Daily Current Affair - UPSC/KAS Exams - 21st August 2021

What is in news: Police stations in the North division of the city have embraced the QR code-based Subahu e-beat system.

What is the benefit :

• Under the previous conventional logbook system, beat police had to manually record their movements via swiping machines installed along their respective beats. In the old system, there was scope for manipulation as there was no proper monitoring, said police officials.
• With Subahu, beat police have to scan QR codes placed along their routes with their mobile phones. The app uses face recognition and allows police officers to download photos and write remarks for better and quick response. The system can also be monitored on a real-time basis from the control room.
• As soon as the beat policeman scans the code, the officer in-charge will not only get a confirmation, but will also be able to track his or her movement through GPS. The remarks recorded in the app can be stored and analysed for future policing and planning.

What is police beat system :In police terminology, a beat is the territory that a police officer patrols. Beat policing is based on traditional policing and utilizes the close relationship with the community members within the assigned beat to improve police effectiveness and encourage co- operative efforts to make a community safer.

SOCIAL ISSUES

What is in news : Recently  Prime Minister has inaugurated various projects in Somnath, Gujarat under PRASHAD (Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual, Heritage Augmentation Drive) scheme

ABOUT :

• Introduced in 2015
• Focuses on identifying and developing the pilgrim sites across the country to enrich the religious tourism experience.
• By Union Ministry of Tourism.
• Aims at integrated development of pilgrimage destinations in planned, prioritised and sustainable manner to provide complete religious tourism experience.
• Objectives:
  • Harness pilgrimage tourism for its direct and multiplier effect upon employment generation and economic development.
  • Enhance tourist attractiveness in sustainable manner by developing world class infrastructure in the religious destinations.
  • It also seeks to promote local art, culture, handicraft, cuisine, etc.
• Funding:
  • Under it, Ministry of Tourism provides Central Financial Assistance (CFA) to State Governments for promoting tourism at identified destinations.
  • For components within public funding under this scheme, Central Government will provide 100% fund.
  • For improved sustainability of project, it also seeks to involve Public Private Partnership (PPP) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as well.

ENVIRONMENT & GEOGRAPHY

What :

Geotourism -

• Tourism associated with geological attractions and destinations.
• Deals with the abiotic natural and built environments
• First defined in England by Thomas Alfred Hose in 1995

Benefit : Geotourism adds to ecotourism's principal focus on plants (flora) and animals (fauna) by adding a third dimension of the abiotic environment. Thus it is growing around the world through the growth of geoparks as well as independently in many natural and urban areas where tourism's focus in on the geological environment

What is in news :The Geological Survey of India (GSI) has identified certain geological sites across the Northeast for promotion of geo-tourism as some States in the region prepare to ‘unlock’ from September.

Famous geo sites in INDIA

What is in news :  GSI launched upgraded GSI Mobile App (Beta Version)

Geological Survey of India

• Established in 1851
• The primary objective - to investigate for and assess coal and other mineral resources of the country with regional level exploration.
• Carry out various geoscientific activities and contribute immensely in the arena of geosciences.
• Engage in the creation and updation of national geoscientific data and mineral resource assessment, air-borne and marine surveys and conducting multifarious geo-technical, geo-environmental and natural hazards studies, glaciology, seismotectonic, etc.
• HQ: Kolkata
• Attached office to the Ministry of Mines
• Has 6 Regional offices at Lucknow, Jaipur, Nagpur, Hyderabad, Shillong and Kolkata and offices in almost all states of the country.

What is in news : for the first time on record, the summit of Greenland received rain and not snow, just as temperatures at the spot went above freezing for the third time in less than ten years.

Details :

• At the highest point on Greenland’s ice sheet, America’s National Science Foundation maintains a Summit Station, a research facility that observes changes occurring over the island as well as in Arctic weather.
• On Saturday, the facility observed rain at the normally frigid summit, with the precipitation extending up to Greeland’s southeast coast.
• The rain, coupled with warm conditions, caused a major melting event at the summit, adding to concerns of rapid ice melting running off into the ocean in volumes, thus accelerating global sea level rise.

Why is it caused : Greenland, which is two-thirds the size of India, already witnessed one of its most severe melting events of the past decade last month, when it lost 8.5 billion tons of surface mass in one day– the third such extreme event in the past decade. The UN’s “code red” climate report released last week concluded that the burning of fossil fuels led to Greenland melting in the last 20 years.

About GREENLAND

• Is the world's largest island
• Located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans,
• Autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark
• Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America it has been politically and culturally associated with Europe (specifically Norway and Denmark, the colonial powers) for more than a millennium, beginning in 986

HISTORY-ART-CULTURE

What is in news : August 20, marks the centenary of the Malabar rebellion, which is also known as the Moplah (Muslim) riots. Also year 2021 will mark the 100th year anniversary of the Malabar rebellion of 1921.

Details :

Moplahs/Mappilas:

• The name Mappilla (lit. son-in-law; anglicized form Moplah) is given to Malayali-speaking Muslims who reside along the entire length of the Malabar Coast of northern Kerala.
• By 1921, the Moplahs formed the largest and fastest growing community in Malabar. With a population of one million, 32% of that of Malabar as a whole, the Moplahs were concentrated in South Malabar

Reasons:

• The trigger of the uprising came from the Non-Cooperation Movement launched by the Congress in 1920 along with the Khilafat agitation.
• The anti-British sentiment fuelled by these agitations affected the Muslim Mapillahs (also known as Moplahs) of south Malabar region of Kerala.
• New Tenancy Laws: After the death of Tipu Sultan in 1799 in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War, Malabar had come under British authority as part of the Madras Presidency.
• The British had introduced new tenancy laws that tremendously favoured the landlords known as Janmis and instituted a far more exploitative system for peasants than before.
• The new laws deprived the peasants of all guaranteed rights to the land, share in the produce they earlier got and in effect rendered them landless.
• The Communal Angle: Most of the landlords were Namboodiri Brahmins while most of the tenants were Mapillah Muslims.

The Revolt: Fuelled by the fiery speeches by Muslim religious leaders and anti-british sentiments, the Mopillahs launched a violent rebellion. Numerous actions of violence were reported and series of persecutions were committed both against the British and the Hindu landlords.

Support: In the initial stages, the movement had the support of Mahatma Gandhi and other Indian nationalist leaders, but as it turned violent they distanced themselves from it.

Collapse: By the end of 1921, the rebellion was crushed by the British who had raised a special battalion, the Malabar Special Force for the riot.

Wagon Tragedy: In November 1921, 67 Moplah prisoners were killed when they were being transported in a closed freight wagon from Tirur to the Central Prison in Podanur. They died of suffocation. This event is called the Wagon Tragedy.

• On August 19, 2021 India has signed a USD 500 million loans agreement with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in order to expand metro rail network in Bengaluru.
• Chairman of 15th Finance Commission, NK Singh, has been elected as the new president of Institute of Economic Growth (IEG) Society. He succeeds Dr Manmohan Singh. Institute of Economic Growth is an autonomous, multidisciplinary centre that is used for advanced research and training. It was founded by VKRV Rao in 1952, but became operational in 1958. It is located at University Enclave of University of Delhi, New Delhi.
• World Humanitarian Day was observed on August 19, 2021. Theme of the day for year 2021 is “The Human Race”. It is an international day which is observed to recognize humanitarian personnel and those who lost their lives while working for humanitarian causes. United Nations General Assembly designated this day as part of a Swedish-sponsored GA Resolution A/63/L.49 that seeks to Strengthen the Coordination of Emergency Assistance of the United Nations.

• BRICS Nations- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa- signed a deal for cooperation in remote sensing satellite data sharing. According to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), this deal will enable the space agencies of BRICS nation to build a virtual constellation of specified remote sensing satellites through which ground stations will receive data.
• Finance Minister is set to launch an ambitious ‘Ubharte Sitaare Fund’ on August 21, 2021. It will be launched for export-oriented firms and startups.