Daily Current Capsules

23rd September 2020

Acts/Bills/Draft/Policies

Parliament passes the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill 2020 and its provisions) + Mains ( GS II government policies and interventions+ GS III issues related to farmers and agriculture)

What's the NEWS

• The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill 2020 with provisions to remove commodities like cereals, pulses, oilseeds, edible oils, onion and potatoes from the list of essential commodities was passed by the Parliament

• The EC (Amendment) Bill 2020 aims to remove fears of private investors of excessive regulatory interference in their business operations.
• The freedom to produce, hold, move, distribute and supply will lead to harnessing of economies of scale and attract private sector/foreign direct investment into agriculture sector.
• It will help drive up investment in cold storages and modernization of food supply chain.
• It has been provided in the Amendment, that in situations such as war, famine, extraordinary price rise and natural calamity, such agricultural foodstuff can be regulated.
• However, the installed capacity of a value chain participant and the export demand of an exporter will remain exempted from such stock limit imposition so as to ensure that investments in agriculture are not discouraged.

• While India has become surplus in most Agri-commodities, farmers have been unable to get better prices due to lack of investment in cold storage, warehouses, processing and export as the entrepreneurial spirit gets dampened due to Essential Commodities Act.
• Farmers suffer huge losses when there are bumper harvests, especially of perishable commodities.
• The legislation will help drive up investment in cold storages and modernization of food supply chain.
• It will help both farmers and consumers while bringing in price stability.
• It will create competitive market environment and also prevent wastage of agri-produce that happens due to lack of storage facilities.

Defence
Successful Flight Test of ABHYAS

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

• Successful flight test of ABHYAS - High-speed Expendable Aerial Target (HEAT) was today conducted by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) from the Interim Test Range, Balasore in Odisha.
• During the trials, two demonstrator vehicles were successfully test flown. The vehicle can be used as target for evaluation of various missile systems.

Know! about Abhyas

• Abhyas is designed & developed by Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), DRDO. The air vehicle is launched using twin underslung booster.
• It is powered by a small gas turbine engine and has MEMS based Inertial Navigation System (INS) for navigation along with the Flight Control Computer (FCC) for guidance and control.
• The vehicle is programmed for fully autonomous flight. The check out of air vehicle is done using laptop based Ground Control Station (GCS).

Excerpt from ongoing Parliament Winter Session
Disaster Management
Ocean Services, Modelling, Applications, Resources and Technology (O-SMART) SCHEME

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about O-SMART and its objective + ITEWC+ Tsunami Ready Programme) + Mains ( GS III disaster management + awareness in the field of science and technology)
Know! all about O-SMART
The objectives of O-SMART (Ocean Services, Modelling, Applications, Resources and Technology) scheme of Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Govt. of India are

• To generate and regularly update information on Marine Living Resources and their relationship with the physical environment in the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)
• To periodically monitor levels of sea water pollutants
• To develop shoreline change maps for assessment of coastal erosion due to natural and anthropogenic activities
• To develop a wide range of state-of-the art ocean observation systems for acquisition of real-time data from the seas around India
• To generate and disseminate ocean information, advisories and warnings
• To develop algorithms for validation of satellite data for coastal research and to monitor changes in the coastal research,
• To develop technologies to tap the marine bio resources,
• To develop technologies generating freshwater and energy from ocean,
• To develop underwater vehicles and technologies
• Establishment of Ballast water treatment facility
• Establishment of state of the art sea front facility to cater to the testing and sea trial activities of ocean technology
• To carryout exploration of Polymetallic Nodules (MPN) from water depth of 5500 m in site of 75000 sq.km allotted to India by United Nations in Central Indian Ocean Basin, to carryout investigations of gas hydrates,
• Exploration of polymetallic sulphides near Rodrigues Triple junction in 10000 sq. km of area allotted to India in International waters by International Seabed Authority

• It was established at Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad, an autonomous body under Ministry of Earth Sciences which continues to provide timely tsunami advisories to stake holders and has functioned flawlessly since its establishment in October 2007.

• The ITEWC is also providing tsunami services to 25 Indian Ocean Countries as part of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO framework.
• INCOIS has introduced several innovative concepts in tsunami modeling, mapping of coastal inundation, Decision Support System, SOPs to meet the emerging challenges and provide accurate and timely tsunami early warnings.
• INCOIS has established a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) & Strong Motion Accelerometers in Andaman and Nicobar Islands for quick and reliable estimation of source parameters for near source earthquakes.
• INCOIS has carried out Multi-hazard Vulnerability Mapping (MHVM) along the mainland of Indian coastland MHVM atlas has been prepared.

• Tsunami Ready Programme, is a concept introduced by UNESCO, at community level.
• Odisha has implemented the programme in two villages (Venkatraipur and Noliasahi) and based on the national board recommendation, IOC (UNESCO) recognized these villages as Tsunami ready communities.

Space Awareness
Rocket Launching Port

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Rocket launching port - objective and geographical location)
What's the NEWS

• The Tamil Nadu government has identified over 961 hectares in Thoothukudi district for the country's proposed second rocket launch port.
• At present, rockets are launched from the Indian Space Research Organisation spaceport at Sriharikotta, near Chennai.

Know! more about it

• The government has decided to set up a second facility in the backdrop of an increase in the number of launches by ISRO for domestic and international customers.
• At present, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has two launch pads at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
• The demand for additional launch pads has arisen as a result of the increase in the number of satellite launches from India, both for domestic and international customers.
• Center's policy decision of opening up of space sector for private players enables them to develop various space qualified subsystems and systems along with building of satellites and launch vehicles.
• They are also permitted to establish facilities and provide launch services and other space based services.
• Many of these services and products will definitely find global customers, which will increase India's share in the global space sector market.

Science and Technology
Neutrino Observatory
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Neutrino and Neutrino Observatory location)
Neutrino Observatory

• Government has a proposal to set up Neutrino Observatory in the country.
• India based Neutrino observatory (INO) will observe neutrinos produced in the atmosphere of the Earth.
• This observation will tell us more about the properties of neutrino particles, whose main source is the Sun and the Earth's atmosphere.
• The neutrino detector will be a magnetized iron calorimeter, which will be the heaviest one made by any country.
• The site identified is in Bodi West Hills, in Theni district, Tamil Nadu.

Infrastructure Development
Optical Fibre Internet Service

Relevance IN - Prelims (about Optical Fibre Village Connectivity project + about Bharatnet) + Mains (GSIII infrastructure development + GS II government policies and interventions)
What's the NEWS

• On 15th August, 2020, the P.M announced that connectivity is to be taken up to the all more than 6 Lakh villages (from the existing Gram Panchayat level) within 1000 days.
• As a first step towards this goal, P.M has launched internet through Optical Fibre project for connecting all 45,945 villages of Bihar on Optical Fibre for providing high-speed internet.

Optical Fibre Village Connectivity project

• This project will be implemented in a short span of 180 days and will be completed by 31.03.2021 at an approximate cost of Rs. 1,000 Crore through CSC SPV providing 1 Wi-Fi and 5 FTTH connections for one year free of cost to identified Government Institutions, Primary Schools, Anganwadi Centres, Aasha Workers & Jeevika Didi etc. and one Wi-Fi at a public place in every village of Bihar.
• Rs. 640 Crore of capital expenditure will be borne by the Department of Telecommunications, Government of India.
• Bihar will be the First State in India to Connect all Villages by optical Fiber Network Internet
• This project will be executed by combined efforts of Department of Telecom which has already connected 1.5 lakh Gram Panchayats across India with optical fibre internet service, along with Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology and Common Service Centres.
• The Optical Fibre Village Connectivity project has been launched by Department of Telecommunications in order to achieve the dreams of Digital Gram
• It will be implemented by CSC e-Governance Services Ltd., an SPV of Ministry of Electronics & IT.
• The project aims to provide broadband connectivity in every village of Bihar through Aerial Optical Fibre.
• Objective of the Project is to convert Village into Digital Villages, enhance Digital empowerment/awareness

Main features of the project include:

• Govt. of India would be funding the VGF support of Rs. 640 Cr.
• Monitoring of the Project: By the State of Bihar/DoT
• A full-fledged customer care service shall be established by CSC-SPV for redressal of consumer grievances.

Know! about BharatNet

• BharatNet envisages laying of about 8 lakh kilometre of incremental optical fibre cable (OFC) to all the 2,50,000-plus Gram Panchayats (GP) in the country at an estimated cost of Rs 42,068 crore ($6.2 billion)
• Initiated by the UPA government in October 2011, BharatNet was originally named National Optical Fibre Network or NOFN.
• It's being financed by the Universal Service Obligation Fund of the Department of Telecommunications, through a 5 per cent levy on the revenues of private telecom service providers.
• The project's primary objective is to extend fibre connectivity - available at the state capital, district headquarters and blocks - to every panchayat, thereby providing access to broadband internet services to 69 per cent of India's rural population.
• Phase I of BharatNet, which commenced in June 2014 was completed in December 2017.
• In the second phase, the remaining 1,29,827 gram panchayats are to be covered through 5 km of new fibre per gram panchayats.
• This phase incorporates a mix of both underground and aerial fibre as well as radio and satellite connectivity
• It was unable to meet its March 2020 deadline for its second phase of deployment, which was shifted to August 2021

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