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Daily Prelims Notes 12 January 2023

  • January 12, 2023
  • Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
  • Category: DPN
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Daily Prelims Notes

12 January 2023

Table Of Contents

  1. Chandigarh’s monumental modernism
  2. Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi vs CM Stalin: Know about Dravidian model of governance
  3. VSHORAD missile system
  4. What is NOTAM and why its failure led to grounding of thousands of US flights
  5. ‘Shamlat’ lands hold key to Dalit empowerment; alleviation of rural poverty in Punjab
  6. Atmospheric rivers over California’s wildfire burn scars raise fears of deadly mudslides
  7. Water crisis: World to lose 26% storage by 2050 to trapped sediment, says new UN report
  8. Kumarakom, Beypore find place in Centre’s Swadesh Darshan 2.0
  9. Office of Registrar General of India following obsolete criteria to define ST’s
  10. Will not try curative plea in Bhopal gas leak case like a suit, says SC
  11. Women seek scrapping of Section 17 of CrPc
  12. India seeks to bids to set up green hydrogen plants
  13. Myanmar airstrikes target rebel camp near border, panic in Mizoram village

 

 

1. Chandigarh’s monumental modernism

Subject: History

Context: Supreme Court prohibited the “fragmentation/ division/ bifurcation/ apartmentalisation” of residential units in phase I of Chandigarh, and directed the Chandigarh Heritage Conservation Committee to “take into consideration its own recommendations that the northern sectors of Chandigarh ‘(Corbusian Chandigarh)’ should be preserved in their present form”.

Observation of SC:

  • Stating in its 131-page verdict that it is high time that the “legislature, the executive and the policy makers at the Centre as well as the State levels take note of the damage to the environment on account of haphazard developments and take a call to take necessary measures to ensure that the development does not damage the environment.
  • Such a haphazard growth may adversely affect the heritage status of Phase I of Chandigarh, which is sought to be inscribed as a UNESCO heritage city.
  • The court ordered the Chandigarh Administration to not resort to formulate rules or by-laws without prior consultation of heritage committee and prior approval of the Central government.

Background of the Case:

  • In 2001, the Chandigarh Administrator, exercising powers under Sections 5 and 22 of The Capital of Punjab (Development and Regulation) Act, 1952, framed The Chandigarh Apartment Rules, 2001, allowing the division of single residential units into more than one apartment
  • Following an outcry from citizens who complained that the original character of the city was under threat, the 2001 Rules — as well as an earlier set of Rules from 1960 — were repealed in 2007.
  • On November 7 that year, The Chandigarh Estate Rules, 2007 were notified. Rule 16 of the 2007 Rules prohibited the fragmentation or amalgamation of any site or building.
  • In 2009, a committee was constituted to draw up the Chandigarh Master Plan, 2031 (CMP-2031); the draft CMP-2031 reintroduced the 2001 Rules. Meanwhile, in 2010, a Committee of Experts was set up to look at both the original concept of the city of Chandigarh as well as the maintenance of important heritage buildings in the UT.
  • In the light of persistent public opposition to the draft CMP-2031, a Board of Inquiry and Hearing was set up in November 2013 to consider, among other things, objections to the proposal to re-introduce the 2001 Rules. The Board recommended that the 2001 Rules should not be brought back, and that the re-densification of any government residential/ institutional pocket in phase I sectors should only be done with approval from the Chandigarh Heritage Conservation Committee.
  • These recommendations were accepted by the central government, and all references to apartments in the draft CMP-2031 were dropped in the final version of the plan that was notified in 2015.
  • Even so, apartmentalisation in the city continued apace which directly prohibited by law.

About Chandigarh’s architecture:

  • Chandigarh was made a union territory (UT) and became the capital for the states of Punjab and Haryana. The city, the judgement said, was developed in two phases – Phase I having Sectors 1 to 30 and Phase II having Sectors 31 to 47.
  • Chandigarh, the dream city of India’s first Prime Minister, Sh. Jawahar Lal Nehru, was planned by the famous French architect Le Corbusier.
  • Picturesquely located at the foothills of Shivaliks, it is known as one of the best experiments in urban planning and modern architecture in the twentieth century in India.
  • Chandigarh became symbolic of the newly independent Indian. The foundation stone of the city was laid in 1952. The city is well known for its architecture and design by architects such as Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, Jane Drew, and Maxwell Fry.
  • Master Plan by Le Corbusier was the shape of the city plan was modified from one with a curving road network to rectangular shape with a grid iron pattern for the fast traffic roads, besides reducing its area for reason of economy.
  • The city plan was conceived as post war ‘Garden City’ wherein vertical and high rise buildings were ruled out, keeping in view the socio economic-conditions and living habits of the people.
  • All the main roads were straightened out, the dimensions and organization of the superblocks were reformatted, a complete hierarchy of circulation was established, the nomenclature was changed, and the Capital “head” was firmly located in place.
  • The metaphor of a human being was being employed in the plan, the ‘head’ contained the capital complex, the ‘heart’ the commercial centre, and the ‘arms’, which were perpendicular to the main axis, had the academic and leisure facilities. The plan incorporated Le Corbusier’s principles of light, space and greenery.
  • Le Corbusier divided the city into different Sectors. Each Sector or the neighboured unit, is quite similar to the traditional Indian ‘mohalla’, and measures 800 metres by 1200 metres, covering 250 acres of area. The sector featured a green strip running north to south, bisected by a commercial road running east to west.
  • The 4-storey concrete buildings house banks and offices above and showrooms/shops at the ground level with wide pedestrian concourses.
  • The roads were designed and oriented in such a way that most of the time during the day, they are under shadow. There are huge parking areas for the commercial zones so that the Parking problems don’t create a havoc on the main roads.

World Heritage Site:

  • The Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage founded on November 16, 1972,
  • The World Heritage Convention encourages the identification protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity. It sets out the duties of States Parties in identifying potential World Heritage sites situated on their territory
  • A World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by UNESCO for its special cultural or physical significance. The list of World Heritage Sites is maintained by the international ‘World Heritage Programme’, administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee.
  • The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) seeks to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity.
  • This is embodied in an international treaty called the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, adopted by UNESCO in 1972.
  • India has 38 world heritage sites that include 30 Cultural properties, 7 Natural properties and 1 mixed site.

About World Heritage Committee:

  • World Heritage Committee meets once a year, and consists of representatives from 21 of the States Parties to the Convention elected by their General Assembly.
  • The Committee is responsible for the implementation of the World Heritage Convention, defines the use of the World Heritage Fund and allocates financial assistance upon requests from States Parties.
  • It has the final say on whether a property is inscribed on the World Heritage List. It examines reports on the state of conservation of inscribed properties and asks States Parties to take action when properties are not being properly managed.
  • It also decides on the inscription or deletion of properties on the List of World Heritage in Danger.

2. Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi vs CM Stalin: Know about Dravidian model of governance

Subject: History

Context: The latest flare-up between Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi and the DMK government is over certain portions Ravi skipped from the speech submitted to him by the state for reading at the start of the Assembly session.

Dravidian model of governance:

  • Dravidian model of governance is about peace, progress and prosperity, which is achieved by pursuing the principles of social justice, rational thought and action firmly rooted in equity.
  • This translates to inclusive financial planning, access to education, housing, nutrition and health for all, a meaningful implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, encouraging independent decision-making in structures of democratic governance at all levels, and the state adhering to the Indian Constitution in letter and spirit on all issues, including that of religious and personal freedom.

Dravidians in India:

  • Dravidians, are an ethnolinguistic and cultural group living in South Asia who predominantly speak any of the Dravidian languages. There are around 250 million native speakers of Dravidian languages.
  • Dravidian speakers form the majority of the population of South India and are natively found in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. Dravidian peoples are also present in Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa, Myanmar, East Africa, the Caribbean, and the United Arab Emirates through recent migration.
  • According to the Maps of India, the Dravidian language has three subgroups, namely North Dravidian, Central Dravidian and South Dravidian.
  • In present-day India, the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu are the significant regions with a Dravidian population.

Tracing Dravidian history

  • According to reports, while genetically, farmers from Iran contributed to most of the DNA of the northwestern subcontinent, around 5,000 years ago, some farmer groups began to fan out, mix with the aborigine Indians in much of what is present-day India, and establish agricultural communities throughout the subcontinent.
  • This mixture, which is around 25 per cent Iranian farmer and 75 per cent aboriginal Indian, spread throughout the subcontinent 4,000 years ago and has been labelled by scientists as Ancestral South Indian (ASI), another misnomer since ASI populations were the base populations of most of the subcontinent prior to 2,000 BCE.
  • Somewhere, in this process of admixture, an expanding wave of agriculture, new stone tools, social organization, and rituals, the Dravidian peoples and language families were born.
  • Judging from the ancient Dravidian-sounding toponyms (place names) of Sindh, Gujarat, and Maharashtra, it is quite likely the roots of this family lie in an eastward expansion along the coast of India into the peninsula and southern India; many of the millets and gourd-like crops cultivated by Dravidian peoples also indicate seaborne contact with tropical parts of the southern Middle East and eastern Africa, while the rice was adopted from the ea
  • According to an article in The Diplomat, there is no evidence that Dravidian languages were spoken in the Ganges Valley and Punjab, and the native speakers of these regions may have spoken something related to the language isolate of the Hunza Valley of northern Pakistan, Burushaski.
  • Recent linguistic analysis has found that the Dravidian language family is approximately 4,500 years old (2,500 BCE), which coincides nicely with the South Indian Neolithic period, a period after 3,000 BCE when archaeologists have noted the expansion of cattle rearing, lentil farming, and hilltop villages radiating out from the Godavari River basin in Karnataka and Telangana.
  • While some linguists claim that Dravidian is related to the ancient Elamite language of southwest Iran, which has no known relatives, the jury is still out.

Dravidian languages:

  • The Dravidian language family is one of the oldest in the world.
  • Six languages are currently recognized by India as Classical languages and four of them are Dravidian languages Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.
  • The most commonly spoken Dravidian languages are Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Brahui, Tulu, Gondi and Coorg. There are three subgroups within the Dravidian language family: North Dravidian, Central Dravidian, and South Dravidian, matching for the most part the corresponding regions in the Indian subcontinent.

3. VSHORAD missile system

Subject: Science and Technology

Context:

  • The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) accorded Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) to procure the Very Short Range Air Defence System or VSHORAD (IR Homing) missile system, designed and developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), among other weapon systems for the Army and Navy at a total cost of Rs4,276 crore.

Details:

  • India has been in talks with Russia to procure the Igla-S air defence missiles under the VSHORAD programme in a bid to replace the Russian Igla-M systems which have been in use with the Army.
  • IR homing:
    • Infrared homing is a passive weapon guidance system which uses the infrared (IR) light emission from a target to track and follow it seamlessly.
    • Missiles which use infrared seeking are often referred to as “heat-seekers” since infrared is radiated strongly by hot bodies.

About Igla-S Systems:

  • It is a man portable air defence system (MANPADS) developed by Russia.
  • It is a Very Short Range Air Defence System (VSHORAD) weapon.
  • “Igla-S” man-portable air defense system is designed to defeat all types of visible fixed- and rotary-winged aircraft on head-on and in pursuit courses as well as small aerial targets like cruise missiles around the clock under induced thermal and background noise.
  • It implements the principle of “shoot-and-forget”, high survivability and stealth of combat work.
  • It is designed in a way for countering low-flying aircraft, as it forms the last line of defense against flying objects in a multi-layered air defense system.
  • The Igla-S is capable of engaging all types of visually observable aircraft and helicopters as well as identifying air targets such as cruise missiles and UAVs, both head-on and receding, at any time of day, against background clutter and decoy flares (jamming).

What is the VSHORAD missile system?

  • VSHORADS is a man-portable Air Defence System (MANPAD).
  • Designed and developed indigenously by DRDO’s Research Centre Imarat (RCI), Hyderabad, in collaboration with other DRDO laboratories and Indian Industry Partners.
  • Meant to kill low-altitude aerial threats at short ranges.
  • Manufacturer: Adani defence and aerospace.
  • The missile is propelled by a dual-thrust solid motor and incorporates many novel technologies including a miniaturised Reaction Control System (RCS) and integrated avionics, which were successfully proven during the tests conducted last year.
  • The DRDO has designed the missile and its launcher in a way to ensure easy portability.

Specifications:

Mass20.5 kg (45 lb)
Length2.00 metres (6 ft 7 in)
EngineDual-thrust rocket motor
propellantSolid propellant
Operational range250m (820 ft)- 6 km (20,000 ft)
Flight altitude3500 m (11500 ft)
Maximum speedMach 1.5

Man-portable air defence systems (MANPADS):

How will it help India?

  • Being man-portable and lightweight compared to the other missile systems in the Army’s armoury, it can be deployed in the mountains close to the LAC at a short notice.

Acceptance of necessity (AoN):

  • The AoN is the first step in the long capital procurement process in defence.
  • Not all AoNs accorded necessarily culminate into a final order.

Defence Acquisition Council:

  • The Defence Acquisition Council is the highest decision-making body in the Defence Ministry for deciding on new policies and capital acquisitions for the three services (Army, Navy and Air Force) and the Indian Coast Guard.
  • The Minister of Defence is the Chairman of the Council.
  • It was formed, after the Group of Ministers’ recommendations on ‘Reforming the National Security System’, in 2001, post-Kargil War (1999).

4. What is NOTAM and why its failure led to grounding of thousands of US flights

Subject: Science and Technology

Context:

  • Thousands of flights were grounded in the US early Wednesday after a major glitch in the computer system. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said that flights were grounded due to the failure of a key pilot notification system called Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM).

What is NOTAM?

  • A NOTAM is a notice containing information essential to personnel concerned with flight operations but not known far enough in advance to be publicized by other means.
    • NOTAMs indicate the real-time and abnormal status of the National Airspace System (NAS) impacting every user.
    • NOTAMs concern the establishment, condition, or change of any facility, service, procedure or hazard in the NAS.
    • NOTAMs have a unique language using special contractions to make communication more efficient.
  • Without NOTAMs, aeroplanes are at risk of running into flocks of birds or remaining unaware of slippery conditions on runways, for example.
  • NOTAMs are listed location-wise with pilots needing to check “25 nautical miles to either side of your full route of flight” for relevant NOTAMs.

Example of NOTAM:

  • The system relays information about changes in conditions such as weather, volcanic activity, airspace restrictions and other factors, as well as unusual events such as parachute jumps, rocket launches and military exercises.
  • It also advises pilots of extraordinary situations at airports, including icing, malfunctioning lights and the presence of flocks of birds, reported Simple Flying.

5. ‘Shamlat’ lands hold key to Dalit empowerment; alleviation of rural poverty in Punjab

Subject: Polity

Village common land:

  • The concept of village common land dates back centuries in rural Indian tradition.
  • The Supreme Court of India in its landmark judgement, Jagpal Singh & Ors v/s State of Punjab & Ors (2011) defined these lands as:
    • Since time immemorial, there have been common lands among the village communities of India, variously called Gram Sabha land, Gram Panchayat land (in many north Indian states), shamlat deh (in Punjab), mandaveli and poramboke land (in south India), Kalam, Maidan, etc, depending on the nature of the user.
  • These public utility lands in the villages were, for centuries, used for the common benefit of the residents of the village.
  • These lands stood vested through local laws in the State, which handed over their management to Gram Sabhas / Gram Panchayats.
  • They were generally treated as inalienable in order that their status as community land be preserved.

Amendments:

  • Village common lands have assumed even greater significance since the replacement of the erstwhile arbitrary legislation of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 by the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (LARR).
  • The LARR makes it compulsory to undertake prior social impact assessment before the acquisition, which entails the consent of 70 per cent of affected families in public-private partnership projects and 80 per cent in case of private projects.

Division of village common land:

  • The village common land is divided into cultivable and non-cultivable land.
    • The non-cultivable land is used for fulfilling the community needs of the village and most of its schools, dispensaries and ponds are built on this land.
    • The cultivable land is leased out through auction on a yearly basis to those residents of the village who seek to practice agriculture on it.

Shamlat in Punjab:

  • Shamlat is a village common land in the Punjab region.
  • The village common land or shamlat  holds high importance for Dalits of the Punjab region because they own only 3.5 per cent of the state’s total land.
  • Almost 73.33 per cent of the Dalit population in the state resides in its villages, is largely landless and faces housing shortages as well.
  • Dalits comprise 31.94 per cent of Punjab’s total population.
  • According to an RTI response, there are an estimated 170,000 acres of land falling under the definition of common land or shamlat in Punjab.

The Governing Statutes for shamlat in Punjab are:

  • The Punjab Village Common Land (Regulation) Act, 1961.
  • The Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Rules, 1964.

Rules regarding the village common land (Shamlat) in Punjab:

  • Rule-6 of the Punjab Village Common Land (Regulation) Rules,1964 states that “one-third of the cultivable land proposed to be leased, shall be reserved for members of the Scheduled Castes only”.
  • Rule 3 (xvi) lays down that village common land may be leased out, for purposes of housing, to families having insufficient accommodation.
  • Rule 13-A provides that a Panchayat may, with the previous approval of the government, give land in shamlat deh free of cost to a landless worker residing in the Sabha Area for the construction of a house for his residence.
  • Despite these empowering provisions, the majority of SC citizens in rural Punjab continue to be deprived of this shamlat land owing to social dynamics and a lack of political will.

Historical background of land ownership in the Punjab region:

  • Absentee landlordism was a significant feature of land holdings during the Mughal and British periods in Indian history.
  • In Punjab around 1710, Baba Banda Singh Bahadur led a historic campaign for the abolition of the Zamindari system and conferred the ownership rights on actual tillers of the land.
    • The status of these land-owning castes, especially the Jatt Sikhs, was further consolidated upon the formation of the 12 Sikh Misls (the Sikh Confederacy) and subsequently during Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s reign over areas situated to the north of the Sutlej or trans-Sutlej (mainly Majha and Doaba).
  • British dominance over Sikh rulers in Malwa led to a strong prevalence of the Zamindari system in the region, especially the erstwhile PEPSU (Patiala and East Punjab States Union).
  • The land ownership was primarily vested in a handful of Zamindar families whose estates ran into thousands of acres tilled by tenants or peasants referred to as Muzaras locally.
    • These Zamindars as well as the Muzaras belonged to similar agrarian caste groups but were separated in their social standing on the basis of land ownership.
  • Post Independence (during the 1950s), the Malwa region of Punjab witnessed the famous PEPSU Muzara movement wherein the rallying cry was “The land belongs to the tiller”.
  • The movement was a big success and the surplus land freed from erstwhile Zamindars was redistributed amongst the Muzaras or crop tenants.
  • The primary legislations governing the redistribution of land to its actual tillers were the Punjab Land Reforms Act, 1972 and the Punjab Utilization of Surplus Area Scheme, 1973.
  • Land Reforms Act, 1972 replaced the previous land governing laws and acts.

6. Atmospheric rivers over California’s wildfire burn scars raise fears of deadly mudslides

Subject: Geography

Context:

  • Rivers of muddy water from heavy rainfall raced through city streets as thousands of people evacuated homes downhill from California’s wildfire burn scars amid atmospheric river storms drenching the state in early January 2023.

Atmospheric river storms:

  • Atmospheric rivers are long, narrow bands of moisture in the atmosphere that extend from the tropics to higher latitudes. These rivers in the sky can transport 15 times the volume of the Mississippi River.
    • Atmospheric rivers are typically located within the low-level jet, an area of strong winds in the lower levels of the atmosphere, ahead of the cold front in an extratropical cyclone.
  • When that moisture reaches the coast and moves inland, it rises over the mountains, generating rain and snowfall. Many fire-weary westerners welcome these deluges, but atmospheric rivers can trigger other disasters, such as extreme flooding and debris flows.
  • Atmospheric rivers occur globally, affecting the west coasts of the world’s major land masses, including Portugal, Western Europe, Chile and South Africa.

  • Also called “Pineapple Express” storms that carry moisture from Hawaii to the United States West Coast are just one of their many flavours.
    • In the 1960s meteorologists coined the phrase “Pineapple Express” to describe storm tracks that originated near Hawaii and carried warm water vapour to the coast of North America.
    • By the late 1990s atmospheric scientists had found that over 90 per cent of the world’s moisture from the tropics and subtropics was transported to higher latitudes by similar systems, which they named “atmospheric rivers.”
  • Wildfire burn scars are particularly risky because wildfires strip away vegetation and make the soil hydrophobic – meaning it is less able to absorb water.
  • A downpour on these vulnerable landscapes can quickly erode the ground, and fast-moving water can carry debris, rocks and mud with it.

Classification:

  • Atmospheric river classification scale ranks the storms from 1 to 5, similar to systems for categorizing hurricanes and tornadoes.
    • Atmospheric River category 1 (AR1) and AR2 storms caused estimated damages under $1 million.
    • AR4 and AR5 storms caused median damages in the 10s and 100s of millions of dollars
    • The most damaging AR4s and AR5s generated impacts of over $1 billion per storm. These billion-dollar storms occurred every three to four years.
  • The most significant finding was an exponential relationship between the intensity of atmospheric rivers and the flood damages they caused. Each increase in the scale from 1 to 5 was associated with a 10-fold increase in damages.

Climate change intensifies the risk:

  • Soot and ash deposits on snowpack can increase snowmelt, change the timing of runoff and cause snow-driven flooding.
  • Atmospheric rivers are predicted to grow longer, wetter and wider in a warming climate.
    • Greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere, warming the planet. This causes more water to evaporate from oceans and lakes, and increased moisture in the air makes storm systems grow stronger.
    • In dry conditions, atmospheric rivers can replenish water supplies and quench dangerous wildfires. In wet conditions, they can cause damaging floods and debris flows, wreaking havoc on local economies.

7. Water crisis: World to lose 26% storage by 2050 to trapped sediment, says new UN report

Subject: Geography

Context:

  • About 50,000 large dams across the world will lose 24-28 per cent water storage capacity by 2050 due to sediment trapped in them, a report by the United Nations Institute for Water, Environment and Health showed.

Details:

  • These water reservoirs have already lost about 13-19 per cent capacity to sedimentation.
  • The United Kingdom, Panama, Ireland, Japan and Seychelles will experience the highest water storage losses by 2050 from 35-50 per cent of their original capacities. By contrast, Bhutan, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Guinea and Niger will be the five least-affected countries, losing less than 15 per cent by mid-century.
  • India’s 3,700 large dams will have lost on average 26 per cent of their initial total storage by 2050.
  • Japan is the most vulnerable country with an estimated loss of nearly 50% of water storage capacity by 2050.
  • The loss will challenge many aspects of national economies, including irrigation, power generation and water supply.

Estimated storage loss by 2050

Estimated storage loss at present (2022)

Sedimentation and its impact:

  • Sedimentation is the deposition of sediments. It takes place when particles in suspension settle out of the fluid in which they are entrained and come to rest against a barrier.
  • Sedimentation is caused when a river carrying eroded soil is blocked by a dam at its watershed.
  • The sudden drop in water velocity leads to the deposition of large volumes of particles in the calm waters of the reservoirs.
  • While sediment helps maintain the aquatic ecosystem, poor management can lead to nutritional disbalances causing eutrophication and other disruptions in the water pool of the dam, as well as damages in habitations downstream.
  • Loss of capacity occurs due to infilling of dams by trapped sediments.
  • Sediments can also damage dam structures and turbines.
  • Shallow water also reduces the recreational value of the reservoirs.
  • Unsustainable land-use practices may make sedimentation more aggressive by loosening up soil upstream.

8. Kumarakom, Beypore find place in Centre’s Swadesh Darshan 2.0

Subject : History

  • Two more tourism destinations in Kerala have made it to the list of places selected for the Swadesh Darshan 2.0 scheme of the Union Ministry of Tourism.
  • As per an office memorandum released by the Union Ministry of Tourism, Kumarakom in Kottayam and Beypore in Kozhikode have been selected along with 34 other destinations from 19 states and Union Territories for development under the Swadesh Darshan 2.0 Scheme.
  • In Swadesh Darshan scheme 1.0 importance was given to circuit tourism, the 0 version aims at developing specific destinations.

Swadesh Darshan 2.0

  • Swadesh Darshan 2.0 is not an incremental change but a generational shift to evolve the Swadesh Darshan Scheme as a holistic mission to develop sustainable and responsible tourism destinations.
  • It will help develop sustainable and responsible destinations with a tourist and destination centric approach.
  • It will encourage the development of benchmarks and standards for generic and theme-specific development of tourism destinations and the States will follow the benchmarks and standards while planning and developing the projects.
  • The following major themes have been identified for tourism under the Scheme:
    • Culture and Heritage
    • Adventure Tourism
    • Eco-Tourism
    • Wellness Tourism
    • MICE Tourism
    • Rural Tourism
    • Beach Tourism
    • Cruises – Ocean & Inland

Significance:

  • The revamped scheme seeks to enhance the contribution of tourism to local economies.
  • It aims to create jobs including self-employment for local communities, to enhance the skills of local youth in tourism and hospitality, to increase private sector investment in tourism and hospitality and to preserve and enhance local cultural and natural resources.

Swadesh Darshan Scheme

  • It was launched in 2014-15 for integrated development of theme-based tourist circuits — Buddhist Circuit, Coastal Circuit, Desert Circuit, Eco Circuit, Heritage Circuit, Northeast Circuit, Himalayan Circuit, Sufi Circuit, Krishna Circuit, Ramayana Circuit, Rural Circuit, Spiritual Circuit, Tirthankar Circuit, Wildlife Circuit and Tribal Circuit.
  • It is 100% centrally funded and efforts are made to achieve convergence with other schemes of Central and State Governments and also to leverage the voluntary funding available for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives of Central Public Sector Undertakings and Corporate Sector.

9. Office of Registrar General of India following obsolete criteria to define ST’s

Subject : History

Context: The Office of the Registrar General of India (RGI) is following the set of criteria set out by the Lokur Committee nearly 60 years ago to define any new community as a Scheduled Tribe as per the RTI reply submitted by office of RGI.

  • This comes even as the government, until December 2017, insisted in Parliament that it was considering a proposal to change the criteria for scheduling of new communities as STs based on the report of an internal task force, which called these criteria “obsolete”, “condescending”, “dogmatic”, and “rigid”.

Lokur Committee

  • The Lokur Committee (1965) was set up to look into criteria for defining Schedule Tribes.
  • The Committee recommended 5 criteria for identification, namely, primitive traits, distinct culture, geographical isolation, shyness of contact with the community at large, and backwardness.

Internal task force and proposed Criteria

  • A Task Force under the Chairmanship of the then Secretary (Tribal Affairs) was constituted by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs in February, 2014 to examine the existing criteria and procedure.
  • The Task Force in its report submitted to the Ministry has made recommendations, among other things, for revision of criteria and procedure for scheduling of tribes as STs.
  • It includes “socioeconomic, including educational, backwardness, the rest of the population of the State; historical geographical isolation which may or may not exist today; distinct language/dialect; presence of a core culture relating to life­cycle, marriage, songs, dance, paintings, folklore; endogamy, or in case of exogamy, marital relationship primarily with other STs.

Registrar General of India

  • The Registrar General of India was founded in 1961 by the Government of India under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
  • It arranges, conducts and analyses the results of the demographic surveys of India including the Census of India and Linguistic Survey of India.
  • The position of Registrar is usually held by a civil servant holding the rank of Joint Secretary.

10. Will not try curative plea in Bhopal gas leak case like a suit, says SC

Subject :Polity

  • A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court made it clear to the government that it will not “try” the curative petition of the Centre like a suit, by re­opening a $470­ million compensation settlement finalised with the Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) over 30 years ago in the Bhopal gas leak tragedy case.

Curative Petition

  • The concept of the curative petition was first evolved by the Supreme Court of India in Rupa Ashok Hurra vs. Ashok Hurra and another case (2002) on the question whether an aggrieved person is entitled to any relief against the final judgement/order of the Supreme Court, even after the dismissal of a review petition.
  • It’s objectives are twofolds- avoid miscarriage of justice and to prevent abuse of process.

Constitutional Background:

  • The concept of the curative petition is supported by Article 137 of the Indian Constitution.
  • It provides that in the matter of laws and rules made under Article 145, the Supreme Court has the power to review any judgement pronounced (or order made) by
  • Such a petition needs to be filed within 30 days from the date of judgement or order.

Procedure:

  • A curative petition may be filed after a review plea against the final conviction is dismissed.
  • It can be entertained if the petitioner establishes that there was a violation of the principles of natural justice, and that he was not heard by the court before passing an order.
  • It must be rare rather than regular.
  • A curative petition must be first circulated to a Bench of the three senior-most judges, and the judges who passed the concerned judgment, if available.
  • Only when a majority of the judges conclude that the matter needs hearing should it be listed before the same Bench.
  • The Bench at any stage of consideration of the curative petition can ask a senior counsel to assist it as amicus curiae (Friend of the court).
  • A curative petition is usually decided by judges in the chamber unless a specific request for an open-court hearing is allowed.

Grounds for Rejection:

  • In the event of the Bench holding at any stage that the petition is without any merit, it may impose a penalty on the petitioner.

11. Women seek scrapping of Section 17 of CrPc

Subject :Polity

  • A women’s group demanded the repeal of Section 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure along with AFSPA Act.

Section 197 of CrPc

  • As per provisions of section 197 of CrPc, a sanction is required from the competent authority to prosecute public servants if an act they are alleged to have committed directly concerns their official duty.
  • The authority is required to consider all the material presented to it before deciding on whether a sanction to prosecute the person can be recommended.
  • This protection is also not available to the employees of Public Sector Enterprise (PSEs), as such persons cannot be brought within the ambit of Section 197 of Cr. P.C. even though PSEs constitute ”State” within the meaning of the Article 12 of the Constitution (Mohd. Hadi Raja vs State Of Bihar And Anr, 1998).

Banks to report every penny paid as interest to depositor

  • The Income Tax department has notified that effective January 5, each bank, financial institution and post office has to report every rupee of interest paid to a depositor. “
  • The information is to be reported for all account/deposit holders where any interest exceeds zero per account in the financial year, excluding Jan Dhan accounts according to the notification.
  • The limit earlier was set at ₹5,000 per person per financial year. The move will help in widening the tax base and plug the leakages.
  • However, this will not have any impact on the exemption available under Section 80TTA and Section 80 TTB of the Income tax Act.

Section 80TTA of the Income Tax Act, 1961

  • Section 80TTA of the Income Tax Act, 1961 addresses the tax deductions for interest payments.
  • Interest on savings accounts maintained by individuals (excluding senior citizen) or Hindu Undivided Families (HUF) is subject to this deduction.
  • 10,000 rupees is the maximum deduction that can be made for all savings accounts.
  • Eligibility Criteria of Section 80TTA
  • The organizations listed below are eligible to deduct interest on all of their savings bank and post office accounts under Section 80TTA.
  • HUF (Hindu Undivided Family)
  • Individuals (excluding Senior Citizens)
  • NRIs (Non-Resident Indians).

Section 80TTB under the Income Tax Act

  • A taxpayer who is a resident senior citizen and is 60 years of age or older can avail benefits under Section 80TTB.
  • At any point during a Financial Year (FY), a senior citizen may deduct a certain amount from his gross total income up to 50000 for that FY under Section 80TTB.
  • Eligibility Criteria of Section 80TTB
  • The following people are qualified for Section 80TTB deductions:
  • Taxpayers who fall under the senior citizen category (people aged above 60 years)
  • Individuals from India
  • Seniors with savings, fixed-deposit, or recurring deposit accounts
  • A person holding the aforementioned accounts at cooperative societies, banks, or post offices.

12. India seeks to bids to set up green hydrogen plants

Subject :Environment

  • India will invite bids for subsidies for setting up green-hydrogen manufacturing and utilization hubs, fertilizer and steel plants based on the fuel, and factories for making electrolysers, two government sources told Reuters.
  • The bidding process is part of a first phase of a $2 billion incentive plan announced last week to boost use of green hydrogen to cut emissions and make India a major exporter in the field.

National Green Hydrogen Plan

  • National Green Hydrogen Mission, aims at substituting all ammonia-based fertilizer imports with domestic fertilizers using green ammonia by 2034-35.
  • The government wants India to produce 5 million tonnes of green hydrogen annually by 2030.
  • It aims to entail over Rs 8 lakh crore of total investments and is expected to generate six lakh jobs.
  • It will also lead to a cumulative reduction in fossil fuel imports by over Rs 1 lakh crore and an abatement of nearly 50 MT of annual greenhouse gas emissions.
  • Similarly, steel projects using 100% green hydrogen will be set up, according to two sources.
  • Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is the nodal ministry of the mission.

Implementation

  • The hydrogen plan is to be implemented in phases.
  • Up to 2025-26, sectors already using hydrogen will be converted to green hydrogen and low-cost electrolyser manufacturing will be set up.
  • In the second phase, between 2026-27 and 2029-30, production of commercial-scale green hydrogen in steel and mobility sectors will be explored, the two officials said.

Green Hydrogen

  • Green hydrogen is produced by electrolysis of water using renewable energy (like Solar, Wind) and has a lower carbon footprint.
  • Electricity splits water into hydrogen and oxygen.

By Products : Water, Water Vapor.

Green hydrogen has specific advantages:

  • Environment Friendly: Green Hydrogen as energy source is seen as the next big thing as its usage would lead to zero emissions
  • Potential to Decarbonise various sectors: It is a clean burning molecule, which can decarbonise a range of sectors including iron and steel, chemicals, and transportation.
  • Efficient utilization of Renewable Energy: Renewable energy that cannot be stored or used by the grid can be channelled to produce hydrogen.
  • Reduced Dependence on Rare Minerals: Green Hydrogen also holds the key to clean electric mobility that doesn’t depend on rare minerals. Green Hydrogen helps achieve long-term vision of reduced dependency on minerals and rare-earth element-based battery as energy storage.
  • Helps Achieve Paris Goal: Green hydrogen energy is vital for India to meet its Nationally Determined Contributions and ensure regional and national energy security, access and availability
  • Energy Security: Green energy helps reduce import dependency on fossil fuels

Challenges with regard to Hydrogen Fuel

  • Fuelling Infrastructure: A big barrier to the adoption of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles has been a lack of fuelling station infrastructure — fuel cell cars refuel in a similar way to conventional cars, but can’t use the same station (only 500 in the world & that too in Europe, Japan, South Korea)
  • Safety is seen as a concern: Hydrogen is pressurised and stored in a cryogenic tank, from there it is fed to a lower-pressure cell and put through an electro-chemical reaction to generate electricity.
  • Scaling up the technology and achieving critical mass remains the big challenge. More vehicles on the road and more supporting infrastructure can lower costs.

Other Types of Hydrogen

  • Brown hydrogen is produced using coal where the emissions are released to the air.
  • Grey hydrogen is produced from natural gas where the associated emissions are released to the air.
  • Blue hydrogen is produced from natural gas, where the emissions are captured using carbon capture and storage.

13. Myanmar airstrikes target rebel camp near border, panic in Mizoram village

Subject: International Relations

  • Residents of Mizoram’s Farkawn village, within 2 to 5 km of Camp Victoria, panicked when they heard sounds of the bombing.
  • People working on the Indian side of the river Tiau, which demarcates the international boundary, fled to their homes in the village.
  • The Myanmar military launched air strikes on Camp Victoria in Chin State late Tuesday afternoon, and it continued into the night. The Chin Human Rights Organisation said five of its cadres, two of them women, were killed in the strikes.

Chin Community

  • Since late 1980s, thousands of members of the Chin community of Myanmar have fled to Mizoram because of the military junta.
  • Though many returned to Myanmar after democracy was restored in the country, thousands of them are still living in the state.
  • After the recent political turmoil in Myanmar, People belonging to Myanmar’s Chin community were seeking to migrate to Mizoram to escape a military crackdown, primarily because of the Chin National Army (CNA), an extremist group seeking self-determination in Chin State across the border.
  • The Chin community and the Mizos in India belong to the Zo ethnic group, which share the same ancestry.

Chin National Army

  • Chin National Army is the armed wing of Chin National Front (CNF), a group fighting for a federal union based on self-determination, ethnic equality and democracy in Myanmar.
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