Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Context

• The Airports Authority of India has successfully conducted the light trial using the GAGAN-based Localizer Performance with Vertical Guidance (LPV) Approach Procedures at Rajasthan’s Kishangarh Airport.
• The successful trial is a great achievement and major milestone in the field of Air Navigation Services (ANS) in the history of the Indian Civil Aviation Sector. India is the first country in the Asia Pacific Region to achieve such a landmark.
• The LPV permits aircraft guided approaches that are operationally nearly equivalent to Cat-IILS, without the need for ground-based navigational infrastructure. The service relies on the availability of GPS and GAGAN Geo Stationary Satellites, launched by ISRO.
• The tests, at Kishangarh Airport, were performed as part of initial GAGAN LPV flight trials. After the final approval by DGCA, the procedure will be available for the usage of commercial flights.

About GAGAN

• GAGAN is an Indian Satellite Based Augmentation System (SBAS) launched by the Indian government in 2015. GAGAN stands for GPS Aided GEO Augmented Navigation.

• SBAS is a wide area augmentation system that provides augmented accuracy and integrity to a Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) navigation signal such as GPS. 

• GAGAN is implemented to provide required accuracy, continuity, availability, and integrity to enable users/aircrafts to rely on GPS for all phases of flight.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Context

• The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare conducted an awareness programme about the Soil Health Management (SHM) scheme.

About the scheme

• The Soil Health Card (SHC) scheme is promoted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare to provide information to farmers on nutrient status of their soil along with recommendations on appropriate dosage of nutrients to be applied for improving soil health and its fertility.
• Launched in 2015, it is being implemented through the Department of Agriculture of all the State and Union Territory Governments. 

Constituents of a Soil Health Card

• SHC is a printed report that a farmer will be handed over for each of his holdings.
• It will contain the status of his soil with respect to 12 parameters, namely N, P, K (Macronutrients); S (Secondary- nutrient); Zn, Fe, Cu, Mn, Bo (Micronutrients); and pH, EC, OC (Physical parameters).
• SHC will be made available once in a cycle of 3 years, which will indicate the status of soil health of a farmer’s holding for that particular period.

• The SHC will also indicate fertilizer recommendations and soil amendment required for the farm.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Context

• With urea and fertilizer prices shooting up in the aftermath of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Union Cabinet has approved an enhancement in subsidies on non-urea fertilizers for the upcoming Kharif crop, to ₹60,939 crore.
• While the government fixes the retail price of urea and subsidises producers based on the difference between costs and the fixed selling price, it pays a subsidy to non-urea fertilizer makers on the basis of nutrient-based rates.
• The subsidy will be ₹2,501 per bag on Di-ammonium phosphate (DAP), instead of the existing subsidy of ₹1,650 per bag, which is a 50% increase over last year’s subsidy rates. The increase in the prices of DAP and its raw material is in the range of about 80%.
• Prices of phosphoric acid and rock phosphate, key ingredients in such fertilisers have increased by 92% and 99%, respectively, over the 12-month period till March 2022, rating agency Crisil pointed out recently, warning that the country’s fertiliser subsidy bill in 2022-23 could hit a record high of ₹1.65 lakh crore to ₹1.9 lakh crore.

Background

• Fertilizers are crucial productivity augmenting inputs. To meet the challenge of rising demand for food, feed, and fibre with limited land and water resources, it is imperative to augment land productivity and one way to do this is to make fertilisers easily accessible to farmers.
• With this end in view, the fertiliser sector in the country is subsidised.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Context

• The Green Hydrogen Policy of India, which was issued on February 17, 2022, addressed various major obstacles such as open access, waiver of interstate transmission charges, banking, timebound clearances, and so on, and is intended to significantly accelerate India’s energy transformation.

Current Situation

• India’s per capita energy consumption is around one-third that of the global average and one-twelfth that of the United States. Growing economic prosperity and growth will dramatically raise India’s energy demand, increasing import dependency.
• The hydrogen fuel of the future is being hailed as India’s ticket to energy independence.
• Hydrogen has a varied role to play in the future energy environment, whether it is used for-
  • Energy storage,
  • Long-distance transportation, or
  • Industrial decarbonization.

Significance of Hydrogen:

• Hydrogen has a significant role to play in decarbonizing India’s transportation industry.
•  The advantages of fuel cell vehicles over battery electric vehicles include faster fuelling and a longer driving range, making them perfect for long-distance transportation, which is a key limitation with LiIon batteries.
•  In the industrial sector, hydrogen has the potential to decarbonize ‘hard-to-abate’ industries such as iron and steel, aluminium, copper, and so on. Producing fuels such as methanol, synthetic kerosene, and green ammonia is a significant opportunity.
• According to The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), India will require a total capacity of 192 GW to 224 GW of electrolysers by 2050, assuming that all of it is green hydrogen. In 2021, the global capacity of electrolysers will have just surpassed 300 MW. This means that by 2050, India would require an electrolyser capacity that is 640 to 750 times more than the current world capacity.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Context

• Paving the way for big-ticket asset monetisation in the public sector, Niti Aayog has identified over 50 assets that could be put on the block.

About NLMC

• The Union Cabinet has approved the setting up of a new government-owned firm for pooling and monetising sovereign and public sector land assets. 
• The National Land Monetisation Corporation (NLMC) is being formed with an initial authorised share capital of ₹5,000 crore and paid up capital of ₹150 crore.
• The government will appoint a chairman to head the NLMC and hire private sector professionals with the expertise required for asset monetisation in areas such as real estate market research, legal due diligence, valuation, master planning, investment banking and land management.

Objectives

• The NLMC will undertake monetisation of surplus land and building assets of Central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) as well as government agencies. 
• With monetisation of non-core assets, the government would be able to generate substantial revenues by monetising unused and under-used assets.
• The proposal is in pursuance of the Budget announcements for 2021-22, which included an ambitious National Monetisation Pipeline (Refer Pulse August 2021 edition) to garner revenues from public assets.
• The new corporation will also help carry out monetisation of assets belonging to public sector firms that have closed or are lined up for a strategic sale. As per the plan, the surplus land and building assets of such enterprises may be transferred to the NLMC, which will then manage and monetise them.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Context

• The Ministry of MSME has conducted an awareness programme for the MSME Innovative Scheme.

About

• The Ministry of MSME has launched the MSME Innovative Scheme (Incubation, Design and IPR) to promote and support untapped creativity of the MSME sector.
• It will act as a hub for innovation activities facilitating and guiding development of ideas into viable business propositions which benefits society directly.
• The scheme is a holistic approach to unify, synergize and converge 3 sub-components and interventions with a single purpose.
• MSME Innovative is a new concept for MSMEs with a combination of innovation in incubation, design intervention and by protecting IPR in a single mode approach to create awareness amongst MSMEs about India’s innovation and motivate them to become MSME Champions.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Context

• Every year, people across the world celebrate Earth Day on April 22 to show their support for the protection of the earth and the environment.
• Events on the day include plantation drives, protests, awareness sessions, competitions for children, and so on.

About World Earth Day

• The World Earth Day, also known as the International Mother Earth Day, is celebrated every year on April 22 under which countries across the globe come together to create more awareness about the dire need to protect our environment.
• The day focuses on the global climate crisis that is worsening with each passing day.
• On this day, the emphasis is on the increasing environmental problems, including overpopulation, loss of biodiversity, depleting ozone layer and rising pollution.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Context

• More than 42 lakh property cards have been distributed in nearly 32 thousand villages under the SVAMITVA scheme.

About the scheme

• SVAMITVA (Survey of villages and mapping with improvised technology in village areas) scheme is a collaborative effort of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, State Panchayati Raj Departments, State Revenue Departments and Survey of India.
• It is a central sector scheme that aims to provide rural people with the right to document their residential properties so that they can use their property for economic purposes. The scheme is for surveying the land parcels in rural inhabited areas using Drone technology. 

Objectives

• The outcome from the scheme would include updating the record of rights in the revenue/property registers and issuance of property cards to the property owners. This would facilitate monetisation of rural residential assets for credit and other financial services.
• It will also lead to creation of accurate land records for rural planning and determination of property tax.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Context

• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is aiming to carry out a landing experiment (LEX), a critical component of the Reusable Launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstration (RLV-TD) programme

About the experiment

• RLV-LEX involves taking an unmanned, winged prototype to an altitude of about 2.3 km to 2.4 km on a helicopter and releasing it to land.
• The prototype will be released 3.7 km away from the airstrip and it must travel the distance autonomously, gain velocity, maintain control and come in like any typical aircraft, touching down with the rear wheels first. A parachute will then be deployed for braking.

Reusable Launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstration (RLV-TD) programme

• The cost of access to space is the major deterrent in space exploration and space utilization. A reusable launch vehicle is the unanimous solution to achieve low cost, reliable and on-demand space access.
• Currently, ISRO employs expendable rockets such as the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) for space missions.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Context

• Aiming to give a boost to the export value chain, the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with National Research Development Corporation (NRDC).
• The MoU has been inked for utilizing both the organizations’ expertise by working together to synergize the activities in the interest of agriculture and allied sectors for bringing better value to the stakeholders. The MoU has been signed for the implementation of the Agri Export Policy and to strengthen the export value chain.
• The MoU’s mandate is to infuse and disseminate technologies jointly with APEDA in the areas of climate-resilient agriculture related to zero carbon emission farming to produce residue/carbon-free food for exports.