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IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-01

Cold wave intensifies in Kashmir as minimum temp dips further

Source: Indian Express.

News

• The minimum temperature at most places in Kashmir dropped further as the intense cold Tightened its grip in the Valley, resulting in the freezing of water supply lines and water bodies, including the famous Dal Lake, in several areas.
• A thick fog also engulfed many parts of the valley, including the city, in the morning, reducing visibility.

Cold wave

• The cold wave conditions intensified as the mercury dropped further during the night and the minimum temperature settled several degrees below the freezing point.
• The surface of the Dal Lake has frozen due to the bone-chilling cold, prompting authorities to issue an advisory against walking on the ice.
• The SDRF and the river police are conducting patrols around the frozen water-body to ensure the safety of the people.
• Kashmir is currently under the grip of ‘Chillai-Kalan’ the 40-day harshest winter period when a cold wave grips the region and the temperature drops considerably leading to the freezing of water bodies including the Dal Lake here as well as the water supply lines in several parts of the valley.

While ‘Chillai-Kalan’ which began on December 21 will end on January 31, the cold wave continues even after that in Kashmir with a 20-day-long ‘Chillai-Khurd’ (small cold) and a 10-day-long ‘Chillai-Bachha’ (baby cold).

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

SKOCH Challenger Award to Ministry of Panchayati Raj for Transparency in Governance.

Source: PIB India

News

• Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj received the SKOCH Challenger Award conferred to Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) under “Transparency in Governance” category for IT-led initiatives and transformational reforms leading to outcome-based performance improvement, better transparency and strengthening of the e-Governance in Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) across the country. The SKOCH Challenger Award for best performance in the area of Transparency in Governance was given virtually during the 70th SKOCH Summit (SKOCH Public Policy Forum) held today.

SKOCH Challenger Award

• The SKOCH Challenger Awards are distinctive for its approach of selection of awardees, which is not based on the nomination but on discovery.
• The SKOCH Challenger Award is considered India’s Highest Independent Honour and is conferred after exhaustive research and expert evaluations.
• The SKOCH Challenger Awards acknowledge people, projects and institutions that go the extra mile to make India a better nation.

The initiatives of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj for strengthening e-Governance in Panchayati Raj Institutions to enable them to discharge their mandated functions effectively while facilitating transparency, accountability and robust service delivery:

SVAMITVA Scheme

• The launch and implementation of SVAMITVA (Survey of Villages and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas) Scheme has been one of the milestone and major steps ahead towards ensuring socio-economic empowerment of the rural masses with overriding objective of making the rural inhabitant self-reliant.
• SVAMITVA Scheme aims to provide an integrated property validation solution for rural India, engaging the latest drone surveying technology, for demarcating the inhabitant land in rural areas.

e-GramSwaraj

• In order to strengthen e-Governance in Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs), e-GramSwaraj application has been developed with amalgamating the functionalities of currently available applications in the Panchayat Enterprise Suit (PES) under e-Panchayat Mission Mode Project (MMP).

AuditOnline

• The Fifteenth Finance Commission has prescribed for preparation of online audited accounts of the RLBs. In this regard, MoPR has conceptualized and developed an application called “AuditOnline” for online audit of Panchayat accounts in order to strengthening the transparency and accountability at grassroots level.
• It allows for online audit of Panchayat accounts and records detailed information about internal and external audit.
• It not only facilitates the auditing of accounts but also provisions for maintaining digital audit records pertaining to audit that has been carried out.

ServicePlus

• ServicePlus a versatile and secure solution for service delivery makes all Government services accessible to the common man in his/her locality, through common service delivery outlets, and ensure efficiency, transparency, and reliability of such services at affordable costs to realize the basic needs of the common man.

At 18 million, India has largest diaspora in the world: UN

Source: Indian Express.

News

• The Indian diaspora, one of the most “vibrant and dynamic”, is the largest in the world, with 18 million people from the country living outside their homeland in 2020, the UN has said.

Indian diaspora

• The United Arab Emirates, the US and Saudi Arabia host the largest numbers of migrants from India.
• India has the largest transnational population in the world. It has the most migrants abroad 18 million, which is a significant number and another feature which is very interesting about the Indian migrant population is that they’re really distributed all over the globe.
• The report, ‘International Migration 2020 Highlights’, by the Population Division of UN DESA, released said in 2020, 18 million persons from India were living outside of their country of birth.
• Other countries with a large diaspora included Mexico and Russia (11 million each), China (10 million) and Syria (8 million).
• The report said India’s large diaspora is distributed across a number of major countries of destination, with the UAE (3.5 million), the US (2.7 million) and Saudi Arabia (2.5 million) hosting the largest numbers of migrants from India.
• Other countries hosting large numbers of migrants from India included Australia, Canada, Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar and the UK.
• Between 2000 and 2020, the size of the migrant population abroad grew for nearly all countries and areas of the world.
• India experienced the largest gain during that period at nearly 10 million, followed in order of magnitude by Syria, Venezuela, China and the Philippines.
• The US remained by far the largest country of destination of international migrants with 51 million migrants in 2020, equal to 18 per cent of the world’s total.
• Germany hosted the second largest number of migrants worldwide at around 16 million, followed by Saudi Arabia (13 million), Russia (12 million) and the UK (9 million).
• Between 2000 and 2020, the number of migrants grew in 179 countries or areas.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

Indigenously built, first pair of weather radars installed over Himalayas

Source: Indian Express.

News

• Union Minister for Earth Sciences commissioned two of the ten indigenously built Doppler weather radars which will closely monitor the weather changes over the Himalayas.

Weather radars

• Services of X-band Doppler radars at Mukteshwar in Uttarakhand and Kufri in Himachal Pradesh were virtually inaugurated on the 146th foundation day of the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
• Covering the central and western Himalayas, these dual polarised radars will gather atmospheric variations and pick signals of extreme weather events.
• During the month ahead, the Met department has planned to install ten radars over the Himalayas.
• Both Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh are highly prone to cloud bursts, landslides, heavy rain and snowfall.
• Timely weather forecasts and warnings would ensure the governments make advance plans and initiate rescue measures, state officials said.
• A joint venture with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the Union minister launched a Multi-Mission Meteorological Data Receiving and Processing System.
• This new system will capture, process and make available for use satellite data within seven minutes as opposed to 20 minutes taken by earlier systems.

India, Nepal commit to early completion of boundary works

Source: India Times

News

• Eight months after the boundary row erupted between India and Nepal, foreign ministers of the two countries discussed the issue and expressed the commitment to early completion of the boundary works in the disputed areas.

Completion of the boundary works

• The ministers discussed the boundary matter and expressed the commitment to early completion of the boundary works in the remaining segments.
• Besides the border issue, the two sides discussed the cooperation in combating the pandemic. Nepal congratulated India on the success in production of Covishield and Covaxin vaccines and requested for early provision of vaccines.
• The two sides also discussed the progress in increasing cross-border infrastructure and connectivity.