💥Join UPSC 2027,2028 Mentorship (July Batch) + XFactor Notes & Microthemes PDF
Talk to Mentor

Civilsdaily

Login

Distribution: weekly

  • Linking Aadhaar to residence for targeted aid

    The article suggests the provision for a safety net with geographic targeting in case of disasters as most disasters are location specific.

    Safety net in the U.S.

    • The US Congress enacted in March a Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act to sends $1,200 to each individual below the income threshold of $75,000.
    • Nonetheless, as The Washington Post reported, even in October, millions of households were yet to receive their stimulus payments.
    • The tax authorities who were charged with disbursing the funds had no way of knowing how to send the cheques.
    • But the poor had to cross several hurdles to get this money and the computer system did not make it easy for them to register their claim.

    Safety net in India and issues with it

    • In contrast to U.S., 23 per cent of Indians living in Delhi-NCR received a payment of Rs 500 in their Jan Dhan accounts within three weeks of the lockdown being declared.
    • Farmers registered for PM-KISAN also received Rs 2,000 in their accounts immediately.
    • However, there were some issues for example, recipients of PM-KISAN were not amongst the poorest households, nor were these the households that were most affected by the COVID-related lockdown.
    • The PM-Kisan Yojana applies to landowners, thereby excluding agricultural labourers as well as the urban informal sector workers who were most affected by the lockdown.
    • Similarly, for the PMJDY payment, BPL and non-BPL households record similar receipt transfers.

    Twin challenges in designing social safety nets

    • Unless a registry containing data about individuals and their bank accounts exists, money cannot be transferred expeditiously.
    • 1) Registries based on specific criteria (for example, identified BPL households) may not identify individuals most vulnerable to crises.
    • 2) Factors that contribute towards alleviating poverty may differ from the ones that push people into it — indicating the challenge of targeting welfare beneficiaries in response to shocks.
    • About 40 per cent of the poor in 2012 were pushed into poverty by special circumstances and would not have been classified as being poor based on their 2005 conditions.
    • Such exclusion errors can get magnified in the event of large-scale disasters when using pre-existing databases, since many people are likely to fall into poverty from an economy-wide negative shock, leading to coverage errors.

    Way forward

    • Recent estimates from the World Bank suggest that 88 to 115 million people could slide into poverty in 2020.
    • These observations suggest that in a disaster response situation, we cannot rely on registries based on individual characteristics to identify beneficiaries.
    • Most disasters are geographically clustered.
    • If there is a way for us to set up social registries that identify individuals, their place of residence, and their bank accounts, these linkages can be used to transfer funds to everyone living in the affected area quickly.
    • Aadhaar linkages of individuals and bank accounts already exist.
    • If residential information in the Aadhaar database can be efficiently structured, this would allow for geographic targeting.
    • Issue of violation of individual privacy can be addressed by providing that such social registries store only basic information such as location, instead of more sensitive identifiers.

    Consider the question “Disasters underscores the importance of social safety nets. However, designing a social safety net that identifies and reach the vulnerable suffers from several challenges. What are these challenes. Suggest ways to address these challenges.” 

    Conclusion

    As we try to disaster-proof future welfare programmes, these are some of the considerations that deserve attention.

  • Gender Advancement through Transforming Institutions (GATI) Initiative

    One of the focuses of the new Science, Technology and Innovation Policy, currently being drafted by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) is to increase the participation of women in science.

    Connect the dots:

    Women in STEM presents a dismal picture of gender equality in India.

    GATI

    • The DST is incorporating a system of grading institutes depending on the enrolment of women and the advancement of the careers of women faculty and scientists.
    • It will be called GATI (Gender Advancement through Transforming Institutions).
    • The concept borrows from a programme started by the UK in 2005 called the Athena SWAN (Scientific Women’s Academic Network), which is now being adopted by many countries.
    • The DST will soon launch a pilot, which the British Council has helped it develop.

    Why need such initiative?

    • India is ranked 108 out of 149 countries in the 2018 Global Gender Gap report.
    • According to DST figures, in 2015-16, the share of women involved in scientific research and development was 14.71% — after it had actually increased from 13% in 2000-2001 to 29% in 2014-15.
    • The DST has also found that women are either not promoted, or very often drop out mid-career to attend to their families.

    What is Athena SWAN?

    • The Athena SWAN Charter is an evaluation and accreditation programme in the UK enhancing gender equity in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM).
    • Participating research organisations and academic institutions are required to analyse data on gender equity and develop action plans for improvement.
    • Signatories commit to addressing various issues such as –
    1. Unequal gender representation;
    2. Tackling the gender pay gap;
    3. Removing the obstacles faced by women in career development and progression;
    4. Discriminatory treatment often experienced by trans people;
    5. Gender balance of committees and zero tolerance for bullying and sexual harassment.

    Way ahead

    • To get as many institutions as possible to sign up, the DST will need to manoeuvre around government red tape as most universities, barring the IITs and NITs, are run and funded by the government as well.
    • This means that these institutions don’t have direct control over institutional policies, recruitment and promotions.
    • The DST has tied up with the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), under the UGC, aiming to push gender equity through them.

  • BrahMos Missiles and their significance for Armed Forces

    India’s Armed forces are conducting back-to-back tests of various versions of BrahMos missile.

    Take a quick look at India’s missile arsenal:

    [Prelims Spotlight] Missiles

    The BrahMos Missiles

    • A combination of the names of Brahmaputra and Moskva rivers, BrahMos missiles are designed, developed and produced by BrahMos Aerospace, a joint venture company set up by DRDO and Mashinostroyenia of Russia.
    • It is a two-stage missile with a solid propellant booster as the first stage and liquid ramjet as the second stage.
    • The cruise missiles like BrahMos are a type of systems known as the ‘standoff range weapons’ which are fired from a range sufficient to allow the attacker to evade defensive fire from the adversary.
    • These weapons are in the arsenal of most major militaries in the world.
    • The versions of the BrahMos that are being tested have an extended range of around 400 km, as compared to its initial range of 290 km, with more versions of higher ranges currently under development.

    Various versions

    • Various versions of the BrahMos, including those which can be fired from land, warships, submarines and Sukhoi-30 fighter jets have already been developed and successfully tested in the past.
    • The earliest versions of the ship launched BrahMos and land-based system are in service of the Indian Navy and the Indian Army since 2005 and 2007 respectively.

  • Sea sparkle: Bloom of Noctiluca Scintillans

    The blooms of Noctiluca Scintillans, commonly known as “sea sparkle” are being witnessed along the coasts of Maharashtra and Karnataka.

    A stand-alone species being mentioned in the news for the first time find their way into the prelims. Note this down.

    Noctiluca Scintillans

    • Scintillans is a bioluminescent specie that brightens the seawater during the night.
    • It grazes on other micro-organisms such as larvae, fish eggs, and diatoms. But the unicellular phytoplankton that lives inside it can photosynthesize, turning sunlight into energy.
    • They help their host cell survive even when food was scarce.
    • Thus, N. Scintillans acts as both a plant and an animal

    Threats posed

    • According to marine experts, the phenomenon is an indicator of climate change.
    • While smaller blooms may be harmless, slow-moving larger blooms may have an impact on deep-sea fishes.
    • The toxic blooms of N. Scintillans were linked to massive fish and marine invertebrate kills.
    • Though the species does not produce a toxin, it was found to accumulate toxic levels of ammonia, which is then excreted into the surrounding waters, possibly acting as the killing agent in blooms.
    • They have displaced microscopic algae called diatoms, which form the basis of the marine food chain. This has deprived food for the planktivorous fish.

    Back2Basics: Bioluminescence

    • It is the property of a living organism to produce and emit light.
    • Animals, plants, fungi and bacteria show bioluminescence. A remarkable diversity of marine animals and microbes are able to produce their own light.
    • It is found in many marine organisms such as bacteria, algae, jellyfish, worms, crustaceans, sea stars, fish and sharks.
    • Luminescence is generally higher in deep-living and planktonic organisms than in shallow species.

  • What is J&K Roshni Act?

    The J&K High Court has declared Roshni Act “illegal, unconstitutional and unsustainable” and a CBI probe has been ordered into the allotment of land under this law.

    Must read:

    [Burning Issue] One Year since the Repeal of Art. 370

    What is the Roshni Act?

    • The J&K State Lands (Vesting of Ownership to the Occupants) Act, 2001 is popularly known as the Roshni Act.
    • It envisaged the transfer of ownership rights of state land to its occupants, subject to the payment of a cost, as determined by the government.
    • It set 1990 as the cutoff for encroachment on state land.
    • The government’s target was to earn Rs 25,000 crore by transferring 20 lakh kanals (one-eighth of an acre) of state land to existing occupants against payment at market rates.
    • The government said the revenue generated would be spent on commissioning hydroelectric power projects, hence the name “Roshni”.

    What is the recent controversy?

    • In October this year, the High Court held the Roshni Act as ‘unconstitutional’.
    • The court also directed the UT government to make public names of those who grabbed the land under the scheme.
    • Last week, the UT government began publishing the names of beneficiaries on its websites.
    • The first set of names included prominent politicians and their relatives, hotels, and a trust connected each to the dominant parties of the Gupkar declaration.

    A scam being busted

    • Investigations into the land transfers subsequently found that land in Gulmarg had been given over to ineligible beneficiaries.
    • However several government officials illegally possessed and vested ownership of state land to occupants who did not satisfy criteria under the Roshni Act.
    • A report by the CAG estimated that against the targeted Rs 25,000 crore, only Rs 76 crore had been realized from the transfer of land between 2007 and 2013, thus defeating the purpose.
    • The report blamed irregularities including arbitrary reduction in prices fixed by a standing committee, and said this was done to benefit politicians and affluent people.

  • National Maritime Domain Awareness Centre (NMDAC)

    The Navy’s Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC), the nodal agency for maritime data fusion will soon become a National Maritime Domain Awareness (NMDA) centre.

    Try this question:

    Q“To be secure on Land, we must be Supreme at Sea”. In this context, discuss why India is primarily a Maritime Nation?

    What is IMAC?

    • The IMAC monitors movement of more than 120,000 ships a year passing through the Indian Ocean.
    • The cargo carried by these ships account for 66 per cent of world crude oil, 50 per cent of container traffic and 33 per cent of bulk cargo.
    • Thus, IMAC performs a very crucial role in collecting shipping information, analysing traffic patterns and sharing the inputs with the user agencies.
    • It tracks vessels on the high seas and gets data from the coastal radars, white shipping agreements, Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) transponders fitted on merchant ships, air and traffic management system and global shipping databases.

    Transforming to NDMAC

    • The IMAC will soon transform into a national NMDA centre, wherein it will be a multi-agency centre.
    • The NMDA project was launched in accordance with the vision of PM on SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region).
    • Approved by the Defence Acquisition Council in 2012, the IMAC became operational in 2014 and is located in Gurugram.
    • It is the nodal centre of the National Command Control Communication and Intelligence System (NC3I), which was established to link the Navy and the Coast Guard.

    Why such a move?

    • India has a coast line of about 7500 km and an Exclusive Economic Zone(EEZ) of over 2 million sq kms.
    • In addition, we are endowed with abundant oceanic wealth comprising a large number of island territories and vast sea bed area, over 97 % of our national trade is carried by sea routes.
    • It is therefore, imperative that we modernize the Navy which always has to be in a high state of preparedness.

  • [pib] SDG Investor Map for India

    Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

    UNDP and Invest India have launched the SDG Investor Map for India, laying out 18 Investment Opportunities Areas (IOAs) in six critical SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) enabling sectors.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.The Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE), a UN mechanism to assist countries transition towards greener and more inclusive economies, emerged at:

    (a) The Earth Summit on Sustainable Development 2002, Johannesburg

    (b) The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development 2012, Rio de Janeiro

    (c) The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 2015, Paris

    (d) The World Sustainable Development Summit 2016, New Delhi

    SDG Investor Map for India

    • SDG Finance Facility platform at UNDP in partnership with Invest India, the investment promotion arm of the Government of India has developed this Map.
    • The map will help public and private sector stake-holders direct capital towards IOAs, and White Spaces (Areas of Potential) that can contribute to the sustainable development needs of the country.
    • The map has identified 18 IOAs and 8 White Spaces across 6 Priority Sectors including Education, Healthcare, Agriculture and Allied Services, Financial Services, Renewable Energy and Alternatives, and Sustainable Environment.

    Utility of this map

    • Investing in the SDGs at this point is crucial to ‘Building Back Better’ and making the economy and our societies more resilient and sustainable.
    • With the COVID-19 pandemic, the financing gap for the SDGs in India has only widened further and decades of development progress is nearly on the verge of reversal.
    • Enhanced productivity, technology adoption and increased inclusion are all critical factors that this map uses to identify the most attractive sectors for investors.

    Back2Basics: What are SDGs?

    • The SDGs or Global Goals are a collection of 17 interlinked goals designed to be a “blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all”.
    • They were set in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly and are intended to be achieved by the year 2030.
    • They are included in a UN Resolution called the 2030 Agenda or what is known as Agenda 2030.
    • Countries are expected to take ownership and establish a national framework for achieving these Goals.
    • Implementation and success will rely on countries’ own sustainable development policies, plans and programmes.

  • Western Disturbances and winters in North

    For the past few days, Chandigarh and its neighbouring states have been experiencing unusually cold days although the night temperatures are normal.

    Try this PYQ:

    Consider the following statements:

    1. The winds which blow between 30°N and 60°S latitudes throughout the year are known as westerlies.
    2. The moist air masses that cause winter rains in the North-Western region of India are part of westerlies.

    Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

    (a) Only 1

    (b) Only 2

    (c) Both 1 and 2

    (d) Neither 1 nor 2

    Temperature anomaly in North

    • Meteorological officials have attributed the trend to the cloud cover in the region which was absent until a few days ago.
    • It is the result of a western disturbance, which has brought about a spell of precipitation in the northwest Himalaya.

    Role of clouds

    • During the day, clouds obstruct the heat from the sun from reaching the surface of the earth, reflecting some of it back into space.
    • This lowers the temperature. Cold winds blowing down from snow-bound areas in the mountains also contribute to the cooling effect.
    • At night, however, clouds act like blankets – they help retain some of the heat energy radiated back by the earth’s surface.
    • Overcast weather at night, thus, increases greenhouse warming.

    What are western disturbances?

    • In northern India, winter rains and clouds are generally caused by moisture-bearing wind systems called western disturbances.
    • They originate and gather moisture over the Mediterranean region and flow eastwards towards the Indian subcontinent.
    • When some of these winds run into mountains of the northwest Himalaya, they are forced upward.
    • At higher altitudes, the temperatures drop and water vapour gets condensed. This leads to cloud formation and eventually rain and snow.

    Other factors for severe winters in North

    • In north India, the huge temperature difference between summers and winters is due to its continentality (distance from seas and oceans).
    • Air from oceans moderates the temperature as it moves onshore, but this effect is missing in continental interiors.
    • As a result, north India has greater seasonal differences as compared to peninsular India.
    • Temperature also reduces rapidly with altitude, and thus, the Himalayan region is colder still.

  • Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network

    The government is using eVIN – Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network in association with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to identify primary beneficiaries and vaccine distribution networks.

    Try this question from CSP 2016:

    Q.‘Mission Indradhanush’ launched by the Government of India pertains to:

    (a) Immunization of children and pregnant women

    (b) Construction of smart cities across the country

    (c) India’s own search for the Earth-like planets in outer space

    (d) New Educational Policy

    What is eVIN?

    • E-VIN is an indigenously developed technology that digitizes vaccine stocks and monitors the temperature of the cold chain through a smartphone application.
    • It was first launched across 12 states in 2015 to support better vaccine logistics management at cold chain points.
    • It supports the central government’s Universal Immunization Programme by providing real-time information on vaccine stocks and flows, and storage temperatures across all cold chain points across states and UTs.

    Components of eVIN

    • eVIN combines state-of-the-art technology, a strong IT infrastructure and trained human resource to enable real-time monitoring of stock and storage temperature of the vaccines kept in multiple locations across the country.
    • At present, 23,507 cold chain points across 585 districts of 22 States and 2 UTs routinely use the eVIN technology for efficient vaccine logistics management.

    Benefits of eVIN

    • It has helped create a big data architecture that generates actionable analytics encouraging data-driven decision-making and consumption-based planning.
    • It helps in maintaining optimum stocks of vaccines leading to cost savings. Vaccine availability at all times has increased to 99% in most health centres in India.
    • While instances of stock-outs have reduced by 80%, the time taken to replenish stocks has also decreased by more than half, on an average.
    • This has ensured that every child who reaches the immunization session site is immunized, and not turned back due to unavailability of vaccines.

  • MQ-9B Sea Guardian Unarmed Drone

    The Indian Navy has inducted two MQ-9B Sea Guardian unarmed drones procured from the U.S. on lease.

    Try this question from CSP 2018:

    Q.What is “Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD)”, sometimes seen in the news?

    (a) An Israeli radar system

    (b) India’s indigenous anti-missile programme

    (c) An American anti-missile system

    (d) A defence collaboration between Japan and South Korea

    MQ-9B Sea Guardian

    • The Guardian, which is the maritime variant of the Predator MQ-9 UAV, has a maximum endurance of 40 hours and a maximum flying altitude of 40,000 feet.
    • It has 360-degree maritime surveillance radar and optional multimode maritime surface search radar.
    • The drone can perform over-the-horizon long-endurance, medium-altitude Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions.
    • The recently released Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020 has introduced an option for leasing military platforms.
    • The Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geo-Spatial Cooperation (BECA) has simplified such high- technology cooperation.

    About BECA

    • BECA will help India get real-time access to American geospatial intelligence that will enhance the accuracy of automated systems and weapons like missiles and armed drones.
    • Through the sharing of information on maps and satellite images, it will help India access topographical and aeronautical data, and advanced products that will aid in navigation and targeting.
    • This could be a key to Air Force-to-Air Force cooperation between India and the US.
    • BECA will provide Indian military systems with a high-quality GPS to navigate missiles with real-time intelligence to precisely target the adversary.
    • Besides the sailing of ships, flying off aircraft, fighting of wars, and location of targets, geospatial intelligence is also critical to the response to natural disasters.