Odisha CM will lay the foundation stone of the much-awaited Puri Heritage Corridor.
Puri Heritage Corridor Project
Conceived in 2016, the Puri Heritage Corridor Project was unveiled in December 2019 to transform the holy town of Puri into an international place of heritage.
The project includes redeveloping major portions of the holy town and in the vicinity of the temple for visitors and tourists.
About Jagannath Temple
The Jagannath Temple is an important Vaishnavite temple dedicated to Jagannath, a form of Sri Krishna in Puri in Odisha.
The present temple was rebuilt from the 10th century onwards, on the site of an earlier temple, and begun by Anantavarman Chodaganga Deva, the first king of the Eastern Ganga dynasty.
The Puri temple is famous for its annual Ratha Yatra, or chariot festival, in which the three principal deities are pulled on huge and elaborately decorated temple cars.
Its architecture
With its sculptural richness and fluidity of the Oriya style of temple architecture, it is one of the most magnificent monuments of India.
The huge temple complex covers an area of over 400,000 square feet and is surrounded by a high fortified wall.
This 20 feet high wall is known as Meghanada Pacheri.
Another wall known as kurma bedha surrounds the main temple.
The temple has four distinct sectional structures, namely:
Deula, Vimana or Garba griha (Sanctum sanctorum) where the triad deities are lodged on the ratnavedi (Throne of Pearls). In Rekha Deula style;
Mukhashala (Frontal porch);
Nata mandir/Natamandapa, which is also known as the Jagamohan (Audience Hall/Dancing Hall), and
The Union Cabinet has approved the provisioning of mobile services in over 7,000 uncovered villages through the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF).
What do you mean by Universal Service?
In the modern world, universal service refers to having a phone and affordable phone service in every home.
It means, providing telecommunication service with access to a defined minimum service of specified quality to all users everywhere at an affordable price.
In 1837, the concept was rolled on by Rowland Hill, a British educator and tax reformer, which included uniform rates across the UK and prepayment by sender via postage stamps.
What is USOF?
The Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) was formed by an Act of Parliament, was established in April 2002 under the Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Act 2003.
It aims to provide financial support for the provision of telecom services in commercially unviable rural and remote areas of the country.
It is an attached office of the Department of Telecom, and is headed by the administrator, who is appointed by the central government.
Scope of the USOF
Initially, the USOF was established with the fundamental objective of providing access to ‘basic’ telecom services to people in rural and remote areas at affordable and reasonable prices.
Subsequently, the scope was widened.
Now it aims to provide subsidy support for enabling access to all types of telecom services, including mobile services, broadband connectivity and the creation of infrastructure in rural and remote areas.
Funding of the USOF
The resources for the implementation of USO are raised by way of collecting a Universal Service Levy (USL), which is 5 percent of the Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) of Telecom Service Providers.
Nature of the fund
USOF is a non-lapsable Fund.
The Levy amount is credited to the Consolidated Fund of India.
The fund is made available to USOF after due appropriation by the Parliament.
Langtang Microhydro Electricity Project, Nepal’s first hydropower from a glacial lake has become functional recently.
Langtang Microhydro Electricity Project
The Project was built three years after the 2015 earthquake-avalanche that devastated the valley, with help from the Hong Kong-based Kadoorie Charitable Foundation.
It has a weir and spillway at the moraine, and the water is taken through a fibre glass-insulated penstock pipe to a powerhouse that generates 100kW of electricity.
It seeks to provide 24 hours of electricity to 120 households and tourist lodges in Kyanjin and Langtang.
Uniqueness of the project
The project is the first-of-its-kind in Nepal to power a village and holds promise for other remote Himalayan valleys where the risk posed by expanding glacial lakes can be mitigated.
At the same time, it provides electricity to tourism-dependent families.
Over the last few decades, urbanization has led to a dramatic increase in the population living in the Himalayan Mountain belt.
About the Himalayas
The Himalayas extend for about 2400 km from west to east with width varying between 200-400 km.
The two syntaxes of this mountain are drained by the rivers Indus (west) and the Brahmaputra (east).
The Ganga River system largely drains the central part of the Himalayas.
Recent flood events
2010, floods of Leh
2013, Kedarnath floods
2021, Rishiganga floods
The reports of the intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC-2019) indicate an overall increase in the frequency of high-intensity rainfall events in the Himalayas.
What makes Himalayas more prone to disasters?
Rise in atmospheric temperature further increases the available atmospheric energy and total precipitation.
This in combination with mountain fragility and the growing urban centers is a perfect condition for disasters
Himalayas & Flood
The Himalayan Mountain belt, tectonically, is divisible into from north and south in the following zones
Indus Suture Zone (ISZ) of Ladakh
Tethyan Himalaya
Higher Himalayan Crystalline zone
Lesser Himalaya
Outer Siwalik
(1) Indus Suture Zone (ISZ) of Ladakh
The ISZ lies in the rain shadow zone of the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM), where the scanty rainfall occurs mostly under the influence of westerlies.
The area is devoid of vegetation and due to extreme temperatures, physical weathering of rocks occurs that forms a thick debris mantle on hill slopes.
This debris mantle during excessive snow melting and rainstorm events, fail and block small and large streams that breach subsequently to create floods.
(2) Tethyan Himalaya
This belt also behaves in a similar manner even though it lies at the northern fringe of ISM and receives a slightly higher amount of rainfall as compared to ISZ.
(3) Higher Himalayan Crystalline zone
The higher Himalayan Crystalline zone receives full spectrum of ISM rainfall.
This zone is characterized by steep hill slopes and deep gorges with high gradient drainage systems.
(4, 5) Lesser Himalaya and Outer Siwalik
The Lesser Himalaya and outer Siwalik Himalaya are gentler and also receive a high amount of ISM rainfall.
Differential rainfall patterns
The headwaters of the rivers like Indus, the Ganga, and the rivers draining the central Himalayan ranges lie in rain deficient arid zones.
Here extreme rainfall events can potentially create glacial/moraine-dammed lake outbursts, and massive snowmelt, leading to a flood.
However, the headwater of the Brahmaputra, due to different orography and elevation receives less rainfall and downstream catchment receives higher rainfall.
These constraining characteristics between the two systems create floods that have discharges of different magnitude.
Factors influencing
In general, the large floods in the Himalayas are caused by:
Climate change: Intense rainfall events, landslide dammed lake outbursts, glacial dammed Lake outbursts, cloud bursts
Topography: The magnitude of flood is a function of overall geology, orography, catchment-wide distribution of lakes, landslide zone, and rainfall
Example:
2013 Kedarnath incident in the Garhwal Himalayas: Widespread rainfall in combination of a breach of a moraine-dammed lake in the Chaurabari glacial region was responsible.
Breach of Gohna Tal of Birahi Ganga in 1970: Landslide activity that generally occurs during monsoon or an earthquake may potentially dam small channels for a longer duration. These dams may breach and cause floods in the downstream regions.
Causes of Floods in the Himalayas
In general, the large floods in the Himalayas are caused by
Intense rainfall events
Landslide dammed lake outbursts (LLOFs)
Glacial dammed Lake outbursts (GLOFs)
Cloud bursts
Flood Mapping
Mapping of floods has four elements:
Vertical rise in river level
Rate of rising of flood
Flow velocity
Lateral inundation of flood plains
Flood mapping is normally done at river gauging stations which are equipped with state-of-the-art Internet of Things (IoT) and radars.
Radars can help in tacking the locations of intense rainfalls and the temporal evolution of the storm.
The lateral extent of flood inundation can be mapped using satellite images and LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data.
The flood velocities are generally measured using current meters, acoustic Doppler current profilers, tracers, and floaters.
Sediment load of floodwaters can be measured by sediment monitoring gauges or sensors equipped with Laser In-Situ Scattering or by physically sampling during the time of the flood.
Reducing Flood Vulnerability in the Himalayas
Proper understanding of the orography of the Himalayas, past flood events and the damage patterns can help in preparing the damage predictive models of the Himalayas.
The foremost way towards this is monitoring at various levels.
Landslide and glacial lake monitoring systems should be in place and be linked to flood management centres via IoT.
The combination of data on flood levels, flood hydrographs, and lateral inundation can be used to manage the floods and minimise the destruction.
The inundation maps combined with maps of social infrastructure, should be analysed on GIS platforms and AI using long time series of datasets.
It will provide predictive models of flood events and damage patterns.
The Centre has told the Supreme Court that the CBI was an “autonomous body” and it had no “control” over the investigative agency.
Background
The submission in the top court comes two days after the promulgation of an ordinance extending the tenures of the CBI Director and the Enforcement Directorate chief.
Attorney-General K was objecting to a suit filed by the West Bengal Government over the use of CBI.
West Bengal vs. CBI
West Bengal has challenged the CBI’s jurisdiction to register FIRs and conduct investigations in the State in some cases.
The State had withdrawn its “general consent” to the CBI way back in 2018.
About CBI
The Bureau of Investigation traces its origins to the Delhi Special Police Establishment, a Central Government Police force, which was set up in 1941 by the Government of India.
It then aimed to investigate bribery and corruption in transactions with the War and Supply Department of India.
It then had its headquarters in Lahore.
After the end of the war, there was a continued need for a central governmental agency to investigate bribery and corruption by central-government employees.
The DSPE acquired its popular current name, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), through a Home Ministry resolution dated in 1963.
Mandate of the CBI
The CBI is the main investigating agency of the GoI.
It is not a statutory body; it derives its powers from the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946.
Its important role is to prevent corruption and maintain integrity in administration.
It works under the supervision of the CVC (Central Vigilance Commission) in matters pertaining to the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
The CBI is also India’s official representative with theINTERPOL.
Cases to investigate
Cases connected to infringement of economic and fiscal laws
Crimes of a serious nature that have national and international ramifications
Coordination with the activities of the various state police forces and anti-corruption agencies.
It can also take up any case of public importance and investigate it
Maintaining crime statistics and disseminating criminal information.
Issues with CBI
Caged parrot: The Supreme Court has criticised the CBI by calling it a “caged parrot speaking in its master’s voice”.
Political interference: It has often been used by the government of the day to cover up wrongdoing, keep coalition allies in line and political opponents at bay.
Investigation delay: It has been accused of enormous delays in concluding investigations due to political inertia.
Loss of Credibility: CBI has been criticised for its mismanagement of several cases involving prominent politicians and mishandling of several sensitive cases like Bofors scandal, Bhopal gas tragedy.
Lack of Accountability: CBI is exempted from the provisions of the Right to Information Act, thus, lacking public accountability.
Acute shortage of personnel: A major cause of the shortfall is the government’s sheer mismanagement of CBI’s workforce.
Limited Powers: The powers and jurisdiction of members of the CBI for investigation are subject to the consent of the State Govt., thus limiting the extent of investigation by CBI.
Restricted Access: Prior approval of Central Government to conduct inquiry or investigation on the employees of the Central Government is a big obstacle in combating corruption at higher levels of bureaucracy.
Way Forward
Need for autonomy: As long as the government of the day has the power to transfer and post officials of its choice in the CBI, the investigating agency will not enjoy autonomy and will be unable to investigate cases freely.
A new CBI Act should be promulgated that ensures the autonomy of CBI while at the same time improving the quality of supervision.
Selection of director/ Officers: To ensure that the CBI is a robust, independent and credible investigation agency, there is an urgent need to work out a much more transparent mechanism for selection and induction of officers on deputation.
Lokpal scrutiny: The Lokpal Act already calls for a three-member committee made up of the PM, the leader of the opposition and the CJI to select the director.
Bifurcation of Cadre: CBI should be bifurcated into an Anti-Corruption Body and a National Crime Bureau.
Develop own cadre: One of the demands that have been before Supreme Court, and in line with international best practices, is for the CBI to develop its own dedicated cadre of officers.
Annual social audit should be carried out by ten reputed, knowledgeable persons with background of law, justice, public affairs and administration and the audit report should be placed before the parliament.
West Bengal CM has launched an ambitious “Duare Ration” Scheme.
Duare Ration Scheme
The Scheme aims for providing food grains under the public distribution system (PDS) at the doorstep for the entire population of the State.
It aims to unload the person carrying huge chunk of food grains manually.
Vehicles will carry ration in a particular street or lane and employees of ration dealers will make the food grains available to the people near their residence.
Key arrangements
The state govt would provide around 21,000 ration dealers with the financial assistance of ₹1 lakh each to purchase vehicles for delivering ration to people in this manner.
It also announced financial assistance to ration dealers to hire additional staff to make the scheme a success.
Back2Basics: Public Distribution System
The PDS is an Indian food Security System established under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution.
PDS evolved as a system of management of scarcity through the distribution of food grains at affordable prices.
PDS is operated under the joint responsibility of the Central and State Governments.
The Central Government, through the Food Corporation of India (FCI), has assumed the responsibility for procurement, storage, transportation, and bulk allocation of food grains to the State Governments.
The operational responsibilities including allocation within the State, identification of eligible families, issue of Ration Cards and supervision of the functioning of Fair Price Shops (FPSs) etc., rest with the State Governments.
Under the PDS, presently the commodities namely wheat, rice, sugar and kerosene are being allocated to the States/UTs for distribution. Some States/UTs also distribute additional items of mass consumption through the PDS outlets such as pulses, edible oils, iodized salt, spices, etc.
Pochampally village in Telangana is set to be named as one of the best Tourism Villages by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation.
Best Tourism Villages Initiative
The Best Tourism Villages by UNWTO Pilot initiative aims to award those villages which are outstanding examples of rural destinations and showcase good practices in line with its specified nine evaluation areas.
It also aims to support villages to enhance their rural tourism potential through training and access to opportunities for improvement.
Key objectives
Reduce regional inequalities in income and development
Fight rural depopulation
Progress gender equality and women’s and youth empowerment
Enhance education and skills development
About Pochampally
Pochampally, 50 Kms from Hyderabad, is a town in Nalgonda district of Telangana.
It is often referred to as the Silk City of India for the exquisite sarees that are woven through a unique style called Ikat.
It is also known as Bhoodan Pochampally to commemorate the Bhoodan Movement that was launched by Acharya Vinobha Bhave from this village on April 18th, 1951.
Currently, a two-room Vinobha Bhave Mandir exists within the village which was earlier the place where Vinobha Bhave resided during his visit to the village.
What is Pochampally Ikat?
Ikat is a Malaysian, Indonesian word that means “Tie and Dye”.
For this style, Pochampally Ikat, received a Geographical Indicator (GI Status) in 2004.
Ikat involves the process of wrapping (or tying) and dyeing sections of bundled yarn to a predetermined colour pattern before they are woven.
The dye penetrates into exposed sections while the wrapped section remains undyed.
This pattern formed by the yarn in this process is woven into fabric.
Back2Basics: Bhoodan Movement
The Bhoodan movement (Land Gift movement), also known as the Bloodless Revolution, was a voluntary land reform movement.
It was initiated by Vinoba Bhave, a staunch Gandhian in 1951 at Pochampally village, which is now in Telangana, and known as Bhoodan Pochampally.
The movement attempted to persuade wealthy landowners to voluntarily give a percentage of their land to landless people.
Philosophically, Bhave was influenced by Mahatma Gandhi’s Sarvodaya movement and Gram Swarajya.
Landless laborers were given small plots that they could settle and grow their crops on.
Bhoodan Acts were passed that stated that the beneficiary had no right to sell the land or use it for non-agricultural purposes or for forestry.
Try this PYQ:
Q. With reference to land reforms in independent India, which one of the following statements is correct?
(a) The ceiling laws were aimed at family holdings and not individual holdings
(b) The major aim of land reforms was providing agricultural land to all the landless
(c) It resulted in cultivation of cash crops as a predominant form of cultivation
(d) Land reforms permitted no exemptions to the ceiling limits
[wpdiscuz-feedback id=”pn3rq4x8xu” question=”Please leave a feedback on this” opened=”1″]Post your answers here.[/wpdiscuz-feedback]
Union Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj has recently held a workshop on Digital India Land Record Modernization Programme (DILRMP).
About DILRMP
The DILRMP was previously known as the National Land Record Modernization Programme (NLRMP).
It was launched in 2008 with the purpose to digitize and modernizing land records and developing a centralized land record management system.
The DILRMP is the amalgamation of two projects:
Computerization of Land Records (CLR)
Strengthening of Revenue Administration and Updating of Land Records (SRA & ULR)
The district will be taken as the unit of implementation, where all activities under the programme will converge.
Components of DILRMP
The DILRMP has 3 major components
Computerization of land record
Survey/re-survey
Computerization of Registration
Key features: Unique Land Parcel Identification Numbers
It is just like the Aadhar Number of land parcels.
A unique ID based on Geo-coordinates of the parcels is generated and assigned to the plots.
This has been introduced to share the computerized digital land record data among different States/Sectors and a uniform system of assigning a unique ID to the land parcel across the country.
Benefits offered
The citizen is expected to benefit from DILRMP in one or more of the following ways;
Real-time land ownership records will be available to the citizen
Property owners will have free access to their records without any compromise in regard to the confidentiality of the information
Abolition of stamp papers and payment of stamp duty and registration fees through banks, etc. will also reduce interface with the Registration machinery
These records will be tamper-proof
This method will permit e-linkages to credit facilities
Recently, Nigeria joined the Bahamas and five islands in the East Caribbean as the only economies to have introduced central bank digital currency (CBDC). This is a shortlist, but one that is likely to be supplemented.
Benefits of CBDC
Desire to make domestic payments systems and cross-border remittances cheaper, faster and more efficient, and deepen financial inclusion, represent key areas of priority for most other emerging market and development economies (EMDEs).
Between 2019 and 2021, the last three surveys conducted by the Bank for International Settlements showed that the primary drivers for central banks of EMDEs to study CBDCs were domestic payments efficiency, financial inclusion and payments safety.
Design features of CBDCs
In theory, the potential of CBDCs are only limited by their design and the capabilities of the central bank issuing it, but their appropriateness and form also depend on the state of the domestic banking and payments industry.
Ultimately, CBDCs must be seen as a means to an end.
A particular CBDC could, for example, be account-based or tokenised, may be distributed directly by the central bank or through intermediaries, may be interest-bearing (even the possibility of a negative interest has been considered), may be programmable, may offer limited pseudonymity to its holders (similar to, but not to the extent of, cash) and so on.
Whether it may be one or the other depends on what its country requires it to be.
Challenges
An economy that adopts an interest-bearing CBDC could make the interest rate on CBDCs the main tool of monetary policy transmission domestically (assuming a high degree of substitution of fiat and fiat-like currency).
On the other hand, as former RBI Governor D Subbarao recently warned, rendering an Indian CBDC as an interest-bearing instrument could pose an existential threat to the banking system by eroding its critical role as intermediaries in the economy.
If CBDCs compete with bank deposits and facilitate a reduction of bank-held deposits, banks stand to lose out on an important and stable source of funding.
Banks may respond by increasing deposit rates, but this would necessitate a higher lending rate to preserve margins, and dampen lending activities.
The resultant shrinking of balance sheets will lead to a more pronounced disintermediation role for financial institutions, which could have long-term effects on financial stability, and facilitate easier bank runs.
The introduction of CBDCs would require central banks to maintain much larger balance sheets, even in non-crisis times.
They would need to replace the lost funding (because of migration of deposits) by lending potentially huge sums to financial institutions, while purchasing correspondingly huge amounts of government and possibly private securities.
CBDCs could also have implications for the state from seigniorage as the cost of printing, storing, transporting and distributing currency can be reduced.
Conclusion
Recent comments by RBI officials have focussed on the desirability of introducing CBDCs. But the path to a “Digital Rupee” is not clear.
A recent survey released seeks to analyze the COVID-impact on digital connectivity in the context of healthcare, education, and work.
About the Survey
LIRNEasia, an Asia Pacific think tank focussed on digital policy, tied up with the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER).
They took part in a global study funded by the Canada’s International Development Centre to assess the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 .
They sought to analyse access to services, with a focus on digital technologies in healthcare, education and work.
Highlights of the Survey:
[A] Internet Access and Use
(1) Internet users
The survey found that 47% of the population are Internet users, a significant jump from the 19% who were identified as Internet users in late 2017.
At least 5 crores have already become new Internet users in 2021.
(2) Gender and internet
Men still use the Internet more than women.
There is a 37% gender gap among users, although this is half of the 57% gap present four years ago.
(3) Rural-urban Gap
The rural-urban gap has dropped from 48% in 2017 to just 20% now as more rural residents come online.
(4) Education
Among those with college education, 89% are Internet users, compared to 60% of those who completed secondary school.
Only 23% of those who dropped out of school after Class 8, and 9% of those without any education, are able to use the Internet.
Major inferences drawn
Among non-users, lack of awareness is still the biggest hurdle.
The percentage of non-users who said they do not know what the Internet is dropped from 82% to 49% over the last four years.
Increasingly, lack of access to devices and lack of skills are the reason why people do not go online.
Loopholes in Remote Education
80% of school-age children in the country had no access to remote education at all during the 18 months of lockdown.
This happened even though 64% of households actually had Internet
Situation was worse for those homes without Internet connections, where only 8% of children received any sort of remote education.
[B] Internet connectivity
Apart from not having any devices, poor 3G/4G signal and high data cost were listed as the biggest hurdles.
Even among the 20% who received education, only half had access to live online classes which required a good Internet connection and exclusive use of a device.
Most depended on recorded lessons and WhatsApp messages which could be sent to a parent’s phone and downloaded at leisure.
Others were able to have more direct contact with teachers via phone calls or physical visits.
Worst consequences: Dropouts
Nationwide, 38% of households said at least one child had dropped out of school completely due to COVID-19.
The situation was significantly worse among those from lower socio-economic classes, or where the head of the household had lower education levels.
[C] Internet access and healthcare
About 15% required healthcare access for non-COVID related purposes during the most severe national and State lockdown.
Of the 14% who required ongoing treatment for chronic conditions, over a third missed at least one appointment due to the lockdown.
Telemedicine and online doctor consultations surged during these times, but only 38% said they were able to access such services.
With regard to COVID-19, about 40% of respondents depended on television channels for advice as their most trusted source.
