UPSC NEWS DIARY FOR TODAY 12 JULY, 2022 | DAY LONG CURRENT AFFAIRS DIGEST FOR UPSC

”UPSC News Diary For Today” is every day published in the evening between 6-7 PM and contains all current affairs articles from the day on a single platform. ”UPSC News Diary For Today” covers various topics from UPSC Syllabus and is very helpful and time managing for UPSC Aspirants. The framing of this daily current affairs compilation article is easy to read and understandable also.

In the ”UPSC News Diary For Today” article, we focus on both UPSC Preliminary and Mains exam-oriented current affairs & prepare a gist of daily important news articles from leading National Newspapers, PIB, and other various official sources.

 

What is Functional epidemiology?

 

• Epidemiology is the foundation science of public health.
• Disease surveillance and epidemiology are two sides of the same coin; the former provides real-time information for action and the latter analyses data and facilitates planning.
• During the COVID-19 pandemic, lack of functional epidemiology led to inadequate forward planning.
• India has good epidemiologists, but they use their expertise predominantly for research and teaching — it is high time they used this discipline for managing public health.

 

What is Dark Matter?

 

Know about Dark Matter

• All interactions in the universe are a result of four fundamental forces acting on particles — strong nuclear force, weak nuclear force, electromagnetic force and gravitation.
• Dark matter is made up of particles that do not have a charge — which means they do not interact through electromagnetic interactions.
• So, these are particles that are “dark”, namely because they do not emit light, which is an electromagnetic phenomenon, and “matter” because they possess mass like normal matter and hence interact through gravity.
• Gravitational force, besides not being fully integrated and understood by particle physicists, is extremely weak. For one thing, a particle that interacts so weakly becomes rather elusive to detect.
• This is because interactions from other known particles could drown out signals of dark matter particles.

How could scientists infer the presence of dark matter?

• Dark matter makes up around 85% of the matter in the known universe, but because it doesn’t interact with light it is practically invisible. Likewise, whatever the constituent particles of dark matter are, they don’t interact strongly with other matter either.
• In fact, the only way scientists can infer the presence of dark matter is via its gravitational influence which literally holds together most galaxies, preventing their constituent stars from flying apart as they spin.

What is the latest about Dark Matter?

The latest to hit the news in the field of dark matter is a dark matter detector experiment named LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) in South Dakota in the U.S. As of today, this is the most sensitive dark matter detector in the world.

 

What are the powers of the CCPA?

 

Powers of the Central Consumer Protectipon Authority(CCPA)

• The CCPA has been established to regulate matters related to the violation of the rights of consumers.
• Under the Consumer Protection Act (CPA), 2019, the authority was established to regulate violations of consumer rights, unfair trade practices, and false or misleading advertisements that are prejudicial to the interest of the public.
• The CCPA has authority under section 18 of the CPA, 2019 to protect, promote and most importantly enforce the rights of the consumers and prevent violation of their rights under the Act.
• It also seeks to ensure that no person engages in unfair trade practices.
• It is also empowered to issue guidelines to enforce the rights of the consumers laid down in the Act.
• The authority has issued a letter to the Chief Secretaries of the States on service charge imposition, asking them to ensure compliance with the new guidelines on service charges.
• It has also been said that the State should instruct all the district magistrates to take appropriate action against violations of the guideline.

 

World Population

Sea Surface Temperature(SST)

 

• Sea surface temperature—the temperature of the water at the ocean surface—is an important physical attribute of the world’s oceans.
• The surface temperature of the world’s oceans varies mainly with latitude, with the warmest waters generally near the equator and the coldest waters in the Arctic and Antarctic regions.
• As the oceans absorb more heat, sea surface temperature increases, and the ocean circulation patterns that transport warm and cold water around the globe change.
• Changes in sea surface temperature can alter marine ecosystems in several ways. For example, variations in ocean temperature can affect what species of plants, animals, and microbes are present in a location, alter migration and breeding patterns, threaten sensitive ocean life such as corals, and change the frequency and intensity of harmful algal blooms such as “red tide.

 

Marine heatwaves

 

• A term coined as recently as 2011. This happens when SST exceeds 90 per cent for five days in a row, from the previous SST observations recorded at the same time in the last 30 years.
• The world has taken notice of its impacts on biodiversity, and the ripple effects on the economy.
• Marine heatwaves are classified as a hazard or natural calamity and these events often accompany El Niño events in the Pacific Ocean.
• Factors such as increased warming and weak winds contribute to its formation.
• Scientists have found that the western part of the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal were the most hit.

 

Melting Of the Arctic Region

 

• High SSTs are accelerating the melting of the white Arctic region. The extent of the Arctic Sea ice cover for May 2022 was 12.88 million sq km. This was 410,000 sq km below the 1981-2010 average, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, the US agency for polar and cryospheric research.
• In the South Pole, Antarctica does not seem as impacted. Still, the sea ice cover reached a record low in February 2022. The sea ice cover was 1.92 million sq km, which is 190,000 sq km below the previously held record on March 3, 2017.

 

A rise in Global Mean Sea Level

 

• The global mean sea level increased by an average of 4.5 millimetres (mm) per year between 2013 and 2021. This was two times higher than the 1993 and 2002 rates.
• The IPCC estimates that the global sea level could rise by 0.6 to 1.1 m by 2100 and 5 m by 2300 under the high emissions scenario.

 

Oxygen Minimum Zones and Dead Zones in the Ocean

 

• Warming oceans impair water movement, which leads to poor exchange of oxygen between the surface waters and deeper waters. This results in oxygen minimum zones and dead zones in the ocean.
• The ideal oxygen levels in the oceans should lie between 7 and 8 milligrams per litre (mg/l). Marine organisms start to leave their homes when the levels drop to 4 mg/l.
• Regions with oxygen concentrations below 2 mg/l are hypoxic or low oxygen zones. And those with less than 0.2 mg/l of oxygen are called anoxic.
• Globally, about 1.15 million sq km of the seafloor is exposed to oxygen concentrations of less than 0.7 mg/l. There’s evidence that the oxygen minimum zones are getting bigger globally due to global warming.
• The Arabian Sea is the poster child of oxygen minimum zones. It covers 20 per cent of the area, going as deep as 800 m.

 

Ocean Acidification

 

• While losing oxygen, the oceans are also turning acidic as they soak up more carbon dioxide (CO2).
• The term “ocean acidification” was first coined in 2003 after researchers suspected that acidic waters could take a toll on coral reefs and other organisms whose skeletons or shells are made of calcium carbonate.
• Acidification corrodes calcium.
• When CO2 is absorbed by seawater, a series of chemical reactions occur, eventually releasing hydrogen ions into the water.
• Before the preindustrial era, the ocean pH was 8.2. It is now 8.1. The pH scale is logarithmic, and a 0.1-unit reduction corresponds to a 30 per cent increase in acidity.
• If we continue on our current trajectory, the pH could further drop to around 7.8, suggest estimates. The open ocean surface pH is now the lowest it has been for at least 26,000 years, according to IPCC.

 

Impact Of Climate Change on the Indian Ocean

 

• The Indian Ocean, in particular, has emerged as the biggest victim of climate change.
• SST of the Indian Ocean has risen by an average of 1°C from 1951 to 2015, compared to the global average of about 0.7°C.
• Its average SST has touched 28.08°C, according to a 2014 study published in the Journal of Climate.
• But the warming is not the same everywhere. From 1901 to 2012, the western Indian Ocean warmed up by 1.28°C against an increase of 0.78°C recorded in other parts of the Indian Ocean.
• The pattern emerging from the Arabian Sea, the northern part of the Indian Ocean, is particularly concerning.
• It used to be cooler than 28°C, but during the last few decades, it has warmed up rapidly, with temperature trends crossing 1.2-1.4°C in parts of the Arabian Sea since the 1950s. Now its temperatures are often above 28°C, and it has started to favour cyclones.
• Between 2001 and 2019, the Arabian Sea recorded a 52 per cent increase in cyclones. Very severe cyclones have increased by 150 per cent.

 

IndiaStack Knowledge Exchange 2022

 

IndiaStack UPSC: Relevance

• GS 3: Achievements of Indians in science & technology; indigenization of technology and developing new technology.

 

Digital India Week: Context

• Recently, an event titled ‘India Stack Knowledge Exchange (ISKE)’ programme was organised as a part of the Digital India Week by the Ministry of Electronics & IT.

 

India Stack Knowledge Exchange: Key points

• The programme came to its culmination with the three brainstorming thematic sessions on ‘Urban Stack’, ‘Technology Stack for e-Commerce’ and ‘Space Technology Stack’.
• ISKE 2022 was also visualised to present to the global community, India Stack solutions and goods, and welcomed any nation to adopt, and customise them for their own use.

 

Urban Stack

• Smart Cities Mission, an ambitious project built around the 4 Quadrant approaches of Information, Communication, Prediction and Management, also includes the 3Ps of deployment – People, Policies & Processes and Platforms.
• Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP) is about effective movement of goods, reducing logistics cost and time, providing real-time information and improving international competitiveness.
• Digital Infrastructure for Governance, Impact and Transformation (DIGIT) enabled by India Stack has been implemented in over 1000 cities resulting in impact on 180 Million citizens.
• India Urban Data Exchange (IUDX) has been deployed in 18 cities, and highlighted success stories through examples of bus occupancy with ETA (Surat), Safe routes and places (Pune), Multimodal transport (Surat), Efficient solid waste pick (Varanasi), Adaptive traffic lights (Agartala) and flood warning (Chennai).

 

Technology Stack for e-Commerce

• The panel brainstormed on the technological challenges associated with the GeM platform built for procurement within the government sector, managing around 2.5 lakh crore worth of gross merchandise value.
• The panel also discussed the Open Network for Digital Commerce platform, which is a coveted initiative for eliminating monopoly from the platforms by bringing in a completely open-source domain which provides gateway to buyers and sellers between the platforms.
• It was also apprised that the eWay Bill has resulted into about 20–30% efficiency in logistics.

 

Space Technology Stack

• The thematic session gave insight into space technologies developed indigenously.
• It showcased Space Technology applications, namely, Satellite Communications, Navigation, Earth Observation, and Geospatial Data Dissemination.
• The eminent speakers shared how indigenously developed regional navigation system of India (NavIC), visualization system of India (VEDAS) and Indian storehouse for space-based weather & ocean data (MOSDAC) are crystallizing India’s position as a global leader in space technology.
• SATCOM’s application for e-Governance namely, Bhuvan, Bhoonidhi&Yuktdhara’s solutions was also shared.

 

What is India Stack?

• IndiaStack is a set of APIs that allows governments, businesses, startups and developers to utilise a unique digital Infrastructure to solve India’s hard problems towards presence-less, paperless, and cashless service delivery.

 

List of APIs

The following APIs are considered to be a core part of the India Stack.

• Aadhaar Authentication
• Aadhaar e-KYC
• eSign
• Digital Locker
• Unified Payment Interface (UPI)
• Digital User Consent – still work in progress.

The following APIs are also considered to be societal platforms built on similar principles like India Stack:

• GSTN – The Goods and Services Tax Network
• BBPS – The Bharat Bill Payment System
• ETC – Electronic Toll Collection (known under the brand FASTag)

 

Read current affairs for UPSC

CIET (NCERT) wins UNESCO’s King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize	World Mental Health Report 2022	National Conference on Cyber Safety and National Security	Single-use Plastic Ban to Effective from 1st July
MoHUA Launches NIPUN Scheme under DAY NULM	Pragati Maidan Integrated Transit Corridor	Critical Information Infrastructure (CII): Definition, Need and Protection	UNHCR Report on Forced Displacement in 2021
Payment Vision 2025	Parliamentary Panel Report on Promotion and Regulation of E-commerce in India	Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (MEF)	Key Takeaways of WTO 12th Ministerial Conference
India-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA): Negotiations Re-launched	Desertification and Drought Day	Criminal cases in Parliament: 40% Newly Elected RS MPs have Criminal Cases	AGNIPATH Scheme: Age Relaxation and Anti-Agnipath Protests

 

 

The Editorial Analysis ||DHFL Scam||: The Scam Faultline is Damaging Indian Banking

 

Scam in India 2022: Relevance

• GS 3: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment.

Banking scam in India: Context

• Recently, the DHFL scam—the biggest banking scam in India has come to the forefront in the midst of celebrations of ‘Aazadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’.

DHFL scam in India: Key points

• Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL) has hoodwinked a consortium of banks driven by the Union Bank of India to the tune of ₹35,000 crore through financial misrepresentation.

 

 

DHFL scam: What has happened?

• A consortium of banks had held a meeting to take cognisance of the serious allegations of loan repayment default against the DHFL.
• Subsequently, a core committee of seven of the largest banks — the State Bank of India (SBI), the Bank of Baroda (BoB), the Bank of India, Canara Bank, the Central Bank of India, Syndicate Bank and the Union Bank of India (UBI) — was formed.
• KPMG, a global auditing company was roped in as the evaluator to lead a unique survey review of the DHFL for the period April 1, 2015-March 31, 2019.
• The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), in its first information report, has shown that the State Bank of India was the most badly hit with a non-performing asset (NPA) base of ₹9,898 crore the very sum the DHFL acquired from it.

Significance of the scam

• The banking system of any country is the backbone of its economy. Excessive losses to banks affect every person in the country because the amounts deposited in banks belong to the citizens of the country.

Reasons of the scam

• RBI data show that around 34% of scams in the banking industry are on account of inside work and due to poor lending practices by and the involvement of the junior and mid-level management.
• The data also show that one of the fundamental problems in the way of the development of banking in India is on account of rising bank scams and the costs consequently forced on the framework.
• Frauds in the banking industry can be grouped under four classifications: ‘Management’, ‘Outsider’, ‘Insider’ and ‘Insider and Outsider’ (jointly).
• All scams, whether interior or outside, are results of operational failures.

NPA in India

• In Financial Stability Report RBI said that there is a projection of the gross NPAs of banks rising from 6.9% in September 2021 to 8.1% of total assets by September 2022 (under a baseline scenario) and to 9.5% under a severe stress scenario.
• Research by Deloitte has shown that limited asset monitoring after disbursement (38%) was the foremost reason behind stressed assets and insufficient due diligence before disbursement (21%) was among the major factors for these NPAs.
• A high NPA also reduces the net interest margin of banks besides increasing their operating cost; these banks meet this cost by increasing the convenience fee from their small customers on a day-to-day basis.

Scams in India: Steps needed

• Banks have to exercise due diligence and caution while offering funds as bad loans lead to high NPAs.
• The regulation and the control of chartered accountants is a very important step to reduce non-performing assets of banks.
• Banks should be cautious while lending to Indian companies that have taken huge loans abroad.
• There is also an urgent need to tighten the internal and external audit systems of banks.
• The fast rotation of employees of a bank’s loan department also needs to be considered.
• Public sector banks should set up an internal rating agency for rigorous evaluation of large projects before sanctioning loans.
• Further, there is a need to implement an effective Management Information System (MIS) to monitor early warning signals about business projects.
• The CIBIL score of the borrower should be evaluated by the bank concerned and RBI officials. This must also include the classification and responsibilities of the lending and recovery departments.
• Financial fraud can be reduced to a great extent by the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor financial transactions.
• Rather than having to continuously write off the bad loans of large corporates, India has to improve its loan recovery processes and establish an early warning system in the post-disbursement phase.
• Banks need to carry out fraud risk assessments every quarter.

 

Read current affairs for UPSC

CIET (NCERT) wins UNESCO’s King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize	World Mental Health Report 2022	National Conference on Cyber Safety and National Security	Single-use Plastic Ban to Effective from 1st July
MoHUA Launches NIPUN Scheme under DAY NULM	Pragati Maidan Integrated Transit Corridor	Critical Information Infrastructure (CII): Definition, Need and Protection	UNHCR Report on Forced Displacement in 2021
Payment Vision 2025	Parliamentary Panel Report on Promotion and Regulation of E-commerce in India	Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (MEF)	Key Takeaways of WTO 12th Ministerial Conference
India-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA): Negotiations Re-launched	Desertification and Drought Day	Criminal cases in Parliament: 40% Newly Elected RS MPs have Criminal Cases	AGNIPATH Scheme: Age Relaxation and Anti-Agnipath Protests

 

UN Population Report 2022

 

UN Population Report 2022- Relevance for UPSC Exam

UN Population Report: UN Population Report 2022 is an important document released by United Nations. UN Population Report 2022 is important for UPSC Mains Exam (GS Paper 2- International Relations- Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate.)

UN Population Report 2022 in News

• Recently, the Population Division of United Nations has released the UN Population Report 2022.
• According to the2022 edition of the United Nations’ World Population Prospects (WPP), released, India is projected to surpass China as the world’s most populous country in 2023.
  • China’s population projected to decrease by 31.4 million, or around 2.2 per cent, between 2019 and 2050.

UN Population Report 2022 Findings

• Growing World Population: UN Population Report 2022 projected the world’s population to reach 8 billion on November 15, 2022.
  • The global population is expected to grow to around 8.5 billion in 2030, 9.7 billion in 2050 and 10.4 billion in 2100.
  • In 2020, the global growth rate fell under 1% per year for the first time since 1950.
• Continent-wise Population: Currently, with 4.7 billion Asia is the most populous continent and has 61 per cent of the global population.
  • 17 per cent reside in Africa (1.3 billion),
  • 10 per cent in Europe (750 million),
  • 8 per cent in Latin America and the Caribbean (650 million), and
  • The remaining 5 per cent in Northern America (370 million) and Oceania (43 million).
• Rates of Population Growth Across Regions and Countries:
  • More than half of the projected increase in global population up to 2050 will be concentrated in just eight countries-
    • The Democratic Republic of the Congo,
    • Egypt,
    • Ethiopia,
    • India,
    • Nigeria,
    • Pakistan,
    • the Philippines and
    • the United Republic of Tanzania.
  • The 46 least developed countries (LDCs) are among the world’s fastest-growing. Many are projected to double in population between 2022 and 2050-
    • Putting additional pressure on resources and
    • Posing challenges to the achievement of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
  • Population Ageing: The population of older persons is increasing both in numbers and as a share of the total.
    • The share of the global population aged 65 years or above is projected to rise from 10% in 2022 to 16% in 2050.
  • Working Age Population: A sustained drop in fertility has led to an increased concentration of the population at working ages (between 25 and 64 years), creating an opportunity for accelerated economic growth per capita.
    • This shift in the age distribution provides a time-bound opportunity for accelerated economic growth known as the “demographic dividend”.
  • Role of International Migration: International migration is having important impacts on population trends for some countries.
    • For high-income countries between 2000 and 2020, the contribution of international migration to population growth (net inflow of 80.5 million) exceeded the balance of births over deaths (66.2 million).
      • Over the next few decades, migration will be the sole driver of population growth in high-income countries.
    • Major Causes of International migration:
      • In many of these countries, the outflows were due to temporary labour movements, such as for Pakistan (net flow of -16.5 million), India (-3.5 million), Bangladesh (-2.9 million), Nepal (-1.6 million) and Sri Lanka (-1.0 million).
      • In other countries, including the Syrian Arab Republic (-4.6 million), Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) (-4.8 million) and Myanmar (-1.0 million), insecurity and conflict drove the outflow of migrants over this period.

United Nations’ World Population Prospects (WPP)

• About: The Population Division of the UN has been publishing the WPP in a biennial cycle since 1951.
• Mandate: Each revision of the UNWPP provides a historical time series of population indicators starting in 1950.
  • It does so by taking into account newly released national data to revise estimates of past trends in fertility, mortality or international migration.

 

State of World Population 2022

 

Highest Ever Defence Export from India

 

Defence Export from India: Relevance

• GS 3: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment.

Defence sector in India: Context

• India’s defence export has touched a record Rs 13,000 crore in the 2021-2022 fiscal with the private sector playing an important role in aerospace manufacturing.

Record defence export from India: Key points

• The highest ever export is “eight times” of what it was around five years ago.
• The U.S. was a major buyer, as also nations in Southeast Asia, West Asia and Africa.
• The ratio of exports between government-owned defence public sector undertakings (PSU) and private firms stands at 30:70 from the earlier 10:90.
• The rise in the defence export of PSU from 10 per cent to 30 per cent is the nearly Rs 2,500 crore deal that India made with Philippines for the BrahMos missiles.
• A majority of the country’s defence export is in the aerospace sector, where Indian firms have been manufacturing several parts, including fuselage for foreign companies.

Defence export from India

• According to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) data on international arms transfer trends, roughly 50 per cent of India’s defence exports from 2017 to 2021 were to Myanmar, followed by Sri Lanka at 25 per cent, and Armenia at 11 per cent.
• In 2020, the Union Government had set a target of Rs 35,000 crore ($ 5 billion) export in aerospace, and defence goods and services in the next five years.
• This was part of the turnover of Rs 1.75 lakh crore ($ 25 billion) in defence manufacturing by 2025 that the government is aiming to achieve.

Steps taken to increase defence export from India

• Special Chemicals, Organisms, Materials, Equipment and Technologies (SCOMET) Category 6 titled “Munitions List” that was hitherto “Reserved” has been populated and Military Stores list stands rescinded.
• Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the export of munitions list items have been simplified and placed on the website of the Department of Defence Production (DDP).
• A completely end-to-end online portal for receiving and processing export authorisation permission has been developed.
• The Government has notified the Open General Export License (OGEL) – a one-time export license, which permits the industry to export specified items to specified destinations, without seeking export authorisation during the validity of the OGEL.
• Scheme for Promotion of Defence Exports has been notified to provide an opportunity to the prospective exporters an option to get their product certified by the Goverment and provides access to the testing infrastructure of Ministry of Defence.
• A separate Cell has been formed in the DDP to co-ordinate and follow up on export related action including enquiries received from various countries, sharing the leads with private sector & public sector companies and facilitate exports.
• To enhance functional autonomy, efficiency and unleash new growth potential and innovation in Ordnance Factories, the Government has converted 41 Ordnance Factories into seven Defence Public Sector Units (DPSUs), 100% Government owned corporate entities.

 

Read current affairs for UPSC

CIET (NCERT) wins UNESCO’s King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize	World Mental Health Report 2022	National Conference on Cyber Safety and National Security	Single-use Plastic Ban to Effective from 1st July
MoHUA Launches NIPUN Scheme under DAY NULM	Pragati Maidan Integrated Transit Corridor	Critical Information Infrastructure (CII): Definition, Need and Protection	UNHCR Report on Forced Displacement in 2021
Payment Vision 2025	Parliamentary Panel Report on Promotion and Regulation of E-commerce in India	Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (MEF)	Key Takeaways of WTO 12th Ministerial Conference
India-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA): Negotiations Re-launched	Desertification and Drought Day	Criminal cases in Parliament: 40% Newly Elected RS MPs have Criminal Cases	AGNIPATH Scheme: Age Relaxation and Anti-Agnipath Protests

 

IS4OM

 

IS4OM- Relevance for UPSC Exam

• GS Paper 3: Science and Technology- Achievements of Indians in science & technology; indigenization of technology and developing new technology.

ISRO System for Safe & Sustainable Operation in News

• Recently, the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology inaugurated the “ISRO System for Safe & Sustainable Operation” (IS4OM) at ISRO Control Centre, in Bengaluru.
• Around 60 Start-Ups have registered with ISRO since “unlocking” of the Indian Space sector recently by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
  • Many of them are dealing with projects related to Space debris management.
  • The other Start-Up proposals vary from nano-satellite, launch vehicle, ground systems, research etc.

ISRO System for Safe & Sustainable Operation

• About: S4OM is a facility that is conceived with a holistic approach towards ensuring safety and sustainability while reaping the benefits of sustainable utilization of outer space for national development.
• Mandate: Multi-domain awareness platform S4OM will bring a prompt, accurate and efficient information on on-orbit collision, fragmentation, atmospheric re-entry risk, space based strategic information, hazardous asteroids and space weather forecast.
• Key Function: S4OM facility will aid India in achieving its SSA (Space Situational Awareness) goals by providing a comprehensive and timely information of the Space environment to users.
• Significance: IS4OM facility can support-
  • All routine operations safeguarding Indian space assets, mitigating collision threats from space objects through specific collision avoidance manoeuvres,
  • Information required for strategic purposes and
  • Research activities in Space Debris and Space Situational Awareness.

What is space debris?

• Space junk or debris consist of spent rocket stages, dead satellites, fragments of space objects and debris resulting from ASAT (Anti-satellite weapons).
• Moving at an average speed of 27,000 kmph in LEO, these objects pose a very real threat as collisions involving even centimetre-sized fragments can be lethal to satellites.
• For protection of Indian satellites and other equipment in orbit, ISRO actively participates in all international efforts to contain the space debris growth for the long-term sustainability of outer space.

IN SPACe Inaugration: IN-SPACe Headquarters Inaugurated in Ahmedabad

 

Forest Landscape Restoration ||Explained||

 

Forest Landscape Restoration: Relevance

• GS 3: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.

Forest conservation: Context

• Recently, in a glaring example of community effort, about 100 women, employed under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), working with 50 young people from a local club, and district administration planted trees during the World Environment Day.

Tress restoration: About Van Mahotsav

• Van Mahotsav literally means “celebrate the forest”.
• The history of Van Mahotsav Day goes back to July 1947, when it was first organised by the Punjabi botanist, M.S. Randhawa.
• Subsequently, in 1950, M. Munshi, an environmentalist and Union Minister of Agriculture and Food, expanded its reach and national scope.
• According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), deforestation and forest degradation contribute around 12% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The total area occupied by primary forests in India has decreased by 3.6%.
• Therefore, more forests need to be created and restored. However, there is much debate about the efforts around tree planting.

What is Forest landscape restoration?

• Nearly two billion hectares of degraded land in the world (and 140 million hectares in India) have scope for potential restoration as forest land.
• Earlier, the governments have relied on afforestation and reforestation as a means of establishing trees on non-treed land.
• These strategies, however, have been evolving in recent days.
• Forest Land Restoration means the process of regaining ecological functionality and improving human welfare across deforested or degraded forest landscapes.
• This approach keeps in mind multiple lands uses and people’s needs in the short and long terms.
• Forest landscape restoration is an attempt to involve communities in the process of designing and executing mutually advantageous interventions for the upgradation of landscapes.
• While implementing forest land landscape, ensuring diversity while planting trees are imperative.
• Natural forests with diverse native tree species are more efficient in sequestering carbon than monoculture tree plantations.
• Planting diverse species is also healthier for local communities and their livelihoods.

Benefits of Forest Landscape Restoration

• Environmental benefits: Forests regulates ecosystems. It influences the carbon cycle and mitigates the effects of climate change.
  • Annually, forests absorb roughly 2.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide. This absorption includes nearly 33% of the carbon dioxide released from burning fossil fuels.
• Benefits for human: Millions of lives and livelihoods are intertwined with our forests. Forests are a boon for local communities and their livelihoods by functioning as a resource base for goods and services.
• Multi-dimensional benefits: According to World Resources Institute, forest ecosystems enrich soil fertility and water availability, enhancing agricultural productivity, and in turn the rural economy.
• Tree planting prevents erosion and stems flooding.
• Women empowerment: Sustainable Forest crops reduce food insecurity and empower women, allowing them to gain access to more nutritional diets and new income streams.
• Reduces migration: Agroforestry lessens rural-to-urban migration and contributes to an increase in resources and household income.

Indian programmes for forest restoration

International efforts

• The span 2021-2030 is the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, emphasising efforts to restore degraded terrestrial ecosystems including forests.
• India joined the Bonn Challenge in 2015, pledging to restore 26 million hectares of degraded and deforested land by 2030.
  • In 2011, the Bonn Challenge was launched with a global goal to restore 150 million hectares of degraded and deforested landscapes by 2020 and 350 million hectares by 2030.
• An additional carbon sink of 2.5 billion-3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent through forest and tree cover is to be created by 2030.

National efforts

• Various schemes like Compensatory Afforestation, the National Afforestation Programme, the National Mission for a Green India (Green India Mission), the Nagar Van scheme and the Forest Fire Prevention and Management Scheme was launched for trees restoration.
• Focus on youth via the Green Skill Development Programme who aspire to attain employment in the environment and forest sectors.

 

Read current affairs for UPSC

CIET (NCERT) wins UNESCO’s King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize	World Mental Health Report 2022	National Conference on Cyber Safety and National Security	Single-use Plastic Ban to Effective from 1st July
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Natural Farming Conclave- Natural Farming in India

 

Natural Farming Conclave- Relevance for UPSC Exam

• GS Paper 2: Governance, Administration and Challenges- Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Natural Farming Conclave in News

• Recently, the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi addressed a Natural Farming Conclave via video conferencing.
• He said that Natural Farming Conclave 2022 is an indication of how Gujarat is leading the country’s resolution of achieving the goals of the Amrit Kaal.
  • He said the “Surat model” of natural farming could become a model for the whole country.
• As part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, Prime Minister in his address at Gujarat Panchayat Mahasammelan in March, 2022 had exhorted at least 75 farmers in each village to adopt the Natural way of farming.

Natural Farming Conclave

• About: Natural Farming Conclave is being organized by in Surat, Gujarat, for promoting the Natural Farming and its benefits in India.
• Participation: Natural Farming Conclave is witnessing participation of thousands of farmers and all other stakeholders who have made adoption of Natural farming in Surat a success story.
  • The conclave was also attended by the Governor and Chief Minister Gujarat.
• Surat Model of Natural Farming:
  • In Surat, village committees, taluka committees and district committees were formed to select 75 farmers from each village panchayat to get into natural farming.
  • This resulted in more than 40,000 farmers from over 550 panchayats taking up natural farming in a short span of time.
• Other Models: five-km natural farming corridor is being developed along both banks of the river Ganga.
  • Such corridors can also be developed on the banks of the Tapi and the Narmada rivers.

Analysis of Down To Earth Magazine: Natural Farming

What is Natural Farming?                                                     

• About: Natural Farming is a chemical-free alias traditional farming method. Natural Farming is considered as agroecology based diversified farming system which integrates crops, trees and livestock with functional biodiversity.
• Natural Farming Practice in India: It is roughly estimated that around 2.5 million farmers in India are already practicing regenerative agriculture (Natural Farming).
  • In the next 5 years, it is expected to reach 20 lakh hectares- in any form of organic farming, including natural farming, of which 12 lakh hectares are under BPKP.

Bharatiya Prakritik Krishi Paddhati Programme (BPKP)

• About: Bharatiya Prakritik Krishi Paddhati Programme (BPKP) is a scheme to promote Natural Farming under centrally sponsored scheme- Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY).
• Key Objective: BPKP is aimed at promoting traditional indigenous practices which reduces externally purchased inputs. It is largely based on-
  • On-farm biomass recycling with major stress on Biomass mulching,
  • Use of on-farm cow dung-urine formulations;
  • Periodic soil aeration and
  • Exclusion of all synthetic chemical inputs.
• Importance: natural farming is expected to reduce dependency on purchased inputs and will help to ease smallholder farmers from credits burden.
  • Natural Farming is considered as a cost- effective farming practices with scope for raising employment and rural development.

Zero Budget Natural Farming can Lead to Yield Loss

Zero Budget Natural Farming can Lead to Yield Loss

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