Hyperloop
We’re not selling transportation, we’re selling time
That’s what the CEO of Hyperloop says.A while back we published the idea of Metrino pod and Talgo train – Click Here
Now the transport ministry is toying with the idea of Hyperloop.
The travel time between Mumbai and Pune, about three hours by train now, would be cut to 25 minutes if Hyperloop Transportation Technologies has its way.
The Los Angeles-based company, which has designed a new way to move people, has asked the transport ministry for land to run a pilot project of its high-speed transportation service.
Hyperloop is a concept where a pod-like vehicle travels through a near-vacuum that’s contained within a tube. It can theoretically touch top speeds of close to 1,200 km an hour even when not running on full steam, using less energy than conventional modes of transportation. It is being heralded as the future of high-speed passenger and freight transportation the world over, with futurists such as Elon Musk backing the concept.
“We use a custom electric motor to accelerate and decelerate a levitated pod through a low-pressure tube. The vehicle will glide silently for miles with no turbulence,” says its website. “We tested our motor in May, 2016, and will test the full system in early 2017. We’re developing routes in five countries. The goal is to be moving cargo by 2020 and passengers by 2021.”
Bipop Gresta, chairman and chief operating officer of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, says he met Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari and made a formal proposal to set up a pilot project in the country. “We’re not asking for money right now, we’re asking for land. If they want to put money, we can do a public-private partnership. But if they don’t want that, we have private investors. In the second case, we need to have land that is meaningful and not something in the middle of nowhere.”
If the proposal goes through, Gresta says he estimates it will take eight months to do a feasibility study. It might take an additional 28 months from the time all the permits are acquired to roll out the transportation service.
Unlike traditional high-speed rail networks that need vast stretches of land for arrow-straight tracks, Hyperloops can be built alongside highways. The technology consumes much less energy owing to the lack of air resistance within the tubes.
Gresta says the concept will be an ideal fit for India, which lacks high-speed rail and air connectivity. “India is a country that has a very particular situation. It has a high density of population, lacks infrastructure and a political environment that is willing to invest in innovation,” Gresta had said on the sidelines of Carnegie India’s Global Technology Summit in Bengaluru on Tuesday.
Hyperloop Transportation Technology already has a 25-member team in India that is working on technology, mechanical engineering and other roles for its global ambitions. Further, the company is looking to partner with Indian educational institutes to have them solve engineering problems.
The company is also in talks with at least two Indian firms for outsourcing some part of its manufacturing and other technology services. Gresta did not divulge the details on the companies.
“We’re not selling transportation, we’re selling time,” says the company’s website.
Andaman and Nicobar: Navy deploys ships to evacuate 800 tourists stranded in Havelock Island
Four ships of the Indian Navy were sailed on Wednesday morning to evacuate about 800 tourists from Havelock Island in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, an official said. The sudden evacuation mission was initiated at the request of the Andaman and Nicobar disaster management, which speculates that a “cyclonic storm” might struck Havelock, an island about 36 km from capital Port Blair.
C-sec births altering course of evolution
Regular use of caesarean sections to deliver babies is affecting the human evolution, according to a new study. An increasing number of mothers now need surgery to deliver a baby due to their narrow pelvis size, researchers said.
Researchers estimate cases where the baby cannot fit down the birth canal have increased from 30 in 1,000 in the 1960s to 36 in 1,000 births today . Historically, these genes would not have been passed from mother to child as both would have died in labour.
According to Dr Philipp Mitteroecker from the University of Vienna, there is a long standing question in the understanding of human evolution. “Why is the rate of birth problems, in particular what we call fetopelvic disproportion -basically that the baby does not fit through the maternal birth canal -why is this rate so high?” he said.
“Without modern medical intervention such problems often were lethal and this is, from an evolutionary perspective, selection. Women with a very narrow pelvis would not have survived birth 100 years ago. They do now and pass on their genes encoding for a narrow pelvis to their daughters,” said Mitteroecker.
It has been a long stan ding evolutionary question why the human pelvis has not grown wider over the years. The head of a human baby is large compared with other primates, meaning animals such as chimps can give birth relatively easily , `BBC News’ reported.
Researchers devised a mathematical model using data from the WHO and other large birth studies. They found opposing evolutionary forces. One is a trend towards larger newborns, which are more healthy . However, if they grow too large, they get stuck during labour, which would have proved disastrous for mother and baby , and their genes would not be passed on.”One side of this selective force -namely the trend towards smaller babies -has vanished due to caesarean sections,” said Mitteroecker.
India Puts Remote Sensing Satellite RESOURCESAT-2A Into Orbit
According to ISRO, Resourcesat-2A is a follow on mission to Resourcesat-1 and Resourcesat-2, launched in 2003 and 2011 respectively.
The new satellite Resourcesat-2A is intended to continue the remote sensing data services to global users provided by it two predecessors.
The RESOURCESAT-2A carries three payloads which are similar to those of the earlier two Resourcesat’s.
They are a high resolution Linear Imaging Self Scanner (LISS-4) camera operating in three spectral bands in the Visible and Near Infrared Region (VNIR) with 5.8 m spatial resolution and steerable up to 26 degree across track to achieve a five day revisit capability.
The second payload is the medium resolution LISS-3 camera operating in three-spectral bands in VNIR and one in Short Wave Infrared (SWIR) band with 23.5 m spatial resolution.
The third payload is a coarse resolution Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWiFS) camera operating in three spectral bands in VNIR and one band in SWIR with 56 m spatial resolution.
The satellite also carries two Solid State Recorders with a capacity of 200 Giga Bits each to store the images taken by its cameras which can be read out later to ground stations.
The mission life of Resourcesat-2A is five years.
Measures to meet targets for Nuclear Power
The Government has taken measures to ensure availability of fuel in required quantity (from both domestic and imported sources) and to expedite ongoing projects.
In addition, the Government has taken the following measures to facilitate nuclear power capacity addition:
• In principle approval of sites to locate nuclear power plants in future.
• Creation of India Nuclear Insurance Pool to cover the Operator’s Liability as prescribed under the provisions of the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage (CLND) Act, 2010.
• Amendment to the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 to facilitate establishment of Joint Venture Companies (JVC) by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) with other Central Public Sector Undertakings to set up nuclear power plants.
• Budget speech announcement (2016-17) on augmenting investment in nuclear power.
A focussed approach directed towards research and development with identified goals are being carried out in various fields like advanced reactor development, nuclear fuel cycle, thorium fuel utilisation, reactor safety studies, life cycle & ageing management studies, electronics and instrumentation, high efficiency energy conversion, advanced materials and remote handling and robotics.
The research and development activities in NPCIL are being carried out for development of technology, tools, testing facilities etc. aimed at enhancement of nuclear and radiation safety, reliable operation of nuclear power plants and development of equipment/ components/ systems for current and future nuclear power reactors.
Progress of Chandrayaan-2 Mission
Chandrayaan-2, India’s second mission to the Moon, is a totally indigenous mission comprising of Orbiter, Lander and Rover. The Orbiter and Rover flight systems are in advanced stage of realisation. Payloads are under development at various ISRO Centres / laboratories. Realisation of indigenous Lander is in progress. Special tests for new systems in Lander have been identified and a Lander Sensors Performance Test (phase-1) over artificial craters created in Chitradurga district in Karnataka has been conducted. Lunar Terrain Test facility is ready for Lander drop test and Rover mobility tests.
The Orbiter carrying six payloads will orbit around the Moon in 100 km lunar orbit. The payloads will collect scientific information on lunar topography, mineralogy, elemental abundance, lunar exosphere and signatures of hydroxyl and water-ice.
ISRO is working towards the launch of Chandrayaan-2 during the first quarter of 2018.
UNESCO inscribes Yoga in the representative list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity
Yoga, India’s one of the ancient practices has now been inscribed as an element in the UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of humanity during the 11th session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. During this session, India’s proposal for inscribing Yoga as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity was unanimously supported by all the 24 members of the Intergovernmental Committee.
Yoga has become the 13th intangible cultural heritage that has been listed from India so far with UNESCO. Previous ones includes the Chhau dance( Inscribed in 2010), the Buddhist chanting of Ladakh ( inscribed in 2012), Sankirtana –the ritual singing, drumming, and dancing of Manipur( inscribed in 2013), the traditional brass and copper craft of utensil making among the Thatheras of Jandiala Guru, Punjab(inscribed in 2014) and Ramlila– the traditional performance of the Ramayana ( inscribed in 2008)
Impact of Administrative Reforms implemented by Government
Several administrative reforms are implemented by the Government post 2014 to make administrative process efficient, transparent and accountable. Some of the major reforms are as under:
(i) e-Samiksha- A real time online system for monitoring and follow up action on the decisions taken by the Government at the apex level in respect of implementation of important Government’s programmes / projects.
(ii) e-Office– e-Office Mission Mode Project (MMP) has been strengthened for enabling Ministries/Department to switchover to paperless office.
(iii) Direct Benefit Transfer(DBT) payment, e-Payments – All payments to the beneficiary
is to be made directly to their bank account through electronic mode under DBT.
(iv) Aadhaar enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS) –AEBAS was introduced in the Central Government Offices located in Delhi to monitor punctuality of government officials. This has improved the punctuality of the Government servant in offices.
(v) Smart Performance Appraisal Report Recording Online Window (SPARROW) –Annual Performance Appraisal Report of All India Service Officers and some other services are being submitted online in the SPARROW portal. The system ensures timely submission and easy access of APAR.
(vi) Legal Information Management Based System (LIMBS) – This is an online court case monitoring system to ensure speedy disposal of disputes.
(vii) Online application system for notaries– This system helps the interested persons in getting themselves registered as notaries.
(viii) Discontinuation of Interview in recruitment of Junior Level Posts – Government has taken a decision to dispense away with the interview in recruitment of all Group ‘C’, Group ‘B’ (Non-gazetted post) and other equivalent post from 01.01.2016 in all Government of India Ministries/Department/Attached Offices/Subordinate Offices/Autonomous Bodies/Public Sector Undertakings to curb malpractices and for bringing objectivities to the selection process.
(ix) Introduction of conducting examination by Staff Selection Commission (SSC) through Computer Based Mode. Group ‘B’ and Group ‘C’ posts recruitment conducted by SSC made through Computer Base Mode.
(x) ‘JeevanPramaan’ – The system provides authenticity to Digital Life Certificate without the necessity of the pensioner being present in person before his/ her Pension Dispensing Authority (PDA).
(xi) The Government has undertaken several initiatives to introduce new IT products and technologies and to strengthen existing ones in its various e-Governance projects. Some of major initiatives are as under:
(a) National Scholarship Portal: It provides a centralized platform for application and disbursement of scholarship to students under any scholarship scheme.
(b) GeM–An online procurement of Goods & Services required by various Government Departments / Organizations / PSUs, Government e-Marketplace (GeM) has been developed to enhance transparency, efficiency and speed in public procurement.
(c) UMANG – Unified Mobile App for New – age Governance is an initiative to build a common, unified platform and mobile app to facilitate single point of access for government services through mobile.
(d) e-Sign– This framework has been developed as an integrated service, which facilitates issuing a Digital Signature Certificate and performing signing of requested document by authenticating the Aadhaar card holder.
(e) Digital Locker-This provides an ecosystem with collection of repositories and gateways for issuers to upload the documents in the digital repositories. It will eliminate the usage of physical documents and enable sharing of e-documents across agencies.The System serves as a platform to enable citizens to securely store and share their documents with service providers who can directly access them electronically.
(f) e-Hospital– Online Registration Framework (ORF) is an initiative to facilitate the patients to take online OPD appointments with government hospitals. This framework also covers patient care, laboratory services and medical record management.
(g) Mobile Seva – Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has implemented a countrywide initiative on mobile governance, called Mobile Seva, to provide government services to the people through mobile phones and tablets.
(h) National Centre of Geo-informatics (NCoG)– Under this project, Geographic Information System (GIS) platform for sharing, collaboration, location based analytics and decision support system for Departments has been developed. Currently, 8 applications across various domains are operational.
(xii) Following initiatives are taken up to ensure farmers’ welfare as well as consumers’ satisfaction:
(a) M-Kisan Portal – All Central and State Government organizations in agriculture and allied sectors to give information/services/advisories to farmers by SMS in their language, preference of agricultural practices and location.
(b) Kisan Call Centres – Government setup call centres to respond to the queries of farmers on all seven days a week from 6.00 AM to 10.00 PM through toll free telephone No. 1XXX-XX-1551.
(c) KisanSuvidha Mobile App – on five critical parameters – weather, input dealers, market price, plant protection and expert advisories.
(d) e-National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) – Connecting 21 wholesale markets (Mandis) in eight states.
Surging methane emissions imperil climate goals
A decade-long surge of the potent greenhouse gas methane threatens to make the fight against global warming even harder, top researchers warned.
“Additional attention is urgently needed to quantify and reduce methane emissions,” they wrote Monday in the Environmental Research Letters journal, summarizing the findings of a consortium of 81 scientists.
After rising slowly from 2000 to 2006, the concentration of methane in the air climbed 10 times more quickly the following decade, according to that study, which was published in the peer-reviewed Earth System Science Data.
The unexpected and largely unexplained increase was especially sharp in 2014 and 2015.
“Keeping global warming below two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) is already a challenging target,” they said, referring to the goal set in the 196 nation Paris climate pact, which entered into force last month.
“Such a target will become increasingly difficult if reductions in methane emissions are not also addressed strongly and rapidly.”
With only 1 degree Celsius (1.8 F) of warming above pre-industrial era levels so far, the world has seen an uptick in extreme weather, including droughts, superstorms, heat waves and coastal flooding boosted by rising seas.
On current trends, average global temperatures are on track to jump by more than 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 F) by 2100, even if national carbon-cutting pledges annexed to the Paris Agreement are honoured.
NDRF teams pre-positioned in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu for cyclone Vardah
In view of development of cyclone Vardah over Bay of Bengal, 19 flood rescue teams of NDRF have been prepositioned in coastal areas of Andhra Pradesh & Tamil Nadu as a proactive deployment.
NDRF:-
The Disaster Management Act has made the statutory provisions for constitution of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) for the purpose of specialized response to natural and man-made disasters.
Two national calamities in quick succession in the form of Orissa Super Cyclone (1999) and Gujarat Earthquake (2001) brought about the realization of the need of having a specialist response mechanism at National Level to effectively respond to disasters. This realization led to the enactment of the DM Act on 26 Dec 2005.
How the Cyclones are named:-
The naming of tropical cyclones is a recent phenomenon. The process of naming cyclones involves several countries in the region and is done under the aegis of the World Meteorological Organization.
For the Indian Ocean region, deliberations for naming cyclones began in 2000 and a formula was agreed upon in 2004. Eight countries in the region – Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand – all contributed a set of names which are assigned sequentially whenever a cyclonic storm develops.
Why name a Cyclone?
It’s easier and less confusing to say “Cyclone Phailin” than remember the storm’s number or its longitude and latitude. It’s also easier when you have more than one storm to track.
Tirupati laddu – Geographical Indicator , also needs safety licence, says food safety authority
The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) now has to obtain a food safety licence like any other Food Business Operator (FBO) for the famed Tirupati laddu.
The applicability of the Act is not affected whether the food is purchased or distributed free of cost. TTD therefore has to obtain a licence and fulfil all responsibilities of an FBO as stipulated in Section 23 of the FSS Act
What are the different parts of a cyclone’s structure?
The eye
The eye of the storm is the centre. It’s a relatively calm space. When the eye passes over an area, winds slow down and everything feels like it has cleared up. But this is the proverbial calm before the storm, as the part that comes after the eye usually inflicts the most damage.
The eyewall
This is where the most effective part of a cyclone rests. The eyewall houses extremely high wind speeds, causing damage to both lives and property. It is a ring of thunderstorms, and changes in the eye or the eyewall affects the storm’s intensity.
Rainbands
These are the outer parts of a cyclone where sudden bursts of rain happen. There can also be gaps betwen rainbands where no rain or wind occurs.
Hurricane or cyclone?
The only difference between a hurricane, a cyclone and a typhoon is the location in which they occur. Storms in the Atlantic and the Northeast Pacific oceans are known as hurricanes, those in the Northwest Pacific ocean are called typhoons, and the same systems in the South Pacific and Indian oceans are cyclones.
Rs. 12.44 lakh crore in demonetised notes collected at banks
Banks have issued Rs 4.61 lakh crore to the public since November 9 through ATMs and bank counters.
The Reserve Bank of India said on Tuesday that Rs 12.44 lakh crore in demonetised notes have been collected at banks.
Cancel illegal salt pans in Sambhar Lake: NGT
The central zonal bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the Rajasthan government to cancel allotments of salt pans in the Sambhar Salt Lake that fall within the wetland and run contrary to the mandate of Wetland Rules, 2010.
NGT has also directed the State government to not to make any further allotments or permit new salt pans within the wetland areas or in the ‘no construction zone’ identified for the said purpose in accordance with the Wetland Rules, 2010.
It has further asked the authority to examine the sensitive issue in light of observations and recommendations made by the two expert committees in the year 2010. The bench gave six months’ time to implement the recommendations which should not be later than the 2017 monsoon.
Sambar lake:
The Sambhar Salt Lake is India’s largest inland salt lake and the only aeolian lake. The lake encircles historical Sambhar Lake Town located 96 km south west of the city of Jaipur in Rajasthan. It is the source of most of Rajasthan’s salt production. It produces 196,000 tonnes of clean salt every year, which equates to around 9% of India’s salt production.
Sambhar has been designated as a Ramsar site. The wetland is a key wintering area for tens of thousands of flamingos and other birds that migrate from northern Asia.
Cabinet approves Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and United States Geological Survey (USGS) for cooperation in the Exchange and use of U.S. Land Remote Sensing Satellite Data
ISRO of Department of Space is actively pursuing civilian space cooperation with many US organisations including National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and United States Geological Survey (USGS). Data from Landsat series of satellites operated by USGS was used by Indian scientists during the inception of Indian remote sensing programme. ISRO received Landsat data during 1984 to 2001 through its ground station at Shadnagar. USGS has launched Landsat -8 satellite in February 2013. ISRO expressed interest in direct reception of the Landsat-8 data in India, while USGS expressed interest in obtaining data from ISRO’s RESOURCESAT-2 satellite.
ISRO and USGS, considering their mutual interest in data exchange of each other satellites, signed the MoU
Cabinet approves replacement of ‘Major Port Trusts Act, 1963’ with ‘the Major Port Trust Authorities Bill, 2016’
With a view to promote the expansion of port infrastructure and facilitate trade and commerce, the proposed bill aims at decentralizing decision making and to infuse professionalism in governance of ports. The new Major Ports Authority Bill, 2016 would help to impart faster and transparent decision making benefiting the stakeholders and better project execution capability. The Bill is aimed at reorienting the governance model in central Ports to landlord port model in line with the successful global practice. This will also help in bringing transparency in operations of Major Ports.
The salient features of the Major Ports Authority Bill are as under:
- The Bill is more compact in comparison to the Major Port Trusts Act, 1963 as the number of sections has been reduced to 65 from 134 by eliminating overlapping and obsolete Sections.
- The new Bill has proposed a simplified composition of the Board of Port Authority which will comprise of 11 members from the present 17 to 19 Members representing various interests. A compact Board with professional independent members will strengthen decision making and strategic planning. Provision has been made for inclusion of representative of the State Government in which the Major Port is situated, Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Defence and Customs, Department of Revenue as Members in the Board apart from a Government Nominee Member and a Member representing the employees of the Major Ports Authority.
- The role of Tariff Authority for Major Ports [TAMP] has been redefined. Port Authority has now been given powers to fix tariff which will act as a reference tariff for purposes of bidding for PPP projects. PPP operators will be free to fix tariff based on market conditions. The Board of the Port Authority has been delegated the power to fix the scale of rates for other port services and assets including land.
- An independent Review Board has been proposed to be created to carry out the residual function of the erstwhile TAMP for Major Ports, to look into disputes between ports and PPP concessionaires, to review stressed PPP projects and suggest measures to review stressed PPP projects and suggest measures to revive such projects and to look into complaints regarding services rendered by the ports/private operators operating within the ports would be constituted.
- The Boards of the Port Authority have been delegated full powers to enter into contracts, planning and development, fixing of tariff except in national interest, security and emergency arising out of inaction and default. In the present MPT Act, 1963 prior approval of the Central Government was required in 22 cases.
- Empowers the Board to make its own Master Plan in respect of the area within the port limits and to construct within port limits Pipelines, Telephones, Communication towers, electricity supply or transmission equipment. The Board is empowered to lease land for Port related use for upto 40 years and for any purpose other than the purposes specified in section 22 for upto 20 years beyond which the approval of the Central Government is required.
- Provisions of CSR & development of infrastructure by Port Authority have been introduced.
European Organisation for Nuclear Research
In recent years, Indian scientists have been involved in all pioneering activities at CERN. India has made significant contributions to the construction of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), in the areas of design, development and supply of hardware accelerator components/systems and its commissioning and software development and deployment in the machine.
India is one of the leading partners in the ALICE experiment, which is on a quest to unearth the physics of quark-gluon plasma (QGP) and to get a glimpse of how matter behaved within a few microseconds after the birth of the Universe.
The discovery of the Higgs Boson at the LHC is the most talked about scientific discovery in recent memory.
Indian scientists have played a significant role in the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiments, which is one of the two large experiments that have led to the discovery of the Higgs Boson.
Indian scientists have been named as part of this historic discovery. This helps India in participating in the high end technology related to high energy accelerators. It is noteworthy to mention the involvement of Indian scientists in high-tech particle detectors and electronics research, ISOLDE (Isotope Separator On Line Device) and n-TOF (neutron Time of Flight) experiments, and various application oriented programs including medical imaging.
In the field of large-scale computing, India has made major contributions in terms of designing, developing and deploying software for the Worldwide Large Hadron Collider Computing Grid (WLCG).
It is worth mentioning that the grid Tier-2 centres established at Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre (VECC), Kolkata and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai have provided the pledged resources and are operating with 96% uptime, thereby facilitating running of computational jobs by various CERN collaborations.
An agreement has been signed between India and the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) concerning the granting of the status of Associate Member at CERN.
Associate Membership entitles Indian industry to participate directly in all CERN related activities. This will lead to enhancement of high technology development expertise in the country, which will in turn be beneficial to DAE and other scientific departments in the country for their future programmes in the related areas.
About Quark–Gluon plasma (QGP)
A quark–gluon plasma (QGP) or quark soup is a state of matter in quantum chromodynamics (QCD) which is hypothesized to exist at extremely high temperature, density, or both temperature and density.
This state is thought to consist of asymptotically free quarks and gluons, which are several of the basic building blocks of matter. It is believed that up to a few milliseconds after the Big Bang, known as the Quark epoch, the Universe was in a quark–gluon plasma state.
In June 2015, an international team of physicists produced quark-gluon plasma at the Large Hadron Collider by colliding protons with lead nuclei at high energy inside the supercollider’s Compact Muon Solenoid detector. They also discovered that this new state of matter behaves like a fluid.
Nanocraft
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning to send two nano satellites into space namely INS-1A & INS-1B, weighing 10 kg each including payload mass of 5 kg. These nano satellites are meant for technology demonstration. Mission life is expected to be six months to one year.
Recognition of Products under GI Classification -From North-East
260 products have been registered as Geographical Indications (GIs) since 2003.
Geographical Indications are covered as an element of Intellectual Property Rights under the TRIPS Agreement. The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property does not mention Geographical Indications; however, Appellations of Origin, which are a particular kind of Geographical Indications, are covered under the Paris Convention.
There is no Geographical Indication registered in the name of Bhut Jolokia green chillies. A list of products from North Eastern States registered as Geographical Indications are : –
| Geographical Indications | State |
| Muga Silk of Assam | Assam |
| Naga Mircha | Nagaland |
| Assam (Orthodox) – A type of tea | Assam |
| Shaphee Lanphee – Shaphee Lanphee is a traditional textile fabric woven and embroidered, usually as a shawl, with embroidered motifs with cotton threads generally by Meetei women of Manipur. The fabric was, in the past, presented as a gift of honour (Mana Phee) to the soldiers for their bravery in a successful war, and to the praise-worthy chiefs of the Nagas of Manipur by the king of Manipur. | Manipur |
| Wangkhei Phee – Wangkhei Phee is a textile fabric made of white cotton. It is a product which is protected under the GI registration and is made throughout the Indian state of Manipur and is woven by women. The fabric is transparent, has many designs on its body, and is popularly worn by women of Manipur for marriage ceremonies and other festive occasions | Manipur |
| Moirang Phee – is a textile fabric having origin in Moirang village | Manipur |
| Naga Tree Tomato
|
Nagaland |
| Arunachal Orange | Arunachal Pradesh |
| Sikkim Large Cardamom | Sikkim |
| Mizo Chilli | Mizoram |
| Assam Karbi Anglong Ginger | Assam |
| Tripura Queen Pineapple | Tripura |
| Tezpur Litchi | Assam |
| Khasi Mandarin– Khasi Mandarin of Meghalaya, a rare and unique citrus species | Meghalaya |
| Kachai Lemon | Manipur |
| Memong Narang | Meghalaya |
New Monuments under ASI
After survey, 22 numbers of monuments (list is given below) have been identified to include under list of centrally protected monuments. Conservation work of the protected monuments is a continuous process.
List :-
| Name of Monument | State |
| Badarpur Fort, District Karimganj | Assam |
| Rock Painting at Chintakunta Muddanur Mandal, District Y.S.R. Kadapa | Andhra Pradesh |
| Ancient Site, Khirsara, District Kacchh | Gujarat |
| Budhist Monastery at Lahaling District Lalaul and Spiti. | Himachal Pradesh |
| Zimskhang Gongma along with village remains | Jammu & Kashmir |
| Ancient Caves Saspol/Gon-Nila-Phuk Meditition Caves Saspol, Leh-Laadakh | Jammu & Kashmir |
| Rock Art site Murgi, Leh-Laadakh | Jammu & Kashmir |
| Trilochana Temple | Jammu & Kashmir |
| Trisher Stupa along with adjusting remains and prehistoric site around Holy Lake (Slob Phan Rso), Leh-Laadakh | Jammu & Kashmir |
| Navratana Garh Fort | Jharkahand |
| Janardana Temple, District Thrissur | Kerala |
| Vishnu Temple (Visnugudi) Nadavyal Sultanbatery Taluk, Wayanad, District Thrissur | Kerala |
| Dhurabarao (Putalibarao) | Maharashtra |
| Monument at Ranipur Jharial | Odisha |
| Zawar, Zinc Protection Centre | Rajasthan |
| The four Mughal Gardens | Uttar Pradesh |
| Haveli of Agah Khan | Uttar Pradesh |
| Haveli of Khan-i-Duran | Uttar Pradesh |
| Hathi Khana | Uttar Pradesh |
| Someshwar Mahadeva Temple Char, District Chitrakut. | Uttar Pradesh |
| Ancient Brick Temple (Tundare Baba), Deokalia (Unchagaon) in District Sitapur. | Uttar Pradesh |
| Sanauli | Uttar Pradesh |
Security infrastructure to plug cross border infiltration
*There was question on border management in this years mains exam.
The Government has adopted multi-pronged approach to curb the infiltration from western front, which include construction of fence, floodlight, Border Out Posts (BoPs), induction of latest surveillance equipments like Hand Held Thermal Imager (HHTI), Long Range Recce Observation System (LORROS), Night vision Goggle/devices, etc.
Government of India has also decided to deploy technological solutions in the form of Comprehensive Integrated Border Management (CIBMS), on a pilot basis to begin with, in different terrains on Indo-Pakistan border.
It is based on integration of manpower, underground, under water sensors, networks, intelligence and command & control solutions, including options such as Electro-Optic Sensors (high resolution day & night cameras), Radars and other devices. As per procurement schedule, technical evaluation of offered technologies is in progress and deployment of CIBMS in Jammu on pilot basis is likely to be completed by 31st August, 2017.
Predatory Journals:
Recent Posts
Steve Ovett, the famous British middle-distance athlete, won the 800-metres gold medal at the Moscow Olympics of 1980. Just a few days later, he was about to win a 5,000-metres race at London’s Crystal Palace. Known for his burst of acceleration on the home stretch, he had supreme confidence in his ability to out-sprint rivals. With the final 100 metres remaining,
[wptelegram-join-channel link=”https://t.me/s/upsctree” text=”Join @upsctree on Telegram”]Ovett waved to the crowd and raised a hand in triumph. But he had celebrated a bit too early. At the finishing line, Ireland’s John Treacy edged past Ovett. For those few moments, Ovett had lost his sense of reality and ignored the possibility of a negative event.
This analogy works well for the India story and our policy failures , including during the ongoing covid pandemic. While we have never been as well prepared or had significant successes in terms of growth stability as Ovett did in his illustrious running career, we tend to celebrate too early. Indeed, we have done so many times before.
It is as if we’re convinced that India is destined for greater heights, come what may, and so we never run through the finish line. Do we and our policymakers suffer from a collective optimism bias, which, as the Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman once wrote, “may well be the most significant of the cognitive biases”? The optimism bias arises from mistaken beliefs which form expectations that are better than the reality. It makes us underestimate chances of a negative outcome and ignore warnings repeatedly.
The Indian economy had a dream run for five years from 2003-04 to 2007-08, with an average annual growth rate of around 9%. Many believed that India was on its way to clocking consistent double-digit growth and comparisons with China were rife. It was conveniently overlooked that this output expansion had come mainly came from a few sectors: automobiles, telecom and business services.
Indians were made to believe that we could sprint without high-quality education, healthcare, infrastructure or banking sectors, which form the backbone of any stable economy. The plan was to build them as we went along, but then in the euphoria of short-term success, it got lost.
India’s exports of goods grew from $20 billion in 1990-91 to over $310 billion in 2019-20. Looking at these absolute figures it would seem as if India has arrived on the world stage. However, India’s share of global trade has moved up only marginally. Even now, the country accounts for less than 2% of the world’s goods exports.
More importantly, hidden behind this performance was the role played by one sector that should have never made it to India’s list of exports—refined petroleum. The share of refined petroleum exports in India’s goods exports increased from 1.4% in 1996-97 to over 18% in 2011-12.
An import-intensive sector with low labour intensity, exports of refined petroleum zoomed because of the then policy regime of a retail price ceiling on petroleum products in the domestic market. While we have done well in the export of services, our share is still less than 4% of world exports.
India seemed to emerge from the 2008 global financial crisis relatively unscathed. But, a temporary demand push had played a role in the revival—the incomes of many households, both rural and urban, had shot up. Fiscal stimulus to the rural economy and implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission scales had led to the salaries of around 20% of organized-sector employees jumping up. We celebrated, but once again, neither did we resolve the crisis brewing elsewhere in India’s banking sector, nor did we improve our capacity for healthcare or quality education.
Employment saw little economy-wide growth in our boom years. Manufacturing jobs, if anything, shrank. But we continued to celebrate. Youth flocked to low-productivity service-sector jobs, such as those in hotels and restaurants, security and other services. The dependence on such jobs on one hand and high-skilled services on the other was bound to make Indian society more unequal.
And then, there is agriculture, an elephant in the room. If and when farm-sector reforms get implemented, celebrations would once again be premature. The vast majority of India’s farmers have small plots of land, and though these farms are at least as productive as larger ones, net absolute incomes from small plots can only be meagre.
A further rise in farm productivity and consequent increase in supply, if not matched by a demand rise, especially with access to export markets, would result in downward pressure on market prices for farm produce and a further decline in the net incomes of small farmers.
We should learn from what John Treacy did right. He didn’t give up, and pushed for the finish line like it was his only chance at winning. Treacy had years of long-distance practice. The same goes for our economy. A long grind is required to build up its base before we can win and celebrate. And Ovett did not blame anyone for his loss. We play the blame game. Everyone else, right from China and the US to ‘greedy corporates’, seems to be responsible for our failures.
We have lowered absolute poverty levels and had technology-based successes like Aadhaar and digital access to public services. But there are no short cuts to good quality and adequate healthcare and education services. We must remain optimistic but stay firmly away from the optimism bias.
In the end, it is not about how we start, but how we finish. The disastrous second wave of covid and our inability to manage it is a ghastly reminder of this fact.
On March 31, the World Economic Forum (WEF) released its annual Gender Gap Report 2021. The Global Gender Gap report is an annual report released by the WEF. The gender gap is the difference between women and men as reflected in social, political, intellectual, cultural, or economic attainments or attitudes. The gap between men and women across health, education, politics, and economics widened for the first time since records began in 2006.
[wptelegram-join-channel link=”https://t.me/s/upsctree” text=”Join @upsctree on Telegram”]No need to remember all the data, only pick out few important ones to use in your answers.
The Global gender gap index aims to measure this gap in four key areas : health, education, economics, and politics. It surveys economies to measure gender disparity by collating and analyzing data that fall under four indices : economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.
The 2021 Global Gender Gap Index benchmarks 156 countries on their progress towards gender parity. The index aims to serve as a compass to track progress on relative gaps between women and men in health, education, economy, and politics.
Although no country has achieved full gender parity, the top two countries (Iceland and Finland) have closed at least 85% of their gap, and the remaining seven countries (Lithuania, Namibia, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Rwanda, and Ireland) have closed at least 80% of their gap. Geographically, the global top 10 continues to be dominated by Nordic countries, with —Iceland, Norway, Finland, and Sweden—in the top five.
The top 10 is completed by one country from Asia Pacific (New Zealand 4th), two Sub-Saharan countries (Namibia, 6th and Rwanda, 7th, one country from Eastern Europe (the new entrant to the top 10, Lithuania, 8th), and another two Western European countries (Ireland, 9th, and Switzerland, 10th, another country in the top-10 for the first time).There is a relatively equitable distribution of available income, resources, and opportunities for men and women in these countries. The tremendous gender gaps are identified primarily in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia.
Here, we can discuss the overall global gender gap scores across the index’s four main components : Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment.
The indicators of the four main components are
(1) Economic Participation and Opportunity:
o Labour force participation rate,
o wage equality for similar work,
o estimated earned income,
o Legislators, senior officials, and managers,
o Professional and technical workers.
(2) Educational Attainment:
o Literacy rate (%)
o Enrollment in primary education (%)
o Enrollment in secondary education (%)
o Enrollment in tertiary education (%).
(3) Health and Survival:
o Sex ratio at birth (%)
o Healthy life expectancy (years).
(4) Political Empowerment:
o Women in Parliament (%)
o Women in Ministerial positions (%)
o Years with a female head of State (last 50 years)
o The share of tenure years.
The objective is to shed light on which factors are driving the overall average decline in the global gender gap score. The analysis results show that this year’s decline is mainly caused by a reversal in performance on the Political Empowerment gap.
Global Trends and Outcomes:
– Globally, this year, i.e., 2021, the average distance completed to gender parity gap is 68% (This means that the remaining gender gap to close stands at 32%) a step back compared to 2020 (-0.6 percentage points). These figures are mainly driven by a decline in the performance of large countries. On its current trajectory, it will now take 135.6 years to close the gender gap worldwide.
– The gender gap in Political Empowerment remains the largest of the four gaps tracked, with only 22% closed to date, having further widened since the 2020 edition of the report by 2.4 percentage points. Across the 156 countries covered by the index, women represent only 26.1% of some 35,500 Parliament seats and 22.6% of over 3,400 Ministers worldwide. In 81 countries, there has never been a woman head of State as of January 15, 2021. At the current rate of progress, the World Economic Forum estimates that it will take 145.5 years to attain gender parity in politics.
– The gender gap in Economic Participation and Opportunity remains the second-largest of the four key gaps tracked by the index. According to this year’s index results, 58% of this gap has been closed so far. The gap has seen marginal improvement since the 2020 edition of the report, and as a result, we estimate that it will take another 267.6 years to close.
– Gender gaps in Educational Attainment and Health and Survival are nearly closed. In Educational Attainment, 95% of this gender gap has been closed globally, with 37 countries already attaining gender parity. However, the ‘last mile’ of progress is proceeding slowly. The index estimates that it will take another 14.2 years to close this gap on its current trajectory completely.
In Health and Survival, 96% of this gender gap has been closed, registering a marginal decline since last year (not due to COVID-19), and the time to close this gap remains undefined. For both education and health, while progress is higher than economy and politics in the global data, there are important future implications of disruptions due to the pandemic and continued variations in quality across income, geography, race, and ethnicity.
India-Specific Findings:
India had slipped 28 spots to rank 140 out of the 156 countries covered. The pandemic causing a disproportionate impact on women jeopardizes rolling back the little progress made in the last decades-forcing more women to drop off the workforce and leaving them vulnerable to domestic violence.
India’s poor performance on the Global Gender Gap report card hints at a serious wake-up call and learning lessons from the Nordic region for the Government and policy makers.
Within the 156 countries covered, women hold only 26 percent of Parliamentary seats and 22 percent of Ministerial positions. India, in some ways, reflects this widening gap, where the number of Ministers declined from 23.1 percent in 2019 to 9.1 percent in 2021. The number of women in Parliament stands low at 14.4 percent. In India, the gender gap has widened to 62.5 %, down from 66.8% the previous year.
It is mainly due to women’s inadequate representation in politics, technical and leadership roles, a decrease in women’s labor force participation rate, poor healthcare, lagging female to male literacy ratio, and income inequality.
The gap is the widest on the political empowerment dimension, with economic participation and opportunity being next in line. However, the gap on educational attainment and health and survival has been practically bridged.
India is the third-worst performer among South Asian countries, with Pakistan and Afghanistan trailing and Bangladesh being at the top. The report states that the country fared the worst in political empowerment, regressing from 23.9% to 9.1%.
Its ranking on the health and survival dimension is among the five worst performers. The economic participation and opportunity gap saw a decline of 3% compared to 2020, while India’s educational attainment front is in the 114th position.
India has deteriorated to 51st place from 18th place in 2020 on political empowerment. Still, it has slipped to 155th position from 150th position in 2020 on health and survival, 151st place in economic participation and opportunity from 149th place, and 114th place for educational attainment from 112th.
In 2020 reports, among the 153 countries studied, India is the only country where the economic gender gap of 64.6% is larger than the political gender gap of 58.9%. In 2021 report, among the 156 countries, the economic gender gap of India is 67.4%, 3.8% gender gap in education, 6.3% gap in health and survival, and 72.4% gender gap in political empowerment. In health and survival, the gender gap of the sex ratio at birth is above 9.1%, and healthy life expectancy is almost the same.
Discrimination against women has also been reflected in Health and Survival subindex statistics. With 93.7% of this gap closed to date, India ranks among the bottom five countries in this subindex. The wide sex ratio at birth gaps is due to the high incidence of gender-based sex-selective practices. Besides, more than one in four women has faced intimate violence in her lifetime.The gender gap in the literacy rate is above 20.1%.
Yet, gender gaps persist in literacy : one-third of women are illiterate (34.2%) than 17.6% of men. In political empowerment, globally, women in Parliament is at 128th position and gender gap of 83.2%, and 90% gap in a Ministerial position. The gap in wages equality for similar work is above 51.8%. On health and survival, four large countries Pakistan, India, Vietnam, and China, fare poorly, with millions of women there not getting the same access to health as men.
The pandemic has only slowed down in its tracks the progress India was making towards achieving gender parity. The country urgently needs to focus on “health and survival,” which points towards a skewed sex ratio because of the high incidence of gender-based sex-selective practices and women’s economic participation. Women’s labour force participation rate and the share of women in technical roles declined in 2020, reducing the estimated earned income of women, one-fifth of men.
Learning from the Nordic region, noteworthy participation of women in politics, institutions, and public life is the catalyst for transformational change. Women need to be equal participants in the labour force to pioneer the societal changes the world needs in this integral period of transition.
Every effort must be directed towards achieving gender parallelism by facilitating women in leadership and decision-making positions. Social protection programmes should be gender-responsive and account for the differential needs of women and girls. Research and scientific literature also provide unequivocal evidence that countries led by women are dealing with the pandemic more effectively than many others.
Gendered inequality, thereby, is a global concern. India should focus on targeted policies and earmarked public and private investments in care and equalized access. Women are not ready to wait for another century for equality. It’s time India accelerates its efforts and fight for an inclusive, equal, global recovery.
India will not fully develop unless both women and men are equally supported to reach their full potential. There are risks, violations, and vulnerabilities women face just because they are women. Most of these risks are directly linked to women’s economic, political, social, and cultural disadvantages in their daily lives. It becomes acute during crises and disasters.
With the prevalence of gender discrimination, and social norms and practices, women become exposed to the possibility of child marriage, teenage pregnancy, child domestic work, poor education and health, sexual abuse, exploitation, and violence. Many of these manifestations will not change unless women are valued more.
[wptelegram-join-channel link=”https://t.me/s/upsctree” text=”Join @upsctree on Telegram”]2021 WEF Global Gender Gap report, which confirmed its 2016 finding of a decline in worldwide progress towards gender parity.
Over 2.8 billion women are legally restricted from having the same choice of jobs as men. As many as 104 countries still have laws preventing women from working in specific jobs, 59 countries have no laws on sexual harassment in the workplace, and it is astonishing that a handful of countries still allow husbands to legally stop their wives from working.
Globally, women’s participation in the labour force is estimated at 63% (as against 94% of men who participate), but India’s is at a dismal 25% or so currently. Most women are in informal and vulnerable employment—domestic help, agriculture, etc—and are always paid less than men.
Recent reports from Assam suggest that women workers in plantations are paid much less than men and never promoted to supervisory roles. The gender wage gap is about 24% globally, and women have lost far more jobs than men during lockdowns.
The problem of gender disparity is compounded by hurdles put up by governments, society and businesses: unequal access to social security schemes, banking services, education, digital services and so on, even as a glass ceiling has kept leadership roles out of women’s reach.
Yes, many governments and businesses had been working on parity before the pandemic struck. But the global gender gap, defined by differences reflected in the social, political, intellectual, cultural and economic attainments or attitudes of men and women, will not narrow in the near future without all major stakeholders working together on a clear agenda—that of economic growth by inclusion.
The WEF report estimates 135 years to close the gap at our current rate of progress based on four pillars: educational attainment, health, economic participation and political empowerment.
India has slipped from rank 112 to 140 in a single year, confirming how hard women were hit by the pandemic. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two Asian countries that fared worse.
Here are a few things we must do:
One, frame policies for equal-opportunity employment. Use technology and artificial intelligence to eliminate biases of gender, caste, etc, and select candidates at all levels on merit. Numerous surveys indicate that women in general have a better chance of landing jobs if their gender is not known to recruiters.
Two, foster a culture of gender sensitivity. Take a review of current policies and move from gender-neutral to gender-sensitive. Encourage and insist on diversity and inclusion at all levels, and promote more women internally to leadership roles. Demolish silos to let women grab potential opportunities in hitherto male-dominant roles. Work-from-home has taught us how efficiently women can manage flex-timings and productivity.
Three, deploy corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds for the education and skilling of women and girls at the bottom of the pyramid. CSR allocations to toilet building, the PM-Cares fund and firms’ own trusts could be re-channelled for this.
Four, get more women into research and development (R&D) roles. A study of over 4,000 companies found that more women in R&D jobs resulted in radical innovation. It appears women score far higher than men in championing change. If you seek growth from affordable products and services for low-income groups, women often have the best ideas.
Five, break barriers to allow progress. Cultural and structural issues must be fixed. Unconscious biases and discrimination are rampant even in highly-esteemed organizations. Establish fair and transparent human resource policies.
Six, get involved in local communities to engage them. As Michael Porter said, it is not possible for businesses to sustain long-term shareholder value without ensuring the welfare of the communities they exist in. It is in the best interest of enterprises to engage with local communities to understand and work towards lowering cultural and other barriers in society. It will also help connect with potential customers, employees and special interest groups driving the gender-equity agenda and achieve better diversity.