Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Context

• In 2021, India will have added a record 10 Gigawatts (GW) of solar energy capacity to its total installed capacity. This has been the most significant 12-month capacity expansion, with approximately a 200 percent increase in capacity year on year. As of the 28th of February, in 2022, India has achieved a total installed solar capacity of more than 50 GW.
• This is a significant step forward in India’s goal of generating 500 GW of renewable energy by 2030, with solar power accounting for almost 30% of the total. India’s capacity increases place the nation sixth in the world in terms of solar power deployment, accounting for roughly 6.5 percent of the world’s total cumulative solar power capacity of 709.68 Gigawatts (GW).

Why is India falling short in roof-top solar installations?

• It is symptomatic of the significant drive to increase the number of utility-scale solar projects across the country that there has been a rapid increase in big, ground-mounted solar energy installations. The deployment of RTS is expected to reach 6.48 GW in 2021, falling well short of the Union Government’s aim of 40 GW of RTS by the end of the year 2022. Due to the emphasis on large-scale solar PV, the various benefits of decentralised renewable energy (DRE) choices, such as the decrease in transmission and distribution (T&D) losses, are not being fully exploited.
• One of the key advantages of solar PV technology is that it can be deployed close to the point of consumption, hence avoiding the need for big, capital-intensive transmission system facilities. As a result, India must deploy large-scale solar PV together with smaller-scale solar PV, and it must increase its efforts in renewable transportation systems (RTS). Residential users and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) that wish to install RTS, on the other hand, may find it difficult to obtain financing.
• As a result of this, and the tepid response from power distribution companies (DISCOMS) to adopting net metering, RTS adoption continues to be low across the country. Governments, utilities, and banks will all need to look at new financial systems that will lower the cost of loans while also lowering the risk of investing on the part of investors.
• Increased awareness, as well as inexpensive financing for RTS projects, have the potential to enable the widespread adoption of RTS by thousands of SMEs and households across the country. Roof space consolidation might also assist to lower the overall cost of RTS installations by allowing for the development of economies of scale.

Context

• Under the FAME-India Scheme, incentives are provided to buyers of electric vehicles in the form of an upfront reduction in the purchase price of electric vehicles.
• The incentive is linked to battery capacity i.e. Rs. 10,000/KWh for e-3W and e-4W with a cap 20% of the cost of vehicle. Further, the incentive/ subsidies for e-2W has been increased to Rs. 15,000/KWh from Rs. 10,000/KWh with an increase in cap from 20% to 40% of the cost of vehicle w.e.f. 11th June, 2021.

About the Scheme

• The National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP) 2020 is a National Mission document providing the vision and the roadmap for the faster adoption of electric vehicles and their manufacturing in the country.
• As part of the NEMMP 2020, the Department of Heavy Industry (under the Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises) formulated a Scheme viz. Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India (FAME India) Scheme in 2015.
• The objective of the FAME India scheme is to promote manufacturing of electric and hybrid vehicle technology and to ensure sustainable growth of the same.
• The scheme encourages adoption of Electric and hybrid vehicles by offering upfront incentives on purchase of Electric vehicles and establishing a necessary charging Infrastructure for electric vehicles.
• The scheme aims at addressing the issue of environmental pollution and fuel security.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Context

• To punish Russia for its actions in Ukraine, the United States and other members of the Group of Seven (G7) will remove Russia’s “Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR)” designation.
• Taking this step would open the door for the United States to slap tariffs on a wide variety of Russian imports, increasing the pressure on a country that is on the verge of entering a serious recession.
  • A recession is defined as a period of falling economic performance throughout an entire economy that lasts for many months or more.
  • The G7 is a group of industrialised western countries (the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States) that was created in 1975.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Context

• Recently, Minister of State, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change in Lok Sabha gave information on ICAP.

About ICAP

• The India Cooling Action Plan (ICAP) was launched in 2019 by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change. The ICAP provides a 20-year perspective and outlines actions needed to provide access to sustainable cooling.
• The plan describes cooling as a “developmental need” and seeks to address the rising demand in cooling, from buildings to transport to cold-chains, through sustainable actions.
• The overarching goal of ICAP is to provide sustainable cooling and thermal comfort for all while securing environmental and socio-economic benefits for the society. This will also help in reducing both direct and indirect emissions.
• The plan estimates that the national cooling demand would grow eight times in the next 20 years, which would result in a corresponding five to eight-fold rise in the demand for refrigerants that involve the use of HFCs.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Context

Why in News? 

• Recently, Three labourers in Mumbai, allegedly hired for manual scavenging, died after inhaling toxic fumes in a septic tank.
• Even though manual scavenging is banned in India, the practice is still prevalent in many parts of the country.

What is manual scavenging?

• Manual scavenging is the practice of removing human excreta by hand from sewers or septic tanks.
• India banned the practice under the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 (PEMSR).
• The Act bans the use of any individual for manually cleaning, carrying, disposing of or otherwise handling in any manner, human excreta till its disposal.
• In 2013, the definition of manual scavengers was also broadened to include people employed to clean septic tanks, ditches, or railway tracks.
• The Act recognizes manual scavenging as a “dehumanizing practice,” and cites a need to “correct the historical injustice and indignity suffered by the manual scavengers.”

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Context

• The first person to receive a heart transplant from a pig has died, two months after the groundbreaking experiment.
• Prior attempts at such transplants — or xenotransplantation — have failed largely because patients’ bodies rapidly rejected the animal organ. This time, surgeons used a heart from a gene-edited pig.
• Scientists had modified the animal to remove pig genes that trigger the hyper-fast rejection and add human genes to help the body accept the organ.

About Xenotransplantation

• Xenotransplantation is any procedure that involves the transplantation, implantation or infusion into a human recipient of either (a) live cells, tissues, or organs from a nonhuman animal source, or (b) human body fluids, cells, tissues or organs that have had ex vivo contact with live nonhuman animal cells, tissues or organs. The development of xenotransplantation is, in part, driven by the fact that the demand for human organs for clinical transplantation far exceeds the supply.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Context

• The care of elderly people is managed by a set of professionals or voluntary organisations interested in geriatric services.
• These homes are run by NGOs, religious or voluntary organisations with support from the government, or by local philanthropists.
• The quality of service varies as these homes lack regulatory oversight.
• Many homes lack clearly established standard operating procedures, and their referral paths to health care are informal.

A rapidly growing section:

• A formal approach to homes for the elderly is an important policy and planning issue for India.
• The UN World Population Ageing Report notes that India’s ageing population (those aged 60 and above) is projected to increase to nearly 20% by 2050 from about 8% now.
• It is essential that our policy framework and social responses are geared to meet this reality.
• A recent set of research papers from Hyderabad focusing on the quality of health in homes for the elderly has some interesting insights.
• About 30% of the residents who were part of the study (over 1,500 participants from 40 homes) had a vision impairment of some sort, but nearly 90% of this vision impairment could be addressed by simple, relatively low-cost health interventions: issuing better eye glasses or cataract surgery.
• The study also found some ‘unseen’ effects of vision impairment: many were prone to depression.
• In fact, those with both vision and hearing impairment had a rate of depression that was five times higher than those without.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Context

• The Global Water System Project, which was launched in 2003 as a joint initiative of the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP) and Global Environmental Change (GEC) programme, epitomizes global concern about the human-induced transformation of fresh water and its impact on the earth system and society.

Fresh water, water valuation:

• Fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007 highlighted the link between societal vulnerability and modifications of water systems.
• It is globally estimated that the gap between demand for and supply of freshwater may reach up to 40% by 2030 if present practices continue.
• The latest UN World Water Development Report, 2021, titled ‘Valuing Water’, has laid stress on the proper valuation of water by considering five interrelated perspectives:
  • Water sources
  • Water infrastructure
  • Water services
  • Water as an input to production
  • Socio-economic development  and socio-cultural values of water.

Inter-basin transfer projects:

• The intra- and inter-basin transfer (IBT) of water is a major hydrological intervention to rectify the imbalance in water availability due to naturally prevailing unequal distribution of water resources within a given territory.
• The National River Linking Project of India is under construction which is one of the projects of IBT initiatives across the world.
• These projects, if executed, will create artificial water courses that are more than twice the length of the earth’s equator and will transfer 1,910 km3 of water annually.
• The World Wildlife Fund/World Wide Fund for Nature (2009) has suggested a cautious approach and the necessity to adhere to sustainability principles set out by the World Commission on Dams while taking up IBT projects.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Context

• The participation of women in the workforce in India has remained low.
• In 2019, 21% of women were either working or looking for work, compared to 32% in 2005.
• India’s female labour force participation (FLFP) rate is the lowest among the BRICS countries and is also lower than some of its neighbours in South Asia such as Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

India’s demographic dividend

• India’s population is among the youngest in the world.
• In 2020, the median age in India was about 29. Women and girls form a significant part of India’s demographic dividend.
• Countries like China, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korean are examples of how the demographic dividend can be reaped to achieve fast-paced economic growth.

Potential sectors

• Access to higher education, skill training and digital technology are the three great enablers in helping India reap the potential of its female labour force.
• According to United Nations Women estimates, women make up a significant proportion of all healthcare workers and more than 80% of nurses and midwives.
• The care service sector, which includes health, education, and other personal care services, is more labour-intensive than sectors such as manufacturing, construction or other service sectors.
• Greater investments in better health and care facilities improve the well-being of India’s people and hence the economic productivity.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Context

• The MV Lal Bahadur Shastri, which had sailed up the Ganga from Patna a month before, landed in Guwahati’s Pandu port on the southern bank of the Brahmaputra on March 6, carrying 200 metric tonnes of food grains for the Food Corporation of India (FCI).
• It is thought that the event propelled inland water transport on two of India’s most important river systems into the future.

Why is a Ganga-Brahmaputra cargo vessel in focus? 

• When a cargo vessel sets sail from or docks at any river port, it is not unusual for people to take notice. However, a large number of VIPs gathered to greet the MV Lal Bahadur Shastri, a cargo vessel operated by the IWAI (Inland Waterways Authority of India), as it docked at Guwahati’s Pandu port on March 6. Sarbananda Sonowal, Union Minister for Ports, Shipping, and Waterways, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Guwahati MP Queen Oja, and IWAI Chairman Sanjay Bandopadhyay were among those who attended the ceremony.
• The vessel had begun sailing from Patna on the National Waterway 1 on February 5th (NW1, river Ganga). In India, it passed through Bhagalpur, Manihari, Sahibganj, Farakka, Tribeni, Kolkata, Haldia, Hemnagar, and Chilmari, while in Bangladesh, it passed through Khulna, Narayanganj, Sirajganj, and Chilmari before returning to India via National Waterway 2 (NW2, river Brahmaputra) via Dhubri and Jogighopa, a distance of 2,350 In India’s landlocked northeast, which was highly reliant on India’s inland water transport system before independence in 1947, the arrival of a vessel carrying 200 MT of food grains for the FCI has renewed optimism for the inland water transport system.

Is this the first such shipping of cargo? 

• The shipment of freight from Patna to Pandu via Bangladesh was the first enterprise undertaken by FCI. Two 1,000-tonne barges carrying 1,233 tonnes of bagged fly ash travelled 2,085 kilometres (more than a month) from Kahalgaon in Bihar to Pandu in Uttar Pradesh in a similar experiment in 2018.
• A private company had purchased fly ash from the National Thermal Power Corporation’s facility in Bihar for use in its cement mills in Assam and Meghalaya, which were located in those states. According to expectations, regular services between NW1 and NW2 will be established, “heralding a new age of inland water transport” for the northeast. A 252 MT shipment bound for eastern Assam’s Numaligarh biorefinery arrived at Silghat in central Assam on February 15 after travelling from Haldia in West Bengal.
• According to the Indian Wind Energy Association, the process has already begun. Another vessel, the MV Ram Prasad Bismil, which is transporting two barges named Kalpana Chawla and APJ Abdul Kalam, began its trip from Haldia on February 17 and is anticipated to arrive in Pandu within a few days.