Daily CURRENT AFFAIRS

Daily Current Affair - UPSC/KAS Exams - 10th September 2021

What is in news : Education Ministry launched the sixth edition of the NIRF in which IIT-Madras, IISc-Bangalore, and IIT-Bombay have emerged as the country's top three higher education institutions.

What is NIRF:

• First-ever effort by the government to rank higher education institutions (HEIs) in the country
• Roughly 6,000 institutions have participated in NIRF -- about twice the number in 2016.
• In order to be ranked, all education institutions are assessed on five parameters: teaching, learning and resources, research and professional practices, graduation outcomes, outreach and inclusivity, and perception. NIRF lists out best institutions across 11 categories - overall national ranking, universities, engineering, college, medical, management, pharmacy, law, architecture, dental and research.

Rankings in 2021:

• The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras was ranked the best higher education institution
• The IITs dominated the overall rankings, grabbing seven of the top 10 positions.
• The Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru was ranked second, followed by the IITs in Bombay, Delhi, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Roorkee and Guwahati. Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Banaras Hindu University (BHU) were at rank nine and 10, respectively.
• Among universities, the IISc was ranked one, followed by the JNU, the BHU, the University of Calcutta, the Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, the Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Jadavpur University, the University of Hyderabad and Aligarh Muslim University.
• Delhi University was placed 12 among universities and 19 overall.

ENVIRONMENT & GEOGRAPPHY

What :

• Energy islands act as a hub for electricity generation from offshore wind farms and distribute the power to surrounding areas.
• Denmark recently approved plans to build the world’s first artificial energy island in the middle of the North Sea.
• This is in line with the Denmark government’s decision to initiate construction of two energy islands for exporting power to mainland and neighboring countries like Netherlands, Germany and Belgium.

What is in news : State of Tamil Nadu and Denmark have planned to create an energy island in Gulf of Mannar that lies between the west coast of Sri Lanka and south-eastern tip of India.

Details :

• Promote green energy sector
• With this investment, island would be able to produce 4-10 GW of energy.
• Also : Tamil Nadu and Denmark made their plan for the investments, days after the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) announced to launch 20,000 Mw of solar power projects with adequate battery storage, 2,000 Mw of gas-based power units and 3,000 Mw of pumped storage hydroelectric projects. These projects will require loans of about Rs 1.32 trillion.

Additional Info :

• Danish companies operating in Tamil Nadu include Maersk, Vestas, Cubic, Danfoss, Grundfos, and FLSmidth.
• Indian companies operating in Denmark include Tata Consultancy Services, ITC Infotech, Infosys Technologies and L&T Infotech.

MAHITI FOR MAINS : ALTERNATIVE TO CROP STUBBLE BURNING

Stubble burning is a common practice followed by farmers to prepare fields for sowing of wheat in November as there is little time left between the harvesting of paddy and sowing of wheat.

Hazards of stubble burning

• Significant contributor to atmospheric pollution, coming in 3rd after industrial and vehicular emissions.
• Haze issues in  India’s national capital region (NCR)
• Human Health Impacts ranging from skin and eyes irritation to severe neurological, cardiovascular, and respiratory diseases.
• Prolonged exposure to high pollution also leads to an increase in mortality rates – as per research, the life expectancy of Delhi inhabitants has decreased by about 6.4 years due to their exposure to high levels of pollution.
• Strips soil of its essential nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (NPK).
• Raises soil temperature to about 42°C, thus displacing or killing important microorganisms up to a depth of about 2.5 cm.
• Pollutants in the atmosphere lead to acid rain and prolonged exposure to particulate pollution favours growths of pests or diseases.
• Tourists’ inflow has decreased in Delhi by about 25-30% due to the increase in air pollution.

Advantages of stubble burning

• It quickly clears the field and is the cheapest alternative.
• Kills weeds, including those resistant to herbicide.
• Kills slugs and other pests.
• Can reduce nitrogen tie-up.

Challenges in Adoption of Alternative Method

• Lack of Alternatives
• Lack of Capacity & Labour
• Fragmented markets for paddy residue management
• Lack of Stubble Management Infrastructure

Alternative to Stubble Burning

• Bio Enzyme-PUSA:
  • The Indian Agriculture Research Institute has devised a radical solution for stubble burning in the form of a bio-enzyme called PUSA.
  • When sprayed, this enzyme decomposes the stubble in 20-25 days, turning it into manure, further improving the soil quality.
  • It leads to an increase in organic carbon and soil health while significantly reducing the fertiliser expense for the next cropping cycle.
  • Being a sustainable agriculture practice, it also cuts back on the emission of greenhouse gases and prevents the release of toxins and soot into the air.
  • When practised over a while, it considerably increases the soil’s nutrient health and microbial activity, both of which ensure better yield at reduced input costs for the farmers as well as organic produce for the consumers.
• Grassroot Participation with Public Private Partnership: This calls for active public-private partnerships, where resources are moved to the grassroots and solutions are deployed in time to benefit society. Farmers should be onboarded into the scheme developed for them.
• Technology Enabled Smart Revolution:
  • Stubble burning is one of the many ramifications of the green revolution. It is time to correct it and give our farmers a new and sustainable impetus: A Smart Revolution!
  • Technology will be the primary enabler here, helping to scale, reach and extend the benefits of a shared economy to the farmers.
  • With digitisation and a commitment to enabling sustainable practices and outcomes, we can seed the benefits of sustainable agriculture in farmers’ minds.
  • If done well, the soil and air will be healthier, water tables replenished, and farmers will be earning more.
  • In-situ treatment, Ex-situ treatment of stubble and Changing Cropping Pattern:
  • For in-situ management (eg. crop residue management by zero-tiller machines and use of bio-decomposers) the government is currently giving equipment to farmers to mix the stubble back into the soil, so that they do not have to burn it, but everyone is not getting these machines.
  • The government should ensure their availability to everyone.
  • Similarly, in ex-situ management (eg. use of rice straw as cattle fodder), some companies have started collecting stubble for their use, but we need more action on this front
  • There is also a need to change the cropping pattern as the current pattern (Paddy in drier North west India) is not suitable for the declining water table.
• Other Alternative Use: Instead of burning the stubble, it can be used in different ways like cattle feed, compost manure, roofing in rural areas, biomass energy, mushroom cultivation, packing materials, fuel, paper, bio-ethanol and industrial production, etc.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

What : Campaign for Digital Onboarding and Training for street vendors under PM SVANidhi scheme across 223 cities

By : Ministry of Housing and urban Affairs( MoHUA) in collaboration with the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY)

Details :

• The BharatPe, Mswipe, PhonePe, Paytm, Aceware are participating in this drive to issue UPI IDs, QR code and provide digital training.
• Digital Payment Aggregators will handhold the street vendors to bring about enhanced adoption of digital transactions and behaviour change.
• To promote digital transactions instruction has been issued to the Lending Institutions (LIs) to handover a durable QR Code and train the beneficiaries for conducting digital receipt and payment transactions within a week of disbursement.

MAHITI FOR PRELIMS

PM SVANIDHI

• It is a special micro-credit facility plan to provide affordable loan of up to ₹10,000 to more than 50 lakh street vendors, who had their businesses operational on or before 24 March.
• The scheme is valid until March 2022.
• Small Industries Development Bank of India is the technical partner for implementation of this scheme.
• It will manage the credit guarantee to the lending institutions through Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises.
• Under the scheme, vendors can avail working capital loan of up to ₹10,000, which is repayable in monthly instalments within one year.
• On timely/early repayment of the loan, an interest subsidy of 7% per annum will be credited to the bank accounts of beneficiaries through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) on six-months basis.
• There will be no penalty on early repayment of loan.
• Eligibility: The scheme is applicable to vendors, hawkers, thelewalas, rehriwalas, theliphadwalas in different areas/contexts who supply goods and services. Street vendors belonging to the surrounding peri-urban/rural areas are also included.

MEDICINE FROM SKY

What : Telangana government's 'Medicine from the sky’ programme is all set for launch

What is 'Medicine from the sky' (MFTS) :

• Led by the Emerging Technologies Wing of the state IT department in partnership with World Economic Forum, NITI Aayog, and HealthNet Global (Apollo Hospitals)
• Aims - Undertake experimental Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone flights for delivery of vaccines using the identified airspace of the Vikarabad district.
• First-of-its-kind in India as it is the first organised BVLOS drone trials in the country and the same is being conducted in healthcare as the domain
• Three of the eight selected consortia namely Bluedart Med Express Consortium (Skye Air), Hepicopter Consortium (Marut Drones), and CurisFly Consortium (TechEagle Innovations) conducted test flights of their drones via VLOS and BVLOS.

Benefits:

• Using drones as a mode of delivery to improve medical supply chains, the project aims to assess robustness and reliability of the same using different payload sizes, and in controlled temperatures, from distribution centers to specific locations and back.
• The payloads could be medicines, vaccines, units of blood, diagnostic specimens, and other lifesaving equipment.
• It further intends to assist policymakers and health systems to analyse the opportunities and challenges of drone delivery as well as competing delivery models and technologies.

DEFENCE

What is in news : The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) has cleared procurement of 56 C-295 MW medium transport aircraft for the Indian Air Force under the Make-in-India initiative in the aerospace sector.

Details :

• The C-295MW aircraft will be purchased from Airbus Defence and Space S.A., Spain.
• Capacity: Transport aircraft of 5-10 tonne capacity with contemporary technology.
• Features:
  • It has a rear ramp door for quick reaction and para-dropping of troops and cargo.
  • It will be installed with the indigenous Electronic Warfare Suite.
  • It will replace the Indian Air Force’s ageing fleet of Avro-748 planes.The Avro-748 planes are a British-origin twin-engine turboprop, military transport and freighter with a 6-tonne freight capacity.
• Project Execution:
  • Airbus Defence and Space and Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) will jointly execute the project to equip the air force with the new transport aircraft under the Make-in-India initiative in the aerospace sector.
  • Airbus will supply the first 16 aircraft in fly away condition while the remaining 40 will be assembled in India by TASL.

INTERNATIONAL ISSUES

Who is a Sherpa : Sherpa is the personal representative of the head of state or government who prepares an international summit, specially the annual G7 and G20 summits. Sherpa is generally influential, but they do not have any authority to make final decision regarding any given agreement.

What is in news : Commerce and Industry Minister, Piyush Goyal, has been appointed as India’s Sherpa for G20.

Details :

• The G20 is an annual meeting of leaders from the countries with the largest and fastest-growing economies. Its members account for 85% of the world’s GDP, and two-thirds of its population.
• The G20 Summit is formally known as the “Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy”.
• After the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997-1998, it was acknowledged that the participation of major emerging market countries is needed on discussions on the international financial system, and G7 finance ministers agreed to establish the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting in 1999.
• The group has no permanent staff of its own, so every year in December, a G20 country from a rotating region takes on the presidency.
• That country is then responsible for organising the next summit, as well as smaller meetings for the coming year.
• They can also choose to invite non-member countries along as guests.
• The first G20 meeting took place in Berlin in 1999, after a financial crisis in East Asia affected many countries around the world.
• Full membership of the G20: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union.

• A carbon dating analysis of rice with soil, found in a burial urn at Sivakalai in Thoothukudi district in southern Tamil Nadu, by the Miami-based Beta Analytic Testing Laboratory, has yielded the date of 1155 BCE, thereby indicating that the Thamirabarani civilisation dates back to 3,200 year. Thamirabarani is a river that originates in the Western Ghats (from the Agastyarkoodam peak of Pothigai hills) in the State and empties into the sea at the Gulf of Mannar after passing through Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi districts.
• The National Mission for Clean Ganga organised Himalayan Diwas in association with Naula Foundation. This year’s theme is ‘Contribution of Himalayas and our responsibilities’. The event was part of the ongoing celebration of ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’. Himalaya Diwas is celebrated every year on 9th September in the state of Uttarakhand. It is celebrated with the aim to conserve Himalayan ecosystem and region. It was officially declared as Himalaya Day in 2015 by the then Chief Minister.
• International Literacy Day is observed on September 8 every year in a bid to remind the importance of literacy for individuals, communities and societies. The day was proclaimed by UNESCO on October 26, 1966 at the 14th session of UNESCO’s General Conference. First International Literacy Day was celebrated in 1967.  This tradition is being held annually for more than 50 years now.The day was proclaimed with the objective of reminding international community about the importance of literacy for individuals, communities & societies and the need of intensified efforts to make more literate societies. The theme of the day for 2021 is “Literacy for a human-centred recovery: Narrowing the digital divide”.
• Supreme Court of Mexico has decriminalised abortion and has ruled that criminal penalties on terminating pregnancies are unconstitutional, in the state of Coahuila.