India and the United States have announced new areas of research on transformational power generation based on supercritical CO2 (sCO2) power cycles and advanced coal technologies, including carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS).

This emerged at a virtual ministerial meeting of the U.S.-India Strategic Energy Partnership (SEP) to review progress, highlight major accomplishments, and prioritize new areas for cooperation, on July 17, 2020. The meeting was co-chaired by U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette and Indian Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and of Steel Shri Dharmendra Pradhan.

Besides, the US Secretary of Energy and India's Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas & Steel, the virtual meeting was attended by U.S. Ambassador to India Kenneth I Juster, Indian Ambassador to the United States Taranjit Singh Sandhu and Secretary, Department of Science and Technology (DST) Prof Ashutosh Sharma along with other concerned officials.

Key points discussed New areas of research on transformational power generation based on supercritical CO2 (sCO2) power cycles and advanced coal technologies, including carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) announced

Smart grids and energy storage is being implemented by consortium comprising of 30 Indian and US entities

Policy directions for the societal acceptance of smart grid concepts, Distributed Energy Resources, impact and value of the integrative solutions and emerging role of utilities as Distributed System Operators

Common priorities for collaboration evolved in Clean Coal Technologies, Supercritical Carbon Dioxide (sCO2) Power Cycles and Carbon Capture Utilisation & Storage (CCUS) technologies

Speaking on the occasion, Prof Ashutosh Sharma stated that the collaboration between India and United States has grown over the years under the Programme for Accelerating Clean Energy – Research (PACE-R). The ongoing collaboration on smart grids and energy storage is being implemented by consortium comprising of 30 Indian and US entities with investment of US $ 7.5 million each by India DST and US DoE (US Department of Energy) with matching amount provided by the consortium.

He added that this project addresses essential issues related to the adoption and deployment of smart grid concepts along with Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) including storage in the distribution network for its efficient and reliable operation and will also provide policy directions for the societal acceptance, impact and value of the integrative solutions and emerging role of utilities as Distributed System Operators.

Prof Sharma also added that the dialogue between US-DoE and India’s DST on clean coal technologies, Supercritical Carbon Dioxide (sCO2) Power Cycles and Carbon Capture Utilisation & Storage (CCUS) technologies has progressed well and common priorities for collaboration have been evolved. He also added that the one of the notable outcomes of the dialogue is participation of India in the multilateral platform for Accelerating CCUS Technologies (ACT) through which avenues have been generated for possible US- India collaboration.

The United States and India share an all-of-the-above approach to energy security and energy access. The two countries recognise the importance of Clean Energy Research, Development and Innovation and are also leading joint research and development (R&D) through the U.S.-India Partnership to Advance Clean Energy-Research (PACE-R) on smart grids and energy storage to increase resilience and reliability of the electric grid.

Trial and testing in four more States/ UTs - Jammu & Kashmir, Manipur, Nagaland and Uttarakhand completed for enabling national portability soon

Technology-driven systemic reform for migratory NFSA beneficiaries, to enable lifting of entitled quota of food grains from any Fair Price Shop anywhere in the country by Aadhaar seeding of ration cards Posted On: 18 JUL 2020 12:28PM by PIB Delhi

The One Nation One Ration Card facility was started as inter-State portability of ration cards in 4 States w.e.f. August 2019. Since then, a total of 20 States/UT have been integrated together into a seamless national portability cluster w.e.f. June 2020. Thus, this facility is currently enabled for NFSA card holders in 20 States/UTs. These States/UTs are Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Sikkim, Mizoram, Telangana, Kerala, Punjab, Tripura, Bihar, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Now, trial and testing in 4 more States/UTs of Jammu & Kashmir, Manipur, Nagaland and Uttarakhand have been completed for enabling national portability features under One Nation One Ration Card in these states very shortly. Besides, the required web-services for inter-State transactions and their monitoring through Central Dashboards have also been activated for these States/UTs. All other States/UTs are targeted to be integrated before March 2021.

The One Nation One Ration Card facility is an ambitious plan and endeavour of Department of Food & Public Distribution to ensure the delivery of food security entitlements to all beneficiaries covered under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, irrespective of their physical location anywhere in the country, by implementing nation-wide portability of ration cards under the ongoing central sector scheme on ‘Integrated Management of Public Distribution System (IM-PDS)’ in association with all States/UTs.

Through this system, the migratory NFSA beneficiaries, who frequently change their place of dwelling in search of temporary employments, etc. are now enabled with an option to lift their entitled quota of foodgrains from any Fair Price Shop (FPS) of their choice anywhere in the country by using their same/existing ration card with biometric/Aadhaar based authentication on an electronic Point of Sale (ePoS) device installed at the FPSs.

Thus, installation of ePoS devices at the FPSs and Aadhaar seeding of beneficiaries for biometric/ Aadhaar authentication are the main enablers of this system, which can be accessed by beneficiaries by quoting either their ration card number or the Aadhaar number to any FPS dealer across the country. Anyone in the family, who have seeded Aadhaar in the ration card can undergo authentication and lift the ration. There is no need to share or carry the ration card or Aadhaar card with ration dealer to avail the benefit. Beneficiaries can undergo Aadhaar authentication by using their finger prints or iris based identification.

Context: On 16th July, exactly 75 years ago, scientists tested Gadget — the world’s first atomic bomb — in what was dubbed as the ‘Trinity Test’.

Less than a month later, an identical nuclear bomb called ‘Fat Man’ was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki, killing tens of thousands of people.

What you need to know? The super bomb, nicknamed ‘Gadget’, was developed as part of the US-led Manhattan Project.

Manhattan Project sought to build nuclear weapons to give the allied forces an edge over Germany, Japan and Italy in World War 2. The super bomb was designed and conceptualised by a team of scientists headed by J Robert Oppenheimer, a physics professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Oppenheimer later came to be known as the “father of the atomic bomb”.

The test was carried out at the Alamagordo Bombing Range, which was located around 337 km away from Los Alamos.

What were the repercussions of the Trinity Test? Residents of New Mexico were not warned about the test. And the adverse impact of radiation caused by the detonation, was ignored for years after the test.

There was a sudden rise in infant mortality. Several residents also complained that the number of cancer patients went up after the Trinity Test.

The dust outfall from the explosion was expected to have travelled nearly 100 miles from the test site, posing a serious threat to residents in the area.

Many families complained that their livestock suffered skin burns, bleeding and loss of hair. It was only in 1990, when the federal government passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), that residents of North Mexico who contracted Cancer and other illnesses due to radiation exposure received compensation.

How many countries worldwide now have nuclear weapons? Seventy-five years after the Trinity Test, as many as nine countries around the world are currently in possession of nuclear weapons. These include, the US, the UK, Russia, France, India, China, Israel, Pakistan and North Korea.

At least eight countries have detonated over 2,000 nuclear test explosions since 1945. The most recent instance of nuclear bomb test explosions conducted by India, were the series of five explosions done as part of the Pokhran-II tests in May 1998. The first test, code-named Smiling Buddha, took place in May 1974.

Context: Mobile App of PM SVANidhi launched to bring Microcredit facility for street vendors at their door steps.

This App aims to provide user friendly digital interface for Lending Institutions (LIs) and their field functionaries for sourcing and processing loan applications of street vendors under the Scheme.

Implementing agency: Last month, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs signed MoU with Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) in order to engage SIDBI as the Implementation Agency for the scheme.

SIDBI will manage the credit guarantee to the lending institutions through Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE).

Overview of the scheme: It is a special micro-credit facility plan to provide affordable loan of up to ₹10,000 to more than 50 lakh street vendors, who had their businesses operational on or before 24 March 2020. The scheme is valid until March 2022.

Small Industries Development Bank of India is the technical partner for implementation of this scheme. It will manage the credit guarantee to the lending institutions through Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises.

Loans under the scheme: Under the scheme, vendors can avail working capital loan of up to ₹10,000, which is repayable in monthly instalments within one year. On timely/early repayment of the loan, an interest subsidy of 7% per annum will be credited to the bank accounts of beneficiaries through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) on six-months basis.

There will be no penalty on early repayment of loan.

Eligibility: The scheme is applicable to vendors, hawkers, thelewalas, rehriwalas, theliphadwalas in different areas/contexts who supply goods and services. Street vendors belonging to the surrounding peri-urban/rural areas are also included.

Need for: The lockdown has affected the lives and livelihoods of many especially daily wagers including street vendors who businesses were affected due to the restrictions.

Street vendors usually work with a small capital base taken on very high interest rates from informal sources. Further, they might have consumed their savings and high cost capital during the lockdown.

Therefore, there is an urgent need to provide affordable credit for working capital through formal banking channel to street vendors to help them resume the business.

Context: The Supreme Court has agreed to examine the constitutional validity of the Kerala Animals and Bird Sacrifices Prohibition Act of 1968.

What’s the issue? An appeal is filed in the Supreme Court by people who are Shakthi worshippers, and for whom, animal sacrifice is an integral part of the worship.

In their appeal, they said animal sacrifice was an “essential religious practice”. But, the 1968 State law bans killing of animals and birds for religious sacrifices. However, the act does not ban killing for personal consumption.

This amounted to arbitrary classification and is violative of Article 14 of the Constitution. It also violates the right to practice religion and manage religious affairs under articles 25 and 26 of the Constitution.

The appellants said if killing of animals and birds was to be prohibited, let it be so for all purposes – religious or otherwise. Besides, Section 28 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, 1960 does not make killing of animals for religious purposes an offence.

What had the High Court said? Recently, the Kerala High Court had dismissed the PIL on the ground that no material was brought on record to establish that the practice was essential to the religion.

The High Court had observed that the Prevention of Cruelty Act does not have the word “sacrifice” for the purpose of religion.

Context: Revamped PM’s Awards for Excellence in Public Administration has been launched.

Highlights: The Scheme has been revamped to recognize the performance of the District Collectors towards outcome indicators, economic development, peoples’ participation and redressal of public grievances.

Nominations have been called in four major categories – District Performance Indicators Programme, Innovation General Category, Aspirational Districts Program and Namami Gange Program.

The scheme for the very first time seeks to recognize the efforts of District level officials in the Namami Gange Programme. Under this award category, one award shall be given to a district out of the 57 notified District Ganga Committees under the Namami Gange Programme.

Background: The Government of India instituted “The Prime Minister’s Awards for Excellence in Public Administration” in the year 2006 to acknowledge, recognize and reward the extraordinary and innovative work done by Districts/ Organizations of the Central and State Governments.

The Scheme was restructured in 2014 for recognizing the performance of District Collectors in Priority Programmes, Innovations and Aspirational Districts and was further restructured in 2020 to recognize the performance of District Collectors towards economic development of the District.

Now, For the year 2020, the scope of the awards has been expanded to identify areas of overall outcome-oriented performance in the districts across sectors.

Context: Special bulletin on Maternal Mortality in India 2016-18 was recently released by the Office of the Registrar General’s Sample Registration System (SRS).

What is MMR? MMR is defined as the number of maternal deaths per 1,00,000 live births. The target 3.1 of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)set by the United Nations aims to reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 1,00,000 live births.

What is Maternal Mortality? Maternal mortality in a region is a measure of reproductive health of women in the area.

As per the World Health Organization, maternal death is the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management.

Key findings: MMR in India has declined to 113 in 2016-18 from 122 in 2015-17 and 130 in 2014-2016.

MMR of various States includes Assam (215), Bihar (149), Madhya Pradesh (173), Chhattisgarh (159), Odisha (150), Rajasthan (164), Uttar Pradesh (197) and Uttarakhand (99).

The southern States registered a lower MMR — Andhra Pradesh (65), Telangana (63), Karnataka (92), Kerala (43) and Tamil Nadu (60).

Context: The union environment ministry has approved the zonal master plan for the Bhagirathi eco-sensitive zone notification that stretches from Gaumukh to Uttarkashi covering an area of 4179.59 sqkm.

This move will help expedite the chaardhaam road project.

What is there in the zonal master plan? The ZMP is based on watershed approach and includes governance in the area of forest and wildlife, watershed management, irrigation, energy, tourism, public health and sanitation, road infrastructure, etc.

Background: The Bhagirathi eco-sensitive zone notification was first issued by the environment ministry on December 18, 2012.

After years of protests by local environmentalists, the notification sought to protect the entire fragile Himalayan region by restricting hydropower projects of over 2 MW, riverbed mining and change of land use.

The notification was however amended on April 16, 2018 following Uttarakhand government’s objections that the notification was ‘anti-development.’ The amendments approved land use change to meet the local needs including civic amenities and other infrastructure development in larger public interest and national security with the prior approval of State Government with due study of Environmental Impacts.

What are the Concerns now? This approval could make the entire Bhagirathi region extremely vulnerable to natural disasters. Pointing at the 2013 Kedarnath tragedy, experts put forth the following arguments:

The Himalayas are extremely fragile mountains. The rocks still haven’t consolidated completely. Hill cutting will definitely destabilise hills. If there is forest loss, debris would flow into the river affecting the river and making the entire region extremely vulnerable to landslides.

Beyond 1800 to 2000 metres altitude its mostly moraines (unconsolidated glacial debris). If there is a cloudburst these will add to landslides. The Himalayas are also in seismic zone V- a major earthquake can happen anytime.

Where is Bhagirathi Eco- Sensitive Zone? Located in the upper Himalayas, the notified area of the Bhagirathi eco- sensitive zone is an interwoven, interdependent fragile Ganga- Himalayan Basin.

Geographically the area falls under the Garhwal lesser Himalayas and Higher Himalayas.

It is a blood test that measures the number of one type of white blood cells called eosinophils.

Eosinophils become active when you have certain allergic diseases, infections, and other medical conditions.

Why in News? Researchers have flagged this test for early recognition of Covid-19 in patients.