Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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The Red Fort is merely one of the 90-odd tourist attractions in India that is up for corporate adoption

News:

• The adoption of the iconic Red Fort by the private entity Dalmia Bharat under the Centre’s ‘Adopt a Heritage’ Project has kicked up a storm with many in the Opposition terming it as an attack on the idea of India and comparing it to pawning off of the family jewels.

Beyond News:

• The Dalmia Group was chosen over InterGlobe Foundation, the parent company of IndiGo Airlines, and the GMR group, who had also expressed interest in adopting the ‘Laal Quila’.
• On April 24, the Group announced that it signed a Memorandum of Understanding under which it committed Rs. 25 crore over a five-year-period for the upkeep of the national treasure.
  The ‘Adopt a Heritage’ project, brainchild of Ministry of Tourism, along with the Ministry of Culture and the Archaeological Survey of India, was launched on World Tourism Day 2017 by President Ram Nath Kovind.
• It aims to develop the monuments, heritage and tourist sites across India by inviting corporate entities, public sector companies or individuals to ‘adopt’ them for a period of five years.
• The process of monument adoption begins with the interested entity selecting any of the numerous featured heritage sites according to the guidelines.
• The monuments are separated into three categories – Green, Blue and Orange – depending on tourist footfall and visibility.
• Iconic sites like the Taj Mahal, Qutub Minar, Konark Temple and Red Fort, among others, are categorized as ‘Green’ while Purana Quila and Jantar Mantar fall in the ‘Blue’ category.
• The Sanchi Stupa and Tipu Palace are a few of the popular sites in the ‘Orange’ category.
• Entities are encouraged to adopt from the Blue and Orange category, or a mix of the three – adoption of only ‘Green’ category monuments is not permitted.
• In the past seven months, Letters of Intent were handed over to 33 agencies for 98 monuments – including the Jantar Mantar, Konark Sun Temple and the Ajanta Caves – in four phases.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

Schools now have to pass the safety test

News

• As directed by the High Court, all schools across the Tamil Nadu State, both government and private institutions affiliated to different boards, will be inspected to ensure compliance with building regulations and safety norms ahead of the upcoming academic year.

Beyond News

• Principal Secretary, School Education Department, said that all District Collectors had been informed about the order and instructed to form a committee.
• The committees have been inspecting schools in their respective districts for the last one week. They have been given an exhaustive checklist that includes building specifications from the School Safety Policy and other important specifications from government orders and policy notes.
• The committees will be armed with a mobile app, which will have the checklist as well and use it during the inspection process.
• The checklist features ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ questions for the committee and focusses on the infrastructure of the school as well as the facilities on offer for students such as labs. Access to the school buildings for the disabled is also verified.
• Apart from infrastructure, the committees will also examine the implementation of the RTE Act, the Fee Regulation Act and the health status of the students in the schools.
• The High Court order came after a PIL was filed by Change India, an NGO, which had sought a direction to the government to ensure that school buildings complied with norms set under the National Buildings Code.

Power ministry feels no need to change electrification definition

News

• The government is not considering modifying the current much-criticised definition of an electrified village, which counts a village as electrified if at least 10% of its households have an electricity connection, according to a senior official in the Ministry of Power.

Beyond News

• According to the definition, in place since October 1997, a village is deemed to be electrified if basic infrastructure such as a distribution transformer and distribution lines are in place in the inhabited locality, electricity is provided to public places like schools, panchayat office, health centres, dispensaries, community centres, and at least 10% of the households in the village are electrified.
• Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Power told that,as of today in India, the rural household electrification is about 83%. From State to State, it ranges from 47% to 100%, but on average about 83% of households are electrified. So, to say that electrification means only 10% households, that’s no longer an issue.
• The government had in September 2017 launched the Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana (Saubhagya), aimed at covering the last-mile connectivity of taking electricity to the household level. The target for the scheme is March 31, 2019.
• According to data from the Ministry of Power and the Central Electricity Authority, so far 84.3% of households have been electrified. The Saubhagya scheme defines the electrification of a household as including a service line cable, energy meter, and single point wiring.
• For unelectrified households in remote areas, electrification will involve the provision of power packs of 200 to 300 W (with battery bank) with a maximum of 5 LED lights, 1 DC Fan, and 1 DC power plug.
• According to Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Power, 15% of the villages so far electrified have been done so using off-grid solutions such as solar, while the remaining 85% are connected to the grid.

Trump hails Kalpana Chawla as American hero

News

• S. President Donald Trump has hailed Indian-origin Kalpana Chawla as an American hero for devoting her life to the space programme and inspiring millions of girls to become astronauts.

Beyond News

• Trump’s remarks came as he issued a proclamation declaring May as ‘Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month’.
• Chawla was the first woman of Indian-origin in space. She was one of the seven crew members who died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003 when the craft disintegrated during its re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.
• For her achievements, the Congress posthumously awarded her the Congressional Space Medal of Honour, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) posthumously awarded her the NASA Space Flight Medal and the NASA Distinguished Service Medal.
• The proclamation noted that during Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, the Mr. Trump administration recognises their tremendous contributions.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

World’ s first floating nuclear plant put to sea by Russia

News

• Akademik Lomonosov, the world’s first “floating” nuclear power plant (FNPP) for installation in remote areas, has headed out on its first sea voyage from this Baltic shipyard, Russian state-run atomic energy corporation Rosatom said.

Beyond News

• A statement said the FNPP was towed out of the St. Petersburg shipyard for travel to its final destination to the port of Pevek in Russia’s extreme northeastern region of Chukotka.
• It is to be towed through the Baltic Sea and around the northern tip of Norway to Murmansk, where its reactors will be loaded with nuclear fuel, said Rosatom, who are the equipment suppliers and consultants for the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project.
• The Lomonosov is expected to be put into service in early 2019.

Waterholes created to protect wildlife

News

• With streams and natural water sources fast drying up in the wild as blistering heat wave conditions building up in the early summer, the Telangana Forest Department has focussed its attention on making drinking water available for the wild animals in the forest.

Beyond News

• The timely initiative is also intended to prevent incidents of straying of wild animals into human habitations in search of water thereby avoiding human-animal conflict.
• A contingency plan to meet the drinking water needs of the wild animals has already been initiated in the erstwhile undivided Khammam district region encompassing large tracts of forest area.
• The department has created waterholes at 400 places in strategic locations across the forest area spread over 10 lakh hectares in Bhadradri-Kothagudem district. Arrangements have been made to fill the artificial water storage points on a regular basis through water tankers.
• In addition to the existing three solar-powered borewells in Kinnerasani wildlife sanctuary, three more solar-powered borewells have been installed one each at Markodu, Gattumalla and Regalla forest beats under the wildlife sanctuary limits.
• In Khammam, the water body at Chintapalli the famous nesting spot for the migratory birds has been replenished by filling the tank with water drawn from an irrigation canal, sources said.
• The Forest Department has appointed a watcher to oversee the efforts to promote awareness on the winged visitors and ensure their safety at the water bodies around the village.
• As many as 32 camera traps are in place at vantage points in the Kinnerasani wildlife sanctuary to monitor the movement of wild animals and ensure their safety at the drinking water points in the wild.

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