Government Schemes
Jal Shakti Abhiyan:Catch the Rain' campaign

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Jal Shakti Abhiyan :Catch the Rain' campaign + Ken Betwa Link Project + World Water Day) + Mains GS III Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation
What's the NEWS

• Prime Minister will launch the ‘Jal Shakti Abhiyan:Catch the Rain' campaign on World Water Day i.e. on 22nd March 2021
• In the presence of the Prime Minister, the signing of historic Memorandum of Agreement between the Union Minister of Jal Shakti and the Chief Ministers of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh to implement the Ken Betwa Link Project, the first project of the National Perspective Plan for interlinking of rivers, will also take place.

Know! about ‘Jal Shakti Abhiyan:Catch the Rain'

• The Campaign will be undertaken across the country, in both rural and urban areas, with the theme "catch the rain, where it falls, when it falls".
• It will be implemented from 22nd March 2021 to 30th November, 2021 - the pre-monsoon and monsoon period in the country.
• It will be launched as a Jan Andolan to take water conservation at grass-root level through people's participation.
• It is intended to nudge all stakeholders to create rainwater harvesting structures suitable to the climatic conditions and subsoil strata, to ensure proper storage of rainwater.
• After the event, Gram Sabhas will be held in all Gram Panchayats of each district (except in the poll bound states) to discuss issues related to water and water conservation. Gram Sabhas will also take ‘Jal Shapath' for water conservation.

Know! about MoA for Ken Betwa Link Project

• The agreement heralds the beginning of inter- state cooperation to implement the vision of Former Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee to carry water from areas that have surplus water to drought prone and water deficit areas, through the interlinking of rivers.
• This project involves transfer of water from the Ken to the Betwa River through the construction of Daudhan Dam and a canal linking the two rivers, the Lower Orr Project, Kotha Barrage and Bina Complex Multipurpose Project.
• It will provide annual irrigation of 10.62 lakh ha, drinking water supply to about 62 lakh people and also generate 103 MW of hydropower.
• The Project will be of immense benefit to the water starved region of Bundelkhand, especially to the districts of Panna, Tikamgarh, Chhatarpur, Sagar, Damoh, Datia, Vidisha, Shivpuri and Raisen of Madhya Pradesh and Banda, Mahoba, Jhansi and Lalitpur of Uttar Pradesh.
• It will pave the way for more interlinking of river projects to ensure that scarcity of water does not become an inhibitor for development in the country.

World Water Day

• It is an annual UN observance day (22 March) that highlights the importance of freshwater.
• The day is used to advocate for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.
• The theme of each day focuses on topics relevant to clean water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), which is in line with the targets of Sustainable Development Goal 6.
• The UN World Water Development Report (WWDR) is released each year around World Water Day.
• UN-Water is the convener for World Water Day and selects the theme for each year in consultation with UN organizations that share an interest in that year's focus.
• The theme for 2021 was "Valuing Water" and "a conversation about what water means to you".
• The first World Water Day, designated by the United Nations, was in 1993.

Social Justice
The Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2021
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Devendrakula Vellalars)
What's the NEWS

• The Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2021 which amends the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950 to modify the list of Scheduled Castes in the state of Tamil Nadu.
• The law replaces the entry for the Devendrakulathan community, with Devendrakula Vellalars, who now comprise seven sub-castes that previously existed as separate castes.
• The Lok Sabha passed The Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2021 that seeks to put seven castes under one nomenclature of "Devendrakula Vellalars" with some exceptions for some of the castes in certain districts of Tamil Nadu.
• The castes include Devendrakulathan, Kadaiyan, Kalladi, Kudumban, Pallan, Pannadi and Vathiriyan.
• The State government had earlier accepted a recommendation of a committee to reclassify the seven sub sects under the generic name ‘Devendrakula Velalar' and forwarded it to the Centre.
• The change in nomenclature was a long pending demand of the community and did not involve either the deletion or addition of any community in its ambit.

Know! about Devendrakula Vellalars

• According to government records, the Devendrakula Vellalars are also called Pallars in Tamil Nadu. They are listed under the Scheduled Caste category.
• The total SC population in Tamil Nadu, according to the 2011 census, is 20 per cent, of whom, the Pallars comprise nearly 17.07 per cent.
• The word Pallar is derived from the Tamil word called Pallam meaning a low-lying area.
• While Pallars are largely peasants and cultivators in the lower wetlands, conditions such as poverty and drought forced them to take up other menial jobs.
• The demand for the name change is attributed to the stigma associated with the term Pallar.
• The community's leaders say that while all their members are on one page about wanting all seven castes to be recognised as Devendrakula Vellalars, another group has also made the additional demand of being moved out of the Scheduled Caste category altogether.

The new law

• The bill, however, does not address the other demand, which is to remove the seven communities from the Scheduled Caste list.

Miscellaneous
Govt. questions Global Hunger Index method
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Global Hunger Index)
What's the NEWS

• Union Minister of State for Agriculture Parshottam Rupala, in the Rajya Sabha questioned the methodology and data accuracy of the Global Hunger Index (GHI) report, which has placed India at 94th among107 countries in 2020.

Statement given by the Minister ( prelims factoids)

• In a written reply, the Ministry stated that according to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-4, the percentage of wasted, stunted and malnourished children in 2015-16 stood at 21, 38.4 and 35.7, respectively.
• It said that compared to NFHS-4 data, the Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (CNNS) of 2017-18 showed an improvement of 4%, 3.7% and 2.3% in wasted, stunted and malnourished children respectively.
• The first-ever CNNS was commissioned by the government in 2016 and was conducted from 2016-18, led by the Union Health Ministry, in collaboration with the UNICEF.
• The findings were published in 2019. CNNS includes only nutrition data, whereas NFHS encompasses overall health indicators.

Know! all about GHI

• The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a tool designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger at global, regional, and national levels.
• GHI scores are calculated each year to assess progress and setbacks in combating hunger.
• The GHI is designed to raise awareness and understanding of the struggle against hunger, provide a way to compare levels of hunger between countries and regions, and call attention to those areas of the world where hunger levels are highest and where the need for additional efforts to eliminate hunger is greatest.

How are the GHI scores calculated?

• GHI scores are calculated using a three-step process that draws on available data from various sources to capture the multidimensional nature of hunger

1. First, for each country, values are determined for four indicators:

• UNDERNOURISHMENT: the share of the population that is undernourished (that is, whose caloric intake is insufficient);
• CHILD WASTING: the share of children under the age of five who are wasted (that is, who have low weight for their height, reflecting acute undernutrition);
• CHILD STUNTING: the share of children under the age of five who are stunted (that is, who have low height for their age, reflecting chronic undernutrition); and
• CHILD MORTALITY: the mortality rate of children under the age of five (in part, a reflection of the fatal mix of inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environments).

2. Second, each of the four component indicators is given a standardized score on a 100-point scale based on the highest observed level for the indicator on a global scale in recent decades.
3. Third, standardized scores are aggregated to calculate the GHI score for each country, with each of the three dimensions (inadequate food supply; child mortality; and child undernutrition, which is composed equally of child stunting and child wasting) given equal weight (the formula for calculating GHI scores is provided in Appendix B).

• This three-step process results in GHI scores on a 100-point GHI Severity Scale, where 0 is the best score (no hunger) and 100 is the worst.In practice, neither of these extremes is reached.
• A value of 0 would mean that a country had no undernourished people in the population, no children younger than five who were wasted or stunted, and no children who died before their fifth birthday.
• A value of 100 would signify that a country's undernourishment, child wasting, child stunting, and child mortality levels were each at approximately the highest levels observed worldwide in recent decades.
• The GHI Severity Scale shows the severity of hunger - from low to extremely alarming - associated with the range of possible GHI scores.

Prelims Factoids
PM greets people on Navroz

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

• The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has greeted the people on the occasion of Navroz.

Know! about Nowruz

• It is the Iranian New Year also known as the Persian New Year which begins on the spring equinox marking the first day of Farvardin, the first month of the Iranian solar calendar.
• It is celebrated worldwide by various ethno-linguistic groups, and falls on or around March 21 of the Gregorian calendar. Nowruz falls on March 20 in 2021.
• Nowruz has Iranian and Zoroastrian origins; however, it has been celebrated by diverse communities for over 3,000 years in Western Asia, Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Black Sea Basin, the Balkans, and South Asia.
• It is a secular holiday for most celebrants that is enjoyed by people of several different faiths, but remains a holy day for Zoroastrians
• As the spring equinox, Nowruz marks the beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere.
• The moment the Sun crosses the celestial equator and equalizes night and day is calculated exactly every year, and families gather together to observe the rituals.
• While Nowruz has been celebrated since the reform of the Iranian calendar in the 11th century CE to mark the new year, the United Nations officially recognized the "International Day of Nowruz" with the adoption of UN resolution 64/253 in 2010.

Health
National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) brings 80 plus medicines under Price Regulation

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) + about DPCO + Mains ( GS II Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.
What's the NEWS

• National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) NPPA fixes the price of 81 medicines including off-patent anti-diabetic drugs allowing due benefits of patent expiry to the patients.
• NPPA had granted price exemption for above mentioned formulations to the respective companies under Para 32 of the ‘Drug Prices Control Order (DPCO), 2013 for a period of five years due to new drug delivery system developed through indigenous Research and Development.

National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA)

• It was constituted vide Government of India Resolution dated 29th August, 1997 as an attached office of the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP), Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers as an independent Regulator for pricing of drugs and to ensure availability and accessibility of medicines at affordable prices.
• The NPPA regularly publishes lists of medicines and their maximum ceiling prices.
• A Multi-disciplinary committee of experts for consultation on matters pertaining to implementation of Drug Price Control Order (DPCO) including technicalities involved in pricing and new launches will be set up and it will have the member secretary of the National Pharmaceutical Pricing authority (NPPA) as its convener.

Functions

• To implement and enforce the provisions of the Drugs (Prices Control) Order in accordance with the powers delegated to it.
• To deal with all legal matters arising out of the decisions of the Authority.
• To monitor the availability of drugs, identify shortages, if any, and to take remedial steps.
• To collect/ maintain data on production, exports and imports, market share of individual companies, profitability of companies etc, for bulk drugs and formulations.
• To undertake and/ or sponsor relevant studies in respect of pricing of drugs/ pharmaceuticals.
• To recruit/ appoint the officers and other staff members of the Authority, as per rules and procedures laid down by the Government.
• To render advice to the Central Government on changes/ revisions in the drug policy.
• To render assistance to the Central Government in the parliamentary matters relating to the drug pricing.

Price monitoring and resource unit (PMRU)

• The National pharmaceutical and pricing authority(NPPA) under its program called "Consumer awareness, publicity and price monitoring" has set up 12 Price monitoring and resource units in various States and UTs.
• It has planned to set up such units in all 36 states and UTs for better outreach of NPPA in the states as these units will help the NPPA and State drug controller to ensure the accessibility of drugs at affordable prices.
• The PMRUs are societies registered under Societies Registration Act, 1860 under the direct supervision of State drug controller with its "board of governors" containing nominees of state and central government apart from other stakeholders.
• They will be funded by NPPA for their recurring and non recurring expenses.

Health
NAT Testing Facility
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Nucleic Acid Testing (NAT)
What's the NEWS

• Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare and Chairman of the Indian Red Cross Society, National Headquarters inaugurated a Nucleic Acid Testing (NAT) Testing Facility at the IRCS NHQ Blood Centre.
• By introducing NAT tests instead of the conventional ELISA test, both the window period to detect infections and the residual risk of transfusion transmitted infections of HIV, Hepatitis B, and Hepatitis C would be considerably reduced.
• The blood donation vehicles similarly would enhance Voluntary Blood Donation by reaching out to voluntary non-remunerated regular donation who are found to be safer than replacement donors.

Nucleic acid testing (NAT)

• It is a molecular technique for screening blood donations to reduce the risk of transfusion transmitted infections (TTIs) in the recipients, thus providing an additional layer of blood safety.
• It was introduced in the developed countries in the late 1990s and early 2000s and presently around 33 countries in the world have implemented NAT for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and around 27 countries for hepatitis B virus (HBV).
• NAT technique is highly sensitive and specific for viral nucleic acids.
• It is based on amplification of targeted regions of viral ribonucleic acid or deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and detects them earlier than the other screening methods thus, narrowing the window period of HIV, HBV and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections.
• NAT also adds the benefit of resolving false reactive donations on serological methods which is very important for donor notification and counseling.

Health
Mission Kalpatru
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Mission Kalpatru + other schemes of the Women and Child Development Ministry) + Mains ( GS II Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.
What's the NEWS

• The Women and Child Development Ministry plans to seek loans totalling Rs.37,179 crore from five different multinational development banks to implement new and existing schemes, including a research centre on child development as well as plantation of 200 million trees under mission Kalpatru to eradicate malnutrition.

Know! more about these funds

• The Ministry is planning to apply for a loan of Rs.14,600 crore from Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Rs.11,550 crore from Japan International Cooperation Agency, Rs.7,300 crore from New Development Bank (formerly BRICS Development Bank), Rs.3,650 crore from Asian Development Bank and Rs.79 crore from GIZ (German Development Cooperation).
• Each of these funds have been sought for a period of four years and 11 months from April 2021 to March 2026.
• It is already implementing Poshan Abhiyaan or Nutrition Mission at a cost of Rs.9,000 crore for three years from 2017, half of which is funded through a World Bank loan.

Mission Kalpatru

• The Ministry has sought a loan of Rs.11,550 crore from the Japan International Cooperation Agency, which will be supplemented by another Rs.11,550 from the Centre.
• The total amount of Rs.23,100 crore will be spent on yet to be announced Mission Kalpatru, under which the government plans to plant 200 million trees as "food forests" for long-term nutritional requirements.
• It will also establish 14 million Poshan Vatikas (Nutrition Gardens) at all anganwadis in the country, conduct awareness and assign community ownership of the food forests.
• This, it says, will ensure easier access to fresh produce and promote Atmanirbhar Bharat.

One Stop Centres'

• With a funding of Rs.14,600 crore from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the Ministry aims to augment the infrastructure of its various institutions, including ‘One Stop Centres' for survivors of gender-based violence, anganwadis and children's homes.
• This will include water supply, electricity back-up, provision for stoves, digital infrastructure for last-mile connectivity.
• The Ministry plans to rope in the private sector for maintenance of these facilities.

Infrastructure upgrade

• With a loan of Rs.7,300 crore from the New Development Bank, too, the Ministry plans an infrastructure upgrade vis-a-vis sanitation, setting up child-friendly toilets, provision of safe disposal of sanitary napkins and ensuring awareness about health and sanitation measures.

National child development resource centre

• With a loan of Rs.3,650 crore from the Asian Development Bank, also matched by the Central government, the Ministry aims to focus on early childhood education, adolescent development programmes, child protection and adoption services.
• The Ministry has mooted a national child development resource centre for research, design, outcome tracking, service delivery support and development of curriculum for activity-based learning at anganwadis at children's homes.

Government Schemes
Gram Ujala programme
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Gram Ujala programme)
What's the NEWS

• State-run EESL arm Convergence Energy Services Ltd (CESL) launched the Gram Ujala programme under which high quality energy efficient LED bulbs will be given for Rs 10 per piece in certain villages of five states in the first phase.

Gram Ujala programme

• In the first phase of this programme, 15 million LED bulbs will be distributed across villages of Aarah (Bihar), Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh), Vijaywada (Andhra Pradesh), Nagpur (Maharashtra), and villages in western Gujarat
• The programme will be financed entirely through carbon credits and will be the first such programme in India.
• CESL, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL), unveiled GRAM UJALA programme
• The Gram Ujala programme was launched by Power & New and Renewable Energy Minister R K Singh Aarah (Bihar)
• Under the programme, 7 watt and 12-watt LED bulbs with three years of warranty will be given to rural consumers on submission of working incandescent bulbs.
• The Gram Ujala programme will be implemented in villages of the five districts only and consumers can exchange a maximum of five LED bulbs. These rural households will also have metres installed in their houses to account for usage.
• The programme will have a significant impact on India's climate change action energy savings of 2025 million KWh/year and CO2 reductions of 1.65 million tonnes CO2/year.
• It will also enable better illumination, at an affordable price. This will usher in a better standard of life, financial savings, more economic activity, and better safety for rural citizens, as per the statement.
• The Ujala programme could not touch every village because the rural consumers were not able to pay Rs 70 per LED bulb. "With GRAM UJALA scheme, the govt. will be taking back the consumer's incandescent bulbs and provide this high-quality LED bulb for Rs 10 per bulb

Shine Programme

• Carbon credit documentation will be sent to UN-accredited validators for inclusion into the Shine Programme of activities.
• Carbon credits will be prepared under the Shine Programme of Activities with an option for verifying under the Voluntary Carbon Standard, depending on the needs of buyers.
• Carbon credit buyers will also be sought through an open process based on initial discussions with the market. The balance cost and margin on the LED cost will be recouped through the carbon credits earned.
• With price being one of the principle barriers, the Gram Ujala programme has been designed to support widespread distribution by removing the chief barrier for rural consumers.
• In addition, the energy savings garnered will reduce household's energy outlay, enabling higher disposable income and savings.

KEEP Learning KEEP Evolving
TEAM CL IAS