UPSC Daily Current Affairs- 25th December 2022 | Current Affairs & Hindu Analysis: Daily, Weekly & Monthly PDF Download

GS-I

Context

As many as 13 farmers known for innovative farming were felicitated to mark Kisan Diwas or National Farmers Day on 23^rd December, 2022.

• The Kisan Diwas is observed across the country to celebrate the birth anniversary of Chaudhary Charan Singh, the former Prime Minister of India.

What are the Key Facts about Chaudhary Charan Singh?

• He was born in 1902 at Noorpur in Meerut district of Uttar Pradesh and was the Prime Minister of India from 28^th July 1979 to 14^th January 1980.
• Being a proponent of rural and agricultural development, he made continuous efforts for keeping agriculture at the centre of planning for India.
• He was given the nickname ‘Champion of India’s Peasants’ for his work towards upliftment of farmers and development of agriculture throughout the country.
• He took a leading part in formulation and finalisation of the Debt Redemption Bill 1939, in order to give relief to the peasantry from moneylenders.
• He was instrumental in bringing about the Land Holding Act, 1960 which was aimed at lowering the ceiling on land holdings to make it uniform throughout the Uttar Pradesh.
• He left Congress in 1967 and formed his independent party known as the Bharatiya Lok Dal.
• He served twice as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. He became Prime Minister of India in 1979.
• He was the author of several books and pamphlets, including ‘Abolition of Zamindari’, ‘Co-operative Farming X-rayed’, ‘India’s Poverty and its Solution’, ‘Peasant Proprietorship or Land to the Workers’ and ‘Prevention of Division of Holdings Below a Certain Minimum’.

What are the Related Initiatives for Farmers?

• PM-KISAN: Under the scheme, the Centre transfers an amount of Rs 6,000 per year, in three equal instalments, directly into the bank accounts of all landholding farmers irrespective of the size of their land holdings.
• National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture: It aims at promoting sustainable agriculture practices best suitable to the specific agro-ecology.
• Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana: It has three main components namely Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP), Har Khet ko Pani (HKKP), and watershed development components.
• Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY): It was initiated in 2007, and allowed states to choose their own agriculture and allied sector development activities as per the district/state agriculture plan.
• Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS) Programme: Under this programme, fertilizers are provided to the farmers at the subsidized rates based on the nutrients (N, P, K & S) contained in these fertilizers.
• Rashtriya Gokul Mission: It is being implemented for development and conservation of indigenous bovine breeds since December 2014.
• Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana: It provides a comprehensive insurance cover against failure of the crop thus helping in stabilising the income of the farmers.
• Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana: Launched in 2015, it is an elaborated component of Soil Health Management (SHM) of major project National Mission of Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA).
• Kisan Credit Card : The scheme was introduced in 1998 for providing adequate and timely credit support from the banking system, under a single window with flexible and simplified procedure to the farmers.

Source: The Hindu

GS-II

Context

Recently, the year-end-review of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj for the year 2022 was released.

What are the Key Achievements of the Ministry?

• SVAMITVA Scheme:
  • About:
    • Survey of Villages and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas (SVAMITVA) scheme was launched by the Prime Minister on National Panchayati Raj Day 2020 to enable economic progress of Rural India by providing “Record of Rights” to every rural household owner.
  • Achievements:
    • As on December 2022, drone flying has been completed in around 2 lakh villages.
    • Drone flying has been saturated in Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Delhi, Haryana, Lakshadweep Islands, Puducherry, Uttarakhand, Goa, Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
    • Property cards have been prepared for all the Inhabited villages of Haryana and Uttarakhand.
  • e-Gram Swaraj e-Financial Management System:
    • e-Gram Swaraj is a Simplified Work Based Accounting Application for Panchayati Raj.
    • It assists in enhancing the credibility of Panchayat through inducing greater devolution of funds to Panchayati Raj Institutions. It brings better transparency through decentralized planning, progress reporting and work-based accounting.
  • Geo-Tagging of Assets:
    • Ministry has developed “mActionSoft”, a mobile based solution to help in capturing photos with Geo-Tags (i.e., GPS Coordinates) for the works which have assets as an output.
    • As of December 2022, 2.05 lakh photographs of the assets have been uploaded by the Gram Panchayats for the activities taken under Fifteen Finance Commission in 2022.
  • Citizen Charter:
    • In order to focus on the commitment of the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) towards its Citizens in respects of Standard of Services, the Ministry has provided platform to upload Citizen Charter document with the slogan “Meri Panchayat Mera Adhikaar – Jan Sevaayein Hamaare Dwaar”.
    • Till December 2022, 2.15 lakh Gram Panchayats have uploaded their approved Citizen Charter and offering 952 services to citizen out of which 268 services are delivered through online mode.
  • Audit Online:
    • In order to provide audited reports of Panchayat accounts in the public domain, the Ministry had conceptualized the application “AuditOnline” for carrying out online audits of Panchayat accounts pertaining to Central Finance Commission Grants.
    • It not only facilitates the auditing of accounts but also provisions for maintaining digital audit records pertaining to audits that have been carried out.
  • Gram Urja Swaraj:
    • The Ministry has started the Gram Urja Swaraj initiative, with an aim to promote adoption of renewable energy at Gram Panchayat level.
    • The Ministry has also launched the Gram Urja Swaraj Portal in May 2022, to capture the inclination of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) towards adoption of renewable energy.
• Revamped Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (2022-23 to 2025-26):
  • The focus of the scheme of Revamped RGSA is on re-imagining Panchayati Raj Institutions as vibrant centers of local self-governance with special focus on Localization of Sustainable Development Goals (LSDGs) at grassroot level adopting thematic approach through concerted and collaborative efforts of Central Ministries and State Line departments and other Stakeholders with ‘Whole of Government and Whole of Society’ approach.
  • The Revamped RGSA will extend to all States and Union Territories (UTs) of the country.
  • As of December 2022, an amount of Rs.435.34 crore has been released to 11 State and other implementing agencies and more than 13 lakh Elected Representatives, Functionaries and & other stakeholders of Panchayats were provided various and multiple trainings for which details have been uploaded on Training Management Portal.

Source: PIB

Context

Recently, the Social Progress Index (SPI) for States and Districts of India was released by the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM).

• The SPI was compiled by the Institute for Competitiveness and Social Progress Imperative.
• The report also dwells on India's performance (ranked 110 out of 169 nations) based on the global SPI 2022 that is brought out by Social Progress Imperative since 2013.

What is SPI all about?

• About: 
  • SPI is a comprehensive tool that can serve as a holistic measure of a country's social progress at the national and sub-national levels.
  • The report aims to provide a systematic account of the social progress made at all levels in the country.
  • The index uses an extensive framework comprising 89 indicators at the state level and 49 at the district level.
• Assessment Components:
  • The index assesses states and districts based on 12 components across three critical dimensions of social progress:
    • Basic Human Needs: It assesses the performance of states and districts in terms of Nutrition and Basic Medical Care, Water and Sanitation, Personal Safety and Shelter.
    • Foundations of Wellbeing: It evaluates the progress made by the country across the components of Access to Basic Knowledge, Access to Information and Communication, Health and Wellness, and Environmental Quality
    • Opportunity: It focuses on Personal Rights, Personal Freedom and Choice, Inclusiveness, and Access to Advanced Education.

What are the Findings of the Index?

• Highest SPI Score: Puducherry
• Lowest SPI Score: Jharkhand and Bihar
• Basic Human Needs: Goa, Puducherry, Lakshadweep, and Chandigarh are the top four states with the best performance in water, sanitation and shelter.
• Foundations of Wellbeing: Mizoram, Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh, and Goa have emerged as the best-performing states for the Foundations of Wellbeing.
  • For Environmental Quality, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Meghalaya are the top three states.
• Opportunity: Tamil Nadu has achieved the highest component score for Opportunity dimension.
• Top Best Performing Districts: Aizawl (Mizoram), Solan (Himachal Pradesh) and Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) have emerged as the top three best-performing districts.

Source: PIB

GS-III

Context

Recently, the Biden administration said it would provide another $1.85 billion in military aid to Ukraine, including the Patriot air defense system.

• Ukraine is fighting a war with Russia and it needs such defence system to protect itself from incoming missiles.

Background:

• Russia had launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
• 10 months later, it is still raging with surprisingly high-performing Ukrainian troops maintaining the offensive pressure against the Russians on the frontlines in the east and the south.
• In recent months, Ukraine took back swathes of territories it had lost to the Russians in the early stages of the war.
  • This includes parts of Kharkiv Oblast in the northeast and Kherson in the south.
• Military and financial support from the West, particularly the United States, has been critical in Ukraine’s successful counteroffensive.

What is Patriot system?

• The Patriot, which stands for Phased Array Tracking Radar for Intercept on Target, is a theater-wide surface-to-air missile defense system.
• It has been built by Raytheon Technologies Corp and is considered one of the most advanced air defense systems in the U.S. arsenal.
• The system was first used in combat during the 1991 Gulf War, with batteries protecting Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Israel, and later used during the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

What are the features of Patriot system?

• It is a mobile system that usually includes powerful radar, a control station, a power generator, launch stations and other support vehicles.
• The system has different capabilities depending on the type of interceptor used.
  • The PAC-2 interceptor uses a blast-fragmentation warhead, while the newer PAC-3 missile uses more advanced hit-to-kill technology.
• As per NATO, the system's radar has a range of over 150 km (93 miles).

How widely is the Patriot system used?

• Raytheon has built more 240 Patriot systems and they are currently used by 18 countries, including the United States.
• The system has been in high demand in the Middle East because of the threat posed by Iran to the region.
• According to Raytheon, the system has intercepted more than 150 ballistic missiles in combat since 2015.

How will the Patriot missile system help Ukraine?

• The Patriot system is designed to intercept threats like aircraft and ballistic missiles.
• It can also shoot down the "kamikaze" drones Russia has frequently sent to hit Ukrainian critical infrastructure. But it would be an extremely expensive way to destroy drones that only cost thousands of dollars.
  • Kamikaze drones are small unmanned aircraft, packed with explosives that can be flown directly at a tank or a group of troops that are destroyed when it hits the target and explodes.
  • Unlike drones that return to base once missiles are launched, kamikaze or suicide drones are destroyed in an attack.
• Analysts believe that while the Patriot system is likely to save lives from incoming missiles, it probably won't change the trajectory of the nearly 10-month conflict since it is a defensive system.

Source: The Hindu

Context

Sand batteries can store a significant extent of thermal energy and can aid Clean Energy Solutions.

• Finland has installed the world’s first fully working "sand battery" in its town called Kankaanpaa capable of storing green power for months at a time. The batteries can also solve the issue of year-round supply.

• A “sand battery” is a high temperature thermal energy storage that uses sand or sand-like materials as its storage medium. It stores energy in sand as heat.
• Sand is a very effective medium for retaining heat over a long period, storing power for months at a time.
• Its main purpose is to work as a high-power and high-capacity reservoir for excess wind and solar energy. The energy is stored as heat, which can be used to heat homes, or to provide hot steam and high temperature process heat to industries that are often fossil-fuel dependent.
• The sand battery helps to ambitiously upscale renewables production by ensuring there’s always a way to benefit from clean energy, even if the surplus is massive.

• Russia — the supplier of 40 % of the European Union’s natural gas supply — has shut off its pipelines to a large extent.
• Countries in the Northern Hemisphere rely on a central heating system in winters, with natural gas as the most common heating fuel. This is unlike developing countries with a tropical climate.
• The sale of heat pumps, considered a renewable source of internal heating, rose by 35 % in the EU. A rise in the sale of other controversial alternatives, such as wood pellets, accompanied this simultaneously.
• The world is increasingly looking at renewable internal heating sources.
• Thermal storage will reduce reliance on fossil fuels, provide storage for intermittent renewable energy and help balance the grid.
• Thermal energy storage is yet to develop as a field in this sense globally fully.
• In such times, finding alternative energy supplies to fill in the gap can be crucial, these Sand Batteries can prove to be the right step in the right direction.
• This patented technology is useful to a country like Finland, one of the countries closest to the North Pole, where the sun sets at around 3 pm in winter months with temperatures as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius.
• It is believed that it could solve the problem of year-round supply, a major issue for green energy.

Source: DTE