UPSC Daily Current Affairs- January 15, 2022 | Current Affairs: Daily, Weekly & Monthly - CLAT PDF Download

GS-I

Context

• Nominations for the Nari Shakti Puraskar, 2021 are open till 31st January, 2022.

About Nari Shakti Puraskar

• Initiated in the year 1999, it is the highest Civilian Honour for Women in India. 
• The President of India confers the Nari Shakti Puraskar on the International Women's Day (8th March), annually. 
• The Nari Shakti Puraskar carries a cash award of Rs.2 Lakh and a certificate for individuals and institutions. 
• The Ministry of Women and Child Development announces these national level awards for individuals/ groups/ Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs)/ institutions etc. The awards are given: 
  • For encouraging women to participate in decision making roles. 
  • Women’s skill development in traditional and non-traditional sectors. 
  • Facilitating basic amenities for rural women. 
  • Promoting women in non-traditional sectors like science and technology, sports, art, culture concretely. 
  • For the significant work towards safety and security, health and wellness, education, life skills, respect and dignity of women etc.

Objectives of Nari Shakti Puraskar

• To showcase the Government’s commitment towards women with the aim of strengthening their position in the society. 
• It will also provide an opportunity to Young Indians to understand the contribution of women in building society and the nation. 
  • It will also help in achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 
  • SDG 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

Eligibility

• As per the Guidelines, any individual of at least 25 years of age and institutions having worked in the relevant field for at least 5 years are eligible to apply.

Context

• As part of grand celebrations of the Amrit Mahotsav, the Ministry of Culture in collaboration with the Ministry of Defence organized Kala Kumbh - artist workshops for painting scrolls. 
  • The Director General, NGMA (National Gallery of Modern Art) along with professors of eminent universities acted as mentors for the scroll painting workshops.

About Kala Kumbh-Artist Workshops

• The major theme of these artworks is on the unsung heroes of the struggle for India’s freedom. 
• Inspiration has also been drawn from the illustrations in the Constitution of India which have been meticulously done by Nandalal Bose – one of the leading masters of modern Indian art from the Bengal School along with a team of other eminent artists and calligraphers.

About National Gallery of Modern Art

• It is a national premier Institute that was established in 1954 by then vice-president Dr. S Radhakrishanan in the presence of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
• NGMA is a repository of the cultural ethos of the country and showcases the changing art forms through the passage of the last hundred and fifty years starting from about 1857 in the field of Visual and Plastic arts. 
• Headquarters: New Delhi.
• Nodal Ministry: It is run and administered under the Ministry of Culture.

GS-II

Context

• The ‘Mekedatu march’ has been launched for the implementation of a project to build a reservoir on the Cauvery at Mekedatu near the Tamil Nadu border.

About Mekedatu Project

• Mekedatu, meaning goat’s leap, is a deep gorge situated at the confluence of the rivers Cauvery and Arkavathi, about 100 km from Bengaluru, at the Kanakapura taluk in Karnataka’s Ramanagara district. 
• In 2013, then Karnataka announced the construction of a multi-purpose balancing reservoir project. 
• The project aimed to alleviate the drinking water problems of the Bengaluru and Ramanagara districts. 
• It was also expected to generate hydroelectricity to meet the power needs of the state.

Issues with the project

• Soon after the project was announced TN has objected over granting of permission or environmental clearance. 
• Explaining the potential for damage to the lower riparian state of TN, it said that the project was in violation of the final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal. 
• It stated that the project will affect the natural flow of the river Cauvery considerably and will severely affect the irrigation in TN.

What do the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal and the Supreme Court say?

• The Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, in its final order on February 2007, made allocations to all the riparian States — Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, apart from the Union Territory of Puducherry. 
• It also stipulated “tentative monthly deliveries during a normal year” to be made available by Karnataka to Tamil Nadu. 
• Aggrieved over the final order for different reasons, the States had appealed to the Supreme Court. 
• In February 2018, the court, in its judgment, revised the water allocation and increased the share of Karnataka by 14.75 thousand million cubic feet (tmc ft) at the cost of Tamil Nadu. 
• The enhanced quantum comprised 4.75 tmc ft for meeting drinking water and domestic requirements of Bengaluru and surrounding areas.

What is Karnataka planning?

• Encouraged by the Supreme Court verdict, Karnataka, which sees the order as an endorsement of its stand, has set out to pursue the Mekedatu project. 
• Originally proposed as a hydropower project, the revised Mekedatu dam project has more than one purpose to serve. 
• A hydropower plant of nearly 400 MW has also been proposed. 
• The Karnataka government has argued that the proposed reservoir will regulate the flow to Tamil Nadu on a monthly basis, as stipulated by the Tribunal and the Supreme Court. 
• This is why Karnataka has contended that the project will not affect the interests of Tamil Nadu farmers.

Context

• NEAT, first-of-its-kind government scheme, set in motion over two years ago, has finally taken shape, bringing courses offered by a group of edtech platforms within the reach of college and university students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds.

About NEAT Scheme

• The National Education Alliance for Technology (NEAT) is implemented by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). 
• It aims to act as a bridge between edtech companies, academic institutions and students. 
• The initiative was taken after a Ministry of Education review noted that learning tools developed by edtech platforms that can supplement classroom teaching need to be made more accessible. 
• Accordingly, it was proposed that a portal be created where edtech platforms can be roped in to display their products after a shortlisting process.

What are the products on display in the portal?

• The NEAT portal has separate sections listing products for students and educational institutes respectively. 
• The companies were shortlisted by independent expert committees leaving no room for favouritism, he said. 
• Under the B2B (business to business) segment of the portal, courses are on offer for higher education institutes to purchase in bulk for their students. 
• And the B2C (business to customer) section lists courses that eligible students can browse through and choose from. 
• The courses range from accounting and finance to coding, including advanced programming languages like python.

How to enroll into this scheme?

• There are two different ways through which students can enroll under the scheme. 
• The basic objective of the scheme is to make students from disadvantaged backgrounds aware of the availability of such opportunities that can help them learn new skills or polish existing ones. 
• In that regard, the AICTE reached out to higher education institutes across the country, directing them to inform students about the portal and enroll them based on their needs and consent. 
• The edtech platforms have been allowed to charge fees as per their policies.

How will it benefit students from backward communities?

• In order to do that, the government has mandated that every shortlisted company will have to offer free coupons to the extent of 25 per cent of the total registrations for their solution through NEAT portal. 
• Through this route, the government created a bank of 12.15 lakh free coupons over the last two years. 
• And it has now started distributing those coupons among students belonging to SC/ST/OBC and EWS categories with the annual family income cap fixed at Rs 8 lakh.

What are the courses in demand?

• The top five courses in terms of demand are python programming, C, C++, Java programming, data science, life science and healthcare analysis, and interview preparation.

Context

• Recently, the 14^th round of Corps Commander level talks concluded between India and China. The meeting resulted in no breakthrough for disengagement from Hot Springs and Gogra Post, but the two sides have agreed to meet again soon. 
  • The meeting had a positive outcome in comparison to the last meeting, whereby no joint statement was released and the two sides had issued independent statements blaming each other for the situation.

Location of Hot Springs and Gogra Post

• Hot Springs is just north of the Chang Chenmo river and Gogra Post is east of the point where the river takes a hairpin bend coming southeast from Galwan Valley and turning southwest. 
• The area is north of the Karakoram Range of mountains, which lies north of the Pangong Tso lake, and south east of Galwan Valley.

Importance of Hot Springs and Gogra Post

• The area lies close to Kongka Pass, one of the main passes, which, according to China, marks the boundary between India and China. 
• India’s claim of the international boundary lies significantly east, as it includes the entire Aksai Chin area as well. 
• Hot Springs and Gogra Post are close to the boundary between two of the most historically disturbed provinces (Xinjiang and Tibet) of China.

GS-III

Context

• Bitcoin prices are rising these days and so will be its mining. As cryptocurrency will become mainstream, its carbon footprint cannot be ignored.

About Global crypto market

• In 2019, the global cryptocurrency market was approximately $793 million. 
• It’s now expected to reach nearly $5.2 billion by 2026, according to a report by the market research organization Facts and Factors. 
• In just one year—between July 2020 and June 2021—the global adoption of cryptocurrency surged by more than 880 percent.

About Carbon footprints of Bitcoins

• Increasing popularity of cryptocurrency has environmentalists on edge, as the digital “mining” of it creates a massive carbon footprint due to the staggering amount of energy it requires. 
• A/c to the Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index, the carbon footprint of Bitcoin is equivalent to that of New Zealand. 
• Both emit nearly 37 megatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year.

What is Mining?

• Mining is a process in which computational puzzles are solved in order to verify transactions between users, which are then added to the blockchain. 
• In simpler terms, the works are created, or “minted,” through a process called proof-of-work (PoW), which establishes its unique identity.

How do cryptocurrencies create such a footprint?

• Unlike mainstream traditional currencies, bitcoin is virtual and not made from paper or plastic, or even metal. 
• Bitcoin is virtual but power-hungry as it is created using high-powered computers around the globe. 
• Bitcoin is created when high-powered computers compete against other machines to solve complex mathematical puzzles. 
• This is an energy-intensive process that often relies on fossil fuels, particularly coal, the dirtiest of them all.

Conclusion

• What this means is that, unlike traditional currency or gold, Bitcoin is not solely a settlement layer, not solely a store of value, and not solely a medium of exchange. 
• This makes Bitcoin’s relative energy consumption productive in comparison to comparative sectors, given its robust potential uses. 
• The promise of such an endeavor offers hope for a more sustainable cryptocurrency future. 
• Whether this will make much difference to the climate crisis in light of government and industrial inaction remains to be seen.

Context

• Recently, Satcom Industry Association-India (SIA) has voiced concerns over the Government’s plan to include the Millimetre Wave (mm Wave) bands in the 5G spectrum auction 
  • SIA is an industry body that represents the interests of the communication satellite ecosystem in India. 
  • Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had sought industries’ views on topics related to quantum of spectrum to be auctioned off.

5G Technology

• About
  • 5G is the 5th generation mobile network. It is a new global wireless standard after 1G, 2G, 3G, and 4G networks. The 5G networks will operate in the mm Wave spectrum. 
  • It enables a new kind of network that is designed to connect virtually everyone and everything together including machines, objects, and devices. 
• Bands in 5G: 5G mainly work in 3 bands, namely low, mid and high frequency spectrum — all of which have their own uses as well as limitations. 
  • Low band spectrum: It has shown great promise in terms of coverage and speed of internet and data exchange however the maximum speed is limited to 100 Mbps (Megabits per second). 
  • Mid-band spectrum: It offers higher speeds compared to the low band, but has limitations in terms of coverage area and penetration of signals. 
  • High-band spectrum: It has the highest speed of all the three bands, but has extremely limited coverage and signal penetration strength. 
    • Internet speeds in the high-band spectrum of 5G has been tested to be as high as 20 Gbps (gigabits per second), while, in most cases, the maximum internet data speed in 4G has been recorded at 1 Gbps.

Millimetre Wave-Band

• About
  • It is a particular segment of the radio frequency spectrum that ranges between 24 GHz and 100 GHz. 
  • This spectrum, as the name suggests, has a short wavelength, and is appropriate to deliver greater speeds and lower latencies. This in turn makes data transfer efficient and seamless as the current available networks work optimally only on lower frequency bandwidths. 
• Significance
  • 5G services can be deployed using lower frequency bands. They can cover greater distances and are proven to work efficiently even in urban environments, which are prone to interference. 
  • But, when it comes to data speeds, these bands fail to hit peak potential needed for a true 5G experience. So, mmWave is that quintessential piece in the 5G jigsaw puzzle for mobile service providers. 
• Effect on Satellite Industry
  • The Internet has largely been provided to users via fibre-optic based broadband connectivity or mobile network. Of late, another class of Internet vendors is showing up. These are satellite-based communication service providers. 
  • This segment uses Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites to provide broadband to both urban and rural users. Their service could also be used for weather predictions. 
  • The mm- band had been the subject of controversy due to out-of-band emissions into the passive satellite band used for weather satellites at 23.6-24 GHz. 
    • Out-of-band emission is emission on a frequency or frequencies immediately outside the necessary bandwidth which results from the modulation process. 
    • The level of out-of-band emission can not be reduced without affecting the corresponding transmission of information.

Concerns Raised by the Industry

• Against ITU Norms
  • SIA urged the regulator to limit the inclusion of mmWave spectrum in the 5G auction as 27.5-31 GHz and 17.7-21.2 GHz bands have been preserved for satellite-based broadband services as per the decision taken by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). 
  • The industry body pointed to Europe’s “5G Roadmap”, which is built on the ITU’s decision to hold these bands for satellite-based broadband services. 
• Denial of Benefits
  • It also noted that offering excessive spectrum resources in the upcoming 5G auction will result in Indian citizens being denied the benefits of high-demand, advanced satellite broadband services. 
• Loss to Economy
  • It will result in a massive loss to the Indian economy of up to USD 184.6 billion by 2030, along with the loss of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and employment generation benefits.

SIA’s Suggestions

• SIA-India has noted that the 330 MHz of spectrum in the 3.3-3.67 GHz band is enough to satisfy India’s mid-band 5G needs while ensuring a competitive auction. 
• The industry body also noted that providing excess spectrum could pose a downside risk of the bands going unsold, or even worse, underutilised by terrestrial players at the expense of satellite-based service providers. The allocation of the mmWave band is critical to the satellite communication industry, which needs stronger regulatory support to ensure that 5G operations don’t interfere with their existing operations.

Context

• There has been debate on the issue of MSP with some arguing against it while some favouring it.

The issues with MSP

• The broad strands of argument against MSP are: 
  • MSP hinders the price discovery: Providing MSP does not allow the market to discover the prices; if market cleared prices are less than MSP, then the only buyer would be the government; this would render the government bankrupt. 
  • FPO as a mechanism to deal with markets: If markets have any distortions, the way to negotiate it is through Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) — as demonstrated by Amul. 
  • Provide income support through DBT: A better way to address the possible income gap is to give an income support-based direct benefit transfer (DBT).

Why MSP is necessary?

• Barriers in agri-markets 
  • Through tariffs and other measures, we have built a national barrier on markets, where gates are opened on the basis of strategic intent. 
  • If we were to open our borders for free movement of grains from elsewhere, we may even argue for unlocking agricultural land for more lucrative purposes without worrying about food self-sufficiency, buffer stocking and domestic food safety. 
  • We may have to accept a national food safety for at least the essential foodgrains and pulses. 
• Role of MSP as price signalling and why it needs to be given as legal guarantee 
  • Disproportionate risk: If we were to look at farming, we realise that this exposes itself to disproportionate risks. 
  • First, there is no stop-loss mechanism after sowing the seed, except for destroying the crop for the season. This enterprise not only has the usual business risks but also has the enhanced risk of the force majeure elements that destroy the enterprise — a sudden hail storm, drought, unseasonal showers, a pest attack, a locust attack — there are too many things that the farmer cannot control. 
  • Therefore, an MSP provides a powerful signal to the farmer to exercise the choice of sowing a particular crop because the farmer can back-calculate the expected margin. 
  • If MSP is a signal that helps the farmer to choose a crop, then it must remain a choice at the harvest time as well. 
  • The significance of MSP is only when the markets do not clear the price. 
  • In such a situation, the farmer gets a return less than the MSP and by this argument we are escorting the farm fraternity towards bankruptcy. 
  • A legal guarantee is, therefore, needed. 
  • The argument that the state will have to procure all the floating stock in the market and may become bankrupt is fallacious. 
  • The intervention of the state in the markets usually covers information asymmetry, arbitrage and cools the markets when they get overheated.
• Why not opt for income support instead of MSP?
  • Income support does not address the issue of viability of the farming operations. 
  • There is no doubt that we need to make farming viable. 
  • It is important to address the prices of each crop as a strategic signalling mechanism: For crops that would be encouraged and those that would be discouraged. 
• Issues with drawing parallels with AMUL 
  • While the Amul model recognised the inherent power of markets, it took about five decades to make the system competitive — the investments were made in breed improvement, free veterinary services, better cattle feed, capital subsidy for processing plants, and return-free capital as investments. 
  • The nature of subsidies was smart and innovative. 
  • Dairying was the last bit to be liberalised, and it enjoyed protection even when we opened up in 1991.

Conclusion

• Let us use the MSP framework smartly on diversified crops, on a decentralised basis while we develop the markets. A legal guarantee will only assure the farmers that they will not be bankrupted.