The Garib Kalyan RojgarAbhiyaan (GKRA) has been launched to boost employment and livelihood opportunities for migrant workers returning to villages and similarly affected citizens in rural areas, in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak.

The Abhiyaan is taking action on mission mode to provide employment to migrant workers who have returned to their native villages of 6 states namely Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

The Abhiyaan is now empowering villagers with livelihood opportunities in 116 districts of these states.

Union Power Minister launches Green Term Ahead Market (GTAM) in electricity through video conferencing

The market is first Exclusive product for renewable energy sector in the world GTAM to benefit buyers of RE through competitive prices and transparent and flexible procurement : Sh R K Singh

Sellers will also be benefitted by getting access to Pan India Market Posted On: 01 SEP 2020 4:57PM by PIB Delhi

As a first step towards Greening the Indian short term power Market, Shri R. K. Singh, the Minister of State (IC) Power and New & Renewable Energy & Minister of State (Skill Development and Entrepreneurship), launched pan-India Green Term Ahead Market (GTAM) in electricity through video conference in New Delhi, today, the 1st September 2020.

While speaking after the launch Shri Singh said, “The introduction of GTAM platform would lessen the burden on RE-rich States and incentivize them to develop RE capacity beyond their own RPO. This would promote RE merchant capacity addition and help in achieving RE capacity addition targets of the country.” He further added that GTAM platform will lead to increase in number of participants in renewable energy sector. It will benefit buyers of RE through competitive prices and transparent and flexible procurement. It will also benefit RE sellers by providing access to pan- India market

The Government of India’s target of 175 GW RE Capacity by 2022 is driving accelerated renewable penetration pan-India. Green Term Ahead Market contracts will allow additional avenues to the RE generators for sale of renewable energy; enable Obligated entities to procure renewable power at competitive prices to meet their Renewable Purchase Obligations (RPO); and provide a platform to environmentally conscious open access consumers and utilities to buy green power.

Key features of GTAM: 1. Transactions through GTAM will be bilateral in nature with clear identification of corresponding buyers and sellers, there will not be any difficulty in accounting for RPO.

2. GTAM contracts will be segregated into Solar RPO & Non-Solar RPO as RPO targets are also segregated. 3. Further, within the two segments GTAM contracts will have Green Intraday, Day Ahead Contingency, Daily and Weekly Contracts

a. Green Intraday Contract & Day Ahead Contingency Contract – Bidding will take place on a 15-minute time-block wise MW basis. b. Daily & Weekly Contracts – Bidding will take place on MWh basis. Both buyers and sellers can submit the bid, however the seller will provide profile in terms of 15-minute time block wise quantity (MW) along with the price (Rs/MWh). After the contract gets executed scheduling will take place as per the profile. In case of multiple buyers, the profile will get allocated on a pro-rata basis.

4. Price discovery will take place on a continuous basis i.e. price time priority basis. Subsequently, looking at the market conditions open auction can be introduced for daily & weekly contracts.

5. Energy scheduled through GTAM contract shall be considered as deemed RPO compliance of the buyer.

Union Power Minister also mentioned that other products to be introduced in power market for promotion of Renewable Energy are in the pipeline and would be introduced soon.

Projects likely to generate direct and indirect employment for 16,200 farmers

27 projects approved under Pradhan Mantri Kisan SAMPADA Yojana Posted On: 01 SEP 2020 3:14PM by PIB Delhi

Smt Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Union Minister of Food Processing Industries has stated that new integrated cold chain projects are likely to generate direct and indirect employment for 16,200 and are likely to benefit 2,57,904 farmers.27 projects were approved in Inter-Ministerial Approval Committee (IMAC) meetings under the Scheme for Integrated Cold Chain and Value addition infrastructure of Pradhan Mantri Kisan SAMPADA Yojana (PMKSY). The meetingswere chaired bySmt. Harsimrat Kaur Badal through video conferencing.

The projects have been approved across the states of Andhra Pradesh (7), Bihar(1), Gujarat(2), Haryana(4), Karnataka(3), Kerala(1), MP(1), Punjab(1), Rajasthan(2), Tamil Nadu(4) and Uttar Pradesh(1).These 27 new integrated cold chain projects will leverage a total investment of 743 crores for the creation of modern, innovative infrastructure and effective cold chain facilities for the food processing sector across the nation. These projects with a grant-in-aid of 208 crores will help increase efficiency and sustainability in India’s food supply chain.

Smt. Badal added that saving the perishable produce, by provisioning adequate infrastructure, shall not only help in augmenting farmer’s incomes but it shall also act as a small step towards making India AtmaNirbhar/self-reliant in the fruits and vegetables sector. She further said that these Integrated Cold Chain projects will not only provide a big boost to the growth of food processing infrastructure but would also help in streamlining the agricultural supply chain, generate direct and indirect employment opportunities in rural areas, provide better prices to farmers, end-users, and benefit allied sectors. She added that these benefits are vital for the economic security of farmers.

85 Cold Chain Projects have been considered for financial assistance throughout the country. This is a boost to Government’s efforts towards bridging the gap in supply chain and building world-class cold chain infrastructure through the Scheme of Cold Chain, Value Addition & Preservation Infrastructure of Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana.

This Integrated Cold Chain projects will not only provide a big boost to the growth of food processing infrastructure but would also help in streamlining the agricultural supply chain, generate direct and indirect employment opportunities in rural areas, provide better prices to farmers, end-users, and benefit allied sectors. These benefits are vital for the economic security of farmers.

The Ministry of Food Processing Industries is striving to establish an integrated and seamless network of strong Cold Chain Grid and infrastructure for the uninterrupted transfer of perishables from production to consumption areas/centers. This would maintain the safety, quality, and quantity and storage of perishable produce such as fruits and vegetables, dairy products, meat, fish marine, poultry, ready to eat food products.

Under the Central Sector Scheme of Integrated Cold Chain and Value Addition Infrastructure, the Ministry provides financial assistance in the form of grant-in-aid at the rate of 35 percent for general areas and the rate of 50 percent for North-Eastern States, Himalayan States, ITDP Areas, and Islands for storage and transport infrastructure. The assistance at 50 percent and 75 percent respectively are also given for value addition and processing infrastructure subject to a maximum grant-in-aid of 10 crores per project for setting up integrated cold chain projects, including irradiation facility from the farm gate to the consumer.

The Food Processing Industry has the potential to absorb the excess farm produce thereby benefiting the farmers and at the same time, convert the harvest into a value-added processed product that can meet the domestic as well as the global demand. The meetings of the Inter-Ministerial Approval Committee (IMAC) to sanction the above projects were held on 21st, 24th, 28th & 31st August 2020.

Migratory PDS beneficiaries in 26 States/UTs can now access subsidised food grains from any Fair Price Shop of their choice Posted On: 01 SEP 2020 4:37PM by PIB Delhi

The Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Sh. Ram Vilas Paswan recently reviewed the progress made towards the implementation of “One Nation One Ration Card” plan and while taking note of the requisite technical readiness of another 2 Union Territories of Ladakh and Lakshadweep, approved the integration of these 2 UTs with existing national portability cluster of 24 States/UTs.

Both the UTs have completed the trial and testing of national portability transactions with other States/UTs in national cluster. With this, a total of 26 States/UTs are now seamlessly connected with each other under the One Nation One Ration Card plan and migratory PDS beneficiaries in these 26 States/UTs can access their subsidised foodgrains at the same Scale and Central Issue Prices from any Fair Price Shop (FPS) of their choice w.e.f. 1st September 2020.

A total of more than 65 Crore beneficiaries (i.e. 80% of total NFSA population) in the following 26 States/UTs, namely – Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Ladakh, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Telangana, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, are now potentially enabled with an option to lift their subsidised foodgrains through One Nation One Ration Card system. Remaining States/UTs are targeted to be integrated in national portability by March 2021.

The ‘One Nation One Ration Card’ plan is an ambitious endeavour of the Government to ensure the delivery of food security entitlements to all beneficiaries covered under the National Food Security Act, 2013 (NFSA), 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.

As a landmark achievement in Space missions, Indian Astronomers have discovered one of the farthest Star galaxies in the universe.

Sharing this information here today, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge), Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said, it is a matter of pride that India’s first Multi-Wavelength Space Observatory "AstroSat" has detected extreme-UV light from a galaxy located 9.3 billion light-years away from Earth. The galaxy called AUDFs01 was discovered by a team of Astronomers led by Dr Kanak Saha from the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics(IUCAA) Pune.

The importance and uniqueness of this original discovery can be made out from the fact that it has been reported in the leading international journal “Nature Astronomy” published from Britain. India's AstroSat/UVIT was able to achieve this unique feat because the background noise in the UVIT detector is much less than one on the Hubble Space Telescope of US based NASA.

Dr Jitendra Singh has congratulated India’s Space Scientists for once again proving to the world that India’s capability in Space technology has risen to a distinguished level from where our scientists are now offering cues and giving leads to the Space scientists in other parts of the world. According to Professor ShyamTandon, the excellent spatial resolution and high sensitivity is a tribute to the hard work of the UVIT core team of scientists for over a decade.

According to Director of Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) Dr Somak Ray Chaudhury, this discovery is a very important clue to how the dark ages of the Universe ended and there was light in the Universe. We need to know when this started, but it has been very hard to find the earliest sources of light, he said.

Pertinent to mention that India’s first Space Observatory AstroSat, which has made this discovery, was launched by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) on September 28, 2015 during the first term of the Modi Government. It was developed by a team led by ShyamTandon, Ex Emeritus Professor, IUCAA with the full support of ISRO.

Context: This rare inscription was recently unearthed from a remote village of Kadapa district in Andhra Pradesh.

Key points: It was found engraved on a dolomite slab and shale. The inscription was written in archaic Telugu. It was assigned to the 8th Century A.D., when the region was under the rule of the Chola Maharaja of Renadu.

What this inscription reveals? It throws light on the record of a gift of six marttus (a measuring unit) of land gifted to a person.

The last lines of the inscription are indicative of the priority given to morality in those days. “It says the people who safeguard this inscription for future generations will acquire the status of conducting Aswamedha Yaga, and those destroying it will incur sin equivalent to causing a death in Varanasi”.

Who were Renati Cholas? The Telugu Cholas of Renadu (also called as Renati Cholas) ruled over Renadu region, the present day Cuddapah district. They were originally independent, later forced to the suzerainty of the Eastern Chalukyas.

They had the unique honour of using the Telugu language in their inscriptions belonging to the 7th and 8th centuries. The earliest of this family was Nandivarman (500 AD) who claimed descent from the family of Karikala and the Kasyapa gotra. Their territory extended over the whole of Cuddapah district and the adjoining areas of Anantapur, Kurnool and Chittoor districts.

Relevant points for exams: Chola Local Administration: The most important feature of the Chola administration was the local administration at districts, towns and villages level. Uttaramerur inscriptions speak much about the Chola administration.

Village autonomy was the most unique feature of Chola administrative system. Nadu was one of the important administrative units of the Cholas. Nadus had representative assemblies. The heads of the Nadus were called Nattars. The council of Nadu was called Nattavai.

Variyams: Village Assemblies carried on village administration effectively with the help of variyams. The male members of the society were the members of these variyams.

Context: Ministry of Tourism recently organised their latest webinar titled Hampi- Inspired by the past; Going into the future under Dekho Apna DeshWebinar series.

Dekho Apna Desh Webinar Series is an effort to showcase India’s rich diversity under Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat programme.

About Hampi: It was the last capital of the last great Hindu Kingdom of Vijayanagar. In 1336 CE, the Vijayanagara Empire arose from the ruins of the Kampili kingdom. It grew into one of the famed Hindu empires of South India that ruled for over 200 years.

It was a part of the Mauryan Empire back in the third century BC. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site Its name is derived from Pampa which is the old name of the Tungabhadra River on whose banks the city is built. The site used to be multi-religious and multi-ethnic; it included Hindu and Jain monuments next to each other.

Architecture: It has been described by UNESCO as an “austere, grandiose site” of more than 1,600 surviving remains of the last great Hindu kingdom in South India.

The buildings here predominantly followed South Indian Hindu arts and architecture dating to the Aihole-Pattadakal styles, but the Hampi builders also used elements of Indo-Islamic architecture in the Lotus Mahal, the public bath and the elephant stables.

The 15th Century Virupaksha temple is one of the oldest monuments of the town. Hemkunta Hill, south of the Virupaksha temple contains early ruins, Jain temples and a monolithic sculpture of Lord Narasimha, a form of Lord Vishnu.

Vittal temple built in the 16th Century, is now a World Heritage monument. The columns of the temple are so balanced that they have a musical quality.

Context: The Supreme Court has fined senior advocate Prashant Bhushan Re 1 in the contempt case for his tweets on the judiciary.

He will be imprisoned for three months and will be debarred from practicing for three years if he defaults on the payment of the penalty.

Background: On August 25, the court had reserved its ruling after numerous arguments as Bhushan refused to apologise.

What next? He has agreed to pay the fine but has said that he will file a review petition against the conviction. What is a review petition and when can it be filed? A judgment of the Supreme Court becomes the law of the land, according to the Constitution. It is final because it provides certainty for deciding future cases.

However, the Constitution itself gives, under Article 137, the Supreme Court the power to review any of its judgments or orders. This departure from the Supreme Court’s final authority is entertained under specific, narrow grounds.

So, when a review takes place, the law is that it is allowed not to take fresh stock of the case but to correct grave errors that have resulted in the miscarriage of justice.

When can a review petition be accepted? In a 1975 ruling, Justice Krishna Iyer said a review can be accepted “only where a glaring omission or patent mistake or like grave error has crept in earlier by judicial fallibility”.

A review is by no means an appeal in disguise. That means the Court is allowed not to take fresh stock of the case but to correct grave errors that have resulted in the miscarriage of justice.

Filing Review Petition: As per the Civil Procedure Code and the Supreme Court Rules, any person aggrieved by a ruling can seek a review. This implies that it is not necessary that only parties to a case can seek a review of the judgment.

A Review Petition has to be filed within 30 days of the date of judgment or order. In certain circumstances, the court can condone the delay in filing the review petition if the petitioner can establish strong reasons that justify the delay.

The procedure to be followed: The rules state that review petitions would ordinarily be entertained without oral arguments by lawyers. It is heard “through circulation” by the judges in their chambers.

Review petitions are also heard, as far as practicable, by the same combination of judges who delivered the order or judgment that is sought to be reviewed.

If a judge has retired or is unavailable, a replacement is made keeping in mind the seniority of judges.

In exceptional cases, the court allows an oral hearing. In a 2014 case, the Supreme Court held that review petitions in all death penalty cases will be heard in open court by a Bench of three judges.

Option after Review Petition Fails: In Roopa Hurra v Ashok Hurra case (2002), the Court evolved the concept of a curative petition, which can be heard after a review petition is dismissed.

A curative petition is also entertained on very narrow grounds like a review petition and is generally not granted an oral hearing.

Context: RBI has announced the following measures to cool the rising bond yields and assuage liquidity pressures that could arise due to advance tax outflows:

Two more tranches of ‘Operation Twist’ aggregating Rs 20,000 crore. Term repo operations aggregating Rs 1 lakh crore in September. Created more room under the so-called ‘held to maturity’ (HTM) category, which Banks’ can utilise from September 1, 2020 to park their fresh G-Sec acquisitions.

What is ‘Operation Twist’? ‘Operation Twist’ is RBI’s simultaneous selling of short-term securities and buying of long term securities through open market operations (OMO). Under this mechanism, the short-term securities are transitioned into long-term securities.

How does RBI manage ‘Operation Twist’? This operation involves buying and selling government securities simultaneously in order to bring down long-term interest rates and bolster short-term rates.

There is an inverse relationship between the bond prices and their yields. As the central bank buys long-term securities (bonds), their demand rise which in turn pushes up their prices.

However, the bond yield comes down with an increase in prices. Yield is the return an investor gets on his (bond) holding/investment. The interest rate in an economy is determined by yield. Thus, lower long-term interest rates mean people can avail long-term loans (such as buying houses, cars or financing projects) at lower rates.

This also results in a dip in the expected returns from long-term savings which tilts the balance from saving towards spending. Hence, cheaper retail loans can help encourage consumption spending which is the largest GDP component in the economy.

Benefits: Fixed income investors with higher exposure to long term debt will benefit from easing yield of long-term bonds. Consumers/borrowers will also profit from ‘Operation Twist’ as the retail loans will now get cheaper.

Cheaper retail loans mean a boost in consumption and spending in the economy which in turn will revive growth.

What are Open Market Operations? OMOs are the market operations conducted by the RBI by way of sale and purchase of G-Secs to and from the market with an objective to adjust the rupee liquidity conditions in the market on a durable basis.

When the RBI feels that there is excess liquidity in the market, it resorts to sale of securities thereby sucking out the rupee liquidity. Similarly, when the liquidity conditions are tight, the RBI may buy securities from the market, thereby releasing liquidity into the market.

Context: Union Minister of Coal and Mines recently addressed a webinar on Coal Gasification and Liquefaction. He said;

India aims for 100 million tonnes (MT) coal gasification by 2030 with investments worth over Rs. 4 lakh crores. For encouraging use of clean sources of fuel, government has provided for a concession of 20% on revenue share of coal used for gasification. This will boost production of synthetic natural gas, energy fuel, urea for fertilisers and production of other chemicals.

What is coal gasification? It is the process of producing syngas, a mixture consisting carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen (H2), carbon dioxide (CO2), natural gas (CH4), and water vapour (H2O).

During gasification, coal is blown with oxygen and steam while also being heated under high pressure. During the reaction, oxygen and water molecules oxidize the coal and produce syngas.

Benefits of gasification: Transporting gas is a lot cheaper than transporting coal. Help address local pollution problems. Has greater efficiency than conventional coal-burning because it can effectively use the gases twice: the coal gases are first cleansed of impurities and fired in a turbine to generate electricity. The exhaust heat from the gas turbine can be captured and used to generate steam for a steam turbine-generator.

Concerns and challenges: Coal gasification is one of the more water-intensive forms of energy production. There are also concerns about water contamination, land subsidence and disposing of waste water safely.

What is coal liquefaction? Also called Coal to Liquid (CTL) technology, it is an alternative route to produce diesel and gasoline and makes economic sense only in a world of high crude oil prices.

The process involves gasification of coal, which in turn will produce synthetic gas (a mix of CO+H2). The synthetic gas can be liquefied to its fuel equivalent in presence of cobalt/iron-based catalysts at higher pressure and temperature. However, liquefied coal emits twice as much CO2 as burning oil. It also emits a large volume of SO2.

Benefits of liquefaction: The CO2 emissions are more readily and cheaply captured from CTL plants than from conventional coal-fired power stations. The captured CO2 can be transported and injected into underground storage reservoirs (a procedure known as “carbon capture and storage”—CCS—or “geosequestration”).

Context: CSIR-CMERI has developed the World’s Largest Solar Tree, which is installed at CSIR-CMERI Residential Colony, Durgapur.

Key points: The installed capacity of the Solar Tree is above 11.5 kWp. It has the annual capacity to generate 12,000-14,000 units of Clean and Green Power.

The Tree has been designed in a manner to ensure maximum exposure of each Solar PV Panel to Sunlight and also creation of the least amount of shadow area beneath.

Significance and potential of solar trees: These Solar Trees can be aligned with Agriculture for substituting price-volatile fossil fuels.

Each Solar Tree has the potential to save 10-12 tons of CO2 emissions being released into the atmosphere as Greenhouse Gases when compared with fossil fuel fired energy generation.

Besides, the surplus generated power can be fed into an Energy Grid. This Agricultural Model can provide a consistent economic return and help the farmers counter the effects of the uncertain variations in Agriculture related activities, thus, making farming an Economic and Energy Sustainable practice.

The solar tree also has the capability to incorporate IOT based features,e. round-the-clock CCTV surveillance in agricultural fields, real-time humidity, wind speed, rainfall prediction and soil analytics sensors.

The CSIR-CMERI developed solar powered e-Suvidha Kiosks may also be connected to the Solar Trees for real-time access to the vast majority of agricultural database as well as to the eNAM i.e. National Agricultural MarketPlace for instant and real-time access to an unified online market.

Context: India and China have unsettled borders, and the perception of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) differs in multiple sectors, including on Pangong Tso.

Recently, Indian soldiers thwarted an attempt by Chinese troops to occupy some heights near the southern bank of Pangong Tso.

Why there is a dispute here? The Line of Actual Control (LAC) – the line that separates Indian and Chinese troops since 1962 – generally runs along the land except for the width of Pangong Tso. Here, it runs through water.

Both sides have marked their areas announcing which side belongs to which country. India controls about 45 km stretch of the Pangong Tso and China the rest.

The lake is divided into sections called fingers. There are eight of them in contention here. India and China have different understanding of where the LAC passes through. India has maintained that the LAC passes through Finger 8, which has been the site of the final military post of China. India has been patrolling the area – mostly on foot because of the nature of the terrain – up to Finger 8. But Indian forces have not had active control beyond Finger 4.

China, on the other hand, says the LAC passes through Finger 2. It has been patrolling up to Finger 4- mostly in light vehicles, and at times up to Finger 2.

Why China wants to encroach areas alongside Pangong Tso? Pangong Tso is strategically crucial as it is very close to Chusul Valley,which was one of the battlefronts between India and China during the 1962 war. China appears to keep India constricted in the region by taking strategic advantage of looking over the Chusul Valley, which it can do if it advances along Pangong Tso.

China also does not want India to boost its infrastructure anywhere near the LAC. China fears it threatens its occupation of Aksai Chin and Lhasa-Kashgar highway. Any threat to this highway also puts Chinese rather imperialist plans in Pakistan-occupied territories in Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir, and beyond in Pakistan.

About Pangong Tso: Pangong Tso literally translates into a “conclave lake”. Pangong means conclave in Ladakhi and Tso means a lake in Tibetan language.

Situated at over 14,000 feet, the Lake is about 135 km long. It is formed from Tethys geosyncline.

The Karakoram Mountain range, which crosses Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and India, with heights of over 6,000 metres including K2, the world’s second highest peak, ends at the north bank of Pangong Tso. Its southern bank too has high broken mountains sloping towards Spangur Lake in the south.

The lake’s water, while crystal clear, is brackish, making it undrinkable.

It is a geopolitical term, typically used to group the three sovereign states in Northern Europe on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

The most important areas of cooperation between the three countries are foreign and security policy, defence, energy and transportation. All three countries are members of the European Union, NATO, the eurozone and the OECD.

All three are classified as high-income economies by the World Bank and maintain a very high Human Development Index.