Daily CURRENT AFFAIRS

Daily Current Affair - UPSC/KAS Exams - 22nd Jan 2022

NEWS

The State of Himachal Pradesh is well on track to achieve the target of providing clean tap water supply to every rural home by 2024 under Har Ghar Jal initiative

DETAILS

• Goa has become the first 'Har Ghar Jal' State in the country as it successfully provided 100% Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTCs) in the rural areas in 2020
• Har Ghar Jal is a component of Jal Jeevan Mission
• Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM)
  • Envisages supply of 55 litres of water per person per day to every rural household through Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTC) by 2024.
  • focuses on integrated demand and supply-side management of water at the local level.
  • Creation of local infrastructure for source sustainability measures as mandatory elements, like rainwater harvesting, groundwater recharge and management of household wastewater for reuse, would be undertaken in convergence with other government programmes/schemes.
  • Based on a community approach to water and includes extensive Information, Education and Communication as a key component of the mission.
  • Looks to create a jan andolan for water, thereby making it everyone’s priority.
  • Funding Pattern: The fund sharing pattern between the Centre and states is 90:10 for Himalayan and North-Eastern States, 50:50 for other states, and 100% for Union Territories.
  • The total allocation to the scheme is over ₹3 lakh crore.

NEWS

Tiger census commenced at Bandipur at Nagarahole on Sunday as part of the All-India Tiger and Mega Herbivore Estimation recently

ABOUT TIGER CENSUS

• Part of the nation-wide enumeration that is held once in four years
• Conducted by National Tiger Conservation Authority
• 2022 is fifth such exercise being taken up
• Authorities at Bandipur have divided the 912.04 sq km national park into three blocks to carry out the enumeration
• Enumeration exercise entails the use of MSTRIPES (Monitoring System for Tigers Intensive Protection and Ecological Status) app and apart from the tiger counts, the exercise will also throw up data on mega herbivores, including elephants and gaurs. The use of apps ensures that the data is not only digitised but is uploaded on a real-time basis and is robust.
• Training was imparted by experts from Wildlife Institute of India and the enumeration is being held as per the protocols stipulated by the National Tiger Conservation Authority. 
• Authorities have deployed only the department officials and frontline field staff apart from members of the Special Tiger Force squad for the exercise
• Sign survey of tiger scat, pug marks etc., for carnivores will also be taken
• Enumeration would also throw up data of the tiger numbers in non-protected areas.

National Tiger Conservation Authority

• Statutory body under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.
• Established in 2005 following the recommendations of the Tiger Task Force.
• Constituted under enabling provisions of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, as amended in 2006, for strengthening tiger conservation, as per powers and functions assigned to it.

NEWS

Modalities to deepen cooperation in "Deep Ocean Mission" was recently discussed

DEEP OCEAN MISSION

• India’s first manned ocean mission
• Aims to send men into the deep sea in a submersible vehicle for deep-sea ocean exploration and mining of rare minerals.
• Resources such as polymetallic manganese nodules, Gas hydrates, hydrothermal sulfides, and cobalt crusts will be explored which are usually located at a depth between 1000 to 5500 meters.
• Undertaken by the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), under MoES.
• India has been allocated a site of 75,000sq km in the Central Indian Ocean Basin by the International Sea Bed Authority (ISA) for the exploration of polymetallic nodules from the seabed in a 15-year contract.
• The estimated resource potential of polymetallic nodules is 380 million tonnes through preliminary studies.
• Major components in these nodules are manganese, nickel, copper, and cobalt.
• The six components of the mission are-
  • Development of technologies for deep-sea mining and manned submersible.
  • Development of ocean climate change advisory services.
  • Technological innovations for sustainable use of marine bio-resources.
  • Deep ocean survey and exploration
  • Energy production from the ocean and offshore based desalination
  • Advanced marine station for ocean biology.

NEWS

The government has put out the eternal flame of the Amar Jawan Jyoti underneath India Gate and merged it with the one instituted at the National War Memorial in 2019

AMAR JAWAN JYOTI

• Underneath India Gate in central Delhi
• Established in 1972
• Was to mark India’s victory over Pakistan in the 1971 War, which resulted in the creation of Bangladesh
• The then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had inaugurated it on Republic Day 1972, after India defeated Pakistan in December 1971.
• Key elements - Black marble plinth, a cenotaph, which acted as a tomb of the unknown soldier.
• Plinth had an inverted L1A1 self-loading rifle with a bayonet, on top of which was a soldier’s war helmet.
• The installation had four urns on it, with four burners. On normal days one of the four burners were kept alive, but on important days like the Republic Day, all four burners were lit. These burners were what is called the eternal flame, and it was never allowed to be extinguished.
• The India Gate, All India War Memorial, as it was known earlier, was built by the British in 1931. It was erected as a memorial to around 90,000 Indian soldiers of the British Indian Army, who had died in several wars and campaigns till then. As it was a memorial for the Indian soldiers killed in wars, the Amar Jawan Jyoti was established underneath it by the government in 1972.

National War Memorial

• Inaugurated by Prime minister in February 2019
• Built to commemorate all the soldiers who have laid down their lives in the various battles, wars, operations and conflicts of Independent India. Final design of the memorial was selected through a competition.
• The architecture of the memorial is based on four concentric circles.
• Largest is the Raksha Chakra or the Circle of Protection which is marked by a row of trees, each of which represent soldiers, who protect the country.
• The Tyag Chakra, the Circle of Sacrifice, has circular concentric walls of honour based on the Chakravyuh.
• The walls have independent granite tablets for each of the soldiers who have died for the country since Independence.
• As of today, there are 26,466 names of such soldiers on these granite tablets etched in golden letters. A tablet is added every time a soldier is killed in the line of duty.
• This Veerta Chakra, the Circle of Bravery, has a covered gallery with six bronze crafted murals depicting the battles and actions of our Armed Forces.
• The final is the Amar Chakra, the Circle of Immortality, which has an obelisk, and the Eternal Flame.
• The flame from the Amar Jawan Jyoti at the India Gate will be merged with this flame, which has been kept burning since 2019 when the memorial was unveiled.
• The flame is a symbol of the immortality of the spirit of the fallen soldiers, and a mark that the country will not forget their sacrifice.
• Busts of the 21 soldiers who have been conferred with the highest gallantry award of the country, Param Vir Chakra, are also installed at the memorial.

• Noted astrophysicist Dr. Tarun Souradeep assumed charge as director of one of the leading institutes in the country, Raman Research Institute (RRI) in Bengaluru.
• The Supreme Court recently ruled that the property of a man who had died without executing a will and is survived only by a daughter will devolve upon the daughter and not others such as his brother.