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9th April 2021
Clean Ganga Fund
Recently, the Ministry of Jal Shakti has informed that as on March 2021, funds of Rs 453 crore have been deposited in the Clean Ganga Fund.
Recently, the newly published results of an international experiment hint at the possibility of new physics governing the laws of nature.
- The Ganga Action Plan was launched in 1986 with the objective of pollution abatement, to improve water quality by interception, diversion and treatment of domestic sewage and toxic waste.
- The Government announced the setting up of an Integrated Ganga Conservation Mission called "Namami Gange" and an initial sum of Rs. 2,037 crore has been allocated in the Union Budget 2014-15.
- The Government also established the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA), chaired by the Prime Minister, with the objective to ensure effective abatement of pollution and conservation of the river Ganga.
- It is set up with voluntary contributions from residents of the country and Non-Resident Indian (NRIs) / Person of Indian Origin (PIO) and others.
- It is set up as a trust under the Indian Trusts Act.
- It is managed by a Trust to be headed by Finance Minister.
- The secretariat of the Trust is set up in Ministry of Jal Shakti under the Mission Director, Clean Ganga.
- The proposal to set up CGF was to attract private contributions globally for increasing people's participation in this massive task.
- The domestic donors to the Fund shall be eligible for tax benefits as applicable in the case of the Swachh Bharat Kosh.
- CGF will have the objective of contributing to the national effort of improving the cleanliness of the river Ganga with the contributions received from the residents of the country, NRIs/ PIO and others.
- CGF will be operated through a bank account by a Trust.
- CGF will explore the possibility of setting up daughter funds in other jurisdictions/countries of high donor interest such as USA, UK, Singapore, UAE, etc. to enable tax benefits to donors in their respective jurisdictions.
- CGF will be catalytic in nature and will identify and fund specific projects which could be pilot projects, R&D projects, innovative projects or other focused projects.
- Activities outlined under the ‘Namami Gange’ programme for cleaning of river Ganga.
- Control of non-point pollution from agricultural runoff, human defecation, cattle wallowing, etc.
- Setting up of waste treatment and disposal plants along the river around the cities.
- Conservation of the biotic diversity of the river.
- Community based activities to reduce polluting human interface with the river.
- Development of public amenities including activities such as Ghat redevelopment.
- Research and Development projects and innovative projects for new technology and processes for cleaning the river.
- Independent oversight through intensive monitoring and real time reporting.
- It is an initiative to harness the enthusiasm of people for Ganga and to bring them closer to the Ganga and inculcate a sense of ownership.
- It involves major organizations and general public at large who are coming forward to contribute to the Ganga fund which strengthens the Mission to achieve the objectiveof a clean and healthy Ganga.
- It has the objective of contributing to the national effort of cleaning of the river Ganga.
- The money is being used in areas such as afforestation, treatment of nalas through in-situ bioremediation process, and redevelopment of ghats.
- The key personnel of State Skill Development Missions (SSDMs) and District Skill Committees (DSCs) across all eight states - Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram Nagaland and Tripura participated.
- The workshop is aimed at learning from the best practices, understanding the challenges related to PMKVY 3.0, and building understanding about using technical platform - Skill India Portal (SIP).
- The workshop was conducted with a vision to empower the youth of North Eastern Region (NER) with industry-relevant skills to enhance their productivity and contribute to the economy.
- It is the flagship scheme of the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE).
- It is implemented by National Skill Development Corporation (NCDC).
- Its objective is to enable a large number of Indian youth to take up industry-relevant skill training that will help them in securing a better livelihood.
- Short-term Training: Under PMKVY there are various Training Centers (TCs) that provide training in areas, such as entrepreneurship, soft skills, and financial and digital literacy.
- The training programs come under National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF).
- The time duration of the training program is usually between 150 – 300 hours.
- Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL): It refers to an assessment process used to evaluate an individual’s existing skill set, knowledge and experience gained either by formal or informal learning.
- Special Projects: Under special projects component, training is provided in special areas or premises of Government bodies, industry bodies and corporate offices.
- The training will be provided in the special job roles which are not defined under available Qualification Packs (QPs)/National Occupational Standards (NOSs).
- Kaushal and Rozgaar Mela: It is conducted by Training Partners every 6 months with media coverage.
- PMKVY gives importance to the involvement of the target beneficiaries through a definite mobilisation process.
- It is essential for Training Partners to actively participate in National Career Service Melas and on-ground activities.
- Placement Assistance: PMKVY’s training partners provide placement opportunities to individuals certified under this scheme.
- The training partners should also provide support for the development of entrepreneurs.
- Centrally Sponsored Centrally Managed (CSCM): It is implemented by National Skill Development Corporation.
- 75% of the PMKVY 2016-20 funds and corresponding physical targets have been allocated under CSCM.
- Centrally Sponsored State Managed (CSSM): It is implemented by State Governments through State Skill Development Missions (SSDMs).
- 25% of the PMKVY 2016-20 funds and corresponding physical targets have been allocated under CSSM.
- It is an initiative launched by the Government in 2015 to train over 40 crore Indians in different industry-related jobs.
- The vision is to create an empowered workforce by 2022 with the help of various schemes and training courses.
- The Skill India scheme is a smart initiative that works toward the development of the country as a whole.
- It is a not-for-profit public limited company incorporated in 2008 under section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956.
- It was set up by Ministry of Finance as Public Private Partnership (PPP) model.
- The Government of India through Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE) holds 49% of the share capital of NSDC, while the private sector has the balance 51% of the share capital.
- It aims to promote skill development by catalyzing creation of large, quality and for-profit vocational institutions.
- It is a bi-annual shifting of the Civil Secretariat and other offices of the state government from Jammu to Srinagar in summer, and vice versa in winter.
- It is done as Jammu & Kashmir has two capitals i.e. Kashmir during summer and Jammu during winter.
- It is a tradition started 149 years ago started by the erstwhile Dogra rulers who hailed from Jammu, but had expanded their boundaries to Kashmir.
- It was started by Maharaja Ranbir Singh in the year 1872 to escape extreme weather conditions in these places.
- Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh are very different from one another geographically, linguistically and culturally, and in those days were poorly connected by road.
- It is generally understood that the Durbar Move was started to take the administration to the doorstep of the people of Kashmir which is closer to Ladakh.
- During summer, ruling from Kashmir also helped in ensuring adequate supplies to Ladakh, which is closer to Kashmir than Jammu, before the winter snowfall would cut off Ladakh.
- The practice also enabled greater interaction and bonding among the people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh.
- The voices of protest started during the late 1980s, over the amount of money and time spent on the exercise.
- The experts have criticised the government for spending nearly Rs 200 crore on this exercise every year when it did not have enough funds even to pay salary to its employees.
- In 2020, the Jammu & Kashmir High Court observed that there was no legal justification or constitutional basis for the Durbar Move tradition.
- The J&K High Court pointed out that the practice has resulted in wastage of tremendous amount of time, efforts and energy on inefficient and unnecessary activity.
- It observed that valuable resources of the state (financial and physical) cannot be diverted to completely non-essential usage when the Union Territory in unable to provide even basic essentials to its people.
- In Delhi, these are men and women who work under the command of the district magistrates.
- The overall command of Civil Defence Volunteer lies with the divisional commissioner, to which the DMs report.
- These volunteers are governed by the Civil Defence Act, 1968 which has undergone multiple amendments.
- A person who intends to apply for appointment to a Civil Defence Corps must fulfill the following conditions:
- s/he shall be a citizen of India or Bhutan or of Nepal.
- s/he shall have completed the age of 18 years provided that this age limit may be relaxed at the discretion of the competent authority up to a maximum of 3 years for any branch or category of the Corps.
- s/he shall have passed at least the primary standard, that is to say, the fifth class, and this condition may be relaxed by the Controller at this discretion.
- Both men and women shall be eligible for appointment to the Corps.
- A person shall not be entitled to be appointed to the Corps unless he is found to be physically fit and mentally alert.
- Any service in the National Volunteer Force and in the Armed Forces of the Union shall be a special qualification.
- According to the Civil Defence Act, 1968, civil defence is defined as any measure “not amounting to actual combat that protects persons, property and places in India from hostile attack”.
- The 2010 amendment to Civil Defence Act has expanded the definition of civil defence by including disaster management as one of the responsibilities.
- The basic role of the volunteers is to assist the local administration.
- During the pandemic, the volunteers assumed the role of frontline workers by way of participating in screening hotspots and distributing food for the needy.
- In Delhi, Directorate of Civil Defence was carved out of the Directorate of Home Guards through a 2009 notification issued by the then Lieutenant Governor.
- The civil defence volunteers are not authorised to issue challans but they can assist officials who are authorised by the district administration to issue challans.
- The Delhi Police has said that civil defence volunteers have no power to stop people using police barricades and prosecute them for violation of Covid-19 appropriate behaviour.
- Over the last one year, the rupee has appreciated from around 77 against the US dollar to 72.7.
- The move to 77 had been preceded by a sharp rally in the dollar index before the Covid-19 pandemic hit the global economy.
- The gradual appreciation was underpinned by a fall in the dollar index, and a strong flow of foreign direct investment and foreign portfolio investment.
- The rupee has been depreciating amid concerns over Covid and the RBI policy announcement.
- The currency traders and analysts have argued that the abrupt fall cannot be a “false signal” and they expect the rupee to head back to levels of 77-78 over the next few months.
- The rupee is expected to depreciate gradually to levels of 76.5 to 77 in three to four months as rising Covid numbers have dampened market sentiment.
- The depreciation in the rupee impacts all expenditure in dollar terms i.e. imports, foreign education, travel, investments abroad, medical treatment etc.
- If a person is an exporter or NRI sending money back home, the depreciation would fetch him/her more rupees per dollar.
- Impact on education abroad: If a student is planning to go for a higher education in the US for a course with an annual fee of US$ 50,000.
- A 5% depreciation in the rupee from 72.5 to 76.125 would raise the cost for one year from Rs 36.26 lakh to Rs 38.06 lakh which is a jump of Rs 1.8 lakh.
- In 2019-20, resident Indians remitted $4.99 billion, under the liberalised remittance scheme, for the purpose of study abroad, besides $6.95 billion for travel.
- The total remittance under LRS for the year 2019-20 amounted to $18.76 billion i.e. 17 times the remittance of $1.09 billion in 2013-14.
- Impact on cost of fuel: A depreciating rupee increases the cost of crude import, which accounts for almost 20% of India’s imports.
- A rise in cost of crude raises fuel prices and inflation which in turn, leads to a rise in interest rates, which increases our borrowing cost.
- It is due to growing fears about a fall in demand due to new travel restrictions to combat a resurgence in Covid-19 infections and increasing crude oil supply.
- The Covid-19 infections are coupled with a decision by OPEC+ to increase crude oil production has contributed to a fall in crude oil prices.
- The OPEC+ has announced a phased withdrawal of production cuts which would see total crude oil production by the group of countries rise by 1.1 million barrels per day.
- The US data has also indicated that gasoline inventories are rising faster than the fall in crude oil inventories raising concerns of waning demand for petroleum products.
- US crude oil production capacity has recovered to about 11 million barrels per day after abnormally cold weather forced US crude oil output down to 9.7 million barrels per day.
- The recovery in supply without a similar recovery in demand has contributed to the recent correction in crude oil prices and that supply cuts were difficult to maintain for oil-producing countries.
- The Hopes of increasing demand due to lower restrictions and accelerated vaccine administration programs around the world had pushed crude oil prices up from about $40 in October to $70 in early March.
- The key oil-producing countries also maintained production cuts imposed early in FY21 to keep crude oil prices elevated with Saudi Arabia even cutting crude oil production.
- A fall in US crude oil production also contributed to keeping global prices elevated.
- India had called on oil-producing countries to withdraw production cuts stating that high crude oil prices were slowing the economic recovery in developing economies.
- The fall in international crude prices has reversed a six-month trend of rising auto fuel prices which saw the prices of petrol and diesel hit all-time highs across the country.
- The OMCs have lowered the price of petrol and diesel by about 60 paise per litrewhen the OMCs cut prices after a 24-day halt in daily price revisions as elections were looming in a number of states.
- Current Account Balance: A fall in price would drive down the value of its imports which helps narrow India's current account deficit.
- Inflation: A rise in oil price leads to an increase in prices of all goods and services which also affects us all directly as petrol and diesel prices rise.
- Oil subsidy and fiscal deficit: A fall in oil prices reduces companies' losses, oil subsidies and thus helps narrow fiscal deficit.
- The government fixes the price of fuel at a subsidised rate which then compensates companies for any loss from selling fuel products at lower rates.
- It adds to the government's total expenditure and leads to a rise in fiscal deficit.
- Rupee exchange rate: The value of a free currency like Rupee depends on its demand in the currency market.
- A high deficit means the country has to sell rupees and buy dollars to pay its bills.
- A fall in oil prices is good for the rupee.
Recently, the newly published results of an international experiment hint at the possibility of new physics governing the laws of nature.
- The results of the experiment, which studied a subatomic particle called the Muon, do not match the predictions of the Standard Model.
- The experiment, called Muon g–2 (g minus two), was conducted at the US Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab).
- It is a rigorous theory that predicts the behaviour of the building blocks of the universe.
- It lays out the rules for six types of quarks, six leptons, the Higgs boson, three fundamental forces, and how the subatomic particles behave under the influence of electromagnetic forces.
- The Muon is one of the leptons.
- It is similar to the electron, but 200 times larger, and much more unstable, surviving for a fraction of a second.
- It measured a quantity relating to the Muon, following up a previous experiment at Brookhaven National Laboratory.
- The Brookhaven experiment, concluded in 2001, came up with results that did not identically match predictions by the Standard Model.
- The Muon g–2 experiment measured this quantity with greater accuracy.
- It sought to find out whether the discrepancy would persist, or whether the new results would be closer to predictions.
- It is called the g–factor, a measure that derives from the magnetic properties of the muon.
- The scientists study the effect it leaves behind on its surroundings because the muon is unstable.
- In a strong magnetic field, the direction of this magnet “wobbles” just like the axis of a spinning top.
- The rate at which the muon wobbles is described by the g-factor whose value is known to be close to 2, so scientists measure the deviation from 2.
POSTED ON 09-04-2021 BY ADMIN
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