IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-01

Study says marine heat waves rising in Indian Ocean, could threaten monsoon and marine life

News

• A new study led by climate scientists from Pune has traced an increasing trend in the marine heat wave events in the Indian Ocean Region, which they say could affect marine life along with the future monsoons and cyclones.

Marine heat waves rising

• In the recent decades, a warming Arabian Sea has been churning out cyclones of ‘severe’ categories.
• Warming oceans are also a threat to marine life, including coral reefs that face the threat of getting bleached. Livelihoods based on fishing and fisheries industries also remain under persistent threat due to the warming oceans.
• The sea surface temperature during a marine heatwave event rises to its maximum (above 90th percentile) and can remain one to 2 degrees above the climatological normal, the experts said.
• Unlike heat waves affecting the land that can be predicted well in advance, marine heatwaves do not have specific periodicity of occurrence. Besides, they can range between one day to a few days or last up to even a month.
• In recent times, a month-long marine heatwave was reported along the Gulf of Mannar off Tamil Nadu.
• Marine heatwaves in the western Indian Ocean could also mean that weak monsoon winds reach the central Indian subcontinent the core monsoon zone and the rain-fed agriculture belt.
• Furthermore, El Nino the phenomenon of abnormal warming along the central and equatorial Pacific Ocean too was a contributor to the increasing frequency and intensity of marine heat waves along the Indian Ocean Region.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

WELFARE SCHEMES FOR TRANSGENDERS 

Source: PIB INDIA

News

• The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has formulated a scheme “SMILE – Support for Marginalized Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise”, which includes sub scheme -‘Comprehensive Rehabilitation for Welfare of Transgender Persons’.
• The focus of the sub-scheme is on rehabilitation, provision of medical facilities and intervention, counseling, education, skill development, economic linkages to the transgender persons.

Welfare schemes

• Ministry has also initiated 12 pilot shelter homes namely Garima Greh: Shelter Home for Transgender Persons and provided financial assistance to community-based organizations (CBOs) for setting up of these shelter homes.
• The main aim of Garima Greh is to provide shelter to transgender persons with basic amenities like food, medical care and recreational facilities.
• Ministry has written to States/UTs for implementation of provisions of ‘The Transgender Person (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019’.
• Further, SMILE scheme has also provision for Transgender Protection Cell under the charge of Director General of Police to monitor cases of offences against Transgender persons and to ensure timely registration, investigation and prosecution of such offences.
• Ministry also issues advisory to the States/UTs from time to time for implementation of provisions of the Act.

Chhattisgarh becomes 35th State/UT to implement One Nation One Ration Card

Source: PIB INDIA

News

• Recently Department of Food & Public Distribution had reviewed the progress of States/UTs towards the implementation of “One Nation One Ration Card” (ONORC) plan and after successful testing of portability transactions, the Department has approved the integration of Chhattisgarh with the existing cluster of portability States/UTs under ONORC.
• Accordingly, the ONORC plan for nation-wide portability of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) ration cards has been enabled in the Chhattisgarh State from 2nd February 2022.

One Nation One Ration Card

• • With the integration of Chhattisgarh, the ONORC plan is now operational in 35 States/UTs covering almost 96.8% NFSA population (about 77 Crore NFSA beneficiaries) in the country. The migrant NFSA beneficiaries of Chhattisgarh State will also now be able to take the benefit of subsidised foodgrains at any Fair Price Shop (FPS) across the country.
  • ONORC is a technology driven distribution system which makes food security portable across the country and is very beneficial for migratory NFSA beneficiaries, who frequently change their place of dwelling in search of temporary employments, etc.
  • This provides them with an option to lift their entitled quota of foodgrains from any FPS of their choice, anywhere in the country, by using their same/existing ration card. It is also noteworthy that the families of the migratory beneficiaries back home, can also avail the balance ration without any difficulty.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

Substantial increase of 12.32% in the Budget Outlay of Rs. 8451 cr for the Ministry of Tribal Affairs for 2022-22

News

• Minister of Finance, in the Budget Outlay for the Financial Year 2022-2023 has earmarked an enhanced Total Budget Outlay of Rs. 8451.92 Crores for the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, which is a substantial increase from the previous Total Budget Outlay of 2021-2022 that stood at Rs. 7524.87 Crores.
• A substantial increase of 12.32% is reflected in the Total Budget Outlay for the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

Budget Outlay for the Ministry of Tribal Affairs

• The budget allocation has been in accordance with the approval of the Cabinet vide its decision which has inter-alia approved 14 schemes of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs under umbrella of Central Sector and centrally Sponsored Scheme, namely  National Tribal Welfare Program with total financial outlay of Rs.3,344 Crore; Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS) with total financial outlay of Rs.28,920 Crore and Pradhan Mantri Van Bandhu Kalyan Yojana with total financial outlay of Rs.26,135 Crore for their continuation till 31.03.2026.
• The cabinet has also approved the enhanced cost of construction for each school from Rs. 20 cr in plain areas and Rs. 24 crore in hilly/NE/LWE areas to Rs. 38 cr and Rs. 48 cr. respectively.
• The cabinet has approved total outlay of Rs. 28,920 cr for setting up of 452 new schools, upgradation of existing 211 schools and establishment of 15 Centres of Excellence for Sports for the 15th Finance Commission Cycle.
• The scope of existing scheme of SCA to TSS has been broadened wherein comprehensive development of 36,428 villages will be undertaken in convergence with line Ministries to develop these villages as Adarsh Gram, under ‘Pradhan Mantri Aadi Adarsh Gram Yojana’.
• These villages have tribal population of more than 500 and 50% tribals.
• In the budget, an amount of Rs. 499 cr. has been earmarked for Pradhan Mantri Janjatiya Vikas Mission during the year.  The Mission seeks to achieve livelihood driven tribal development in the next five years through formation of Vandhan groups who have been organized into Vandhan Kendras.
• An amount of Rs. 50 cr. has been sanctioned in the budget for the new scheme of ‘Venture Capital Fund for Scheduled Tribes’ (VCF-ST), which is aimed at promoting Entrepreneurship among the STs. The VCF-ST scheme would be a social sector initiative to promote ST entrepreneurship and to support and incubate the start-up ideas by ST youth.

BANNED ORGANISATIONS IN THE COUNTRY

News

• The number of terrorist organisations listed in the First Schedule to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA) in the country is 42 and the number of organisations declared as Unlawful Associations under the UAPA is 13.

Banned Organisations

• So far, 31 individuals have been listed as terrorists under Schedule Four of the Act.  Law Enforcement Agencies of the Centre and the States keep continuous watch on the activities of all such organisations/individuals and take action against them as per the law.
• The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act, 2019 has added the provision of designation of individuals as terrorists, thereby reducing the chances of regrouping of the leaders/members of the banned organisations under other names.

India ranks third globally for consuming pirated content in 2021: Akamai Report

News

• The number of visits to the pirated sites rose in 2021. A joint report shows that global demand for pirated content skyrocketed between January 2021 to September 2021. India recorded 6.5 billion visits to piracy websites, the third-highest after the US (13.5 billion) and Russia (7.2 billion).

Consuming pirated content

• According to the report, a total of 132 billion visits to piracy websites were logged in 2021. While 61.5 per cent of consumers who visited piracy sites accessed them directly, and 28.6 per cent actively searched for them.
• The report added that there were over 67 billion TV piracy visits, which is roughly 50 per cent of all pirate site traffic.
• The publishing category is in second place with 30 billion visits (23 per cent), followed by films with 14.5 billion (11 per cent) and music with 10.8 billion (8 per cent). Software piracy closes the ranks with 9 billion visits (7 per cent).

World Wetlands Day: Sanctuaries in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh listed as Ramsar sites

News

• The Khijadiya Bird Sanctuary near Jamnagar in Gujarat and Bakhira Wildlife Sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh have been listed as Wetlands of International Importance by the Ramsar Convention, an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands.

Wetlands of International Importance

• The announcement by the Ramsar secretariat in Iran came on the eve of International Wetlands Day (February 2). With this, the total number of Ramsar sites in India goes up to 48.
• Khijadiya, which is part of the Central Asian Flyway, has become the fourth wetland of Gujarat to get the Ramsar tag. Nalsarovar Bird Sanctuary, Thol Wildlife Sanctuary and Wadhwana wetland are the other Ramsar sites in the state. The last two were included in April last year.
• Khijadia Wildlife Sanctuary (Ramsar site No. 2464), a freshwater wetland near the coast of the Gulf of Kutch, was formed following the creation of a bund (dike) in 1920 by the then ruler of the erstwhile princely state of Nawanagar to protect farmlands from saltwater ingress. The sanctuary is now part of Marine National Park, Jamnagar, the first marine national park in the country.
• On the other hand, Bakhira Wildlife Sanctuary (site no. 2465), a freshwater marsh in the Sant Kabir Nagar district, is the largest natural floodplain wetland of eastern Uttar Pradesh. The Sanctuary was established in 1980 and is protected under the Wildlife Protection Act (1972); an “eco-sensitive zone” extends up to a kilometre around its boundary.
• This wetland also supports 119 plant species and 45 species of fish: it is home to the vulnerable European carp (Cyprinus carpio) and the catfish Wallago attu, and the near-threatened Gangetic ailia (Ailia coila) and silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix). The site is also used for recreation and tourism and contributes to food supply and nutrient cycling.

Two ALH-Mark-III helicopters inducted into Indian Coast Guard

News

• Two Dhruv Advanced Light Helicopters (ALH) Mark-III made by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) were inducted into the Indian Coast Guard (ICG).
• The choppers will be stationed at the Coast Guard Aviation squadron in Kochi. The ICG said that these choppers were the ninth and tenth in the series of 16 ALH.

Dhruv Advanced Light Helicopters

• The HAL is in the process of producing and delivering helicopters to the Coast Guard for four bases at Porbandar, Bhubaneshwar, Kochi and Chennai. Eight helicopters have already been supplied to two ICG bases at Bhubaneswar and Porbandar.
• ALH MK-IIl is equipped with surveillance radar, electro optic pod, medical intensive care unit, high-intensity searchlight, infrared suppressor, heavy machine gun, glass cockpit and is powered by two Shakti engines.
• The major variants of Dhruv are classified as Dhruv Mark-1, Mark-II, Mark-III and Mark-IV.