IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

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Swachh Nagar app for waste collection

News

• An app that will allow users to have waste solid, wet or construction and demolition (C&D) collected by their urban local bodies was launched by the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry, along with a new protocol on wastewater treatment that would become a part of cleanliness rankings of cities.
• The app would let users place a request to have waste picked up from their homes and make the payment for the same.

Water+ protocol for cities

• A city could be given the tag of Water+ if it ensures 100% treatment of wastewater and 10% use of treated wastewater, among other things.

Source: PIB india, The Hindu

Enact security regime for National Register of Citizens data

News

• The Supreme Court directed Assam National Register of Citizens(NRC) authorities to enact a security regime akin to the Aadhaar data protection before making the information on exclusions and inclusions in the NRC list available to the Centre, Government of Assam and the Registrar General of India.

National Register of Citizens

• The 21-page order pronounced directed that only hard copies of the supplementary list of inclusions be published at the NRC Seva centres, circle offices and offices of the District Magistrates of the State.
• It said orders under Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal) Act should be challenged in the Guwahati High Court.
• Persons born on or after December 3, 2004 would not be included in NRC even if any of the parent is DV or DF or PFT. That is, those born on or after December 3, 2004 would not find a place in the NRC even if the parent from whom legacy is drawn is clear from all angles.
• The court said this distinction is in tune with the provisions of Section 3(1)(b) & (c) of the Citizenship Act, 1955 and a Supreme Court order of July 2 last year.

Source: The Hindu

Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC)

News:

Khadi and Village Industry Commission (KVIC) distributed as many as 50 leather kits and 350 Bee-Boxes with live bee colonies in tribal-dominated village in Sirohi district of Rajasthan, one of the aspirational districts in India identified by the NITI Aayog, on World Tribal Day today.

Beyond News:

• It is a statutory body established by an Act of Parliament (Khadi and Village Industries Commission Act of 1956).
• It is an apex organization under the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, with regard to khadi and village industries within India, 
  [which seeks to – “plan, promote, facilitate, organise and assist in the establishment and development of khadi and village industries in the rural areas ]

Few tribal movements that have sprouted across India over the years

1. The Santhal rebellion (June 30, 1855 to January 3, 1856) : Jharkhand
2. The Munda Rebellion: Birsa Munda led the movement in the region south of Ranchi (JH)in 1899-1900

3. The Bodo Movement: Assam[The official movement of the Bodos for an independent state of Bodoland started under the leadership of Upendranath Brahma of All Bodo Students’ Union (ABSU) on March 2, 1987]

Source: PIB india

Certification of seeds to be made mandatory to step up farm output

News

• More than half of all seeds sold in India are not certified by any proper testing agency, and are often of poor quality.
• The Centre now hopes to mandate uniform certification by pushing through a replacement to the Seeds Act, 1966, in the winter session of Parliament, and also by barcoding all seeds to ensure their traceability.

Aim of the new legislation: To bring uniformity to the process of quality regulation.

Replacement to the Seeds Act

• This could increase overall agricultural productivity by up to 25%.
• The new Bill will also raise the stakes by increasing penalties for non-compliance.
• The Centre also hopes to roll out a software to barcode seeds in order to ensure transparency and traceability.
• The software system will be able to track seeds through the testing, certification and manufacturing process. By connecting to a dealer licensing system, seeds will be tracked through the distribution process as well.

Source: The Hindu

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

No harmful chemicals in PET bottles, finds CSIR study

News

• PET bottles are safe, a comprehensive evaluation has determined.

Beyond News:

Findings

• The CFRTI analysis, concluded that antimony, arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, lead, mercury, selenium and zinc “were below” their detection limits (BDL) of 0.001 mg/kg.
• Bisphenol-A was below its detection limit of 0.02 mg/kg.
• For their analysis, the researchers collected four different kinds of PET containers and exposed them to different stimuli such as ethanol of varying concentrations, acetic acid and vegetable oil.
• These were supposed to simulate the kind of chemicals contained in packaged food and drink that could trigger the leakage of metals or other secondary chemicals.
• They tested these bottles when they were subject to 40C and 60C temperature as well as when test-chemicals were stored in them for 10 days.
• Along with metals, the scientists also measured terephthalic acid, Isophthalic acid, Ethylene Glycol, BPA (bis-phenol A) and phthalates.
• The scientists found that the presence of metals, BPA and phthalates were “below detection limit” meaning that they were below the minimum levels required by the instruments and methods employed by the researchers to detect these chemicals.
• They were also below the EU (European Union) regulation norms of the “specific migration limit”, which is the maximum amount of a substance that can migrate from a food packaging material or food container into food.
• The analysis found that no chemicals breached the EU-specified norms.
• The scientists also studied water stored in PET bottles and checked whether it affected the hormone levels of rats and mice.

Source: The Hindu

Paddy stubble burning declines 41% in Punjab, Haryana

News

• Burning of paddy crop residue, one of the major causes of air pollution, declined by 41 per cent last year over 2016-level in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi-NCR with the help of a ₹1,151 crore central scheme.

Zero stubble burning

• More than 4,500 villages in Punjab and Haryana were declared zero stubble burning during 2018 as not a single crop burning incident was reported from these villages during the year.
• Crop residue burning in north-west India contributes to air pollution, health hazards, disruption of transportation, school closures and soil degradation.
• 23 million tonnes of rice residue were being burnt in rice-wheat cropping system (around 4.1 million ha) to clear the field for conventional wheat sowing because of the narrow window (about 10-20 days) between rice harvesting and wheat sowing.
• The central sector scheme was launched with a total outgo of ₹1,151.80 crore for the period from 2018-19 to 2019-20 to tackle air pollution and to subsidize machinery required for in-situ management of crop residue in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and national capital territory of Delhi.
• Within one year of its implementation utilising an amount of ₹500 crore, the happy seeder/zero tillage technology was adopted in 8 lakh hectares of land in the north-western India.
• During 2019-20, funds amounting to ₹273.80 crore, ₹192.06 crore and ₹105.29 crore have also been released so far to Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, respectively.
• ICAR is implementing the scheme through 60 Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) of Punjab (22), Haryana (14), Delhi (1) and UP (23).

Source: The Hindu

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