural supply, improving in risk management or becoming drought resilient and improving water availability through effective management. Through such timely interventions, the government aims to address the food and water security of its villages.

Current status of the scheme:

• More than 11,000 villages where Jalyukta Shivar was introduced are declared drought-free.
• The water storage capacity has been improved The overall scheme has so far benefitted 20 lakh hectares of protected irrigated land, which increased the cropping intensity to 1.25 to 1.5 times than before.
• The overall agriculture productivity jumped up 30 to 50 per cent from areas where the intervention measures reached. Importantly, the water tanker dependency in these areas dropped nearly 80%.

Source: Indian Express

Chandrayaan 2

Topic: Science and Technology

In News: Chandrayan 2 launch has been postponed due to some technical reasons.

More on the Topic:

How will the launch work?

• The GSLV Mark III rocket will first launch the spacecraft into an Earth Parking Orbit (170 km X 40,400 km). Then the height of the orbit will be enhanced until the spacecraft can reach out to the Lunar Transfer Trajectory.
• On entering the moon’s sphere of influence, on-board thrusters will slow down the spacecraft, allowing it to be captured by the moon.
• Then it will be eased into a circular orbit (100 km X 100 km). From this orbit, the lander and rover will separate as a unit from the orbiter, and, through a series of braking mechanisms, the duo will “soft-land” on the moon.

What is special about Chandrayaan 2?

• Chandrayaan 2 will be the first mission to reach and study the south pole of the moon. It is made up of an orbiter, a lander named ‘Vikram’, after Vikram A. Sarabhai, the founding father of space science research in India, and a rover named ‘Pragyan’, which means ‘wisdom’.
• At about 3,877 kg, the spacecraft weighs nearly four times its predecessor, Chandrayaan 1.
• It will be launched by the GSLV Mark III, the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO’s) most powerful and massive launcher.
• While Chandrayaan 1 sent its lander crashing into the moon, Chandrayaan 2 will use rocket technology to soft land ‘Vikram’, carrying its ‘Pragyan’ rover in a suitable high plain on the lunar surface, between two craters, Manzinus-C and Simpelius N, at a latitude of about 70º South.
• The total cost of the project is about ₹978 crore. The lander-rover combo has an expected lifetime of 14 days, while the orbiter will continue for a year.

Chandrayaan 1:

• Chandrayaan 1 spacecraft was launched by ISRO on 22 October 2008 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre using a PSLV rocket and operated until August 2009.
• By Chandrayaan 1 India researched and developed its own technology for moon exploration.
• Main objectives of the mission:

1. i) Detect presence of water,
2. ii) Click high resolution images of surface,

iii) Create a 3D atlas

1. iv) Perform chemical and mineralogical mapping of the entire lunar surface.

• 95 % of its planned objectives were achieved.
• The mission included a lunar orbiter and an impactor. An orbiter is a space probe that orbits a planet(Mangalyaan). A lander is a spacecraft that descends towards and comes to rest on the surface of an astronomical body.
• The presence of solid ice on moon in its polar regions was confirmed by Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3). The instrument, an imaging spectrometer, was contributed by NASA.
• Its X-ray spectrometer detected Titanium, Calcium, Magnesium, Aluminum and Iron on the lunar surface.
• This discovery of ice makes moon a potentially habitable destination.
• Scientists are exploring the possibility of melting this ice into water and further splitting the water molecule into Hydrogen (H2) and Oxygen (O2) for rocket fuel. Oxygen can also be used for breathing by astronauts.

About GSLV MK-III:

• The GSLV MK-III is a 3 stage vehicle and will have an Indian cryogenic third stage.
• The 3 stages of GSLV MK III are solid boosters, liquid motor and cryogenic upper stage.
• GSKV-Mk III is capable of launching four-tonne satellites in the Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO).
• The rocket is also capable of placing up to eight tonnes in a Low Earth Orbit (LEO), enough to carry a manned module.
• This is India’s first fully functional rocket to be tested with a cryogenic engine that uses liquid propellants — liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen.
• The 640-tonne rocket, equal to the weight of 200 fully-grown Asian elephants, is the country’s heaviest but shortest rocket with a height of 43 metre.
• GSLV-Mk III is a three-stage vehicle with two solid motor strap-ons (S200), a liquid propellant core stage (L110) and a cryogenic stage (C-25).
• C-25, the large cryogenic upper stage of the GSLV, is the most difficult component of the launch vehicle to be developed.

Source: The Hindu