EDITORIALS & ARTICLES
14th July 2021
INDIA LAUNCHES BHIM-UPI SERVICES IN BHUTAN
Recently, the Union Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs and Finance Minister of Bhutan have jointly launched
BHIM–UPI in Bhutan.
Highlights
- The BHUM-UPI has created more than 100 million UPI QRs in the last 5 years and BHIM UPI in 2020-21
- has processed 22 billion transactions worth value Rs 41 lakh crore.
- Bhutan became the second country after Singapore to have BHIM-UPI acceptance at merchant locations,
- NPCI International Payments Ltd (NIPL).
- The payment system was launched by NIPL, the international arm of National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI),
- in partnership with the Royal Monetary Authority (RMA) of
- The RMA will ensure that the participating NPCI mobile application through UPI QR transactions is accepted at all
- RMA acquired merchants in Bhutan.
Significance of BHIM-UPI for Bhutan
- Bhutan becomes the first country in India’s immediate neighbourhoodto use the BHIM app for mobile-based
- payments and to adopt UPI standards for its QR deployment.
- The BHIM-UPI services have started in Bhutan under India's neighbourhood first policy.
- It fulfills the commitment made by the two countriesduring the Prime Minister of India’s State visit to Bhutan in 2019.
- The payment infrastructures of the two countries are seamlessly connected and will benefit a large number of
- tourists and businessmenfrom India who travel to Bhutan.
- It will enhance the ease of living and ease of travelling through cashless transactions at the touch of a button.
BHIM-UPI
- The Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) is India’s digital payment
- application (app) that works through UPI.
- It is pioneered and developed by National Payments Corporation
- of India (NPCI).
- The Unified Payments Interface (UPI)is a system that powers
- multiple bank accounts into a single mobile application.
- The UPI is an instant real-time payment system, allowing
- users to transfer money on a real-time basis, across multiple bank accounts without revealing details of one’s bank account to the other party.
Services offered under BHIM-UPI
- Send Money:It enables a user to send money using Virtual
- Payment Address (VPA) or combination of Account Number
- and IFSC or even by scanning QR code.
- Request Money:It enables a user to initiate a collect request by
- entering Virtual Payment Address (VPA).
- It is mandatory that the customers’ mobile number is linked with
- the bank account.
- Scan and Pay:The customers can pay by scanning the QR code through 'Scan & Pay' and generate
- QR codes in the app for making payments.
- Bank Account:A customer can check the bank account which is linked with the BHIM App along with PIN status.
It is set up under the provisions of the Payment and Settlement
NTPC GETS GOVT NOD TO SET UP COUNTRY'S SINGLE LARGEST SOLAR PARK IN GUJARAT
Recently, the NTPC Renewable Energy Ltd has received the go-ahead from Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) to set up India’s largest solar park.
Highlights
- The current total installed generation capacity of NTPC stands at66 GW. NTPC, India’s largest energy integrated company, aims to build 60 GW Renewable Energy Capacity by 2032.
- There are five operational solar power parks in India, of which Bhadla in Rajasthan (2.2 GW)and Pavgada in Karnataka (2.05 GW) are among the world’s largest single location solar plants.
- India’s first solar power park of 0.75 GW was fully commissioned in 2019 in Rewa district of Madhya Pradesh.
- The ministry announced a solar power park scheme in 2014-15 when it targeted 20 GW of capacity under solar parks/ultra-mega solar power projects by 2020.
India’s Single Largest Solar Park
- It is a 4750 MW (4.75 GW) renewable energy park located at Rann of Kutch in Khavada,
- It will be India’s largest solar park to be built by the largest power producer of the country.
- It has been approved under Mode 8 (Ultra Mega Renewable Energy Power Park)of Solar Park Scheme.
- It will be almost twice the capacity of the Bhadla solar park in Rajasthan, currently the largest single-location solar power project in the country.
Solar Park Scheme
- The scheme for“Development of Solar Parks and Ultra-Mega Solar Power Projects”was rolled out in December, 2014.
- Under the scheme, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy provides Central Financial Assistance to private project developers.
- It offers suitable developed land with all clearances, transmission system, water access, road connectivity, communication network, etc.
- It facilitates and speeds up installation of grid connected solar power projects for electricity generation on a large scale.
- All the States and Union Territories are eligible for getting benefit under the scheme.
- The Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited (SECI) is the designated authority for solar power park development.
Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited (SECI)
- It is a CPSU under the administrative control of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE).
- It is the only CPSU dedicated to the solar energy sector.
- It wasoriginally incorporated as a section-25 (not for profit) company under the Companies Act, 1956.
- It aims to carry on business of generation, forecasting, purchasing, producing, manufacturing, importing,
- exporting, exchanging, selling and tradingin power products and services in India and abroad.
DID RICHARD BRANSON REALLY REACH ‘SPACE’
Recently, the British businessman Richard Branson beat rival Jeff Bezos to reach the edge of space, giving space tourism an official kick start.
Karman Line
- The experts have suggested the actual boundary between Earth and
- space lies anywhere from a mere 18.5 miles (30km) above the surface
- to more than a million miles (1.6 million km) away.
- The Kármán line gets its name from Hungarian-born aerospace pioneer
- Theodore von Kármán.
- The Kármán line is based on physical reality in the sense that it roughly
- marks the altitude where traditional aircraft can no longer effectively fly.
- Anything traveling above the Kármán line needs a propulsion system that doesn’t rely on lift generated by Earth’s atmosphere.
- The Kármán line is also where the human laws governing aircraft and
- spacecraft diverge.
- It has been compared to international waters, as there are no national
- boundaries and human laws in forcebeyond the line.
- The world governing body for aeronautic and astronautic records,
- the Federation Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), and many other
- organizations use the Karman Line as a way of determining when space flight has been achieved.
Need for Karman Line
- The 1967 Outer Space Treatysays that space should be accessible to all countries and can be freely and scientifically investigated.
- The defining of alegal boundary of what and where space is can help avoid disputesand keep track of space activities and human space travel.
- The lack of a definition or delimitation of outer spacehas not impeded the development of activities in either sphere.
Layers of Atmosphere
- The Earth’s atmosphere has been divided into various layers, with the troposphere starting at the Earth’s surface and extending about 14.5 km high, stratosphere extending to 50 km, mesosphere to 85 km, thermosphere to 600 kilometersand exosphere to 10,000 km.
- Dr McDowell noted that the chemical composition of the atmosphere was largely constant up to the mesopause, or the boundary between the mesosphere and the thermosphere.
THE ‘RE-WILDING’ OF WILD ANIMALS, AND THE CHALLENGES IT INVOLVES
Recently, the attempt of Periyar Tiger Reserve (PTR) to reintroduce into the wild an abandoned nine-month-old cub named Mangala after rearing it in ‘captivity’ for two years has brought the controversial concept of ‘re-wilding’ of abandoned or injured animals under the lens.
‘Re-wilding’ of Wild Animals
The Standard Operating Procedures/ Guidelines laid down by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) under Section 38(O) of The Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 provide three ways to deal with orphaned or abandoned tiger cubs
- The first is to make an effort to reunite the abandoned cubs with their mother.
- Second, if a reunion of the cub with its mother is not possible, and then shift the cub to a suitable zoo.
- Third, reintroduction of the cub into the wild after a certain time when it appears that the cub is capable of surviving in the wild independently and this is what is known as ‘Re-wilding’.
- The NTCA stresses that the tiger cub should be reared in an in situ enclosure for a minimum of two years, and during
- this time, each cub should have a successful record of at least 50 ‘kills’.
- The persons responsible for handling cubs must approach them by putting a tiger mask along with work day clothes
- of a tiger stripe pattern smeared with tiger urine and faeces.
- The Re-wilding is systematic, scientifically planned re-establishment of viable populations of tigers in this historical range over the longer term.
Challenges in ‘Re-wilding’ of Wild Animals
- The tiger conservationist Billy Arjan Singh was credited with the re-introduction of three leopards and a Siberian tigress
- cubnamed Tara in Dudhwa forest area in the 1970s.
- The re-wilding attempt ran into controversyafter several incidents of killing of humans were reported in Dudhwa.
- The process of re-wilding of a wild animal after rearing it in captivity is very complicated, and fraught with risks.
- Huge funds are neededfor constructing large, well-fenced enclosures, for the equipment required for technical
- surveillance of the animal.
- The authorities have to keep tabs on the overall movement of a released animal till the end, which needs a lot of
- resources and manpower.
Views on re-wilding
- There are 50-50 chances of success and failureof re-wilding of hand reared carnivores in the wild.
- Some conservation scientists and tiger experts have said that translocating hand-reared or even wild tigersis not
- necessary in India
- The chance of success is less than 1 per cent if we look at all the failures of reintroductions and failures have led to
- deaths of many tigers as well as serious livestock depredations, and even man-eating problems.
- The real need is toprotect more habitats strictly, so that the prey densities rise and more tigers can thrive.
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