• Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited (SECI), a Public Sector Undertaking under the aegis of the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy, has issued the tender for setting up 500 MW/1000 MWh Standalone Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) in India.

• A first-of-its-kind tender in the country, it will provide Discoms with storage facilities to be used on an "on-demand" basis.
• The tender has been issued under the Standard Bidding Guidelines issued by the Ministry of Power in March 2022.
• The total capacity to be set up under the RfS is 1000 MWh (500 MW x 2hrs), which will constitute two projects of 500 MWh (250 MW x 2 hrs) capacity each.
• The Projects will be installed in the vicinity of the Fatehgarh-III Grid-Substation of the ISTS network, in the State of Rajasthan.
• The Buying Entities will be offered the storage capacity to charge and discharge the same daily through RE power, as per their energy shifting requirements.
• The Projects will be set up on a "Build-Own-Operate" basis, with the connectivity and necessary permissions being under the scope of the Project Developer.

• It is a company of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India, established to facilitate the implementation of the National Solar Mission (NSM).
• It is the only Central Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) dedicated to the solar energy sector.
• The company's mandate has been broadened to cover the entire renewable energy domain and the company will be renamed to Renewable Energy Corporation of India (RECI).
• The company is responsible for implementation of a number of government schemes, major ones being the VGF schemes for large-scale grid-connected projects under NSM, solar park scheme and grid-connected solar rooftop scheme
• The SECI was registered as Section 25 under the Companies Act, 1956 (now Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013) on 9 September 2011.
• It was set up as a Non-for-Profit Company to promote solar energy in India.

Health/GSII
e-Sanjeevani

What's the NEWS

• Union Health Minister virtually launched e-Sanjeevani Tele-consultation facility at one lakh centres on the occasion of 4th Anniversary of Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres.

• More than one lakh 17 thousand Health and Wellness Centres have been operationalized in the country so far.
• Now the common citizens will also be able to take advice from the big doctors of the country through e-Sanjeevani Tele-consultation facility.
• E-Sanjeevani is providing affordable and accessible health care
• Teleconsultation services are very crucial for people in remote areas and are helpful in making healthcare services accessible for all.

Prelims Factoids
Seaweed Park

What's the NEWS

• The Centre would establish a seaweed park with special economic zone status in Tamil Nadu.

Know! about the seaweed park

• The project will be the first of its kind in India and will come up under the PM Kisan Sampada Yojana.
• The Centre has plans to implement projects worth 20-thousand crore rupees, under the PM Kisan Sampada Yojana.
• Seaweed, or macroalgae, refers to thousands of species of macroscopic, multicellular, marine algae.

Know! about Seaweeds

• Seaweeds are primitive marine, non-flowering algae without roots, stems and leaves.
• Seaweeds are generally anchored to the sea bottom or other solid structures by rootlike "holdfasts," which perform the sole function of attachment and do not extract nutrients as do the roots of higher plants.
• Large seaweeds form dense underwater forests known as kelp forests, which act as underwater nurseries for fish, snails and sea urchins.
• Seaweeds are abundant along the Tamil Nadu and Gujarat coasts and around Lakshadweep and Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
• As part of the Budget 2021 speech, Nirmala said that a multipurpose seaweed park will be established in Tamil Nadu soon to promote seaweed farming and cultivation.

Environment/GSIII
Environmental clearances (EC)

What's the NEWS

• The Union environment ministry has extend the validity of green clearances granted to nuclear projects, hydro power projects and mines
• The Ministry has extended the tenure of environmental clearances (EC) granted for existing or new projects under the initiative of easing norms for infrastructure projects

• The EC for river valley projects will now have a 13-year validity, and nuclear power projects or those involving the processing of nuclear fuel 15 years.
• Projects and activities other than the mining and river valley projects will have their EC valid for 10 years.
• Mining leases are now granted for a period of fifty years but the Environment Clearance is valid for thirty years.

• Nuclear power projects and hydropower projects had "high gestation" period due to "geological surprises, delays in forest clearance, land acquisition, local issues, rehabilitation and resettlement and such other factors which are often beyond the control of project proponents.
• In this context, the Central government "deems it necessary" to extend the validity of Environmental Clearance (EC) for such projects.

EC norms

• An EC is a long-drawn process that is mandatory for projects beyond a certain size and often involves an environment impact assessment of a potential project and sometimes public hearings involving the local populace who might be affected by the project.
• One of the conditions of an EC is that a project must begin construction in the period that it has been granted an EC and if unable, a fresh process must begin. This leads to projects being financially unviable.
• Mining leases are now granted for a period of 50 years but the Environment Clearance is valid for 30 years.
• Existing rules
• Under the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification 2006, the validity of prior environmental clearance granted to a river valley project or activity is 10 years, a maximum of 30 years for mining projects and seven years for other projects and activities.

Prelims Factoids
InspectIR Covid-19 Breathalyzer
What's the NEWS

• The first device that can detect Covid-19 in breath samples has been given an emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration.

• The InspectIR Covid-19 Breathalyzer is about the size of a piece of carry-on luggage and can be used in doctor's offices, hospitals and mobile testing sites
• The test can provide results in less than three minutes and must be carried out under the supervision of a licensed health care provider.
• The FDA said the device was 91.2% accurate at identifying positive test samples and 99.3% accurate at identifying negative test sample.

Defence and Security/Indigenisation of Technology/GSIII
VAGSHEER

What's the NEWS

• Vagsheer, the last of the six submarines of Project 75, is ready for launch on 20th of April. Post-launch Vagsheer will undergo sea trials.
• The Mazgaon Dock had been entrusted with the task of building six submarines under the Project-75 programme.
• The first two submarines - INS Kalvari and INS Khanderi - were commissioned into the Indian Navy on September 21, 2017 and September 19, 2019.
• It delivered INS Karanj and INS Vela on February 15, 2021 and November 9, 2021, respectively.
• The fifth submarine Vagir is undergoing mandatory sea trials before its scheduled delivery,

• The Scorpene class submarine is a diesel-electric attack submarine built by Mumbai's Mazgaon Dock ship builders with French collaboration.
• The state-of-the-art technology used in Scorpene-class has superior stealth features such as advanced acoustic silencing techniques, low radiated noise levels and ability to launch crippling attacks with precision-guided weapons on board.
• This submarine can attack through launching the torpedoes and anti-ship missiles while underwater or on the surface. This will enhance Indian Navy's capacity to address the threats both above and under water.

Project-75 (P-75)

• It was conceptualised by former Prime Minister I K Gujral and faced many hurdles.
• The Union government wanted 24 submarines under P-75 and, a year later, they negotiated with a firm for four Scorpene-class submarines, two of which were to be built in Mazgaon Dock
• After the Kargil War in 1999, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) approved a 30-year submarine building plan, that called for two parallel production lines, each constructing six submarines.
• The older Project-75 (P-75) was brought under the new plan, with the two production lines to be built under P-75 and P-75I using transfer of technology (ToT) from different foreign manufacturers.
• The contract for signing six submarines was given to Mazgaon Dock in Mumbai on October 6, 2005 and delivery was to begin in 2012

Governance/GSII
National Data And Analytics Platform (NDAP)

What's the NEWS

• The NITI Aayog is planning to launch a National Data and Analytics Platform (NDAP) in May to provide government data in a user-friendly format, to promote data-driven decision making and research.

• Conceived in 2020, the platform aims to standardise data across government sources and provide flexible analytics that make it easy for users to analyse information using multiple datasets.
• The portal will help policymakers, academics and researchers to easily analyse data without having to process it. The portal will have 200 datasets from more than 46 ministries at the time of the launch.
• New datasets will be added up to the village level in the future.
• Presently, many government departments have public dashboards with options to download data, some are available as image files while others are in PDF format, making it difficult to compile information. This will be addressed in NDAP.

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