Infrastructure Development/Governance
Secured Logistics Document Exchange

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about SLDE platform - applications and benefits) + Mains ( GS II Governance + GS III infrastructure development + Environment conservation)
What's the NEWS

• With an aim to further improve ease of doing business, Centre launches the "Secured Logistics Document Exchange" along with a Calculator for Green House Gas Emissions

Know! about SLDE platform

• The SLDE platform is a solution to replace the present manual process of generation, exchange and compliance of logistics documents with a digitized, secure and seamless document exchange system.
• Digital transformation in the logistics sector to achieve the targets of improved India's ranking in Logistics Performance Index
• The Digital initiative set to improve logistics efficiency, reduce logistics cost, and promote multi-modality and sustainability
• These digital initiatives are launched to fill gap areas where no action has yet been taken either by private players or any of the line ministries
• The Logistics Division with the mandate of "Integrated Development of the Logistics Sector" has planned specific digital initiatives with a focus on integrating the various digital systems across ministries/ departments and filling gaps so identified.
• In this context, key digital initiatives including SLDE platform for digital exchange of logistics-related documents and a Calculator for GHG emissions for choosing sustainable and right mode of transport for freight movement, have been developed.
• This will enable generation, storage and interchange of logistics-related documents digitally using Aadhaar and blockchain-based security protocols for data security and authentication
• It will also provide a complete audit trail of document transfer, faster execution of transaction, lower cost of shipping and overall carbon footprint, easy verification of authenticity of documents, lowered risk of fraud, etc.
• Along with the SLDE, Centre also launched a Green House Gas Emission calculator as well.
• The GHG Calculator is an efficient, user-friendly tool and provides for calculating and comparing GHG emissions across different modes.
• It allows for commodity-wise comparison of GHG emissions and total cost of transportation, including their environmental cost, between movement by road and rail.

Prelims Factoids
COVID BEEP

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about COVID BEEP)
What's the NEWS

• Government is taking steps to undertake the production of COVID BEEP on a large scale.
• COVID BEEP is India's first indigenous, cost effective, wireless physiological parameters monitoring system for COVID-19 patients, developed by ESIC Medical College Hyderabad in collaboration with Electronics Corporation of India Ltd. (ECIL) and Department of Atomic Energy.
• Multipurpose device COVID BEEP has been developed to monitor Oxygen rate, body temperature and heart rate indigenously

Raja Mircha

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about King chilli + SHU)
What's the NEWS

• In a major boost to exports of Geographical Indications (GI) products from the north-eastern region, a consignment of ‘Raja Mircha' also referred as king chilli from Nagaland was exported to London
• King Chilli also considered as world's hottest based on the Scoville Heat Units (SHUs).
• The consignment was sourced from Tening, part of Peren district, Nagaland and was packed at APEDA assisted packhouse at Guwahati.

Know! about King chilli

• The chilli from Nagaland is also referred as Bhoot Jolokia and Ghost pepper. It got GI certification in 2008.
• Exporting fresh King Chilli posed a challenge because of its highly perishable nature.
• Nagaland King Chilli belongs to genus Capsicum of family Solanaceae.
• Naga king chilli has been considered as the world's hottest chilli and is constantly on the top five in the list of the world's hottest chilies based on the SHUs.
• In 2021, APEDA has facilitated exports of Jackfruits from Tripura to London and Germany, Assam Lemon to London, Red rice of Assam to the United States and Leteku ‘Burmese Grape' to Dubai.

Scoville heat units (SHU)

• The Scoville scale is a measurement of the pungency (spiciness or "heat") of chili peppers, as recorded in Scoville Heat Units (SHU), based on the concentration of capsaicinoids, among which capsaicin is the predominant component.
• The Scoville organoleptic test is the most practical method for estimating SHU and is a subjective assessment derived from the capsaicinoid sensitivity by people experienced with eating hot chilis.
• Scoville heat units also known as SHU is simply a measurement of the number of times capsaicin needs to be diluted by sugar-water.
• The number of Scoville Heat Units (SHU) in a pepper or even hot sauce indicates the amount of capsaicin present.
• The higher the Scoville rating, the hotter the pepper.

Project BOLD

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Project BOLD)
What's the NEWS

• In the first of its kind efforts to develop green cover in the Indian deserts of Rajasthan, Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) planted 1000 bamboo saplings at Tanot village in Jaisalmer, in collaboration with the Border Security Force (BSF).
• Bamboo plantation, as part of KVIC's Project BOLD (Bamboo Oasis on Lands in Drought) aims at serving the combined national goals of reducing desertification and providing livelihood and multi-disciplinary rural industry support to the local population.
• The Bamboo saplings have been planted over 2.50 lakh sq feet of Gram Panchayat land near the famous Tanot Mata Temple which is located close to Longewala Post on the Indo-Pak Border.
• The initiative has been launched as part of KVIC's "Khadi Bamboo Festival" to celebrate 75 years of independence "Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav".

Defence
INS Talwar reaches Mombasa to participate in Exercise Cutlass Express 2021

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Exercise Cutlass Express + related locations )
What's the NEWS

• Indian Naval Ship (INS) Talwar is participating in Exercise Cutlass Express 2021, from July 26 to August 6, conducted in Kenya's Mombasa.
• Objective - to improve combined maritime law enforcement capacity and increase interoperability between the regional navies.

Know! about the Exercise

• The exercise is an annual maritime exercise conducted to promote national and regional maritime security in East Africa and the Western Indian Ocean
• The 2021 edition of the exercise involves the participation of 12 Eastern African countries, US, UK, India and various international organisations, like International Maritime Organisation (IMO), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Interpol, EurEuropean Union Naval Forc (EUNAVFOR), Critical Maritime Routes Indian Ocean (CRIMARIO) and EUCAP Somalia.
• The exercise is designed to assess and improve combined maritime law enforcement capacity, promote national and regional security and increase interoperability between the regional navies.
• Information sharing and information flow between various partner countries with respect to maritime domain awareness is also a key focus of the exercise
• India's Information Fusion Centre - Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR) is also participating in the exercise.
• India's participation is in accordance with India's stated policy towards maritime cooperation in the Indian Ocean region and vision SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region).

Bills/Acts
Parliament passes the National Institutes of Food Technology, Entrepreneurship and Management Bill, 2021

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the bill highlights)
What's the NEWS

• Parliament has passed the National Institutes of Food Technology, Entrepreneurship and Management Bill, 2021.
• With the passing of this bill, two educational institutes, National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management (NIFTEM)Kundali (Haryana) and Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology(IIFPT)Thanjabur (Tamil Nadu) under the Ministry of Food Processing Industries became Institutions of National Importance (INI).

Institutions of National Importance (INI) tag -benefits

• The Institutions of National Importance (INI) tag will provide these Institutes Greater Autonomy, so that they can start new and innovative courses, as well as help them to attract excellent faculty and students.
• These institutes will have curricular provision related to food processing areas e.g. cold chain technology, food bio nanotechnology which can help in filling the technological gap.
• They can open new centres anywhere in the country and abroad.
• Along with this, giving them the status of Institute of National Importance (INI) will also pave the way for the creation of skilled manpower.

Culture
India Harappan City Dholavira Gets World Heritage Tag

Relevance IN - Prelims ( all about Dholavira)
What's the NEWS

• Dholavira has been named as the 40th Indian site inscribed in UNESCO's World Heritage list
• Dholavira is the first Indus Valley Civilisation site in India that has been included in the list.
• It is a Harappan-era city sprawled over 100 hectares on Khadir, one of the islands in the Rann of Kutch.
• It is one of the most remarkable and well-preserved urban settlements in South Asia dating from the 3rd to mid-2nd millennium BCE".
• It is one of the five largest cities of the Indus Valley Civilisation
• It has two seasonal streams, Mansar and Manhar
• The property comprises two parts, a walled city and a cemetery to its west
• Dholavira flourished for nearly 1,500 years.

Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) excavations findings

• Remarkable for its planning and architecture - eg. Remains of two open air stadiums and a water harvesting system.
• The salient components of the full-grown cityscape consisted of a bipartite 'citadel', a 'middle town' and a 'lower town', two 'stadia', an 'annexe', a series of reservoirs all set within an enormous fortification running on all four sides
• The citadel has detailed structures of fortification
• Discovered in 1968, the site is set apart by its unique characteristics, such as its water management system, multi-layered defensive mechanisms, extensive use of stone in construction and special burial structures
• After Rani ki Vav, the walled city area of Ahmedabad and Champaner, Dholavira becomes the fourth site from the state of Gujarat to be added to this list by UNESCO.
• The city houses were constructed using lime stones and all of them were connected to a sewage network.
• Tanks to store fresh or rainwater has also been found.
• Copper smelter remains have been found but there no mortal human remains recovered from this site.
• During excavation ornamental beads, Red earthenware and microlithic tools were also found.
• During the excavations, artefacts made of copper, stone, jewellery of terracotta, gold and ivory have been found

Infrastructure Development
Strategic petroleum reserves (SPR) programme

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about SPR - location) + Mains (GS III infrastructure development + security challenges)
What's the NEWS

• The Centre gave its nod for setting up of two underground facilities to store crude oil for commercial and strategic purpose, under the second phase of the petroleum reserve programme
• The facilities are proposed to be set up at Odisha's Chandikhol and Karnataka's Padur on public-private-partnership mode.

Know! about strategic petroleum reserves (SPR) programme

• Under Phase I of strategic petroleum reserves (SPR) programme, Government of India, through its Special Purpose Vehicle, Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserve Limited (ISPRL), has established petroleum storage facilities with total capacity of 5.33 Million Metric Tonnes (MMT) at 3 locations, namely (i) Vishakhapatnam (1.33 MMT), (ii) Mangaluru (1.5 MMT) and (iii) Padur (2.5 MMT), and all the storage facilities have been filled with crude oil.
• The petroleum reserves established under Phase I are strategic in nature and the crude oil stored in these reserves will be used during an oil shortage event, as and when declared so by Government of India.
• Under Phase II of the petroleum reserve programme, Government has given approval in July 2021 for establishing two additional commercial-cum-strategic facilities with total storage capacity of 6.5 MMT underground storages at Chandikhol (4 MMT) and Padur (2.5 MMT) on PPP mode.

Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited (ISPRL)

• It is an Indian company responsible for maintaining the country's strategic petroleum reserves.
• ISPRL is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Oil Industry Development Board (OIDB), which functions under the administrative control of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
• ISPRL maintains an emergency fuel store of total 5.33 MMT (million metric tons) or 36.92 million barrels (5.870 million cubic metres) of strategic crude oil enough to provide 9.5 days of consumption
• Strategic crude oil storages are at three underground locations in Mangalore, Visakhapatnam and Padur (Udupi, Karnataka).
• All these are located on the east and west coasts of India which are readily accessible to the refineries.
• These strategic storages are in addition to the existing storages of crude oil and petroleum products with the oil companies and serve in response to external supply disruptions.
• Indian refiners maintain 64.5 days of crude storage, so India has overall reserve oil storage of 74 days.

Government Initiatives
Capacity Building Initiative on Making Water Sensitive Cities In Ganga Basin Launched

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the capacity building initiative) + Mains ( GS II government policies and interventions)
What's the NEWS

• A new capacity building initiative on ‘Making water sensitive cities in Ganga basin' aimed at improving river health/flows was launched by National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) in association with Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).

Key focus areas of the programme will be

1. Water Sensitive Urban Design and Planning,
2. Urban Water Efficiency and Conservation,
3. Decentralized Wastewater Treatment and Local Reuse,
4. Urban Groundwater Management and
5. Urban Waterbodies / Lake Management.

Know! about the framework of sustainable urban water management

• A framework for integration between Urban Built Form including landscape and urban water cycle are needed.
• Cities have largely been held responsible for the deteriorated state of rivers, and therefore, will need to play a vital role in the rejuvenation efforts as well.
• There is need to mainstream river sensitive approach while planning for the cities.
• "River Cities Alliance" which will provide a unique platform for river cities to collaborate for collectively achieving river rejuvenation through sustainable development and capacity building.
• The aim of the program is capacity building and action research for promoting sustainable urban water management for improved river health in Ganga basin cities.
• The program will engage all the stakeholders which includes, SPMGs (State Program Management Group, Namami Gange), Municipal corporations, Technical & research constants, international organizations and local grassroot communities.

Know! the methodology of capacity building initiative

• This initiative is part of the series of ongoing efforts by NMCG aimed to ensuring convergence of the Namami Gange Mission with national flagship urban missions (AMRUT, Smart Cities, Swachh Bharat Mission, HRIDAY, NULM) and other missions (Atal Bhujal Yojana, Jal Jeevan Mission, Jal Shakti Abhiyan) at state /city level across Ganga basin states.
• Under this initiative there will be more than 40 training programs supported with development of learning material/ practitioner's guides and spread over a period of 3 years.
• This will include residential trainings, online trainings, field visits and webinars etc.
• Initially, the project will be implemented in 3-4 pilot cities in the Ganga basin.
• Technical support will be provided to urban local bodies (ULBs).
• This is the first of its kind capacity building program. More than 840 people participated in the event from 240 cities across 33 countries.

Water Sensitive Urban Design and Planning (WSUDP)

• It is an emerging urban development paradigm aimed to minimize hydrological impacts of urban development on environment.
• This includes the method of planning and designing urban areas for optimum utilization of water (a precious resource), reduce the harm caused to our rivers and creeks and focuses on entire management of entire water systems (drinking water, storm water run-off, waterway health, sewerage treatment and re-cycling).

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