Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission for overall development of rural areas

Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 16 September 2015 approved the Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission (SPMRM).
The Mission approved with an outlay of 5142.08 crore rupees is a bid to transform rural areas to economically, socially and physically sustainable spaces.The mission aims to create 300 Rurban growth clusters over the next 3 years, across the country.

Main elements of Rurban Mission

Development of Rurban growth clusters, which have latent potential for growth, in all States and UTs to trigger overall development in the region. These clusters are essentially Smart Villages.
Rural growth clusters would be developed by provisioning of economic activities, developing skills & local entrepreneurship and providing infrastructure amenities.
Further, these clusters would be well delineated areas with planned layouts, which would be duly notified by the State/UTs. These plans would be finally integrated with the District Plans/Master Plans as the case may be.
The States would prepare Integrated Cluster Action Plans for Rurban Clusters in accordance with the Framework for Implementation prepared by the Union Ministry of Rural Development.
The clusters will be geographically contiguous to Gram Panchayats with a population of about 25000 to 50000 in plain and coastal areas and a population of 5000 to 15000 in desert, hilly or tribal areas.
There would be a separate approach for selection of clusters in Tribal and Non-Tribal Districts.
As far as practicable, clusters of village would follow administrative convergence units of Gram Panchayats.
The Mission envisages institutional arrangements both at the State and Center to ensure smooth implementation of the Mission.
The Mission also has an Innovation budget towards facilitating research, development and capacity building.

Funding of the Mission
The funding for Rurban Clusters will be through various schemes of the Government converged into the cluster.
The SPMRM will provide an additional funding support of up to 30 percent of the project cost per cluster as Critical Gap Funding (CGF) as Central Share to enable development of such Rurban clusters.
In addition to the Critical Gap Funding, proactive steps have been taken to ensure the success of the mission with adequate budget provisions for supporting the State Government towards project development, capacity building and other institutional arrangements at the state level.

Fourteen components of Rurban growth clusters

To ensure an optimum level of development, fourteen components have been suggested as desirable for the cluster. These include
Skill development training linked to economic activities
Agro Processing/Agri Services/Storage and Warehousing
Digital Literacy
Sanitation
Provision of piped water supply
Solid and liquid waste management
Village streets and drains
Street lights
Fully equipped mobile health unit
Upgrading school /higher education facilities
Inter-village road connectivity
Citizen Service Centres- for electronic delivery of citizen centric services/e-gram connectivity
Public transport
LPG gas connections

The scheme through development of rurban growth clusters aimed at catalyzing overall regional growth, would thus simultaneously benefit the rural as well as urban areas of the country, by achieving twin objectives of strengthening rural areas and de burdening the urban areas hence leading to balanced regional development and growth of the country.

Time to reform the UNSC

The adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of a resolution to use a framework text as the basis of discussions on Security Council reforms is a welcome step forward. As India’s Ambassador to the UN, Asoke Mukerji, said, this is the first time in the history of the intergovernmental negotiation process that a decision on UNSC reform has been adopted by means of an official document. This also indicates that most countries in the General Assembly support a restructuring of the UNSC. Meaningful reform of the Security Council is overdue. The institution, formed to meet the challenges of the post-War world, has struggled to cope with the dynamics of the post-Soviet Union world order. In the past quarter century, the global order has seen massive changes, from American unilateralism to the rise of multilateral institutions such as BRICS. The developing nations, including India, now play a larger role in both the international economy and politics. But these changes are not reflected in the UN, where all critical decisions are still being taken by the veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council. Besides, the geopolitical rivalry among the permanent members has prevented the UNSC from coming up with effective mechanisms to deal with global crises. Syria is a case in point. Even as a humanitarian tragedy is unfolding in Syria, there is no consensus in the Security Council on how to tackle it. Even UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon admitted recently that the UNSC had failed Syria. If the UN still shies away from reforming the Security Council, the possibility of the institution being sidelined by emerging powers cannot be ruled out. The resolution adopted in the General Assembly offers a chance to break the logjam.
But the road ahead is not easy. Three powerful members of the UNSC — Russia, China, and the U.S. — are opposed to any major restructuring of the Council. While Russia and the U.S. have said they would support India’s UNSC bid, when it comes to proceedings at the UN their positions represent a far cry from the promises they make at bilateral meetings. The U.S. favours only a “modest expansion” of the UNSC, while Russia doesn’t want any change in the veto arrangement. Even if the General Assembly members reach a consensus on reform, it could be shot down by the permanent members. The permanent members should realise that a more democratic and representative Security Council would be better-equipped to address global challenges, and that there are more pressing issues to be tackled at the global level than merely preserving their prerogatives. The champions of reforms — India, Japan, Germany and Brazil, or the G4 — should continue their multilateral diplomacy to build a democratically evolved global consensus on restructuring the UNSC

Marine life dipped by 50% in 40 years

A study by WWF shows that marine life decreased by 50% in last 40 years (ie between 1970 and 2012).
Global population sizes of the Scombridae family of food fish that includes tunas, mackerels and bonitos have fallen by 74%.

Coral Reefs:

Almost 75% of the world’s coral reefs are threatened with their cover having decreased by more than 50% in the last 30 years.
At current projected levels of ocean warming and acidification, there is mounting concern that reefs could be lost from most areas by 2050.

Mangroves:

The world’s mangroves too are in serious peril. There has been a 20% loss in mangrove cover between 1980 and 2005 equal to as much as 3.6 million hectares. The rate of loss is 3-5 times greater than average global forest loss.

Sharks:

Global catches of sharks have increased by 300%. This means that 25% of shark, rays and skates are now threatened with local extinction.
Rising temperatures and increasing acidity levels caused by carbon dioxide are further weakening a system that is already degraded through overfishing, habitat degradation and pollution.

India ranks 81 among 141 countries on the Global Innovation Index

India ranks 81 out of 141 countries on the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2015, well behind middle income countries such as Brazil, China and South Africa.
But, in the Central and Southern Asia region, it retains its top stop in the regional ranking, followed by Kazakhstan and Sri Lanka
Globally, Switzerland, followed by the United Kingdom, Sweden, Netherlands and the US are ranked as the most innovative countries in the world.
Despite falling five positions in the overall rankings since 2014, India, along with 10 other developing countries, is now categorised as innovation outperformers.

Parameters for calculation:

The GII 2015 is calculated on the basis of how a country fares on seven key parameters:
institutions
human capital and research
infrastructure
market sophistication
business sophistication
knowledge and technology outputs
creative outputs.

Can’t force meat ban down someone’s throat: SC

Sending a strong message amidst concerns over mounting curbs on individual liberties, the Supreme Court said that “a ban cannot be forced down somebody’s throat” and that the “spirit of tolerance” was paramount.
Declining to approve a temporary ban on sale of meat in Mumbai in deference to the Jain festival of ‘Paryushana’, the top court asserted that every order of prohibition has to honour the spirit of tolerance and take into account the sensibilities of people.

What is meat ban?

Meat ban started in Mumbai.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) announced the suspension of sale of meat in its markets and shut down its slaughter house.
The ban covers mutton and chicken, and excludes fish and eggs. It also extends to private businesses selling raw meat.
The ban is on days: September 10, 13, 17 and 18 as these dates fall within the eight-day Jain festival of Paryushan, during which the community eats only root vegetables.

Is it a new ban?

No. It has been in force since 1964, when the BMC passed a resolution directing a two-day prohibition on sale of meat in deference to the demands by Jains.

Present dengue less fatal, it’s not epidemic: IMA

Indian Medical Association released dengue guidelines and said not to panic about the new dengue serotype. It said that the present serotype is less fatal than the one in 2013.

What are different serotypes of dengue?

Dengue normally are of Den1, Den2, Den 3 and Den4 serotypes.
Serotypes 1 and 3 are less dangerous as compared to 2 and 4.
This year its serotypes 2 and 4 which are prevalent.
This is the first time the type 4 strain & type 2 have emerged as the dominant types in Delhi.

What happens when a serotype becomes dominant?

When the dominant strain remains the same for a long period, a significant population develops immunity to it, and fewer patients are diagnosed with the virus.
Infection with one of the four serotypes of dengue virus (primary infection) provides lifelong immunity to infection with a virus of the same serotype. However, immunity to the other dengue serotypes is transient, and individuals can subsequently be infected with another dengue serotype.
Subsequent infection with a second type increases the likelihood of serious illness.

About Dengue:

It is also known as breakbone fever.
It is a mosquito-borne tropical disease caused by the dengue virus.
Dengue is transmitted by several species of mosquito within the genus Aedes. These mosquitoes usually live between the latitudes of 35° North and 35° South below an elevation of 1,000 metres. They typically bite during the day, particularly in the early morning and in the evening.
The number of cases of dengue fever has increased dramatically since the 1960s. But why?: It is because of the increasing rates of pesticide resistance among the two types of mosquitos responsible for transmitting dengue – the Aedes aegypti and Asian tiger mosquitos. Both are responsible for Dengue fever.

Symptoms:

Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic skin rash that is similar to measles.
In a small proportion of cases, the disease develops into the life-threatening dengue hemorrhagic fever, resulting in bleeding, low levels of blood platelets and blood plasma leakage.

Treatment:

As there is no commercially available vaccine, prevention is sought by reducing the habitat and the number of mosquitoes and limiting exposure to bites.
Treatment of acute dengue is supportive, using either oral or intravenous rehydration for mild or moderate disease.

Indian Railways Develops Hybrid Vacuum Toilets

Development Cell of the Railway Board has come up with a design that combines the advantages of Vacuum toilets and those of Biotoilets to create a new design of Hybrid Vacuum Toilet
A prototype has been made by modifying the standard flushing protocol of a vacuum toilet so as to create water seal and additional post flush cycles and this concept has been converted into a working prototype by Indian Railways.
This newly developed toilet has been fitted in Dibrugarh Rajdhani for trail.

Features of the Hybrid Vacuum Toilet:

The prototype consists of a custom designed Vacuum toilet adapted from a commercially available vacuum toilet that is used in aircrafts which evacuates its discharge into a biodigester tank.
The biodigester tank is fitted underneath the coach and contains anaerobic bacteria that converts human fecal matter into water and small amount of gases before discharging the same on the ground/track.
Typically, a conventional toilet or Biotoilet uses 10 – 15 liters of water per flush whereas the vacuum toilet consumes only appx. 500 ml of water for flushing.

NOTE: There is no retention tank at the bottom of the coach. The waste is discharged on the ground only.

Bio Toilets:

Bio-Digester Toilet is a decomposition mechanized toilet system by means of which the sludge(Human Waste), the fecal matter is decomposed to bits in the digester tank using a specific high graded bacteria further converting them into methane and water, discharged further to the desired surface.
The Bio-digester toilet is total maintenance-free system & does not require any sewage system. The specific high graded bacteria involved in these bio-digester toilets carries on to further auto generation on their own because of their supreme quality.bio toilet train india
Bio-toilet technology is based on anaerobic biodegradation of organic waste by unique microbial consortium and works at a wide temperature range. The bacterial consortium degrades night soil at temp as low as -20 degree C and produces colorless, odorless and inflammable gas containing 50 – 70% methane.

Salient features of bio-toilet:

Suitable for sub zero temperature of Himalayan Region, Glaciers, Railway coaches, Buses, Highways, Remote areas, sea ports, Mining area, metro cities etc.
Suitable for Mobile Toilet applications
0% maintenance free, continuous biological process.
Complete elimination of pathogens.
Economically viable.
No dependence on the limited and costly conventional energy sources.
Can be installed and made operational in 12 hours only.
Inoculums charging is only once during the entire life of Bio Toilet.
No need of connectivity to the sewage line, septic tank. No disposal of sludge is required

UIDAI shifted to IT Ministry from NITI Aayog

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which issues Aadhaar cards, has been shifted to the administrative control of the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology from Niti Aayog.
The decision to shift UIDAI from NITI Aayog was taken keeping in mind the government’s ambitious ‘Digital India’ programme as the Aadhaar numbers are being linked with several services
Earlier, UIDAI was the part of Planning Commission.

About Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI):

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is a central government agency of India.
It is attached to the erstwhile Planning Commission of India and later to NITI Aayog and now to IT ministry.
Its objective is to collect the biometric and demographic data of residents, store them in a centralised database, and issue a 12-digit unique identity number called Aadhaar to each resident
It is considered the world’s largest national identification number project.
Legislation to back UIDAI is still pending in the Parliament of India.
The UIDAI is mandated to assign a 12-digit unique identification (UID) number (termed as Aadhaar) to all the residents of India.

Current Applications of Aadhar:

Direct Benefit transfer (DBT)
In these Direct Benefit Transfer schemes, the subsidy money is directly transferred to a bank account which is Aadhaar-linked.
Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas signed a memorandum of understanding with UIDAI.
The DBTL scheme was modified later as PAHAL.
DBT had resulted in a 24% reduction in the sale of subsidized LPG, as “ghost beneficiaries” had been excluded.
Aadhaar-enabled biometric attendance systems
In 2014, Aadhaar-enabled biometric attendance systems (AEBAS) was introduced in government offices. The system was introduced to check late-arrival and absentiism of government employeers.

Major hot deserts are located between 20-30 degree latitudes and on the western side of the continents. Why?

The aridity of the hot deserts is mainly due to the effects of off-shore Trade Winds, hence they are also called Trade Wind Deserts.
The major hot deserts of the world are located on the western coasts of continents between latitudes 15° and 30°N. and S (Question asked in Previous Mains Exam).
They include the biggest Sahara Desert (3.5 million square miles). The next biggest desert is the Great Australian Desert. The other hot deserts are the Arabian Desert, Iranian Desert, Thar Desert, Kalahari and Namib Deserts.
The hot deserts lie along the Horse Latitudes or the Sub-Tropical High Pressure Belts where the air is descending, a condition least favourable for precipitation of any kind to take place.
The rain-bearing Trade Winds blow off-shore and the Westerlies that are on-shore blow outside the desert limits.
Whatever winds reach the deserts blow from cooler to warmer regions, and their relative humidity is lowered, making condensation almost impossible.
There is scarcely any cloud in the continuous blue sky. The relative humidity is extremely low, decreasing from 60 per cent in coastal districts to less than 30 per cent in the desert interiors. Under such conditions, every bit of moisture is evaporated and the deserts are thus regions of permanent drought. Precipitation is both scarce and most unreliable.
On the western coasts, the presence of cold currents gives rise to mists and fogs by chilling the on-coming air. This air is later warmed by contact with the hot land, and little rain falls. The dessicating effect of the cold Peruvian Current along the Chilean coast is so pronounced that the mean annual rainfall for the Atacama Desert is not more than 1.3 cm. 

K2K Economic Corridor

Recently China announced that the main artery of the K2K corridor is nearly completed.
The 2800 km long corridor is at the core of the Bangladesh, India, China and Myanmar-Economic Corridor (BCIM-EC) initiated by four countries in 2014.
Objective of the Corridor
• At the macro level, the corridor is aimed at deepening friendly cooperation among the four member nations.
• The primary focus of the economic corridor is to facilitate trade and connectivity between the landlocked and underdeveloped southwestern parts of China and the North Eastern region of India.
• It will link South Asia with Southeast and East Asia by building multi-modal connectivity, harnessing economic complementaries and enhancing people-to-people relations.
Route map of the Corridor
• From Kolkata, the corridor will head towards Benapole, a border town in Bangladesh. After passing through Dhaka and Sylhet, it will re-enter the Indian territory near Silchar in Assam.
• From Assam, the passage will be connected with Imphal and then pass through the India-built Tamu-Kalewa friendship road in Myanmar before passing through a small stretch in Arunachal Pradesh.
• In Myanmar, the corridor will pass through Lahiso and Muse prior to Mandalay.
• The Chinese stretch extends from Ruili before reaching Kunming, capital of Yunnan province, through Longling and Dali.
• China also wants to include Mizoram as part of the corridor so that the K2K corridor will be connected with the Kaladan Project.
How addition of Kaladan project will be beneficial to India?
Under the Kaladan Multi-modal Transit Transport Project, initiated in 2008, Mizoram will be connected with Myanmar’s port of Sittwe, through the Kaladan River.
Addition of Kaladan project will facilitate northeastern states in India to get easier access to Kolkata, compared with the land route, located just 539 km away.
It will also reduce reliance of China on the Straits of Malacca (to reach the Indian Ocean) that is militarily dominated by the USA.

South Asia is an urban mess, says World Bank report

Well-managed urbanisation can lead to sustainable growth but cities are a messy affair in India and other South Asian countries, says a report by the World Bank.
It says for the very poorest in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan, the under-five years mortality rate is higher in urban than in rural settings.
It recommended land pooling and land readjustment to tackle the problems. This refers to land assembly through a process by which land parcels with different owners are combined into a larger, contiguous land area for more efficient subdivision and development.
What the report says?
For the very poorest in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan, the under-five years mortality rate is higher in urban than in rural settings. Besides, South Asia’s cities are notable for polluted air.
South Asia produced only 8% of global gross domestic product in 2011, while having 14% of the world’s urban population.
Messy urbanisation in India is reflected in the nearly 65.5 million who, in the country’s 2011 Census, lived in urban slums, as well as the 13.7% of the urban population that lived below the national poverty line
The report suggests measures, such as land pooling and land readjustment, among others, to tackle the problems.

What is Land Pooling?
Under the land pooling policy, landowners can pool their land for development. The land will be taken by the govt.
But instead of compensation, the owners will get 48-60 per cent of the land back after the authority has set up the infrastructure.
Under this, land owners – either individuals or groups have to transfer ownership rights of their land to land pooling agency
The Land Pooling Agency will develop the land, including constructing roads, sewerage and electricity connections and later transfer the ownership of the part of the developed land to its owners. After getting the developed land, the land owners have to either build houses or commercial complexes as per the stipulations of mater plan
However, after the farmer or developer hand over their land to Land Pooling Agency, they may not get same land after development.

Land Readjustment
What is Land Readjustment?
Land Readjustment (LR) is one of the methods of land development for developing or improving urban infrastructure and also enhancing utility/value of land, so a LR is not a land acquisition method, but a kind of land consolidation method, which is called “Land Re-plotting”

With Astrosat launch, ISRO scales new heights

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched its first dedicated multi-wavelength space observatory Astrosat into space, besides six satellites for Canada, Indonesia and the United States.
Though the national space agency has launched satellites for Indonesia and Canada earlier, this is the first time ISRO is launching satellites for the United States.
This is also the first time a space observatory is being launched into space.
Besides US’ NASA, space agencies of the European Union, Japan and Russia have launched similar facilities into the space.
PSLV was used to launch ASTROSAT

About ASTROSAT:
India does have ground-based telescopes (including the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope near Pune and the Indian Astronomical Observatory in Ladakh). But like all other ground-based telescopes, these can only detect radio waves and infrared radiation as they penetrate the Earth’s atmosphere.
However, in the case of higher frequency radiations, the atmosphere tends to block most ultraviolet light and all X-rays and gamma-rays.
Hence, a space-based observatory like ASTROSAT will be of immense value to researchers based in India.

Objectives of ASTROSAT mission:

Understand high energy processes in binary star systems containing neutron stars and black holes
Estimate magnetic fields of neutron stars
Study star birth regions and high energy processes in star systems lying beyond our galaxy
Detect new briefly bright X-ray sources in the sky
Perform a limited deep field survey of the Universe in the ultraviolet region.

Equipment on ASTROSAT:
Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope
Large Area X-ray Proportional Counter
Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT)
Cadmium Zinc Telluride Imager (CZTI)
Scanning Sky Monitor (SSM)
Difference between PSLV & GSLV:
Both PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) and GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle) are the satellite-launch vehicles developed by ISRO.

PSLV:
PSLV is designed mainly to deliver the remote-sensing satellites with lift-off mass of up to about 1750 Kg to Sun-Synchronous circular polar orbits at 600-900 Km altitude.
The remote sensing satellites orbit the earth from pole-to-pole. An orbit is called sun-synchronous when the angle between the line joining the centre of the Earth and the satellite and the Sun is constant throughout the orbit. This is also called Low Earth Orbit & it enables the on-board camera to take images of the earth.
PSLV is a four-staged launch vehicle with first and third stage using solid rocket motors and second and fourth stages using liquid rocket engines.
PSLV is classified into its various versions like PSLV-CA, PSLV-XL variants.

GSLV:
The GSLV is designed mainly to deliver the communication-satellites to the highly elliptical Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) at about 36000 Km altitude.
Due to their geo-synchronous nature, the satellites in these orbits appear to remain permanently fixed in the same position in the sky, as viewed from a particular location on Earth.

Centre launches Green Highways policy, aims at 6,000 km in first year

The government flagged off its Green Highways (Plantation, Transplantation, Beautification and Maintenance) Policy 2015, the aim of which is to help the environment, help local communities, and generate employment by planting trees along all the highways in the country.
The target for the first year is to cover 6,000 km of highways.

What is Green Highways Policy?
Funding:
The Green Highways Policy scheduled to be launched makes it mandatory for road builders to set aside 1 per cent of the total project cost for plantation.
1 per cent of the project cost will be transfered to a green corpus which will be utilised anywhere across the country and local community, self help groups, and registered NGOs would be empanelled for it.
Bidding & Implementing:
The government has authorised IHMCL, a company promoted by NHAI for empanelling of plantation agencies and only empanelled agencies will be allowed to bid for planting work on the National Highways.
Plantation scheme has been classified under various categories including tree plantation along the highways turfing with grass and shrub and planting on median based on study of local flora and vegetative cover.
The plan is to grow three layers of trees and bushes. The first will be of bushes so that if a vehicle goes off the road, it does not collide with something life-threatening. The second will be of medium-sized trees and the last will be of tall fruit trees. Only species indigenous to the area would be planted.

Monitoring & Audit:
There will be an agency to monitor the progress of plantation which will also conduct performance audit. The survival should be 90 per cent after raising the plantation of one year and fee will be released on annuity basis
The growth of plants will be monitored for five years.

Benefits:
Employment opportunities
The local community will get the rights to the non-timber produce from the trees
Environmental benefits

world’s Highest Terrestrial Research Centre in Ladakh

Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has established the world’s Highest Terrestrial Research Centre near Pengong Lake at Changla in Ladakh.
The centre dubbed as Extreme Altitude Research Centre is located at 17,600 feet above mean sea level and was inaugurated by Director General of DRDO Dr.S.Christopher.
Key features:
• Leh based Defence Institute of High Altitude Research (DIHAR) was nodal DRDO establishment to established this centre.
• The centre will serve as a natural cold storage for preserving endangered and rare medical plants for future generations.
• Large number of Life Sciences activities will be undertaken at this centre.
• It will be as an important utility for research work in frontal areas of food and agriculture and bio-medical sciences for well-being of the soldiers deployed in high altitude cold desert.
• It will also provide unique opportunity to other establishments and labs of DRDO for evaluation and testing of electronics and communication devices.
• It will serve as testing ground of various materials for high altitude applications including UAV’s micro engines, batteries and fuel cells, high altitude clothing etc. in naturally occurring extreme cold conditions at Changla