INSIGHTS DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS + PIB SUMMARY 26 MARCH 2022

 Table of Contents:

GS Paper 2:

1. PM-CARES Fund.

2. Mekedatu water project.

3. Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill.

GS Paper 3:

1. Export Preparedness Index 2021.

2. The GSAT 7B and India’s other military satellites.

3. NASA Voyager spacecraft.

4. GSLV-F10/EOS-03 Mission.

5. Lead poisoning.

Facts for Prelims:

1. INS Valsura.

2. Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH).

3. H2Ooooh.

4. Rajasthan govt’s law to curb cheating in exams.

5. Bucharest Nine.

PM CARES:

GS Paper 2:

Topics Covered: Separation of powers between various organs dispute redressal mechanisms and institutions.

Context:

The Supreme Court has refused to entertain an appeal challenging an Allahabad High Court order which rejected a challenge to the constitutional validity of the PM-CARES Fund.

What’s the issue?

The High Court had dismissed the PIL which challenged the validity of the PM-CARES Fund and the Prime Minister National Relief Fund in the backdrop of the Disaster Management Act, 2005.

The petitioner had contended that the fund was established without statutory backing and was kept beyond the scrutiny of the RTI Act.

Issues surrounding the fund and its functioning:

PM CARES has been under a cloud of suspicion ever since it was announced, with opposition parties demanding transparency over the handling of the funds.

About PM-CARES:

The Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM-CARES) Fund was set up to accept donations and provide relief during the Covid-19 pandemic, and other similar emergencies.

PM-CARES Fund:

• PM-CARES was set up as a public charitable trust with the trust deed registered on March 27, 2020.
• It can avail donations from the foreign contribution and donations to fund can also avail 100% tax exemption.
• PM-CARES is different from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF).

Who administers the fund?

Prime Minister is the ex-officio Chairman of the PM CARES Fund and Minister of Defence, Minister of Home Affairs and Minister of Finance, Government of India are ex-officio Trustees of the Fund.

• In 2021, the Delhi High Court was informed that the PM CARES Fund is not a Government of India fund and that the amount collected by it does not go to the Consolidated Fund of India.

 

Mekedatu water project:

GS Paper 2:

Topics Covered: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Context:

Karnataka Assembly has adopted a unanimous resolution seeking clearance for the Mekedatu project.

• This was in response to the resolution adopted by Tamil Nadu opposing the Mekedatu drinking water and balancing reservoir project proposed by the State.

Demand by Karnataka:

• Karnataka Legislative Assembly urges the Central Water Commission and MoEF to approve the Mekedatu project at the earliest.
• The House urges the Central authorities not to finalise the DPR of the Godavari, Krishna, Pennar, Cauvery, Vaigai, and Gundar river-linking project till the share of riparian States is decided and till Karnataka gives its approval.
• It also urges them not to approve the illegal projects of Tamil Nadu and to instruct Tamil Nadu to desist from continuing them.

Reasons given by Karnataka for taking up the Mekedatu project:

Mekedatu project, the resolution said: “The Supreme Court has modified the judgement of Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal and prescribed confirmation of release of 177.25 tmcft of water at Biligundlu (water gauge) in a normal water year.

• To ensure allocation of 24 tmcft for Bengaluru Metropolitan city and consumptive use of 4.75 tmcft as per the Supreme Court’s verdict and also in turn provide for hydel generation, the Mekedatu drinking water and balancing reservoir project has been planned.

 

About the Project:

• Mekedatu is a multipurpose (drinking and power) project.
• It involves building a balancing reservoir, near Kanakapura in Ramanagara district in Karnataka.
• The project once completed is aimed at ensuring drinking water to Bengaluru and neighboring areas (4.75 TMC) and also can generate 400 MW power.
• The estimated cost of the project is Rs 9,000 crore.

Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill:

GS Paper 2:

Topics Covered: Policies and Schemes

Context:

The bill will be tabled in the Parliament.

• It aims to merge the Capital’s three municipal corporations — South, North and East — ten years after the trifurcation of the civic body.
• In 2011, the state government had proposed the trifurcation for better efficiency.

Need for:

• Problems of trifurcation: Uneven distribution of property tax between three civic bodies, inefficient management and growing losses, etc.
• Gap in the resources available: Trifurcation was uneven in terms of the territorial divisions and revenue-generating potential of each corporation.

Constitutional Provisions related to Municipal Corporations:

• In the Constitution of India, no provision was made for the establishment of local self-government, except the incorporation of Article 40 in the Directive Principles of State Policy.
• The 74th Amendment Act, 1992 has inserted a new Part IX-A into the Constitution which deals with the administration of Municipalities and Nagar Palikas.
• It consists of Article 243P to 243ZG. It also added a new twelfth schedule to the Constitution. The 12th schedule consists of 18 items.

Export Preparedness Index 2021:

GS Paper 3:

Topics Covered: Effects of liberalization on the economy, changes in industrial policy and their effects on industrial growth.

Context:

NITI Aayog, in collaboration with the Institute of Competitiveness, has released the second edition of the Export Preparedness Index (EPI) 2021.

• The first Index was launched in August 2020.

About the Index:

• The Export Preparedness Index is a comprehensive analysis of India’s export achievements.
• It aims to identify the fundamental areas critical for subnational export promotion.
• The coastal states have been adjudged as the best performers in the index.

How were states ranked?

The index ranked states on four key parameters – policy; business ecosystem; export ecosystem; export performance.

• The index also took into consideration 11 sub-pillars — export promotion policy; institutional framework; business environment; infrastructure; transport connectivity; access to finance; export infrastructure; trade support; R&D infrastructure; export diversification; and growth orientation.

Performance of various states:

• Gujarat has topped NITI Aayog’s Export Preparedness Index (EPI) 2021 for the second consecutive time.
• Maharashtra has been ranked second and Karnataka has been ranked third.

Lead poisoning:

GS Paper 3:

Topics Covered: Conservation related issues.

Context:

Recently, high levels of lead were found in the blood of thousands of children living around the Kabwe mine in Zambia.

How lead affects children?

1. Lead is a potent neurotoxin that causes irreparable harm to children’s brains.
2. It is particularly destructive to babies and children under the age of 5 as it damages their brain before they have had the opportunity to fully develop, causing them lifelong neurological, cognitive and physical impairment.
3. Childhood lead exposure has also been linked to mental health and behavioural problems and an increase in crime and violence.
4. Older children suffer severe consequences, including increased risk of kidney damage and cardiovascular diseases in later life.

How it costs countries?

Childhood lead exposure is estimated to cost lower- and middle-income countries almost USD $1 trillion due to lost economic potential of these children over their lifetime.

Factors contributing to lead poisoning:

1. Informal and substandard recycling of lead-acid batteries.
2. Increase in vehicle ownership, combined with the lack of vehicle battery recycling regulation and infrastructure.
3. Workers in dangerous and often illegal recycling operations break open battery cases, spill acid and lead dust in the soil.
4. They also smelt the recovered lead in crude, open-air furnaces that emit toxic fumes poisoning the surrounding community.

Need of the hour:

A coordinated and concerted approach across the following areas:

1. Proper Monitoring and reporting.
2. Prevention and control measures.
3. Management, treatment and remediation.
4. Public awareness and behaviour change.
5. Legislation and policy.
6. Global and regional action.

Conclusion:

It is clear from evidence compiled that lead poisoning is a much greater threat to the health of children than previously understood. Although much more research needs to be conducted, enough data have recently emerged for decisive action to begin – and it must begin now.

Insta Facts:

1. Lead in the body is distributed to the brain, liver, kidney and bones. It is stored in the teeth and bones, where it accumulates over time.
2. Lead in bone is released into blood during pregnancy and becomes a source of exposure to the developing foetus.
3. WHO has identified lead as 1 of 10 chemicals of major public health concern.
4. WHO has joined with  the United Nations Environment Programme to form the Global Alliance to Eliminate Lead Paint.

The GSAT 7B and India’s other military satellites:

GS Paper 3:

Topics Covered: Developments in Science and Technology.

Context:

GSAT-7B satellite, which recently got the acceptance of necessity from the Defence Ministry, will be a dedicated satellite for the Indian Army.

• The satellite would help the Indian Army enhance its surveillance in border areas.

Significance of the satellite:

• The GSAT 7B will primarily fulfil the communication needs of the Army.
• The use of such a satellite would also mean that the Army’s vast array of radio communication equipment could come under a single platform.

GSAT 7 Satellite series:

They are advanced satellites developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to meet the communication needs of the defence services.

• The GSAT 7 satellite has a footprint of nearly 2,000 nautical miles in the Indian Ocean region.
• The GSAT 7 (Rukmini) is India’s first military satellite. It provides a gamut of services for military communication needs, which includes low bit voice rate to high bit rate data facilities, including multi-band communications.
• The GSAT 7A, launched in 2018, helps in boosting the connectivity between the ground radar stations, airbases and the airborne early warning and control aircraft (AEW&C) of the IAF.

NASA Voyager spacecraft:

GS Paper 3:

Topics Covered: Awareness in space.

Context:

Both Voyager spacecraft are rushing away from Earth and into interstellar space. Yet for a portion of every year, both spacecrafts’ distances to Earth decrease.

Why is it so?

• The answer is that for a few months each year, Earth in its orbit moves toward the spacecraft faster than they’re moving away. Earth’s motion around the sun is faster than the motion of the Voyager spacecraft.
• Earth moves through space at a speed of 67,000 miles per hour (30 km/s). Voyager 1 moves at a speed of 38,210 miles per hour (17 km/s). Voyager 2 moves at a speed of 35,000 miles per hour (15 km/s).
• So, for a portion of the year, Earth comes around the side of the sun and is speeding toward the spacecraft faster than they’re moving away.

Therefore their distances to Earth are getting closer, if only temporarily. They never change their outward motion. It is we who change.

About Voyager mission:

• Launched in the 1970’s, and the probes sent by NASA were only meant to explore the outer planets – but they just kept on going.
• Voyager 1 departed Earth on 5 September 1977, a few days after Voyager 2 and left our solar system in 2013.
• The mission objective of the Voyager Interstellar Mission (VIM) is to extend the NASA exploration of the solar system beyond the neighborhood of the outer planets to the outer limits of the Sun’s sphere of influence, and possibly beyond.
• The Voyager spacecraft are the third and fourth human spacecraft to fly beyond all the planets in our solar system. Pioneers 10 and 11 preceded Voyager in outstripping the gravitational attraction of the Sun but on February 17, 1998, Voyager 1 passed Pioneer 10 to become the most distant human-made object in space.

 

Accomplishments so far:

Voyager 2 is the only probe ever to study Neptune and Uranus during planetary flybys.

It is the second man-made object to leave our planet.

Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to have visited all four gas giant planets — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — and discovered 16 moons, as well as phenomena like Neptune’s mysteriously transient Great Dark Spot, the cracks in Europa’s ice shell, and ring features at every planet.

What is Interstellar space?

Scientists use the heliopause to mark where interstellar space begins, although depending on how you define our solar system it can stretch all the way to the Oort Cloud, which begins 1,000 times farther away from the sun than Earth’s orbit.

The Heliosphere:

The heliosphere is a bubble around the sun created by the outward flow of the solar wind from the sun and the opposing inward flow of the interstellar wind. That heliosphere is the region influenced by the dynamic properties of the sun that are carried in the solar wind–such as magnetic fields, energetic particles and solar wind plasma. The heliopause marks the end of the heliosphere and the beginning of interstellar space.

 

GSLV-F10 launch and EOS-03 satellite:

GS Paper 3:

Topics Covered: Awareness in space.

Context:

The GSLV-F10/EOS-03 mission, which lifted off from Sriharikota on August 12 last year failed due to ‘deviation in the performance’ of the cryogenic upper stage (CUS) of the launch vehicle, a national-level Failure Analysis Committee (FAC) constituted in the aftermath has found.

• GSLV-F10 was ISRO’s eighth flight with indigenous cryo, 14th GSLV flight and 79th launch from Sriharikota.

What is EOS-03?

1. EOS-3 was the first state-of-art agile Earth Observation Satellite which would have been placed in a geo-synchronous orbit around the Earth.
2. It was expected to provide near real-time imaging, which could be used for quick monitoring of natural disasters, episodic events and any short-term events.
3. The mission life of the satellite was 10 years.

What is a GSLV Rocket?

1. The GSLV expands to a geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle.
2. The GSLV Mark II is the largest launch vehicle built by India.
3. As its name suggests, it can launch satellites that will travel in orbits that are synchronous with the Earth’s orbit.
4. These satellites can weigh up to 2,500 kg and are first launched into transfer orbits that have a distance from Earth of 170 km at closest approach and about 35,975 km at furthest approach which is close to the height of the geosynchronous orbit.

Difference between PSLV and GSLV:

India has two operational launchers- Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV).

1. PSLV was developed to launch low-Earth Orbit satellites into polar and sun synchronous orbits. It has since proved its versatility by launching geosynchronous, lunar and interplanetary spacecraft successfully.
2. On the other hand, GSLV was developed to launch the heavier INSAT class of geosynchronous satellites into orbit. In its third and final stage, GSLV uses the indigenously developed cryogenic upper stage.

Geosynchronous vs Sun- synchronous:

1. When satellites are about 36,000 km from the Earth’s surface, they enter what is called the high Earth orbit. Here, it orbits in sync with the Earth’s rotation, creating the impression that the satellite is stationary over a single longitude. Such a satellite is said to be geosynchronous.
2. Just as the geosynchronous satellites have a sweet spot over the equator that allows them to stay over one spot on Earth, polar-orbiting satellites have a sweet spot that allows them to stay in one place. This orbit is a Sun-synchronous orbit, which means that whenever and wherever the satellite crosses the equator, the local solar time on the ground is always the same.

Facts for Prelims:

INS Valsura:

President Ram Nath Kovind recently presented the President’s Colour to INS Valsura, the Navy’s premier technological training establishment.

• The President’s Colour is bestowed on a military unit in recognition of the exceptional service rendered to the nation, both in peace and in war.
• INS Valsura, is a premier technological training institution, of the Indian Navy based in Jamnagar, Gujarat.

 

Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH):

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor inaugurated the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH) in Bengaluru.

• It has been set up as a Section 8 company under the Companies Act, 2013 with an initial capital contribution of Rs. 100 crore.
• It is is a wholly owned subsidiary of the RBI.
• RBIH aims to create an ecosystem that focuses on promoting access to financial services and products for the low-income population in the country.

H2Ooooh:

• It was launched by UNESCO in July 2021, jointly with the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) and others.
• H2Ooooh! is a unique program crafted for Indian school students from Standard 1-8.

Objectives:

• It aims to increase awareness about the limited availability of water, its sustainable use, its conservation, its exploitation and much more.
• It seeks to enable the students to share their own experiences and proposals for the protection of the environment.
• Divided in three phases, the project aims to spur creativity and raise awareness on water conservation and its sustainable use for students between the age of 6-14 years, by providing training and encouraging them to submit paintings and story ideas for the animated short films.

 

Rajasthan govt’s law to curb cheating in exams:

The state government has tabled The Rajasthan Public Examination (Measures for Prevention of Unfair Means in Recruitment) Bill, 2022 to deter use of unfair means in public examinations with strict provisions of punishment up to 10-year imprisonment and penalties in the form of fine up to Rs 10 crore and attachment/ confiscation of property.

Need for:

• A fair and reasonable process of selection to posts, subject to the norm of equality of opportunity under Article 16 (1) of the Constitution, is a constitutional requirement.
• A fair and reasonable recruitment process is a fundamental requirement of Article 14 as well.

Articles to be covered tomorrow:

1. Hypersonic missiles.
2. ‘Sujalam 2.0’ Grey Water Recycling Project.
3. Bucharest Nine.