Connect to Current -Daily Current Capsules 19^th March 2019

Social Issues
Only 26% of rural toilets use twin-leach pits

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the outcomes of clean India mission and about twin pits and septic tanks) + Mains ( GS III government policies and interventions for the development in various sectors)

What's the NEWS

• A government-commissioned survey shows that just over a quarter of rural toilets use this twin-pit system.

• The waste from the remainder of rural toilets could create a new nightmare - harmful to health and the environment, and even pushing a new generation into manual scavenging.

Know! about twin - pit system

• Under the twin-pit system, two pits are dug with honeycombed walls and earthen floors which allow liquid to percolate into the surrounding soil.

• When one pit is filled and closed off, waste flow is transferred to the second pit, allowing waste in the first pit to be converted into manure after a year or two.

• Data from the National Annual Rural Sanitation Survey 2018-19, shows that just 26.6% of rural households use the recommended twin-pit system to dispose of excreta from their toilets.

• Septic tanks are the most popular option, with 28% of toilets connected to a septic tank with a soak pit and 6% to a tank without a soak pit.

Judiciary
Contempt of Courts act 1971
Relevance IN - Prelims( about contempt of court act 1971) + Mains ( GS II structure, organisation and functioning of the judiciary)

What's the NEWS
• The Supreme Court has put on hold the Meghalaya High Court's judgment holding The Shillong Times editor Patricia Mukhim and publisher Shobha Chaudhuri guilty of contempt and fining them Rs 2 lakh each.

Know! about the judgement of Meghalaya H.C

• The Shillong Times has published an article titled "When judges judge for themselves" in pursuant to a high court order directing the government to amend rules so that spouses and children of retired judges become eligible for medical treatment.

• The High Court had found the editor and publisher guilty for publishing the article "When judges judge for themselves".

Why were they penalized
• The matter comes within the purview of section 15 of the contempt of court Act. 1971. There is a compelling case to use the contempt law sparingly. Otherwise it supresses free speech or dissent

An overview of Contempt of Courts ACT 1971

• Contempt of court refers to actions which defy a court's authority, cast disrespect on a court, or impede the ability of the court to perform its function.

• The Contempt of Court provisions in India are enshrined under Articles 129 and 215 of the constitution for Supreme Court and High Court respectively and Contempt of Courts Act, 1971.

Civil Contempt
• It is defined as willful disobedience to any judgment, decree, direction, order, writ or other processes of a court or wilful breach of an undertaking given to a court.

Criminal Contempt
• It is defined as the publication (whether by words, spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise) of any matter or the doing of any other act which: Scandalises or tends to scandalise, or lowers or tends to lower the authority of, any court, or Prejudices, or interferes or tends to interfere with the due course of any judicial proceeding

What Scandalising the court means
• Scandalising the Court broadly refers to statements or publications which have the effect of undermining public confidence in the judiciary

Energy Security/Conservation
New hydro policy to help meet renewables target
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the new hydrocarbon policy ) + Mains ( GS III infrastructure development- energy sector + environment conservation)

What's the NEWS
• The government decided to re-classify large hydroelectric projects as renewable energy

• This will certainly help the sector, the move will also go a long way in meeting the targets set by it for the sector.

Know! about the new hydrocarbon policy
• The Union Cabinet approved a new hydroelectricity policy that, among other things, included large hydro projects within the ambit of renewable energy.

• Prior to the policy, only small hydro projects of a capacity of less than 25 MW were treated as renewable energy. Large hydro projects were treated as a separate source of energy.
• India's renewable energy sector had an installed capacity of 75,055.92 MW as of February 2019, according to data with the Central Electricity Authority.

• This made up about 21.4% of the overall energy mix, with the rest coming from thermal, nuclear and large hydro sources.
• With the inclusion of large hydro in renewable energy, the energy mix changes drastically.

• Renewable energy capacity would now be 1,20,455.14 MW or 34.4% of the overall energy mix.

Know! more about this policy change
• No additional resources have been created through this policy. It is a reclassification of existing capacity.
• The policy has meant a drastic change in the renewable energy mix as well. Whereas earlier, wind energy contributed nearly 50% of all renewable energy capacity, it will now make up only 29.3%.
• Similarly, solar energy's share will fall from 34.68% to 21.61%.
• The hydro sector, however, will see its share grow from just over 6% to over 41%.

The thermal - hydro imbalance
• There has been a huge imbalance in the thermal-hydro mix for the last few years because of a sharp growth in thermal and complete stagnation in hydro.
• The basic idea is to ramp up hydro because it provides grid stability which a renewable source like wind and solar do not.
• The key reasoning seems to be providing grid stability and a better energy mix.
One more reason for bringing in such a re-classification
• The 175 GW renewable energy target of the government by 2022

• This has been quite a high-profile target because the government has been trumpeting it at every chance. It will look bad if it fails to reach it.
• So, apart from the good to the sector, one main reason for the re-classification of hydro as renewables is to add all that capacity to the renewable energy kitty.

State Specific
‘Green' coffee
A carbon-neutral project in Kerala
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the various coffee types )

What's the NEWS
• The State Industries Department is gearing up to set up a carbon neutral farm project in Wayanad district of Kerala .

• The department had assigned the task of executing the project spread across 100 acres of land at Vayarad in the district, to the Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (KINFRA).

Know! about the neutral village
• A carbon neutral village coffee park would be set up for which the State government had earmarked ₹150 crore for first phase construction works.
• As many as 1.5 lakh coffee plants would be planted as part of making the region a carbon-neutral zone

• The project would be executed with the technical support of the Coffee Board.
• Common processing facilities for coffee would also be established. All technical assistance, including for acquiring organic certification and other requirements, would be provided by the KINFRA to farmers

• Wayanad in north Kerala grows about 50,000 to 60,000 tonnes of robusta coffee annually, making it a prominent region in the country cultivating this variety.

The Coffee Board had recived GI status for Wayanad coffee, along with Baba Budan Giri, Araku Valley, Coorg and Chikmagalur coffee recently

Know! more about it
• Geographical Indication (GI) tags have been granted to Coorg Arabica Coffee, Wayanad Robusta Coffee, Chikmagalur Arabica Coffee, Araku Valley Arabica Coffee and Bababudangiris Arabica Coffee, by the Geographical Indications Registry

• Coorg Arabica Coffee is grown in Kodagu, Karnataka.
• Wayanad Robusta Coffee is grown in Wayanad, Kerala.

• Chikmagalur Arabica Coffee and Bababudangiris Arabica Coffee are grown in Chikmagalur, Karnataka.

Know! about Coffee Board of India

• The Coffee Board of India is an organisation managed by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry of the government of India to promote coffee production in India. Head Office is in Bangalore.

• The Coffee Board of India was established by an act of Parliament in 1942.

• Until 1995 the Coffee Board marketed the coffee of many growers from a pooled supply, but after that time coffee marketing became a private-sector activity due to the economic liberalisation in India.

• The Coffee Boards tradition duties included the promotion of the sale and consumption of coffee in India and abroad, conducting coffee research, financial assistance to establish small coffee growers, safeguarding working conditions for laborers, and managing the surplus pool of unsold coffee.

Governance
Pinaki Chandra Ghose set to be India's first Lokpal
PM-led selection panel clears the former SC judge's name
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Lokpal act and its provisions) + Mains ( GS II important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability)

What's the NEWS
• Former Supreme Court judge and current member of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Pinaki Chandra Ghose, is likely to be India's first anti-corruption ombudsman, or Lokpal, after his name was cleared and recommended by the high-level selection committee chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Know! about the high level selection committee
• Apart from Prime Minister other members of the committee are Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and eminent jurist Mukul Rohatgi.

• Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, who is part of the committee, did not attend the meeting after he was invited as "special invitee."
• Mr. Kharge had refused to attend earlier meetings too, protesting against his being invited as a "special invitee."

• The government was prompted to make the selection after the Supreme Court set the February-end deadline.

Know! about the lokpal act
• The Lokpal Act, which was passed in 2013 after a nationwide anti-corruption movement, provides for setting up of Lokpal at the centre and Lokayuktas in the States to probe corruption complaints against top functionaries and public servants, including the Prime Minister and the Chief Ministers.

Prelims Practise Question

Consider the following and find out the correctly matched option

a. Coorg Arabica Coffee - Karnataka

b. Wayanad Robusta Coffee - Kerala.

c. Chikmagalur Arabica Coffee - Karnataka

d. Bababudangiris Arabica Coffee - Karnataka

Find the correct one
1. a and b
2. c and d
3. All
4. None

KEEP Learning KEEP Evolving
TEAM CL IAS