IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-01

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Part of ‘The World’s Big Sleep Out’ initiative: Event in Pune aims to understand plight of homeless closely

News

• A group of NGOs, academic institutes, and organisations have come together to organise a ‘Sleep Out’ in Pune as part of ‘The World’s Big Sleep Out’ initiative in support of homeless people.

Sleep Out

• The Sleep Out is a global campaign, where people across 60 cities like New York, London, Cardiff and New Delhi, will participate to raise awareness about the plight of homeless people.
• The idea behind the Sleep Out campaign is to experience what it feels like to spend a night like millions of homeless people.

Tripura is first northeast state to offer intra-state portability for ration holders

News

• Tripura has become the first among the northeast states, and the third in the country, to operationalise intra-state ration card portability for consumers using the Public Distribution System (PDS).
• This allows residents to use their ration cards at any fair price shop in the state.

Intra-state ration card portability

• In a media interaction at the state guest house, the state food minister said his department would also introduce inter-state portability for ration card consumers by January 2020.
• Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are the two other states that have already rolled out the intra-state ration card portability scheme.
• Tripura has 9.15 lakh PDS consumers, including 3.37 APL, 1.08 AAY and 4.7 PHH consumers. There are 1,810 fair price shops spread across eight districts of the state.
• Nearly all ration shops in the state have migrated to an online fingerprint-based access system. There are only 27 shops that still operate in offline mode.
• An average of 500 families is being served by each of the 27 ration shops, which translates to around 13,500 families currently outside the coverage of the online PDS distribution system.
• Tripura currently provides six commodities through its fair price shops including rice, wheat, sugar, lentil pulses, salt, and tea.
• The government had earlier announced it would start supplying mustard oil and soyabean among some other products. However, the initiative has faced hiccups as soyabean, mostly supplied from Madhya Pradesh, has far exceeded the initial funds. The supply of mustard oil is facing hurdles as well as 100 per cent ‘kacchi ghani’ oil is hard to fit in the state’s budget.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

US agency completes implementation of H-1B electronic registration process for 2021 cap season

News

• A federal US agency announced it has completed the process to implement the H-1B electronic registration process for the 2021 cap season.
• As a result of this, companies applying for H-1B visas for foreign workers for the fiscal year 2021 would have to register online and pay a processing fee of $10.

H-1B electronic registration process

• The US Citizenship and Immigration Services would start accepting the H-1B petitions from April 1, 2020 for the next fiscal year.
• The electronic registration process will dramatically streamline processing by reducing paperwork and data exchange, and will provide an overall cost savings to petitioning employers.
• Under this new process, employers seeking H-1B workers subject to the cap, or their authorized representatives, will complete a registration process that requires only basic information about their company and each requested worker.
• The USCIS will open an initial registration period from March 1 through March 20, 2020. The H-1B random selection process, if needed, will then be run on those electronic registrations. Only those with selected registrations will be eligible to file H-1B cap-subject petitions.

Draft policy on education recommends extending ambit of RTE Act: Govt to Delhi HC

News

• The Centre informed the Delhi High Court that the draft policy on education has recommended extending the ambit of The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, to “include early childhood education and secondary school education”.
• This would extend the coverage of the Act to all children between the ages of 3-18.

Draft policy on education

• It will ensure that by 2030, all students will enroll and participate in quality school education. It said that the ministry is in the process of finalising the National Education Policy (NEP) based on suggestions and inputs received from various stakeholders on the issue.
• Presently, the RTE Act mandates free and compulsory education to children in the age group of 6-14.
• The Centre was responding to Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking free education for Economically Weaker Students (EWS) in unaided schools up to Class XII. Following which, the HC had asked the government to respond to the proposed amendment in the RTE Act.

Tamil Nadu universities put up good show in Swachh Campus survey

News

• A total of seven universities and colleges in Tamil Nadu have made it to the third annual Swachhata Ranking Award.

Swachhata Ranking Award

• The award process is undertaken by the Ministry of Human Resource Development every year to promote environmental hygiene in the Higher Education System.
• The awards, which were conferred on December 3, were given after ranking the institutions based on hygiene parameters such as student-toilet ratio, hostel hygiene, hostel kitchen hygiene, availability of water, water conservation measures, campus greenery, administrative responsibility for hygiene etc.
• The survey is carried out every year to encourage colleges and universities to improve hygiene on campus and undertake activities in hygiene off campus in villages and towns surrounding the institutions.

At India-Lanka joint exercise, Army personnel get lessons on perception management, information warfare

News

• As part of the India-Sri Lanka joint military exercise, which is focused on Counter Insurgency and Counter Terrorism (CI-CT) operations, the participants are receiving lessons in perception management and information warfare, along with human rights and humanitarian law.

Mitra Shakti’

• Contingents from the Kumaon Regiment of the Indian Army and Gemunu Watch infantry regiment of Sri Lanka are currently undergoing a joint exercise named ‘Mitra Shakti’ to practice sub-unit level CI-CT operations in urban and rural set-ups.
• This exercise is being conducted under the United Nations (UN) mandate as both the armies contribute to the United National Peacekeeping Forces, which are deployed in troubled areas across the world.
• The exercise is being held at the Foreign Training Node located in Aundh Military station in the city. The daily routines of the exercise include both outdoor training and classroom components. Some of the latest additions to the topics taught and discussed in the classrooms are perception management and information warfare.
• The classroom sessions also have modules on human rights and humanitarian law, also called laws of armed conflict. The lectures till now have also been about cyber threats, hostage rescue and casualty management.
• As part of the outdoor actions, the troops carried out specialised joint training, which included silent insertion of teams in the target area, jungle warfare drills, helicopter-borne operations, and training in handling improvised explosive devices (IEDs), among others.
• The exercise started on December 1, a couple of days after newly-elected Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks, and tackling terrorism was one of the key issues discussed by them.
• The series, ‘Mitra Shakti’, which means ‘power of friendship’, was started in 2012, mainly as a response to China’s efforts to increase its influence in South Asia in general and Indian Ocean region in particular.

Delhi needs 213 smog towers, will build 1 in CP on trial basis: Govt in SC

News

• The Delhi government is planning to install a smog tower at Central Park in Connaught Place, and will also issue directions to all construction agencies in the capital to use anti-smog guns.

Roadmap on smog towers

• The plan was submitted in an affidavit filed by the Delhi environment department in the Supreme Court. This comes after the SC directed authorities to develop a roadmap on smog towers within 10 days, as Delhi is one of the country’s most polluted cities.
• The apex court also sought to know the steps taken by the government on the use and acquisition of anti-smog guns and the outcome of their experiment performed in December 2017.
• Use of “anti-smog guns may also be considered on roofs of high-rise buildings to measures its effectiveness in trapping particulate matter during bad air quality days”.

Smog tower

• A smog tower is a large vertical structure designed as a large-scale air purifier to reduce air pollution.
• The anti-smog gun is a cannon-shaped device that sprays atomised water droplets in the air. It is attached to a water tank built on a movable vehicle, which can be taken to various parts of the city.
• Based on the estimation of agencies involved, the tower is expected to bring down particulate matter load by 50% in an area of 1 km in the direction of wind.
• Another expert panel, set up by the Centre’s Department of Science and Technology, estimated that 213 towers may be required across Delhi. However, it said setting up multiple towers at this stage is premature and recommended a pilot project.
• Both expert panels of the Centre and Delhi government observed that only one such tower is operating in China’s Xi’an city and its effectiveness on the air quality is yet to be established. The tower in Delhi would use different technology than the one in China.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

Odisha reduces Kalia assistance to Rs 4,000 from Rs 10,000

News

• Odisha government has reduced the financial assistance given to farmers under the Kalia scheme to Rs 4,000 per annum from Rs 10,000, officials said.

Kalia scheme

• • The decision to reduce the Kalia assistance was taken after the Odisha government merged the Kalia scheme with the Centres Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN), launched in February 2019.
  • Keeping the parity of both the schemes, the small farmers/marginal farmers may be given with Rs 5,000 for 2019-20 and Rs 4,000 per year from 2020-21, so that they will get Rs 10,000 annually i.e Rs 6,000 from PM-KISAN and Rs 4,000 from KALIA.
  • As all the eligible farmers will get assistance from PM-KISAN from 2019-20, no assistance for Rabi-2019 will be given under the Kalia scheme to these farmers, the beneficiaries, who have not yet received financial assistance during 2018-19 under Kalia scheme, will also be provided assistance for Rabi 2018-19.
  • The actual cultivators (share croppers) who are landless, if any, will continue to get assistance from Kalia i.e Rs 10,000 annually, since they are not considered under PM-KISAN.
  • Odisha Chief Minister  had launched the Kalia scheme, the state’s own’s farmer welfare scheme on December, 2018.
  • It was promised during the launch of the scheme that financial assistance of Rs 10,000 would be provided to small and marginal farmers in two instalments for separate crops in a year.

Pune civic body promises stringent implementation of ‘spot fine’ policy for dumping waste

News

• A year after the state government directed civic bodies to implement ‘spot fines’ on those found dumping waste in the open, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) directed officials to start implementing the provision as per the state’s Solid Waste Management policy.

Solid Waste Management rules

• Union government had framed the Solid Waste Management rules back in 2016 and the PMC has been implementing them effectively in the city. The PMC also clarified that commercial establishments and shops will also be held responsible if waste is found dumped in their premises.
• As per the decision, a residential property owner will be fined Rs 500 for hoarding or dumping waste in an open space within their premises. Repeat offenders will have to pay Rs 750 and Rs 1,000 for the second and third violation.
• Non-residential property owners or organisations will be fined Rs 1,000 in the first instant, and repeat offenders will have to pay Rs 1,500 and then Rs 2,000. Industries will be fined Rs 2,000 for the first violation, and the fine will increase to Rs 3,000 and Rs 4,000 for repeated violations.
• Last year, the state government had also asked civic bodies to fine those found responsible for making the streets dirty, spitting in public place, and urinating and defecating in the open.

In Kashmir, CAPF deployment three times the normal

News

• In the days leading up to August 5 and the scrapping of special status of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir state, the Valley witnessed the highest deployment of security forces
• By August 5, nearly 430 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) were deployed in the state, including personnel from the CRPF, BSF, ITBP, SSB and CISF.

Normal deployment

• The normal deployment in the Valley is about 200 CAPF companies in addition to Indian Army and J&K Police. Each company has about 100 personnel.
• The deployment of almost 230 companies was done in the months leading up to August 2019 to provide security for the panchayat and urban local body elections held in September 2018, followed by preparations for Lok Sabha elections in May 2019 and then the Amarnath Yatra.
• Post-August 5, the CAPF deployment increased to 653 companies. Of these, about 20 companies have left in recent weeks, and been redeployed elsewhere.

Telling Numbers: 388 wildlife crime cases last year, over 20% were about leopards

News

• In 2018, 388 cases of wildlife-related crimes were registered under the Wildlife Protection Act, according to a reply tabled in Parliament by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

Wildlife-related crimes

• In nearly one in every three cases 123 of the 388 the species involved was leopards or tigers. Leopards alone accounted for over one in five cases, at 81, while 42 cases involved tigers. In between the two big cat species were scheduled birds, which accounted for 61 cases, or a little over than one in seven.
• Just five species accounted for two in every three cases 259 of 388  with leopards (21%), scheduled birds (16%) and tigers (11%) being followed by star tortoises or turtles (10%) and deer (9%). Ten species accounted for over 90% of the cases, the other five being elephants (7%), snakes (5%), rhinos (4%), mongooses (4%) and pangolins (a little under 4%).
• The remaining 10% were cases that involved 10 other species, including Tockay geckos and monkeys.
• Overall, the number of cases of wildlife crime has come down since 2016, when 565 were registered, and risen slightly since 2017, when 342 were registered.
• A Wildlife Crime Control Bureau has been set up to gather intelligence about poaching and unlawful activity in wildlife trade in wild animals and animal articles.
• Under centrally sponsored schemes such as “Development of Wildlife Habitats, “Project Tiger” and “Project Elephant”, funds are provided to the governments of states and Union Territories, it said.

Punjab farm fires acreage up by 4%: Stubble put to fire in 61% of total area under paddy

News

• Despite the distribution of 50,000 stubble management machines this year and a fall in 6 per cent area under rice cultivation, Punjab till November 19 burnt stubble on 17.93 lakh hectares (44.28 lakh acres), which is 61 per cent of the total rice area.

Fall in area under rice cultivation

• This year area under rice in the state was 29.20 lakh hectares (72.12 lakh acres) 22.91 lakh hectares under paddy (non-Basmati) and 6.29 lakh hectares under basmati rice. Last year, total 31.03 lakh hectares was under rice including 25.92 lakh hectares under paddy and 5.11 lakh hectares under basmati.
• Total stubble over 17.81 lakh hectares was burnt last year which comes to the 57 per cent of the total rice area then.
• The data revealed that till November 25 total 52,942 stubble burning cases were recorded in Punjab while these were 51,751 and 50,841 were recorded, in 2018 and 2017, respectively, till November 25.
• Out of total 22 districts, 12 districts ended up burning more area this year compared to last year.
• Fazilka and Mukatsar has shown a big cut in the fire incidents by decreasing 50% and 38% fire incidents, respectively, as compare to last year.
• Punjab government has zeroed in on 1314 farmers who fraudulently claimed Rs 49 lakh in compensation for not burning paddy stubble despite having set the crop residue on fire.
• As per the government, 29,343 farmers were paid Rs 19 crore at Rs 2500 per acre for not burning the stubble.
• The government had stopped doling out the compensation after some village panchayats reported that farmers who had set their fields on fire had claimed the money. It was initially suspected that close to 5,000 farmers had claimed the money fraudulently.

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