Daily CURRENT AFFAIRS

Daily Current Affair - UPSC/KAS Exams - 12th March 2022

NEWS

Karnataka’s maternal mortality ratio (MMR) has declined by nine points from 92 per lakh live births in 2016-2018 to 83 in 2017-2019, during the pre-COVID-19 period

DETAILS

• The details was recorded in recent NFHS
• In 2014-2016, the State’s MMR was 108 and it subsequently reduced to 97 in 2015-2017
• In terms of percentage, MMR has dropped by 9.78%
• Karnataka’s MMR continues to be the highest among the five southern States
• The decline in Karnataka is the second highest after Kerala among the five southern States, indicating that the number of women dying during childbirth has come down significantly, according to the latest Sample Registration System 2017-2019 bulletin for MMR released by the Registrar-General of India on Friday
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• Besides, Karnataka’s ranking has improved from 9th to 8th position in the country
• While Kerala tops the list with the lowest MMR — 30 per one lakh live births, Assam has the highest at 205. While Uttar Pradesh has recorded the highest decline in MMR, from 197 in 2016-2018 to 167 in 2017-2019, West Bengal has recorded the highest increase, from 98 in 2016-2018 to 109 in 2017-2019

MATERNAL MORTALITY RATIO

• Number of maternal deaths during a given time period per 100,000 live births during the same time period
• Depicts the risk of maternal death relative to the number of live births and essentially captures the risk of death in a single pregnancy or a single live birth
• Significant indicator that defines the public health of a State
• Determines the progress made by States in saving the lives of pregnant women during pregnancy, childbirth and lactation

NEWS

37th Foundation Day celebrations of National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) was recently held

NCRB

• Under Union Home Ministry
• Nodal agency
  • For authentic source of data on crime on various parameters including accidents, suicides from across all the states of the country
  • Prisons for policy matters and research
• Established in 1986 as the central police organisation
• Headquartered in New Delhi.
• FUNCTIONS
  • Implementing and monitoring agency of Crime & Criminal Tracking Network System (CCTNS), a Mission Mode Project under the National e-Governance Plan of Government.
  • Imparts training in Information Technology (IT) and Finger Print Science for Indian Police Officers as well Foreign Police officers
  • Publishes 4 annual publications on Crime, Prison Statistics, Accidental Deaths & Suicides and Finger Prints. These publications serve as principal reference points on crime statistics

NEWS

Government of India launched the MSME Innovative Scheme

THE SCHEME

AIM

• Guide the MSMEs in developing business ideas into viable business propositions
• Acts as a hub for innovation activities

OTHER DETAILS

• Provide support through guidance, financial and marketing assistance, technical support, etc. to ensure the scaling up of MSMEs
• Launched with the combination of existing sub-schemes around incubation, design, and IPR for MSMEs. These schemes will continue to operate as individual programs.

INCUBATION SUPPORT

• Help MSMEs in adopting the latest technologies
• Only for those MSMEs that seek validation of their ideas at the proof-of-concept stage
• Certain institutes will be recognized by the government to act as business incubators.Such institutes are called host institutes and they will be provided financial support of up to Rs 15 lakh per idea.

DESIGN COMPONENT – Guide towards solving problems related to the design of the product, both new and existing. IISc Bangalore, IITs, NITs, National Institute of Design, etc. would act as partner institutions

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS (IPR)

• Deal with measures related to the protection and commercialization of ideas of MSMEs
• Consultation support will be provided
• Cost incurred by MSMEs on registration of patent, trademark, geographical indications (GI), and design will be reimbursed

EQUITY SUPPORT - Of up to Rs 1 crore was announced by the government for the commercialization of ideas, designs, and patents

 CONTEXT

• Three labourers in Mumbai, allegedly hired for manual scavenging, died after inhaling toxic fumes in a septic tank
• Even though manual scavenging is banned in India, the practice is still prevalent in many parts of the country

MANUAL SCAVENGING

• Manual scavenging  is practice of removing human excreta by hand from sewers or septic tanks

• In 2013, the definition of manual scavengers was also broadened to include people employed to clean septic tanks, ditches, or railway tracks
• Government recognizes manual scavenging as a “dehumanizing practice,” and cites a need to “correct the historical injustice and indignity suffered by the manual scavengers.”

WHY IS MANUAL SCAVENGING STILL PREVALENT IN INDIA?

• India banned the practice under the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 (PEMSR). The Act bans the use of any individual for manually cleaning, carrying, disposing of or otherwise handling in any manner, human excreta till its disposal.
• The lack of enforcement of the Act and exploitation of unskilled labourers are the reasons why the practice is still prevalent in India. The Mumbai civic body charges anywhere between Rs 20,000 and Rs 30,000 to clean septic tanks. The unskilled labourers, meanwhile, are much cheaper to hire and contractors illegally employ them at a daily wage of Rs 300-500.
• Several independent surveys have noted that   government's continued reluctance to admit that the practice prevails under their watch.
• Sewer cleaning tasks are frequently outsourced to private contractors. Many of them, though, are fly-by-night operators who do not keep proper records of sanitation workers. These contractors have denied any involvement with the deceased in case after case of workers being asphyxiated to death. The practice is driven by caste, class, and income divides.
• The Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993, made it illegal to employ individuals as manual scavengers in India, but the stigma and discrimination connected with it persist. This makes it difficult for the liberated manual scavengers to find alternate sources of livelihood.

STEPS TAKEN BY GOVERNMENT

• The Prohibition of Employment   Scavenger and their Rehabilitation Act,2013: The act aims to strengthen the prohibition of manual scavenging in all forms and to ensure that manual scavengers are rehabilitated.
• Prevention of Atrocities Act: It delineates specific crimes against the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes.
• National Commission of Safai Karamcharis: The Commission is a non-statutory body of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
• Mission Swachh Bharat: Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Swachh Bharat Abhiyan) is a nationwide initiative initiated by the government on October 2, 2014, to clean the country's streets, roads, and social infrastructure.
• The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation (Amendment) Bill, 2020: It proposes that sewer cleaning be completely mechanized, that methods for 'on-site' protection be implemented, and that manual scavengers be compensated in the case of sewer deaths.The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, will be amended.
• Safaimitra Suraksha Challenge: The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs launched it on World Toilet Day (19 November) in 2020.The government issued a "challenge" to all states to mechanize sewer cleaning by April 2021; if a human needs toenter a sewer line in an unavoidable emergency, proper gear and oxygen tanks etcto be provided.
• Swachhta Abhiyan App: It was developed to locate and geotag data on insanitary latrines and manual scavengers so that unsanitary latrines can be replaced with sanitary latrines and all manual scavengers can be rehabilitated so that they can live with dignity.
• SC Decision: A Supreme Court judgment in 2014 mandated that the government identify all people who died in sewage work since 1993 and compensate their families with Rs. 10 lakh each.

WAY FORWARD

• Identification: States must precisely estimate the workers involved in the cleanup of toxic sludge.
• Empowering Local Administration: The 15th Finance Commission has recognized the Swachh Bharat Mission as a top priority area, and funds are available for smart cities and urban development, making a strong case for addressing the problem of manual scavenging.
• To eliminate the social stigma associated with manual scavenging, it is necessary to first acknowledge and then understand how and why manual scavenging remains embedded in the caste system.
• The Need for Stringent Laws: If a law establishes a statutory responsibility on the part of state agencies to provide sanitary services, the rights of these workers will no longer be in jeopardy.

 Nuclear Energy is the energy in the nucleus or core of an atom. Tiny units that make up all matter in the universe are called atoms.

Nuclear energy is released by splitting the atom, using the process called Nuclear fission.

HOW IS ELECTRICITY PRODUCED USING NUCLEAR ENERGY

• A nuclear reactor is a power plant that can control nuclear fission to produce electricity. In the nuclear reactor, uranium is used as fuel
• Atoms of uranium are split, which creates fission products which cause other uranium atoms to split, thus creating a chain reaction
• The energy from this chain reaction is released in the form of heat
• This heat is used to warm the nuclear reactors cooling agent, which results in the formation of steam. This steam turns the turbines, which drive the engines or generators to produce electricity.

RECENT HAZARDAOUS INCIDENTS

• A fire broke out near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine (Europe’s largest) during the course of a military battle. Had the fire affected the cooling system, the plant’s power supply, or its spent fuel pool, a major disaster could have occurred. Luckily, this did not happen.
• In 2011, multiple reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant of Jappan suffered severe accidents after an earthquake and a tsunami. Those reactors were quickly “shut down” following the earthquake. But their radioactive cores continued producing heat and eventually melted down because the tsunami knocked out the cooling system.
• Nuclear power plants are capital intensive and recent nuclear builds have suffered major cost overruns. An illustrative example is the V.C. Summer nuclear project in South Carolina (U.S.) where costs rose so sharply that the project was abandoned — after an expenditure of over $9 billion.
• India has also had to drastically cut its nuclear ambitions after Fukushima
• In 2008, then chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, Anil Kakodkar, projected that India would have 650GW of installed capacity by 2050; his successor, Srikumar Banerjee, predicted in 2010 that capacity would reach 35 gigawatts by 2020. Installed capacity today is only 6.78 GW.

ISSUES RELATED

• In a densely populated country such as India, land is at a premium and emergency health care is far from uniformly available
• Concerns about safety have been accentuated by the insistence of multinational nuclear suppliers that they be indemnified of liability for the consequence of any accident in India. Under pressure from multinational manufacturers, India’s liability law already largely protects them. But the industry objects to the small window of opportunity available for the Indian government to hold them to account.
• Climate change will increase the risk of nuclear reactor accidents.(In 2020, a windstorm caused the Duane Arnold nuclear plant in the U.S. to cease operations) The frequency of such extreme weather events is likely to increase in the future.
• Nuclear plants are too expensive. They cost at least billion dollars to be built.
• In all countries using nuclear energy there are well established procedures for storing, managing and transporting such wastes, funded from electricity users. Wastes are contained and managed, not released. Storage is safe and secure; plans are well in hand for eventual disposal.
• Fear of being used for making nuclear bombs: Reprocessing spent fuel gives rise to plutonium which is likely to be used in bombs.
• Insurance companies will not insure nuclear reactors so the risk devolves on to the government.
• Current Nuclear reactors consume significant amounts of water. So most of the upcoming plants will be set up near sea costs. It will put pressure on the coastline as India’s Western coastline is home to the fragile ecology of Western Ghats.
• Nuclear installations will be favourite targets of terrorists (also in case of war) which can cause irreversible damage to people living in nearby areas.
• There are long gestation periods which increase costs of the plant significantly. Only a Nuclear Industry revolution in the future in nuclear energy can make this achievable.

BENEFITS

• No greenhouse gasses are emitted in Nuclear Power generation and in this way environmental costs are significantly less.
• Quantities of nuclear fuel needed are considerably less than thermal power plants. For e.g. 10000 MW generations by coal will need 30-35 million tons of coal, but nuclear fuel needed will be only 300-350 tons.
• It generates very limited waste in quantity (though far more hazardous in quality).

WAY FOWRARD

• Ensure maintenance of the skills base
• Maintain continued effective safety regulation
• Foster progress on facilities for waste disposal and management must be given serious consideration.
• Maintain and reinforce international non-proliferation arrangements.
• To maintain pace of development, it is important to build a constant and reliable supply chain of nuclear materials.
• The fundamentals underlying the possibility of breakthrough growth in India’s civil nuclear programme are strong: political will, bilateral agreements with most supplier countries, an NSG waiver for nuclear trade, domestic human resources and capability developed in the last 30 years of nuclear power operations

CONCLUSION

Nuclear power is not the right choice to “adapt” to climate change, which requires resilience in power systems. It is also not the appropriate choice for mitigating India’s carbon emissions since it cannot be deployed at the necessary scale. The resources spent on nuclear plants will yield quicker results if they are redirected to renewables.

Given the inherent vulnerabilities of nuclear reactors and their high costs, it would be best for the Government to adapt alternative renewable energy sources.

• The Higher Education Department has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the British Council to provide global skills for students pursuing higher education in the state.
• Pusa Krishi Vigyan Mela, organised by IARI, New Delhi, on the theme “Self-reliant farmer with technical knowledge” was recently held. 41 Innovative Farmers awarded 
• The Supreme Court named AK Sikri, as chairperson of the High-Powered Committee (HPC), which will assess the Chardham project’s cumulative and independent impact on the entire Himalayan valley.
• The production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for the drone industry was notified by the Ministry of civil aviation. Under the scheme, manufacturers of drones and drone components will be given an incentive of 20% of the value addition made by them during the next three years.
• The first ‘Gati Shakti’ cargo terminal of Indian Railways’ was inaugurated in the Eastern Railway’s Asansol division.
• On March 10th International Day of Women Judges is observed. On this day the UN reaffirms its commitment to implement and develop effective and appropriate strategies for women’s advancement in the judicial system and institution at the leadership and managerial level.
• Gabriel Boric elected as the youngest president in the country’s history
• Yoon Suk-yeol elected as South Korean president.