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17th March 2021
Orunodoi Scheme
Recently, the Israeli archaeologists have announced the discovery of dozens of new Dead Sea Scroll fragments.
Recently, the Himachal Pradesh Forest minister has tabled that nearly 40 per cent of the families displaced during the construction of Pong Dam in Himachal Pradesh are yet to be settled.
- It is a cash transfer scheme which will cover over 18 lakh families of the state who will receive 830 rupees per month in their bank accounts.
- The monthly assistance would support a family to buy medicines worth Rs 400 per month, 50 per cent subsidy of four kg pulses worth Rs 200, Rs 80 for sugar and for essential vegetables and fruits worth Rs 150.
- It is the biggest ever scheme in post-Independence Assam because the scheme would strengthen the role of the women as the money will be deposited in the bank accounts of the women of the families.
- The scheme will be rolled out in 29 districts at the moment.
- The number of beneficiaries will increase to about 22 lakh after the BTC districts are included.
- The applicant, a woman, has to be a permanent resident of Assam, whose composite household income should be less than Rs 2 lakh per annum.
- Families with specially-abled members and divorced/widowed/separated /unmarried women are prioritised.
- Poorer families, those without National Food Security Act (NFSA) or ration cards, are also given priority.
- Families without any women members, MPs, MLAs (former and current), members of Panchayati Raj institutions and urban local bodies, government officials and employees of cooperative societies.
- Families owning four-wheelers, mechanised boats, tractors or refrigerators, ACs and washing machines, or more than 15 bighas of agricultural land.
- It is first of its kind initiative because the state government has introduced a massive cash transfer programme which is very close to the initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's universal basic income.
- It is the first of its kind in the country as no other state has such a high coverage of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme nor matches the amount of cash transfer that is being made.
- It marks a paradigm shift in the approach to poverty alleviation programme, where the government does not decide how money should be spent for the poor.
- Widow, unmarried or divorced women and the physically challenged are usually considered a burden in many households but this will ensure that they are not a liability but an asset and their position in the family will improve.
Recently, the Israeli archaeologists have announced the discovery of dozens of new Dead Sea Scroll fragments.
- The scrolls are bearing a biblical text found in a desert cave and believed hidden during a Jewish revolt against Rome nearly 1,900 years ago.
- The fragments of parchment bear lines of Greek text from the books of Zechariah and Nahum.
- They have been radiocarbon dated to the 2nd century AD.
- The new pieces are believed to belong to a set of parchment fragments found in a site known as “The Cave of Horror".
- The cave is located in a remote canyon in the Judean Desert south of Jerusalem.
- The fragments are believed to have been stashed away in the cave during the Bar Kochba Revolt.
- It was an armed Jewish uprising against Rome during the reign of Emperor Hadrian, between 132 and 136 AD.
- They are the first new scrolls found in archaeological excavations in the desert south of Jerusalem in 60 years.
- The artifacts were found during an operation by the Israel Antiquities Authority in the Judean Desert to find scrolls and other artifacts to prevent possible plundering
- The Dead Sea Scrolls is a collection of Jewish texts found in desert caves in the West Bank near Qumran in the 1940s and 1950s.
- It dates from the 3rd century B.C. to the 1st century A.D.
- It includes the earliest known copies of biblical texts and documents outlining the beliefs of a little understood Jewish sect.
- It is located between Israel and Jordan with parts in the West Bank.
- It is a salt lake in south-western Asia.
- It is also called the Sea of Death, Salt Sea, and Sea of Lot.
- It is the lowest water body on Earth, with the lowest elevation on land.
- The movement of the African and Arabian tectonic plates shifted the land between the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean rose.
- The sea is fed by the waters of freshwater springs and aquifers.
- The high salt and mineral content of the Dead Sea mean that this body of water has powerful healing properties.
- It is a popular destination for treating skin problems such as acne, psoriasis and cellulite, as well as muscle ache and arthritis.
- It a joint venture between Kalyani Strategic Systems Ltd and Israel-based Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd.
- It is India’s first private sector Missile sub-systems manufacturing facility.
- It is India's first private sector Missile sub-systems manufacturing entity.
- It will be engaged in development of a wide range of advanced capabilities like Missile Technology, Command Control and Guidance, Electro-Optics, Remote Weapon Systems, Precision Guided Munitions and System Engineering for Missile Integration.
- The batch of the 1000 midsection Medium-Range Surface-to-Air Missile (MRSAM) kits has been provided to the Indian Army and Indian Air Force.
- The missile sections will then be ‘forwarded’ to Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL), a defence PSU, for further and future integration.
- The company has fused Rafael’s state-of-the-art technology with the engineering excellence of the Kalyani Group.
- KRAS is working with partners in India to increase the share to 50% by the time 250 kits are supplied and 60% when 500 kits are delivered.
- It marked the beginning of the journey of an MSME Indian company that is committed not only to the “Make-in-India” concept but also taking its stride towards the larger “Atma Nirbharta” idea (self-reliance).
- It is the beginning of a new era, filled with self-confidence, a marked step-change in technological expertise, and a collective demonstration of capability to be the global manufacturing hub for defence products.
Recently, the Himachal Pradesh Forest minister has tabled that nearly 40 per cent of the families displaced during the construction of Pong Dam in Himachal Pradesh are yet to be settled.
- The Pong Dam Sanctuary is also known as Pong Dam Reservoir or Pong Dam Lake.
- The Pong Dam Sanctuary is also a national wetland.
- The Pong Dam, also known as Beas Dam, is an earth-fill embankment dam built in 1975.
- It has been constructed on the river Beas in the wet land of Shivalik hills of Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh, which has been named as Maharana Pratap Sagar.
- It was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1983, and is now also a Ramsar site.
- The sanctuary area is covered with tropical and sub-tropical forests, which shelters a great number of Indian Wildlife animals.
- The lake is fed by Beas River and its numerous perennial tributaries such as Gaj, Neogal, Binwa, Uhl, Bangana, and Baner.
- The migratory birds from all over Hindukush Himalayas and also as far as Siberia come here during winter.
- The data for the ranking was derived from ground-based government and private monitoring stations and only PM 2.5 pollutant levels were evaluated.
- The average concentration of PM 2.5 in Delhi in 2020 was 84.1 µg/m3, the highest among the capital cities of 92 countries.
- Delhi was followed by Dhaka and Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia.
- India, Iran, and Nepal are still the only South Asian countries with domestic government monitoring networks reporting real-time data to the public.
- India emerged as the world’s third most polluted country after Bangladesh and Pakistan.
- China was ranked 11th in the latest report which is a deterioration from the 14th in the previous edition of the report.
- The report underlined that out of the 106 monitored countries, only 24 met the World Health Organization annual guidelines for PM 2.5.
- In terms of cities, Hotan in China was the most polluted, with an average concentration of 110.2 µg/m³, followed by Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh at 106.
- Delhi has been ranked as the world’s most polluted capital which placed India as having the third worst air quality out of 106 countries in 2020.
- The report highlighted that 22 of the top 30 most polluted cities globally are in India.
- The other Indian cities among the 30 most polluted cities in the world are:
- Ghaziabad, Bulandshahr, Bisrakh Jalalpur, Noida, Greater Noida, Kanpur, Lucknow, Meerut, Agra and Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh;
- Bhiwadi in Rajasthan;
- Faridabad, Jind, Hisar, Fatehabad, Bandhwari, Gurugram, Yamuna Nagar, Rohtak and Dharuhera in Haryana; and
- Muzaffarpur in Bihar
- The other Indian cities among the 30 most polluted cities in the world are:
- India continues to dominate annual PM 2.5 rankings by city.
- The major sources of India’s air pollution include transportation, biomass burning for cooking, electricity generation, industry, construction, waste burning, and episodic agricultural burning.
- Delhi, the world’s second most populous city, is located southeast of India’s agricultural breadbasket, where open burning is common.
- Delhi experienced average PM 2.5 levels of 144 µg/m3 in November and 157 µg/m3 in December, exceeding the WHO’s annual exposure guideline by more than 14 times.
- The annual exposure limit of PM2.5 set by WHO is 10 µg/m3, lower than 40 µg/m3 set under the Indian National Ambient Air Quality Standards.
- Within South Asia, Indian cities of Ghaziabad, Bulandshahr, Bisrakh Jalalpur, Bhiwadi and Noida were cited as the top five most polluted regional cities.
- The South Indian cities remained above the daily WHO limit of 25 µg/m3 for most of 2020 and registered a far better air quality than the cities situated in northern India.
- None of the Indian cities touched the WHO-accepted annual limit of 10 µg/m3.
- It is an annual report which is compiled by Swiss technology company IQAir.
- It measures air quality levels based on the concentration of lung-damaging airborne particles known as PM2.5.
- The IQAir is specialized in protection against airborne pollutants, and developing air quality monitoring and air cleaning products.
- It refers to the ambient airborne particles of size 2.5 micrometres that are emitted from various sources.
- PM2.5 is linked to negative health effects such as cardiovascular disease, respiratory illness and premature mortality.
- In 2019, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) held that any person who was ineligible, under Section 29A of IBC, to bid for his company.
- The above mentioned person will also be barred from proposing a scheme of compromise and arrangement under Section 230 of the Companies Act.
- The Section 230 of the Companies Act allows promoters or creditors of the company to propose a scheme of arrangement or compromise under which the debt of the company can be restructured.
- The apex court upheld the NCLAT ruling and said that the Section 230 would be applicable for promoters and creditors in normal course of the workings of the company.
- The Section 230 would not be applicable if the company is facing liquidation under IBC.
- The court held that it would lead to a manifest absurdity if the very persons who are ineligible for submitting a resolution plan, participating in the sale of assets of the company in liquidation in the sale of the corporate debtor.
- The clarification by the Supreme Court with respect to participation of promoters in liquidation process of an insolvent company will speed up the resolution process.
- The experts believe that a quick liquidation is of utmost importance to maximise the value of assets of the company.
- The objective of the IBC is to find a suitable buyer for the company and liquidationis ordered only in cases where there are no viable plans submitted.
- The court held that any other interpretation would have left a gaping hole in the scheme of IBC and defeated the very object of Section 29A bar introduced both for resolution and liquidation processes.
- It also settles down the conflicting judgments given by different benches of NCLTwhich allowed some of the promoters to re-bid for the company or propose some arrangement when it was sent to liquidation.
- The Union Budget 2021-22 has announced that the government will set up a new DFI called the National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development.
- The DFI will be set up on a capital base of Rs. 20,000 crores and will have a lending target of Rs. 5 lakh crore in three years.
- In 2017, the RBI specified that specialised banks could cater to the wholesale and long-term financing needs of the growing economy and possibly fill the gap in long-term financing.
- It is defined as an institution endorsed or supported by Government of India primarily to provide development/Project finance to one or more sectors or sub-sectors of the economy.
- It differentiates itself by a thoughtful balance between commercial norms of operation, as adopted by any financial institution like commercial bank and developmental responsibilities.
- It emphasizes the long term financing of a project rather than collateral based financing.
- The new DFI will start off as 100% government owned but the Centre will bring down its stake gradually to 26%.
- The new DFI will have a 100% professionally managed board with at least 50% of them being non-official directors.
- National Development Banks such as IDBI, SIDBI, ICICI, IFCI, IRBI, and IDFC.
- Sector-specific financial institutions such as TFCI, EXIM Bank, NABARD, HDFC, and NHB.
- Investment Institutions such as LIC, GIC and UTI.
- State-level institutions such as State Finance Corporations and SIDCs.
- The main objectives of the development banks are
- To promote industrial growth,
- To develop backward areas,
- To create more employment opportunities,
- To generate more exports and encourage import substitution,
- To encourage modernisation and improvement in technology,
- To promote more self-employment projects,
- To revive sick units,
- To improve the management of large industries by providing training,
- To remove regional disparities or regional imbalance,
- To promote science and technology in new areas by providing risk capital,
- To improve capital market in the country
- The new institution would have a positive impact on the bond market in India.
- The basic stress of a DFI is on long-term finance and support for activities to the sectors of the economy where the risks may be higher.
- The government will provide a 10-year tax exemption to funds invested in the DFI to attract long-term players such as insurance and pension funds.
- The government will also amend the Indian Stamp Act to attract global pension fundsand sovereign funds.
- The proposed DFI will be used to fund social and economic infrastructure projects identified under the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP).
- In 2019, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) held that any person who was ineligible, under Section 29A of IBC, to bid for his company.
- The above mentioned person will also be barred from proposing a scheme of compromise and arrangement under Section 230 of the Companies Act.
- The Section 230 of the Companies Act allows promoters or creditors of the company to propose a scheme of arrangement or compromise under which the debt of the company can be restructured.
- The apex court upheld the NCLAT ruling and said that the Section 230 would be applicable for promoters and creditors in normal course of the workings of the company.
- The Section 230 would not be applicable if the company is facing liquidation under IBC.
- The court held that it would lead to a manifest absurdity if the very persons who are ineligible for submitting a resolution plan, participating in the sale of assets of the company in liquidation in the sale of the corporate debtor.
- The clarification by the Supreme Court with respect to participation of promoters in liquidation process of an insolvent company will speed up the resolution process.
- The experts believe that a quick liquidation is of utmost importance to maximise the value of assets of the company.
- The objective of the IBC is to find a suitable buyer for the company and liquidationis ordered only in cases where there are no viable plans submitted.
- The court held that any other interpretation would have left a gaping hole in the scheme of IBC and defeated the very object of Section 29A bar introduced both for resolution and liquidation processes.
- It also settles down the conflicting judgments given by different benches of NCLTwhich allowed some of the promoters to re-bid for the company or propose some arrangement when it was sent to liquidation.
- The metal ores and minerals are non-renewable natural resources, which have an ever growing demand at global level and across sectors.
- The National Mineral Policy 2019 of Ministry of Mines envisages making efforts towards augmenting supply of metals by developing processes for recovery of metal through recycling.
- The stated policy is in line with SDG 12 which states that:
- The current material needs do not lead to over extraction of resources or to degradation of environment.
- The framework seeks to use life cycle management approach for better efficiency in mineral value chain process.
- The Non-ferrous metals can be classified in broad categories as:
- Base metals (e.g. aluminium, copper, zinc, lead, nickel, tin);
- Precious metals (e.g. silver, gold, palladium, other platinum group metals);
- Minor metals including refractory metals (e.g. tungsten, molybdenum, tantalum, niobium, chromium); and
- Specialty metals (e.g. cobalt, germanium, indium, tellurium, antimony, and gallium)
- Aluminium is the second most used metal in the world after iron.
- India is third largest consumer of aluminum in the world with a consumption of 3.7 MT in FY 2020.
- Copper is the third most important base metal by value, accounting for roughly a $130 billion industry annually at global level.
- Zinc is the fourth most widely used metal across the globe.
- According to International Lead and Zinc Study Group, around 13 million tonnes of Zinc is produced and consumed every year in the world.
- Lead is one of the most recyclable metals in the world.
- Social benefits: India’s mineral rich areas are under dense forests and inhabited by indigenous communities.
- The extraction pressures have contributed significantly to conflicts due to displacement, loss of livelihood and have led to opposition by tribal and other local communities including fishermen in coastal areas.
- The recycling would put fewer burdens on the need of extraction thereby offsetting some of the risks arising out of social conflicts.
- Environmental benefits: The mineral rich areas overlap with heavily forested areas in the country.
- The reduced pressures from mining will help to reduce this ecological degradation and the reduced waste generation will not only reduce pollution associated with disposal but also save related costs.
- Economic benefits: In manufacturing sector alone, Indian companies could save up to Rs. 60,855 million by implementing resource efficiency measures, thereby improving competitiveness and profitability.
- Employment Generation Potential: The recycling and adoption of related innovative methods may altogether give rise to the need of setting up of new industries that can contribute significantly to employment generation.
- The material recycling in India faces multifarious challenges, some of which are:
-
- Lack of an organized / systematic scrap recovery mechanism;
- Lack of sustained implementation of existing regulations on waste collection and recycling;
- Lack of standardization of recycled products adversely affecting market adoption;
- Import barriers adversely affecting input cost of operations;
- Lack of public awareness on the necessity of recycling;
- Lack of specific skill sets on responsible methods and technologies; and
- Highly skewed business share between the formal and informal recyclers
- To promote a formal and well organized recycling ecosystem by adopting energy efficient processes for recycling leading to lower carbon footprints;
- To minimize the effect of end of life products on landfills and environmental pollutionby promoting an environmentally sound processing and recycling system for secondary industry;
- To work towards economic wealth creation, job creation and increased contribution to GDP through metal recycling;
- To adopt data based analysis and policy making at all stages of recycling chain to determine and utilize opportunities available for enhancing extraction of non-ferrous metals;
- To promote 6Rs principles of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Recover, Redesign and Remanufacture;
- To produce high quality scrap for quality secondary production thus minimizing the dependency on imports; and
- To shift towards a circular economy in the coming years for base metals, critical raw materials and other essential materials
POSTED ON 17-03-2021 BY ADMIN
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