PIB Analysis : 7th February

PIB Analysis for UPSC CSE

Topics Covered

1. Dard Aryan Tribe
   
2. Atal Bhujal Yojana
3. Development of Space Technology 
   
4. Nuclear Waste Disposal
   
5. Small Grants Programme
6. Global Fund
7. Samagra Shiksha
8. Jurisdiction of CBI

1 . Dard Aryan Tribe

Who are the Dard Aryans?

• Some 200 km from Leh are the villages of Dha, Hanu, Garkone and Darchik on both sides of the Indus River, inhabited by the Buddhist Dard Tribes. The villages are together called the “Aryan valley”.
• The word ‘Dard’ is derived from a Sanskrit word, ‘Daradas’, which means people who live on hillsides,”
• He added people of this region are culturally and linguistically different from those in other parts of Ladakh.
• Among other researchers who have gone into the community’s roots, there is a line of thought that the “Aryans of Ladakh” or the “Brokpas” might have descended from soldiers in Alexander’s army who had come to the region over 2,000 years ago.

Their customs

• They rear goat and sheep for milk and meat, and their festivals are based on the solar calendar. 
• Their traditions go back 5,000 years those who still follow the original customs worship trees, rivers and mountains.
• These tribals are mainly dependent on agriculture; the apricots grown here are considered among the best in the world and there are 12 varieties of grapes in the region.

The concerns

• A number of researchers, as well as the tribals, perceive a threat to the heritage of the community owing to modernisation, migration and religious conversion.
• The community now numbers about 4,000. Over the last few decades, many of them have embraced Islam or Buddhism. “The community prohibits marriage with outsiders to keep the gene pool intact.
• Of late, the Dard men have been migrating to other parts of the region (in search of livelihood) and marrying outside the tribe,
• The tribe is struggling to find a balance between modernity and traditional values.” Also, after the Kargil War, development work in this region has been restricted. Some of the areas of the Aryan valley are out of bounds for outsiders, since it borders Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Their demands

• Members of the community said there are only three high schools in their villages and very limited resources for livelihood — mainly because of the harsh weather and difficult terrain. As such, they have no option but to migrate to cities for higher education and employment. They have demanded that the government set up a tribal hostel and declare the “Aryan valley” a heritage village to boost tourism.

2 . Atal Bhujal Yojana

Context : The World Bank has approved Atal Bhujal Yojana (ABHY), a Rs.6000 Crore scheme, for sustainable management of ground water with community participation.

About Atal Bhujal Yojana

• Atal Bhujal Yojana (ABHY) aims at sustainable ground water management with community participation in select over-exploited and ground water stressed areas in seven States (Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh). 
• ABHY envisages active participation of the communities in various activities such as formation of ‘Water User Associations’, monitoring and disseminating ground water data, water budgeting, preparation & implementation of Gram-panchayat-wise water security plans and IEC activities related to sustainable ground water management.
• ABHY is designed as a Central Sector Scheme with a total outlay of Rs. 6,000 Crore and is to be implemented with World Bank assistance.
• The funding pattern is 50:50 between Government of India and World Bank.
• The identified over-exploited (OE) and water stressed areas for the implementation of the scheme fall in the States of Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Nine blocks of Bundelkhand region in Madhya Pradesh viz. Chhatarpur (Chhatarpur district), Naugaon (Chhatarpur district), Rajnagar (Chhatarpur district), Sagar (Sagar district), Niwari (Tikamgarh district), Baldeogarh (Tikamgarh district), Palera (Tikamgarh district), Patheria (Damoh district) and Ajeygarh (Panna district) have been identified in the scheme

3 . Development of Space Technology 

Some of the new developments made in the last three years

• Development of highly polished optical mirrors – for a solar coronographic mission – Aditya-L1
• Development of large, light-weight collimators with non-cylindrical aperture – for x-ray polarimetric applications – XpoSAT mission
• Development of indigenous silicon sensors and coatings for optical and IR spectroscopic applications – for payloads on Chandrayaan-2 mission

Bilateral Cooperations

• There have been cooperative programs with Canadian Space Agency and UK universities on our astronomy satellite, ASTROSAT ; similar cooperation programs have been established in the past on Chandrayaan-1 mission with NASA and the European Space Agency.

RESPOND

• Indian Space research Organisation through the programme called RESPOND (Sponsored Research) is encouraging academia to participate in the R & D activities. Respond programme provides support to research projects in wide range of topics in space technology, space science and applications to universities/ institutions.

4 . Nuclear Waste Disposal

How Nuclear Wastes are disposed

• The solid wastes generated from nuclear facilities, depending upon their radioactivity content are stored/ disposed of in engineered structures such as stone lined trenches, reinforced concrete trenches and tile holes.
• These structures are designed on multi-barrier principle for ensuring effective containment of radioactivity. These structures are located within plant/facility premises in access-controlled areas.
• The areas where the waste disposal structures are located are provided with bore-wells in a planned manner.
• These bore wells are routinely monitored to confirm effective confinement of radioactivity present in the disposed waste.
• The regular monitoring is done as per the requirements which are in line with the guidelines of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
• The monitoring of various environmental matrices such as air, water, soil etc., in and around the waste disposal facilities is carried out by independent Environmental Survey Laboratories (ESL) of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) which are stationed at all the nuclear sites.  

5 . Small Grants Programme

About Small Grants ProgrammeM

• Established in 1992, the year of the Rio Earth Summit, the GEF Small Grants Programme embodies the very essence of sustainable development by “thinking globally acting locally”. Small Grants Programme (GEF UNDP/SGP) is funded by Global Environment Facility (GEF)
• By providing financial and technical support to projects that conserve and restore the environment while enhancing people’s well-being and livelihoods, SGP demonstrates that community action can maintain the fine balance between human needs and environmental imperatives.
• SGP recognizes that environmental degradation such as the destruction of ecosystems and the species that depend upon them, increasing levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in our atmosphere, pollution of international waters, land degradation and the spread of persistent organic pollutants are life-threatening challenges that endanger us all.
• However, poor and vulnerable communities –SGP’s primary stakeholders- are most at risk because they depend on access to natural resources for their livelihoods and often live in fragile ecosystems.
• The programme provides grants of up to $50,000 directly to local communities including indigenous people, community-based organizations and other non-governmental groups for projects in Biodiversity, Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation, Land Degradation and Sustainable Forest Management, International Waters and Chemicals.H

SGP in India

• UNDP has been supporting the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) in implementing the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and financed Small Grants Programme (SGP) in India since 1997.
• Projects under the SGP are implemented through a National Host Institution – Centre for Environment Education (CEE), and other NGO partners and stakeholders that has presence in different parts of the country.
• The SGP has been working extensively in the areas of biodiversity conservation, climate change and land degradation. 

Some of the key achievements of the programme are:

• 110,000 hectares of land brought under sustainable land and resource management in the Western Ghats, Himalayan Front and Arid and Semi-Arid Regions through sustainable measures such as organic farming and community managed enterprises for non-timber forest products; improved agricultural, land and water management practices; and promotion of sustainable income generation activities among the small farm holders, below
• 85,000 MTs of CO2 emissions reduced through a range of alternative energy and energy efficient technologies such as efficient cook stoves, solar driers, and briquetting units, plastic wasters recycling units, micro-hydro, biomass and pine needle-based energy options, which resulted in enhancing the livelihoods     of poor and marginalized communities.

6 . Global Fund

About the Global Fund

• The Global Fund is a 21st-century partnership organization designed to accelerate the end of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria as epidemics.
• Founded in 2002, the Global Fund is a partnership between governments, civil society, the private sector and people affected by the diseases. The Global Fund raises and invests nearly US$4 billion a year to support programs run by local experts in countries and communities most in need.
• The Global Fund raises funds in multiyear cycles known as Replenishments and is preparing for sixth voluntary replenishment conference to mobilize needed resources to scale up life-saving programs over 2020-22.
• India is the first implementing country to host a replenishment milestone, which presents an unprecedented and unique opportunity to highlight India’s role and political leadership in global health, as well as its strong commitment to achieve SDG3.
• The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is organizing “India Showcase” to highlight India’s global footprint in the field of innovation and technology to end AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria and its increased ownership of the national response and its growing role in development

7 . Samagra Shiksha

About Samagra Shiksha

• Samagra Shiksha is an overarching programme for the school education sector extending from pre-school to class XII and aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education at all levels of school education.  
• It envisages the ‘school’ as a continuum from pre-school, primary, upper primary, secondary to senior secondary levels. 
• The main emphasis of the Scheme is on improving quality of school education and the strategy for all interventions would be to enhance the Learning Outcomes at all levels of schooling.
• The Objectives of the Samagra Shiksha are (a) Provision of quality education and enhancing learning outcomes of students; (b) Bridging Social and Gender Gaps in School Education; (c) Ensuring equity and inclusion at all levels of school education; (d) Ensuring minimum standards in schooling provisions; (e) Promoting Vocationalisation of education; (f) Support States in implementation of Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009; and (g)Strengthening and up-gradation of SCERTs/State Institutes of Education and DIET as nodal agencies for teacher training.

8 . Jurisdiction of CBI

Jurisdiction

• In exercise of powers under Section 2 (1) of Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act, 1946, the Central Government constitutes a Special Police Force for investigation in any Union Territory of offences notified under Section 3 of DSPE Act, 1946.
• The power and jurisdiction of this Special Force can be extended by virtue of Section 5 of DSPE Act, 1946 to any other areas/State not being Union Territory for investigation of any offences or classes of offences notified under Section 3 of DSPE Act, 1946 with the consent of the Government of that State.
• Further, Constitutional courts can also entrust any case or class of case for investigation in exercise of inherent jurisdiction even without the consent of the respective State Government. 
• Once general or specific consent is granted under Section 6 of DSPE Act, 1946 by the State Government where the case is registered; or when the case is entrusted by the Constitutional courts, the powers and jurisdiction of members of the DSPE (CBI) may extend for investigation as stipulated under Section 5 of DSPE Act, 1946. 
• Withdrawal of consent, if any, by a State Government can be effected prospectively and not retrospectively.
• In the cases which are referred by the Constitutional Courts, the entry of CBI cannot be denied by that State as these do not require the consent of the State.