Posted On: 22 MAY 2020 2:33PM by PIB Delhi

The Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance (UMANG) has been inaugurated by Dr. M .Rajeevan, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences in the presence of Dr. M Mohapatra DG , IMD and Shri Abhishek Singh , President and CEO of NeGD on today the 22 May,2020

UMANG is a Government of India all-in-one single, unified, secure, multi-channel, multi-platform, multi-lingual, multi-service mobile app, powered by a robust back-end platform providing access to high impact services of various organization (Central and State).

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi launched the UMANG App in 2017 to bring all government services on a single mobile app, with a larger goal to make the government accessible on the mobile phone of our citizens. About 660 services from 127 department & 25 states, including utility payments are live and more are in pipeline.

India Meteorological Department (IMD) has taken various initiatives in recent years for improvement in dissemination of weather forecast and warning services based on latest tools and technologies. To further enhance this initiative, IMD has taken the leverage of Digital India Programme to utilise “UMANG App”.

India among world’s top five honey producers Posted On: 22 MAY 2020 6:12PM by PIB Delhi

The Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar has said the Government is promoting Beekeeping as part of its aim to double farmers’ income. Addressing a webinar organised by the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), Shri Tomar said the Government has allocated Rs.500 crore towards Beekeeping under the Atma Nirbhar Abhiyan. He said India is among the world’s top five honey producers. Compared to 2005-06 honey production has risen by 242% and exports shot by 265%.

Shri Tomar said, as evident by the rising honey exports, beekeeping will be an important factor in achieving the goal of doubling farmers’ income by 2024. He said the National Bee Board has created four modules to impart training as part of the National Beekeeping and Honey Mission (NBHM) and 30 lakh farmers have been trained in beekeeping. They are also being financially supported by the Government.

The Minister said the Government is implementing the recommendations of the Committee to promote beekeeping. He said under guidance of the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi the Government has launched ‘Honey Mission’ as part of ‘Sweet Revolution’ which has four components. Even small and marginal farmers can adopt beekeeping since investment is low and returns high, he added.

Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Shri Prakash Javadekar today interacted with Chief Ministers, Cabinet Ministers & State Government Officers of six states viz, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu through Video Conference to discuss issues relating to notification of Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA) pertaining to Western Ghats.

To conserve and protect the bio diversity of Western Ghats while allowing for sustainable and inclusive development of the region, Government of India had constituted a High Level Working Group under the Chairmanship of Dr. Kasturirangan. The Committee had recommended that identified geographical areas falling in the six States of Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu may be declared as Ecologically Sensitive Areas. A draft notification was issued in October 2018 mentioning the areas to be notified in the ESA.

Dr. Harshvardhan addresses at a webinar “Ayushman Bharat: 1 Crore treatments and beyond” to mark this milestone Posted On: 21 MAY 2020 6:16PM by PIB Delhi

Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY), the flagship health assurance scheme of the Government of India today marked 1 crore treatments. To mark this milestone, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare inaugurated the first edition of Arogya Dhara, a series of webinars created as an open platform for discussion on topical issues of public health, heretoday. The webinar is titled “Ayushman Bharat: 1 crore treatments and beyond”. Shri Ashwini Kumar Choubey, MoS (HFW) was also present during the webinar.

Dr. Indu Bhushan, CEO, NHA made a presentation on the performance of AB-PMJAY and discussed the journey ahead. The webinar was webcasted through all official social media pages of National Health Authority and was open for all members of the general public.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Harsh Vardhan said, “Providing 1 crore treatments to patients from the country’s poorest households since its launch less than two years agois a milestone achievement for Ayushman Bharat PMJAY scheme. These treatments worth Rs 13,412 crore have been provided through a growing network of 21,565 public and private empanelled hospitals.” “Ayushman Bharat will continue be a trailblazer with an all-encompassing humanitarian approach, to deal with various health-related challenges that will confront us in the months and years ahead,” he said.

He further said “Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, is the flagship health assurance scheme of our Government, since its launch in 2018. It is providing affordable healthcare in the form of tertiary hospital treatment to poor and vulnerable Indians through a health cover of Rs. 5 lakh per family per year. Its aim is to ensure financial risk protection to more than 10.74 crore poorest, most vulnerable families in the country and is a step forward towards achievement of Universal Health Coverage in India.”

The Minister conveyedhis best wishes and gratitude to all the States who have ensured the scheme delivers on its promise especially in the unprecedented times of COVID-19. “Government of India is making persistent efforts to expand testing and make treatment of COVID-19 available for free to all 53 crore beneficiaries of Ayushman Bharat PMJAY, further strengthening Government of India’s resolve, scope and capability to move towards universal health coverage. Concerted efforts by every health worker and all empanelled hospitals have helped us achieve the 1 crore mark,” he said.

On this occasion, Dr. Harsh Vardhan launched a‘Ask Ayushman’ chat bot on WhatsApp, a 24*7 AI-enabled assistant that provides information on various aspects of the AB-PMJAY scheme such as its benefits, features, process of making an e-card, locating the nearest empanelled hospital, sharing feedback and the process of lodging a grievance. One of the key features of the chat bot is that it is able to comprehend and respond in Hindi and English languages and it also provides text-to-speech feature for the users and can be universally used on all major social media platforms.

The Union Minister also launched a “Hospital Ranking Dashboard” which is a significant step to rank empanelled hospitals on the basis of beneficiaries’ feedback. The ranking will help NHA to take evidence based decision making for enhancing the quality measures and indicators of healthcare delivery across all empanelled facilities to further improve the beneficiaries experience.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan also released a “Special edition of the AB-PMJAY beneficiary e-card” exhibiting the milestone of 1 crore hospital admissions. Apart from the above, “Hindi version of the Ayushman Bharat PMJAY website” was also launched which shall enable to effectively connect with the masses and to empower them with access to right information through a user-friendly medium.

In his address, Shri Ashwini Kumar Choubey said that MoHFW and NHA have been consistently developing, sharing, revising all testing, treatment, hospital and related guidelines, insights and information to its beneficiaries, which is of great help in dispelling rumours and myths surrounding COVID-19.

Dr. Vinod Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog stated that since its launch in 2018, AB-PMJAY is providing affordable healthcare in the form of tertiary hospital treatment to poor and vulnerable Indians. The aim of PMJAY is to ensure financial risk protection to more than 10 crore poorest, most vulnerable families in the country and move step forward towards achievement of Universal Health Coverage in India.

Sh Indu Bhushan stated that NHA has utilised this period to leverage its IT systems, expertise and network of private sector stakeholders to support the Government of India’s preparedness and response in the form of managing the national COVID-19 helpline 1075 to conducting thousands of outbound calls to COVID positive patients and their families.

Agappe Chitra Magna is a magnetic nanoparticle-based RNA extraction kitfor use during testing Posted On: 21 MAY 2020 7:59PM by PIB Delhi

Dr VK Saraswat, NITI Aayog member and President of Institute body of Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST)announed here today the commercial launch of Agappe Chitra Magna, a magnetic nanoparticle-based RNA extraction kit for use during testing for detection of COVID-19. The announcement was made by Dr VK Saraswat, at a programme attended by Prof. Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, DST, Dr Asha Kishore, Director SCTIMST, Dr HK Varma, Head Biomedical technology and scientists of the institute, through a video conference.

The RNA extraction kit was developed by Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST), Trivandrum, an Institute of National Importance of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) along with Agappe Diagnostics Ltd, an in vitro diagnostics manufacturing company based in Cochin.

Scientists from S. N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences (SNBNCBS), Kolkata, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology have developed a novel protocol to find out whether a pair of electrons is in an entangled state so that they can be safely used as resources for facilitating quantum information processing tasks. The protocol has been developed through theoretical and experimental analysis.

Quantum entanglement is one of the peculiarities of quantum mechanics, which makes phenomena such as quantum teleportation and super-dense coding possible. It is the physical phenomenon that occurs when a pair or group of particles is generated, interact, in a way such that the quantum state of each particle of the pair or group cannot be described independently of the state of the others. Entangled states are key resources to facilitate many quantum information processing tasks and quantum cryptographic protocols.

In India, close to twenty-three million tonnes of leftover rice residues are annually burnt by farmers to get rid of the straw and prepare their fields for sowing wheat, which is the next crop, resulting in air pollution. Also, dry environments pose a challenge for the germination of wheat varieties with short coleoptile.

To overcome these problems, Scientists at Pune based Agharkar Research Institute (ARI), an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology, have mapped two alternative dwarfing genes Rht14 and Rht18 in wheat. These genes are associated with better seedling vigour and longer coleoptiles (sheath protecting the young shoot tip).

The lead Scientist Dr. Ravindra Patil along with his team from Genetics and Plant Breeding Group, ARI have mapped the dwarfing genes on chromosome 6A in durum wheat, and DNA-based markers were developed for a better selection of these genes in wheat breeding lines. The DNA-based markers will help wheat breeders to precisely select wheat lines carrying these alternative dwarfing genes from a massive pool of wheat breeding lines. The research was published in The Crop Journal and Molecular Breeding.

These DNA based markers are being used at ARI for marker-assisted transfer of these genes in Indian wheat varieties, so as to make them suitable for sowing under rice stubble-retained conditions and dry environments. Wheat breeding lines with these alternative dwarfing genes are presently at an advanced stage.

Wheat lines with these alternative dwarfing genes, apart from reducing crop residue burning, can allow deeper sowing of wheat seeds to avail advantage of residual moisture in the soil under dry environments.

The presently available semi-dwarf wheat varieties, which were explored during the Green Revolution, carry conventional Rht1 dwarfing alleles (variant form of a given gene) and produce optimum yields under high-fertility irrigated conditions. However, they are not well adapted for deeper sowing conditions in dry environments due to shorter coleoptiles, and low early vigor often results into reduced seedling emergence. Moreover, crop stands of Rht1 wheat also remain poor where previous crop residues pose a barrier for seedling emergence due to the short coleoptiles.

Burning of leftover rice crop residue has serious implications for the environment, soil, and human health. Therefore, there is a need to include alternative dwarfing genes in wheat improvement programs. Also, only two dwarfing alleles of Rht1 are predominant in Indian wheat varieties; therefore, there is a need to diversify the genetic base of dwarfing genes considering diverse wheat growing zones in India.

In genetic studies conducted at ARI, dwarfing genes Rht14 and Rht18 in wheat conferred a plant height reduction comparable to the Rht1 alleles while retaining early vigour in wheat seedlings, but do not affect coleoptile length and seedling shoot length. These can, therefore, be utilized as an alternative dwarfing gene to Rht1 for deep sowing conditions or in fields with retained stubble.

The improved wheat lines which are being developed at ARI will help reducing stubble burning incidences under the rice-wheat cropping system. These lines will also allow deeper sowing of wheat seeds to avail advantage of residual moisture in the soil, therefore, saving valuable water resources and reduce the cost of cultivation to farmers.

Envisages 10 MW grid connected solar project and various solar off-grid applications like solar trees, solar drinking water kiosks, etc Posted On: 20 MAY 2020 3:48PM by PIB Delhi

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has taken up the Complete Solarisation of Konark sun temple and Konark town in Odisha. Speaking about the Scheme, Shri R K Singh, MoS(i/c) for Power and MNRE has said,

"Government of India launched the Scheme with an objective to take forward the Prime Minister’s vision to develop the historical Sun temple town of Konark in Odisha as 'Surya Nagri', to convey a message of synergy between the modern use of solar energy and the ancient Sun Temple and the importance of promoting solar energy", .

The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has given its approval for implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) - A scheme to bring about Blue Revolution through sustainable and responsible development of fisheries sector in India under two components namely, Central Sector Scheme (CS) and Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) at a total estimated investment of Rs. 20,050 crore comprising of (i) Central share of Rs. 9,407 crore, (ii) State share of Rs. 4,880 crore and (iii) Beneficiaries' share of Rs. 5,763 crore.

The Scheme will be implemented during a period of 5 years from FY 2020-21 to FY 2024-25.

The PMMSY will be implemented as an umbrella scheme with two separate Components namely (a) Central Sector Scheme (CS) and (b) Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS). The Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) Component is further segregated into Non-beneficiary oriented and Beneficiary orientated sub­components/activities under the following three broad heads:

a) Enhancement of Production and Productivity b) Infrastructure and Post-Harvest Management c) Fisheries Management and Regulatory Framework

Funding Pattern: PMMSY will be implemented with the following funding pattern:

Central Sector Scheme (CS): a) The entire project/unit cost will be borne by the Central government (i.e. 100% central funding).

b) Wherever direct beneficiary oriented i.e. individual/group activities are undertaken by the entities of central government including National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB), the central assistance will be up to 40% of the unit/project cost for General category and 60% for SC/ST/Women category.

Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS): For the Non-beneficiary orientated sub-components/activities under CSS component to be implemented by the States/UTs, the entire project/unit cost will be shared between Centre and State as detailed below:

a) North Eastern & Himalayan States: 90% Central share and 10% State share. b) Other States: 60% Central share and 40% State share. c) Union Territories (with legislature and without legislature): 100% Central share.

For the Beneficiary orientated i.e. individual/group activities sub­components/activities under CSS component to be implemented by the States/UTs, the Government financial assistance of both Centre and State/UTs governments together will be limited to 40% of the project/unit cost for General category and 60% of the project/unit cost for SC/ST/Women. The Government financial assistance will in turn be shared between Centre and State/UTs in the following ratio:

a) The North Eastern & the Himalayan States: 90% Central share and 10% State share. b) Other States: 60% Central share and 40% State share. c) Union Territories (with legislature and without legislature): 100% Central share (No UT Share).

Benefits: Address the critical gaps in the fisheries sector and realize its potential. Augmenting fish production and productivity at a sustained average annual growth rate of about 9% to achieve a target of 22 million metric tons by 2024-25 through sustainable and responsible fishing practices.

Improving availability of certified quality fish seed and feed, traceability in fish and including effective aquatic health management.

Creation of critical infrastructure including modernisation and strengthening of value chain. Creation of direct gainful employment opportunities to about 15 lakh fishers, fish farmers, fish workers, fish vendors and other rural/urban populations in fishing and allied activities and about thrice this number as indirect employment opportunities including enhancement of their incomes.

Boost to investments in fisheries sector and increase of competitiveness of fish and fisheries products. Doubling of fishers, fish farmers and fish workers incomes by 2024 Social, physical and economic security for fishers and fish workers.

About Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana:

Launched in May 2016. Aim: To provide LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) connections to poor households.

Key features: A deposit-free LPG connection is given to the eligible household with financial assistance of Rs 1,600 per connection by the Centre.

Target: The scheme gained traction with its ambit being expanded to include 80 million poor families from the earlier target of 50 million families with an additional allocation of Rs 4,800 crore.

Eligibility criteria: Applicant must a woman above the age of 18 and a citizen of India. Applicant should belong to a BPL (Below Poverty Line) household. No one in the applicant’s household should own an LPG connection.

The household income of the family, per month, must not exceed a certain limit as defined by the government of the Union Territories and State Government. Applicant must not be a recipient of other similar schemes provided by the government.

Objectives of the scheme are: Empowering women and protecting their health. Reducing the serious health hazards associated with cooking based on fossil fuel.

Reducing the number of deaths in India due to unclean cooking fuel. Preventing young children from significant number of acute respiratory illnesses caused due to indoor air pollution by burning the fossil fuel.

About MGNREGA: The scheme was introduced as a social measure that guarantees “the right to work”.

The key tenet of this social measure and labour law is that the local government will have to legally provide at least 100 days of wage employment in rural India to enhance their quality of life.

Key objectives: Generation of paid rural employment of not less than 100 days for each worker who volunteers for unskilled labour. Proactively ensuring social inclusion by strengthening livelihood base of rural poor.

Creation of durable assets in rural areas such as wells, ponds, roads and canals. Reduce urban migration from rural areas. Create rural infrastructure by using untapped rural labour.

The following are the eligibility criteria for receiving the benefits under MGNREGA scheme: Must be Citizen of India to seek MGNREGA benefits. Job seeker has completed 18 years of age at the time of application. The applicant must be part of a local household (i.e. application must be made with local Gram Panchayat). Applicant must volunteer for unskilled labour.

Key facts related to the scheme: The Ministry of Rural Development (MRD), Govt of India is monitoring the entire implementation of this scheme in association with state governments.

Individual beneficiary-oriented works can be taken up on the cards of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, small or marginal farmers or beneficiaries of land reforms or beneficiaries under the Indira Awaas Yojana of the Government of India.

Within 15 days of submitting the application or from the day work is demanded, wage employment will be provided to the applicant. Right to get unemployment allowance in case employment is not provided within fifteen days of submitting the application or from the date when work is sought.

Social Audit of MGNREGA works is mandatory, which lends to accountability and transparency. The Gram Sabha is the principal forum for wage seekers to raise their voices and make demands. It is the Gram Sabha and the Gram Panchayat which approves the shelf of works under MGNREGA and fix their priority.

Role of Gram Sabha: It determines the order of priority of works in the meetings of the Gram Sabha keeping in view potential of the local area, its needs and local resources. Monitor the execution of works within the GP.

Roles of Gram Panchayat: Receiving applications for registration Verifying registration applications Registering households Issuing Job Cards (JCs) Receiving applications for work

Issuing dated receipts for these applications for work Allotting work within fifteen days of submitting the application or from the date when work is sought in the case of an advance application. Identification and planning of works, developing shelf of projects including determination of the order of their priority.

Responsibilities of State Government in MGNREGA: Frame Rules on matters pertaining to State responsibilities under Section 32 of the Act ii) Develop and notify the Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme for the State. Set up the SEGC.

Set up a State level MGNREGS implementation agency/ mission with adequate number of high calibre professionals.

Set up a State level MGNREGS social audit agency/directorate with adequate number of people with knowledge on MGNREGA processes and demonstrated commitment to social audit. Establish and operate a State Employment Guarantee Fund (SEGF).

Implications: The amendments ensure that henceforth global tenders will be disallowed in government procurement up to Rs 200 crore, as announced in the Atma Nirbhar Bharat Package.

What are GFRs? The General Financial Rules (GFRs) are set of rules that deal with matters that involve public finances. They were first issued in 1947 bringing together all the existing orders. They are instructions that pertain to financial matters.

They lay down the general rules applicable to Ministries / Departments, and detailed instructions relating to procurement of goods are issued by the procuring departments broadly in conformity with the general rules, while maintaining flexibility to deal with varied situations.

Significance: The ordinance is aimed at facilitating both farmers and sponsors to develop mutually beneficial and efficient contract farming system. It argued the new system will improve production and marketing of agricultural produce and livestock while promoting farmers’ interest.

Highlights of the ordinance: Participants: The agreement will be entered into between the contract farming sponsor (who offers to participate in any component) or entire value chain including pre production, and the contract farming producer (farmers who agree to produce the crop or rear the livestock).

Recovery: The loans and advances given by the sponsor to the producer can be recovered from the sale proceeds of the produce. It cannot be realised by way of sale or mortgage or lease of the land in respect of which the agreement has been entered into.

No transfer of Land Rights: No title, rights, ownership or possession of land or premises or other such property will be transferred or alienated or vest in the sponsor or its successor or its agent.

Constitute Contract Farming and Services Committee: To review the performance of the contract farming and to make suggestions to the government for its promotion and efficient performance.

What is Contract farming? The concept of Contract Farming (CF) refers to a system of farming, in which bulk purchasers including agro-processing/exporting or trading units enter into a contract with farmer(s), to purchase a specified quantity of any agricultural commodity at a pre-agreed price.

How is it regulated in India? Regulated under the Indian Contract Act, 1872. The Model APMC (Agricultural Produce Market Committee) Act, 2003 provides specific provisions for contract farming, like compulsory registration of contract farming sponsors and dispute settlement.

Ministry of Agriculture came out with a draft Model Contract Farming Act, 2018. The draft Model Act seeks to create a regulatory and policy framework for contract farming. Based on this draft Model Act, legislatures of states can enact a law on contract farming.

What is Coir geotextile? Coir is a 100% natural fiber, obtained from a renewable source – the coconut husk.

Coir Geo Textile is naturally resistant to rot, molds and moisture, and free from any microbial attack hence it needs no chemical treatment. It has a permeable, natural and strong fabric with high durability.

Benefits: It has a permeable, natural and strong fabric with high durability. It protects the land surface and promotes quick vegetation. It is totally biodegradable, and helps in soil stabilisation. It can dissipate the energy of flowing water and absorb the excess solar radiation.

What are Geotextiles? They are permeable fabrics which, when used in association with soil, have the ability to separate, filter, reinforce, protect, or drain. These are typically made from polypropylene or polyester.

Applications: They support many civil engineering applications including roads, airfields, railroads, embankments, retaining structures, reservoirs, canals, dams, bank protection, coastal engineering and construction site silt fences or geotube.

They are also used for sand dune armoring to protect upland coastal property from storm surge, wave action and flooding. They are used as matting to stabilize flow in stream channels and swales. They can improve soil strength at a lower cost than conventional soil nailing.

Features of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana-lll (PMGSY-III): Under the PMGSY-III Scheme, it is proposed to consolidate 1,25,000 Km road length in the States.

It involves consolidation of Through Routes and Major Rural Links connecting habitations to Gramin Agricultural Markets (GrAMs), Higher Secondary Schools and Hospitals.

The funds would be shared in the ratio of 60:40 between the Centre and State for all States except for 8 North Eastern states and Himachal Pradesh & Uttarakhand for which it is 90:10.

Background: A total of 5,99,090 Km road length has been constructed under the scheme since inception till April, 2019 (inclusive of PMGSY-I, PMGSY-II and Road Connectivity Project for Left Wing Extremism Area (RCPLWEA) Scheme).

What is the protocol? The theoretical idea is based on applying the fine-grained uncertainty relation to perform quantum steering. The experiment uses an all-optical set-up in which entangled pairs of photons are created by laser light on Beta barium borate (BBO) crystals, a nonlinear optical crystal, used as laser crystal.

What is Quantum entanglement? It is a quantum mechanical phenomenon in which the quantum states of two or more objects have to be described with reference to each other, even though the individual objects may be spatially separated.

It is the physical phenomenon that occurs when a pair or group of particles is generated, interact, in a way such that the quantum state of each particle of the pair or group cannot be described independently of the state of the others.

Significance: Quantum entanglement is one of the peculiarities of quantum mechanics, which makes phenomena such as quantum teleportation and super-dense coding possible.

These six states include Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.

Background: The government had constituted a High Level Working Group under the Chairmanship of Dr. Kasturirangan to conserve and protect the biodiversity of Western Ghats while allowing for sustainable and inclusive development of the region.

The Committee had recommended that identified geographical areas falling in the six States of Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu may be declared as Ecologically Sensitive Areas.

What are Eco-Sensitive Areas? They are located within 10 kms around Protected Areas, National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries.

ESAs are notifiedby the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) under Environment Protection Act 1986. The basic aim is to regulate certain activities around National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries so as to minimise the negative impacts of such activities on the fragile ecosystem encompassing the protected areas.

Objectives of declaring areas as ESA: To manage and regulate the activities around these areas with the intention of creating some kinds of ‘shock absorbers’. To provide for a transition zone between the highly protected and relatively less protected areas.

To give effect to Section 3(2)(v) of the Environment Protection Act, 1986 which restricts the operation of industries or processes to be carries out in certain areas or to maintain certain safeguards to operate industries.

What did the Gadgil Committee say? It defined the boundaries of the Western Ghats for the purposes of ecological management. It proposed that this entire area be designated as ecologically sensitive area (ESA).

Within this area, smaller regions were to be identified as ecologically sensitive zones (ESZ) I, II or III based on their existing condition and nature of threat.

It proposed to divide the area into about 2,200 grids, of which 75 per cent would fall under ESZ I or II or under already existing protected areas such as wildlife sanctuaries or natural parks. The committee proposed a Western Ghats Ecology Authority to regulate these activities in the area.

Why was Kasturirangan Committee setup? None of the six concerned states agreed with the recommendations of the Gadgil Committee, which submitted its report in August 2011. In August 2012, then Environment Minister constituted a High-Level Working Group on Western Ghats under Kasturirangan to “examine” the Gadgil Committee report in a “holistic and multidisciplinary fashion in the light of responses received” from states, central ministries and others.

The Kasturirangan report seeks to bring just 37% of the Western Ghats under the Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA) zones — down from the 64% suggested by the Gadgil report.

Recommendations of Kasturirangan Committee: A ban on mining, quarrying and sand mining. No new thermal power projects, but hydro power projects allowed with restrictions.

A ban on new polluting industries. Building and construction projects up to 20,000 sq m was to be allowed but townships were to be banned. Forest diversion could be allowed with extra safeguards.

Importance of western ghats: The Western Ghats is an extensive region spanning over six States. It is the home of many endangered plants and animals. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is one of the eight “hottest hot-spots” of biological diversity in the world.

According to UNESCO, the Western Ghats are older than the Himalayas. They influence Indian monsoon weather patterns by intercepting the rain-laden monsoon winds that sweep in from the south-west during late summer.

Eastern Ghats: The Eastern Ghats run from the northern Odisha through Andhra Pradesh to Tamil Nadu in the south passing some parts of Karnataka.

They are eroded and cut through by four major rivers of peninsular India, viz. Godavari, Mahanadi, Krishna, and Kaveri.

It is a statutory body established in 1963. It is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Textiles, Government of India.

It has been formed to ensure the quality of textiles and textile machinery both for internal consumption and export purpose. Important functions: establishing laboratories for the testing of textiles and textile machinery and providing for their inspection and examination.

Observed on 22nd May every year to increase understanding and awareness of biodiversity issues.

Theme for the year 2020 is “Our solutions are in nature”. Background: The resolution to celebrate the day was adopted in 1992. The day was initially celebrated on December 29 till 2000 starting from 1993.

It was marked on December 29 to celebrate the Day the Convention on Biological Diversity came into effect. It was later shifted to May 22 to commemorate the adoption of convention at Rio Earth Summit.