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Daily Prelims Notes 9 July 2021

  • July 9, 2021
  • Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
  • Category: DPN
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Daily Prelims Notes

9 July 2021

Table Of Contents

  1. Madurai Malli exported to USA and Dubai
  2. Methane-producing Processes on Enceladus
  3. Cabinet extends Agri Infra Fund loans to APMCs
  4. Appointment of Chief Minister
  5. SPARSH (System for Pension Administration Raksha)
  6. Silambam Martial Art
  7. Zika virus
  8. Ministry of Cooperation
  9. Common Service Centers (CSCs)
  10. National Dolphin Research Centre (NDRC)
  11. States leading in micro irrigation reaps benefit from new scheme

 

 

1. Madurai Malli exported to USA and Dubai

Subject: Economy

Context: Consignments of Geographical Indications (GI) certified Madurai malli and other traditional flowers such as button rose, lily, chamanthi and marigold were exported to USA and Dubai from Tamil Nadu.

Concept:

  • Indian community in Dubai and USA would be able to offer freshflowers to Hindu deities both at home and temples while celebrating religious and cultural festivals after exports of flowers from India continue at regular interval.
  • During 2020-2021, fresh cut flowers jasmine flowers and bouquets (comprising of jasmine and other traditional flowers) valued at Rs 66.28 crores were exported to countries like USA,UAE, Singapore, etc.

About Madurai Malli

  • It is a jasmine flower which is known for its powerful, mysteriously attractive and seductive fragrance.
  • It is called as Madurai Malli because of its place of origin namely Madurai which is a province of Tamil Nadu.
  • It is a very old traditional flower and has a botanical name of Jasminium.
  • The Jasmine City or Madurai is also known as Malligai Managar.
  • The ideal season for growth of Madurai Malli is warm summer and bright sunny days.
  • The soil requirement for Madurai Malli varies from sandy loamy soil to even clayey soil.
  • It was granted the status of Geographical Indications (GI) under GI Act 1999 in 2013.

2. Methane-producing Processes on Enceladus

Subject : Science & tech

Context : Recently, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has detected an unusually high concentration of methane, along with carbon dioxide and dihydrogen, in the moons of Saturn by flying through their plumes.

Concept :

  • The giant water plumes erupting from Enceladus have inspired research and speculation about the vast ocean that is believed to be sandwiched between the moon’s rocky core and its icy shell.
  • The Cassini spacecraft has found that Titan has methane in its atmosphere and Enceladus has a liquid ocean with erupting plumes of gas and water.
  • An international research team has used new statistical methods to understand if methanogenesis or methane production by microbes could explain the molecular hydrogen and methane.

Methanogens

  • Most of the methane on Earth has a biological origin. Microorganisms called methanogens are capable of generating methane as a metabolic byproduct.
  • They do not require oxygen to live and are widely distributed in nature. They are found in swamps, dead organic matter, and even in the human gut.
  • They are known to survive in high temperatures and simulation studies have shown that they can live in Martian conditions.
  • Methanogens have been widely studied to understand if they can be a contributor to global warming.
  • Methane could be formed by the chemical breakdown of organic matter present in Enceladus’ core.
  • Hydrothermal processes could help the formation of carbon dioxide and methane. On Earth, hydrothermal vents on seafloors are known to release methane, but this happens at a very slow rate.

Methanogens on Enceladus

  • The team using the newly developed model gave a set of conditions, including dihydrogen concentration and different temperatures to understand if microbes would grow.
  • The team writes that methane could be formed by the chemical breakdown of organic matter present in Enceladus’ core.
  • Hydrothermal processes could help the formation of carbon dioxide and methane.
  • The results suggest that methane production from hydrothermal vents is not sufficient to explain the high methane concentration detected by Cassini in the plumes.

About Cassini Mission

  • It was launched on October 15, 1997 on a seven-year journey to investigate Saturn, its rings, and its moons.
  • The spacecraft consists of an orbiter and the European Space Agency’s Huygens Titan probe.
  • Cassini arrived at the planet in 2004 and continues to study the Saturn system with 12 different instruments.
  • The Huygens probe was deployed from the Cassini spacecraft and landed on the moon Titan in January of 2005.
  • The probe entered the clouds of Titan and gathered atmospheric data and images as it parachuted to the surface.
  • Cassini-Huygens was a mission of firsts because it was first to orbit Saturn, first landing in the outer solar system and first to sample an extraterrestrial ocean.
  • It revealed Titan to be one of the most Earth-like worlds we have encountered and shed light on the history of our home planet.

3. Cabinet extends Agri Infra Fund loans to APMCs

Subject : Governance

Context : The Centre has decided to allow state-run market yards to access financing facilities through its Agricultural Infrastructure Fund to calm the fears of protesting farmers that such market yards are being weakened.

Concept :

  • It is a central sector scheme

Aim:

  • To provide medium – long term debt financing facility for investment in viable projects for post-harvest management Infrastructure and community farming assets.
  • The funds will be provided for setting up of cold stores and chains, warehousing, grading and packaging units, e-marketing points linked to e-trading platforms, besides PPP projects for crop aggregation sponsored by central/state/local bodies.
  • Duration: Financial Year 2020 to 2029.

Eligible Beneficiaries:

  • They are Farmers, FPOs, PACS, Marketing Cooperative Societies, SHGs, Joint Liability Groups (JLG), Multipurpose Cooperative Societies, Agri-entrepreneurs, Start-ups, and Central/State agency or Local Body sponsored Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Projects.
  • Financial Support: 1 Lakh Crore will be provided by banks and financial institutions as loans to eligible beneficiaries.
  • Moratorium for repayment may vary subject to minimum of 6 months and maximum of 2 years.
  • Interest Subvention: Loans will have interest subvention of 3% per annum up to a limit of Rs. 2 crore. This subvention will be available for a maximum period of seven years.
  • CGTMSE Scheme: A credit guarantee coverage will be available for eligible borrowers from the scheme under Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) scheme for a loan up to Rs. 2 crore.

4. Appointment of Chief Minister

Subject : Polity

Context : Recently, Pushkar Singh Dhami has been appointed as Chief Minister of Uttarakhand.

Concept :

Constitutional Provisions for Appointment of a Chief Minister

  • The Constitution does not contain any specific procedure for the selection and appointment of the Chief Minister.
  • Article 164 only says that the Chief Minister shall be appointed by the governor.
  • It does not imply that the governor is free to appoint any one as the Chief Minister.
  • The governor has to appoint the leader of the majority party in the state legislative assembly as the Chief Minister.

Conditions for Appointment of Chief Minister

  • The Constitution does not require that a person must prove his majority in the legislative assembly before he is appointed as the Chief Minister.
  • A person who is not a member of the state legislature can be appointed as Chief Minister for six months, within which time, he should be elected to the state legislature, failing which he ceases to be the Chief Minister.
  • The Constitution provides that the Chief Minister may be a member of any of the two Houses of a state legislature.

Term of Chief Minister

  • The term of the Chief Minister is not fixed and he holds office during the pleasure of the governor.
  • The Chief Minister cannot be dismissed by the governor as long as he enjoys the majority support in the legislative assembly.

5. SPARSH (System for Pension Administration Raksha)

Subject : Governance

Context : Recently, the Ministry of Defence has implemented SPARSH (System for Pension Administration Raksha).

Concept :

SPARSH (System for Pension Administration Raksha)

  • It is an integrated system for automation of sanction and disbursement of defence pension.
  • It is a web-based system which processes pension claims and credits pension directly into the bank accounts of defence pensioners without relying on any external intermediary.
  • It is an end to end Online System facilitating and easing every aspect of Defence Pensions from Initiation to Disbursement.
  • It is being implemented for meeting the pension sanction and disbursement requirements for Armed Forces viz. Army, Navy, Air Force and Defence Civilians.
  • It will be administered by the Defence Accounts Department through the Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (Pensions), Prayagraj.

Significance of SPARSH

  • It is available for pensioners to view their pension related information, access services and register complaints for redressal of grievances, if any, relating to their pension matters.
  • It envisages establishment of Service Centres to provide last mile connectivity to pensioners who may be unable to directly access the SPARSH portal for any reason.
  • The two largest banks dealing with defence pensioners i.e. State Bank of India (SBI) and Punjab National Bank (PNB) have been co-opted as Service Centres.
  • It will interface all the stakeholders and provide a single source of truth thereby ensuring transparency, accountability and ease of doing business through information dissemination.

6. Silambam Martial Art

Subject : Culture

Context : Recently, a migrant worker who choreographed and performed a sequence of Silambam had won the top prize at a talent competition.

Concept :

About Silambam Martial Art

  • It is considered as the best form of self-defense technique and is often practiced as a sport.
  • It is an ancient weapon-based martial art that emerged in Tamilakam, which is now Tamil Nadu region of India.
  • The term Silambam contains a meaning which itself reveals about the sport, silam stands for a ‘mountain’ and bam stands for bamboo which is the main weapon used in this form of martial arts.
  • The bamboo staff is the main weapon and the length of the bamboo staff depends on the height of the practitioner.

Besides this, there are more weapons used in Silambam which are as listed below:

  • Maru- thrusting weapon which is made from horns of deer.
  • Aruva- sickle
  • Savuku- a whip
  • Vaal- curved sword
  • Kuttu Katai- spiked knuckleduster
  • Katti- knife
  • Sedikuchi- cudgel or short stick

Origin Silambam Martial Art

  • It is believed to be originated somewhere around 1000 BCE.
  • It was brought by the sage Agastya Munivar.
  • Sillappadikkaram and many other works of Sangam literature mentions about the practice and it dates back to 2nd century BC whereas oral folk tales traces it back even further around 7000 years.

7. Zika virus

Subject: Science and Tech

Context: Kerala is on alert after detecting at least 15 cases of the Zika virus. All district administrations have been told to keep a close eye on cases of mosquito bites, and conduct fumigation drives.

Concept:

  • Zika is a viral infection, It spread by Aedes aegypti mosquito, which also spreads dengue and chikungunya.
  • It is a contagious disease, infected people can transmit Zika sexually. The incubation period (the time from exposure to symptoms) of Zika virus disease is estimated to be 3-14 days
  • It was first identified in Uganda in 1947 in monkeys, Zika was detected in humans five years later.
  • Sporadic cases have been reported throughout the world since the 1960s, but the first outbreak happened only in 2007 in the Island of Yap in the Pacific.
  • A major outbreak in Brazil led to the revelation that Zika can be associated with microcephaly, a condition in which babies are born with small and underdeveloped brains.
  • In India, Zika virus was first recorded in 1952-53. The latest major outbreak was in 2018, when 80 cases were reported in Rajasthan.
  • It results involve microcephaly, especially when pregnant women are infected.
  • It has been reported a steep increase in Guillain-Barré syndrome — a neurological disorder that could lead to paralysis and death, according to the WHO.

The symptoms of Zika virus

  • Most people infected with the virus do not develop symptoms.
  • The symptoms are similar to those of flu, including fever body ache, headache etc.
  • The symptoms worsen, people should seek medical advice, the occasional rash like in dengue, while some patients also have conjunctivitis.

Treatment

  • Zika virus usually require rest, consumption of plenty of fluids, and common pain and fever medicines
  • Zika has no treatment or vaccine.

8. Ministry of Cooperation

Subject: Polity

Context: On Monday, the government announced the formation of a separate Union Ministry of Cooperation, a subject that till date was looked after by the Ministry of Agriculture.

Concept:

  • A Co-operative based economic development model is very relevant where each member works with a spirit of responsibility. Cooperative institutions like village-level PACS or the urban cooperative housing societies, elect their leaders democratically, with members voting for a board of directors.
  • Cooperative institutions get capital from the Centre, either as equity or as working capital, for which the state governments stand guarantee. The cooperative movement would get the required financial and legal power needed to penetrate into other states also.
  • Cooperative sugar mills account for 35% of the sugar produced in the country.
  • In banking and finance, cooperative institutions are spread across rural and urban areas.

Cooperative movement

  • Cooperatives are organisations formed at the grassroots level by people to harness the power of collective bargaining towards a common goal.
  • In agriculture, cooperative dairies, sugar mills, spinning mills etc are formed with the pooled resources of farmers who wish to process their produce.
  • Village-level primary agricultural credit societies (PACSs) formed by farmer associations are the best example of grassroots-level credit flow.
  • These societies anticipate the credit demand of a village and make the demand to the district central cooperative banks (DCCBs).
  • State cooperative banks sit at the apex of the rural cooperative lending structure. Given that PACSs are a collective of farmers, they have much more bargaining powers than an individual farmer pleading his case at a commercial bank.
  • There are also cooperative marketing societies in rural areas and cooperative housing societies in urban areas.

Need and Objective of new Ministry

  • The Ministry of Cooperation will provide a separate administrative legal and policy framework for strengthening the cooperative movement in the country.
  • It will help deepen Co-operatives as a true people based movement reaching upto the grassroots.
  • The Ministry will work to streamline processes for ‘Ease of doing business’ for co-operatives and enable development of Multi-State Co-operatives .

Laws governing cooperative societies

  • Subjects like agriculture, cooperation is in the concurrent list,
  • A majority of the cooperative societies are governed by laws in their respective states, with a Cooperation Commissioner and the Registrar of Societies as their governing office.
  • In 2002, the Centre passed a MultiState Cooperative Societies Act that allowed for registration of societies with operations in more than one state. These are mostly banks, dairies and sugar mills whose area of operation spreads across states.
  • The Central Registrar of Societies is their controlling authority, but on the ground the State Registrar takes actions on his behalf.

9. Common Service Centers (CSCs)

Subject: Polity

Context: The Common Service Centres (CSCs)  a special purpose vehicle of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology  has carved out a niche for itself in facilitating ease of access to government services in nearly all the gram panchayats across the country.

Concept:.

  • CSC e-Governance Services India Limited is a Special Purpose Vehicle (CSC SPV) incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956 by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India, to monitor the implementation of the Common Services Centers Scheme.
  • CSCs are the access points for delivery of various electronic services to villages in India, thereby contributing to a digitally and financially inclusive society.
  • CSCs are more than service delivery points in rural India. They are positioned as change agents, promoting rural entrepreneurship and building rural capacities and livelihoods.
  • They are enablers of community participation and collective action for engendering social change through a bottom-up approach with key focus on the rural citizen.
  • CSCs enable the three vision areas of the Digital India programme:
  1. Digital infrastructure as Utility to Every Citizen
  2. Governance and services on demand
  3. Digital empowerment of citizens

Partners

  • Village Level Entrepreneur (VLE) to provide service to the rural consumer in villages.
  • The agency designated by the State – State Designated Agency (SDA)—to facilitate implementation of the Scheme within the State.
  • Others include central ministries, their departments and other central agencies to offer various services to the citizens and partner banks (public and private sector) and regional rural banks to enable CSCs to become Banking Correspondent Agents / Customer Service Points to deliver various banking and financial services.

Services offered

The CSCs would provide high quality and cost-effective video, voice and data content and services, in the areas of e-governance, education, health, telemedicine, entertainment as well as other private services.

10. National Dolphin Research Centre (NDRC)

Subject: Environment

Context: The much-awaited National Dolphin Research Centre (NDRC), a big step for the conservation of the endangered Gangetic river dolphin, will soon be a reality as the process to set it up has finally begun.

Concept:

  • The Bihar forest, environment and climate change department had sought approval for this as any construction within 200 metres of the Ganga is restricted.
  • The state could have taken advantage of Project Dolphin on the lines of Project Tiger,
  • The steering committee for the implementation of Project Dolphin, said Bihar had a natural advantage as it accounted for 50 per cent of the world’s river dolphin population dolphin habitat had been threatened and disturbed in the Ganga.
  • NDRC would boost conservation efforts of dolphins and would provide an opportunity for in-depth research on dolphins including its changing behaviour, survival skills, food habits, cause of death and other aspects.

Gangetic river dolphin

  • The Gangetic river dolphin is India’s national aquatic animal. It is a Schedule I animal under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972. It has been declared an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
  • The Gangetic river dolphin is one of four freshwater dolphin species in the world. The other three are found in the Yangtze river in China (now extinct), the Indus river in Pakistan and the Amazon river in South America.
  • The dolphin is found in India, Bangladesh and Nepal. It is blind and finds its way and prey in river waters through echolocation. Bihar is home to around half of the estimated 3,000 Gangetic dolphins in India.
  • Dolphins prefer water that is at least five to eight feet deep. They are usually found in turbulent waters, where there are enough fish for them to feed on.
  • Gangetic dolphins live in a zone where there is little or no current, helping them save energy. If they sense danger, they can dive into deep waters. The dolphins swim from the no-current zone to the edges to hunt for fish and return.

11. States leading in micro irrigation reaps benefit from new scheme

Subject: Government schemes

Context:

  • Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have reaped maximum benefits from the centrally sponsored Scheme of Per Drop More Crop component of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY-PDMC)
  • Out of 53.73 lakh hectares covered under the micro-irrigation under this scheme, Karnataka has covered 10,92,874 hectares that is 20 per cent of the total micro-irrigation under the scheme while Tamil Nadu has covered8,06,966 hectares (15 per cent of the total).

The Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers Welfare (DAC&FW) is implementing a Centrally Sponsored Scheme of  ‘Per Drop More Crop’ component of ‘Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY-PDMC)’ from  2015-16 in all the States of the country which  focuses on enhancing water use efficiency at farm level through Micro Irrigation viz. Drip and Sprinkler irrigation systems. Besides promoting Micro Irrigation, this component also supports micro level water storage or water conservation/management activities to supplement source creation for Micro Irrigation.

  • An area of 52.93 lakh ha has been covered under Micro Irrigation in the country from 2015-16 to till date.   Further, 4.84 lakh micro level water harvesting / secondary storage structures have been created under the scheme to supplement the micro irrigation.
  • Recent evaluation studies of the scheme indicate that the coverage of Micro Irrigation is relevant in achieving national priorities such as substantially improving on-farm water use efficiency, enhancing crop productivity, ensuring better returns to farmers, generating employment opportunities etc.  Further, the scheme has been effective in terms of ensuring benefits for farmer’s e.g. higher productivity; reduction in labour cost, water consumption, power utilization, fertilizer use etc.
  • Efforts are being made to converge ‘Per Drop More Crop’Scheme with Atal Bhujal Yojana (ABHY), Namami Gange Districts, Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Surakshaevem Utthan Mahabhiyan (PM-KUSUM), Water Harvesting Structures through Watershed Development component of PMKSY to propagate micro irrigation intensively to contribute in achieving the desired targets to enhance the water use efficiency in agriculture.
  • With a view to provide impetus to the Micro Irrigation in the country, Micro Irrigation Fund (MIF) with a corpus of Rs. 5000 Crore was created with NABARD during 2018-19.
  • The major objective of the fund is to facilitate the States in mobilizing the resources to provide top up/additional incentives to farmers for incentivising micro irrigation beyond the provisions available under PMKSY-PDMC. States may also access MIF exclusively for innovative integrated projects (like high water duty crops like sugarcane/solar linked systems/Micro irrigation in command area etc.) including projects in PPP mode depending on State specific requirements. The GoI provides 3% interest subvention on loans extended to State Govt. under MIF.
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