• The Tourism Department has submitted a proposal to the government for the construction of a ropeway from Jathani to Mathasaur in the Lug valley of the district at a cost of about Rs 60 crore.
• In December last year, the state government had included the Lug valley under the ‘Nai Rahein, Nai Manzilein’ scheme to develop untouched destinations to attract tourists.
• A team of the department visited Mathasaur to explore the Lug valley’s development from tourism point of view. There is a huge green pasture at Mathasaur.
• The place is reachable by foot and hasn’t been explored yet. Mathasaur will emerge as a new tourist destination after the completion of the ropeway.District Tourism Development Officer Sunayna Sharma says that the project file has been sent to the Ropeway Corporation and further proceedings are underway.
• The Tourism Department is preparing a road map for paragliding and other adventure sports in the Lug valley. Efforts are being made to bring the valley on the tourism map by providing basic facilities. Residents are being encouraged to opt for the homestay scheme,” she adds.Sharma says this will give a boost to tourism in the valley and people will get employment nearby their homes. Even the Forest Department has prepared a detailed project report and submitted it to the government to develop earmarked spots in the valley from tourism point of view.The Forest Department’s rest house at Kaisdhar, roads around Kadaun, rest hut at Badasaur and a rain shelter at Naudhar will be developed. The repair of bridges, paths of Mathasaur and other work will be carried out at a cost of Rs 3.41 crore.

• Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) Researchers have developed an ‘Ocean Wave Energy Converter’ that can generate electricity from sea waves. The trials of this device were successfully completed during the second week of November 2022.
• The Device was deployed at a location about 6 KM off the coast of Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu, at a location with a depth of 20 metres. This device targets generating 1MW of power from ocean waves in the next three years.
• The success of this project will help fulfill several objectives such as the UN Ocean decade and sustainable development goals. India’s goals include deep water missions, clean energy and achieving a blue economy. It could help India meet its climate change-related goals of generating 500 GW of electricity by 2030 through renewable energy.
• The Device is targeted towards remote offshore locations that require reliable electricity and communication either by supplying electric power to payloads that are integrated directly in or on the device or located in its vicinity as on the seabed and in the water column. The targeted stakeholders are the oil and gas, defence and security installations and communication sectors.
• IIT Madras faculty Prof. Abdus Samad, who has been working for over a decade on wave energy, leads the mission. He established a state-of-the-art ‘Wave Energy and Fluids Engineering Laboratory’ (WEFEL) at IIT Madras.
• His team designed and tested a scaled-down model. The lab is also researching other applications for this technology such as producing power for smaller devices for the ocean like navigational buoys and data buoys, among others.
• Highlighting the impact of this project, Prof. Abdus Samad, Department of Ocean Engineering, IIT Madras, said, “India has a 7,500 km long coastline capable of producing 54 GW of power, satisfying a substantial amount of the country’s energy requirement. Seawater stores tidal, wave, and Ocean thermal energy. Among them, the harnessing of 40GW wave energy is possible in India.”

Sea Trials :

• The product has been named ‘Sindhuja-I,’ which means ‘generated from the ocean.’ The system has a floating buoy, a spar, and an electrical module. The buoy moves up and down as the wave moves up and down. In the present design, a balloon-like system called a ‘buoy’ has a central hole that allows a long rod called a spar to pass through it.
• The spar can be fixed to the seabed, and passing waves will not affect it, while the buoy will move up and down and produce relative motion between them. The relative motion gives rotation to an electric generator to produce power. In the present design, the spar floats, and a mooring chain keeps the system in place.

• The Multi-State Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2022  is scheduled to be introduced in the Lok Sabha to amend the Multi-State Co-operative societies Act The Bill will be introduced by the Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah.
• The Anti-Maritime Piracy Bill, 2019 will also be introduced in the House for consideration and passing.
• It will be introduced by the External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, to make special provisions for repression of piracy on high seas and to provide for punishment for the offence of piracy.
• The Minister will also make a statement regarding the latest developments in India’s Foreign Policy.
• Minister for State in the Prime Minister Office Dr. Jitendra Singh will also make a statement regarding the status of implementation of the Recommendations contained in the 360th report of the Department related to Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change on demands for grants (2022-2023), pertaining to the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.
• In Rajya Sabha, Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav will move the Wildlife Protection Bill, 2022 to amend the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. The bill has already been passed by the Lok Sabha.

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has hiked the policy repo rate – for a fifth consecutive time – by 35 basis points to 6.25 %.
• The key interest rate has been hiked a total of 190 basis points – by 50 basis points thrice since June, and once  by 40 basis points – during an off-cycle meet in May. The central bank increased the rate after inflation continues to stay above its tolerance band.
• Governor Shaktikanta Das, delivering the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) announcements, said that the FY23 real GDP forecast had been lowered to 6.8%,  which is 0.1% lower than the revised estimates released by the World Bank yesterday.
• In addition, the RBI has maintained a FY23 Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation forecast at 6.7%. Shaktikanta Das said he expects inflation to moderate as the winter harvest comes in.
• He further said that the RBI is ready to undertake liquidity operations to inject liquidity, but it will for durable signs of turn in liquidity cycle. He said the Rupee resilient and stable, but there is a need to focus on orderly evaluation of the exchange rate. He said forex exchange reserves have gone up by USD 36.7 Billion.
• The RBI chief hailed the Indian economy’s performance in the face of global challenges like the war in Ukraine and the Covid-19 pandemic, and underlined that it is the fastest growing in Asia this year.

• Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has decided that no charges will be levied for SMS and Cell Broadcast – Alerts or messages sent either during disaster or prior to notification of disaster or after expiry of disaster.
• TRAI took the decision considering the significance of alerts and messages sent as per direction issued under the Disaster Management Act.
• The Authority said this while issuing the Telecom Tariff order 2022 on Tariff for SMS and Cell Broadcast alerts disseminated through Common Alerting Protocol platform during disaster or non-disaster situations.
• It said, Telecom Service Providers shall broadcast messages to all the subscribers through Cell broadcast free of cost during disaster and non-disaster period.
• The Authority has also decided to prescribe Tariff of two paisa for SMS Alerts and messages sent during disaster and non-disaster situations, other than those sent as per directions issued under the Disaster Management Act.
• Earlier, the Department of Telecom has requested TRAI to provide tariff for SMS and Cell Broadcast alerts to be disseminated during disasters and non-disasters.
• The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) was established with effect from 20th February 1997 by an Act of Parliament, called the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997, to regulate telecom services, including fixation/revision of tariffs for telecom services which were earlier vested in the Central Government.

• The tea that has delighted and fascinated the world for millennia has finally received top-level global recognition as a shared cultural treasure of mankind.
• Traditional tea processing techniques and their associated social practices in China were added to UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity on Tuesday.
• The status was conferred by the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, hosted in Rabat, Morocco. It consists of knowledge, skills and practices concerning management of tea plantations, picking of tea leaves, and the processing, drinking and sharing of tea.
• According to UNESCO, in China traditional tea processing techniques are closely associated with geographical location and natural environment, resulting in a distribution range between 18°-37° N and 94°-122° E.
• The techniques are mainly found in the provinces and autonomous regions of Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Hunan, Anhui, Hubei, Henan, Shaanxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi. Associated social practices, however, are spread throughout the country and shared by multiple ethnic groups.

• According to the Union Government, India plans to build more nuclear power plants to increase the production of clean energy. The government has recently approved five new sites for nuclear power plants and given the financial go-ahead to build 10 700-MW pressurized heavy water reactors.

India has a 3-stage nuclear programme.

• The 3-stage nuclear programme is developed with the aim of utilizing the vast Thorium reserves in India (about 25% of the world)
• Besides India has limited availability of Uranium reserves (about 2% of the world’s uranium reserves)
• 1st Stage

• • Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors are based on natural uranium that contains 99.3% U-238 and 0.7% U-235.
  • U-235 being fissile sets up the chain reaction and U-238 being non-fissile gets converted to Pu-239 as a byproduct (spent fuel) which is in turn used in the Fast Breeder Reactors in the 2nd

• 2nd Stage

• • Fast Breeder Reactors are primarily based on Plutonium.
  • Further the breeder reactors use mix of Plutonium-239 produced in the 1st stage and U-238 that is abundantly found on earth to produce Plutonium inside the reactor.
    • Note that U-238 is not fissile material and thus cannot set up chain reaction.
  • Since the amount of Plutonium produced inside the reactor is more than that initially used, it is called Breeder reactor.
  • In order to increase the probability of neutron hitting U-238, these reactors do not use a moderator to slow down neutrons and thus they are called Fast Breeder Reactors.
  • Once the Plutonium-239 is completely used, Thorium is introduced in the reactor to convert it into U-233 that will be used in 3rd

• 3rd Stage

• • Thermal Breeder Reactors uses U-233 that is produced in the 2nd stage using thorium-232.
  • Thorium is also not radioactive and thus not fissile.
  • Since these reactors also produce U-233 out of Thorium-232 they are called breeder reactors.
  • India has abundant thorium reserves in the form of monazite sand, and therefore the 3rd stage is critical for India’s nuclear energy basket.

• Odisha bagged three national awards in the prestigious Annual India Sanitation Coalition (ISC)-FICCI Sanitation Awards-2022, which were declared on Wednesday.
• Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) was awarded with the ‘Best Faecal Sludge and Septage Management (FSSM) Model – Urban’ and Sasmita Barik, a Swachha Sathi from Bhadrak Municipality was awarded with the ‘Women Changemaker in Sanitation’ award.
• In addition, Jajpur district was awarded for ‘Best Skilling Initiative in Sanitation’ at the awards function held in New Delhi.
• The ISC-FICCI Awards Ceremony and Conclave is an annual national event celebrating leaders, rising stars and organizations, who are driving growth in the sanitation value chain for achieving a “cleaner, healthier, safer, happier and a gender-equal India.”
• The Housing & Urban Development Department (H & UDD), Government of Odisha, has been winning awards under various categories in the annual ISC-FICCI Awards Ceremony since 2019.
• The award for Bhubaneswar was received by Sulochana Das, Mayor, BMC in the event along with team members.
• The ‘Women Changemaker in Sanitation’ award was received by Sasmita Barik along with Additional Secretary and Additional Mission Director SBM (Urban), H & UDD, Durgesh Nandini Sahoo. Both the awards are the recognition for Odisha model of decentralized and community led sanitation.
• The BMC was awarded for its comprehensive implementation of FSSM across the value chain along with building an enabling environment by engaging multiple stakeholders and executing wide-ranging interventions in the capital city.
• The FSSM model has focused on community-led demand generation, strong enforcement of regulations against illegal sludge disposal, innovative ways of cesspool vehicle service delivery, optimum utilization of the Septage Treatment Plants (SeTPs) and city-wide communication campaign, etc.
• Twenty-six-year-old Sasmita Barik, a Swachha Sathi from Bhadrak, was awarded for her active leadership and proactiveness in keeping the city clean and hygienic by spreading awareness among households on both Faecal Sludge and Septage Management (FSSM) and Solid Waste Management (SWM) and motivating citizens to adopt appropriate sanitation practices.

• In a significant achievement, eSanjeevani, Govt. of India’s free telemedicine service, has crossed another astounding milestone by clocking 8 crore teleconsultations. The last 1 crore consultations were recorded in a remarkable time frame of around 5 weeks, signaling a wider adoption of telemedicine. An e-health initiative of Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, eSanjeevani is a national telemedicine service that strives to provide an alternative to the conventional physical consultations via digital platform.
• In less than 3 years, this initiative has garnered the distinction of being the world’s largest government owned telemedicine platform. It consists of two verticals that cater to patients across all states and UTs successfully making its presence felt in the innermost regions of the nation.
• The first vertical eSanjeevaniAB-HWC endeavors to bridge rural-urban digital health divide by providing assisted teleconsultations, and ensuring that e beneficiaries of Ayushman Bharat Scheme are able to avail of the benefits they are entitled to.
• This vertical operates on a Hub-and-Spoke model wherein the ‘Ayushman Bharat-Health and Wellness Centers’ (HWCs) are set up at state level, act as spokes, which are mapped with the hub (comprising MBBS/ Specialty/Super-Specialty doctors) at zonal level. With the objective to provide quality health services to a patient residing in rural areas, this model has been successfully implemented in 1,09,748 Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres (AB-HWCs) and 14,188 Hubs, achieving a total of 7,11,58,968 teleconsultations.
• eSanjeevaniOPDis the latter vertical which caters to citizens in both rural and urban alike. It leverages technology via smartphones, tablets, laptops enabling doctor consultations to be accessible from the patient’s residence regardless of location. eSanjeevaniOPD has acquired 1,144 online OPDs with 2,22,026 specialists, doctors and health workers that have been trained and onboarded. This platform has an impressive record of having served over 4.34 lakhs patients in one day. Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Mohali, which is providing holistic technical training and support to users, is augmenting the faculties of this vertical to be able to serve up to 1 million patients per day.
• eSanjeevani is a cohesive part Ayushman Bharat Digital Health Mission (ABDM), and more than 45,000 ABHA IDs have been generated via eSanjeevani application.
• Leading ten states for usage of this platform are: Andhra Pradesh (28242880), West Bengal (10005725), Karnataka (9446699), Tamil Nadu (8723333), Maharashtra (4070430), Uttar Pradesh (3763092), Madhya Pradesh (3283607), Bihar (2624482), Telangana (2452529), Gujarat (1673888).

• Himachal has earned more revenue from the sale of power during the current year as the state has sold energy worth Rs 1465.38 crore as compared to Rs 1392.37 crore in 2021-22 with four more months for the closing of the financial year.
• The enhanced higher returns from the power sector, viewed as one of the revenue generating areas, is good for the state as the economy was still limping back to normalcy. “Himachal has so far sold power worth Rs 1465.38 crores till end of November this year.
• The generation till November end stands at 2986.13 million units. So, we are hoping to exceed last year’s generation figure of 3364.14 million units as there are still four months to go,” revealed said RD Dhiman, Chief Secretary, who is looking after power sector.
• He said last year the state was able to sell power worth Rs 1392.37 crore out of which Rs 1216.42 crores had been realized. Post-Covid, Himachal has suffered economic distress due to major decline in income from areas like tourism, so enhanced returns from power is a good news.
• However, power generation in the state has declined to a mere 15 per cent due to reduced melting of snow. As such the state will have to meet its requirement through the energy being received as royalty to the Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board (HPSEB).
• There has been a sharp decline in the daily generation from 1.56 million units on November 21 to 90 lakh units these days. “Despite the generation being reduced to mere 15 per cent, there will no cuts, either in domestic or industry as the power received as royalty from other projects will be directed to the HP State Electricity Board,” said Dhiman.
• Reduction in power generation during the winter months is a normal and Himachal manages to meet the daily requirement of consumers, both domestic and industry by getting 12 per cent free power, royalty and exchange from some other State like Punjab.
• The shortfall is likely to continue throughout the winter months and it is not until end of April that the generation starts picking up with melting of glaciers. The highest generation is witnessed during the monsoon months of July-August when the rivers are flowing to their maximum capacity.