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22nd November 2022

India’s first National Centre of Excellence for Green Port & Shipping (NCoEGPS)

Context

The Union Minister of Ports, Shipping & Waterways (MoPSW) has launched India’s first Centre of Excellence for Green Port & Shipping to provide Green solutions to transform India's Ports & Shipping sector.

About

The National Centre of Excellence for Green Port & Shipping (NCoEGPS):

  • Aim: To develop a regulatory framework and alternate technology adoption roadmap for Green Shipping to foster carbon neutrality and circular economy (CE) in the shipping sector in India.

Circular Economy:  A circular economy is a model of production and consumption, which involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing, and recycling existing materials and products for as long as possible.

  • NCoEGPS will act as a technological arm of MoPSW for providing the needed support on Policy, Research, and Cooperation on Green Shipping areas for Ports, DG Shipping, Corporate Social Lending, and other institutions.
  • The Center will be a host of several technological arms to support the port and shipping sector and will provide solutions to a variety of problems being faced in the industry through scientific research.
  • It will also carry out valuable education, applied for research, and technology transfer in maritime transportation at the local, regional, national, and International levels.
  • It will focus on the following areas:
    • Energy Management - Energy management tools, waste energy recovery systems
    • Emission Management- Alternate, Clean Energy/Fuel, emission control & monitoring.
    • Sustainable Maritime Operations – novel technologies and approaches

The specific objectives of the formation of NCoEGPS are defined as follows -

  • To empower ‘Make in India’ in Port, Coastal, and Inland water transport, and Engineering by developing state-of-the-art technologies and application products.
  • To enable fast-track innovations in order to provide the most appropriate solutions to various challenges in these sectors.
  • To create a pool of competent manpower in the industry equipped with state-of-the-art theoretical and practical know-how.
  • Self-sufficiency in providing short-term solutions through scientific studies technology development technical arm in identifying and analyzing complex problems and solving issues

Project Implementation:

  • The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) is the knowledge and implementation partner for this project.
  • The Deendayal Port Authority Kandla, Paradip Port Authority, Paradip, V.O Chidambaranar Port Authority, Thoothukudi, and Cochin Shipyard Limited, Kochi has all extended their support to the ministry to set up the center.
  • The ports have also aimed to reduce Carbon emissions per ton of cargo handled by 30% by 2030.
  • India will also be implementing IMO energy efficiency requirements for existing ships and carbon intensity requirements on all its vessels whether coastal or international in order to help achieve IMO GHG reduction targets.
  • The NCoEGPS will be working under the framework of the Sagarmala program of the MoPSW.

Significance:

  • Help to achieve Inclusive growth: The shipping sector which is both energy and resource intensive also needs an implementation roadmap to gain energy and resource neutrality. Therefore, the work undertaken by the NCoEGPS will provide the decision makers at a national and sub-national level with methodology and framework to implement carbon neutrality measures.
  • Fulfilling the Paris accord: It will also help to meet (and exceed) obligations under the Paris Accord through the electrification of processes, renewable energy, carbon capture and storage, and other emerging alternate fuel technologies including green fuels.
  • Improve Training and Capacity Building: The scope of work carried out by NCoEGPS will also include training and capacity of different stakeholders for fast-tracking the adoption of green measures identified through research.

Other Government Initiatives:

  • The Maritime Vision Document 2030, released is a 10 Year blueprint of India’s vision of a sustainable Maritime sector and vibrant blue economy.
  • India’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) under the Paris Agreement for the Period 2021-2030 include reducing the emissions intensity of its GDP by 33 to 35 percent by 2030 from the 2005 level and achieving about 40 percent cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2030 with the help of the transfer of technology and low-cost international finance.

Union Health Ministry rolls out country’s first suicide prevention policy

Context

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has announced a National Suicide Prevention Strategy, the first of its kind in the country to achieve a reduction in suicide mortality by 10% by 2030.

About

The National Suicide Prevention Strategy:

  • The strategy is in line with the WHO’s South East-Asia Region Strategy for suicide prevention.
  • Aim: The strategy broadly seeks to establish:
  • Effective surveillance mechanisms for suicide within the next three years.
  • To establish psychiatric outpatient departments that will provide suicide prevention services through the District Mental Health Programme in all districts within the next five years, and
  • To integrate a mental well-being curriculum in all educational institutions within the next eight years.
  • It envisages developing guidelines for responsible media reporting of suicides, and restricting access to means of suicide with time-bound action plans and multi-sectoral collaborations.
  • The stress is on developing community resilience and societal support for suicide prevention.

The South East-Asia Region Strategy:

It aims to:

  •  Strengthen advocacy, effective leadership, and governance for the prevention of suicides.
  • To provide comprehensive, integrated, and responsive mental health and social care services in community-based settings to address suicides.
  • To implement strategies for the promotion of mental, social, and physical health and well-being aimed at preventing suicides
  • To strengthen information systems, evidence, and research on suicide

Suicide rates in India:

  • According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report 2021, the Suicide rate in India is increasing alarmingly.
  • Delhi has recorded the highest number of (2,840) suicides.
  • Reasons for Suicide:
    • 33.2%: Family Problems (other than marriage-related problems)
    • 4.8%: Marriage Related Problems
    • 18.6%: Illness
  • Daily wage earners accounted for 42,004 (25.6 percent) of the total victims. One in four of the recorded 1, 64,033 suicide victims during 2021 was a daily wage earner.
  • They were followed by self-employed people, unemployed people, and those involved in the farming sector were the top categories of people who died by suicide in 2021.
  • The report certainly points out suicides as a critical public health issue in India and qualifies for a closer epidemiological assessment.

Do you know?

  • Maharashtra topped the country in terms of the number of suicides reported in 2021 followed by Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh.
  • Madhya Pradesh is going to be the first State in the country to draft a suicide prevention strategy and the government has formed a task force for it.

How is Suicide a Social Problem?

  • The problem with only viewing suicide as an individual problem is that we neglect the importance of social forces contributing to suicide.
  • Suicide is a serious social problem whose incidence varies between genders, age groups, geographical distribution, and the influence of the socio-political structure of society.
  • The risk of suicide in a population increases when the social context fails to provide a healthy sense of purpose and belonging, contributing to an individual’s sense of contribution and connection.
  • Furthermore, suicide should be viewed as a multidimensional public and mental health issue, having complex interactions with the economic, social, cultural, psychological, and biological realms of individual and collective existence.

What are the challenges?

  • Under-reporting of such cases due to fear of social stigma and sometimes to rescue from judicial procedures.
  • Fear of legal action:  Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) makes suicide a punishable offense. The fear of punitive action and added hassle of having to deal with police and courts often results in a refusal to seek help.
  • Social stigma: The social stigma associated with suicide results in the NCRB grossly under-reporting the true numbers of suicide. 

Related Initiatives:

  • Mental Healthcare Act, 2017:It aims to provide mental healthcare services for persons with mental illness.
  • KIRAN: The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has launched a 24/7 toll-free helpline to provide support to people facing anxiety, stress, depression, suicidal thoughts, and other mental health concerns.
  • Manodarpan Initiative: It is an initiative of the Ministry of Education under Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan. It is aimed to provide psychosocial support to students, family members, and teachers for their mental health and well-being during the times of Covid-19.

Paperless ‘Saharsa’ is Bihar’s new showcase district

Context

Recently, Saharsa became the first district in Bihar to be declared paperless with an aim to end the Great Indian Red Tape.

About
What is Red Tape?
  • Red tape is a derisive term for excessive regulation or rigid conformity to formal rules that is considered redundant or bureaucratic and hinders or prevents action or decision-making.
  • It generally includes:
    • Filling out seemingly unnecessary paperwork,
    • Obtaining unnecessary licenses,
    • Having multiple people or committees approve a decision and
    • Various low-level rules make conducting one’s affairs slower and more difficult.

Word ‘Red Tape’ Origin:

The term was used to refer to the seemingly endless parade of paperwork that accompanies many official matters that got its start back in old England. Thick legal documents were bound or tied with a red cloth tape. So when someone spoke of cutting through the red tape, they meant it in a very literal sense.

A step towards Good Governance:
  • The e-office initiative goes back to 2009 but the towering piles of paperwork were still a hurdle too high to cross.
  • Idukki in Kerala became paperless in 2012 and Hyderabad in 2016.
  • The Covid pandemic gave an impetus to the initiative with many district administrations taking the digital route in 2020 and 2021 including Palakkad in Kerala, Jagatsinghpur in Odisha, Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh, and Raigarh in Maharashtra.
  • A Cooperative Department in Patna working paperless was Bihar’s first government department to make the digital transition in 2020.
Significance:
  • Digitization has helped bring about efficiency, transparency, and accountability.
  • It has increased employee productivity. And the number of people required to process a single file has reduced.
  • The online system has also brought in more accountability. Staff members cannot sit on files for days on end.
  • Technology is his first step towards good governance and a corruption-free system.
How Red Tapism hinders Good governance?
  • Affects Citizen Satisfaction: Red tape indeed negatively affects citizen satisfaction due to delayed government processing and the cost associated with it.
  • Hinders Scheme implementation: Delayed release of funds, lack of proper monitoring, etc. are commonly associated issues attached to Red Tapism that make policies ineffective.
  • Leads to Corruption: The higher the level of red tape, the higher the level of corruption.
  • Increases cost of doing business: Red tape is costly, not just in time and money spent filling out forms but also in terms of reduced productivity and innovation in business.
  • Delay Justice and service delivery: Due to Red Tapism variable enforcement of contracts and delayed administration lead to delayed justice, especially for the poor.
    • For example, delayed wage payments under MGNREGA impact timely benefits to the poor.
Suggestive Measures:
  • Skill development: There are officials who are not skilled enough to make government processing faster. It is important to train them properly on the subjects and appoint skilled people.
  • Incentives: A lot of government employees at the lower level (Group C and Group D) are underpaid. They find no incentive to work efficiently. Efforts must be made to honor workers for their good work and punishing for not achieving timely efficiency.
  • Providing adequate Infrastructure: Due to the lack of Computers and Technology in Rural areas, the government offices were left with no option but to work manually. This must be addressed at the earliest.

The Geo-heritage value of Ram Setu

Context

The Supreme Court (SC) has given the Centre four weeks’ time to file a response clarifying its stand on seeking national heritage status for the ‘Ram Setu’.

What is Ram Setu?

  • The Ram Setu or the Adam’s Bridge is a limestone trail connecting Pamban island off the coast of Tamil Nadu to Mannar island off the coast of Sri Lanka.
    • Coral reefs are massive structures made of limestone deposited by coral polyps. Often referred to as the “rainforests of the sea,” coral reefs support approximately 25 percent of all known marine species.
  • The limestone-based bridge is 48 kilometers long. 

Mythological angle

  • It is believed that this bridge was constructed so that Rama could go to Sri Lanka and find Sita, who had been kidnapped by Ravana.
  • As a result, it is revered by those who closely adhere to Hinduism. According to legends, the Ramayana, which Valmiki wrote, also includes information concerning the Ram Setu.

The proposed project and issues

  • In 2005 the Sethusamudram Ship Channel Project (SSCP) was inaugurated.
  • Under the project, an 83-km-long deep water channel was to be created, linking the Gulf of Mannar with Palk Strait, by extensive dredging and removal of limestone shoals.
  • Two channels will be created –
    • one across Ram Setu, south-east of Pamban Island
    • another through the shallows of Palk Bay, deepening the Palk Strait
  • The SSCP is expected to considerably reduce the navigation time between the east and west coasts of India.
  • However, the project has been surrounded by several comments arguing the stability of the proposed channel and its environmental impact.

So far, ships going to the Gulf of Mannar, Indian Ocean, from Palk Strait have been going around Sri Lanka.

Concerns Highlighted:

  • Religious beliefs: The main opposition to the Sethusamudram project came from religious believers.
  • Threat to livelihood: Fishermen from the Rameswaram region also opposed the project.
  • Impact on biodiversity: The Gulf of Mannar region is a protected biosphere reserve and marine national park (notified in 1989). The project would have an impact on the region’s biodiversity because it is home to numerous rare marine species (fish, lobsters, shrimps, and crabs).
  • Other Concerns:
  • Emissions from ships traversing the narrow channel will pollute the air and water.
  • If a ship carrying oil or coal is grounded or strays from its course within the canal; it could cause an ecological disaster.

Challenges for the Project:

  • The area is also vulnerable to cyclonic storms. A cyclone in 1964 was so powerful that it wiped out the town of Dhanushkodi in the region.
  • No space to dump the dredging material from the sea.

ISRO to attempt 200th consecutively successful launch of RH-200 sounding rocket

Context

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is going to attempt the 200th consecutively successful launch of the Rohini RH-200 sounding rocket.

RH-200 sounding rocket:

  • RH-200 is a two-stage rocket capable of climbing to a height of 70 km bearing scientific payloads.
  • The first and second stages of RH-200 are powered by solid motors.
  • For years, the RH-200 rocket had used a polyvinyl chloride (PVC)-based propellant.
  • The first RH-200 to use a new propellant based on hydroxyl-terminated Polybutadiene (HTPB) was successfully flown from the TERLS in September 2020.
    • As compared to PVC-based propellants, HTPB-based propellant is more energetic, has higher mechanical & interface properties, and has fewer defects due to lower processing temperature.
  • The ‘200’ in the name denotes the diameter of the rocket in mm. Other operational Rohini variants are RH-300 Mk-II and RH-560 Mk-III.

What are sounding Rockets?

  • Sounding rockets are one or two-stage solid propellant rockets used for probing the upper atmospheric regions and for space research.
  • Sounding rockets take their name from the nautical term "to sound," which means to take measurements.
  • They also serve as easily affordable platforms to test or prove prototypes of new components or subsystems intended for use in launch vehicles and satellites.
  • The first sounding rocket to be launched from Thumba was the American Nike-Apache - on November 21, 1963.
  • After that, two-stage rockets imported from Russia (M-100) and France (Centaure) were flown.
  • The ISRO launched its own version - Rohini RH-75 - in 1967.

Rohini (Rocket family)

  • Rohini is a series of sounding rockets developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for meteorological and atmospheric study.
  • These sounding rockets are capable of carrying payloads of 2 to 200 kilograms between altitudes of 100 to 500 kms.

Operational sounding Rockets

  • Currently, three versions are offered as operational sounding rockets, which cover a payload range of 8-100 Kg and an apogee range of 80-475 km.


Short Articles

Topic: International Relations

India took over Chair of GPAI


 

  • India took over the Chair of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) from France.
  • GPAI is an international initiative to support responsible and human-centric development and the use of Artificial Intelligence.
  • GPAI is a congregation of 25 member countries, including the US, UK, European Union, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, South Korea, and Singapore.
    • India joined the GPAI in 2020 as a founding member. 

Topic: Polity & Governance

India ranks 61st in Network Readiness Index 2022


  • India has moved up by six slots to improve its position and rank 61st as per the Network Readiness Index 2022 (NRI 2022) report.
  • The Index is prepared by a US-based Portulans Institute, an independent non-profit research and educational institute.
  • The NRI 2022 report ranks a total of 131 economies that together account for about 95 per cent of the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
  • The Network Readiness Index (NRI) report maps the network readiness landscape of 131 economies based on their performance in four areas: technology, people, governance, and impact.
  • The country’s main strength relates to People, while Governance has the most scope for improvement.

Topic: Polity & Governance

67% drop in PM-Kisan payout in 3 years: RTI reply


 

  • The number of farmers who received funds under the Union government’s Prime Minister Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme fell by two-thirds from the scheme’s launch in 2019 till the 11th instalment, disbursed in May-June of this year, the Union Agriculture Ministry revealed in response to a     
  • PM KISAN Scheme is a Central Sector Scheme to supplement financial needs of land holding farmers. 
  • Financial benefit of Rs. 6000 per year is transferred into the bank accounts of farmer families through direct benefit transfer. 
  • This ambitious scheme was launched in 2019. It is said to be one of the largest DBT Schemes in the world. 

Topic: Environment

Scientists Rediscover Lost Black-Naped Pheasant Pigeon

  • Scientists have rediscovered the black-naped pheasant pigeon, a rare bird that was last sighted almost 140 years ago in Papua New Guinea.
  • The chicken-sized bird is among 20 “lost” birds that have not been sighted for over a century.
  • The bird species hasn’t been documented by scientists since it was first described in 1882.
  • The black-naped pheasant-pigeon is considered critically endangered.
  • It is considered native only to Fergusson Island, which is part of the D'Entrecasteaux Archipelago off eastern Papua New Guinea. 

Topic: Science & Technology

Start-up develops indigenous 3D bioprinter

  • A startup co-founded by an IIT Madras alumnus has built a 3D printer that can print human tissues.
  • “3D Bioprinting” or “bioprinting” is a form of additive manufacturing that uses cells and biomaterials instead of traditional metals and plastics to create 3D constructs that are functional 3D tissues
  • Bioprinting uses biomaterial and “bio-inks” to create functional human tissues such as skin and entire organs.
    • Bio-ink is a combination of living cells and a compatible base, like collagen, gelatine, hyaluronan, silk, and alginate.
  • Application:
      • Medicine and Bio-engineering
      • Pharmaceutical testing and reduced need for animal trials
      • Cosmetic surgery
  • Advantages:
      • No Wastage
      • Manufacturing Decentralisation
      • Customized Products
      • Breaking manufacturing Boundaries
      • Saves Time

Editorial

The dissenting judgment versus the razing of equality

Context:

The dissenting judgment in the recent Supreme Court’s verdict on economically weaker sections case imparts strength to fight for the promise of equality forming the core of the Constitution.

Turning intersectionality on its head

  • Concept of intersectionality: It is a lens for seeing how various forms of inequalities operate together and exacerbate each other. It is contrary to looking at inequalities in isolation.
  • Exclusion of SC and ST communities: It is like denying an ‘Adivasi’ person the opportunities for the EWS, just because he/she is having any other existing reservations.
  • Dissenting Judgment: Reservations based on caste are not privileges or benefits, but reparative measures. Using it as a ground to deny EWS reservation amount to discrimination.
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ThinkQ

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QUIZ - 22nd November 2022

Mains Question:

Question: Discuss the significance of Ram Setu as a geoheritage structure. Also discuss the implications of Setusamudram project on Ram Setu. (150 words)

Question Mapping

  • Subject: Geography (GS-I)
    • Sub-topic: Location in news
  • Subject: Environment (GS-III)
    • Sub-topic: Conservation

Approach:

  • Introduce: Briefly discuss the location of Ram Setu and about geoheritage structure
  • Geographic features (natural chain of limestone shoals deposits with diagram.)
  • Discuss the significance of ram setu as a geoheritage structure:
  • Geoheritage perspective and paradigm (natural heritage)
  • Conservation of Biodiversity
  • Cultural and Religious significance
  • Also in short discuss the implications of Setusamudram project on Ram Setu
  • Conclude accordingly

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