Current Affairs Exam

Gujarat, Bihar, Ladakh head to become carbon neutral

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

Progressive Climate actions being undertaken by many Indian states as they strategically shift towards increased use of .

This came to Light on Friday at a discussion organised by The Climate Group on the sidelines of the annual New York Climate Week, and at a time when the UN calls for no further build of coal across the world and countries, companies, states and regions world over are committing to bringing down emissions to net zero by mid century.

The plans of states are well placed to achieve long-term energy transition and net zero targets.

For instance, Gujarat is on the path to significantly reducing emissions as they choose to rely on renewable energy alone to meet all future power needs.

New analysis from GERMI shows that the share of coal power generation in the state will come down to 16 per cent by 2030, from the current 63 per cent as it aligns with the 450GW revised national renewable energy target.

The state is also setting up the world’s largest grid-scale battery storage in the Kutch region and is one of India’s largest markets for electric two-wheelers.

The analysis shows that not only will Gujarat not need to build any further thermal coal assets, but it will also have to consider retirement of Plants which are either old or polluting.

Developing a retirement package for these coal plants will hold the key. This will make economic sense given that the cost of renewable energy is less than new coal power.

Electricity sector in India contributes to 40 per cent of emissions.

Ladakh is working towards an enormous 10 GW of renewable energy capacity with solar and wind power, and it is setting up a 50MWh battery storage capacity –India’s largest so far.

Kids snatched at 15 comprise 70% of Naxal cadre: Survey

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

Over 70% Maoist cadres are forcibly recruited as children without the Consent of their parents. They are mostly roped in at 15 and given a gun at 17, says a survey conducted by Bastar Police among surrendered Maoists.

The recruited kids are not allowed to go Home for years, some never, not even if any of their parents dies, say police. Whats more, a shocking 25% of them end up getting forcibly sterilised in youth, says the survey.

There are 12 Maoists recruitment hotspots identified by police villages from where at least 10 cadres have joined PLGA. The surrendered cadres shared heart-breaking stories of the hardship and pain they underwent as children in an insurgent outfit. They were banned from visiting home or meeting parents for years. They werent allowed to go home even if a parent died, not to speak of visiting families for festivals.

Madhya Pradesh to build world-class hockey stadium: CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

After the state of the art international cricket stadium inIndore, it is now the turn of eitherBhopalorGwaliorto get a world-class hockey stadium. Chief ministerShivraj Singh Chouhanannounced this during the felicitation of the Indian womens hockey team at Minto Hall.

Chouhan and Sports ministerYashodhara Raje Scindiapresented Rs 31 lakh each to the players of the Indian Women hockey team, who made the country proud by making it to the semifinals of the Olympics in the recently concludedTokyo Olympics.

CM said, continuous work is being done for the promotion of sports in Madhya Pradesh. The initiative to remove the financial problems of women hockey players took place in 2010 in Madhya Pradesh. After that, the hockey academy was strengthened. Today it is one of the best hockey academies in the country, he added.

Globally, nuclear energy is considered as the future of clean energy. However, since the primary source of nuclear energy Uranium is finite, scientists across the world are working on efficient ways of extracting the heavy metal from secondary sources.In a breakthrough development, a scientist from Bhavnagar-based CSMCRI (Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute) Shilpi Kushwaha has developed a method to extract Uranium from secondary sources such as seawater and acidic effluents using crystalline thin films and polymer nanorings.

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

Khuswaha was conferred with the Young Scientist Award (YSA) for innovative research by the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) during a function held in New Delhi on Sunday. She was awarded by the Vice President M Venkaiha Naidu, under the category of Earth, , Ocean and Planetary Sciences.

According to Kushwaha, India needs a sustainable option for clean energy to follow the Paris agreement on Climate-change”>Climate Change. The demand for energy is increasing day by day. Its expected that in the near future the demand for Nuclear Energy will increase worldwide as it is carbon neutral. However, the Uranium reserves are limited and it is estimated that it would be exhausted in over 100 years, she said.

Here the recovery of Uranium from secondary sources such as contaminated groundwater, mining effluents and seawater comes into picture.

Uranium extraction from seawater (UES) is amongst the seven chemical separations processes where progress would lead to global gains. UES provides additional benefits to the Energy Security of any country. It is independent of terrestrial Uranium Ore which reduces the concerns of environmental damage from land-based mining, Khuswaha told TOI. She added that the heavy Metal extracted from seawater is at par with the similar experiments done globally.

Elaborating further, the scientist said that secondary sources of Uranium include spillages from mines, effluents of nuclear power Plants or fly ash dumps that go into water sources after mixing with rainwater and ultimately end up in the sea.

To promote electric vehicles in the state, the urban development and housing (UDH) department will allot government land on concessional rates.As per the order dated September 28, land will be allotted at 50% concession for first 500 renewable energy based EV charging stations installed within five years.

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

In the budget speech, the chief minister Ashok Gehlot announced Rajasthan policy, 2019 and Rajasthan Wind and Hybrid Energy Policy-2019. The provisions to allot land on the concessional rates are made under these policies.

As per the calculations, for slow charging stations in urban limits minimum 800 square feet land is required where at least 10 vehicles can be charged at a given time. Similarly, fast-charging stations require a set-up on minimum 460 square feet land where it can have capacity of six vehicles.

As per a survey, there are 15,000 EVs in the city. In the coming days, these stations will be as ubiquitous as petrol pumps in the JDA region. “The tentative cost of running an e-vehicle is between Rs 1.25 and Rs 1.50 per km.

The division of Assam and creation of the predominantly tribal states of Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh left a residue of boundary problems, which continue to bedevil relations between the neighbours.

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

Meghalaya: The problem between Assam and Meghalaya started when the latter challenged the Assam Reorganisation Act of 1971, which gave Blocks I and II of the Mikir Hills or present-day Karbi Anglong district to Assam. Meghalaya contends that both these blocks formed part of the erstwhile United Khasi and Jaintia Hills district when it was notified in 1835. At present there are 12 points of dispute along the 733-km Assam-Meghalaya border.

Meghalaya bases its case on survey maps of 1872 and 1929 and certain notifications of 1878 and 1951 while Assam wants to go by the recommendations of the Churachand Committee which in turn has been rejected by Meghalaya. Joint surveys of the disputed border segments have been undertaken in part and the Chief Ministers of both the states are scheduled to meet again on August 6 at Guwahati to discuss ways to resolve the dispute.

Arunachal Pradesh: Arunachal’s grievance is that the re-organisation of North Eastern states, unilaterally transferred several forested tracts in the plains that had traditionally belonged to hill tribal chiefs and communities to Assam. After Arunachal Pradesh achieved statehood in 1987, a tripartite committee was appointed which recommended that certain territories be transferred from Assam to Arunachal. Assam contested this and the matter is before The Supreme Court.

Mizoram: Prior to 2020, though a border dispute existed, the situation along the Assam-Mizoram border had remained relatively calm, barring a few instances in 1994 and in 2007. Following a border incident 2007, Mizoram declared that it does not accept the present boundary with Assam and that the inner line of the Inner Line Reserved Forest as described in the 1875 notification under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation (BEFR) of 1873 should be the basis for delineating the border and not the 1933 district boundary demarcation which Assam wants to be enforced. Following recent violence in which seven people, including six policemen, were killed, Assam government has said that it will file a suit in the Supreme Court

Nagaland: The longest-running border dispute in the North East is between Assam and Nagaland, which began soon after Nagaland became a state in 1963. The Nagaland State Act of 1962 had defined the state’s borders according to a 1925 notification when Naga Hills and Tuensang Area (NHTA) were integrated into a new administrative unit. Nagaland, however, does not accept the boundary delineation and has demanded that the new state should also have all Naga- dominated area in North Cachar and Nagaon districts. Since Nagaland did not accept its notified borders, tensions between Assam and Nagaland flared up soon after the latter was formed, resulting in the first border clashes in 1965. This was followed by major clashes between the two states along the border in 1968, 1979, 1985, 2007 and 2014. The Assam government had filed a case in the Supreme to resolve the border dispute and for a permanent injunction restraining Nagaland from encroaching areas within the constitutional boundary of Assam. In 2005, the Supreme Court instructed the Central government to constitute a boundary commission to settle various inter-state boundary problems in the North East. The Centre had earlier constituted two commissions, the Sundaram Commission (1971) and the Shastri Commission (1985), to settle the Assam-Nagaland border dispute. These commissions, however, failed to resolve the matter as the concerned states did not accept their recommendations.

Assam-Arunachal Pradesh: 804.1 km bordering eight districts of Udalguri, Sonitpur, Biswanath, Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Charaideo, Tinsukia and Dibrugarh. Assam-Mizoram: The two states share a 164.6-km border between the Assam’s districts of Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj, and Mizoram’s Kolasib, Mamit and Aizawl districts Assam-Nagaland: The two states share 512.1 km bordering four districts of Sivasagar, Charaideo, Jorhat and Golaghat. Assam-Meghalaya: The two states share 884.9 km bordering West Karbi Anglong, Dima Hasao, Morigaon, Kamrup Metro, Kamrup Rural, Goalpara, Dhubri and South Salmara.

Over 358 micro-containment zones, identified as ‘high case areas’, are contributing to over 90% of the daily cases in Assam, senior health department officials said on Wednesday.Though Assam has a low positivity rate when compared to other states in the region, around 1,700 cases are being reported daily, which is the highest in the northeast. Five districts in the state are currently under round-the-clock curfew.

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

The areas where the cases are being reported from have been earmarked, he said, except in Guwahati. In Guwahati there is a constant movement of people at airport and RAILWAY stations where people have been testing positive. But in rural districts, the focused areas are well marked and put under containment. Infections are being tested mostly in the containment zones, Choudhury added.

During the second wave, 7,900 locations were turned into micro-containment zones in the state, but the number of active micro-containment zones has drastically reduced. At least 50% of these micro-containment zones are in the five districts which are under curfew, he said.

Even though theSupreme Court Committee on Road Safetyordered all states to conduct joint inspection of accident spots by the motor vehicle inspectors, police personnel and road engineers, its compliance is lacking in Odisha.

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

The state commerce and transport secretaryMadhu Sudan Padhihas asked all district collectors, SPs and regional transport officers to strictly comply with the directive of theSupreme Court Committeeon Road Safety. The transport department has laid Stress on the conduct of joint inspection of accident spots on regular basis from August 1.

The government said proper analysis of the accidents can be done once the Integrated Road Accident Database (IRAD) project in launched in Odisha. TheWorld Bankfunded project, which is being executed by theministry of road transportand highways across the country, is aimed at analysing the causes of road accidents and devising measures to cut down the fatality rate. The ministry already rolled out the IT-based solution in six states Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Nadu and Madhya Pradesh.

Once launched, the ministry of road transport and highways will provide funds to the State Government to purchase tablets for the Police stations for capturing the spot accident data by using the IRAD mobile App. This data can be used for finding the causes of the accidents and remedial measures to improve the road Infrastructure, to record the accidents data for the use of police, Health Services and other concerned departments.

Concerned about the high number of cases being reported under SC/ST (prevention of atrocities) Act, the Tamil Nadu government reconstituted a state-level vigilance and monitoring committee with chief minister M K Stalin as chairman.

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

It would include all 45 MLAs of reserved constituencies in the state, irrespective of party affiliations.

The panel will review the implementation of the provisions of the SC/ST Act, relief and rehabilitation of the victims, prosecution, role of officers/agencies, and various reports received by the .

Migrant labourers permanently settled in Kerala with their families for more than five years have been included in the priority group of the micro plan for extreme poverty eradication in the state, states the guidelines prepared by the local self-government department for the project.

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

In addition to weaker sections who shall be considered in the project, BPL families with HIV infected members, orphaned children and LGBTQ members will be considered as extremely weaker sections who shall be given priority.

The government has announced in the budget of a micro plan for extreme POVERTY eradication in the state. Approximately five lakh families are expected to be included in this category and the government plans to collect accurate data regarding these families.

The sub-committee formed to compile the set of recommendations towards drafting the guidelines for conducting the survey to identify families suffering from extreme poverty included eight family groups for whom priority shall be given for special consideration.