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Showing posts from June, 2021

PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM

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  Public distribution system (PDS)  Click upon to enlarge  Food supply chain Topics- ( upsc GS-3 paper) : PDS,  MSP, buffer stocks, food security, subsidy Objectives : To address anemia and micronutrient deficiency Fortification of rice and its distribution by mixing normal rice to add ( iron,  folic acid, v-b-12) To eliminate malnutrition  To provide food security  To remove problems of stunting  Historical travel of PDS:   Public distribution system first emerged in India during the world War 2 in 1940s as a rationing measure as a general entitlement  scheme.  Before 1960s, it was dependent on imported food grains. There was extreme shortage of food  grains so that government setup " Agriculture price commission " and " Food Corporation of India " to improve domestic procurement and storage of food grains for public distribution. By the 1970s, PDS had evolved into universal scheme from general scheme for the distribution of s...

Urban development in india

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Topics- (upsc-3 paper ) Indian economy and issues related to planning, mobilization,  of resources, growth, development and employment.  Inclusive growth. (Upsc-2 paper) social welfare schemes  Geography: urban development 

OBESITY a "silent epidemic"

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  Topic -     (upsc GS -2paper) health related issues   Silent epidemic  Obesity   Issues : health Childhood Obesity  Adolescent Obesity  Maternal Obesity   Causes of obesity:  Over nutrition in India  said UNICEF  Unhealthy diet and eating habits  Eating junk food like packaged foods such as chips,  kurkure, biscuits etc. Eating much dry food  Much sweets consumption that contain much sugar  No or less physical activities  Unhealthy food Impacts: "obese population is increasing rapidly in the country that all are unhealthy population and the cost of treating obesity is the cost of junk food marketing" said world food programme (WFP). Diabetes  Laziness  Plood presure problems  Problems in walking , sitting,  standing, chairing etc.  Increasing load on India's health infrastructure  and medicine requirements  Being waste India’s valuable human resources....

INS VIKRANT

Topics :   UPSC GS-3 paper  Science and technology- development and applications and effects in everyday life Achievements of Indians in science and technology; indigenization of technology and and developing ney technology India's first indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC -1) is also named vikrant meant courageous being developed by the cochin shipyard limited in kerala for the Indian navy. It would be commissioned in the first half of 2022 and would be the most potent sea based asset.  Ins vikrant will operate : Mig-29k fighter aircraft,   Kamov-31 air early warming helicopters Advanced light helicopters  It would offer an incomparable military instrument with its ability to projects air power over long distances including air interdiction, anti surface warfare, offensive and defensive counter-air, airborne anti-submarine warfare and airborne early warning . Features  : Lenght- 263 metres Breadth-63 metres  Propelled by 4 gas turbine 

Padhna Likhna Abhiyan

Statue of Unity

One of the eight wonders of the world and one of the world’s greatest place 100 places to visit declared by TIME, statue of unity, kevadia emerged as an international class tourist destination with the pick daily tourist footfall recorded as high as 35,000. The tallest statue in the world, height is 182metre on the bank of Narmada River at sardar sarovar dam,,at Gujarat in India. 

Mukundra Tiger reserve

Mukundra tiger reserve is situated at Kota district in Rajasthan on Mukundra hills .

WATER POLLUTION

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Yamuna river pollution control measures   Check Dams construction : To   control the pollution of river Yamuna Delhi government has been decided to construct 20 strategic check dams to check the flow of drains to Yamuna.There are five major drains - at Najafgarh, shahdara, Barapullah, Delhi gate, and Mori gate that are carrying waste water to the Yamuna. Purposes : The idea behind installing these check dams or weirs, is to increase the travel time of drain water so as to allow solid pollutants, primarily sewage, to settle down before the water is released into the river. Benefits :  When wall is created, the solid pollutants settled down before the water over flows from the weirs. It means behind weirs water act as sedimentation tanks. The time for microbial treatment or natural treatment process of drain water increased. These weirs act as checkpoints, beyond which untreated waste water did not move forward. The pollutants loads from drains into river drops about 70 to...

TWO NEW SPECIES OF ANT MYRMECINA GENUS DISCOVERED IN MIZORAM

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Myrmecina ant species  Two new species of a rare ant genus, Myrmecina, have been discovered in Mizoram by ATREE.  Myrmecina Bawai : Ant obtained this in regard of professor Kamaljit S Bawa, a renowned evolutionary and founder of Ashoka trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE). It has a yellow colour body with a dark tinge and was found in shaded region at an elevation of 1,619 metres above sea level.  Myrmecina Reticula : Ant obtained this name  due to reticulate patterns on its abdomen. It was found in the Dampa tiger reserve in Mamit district at an elevation of 409 metres above sea level . Feature :  These ants live in small colonies of 30 to 150 individuals under stones or decaying wood. Till now including these India have 7 myrmecina ant species. Until now, only 51 species were known that are distributed over North America,  Europe, Northern Africa, India, Korea, Japan, and Australia.  There are about 57 species of Ant in Mizoram....

JIVAN VAYU DEVICE ?

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Topics :  UPSC GS-3 paper  Science and technology- development and applications and effects in everyday life Achievements of Indians in science and technology; indigenization of technology and and developing ney technology. JIVAN VAYU DEVICE CREATED BY IIT ROPAR Breathing device Jivan vayu is a newly developed multifunctional breathing device that filter air, supply oxygen, and genetate oxygen for patient coping with breathing problems. It was developed by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Ropar ( Punjab, India), as a substitute of CPAP machine, under "Make in India Initiative" launched by Indian prime minister for innovation.  What is CPAP? CPAP stands for continuous positive Airway pressure  which is a machine. It is used to treat a  patients having breathing problems during sleep called sleep apnea . The machine use air pressure to keep the air ways open for easy breathing.it is also used to treat infants whose lungs have not developed fully. Jivan va...

WATER BORNE DISEASES

Water diseases due to water contamination and improper disposal of wastes water and sanitation. These  diseases are: Cholera  Diarrhoea  Dysentery  Hepatitis A,Hepatitis E Polio  Typhoid  Water diseases are of 3 kinds: Water transmitted diseases. Water borne diseases.   Water related and water washed disease. Water borne diseases are considered public health problem due to a number of reasons which includes: Their potential to cause large outbreaks.  High disease burden. For being major cause of admission and out patients visit to thw hospitals and health facilities mainly among young children. For many borne diseases no special treatment is available. Note- Globally, 8,42,000 people die each year due  to Diarrhoea(most widely known water disease) as a result of unsafe drinking water, sanitation and hand hygiene.  WASHFIT : In 2015, WHO and UNICEF  jointly developed it (water and sanitation for health facility improvement tool) it ...

GO TRIBAL

SEA WATER DESALINATION

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SAND MINING & ITS IMPACTS

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What is sand mining?  Extraction or removal of sands from river bed ,beache, mangroves areas and coastal areas for use is called sand mining. Sand mining site Issues : Unsustainable,  irresponsible, illegal sand mining  Causes of sand mining? Sand is a critical ingredient in our lives. It is the primary raw material to build our cities. It is used in fiber optic cable, glue, cosmetic glass, cilicon chips and computers - along with other electronics equipment. With such high demand, the world is facing a shortage of sand and population growth further increasing challenges. Desert sand is available plenty but not siutef for construction use because it is wind smoothed and therefore, non- adherent. Unnecessary construction. No best alternative available.  Global demand of sand and gravel standing at 40 to 50 billion tonnes per years.  Increasing urbanisation, infrastructure development have increased demands of sand  3-folds over the last 2 decades with a 5.5%...

Municipal solid wastes

Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Municipal solid waste is classified in various way in different jurisdictions but typically refers to the mixed waste stream produced from households, businesses,  and schools. It contains paper, plastic,  metal,  glass, clothing,  furniture, end of life electrical appliances and food waste. landfilling :  Best practice is to  reduce ,   reuse , Compost and  recycle  this waste,  ensuring that as much waste as possible is diverted from landfill sites. When  an unmanaged.  Landfill sites are a source of environmental pollution and human health risks. It is an un economic use of land in urban areas,  and can generate strong protest from people living in close proximity because of environment human health and social concerns. Incineration :  Incineration is considered a form of recovery called waste to energy when it used to generate energy. Controlled burning of municipal solid waste co...

Wildlife sanctuary

  Katarinaghat Wildlife Sanctuary (U.P.) It was established in 1975 at Upper gangetic Plain in Uttar Pradesh with an area 400.6 sqKm protected in the Terai region of Bahraich District. Wildlife : Tiger, spotted deer, langur, barking deer, hog-deer, leopard, swamp deer, sambar, elephant and rhinos etc.

Okhla birds sanctuary

Topic  Protected areas  Prelims    Okhla Birds Sanctuary(U.P.) Okhla birds sanctuary is located in Gautam Buddha Nagar  Noida in Uttar Pradesh whose wetland has 8,068 birds currently( 2021) which was 8,776 in 2020  and 12,212 in 2019 according to the wetland international South Asia. Causes of decrease of birds population are:  Sanctuary suffered by water pollution due to excessive flow of effluents in river Yamuna  Tourism Night camp  Deforestation  Loss of eco-sensitive zone. Government approvals for infrastructure development in birds habitat. Falcon : a small but graceful Falcon that performs a fast flight in pursuit of flying prey, the Eurasian Hobby is about 33cmin length. It is a rare winter visitor to these parts and is a passage migrant.  It comes to the region for a month or a few weeks.  A Eurasian hobby ,a small slender Falcon was seen in the Okhla bird Sanctuary.  In India falcons are protected in schedul...

URBAN DEVELOPEMENT

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  Problems of Urbanization   Urban India  Ground water depletion : excessive and illegal extraction of ground water by unauthorized water plants, factories including misuse of ground water by vehicle washing plants. For example, in urban segment of Ghaziabad in 2020 the ground water depleted by 6.55 metres below ground water level from post monsoon period of 2016 to post monsoon period of 2020, as cmpared to an average decline of 3.8 metres below ground Water level in rural areas. In 2016 after monsoon ground water was available at a depth of 22.7 metres, and after years in 2020 the ground water level was available at the depth of 29.25 metres in urban areas. While, in rual areas of Ghaziabad, it was avaliable at a depth of 8.05 metres in 2016 after monsoon and depleted to 11.85 metres in 2020 after monsoon period.  Causes :  High-rise building construction  Road construction  Excessive water extraction  Illegal use of water Lack of ground water r...

OILY WASTE WATER TREATMENT

  OILY WASTE WATER TREATMENT Under make in India initiative a new indigenous waste water treatment technology has been developed in India, which uses a cobination of electrocoagulation and electroflotation enhanced membrane module (ECEFMM).   Electrocoagulation: It is a wastewater treatment techniques that uses electrical charge for charging the particles surface charge, allowing suspended matter to form aggregates. Electroflotation: It is the separation of suspended particles from water using hydrogen and oxygen bubbles generated by passing electricity through water. Treatment Process: In the developed module electrocoagulation and elecroflotation are adjoined with membrane in a single setup. The turbulence created because of hydrogen bubbling throuh the feed medium or the wastewater, resists the deposition of oil over the membrane. The synergistic effect of hydrogen bubbling and rotation of membrane module creates substatial turbulencewithin the solutionand on membrane surfa...

जल जीवन मिशन / JAL JEEVAN MISSION

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JAL JEEVAN MISSION (JJM) Tap water supply  National JAL JEEVAN MISSION was announced by the Prime Minister of India on 15th August  2019 from the Red Fort to provide tap water connection to every household of the country by 2024. For this purpose a separate ministry has been created country with the name of "Ministry of Jal Shakti". Priority sectors:   Water scarce areas  Quality affected villages  Aspirational districts  Scheduled castes(SCs)/Scheduled tribes(STs)areas Sanshad Adarsh Gram Villages  Water quality monitoring & surveillance activities : These are to be given top priority,  for which anganwadi workers, ASHA workers (accredited social health activists), members of S.H.G.(self help group), members of Panchayati Raj institutions (PRIs), school teachers etc, are being trained so that they can test water sample for contamination at water sources and delivery point using field test kits (FTKs). Water testing group consists of: in ev...

Woolly flying squirrels

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WOOLLY FLYING SQUIRRELS Species name - NEW- EUPETAURUS TIBETINESIS ( Tibetan woolly flying squirrel discovered in 2021 in Tibet) Eupetaurus nivamons ( Yunnan woolly flying squirrel discovered in 2021 China)  OLd- Eupetaurus cinereus (discoveted in 1994. in Pakistan)  Two woolly flying squirrels species were discovered by the scientists from Australia and China in May 2021. Key features:  the woolly flying squirrels could be over 3feet long( exact 1100 MM) Weight could be over 2.5 kg. They live at altitude up to 4,800m( more than half of the height of Mount Everest) in areas of uninhabited by the people. They are the rarest animal in the world.  These are some of the largest squirrels in the world They are very gorgeous(shandaar) soft furred squirrels. Location: They live on the top of the world in the Himalayas such as: Northern Pakistan,  North-western India particularly Uttarakhand,  South-central Tibet,  Northern Sikkim,   western bhutan...

Climate Change initiative in India

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  Fight climate change in India  India has taken both hard and soft approaches to fight climate change  Hard approch: Renewable energy has increased by 250%in 7year. Today India is among the top 5 country of the world in terms of installed renewable energy  capacity. Specially solar energy has increased 15% since 2014. Clean and efficient energy system Soft approach:  India's drive to phase single use out plastic  Beach cleaning  Swachh bharat abhiyan  Free gas connection under ujjwala scheme  Electricity connection under suabhagya scheme.  Resilient Urban infrastructure  Eco restoration  Holistic approch: National clean air programme  Waterway and Multimodal connectivity programme under green transport  Solar power facility at station.  LEDs at ports

ALGAL BLOOM?

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 ALGAL BLOOM   Keywords :  Alga (singular subject/ noun) Algae ( plural subject/noun) Mycrocystis (alga) microcystin( toxin / poison) DO: oxygen dissolved in water, generally 4mg/l required to sustain the life in water.  Eutrophication   (Neutrients enrichment in water bodies ) : The excess of fixed nitrogen builds up in streams and lakes where provides extra food for microorganisms and causes a bloom in the population of algae. The algae population eat up oxygen and eventually, brings the waterbody on the brinks of death. Algal bloom in river  Algal bloom( algal pollution) is a condition of excessive sudden  population growth of algae on the surface of water bodies in mat form because of sudden increase of nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus that leads food chain disturbance in water bodies. Actually microscopic plants( algae) are unicellular, aquatic, roots, and leaves. Algae are required nutrients for growth by the process of photosynthesis; ...