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📰 News (10-02-2022): ■ Scientists set new record in creating energy from nuclear fusion: • Scientists in the United Kingdom said they have achieved a new milestone in producing nuclear fusion energy, or imitating the way energy is produced in the Sun. • A team at the Joint European Torus (JET) facility near Oxford in central England generated 59 megajoules of sustained energy during an experiment in December, more than doubling a 1997 record, said the UK Atomic Energy Authority. • A kg of fusion fuel contains about 10 million times as much energy as a kg of coal, oil or gas. • The energy was produced in a machine called a tokamak, a doughnut shaped apparatus, and the JET site is the largest operational one of its kind in the world • Deuterium and tritium, which are isotopes of hydrogen, are heated to temperatures 10 times hotter than the centre of the sun to create plasma • This is held in place using superconductor electromagnets as it spins around, fuses and releases tremendous energy as heat • The record and scientific data from these crucial experiments are a major boost for ITER, the larger and more advanced version of the JET. • ITER is a fusion research mega-project supported by seven members – China, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the USA – based in the south of France, to further demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy □ About Nuclear Fusion: • Nuclear Fusion is a reaction that occurs when two atoms combine together to form one or more different atomic nuclei and subatomic particles like protons and neutrons. • Fusion reactions occur in stars and the sun. • Enormous amount of energy is released in this process. • High energy is needed to bring fuse two or more atoms together in a fusion reaction. • Hydrogen bomb works on the principle of a nuclear fusion bomb. ■ ISRO to launch earth observation satellite on February 14. • Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is all set for its first launch of 2022 next week. • ISRO plans to place, into orbit, an Earth Observation Satellite (EOS - 04) on board the PSLV C-52 on February 14. The mission will also carry two small satellites (INSPIREsat-1,INS-2TD). • This will be the first launch for ISRO under the new chairman, S. Somanath. • ISRO plans to place the 1,170 kg EOS-04 in a sun synchronous polar orbit of 529 km. • EOS-04 is a radar-imaging satellite, designed to provide high-quality images under all weather conditions for applications such as agriculture, forestry & plantations, soil moisture and hydrology, and flood mapping. ■ More women got maternity benefit. • The number of beneficiaries who enrolled for the maternity benefit programme, called Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY), exceeded the government's target of 51.7 lakh per year in each of the last three years, Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani told Parliament on Wednesday. • PMMVY scheme was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a televised address to the nation on December 31, 2016. • It provides a benefit of ₹5,000 in three instalments to a woman for her first living child upon meeting certain conditions. This is meant as partial compensation for loss of wage during her pregnancy so that she can get proper nutrition. • The scheme is only for those women who are not employed by the Central or State governments or a Public Sector Undertaking and don't receive similar benefits under any law. • It is clubbed with the Janani Suraksha Yojana scheme which provides nearly ₹1,000 for institutional births so that altogether mothers get ₹6,000 in maternity benefit. • The scheme has been criticised for under-funding and failing to cater to all targeted beneficiaries. • Activists also call the scheme illegal as it violates the National Food Security Act, 2013 under which all mothers, and not just mothers of the first living child, should get a maternity benefit of ₹6,000. • Last week Ms. Irani said the benefit would be extended for the birth of the second child when the second child is a girl.

■ Padma Awards: • The awards are always announced a day before the Republic Day (January 26) celebrations. • This year the President has approved the conferment of 128 Padma Awards (4 Padma Vibhushan, 17 Padma Bhushan, and 107 Padma Shri Awards). • The awards are given away by the President at ceremonial functions held at Rashtrapati Bhavan usually in the months of March-April every year.  • After Bharat Ratna, Padma awards are the second highest civilian awards in the country and are given in three categories. • It recognises achievements in public service in the field of art, social work, public affairs, science and engineering, trade and industry, medicine, literature and education, sport and civil services, among others. • The awards, initially known as Padma Vibhushan and then categorised as Pahela Varg, Dusra Varg and Tisra Varg, were first constituted in 1954. • They were later renamed as Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri in 1955. • The Padma Vibhushan is given for exceptional and distinguished service, while the Padma Bhushan and the Padma Shri are for distinguished service of a high order and distinguished service respectively. • The awards were suspended during the years 1978 and 1979 and 1993 to 1997. • The Janata Party government headed by Morarji Desai discontinued the awards in 1977. But they were again revived in 1980 by the Indira Gandhi government. • A Padma awardee can be given a higher award only after five years of the conferment of the earlier award. • The award is normally not conferred posthumously. However, in highly deserving cases, the Government could consider giving an award posthumously. □ Who decides the awards? • The awards are conferred on the recommendations made by the Padma Awards Committee constituted by the Prime Minister every year. • It is headed by the Cabinet Secretary and includes the Union Home Secretary, the Secretary to the President and four to six eminent persons as members. • However, the names of the eminent members of the committee are not revealed. Even the names nominated and shortlisted by the committee are revealed after the awards have been announced. • Even self-nomination can be made to the committee (One can even nominate one’s own self). • The recommendations of the committee are submitted to the Prime Minister and the final list is signed by the President before it is notified in the Gazette of India. □ Can a recipient decline the award? • The rules are silent on this. The convention is that the Home Secretary calls up each awardee and informs them of the civilian honour on January 25. • The individual has the option of declining the award then, following which the name is removed from the list before it is sent to the President for approval. □ What does the award entail? • At the ceremonial function held at the President’s House in Delhi, the recipients are presented a ‘Sanad’ (certificate) signed by the President and a medallion. • A small replica of the medallion is also given to them which can be worn during any ceremonial or State function. • The awardees do not get any cash reward. • The award does not amount to a title and cannot be used as a suffix or prefix to the awardees’ name. • In 1996, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutional validity of the National Awards — Bharat Ratna, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Sri. It ruled that these awards do not amount to ‘titles’ within the meaning of Article 18 that prohibits only hereditary titles of nobility. Therefore, they are not violative of Article 18 as the theory of equality does not mandate that merit should not be recognised. However, it also ruled that they should not be used as suffixes or prefixes to the names of awardees. Otherwise, they should forfeit the awards.

Padma Awards.

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■ India's 1st Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures (OECM) site: • The Aravalli Biodiversity Park in Gurugram was declared India’s first “Other effective area-based conservation measures” (OECM) site. • The OECM tag is given by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to areas that are not protected but support rich biodiversity. • The OECM tag does not bring any legal, financial or management implications, but designates the area as a biodiversity hotspot on the international map. • The proposal to declare Aravalli Biodiversity Park an OECM site was sent by the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) to the IUCN in December 2020. • The Aravalli Biodiversity Park is spread across 390 acres and has semi-arid vegetation, with around 300 native plants, 101,000 trees, 43,000 shrubs, and several species of birds. • Aravallis are considered as the green lungs of Delhi. They support leopards, fox, sambhar and jackals. The Aravallis provide 7.07% of oxygen to Delhi. □ About National Biodiversity Authority (NBA): • It is a Statutory body that performs facilitative, regulatory and advisory functions for the Government of India on the issue of Conservation and sustainable use of biological resources. • It was established in 2003 by the Central Government to implement India's Biological Diversity Act (2002). • The NBA has its Headquarters in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.

📋 Budget 2022 - 2023 Highlights: □ Infrastructure: • PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan at a cost of ₹20,000 crore • National Highways network to be expanded by 25,000 kms in 2022-23. • National Master Plan on Expressways will be formulated in 2022-23. • 400 new generation Vande Bharat trains to be manufactured in next 3 years. • 60 km of ropeway projects under the Parvat Mala project. • Metro systems, muti-model connectivity 100 Gati Shakti cargo terminals in the next 3 years. • To allocate additional 195 billion rupees for production-linked incentives towards solar equipment manufacturing. • The laying of optical fibre in villages to be completed by 2025. □ Agriculture: • Procurement of wheat, paddy, kharif and rabi crops, benefiting over 1 crore farmers. • NABARD to facilitate fund with blended capital to finance startups for agriculture & rural enterprise. • ₹2.37 lakh crore towards direct payments for minimum support price. • Chemical-free, natural farming to be promoted across the country. • 2022 to be Year of Millet - support for post-harvest value addition for millet products. • Using Kisan drones for crop assessment and spraying of pesticides. • Ken-Betwa river linking project at a cost of Rs 44,000 crore, to benefit 9.0 lakh hectare of farmer land. □ Education: • Digital University will be established, and to be made in different Indian languages, based on networked hub model. • One Class, One TV channel will be expanded from 12 to 200 TV Channels to provide supplementary education in all regional languages, to make up for loss of formal education due to Covid. □ Defence: • 68% capital procurement budget earmarked for domestic procurement. • Defence R&D to be opened up for start ups, private industry and academia. 25% of R&D budget to be set aside for this. • Private industry will be encouraged to take up design and development of military platforms and equipment. □ Developments on the digital front: • RBI to introduce ‘digital rupee’ using blockchain technology in 2022-23. • Virtual digital assets to be taxed at 30%. • Gift of virtual assets will be taxed at the receiver's end. • 75 digital banking units to be set up across 75 districts. □ Tax, Economy & Finance: • Green bonds will be issued for upping green infrastructure. • Fiscal deficit is 6.9% of GDP. • Taxpayers can file within 2 years an updated return if there is any anomaly in their filing. • Cooperative societies pay 18.5% alternate minimum tax and companies pay 15%. From now cooperative too will have to pay only 15%. • Surcharge has also been reduced to 7% for those cooperative having income 1 to 10 crores. • Tax relief to persons with disabilities. • Tax deduction limit for NPS account of state govt employees to 14%. • Virtual digital assets will be brought under tax regime. • Long term capital gains surcharge will be capped at 15%. • Custom duty on cut and polished diamond reduced to 5%. • Custom duty on imitation duty slashed. • Duty on Sodium cyanide increased. • Duty on umbrellas raised to 20%. • Steel scrap duty extended for another year. • Anti-dumping on stainless steel is being revoked. • Duty reduced on shrimp aquaculture. □ Health & Sanitation: • National Digital Health Ecosystem to be rolled out. • National Tele Mental Health program to be set up to focus on mental health. 23 tele mental health centres of excellence. • Integrated benefits to women and children through Mission Shakti, Mission Vatsalya, Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0. • Rs. 60,000 crore allocated to cover 3.8 crore households in 2022-23 under Har Ghar, Nal se Jal.

📰 NEWS (04-02-2022): ■ Tamil Nadu Governor returns Bill against NEET: • The Governor has returned a Bill seeking to dispense with NEET-based admissions for undergraduate medical degree courses on February 1, 2022, giving “detailed reasons, for its re-consideration by the House,” it said. • The release said the Supreme Court in Christian Medical College, Vellore Association Vs. Union of India (2020) also has comprehensively examined the issue specially from the social justice perspective and upheld NEET as it prevents economic exploitation of poor students and was in furtherance of social justice. • Article 200 - Powers of the Governor with regard to  assent given to bills passed by the State legislature. ■ HC stays Haryana’s 75% law for reservation to locals in private jobs: • The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Thursday stayed the Haryana government’s law guaranteeing 75% reservation to locals in private sector jobs. • The Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Act, 2020, which came into force on January 15, provides 75% reservation in the private sector to job seekers who are “domiciled in State of Haryana”. • Advocate Tushar Sharma, representing Manesar Industries Welfare Association, one of the petitioners, said the court, granting the interim stay, put only one question to the State as to how they could grant reservation in employment on the basis of a domicile as it violated Article 16 of the Constitution. • Article 16 - Equality of opportunity in matters of public employment. ■ New Eel species discovered: • The newly discovered eel belongs to the congrid eels group and has been named Ariosoma Maurostigma (Two-spot short tail conger). • It was caught from 200–400 m depth along the Arabian Sea. They live in unusual habitats like continental slope and underwater seamount crevices. • The species is possibly distributed along the south-west coast of India, including the coastal waters of Kerala, Karnataka and Goa. ■ Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Bhoomihin Krishi Majdoor Nyay Yojana (RGGBKMNY). • Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, in the course of a day-long visit to Raipur, launched a financial assistance scheme for landless labourers named after his father — Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Bhoomihin Krishi Majdoor Nyay Yojana (RGGBKMNY). • He also laid the foundation stone of ‘Gandhi Sevagram’ ashram to be built in Nava Raipur. • Under the RGGBKMNY, registered labourers in rural areas who do not possess agricultural land will be given financial assistance of ₹6,000 per year in three installments. ■ Chandrayaan-3 set for August launch: • India plans to execute the Chandrayaan-3 mission this August, Minister Jitendra Singh told the Lok Sabha. • The Chandrayaan-3 mission is a follow-up of Chandrayaan-2 of July 2019, which aimed to land a rover on the lunar South Pole. • It was sent aboard the country’s most powerful geosynchronous launch vehicle, the GSLV-Mk 3. • However, lander Vikram, instead of a controlled landing, ended up crash-landing on September 7, 2019, and prevented rover Pragyaan from successfully travelling on the surface of the moon.  • The launch is scheduled for August 2022. • The last major satellite launches by the ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) were the Earth Observation Satellite-3 in August last and the Amazonia satellite in February.

■ Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), 2005. • The Indian Parliament passed the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act on August 23, 2005 and came into force on February 2, 2006. • On 2nd October 2009 an amendment was made in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005, to change the nomenclature of the Act from National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) to Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). • The scheme is a demand-driven wage employment scheme, which functions under the Ministry of Rural Development. • Every adult member of a household in a rural area with a job card is eligible for a job under the scheme. • The scheme envisages providing 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to adult member volunteers for unskilled manual work. • It covers all districts of India except the ones with 100% urban population. • There is also a provision for additional 50 days of unskilled wage employment in drought/natural calamity notified rural areas. • As per Section 3(4) of the MGNREGA, the States may make provisions for providing additional days beyond the period guaranteed under the Act from their own funds. [The states can increase it as done by Odisha and Himachal Pradesh which have added 50 days and made it 150 days in a year]. • The programme mandates that at least 60 percent of the works undertaken must be related to land and water conservation. • Social Audit of MGNREGA works is mandatory, which lends to accountability and transparency. • Both the Center and the States share the funding of the scheme. • The Ministry of Rural Development (MRD), Govt of India is monitoring the entire implementation of this scheme in association with state governments. • Gram Panchayat has the mandate to provide employment within 15 days of a work application. If it fails, the worker will get an unemployment allowance. • MGNREGA helps to fulfil the constitutional duty under Article 41 (Right to work in certain cases). [Article 41 - Right to work, to education and to public assistance in certain cases]. □ Issues with MGNREGA: • The low wage rates have resulted in lack of interest among workers in working for MGNREGA schemes, making way for contractors and middle men to take control locally. • Due to lack of funds, state governments find it difficult to meet the demand for employment under MGNREGA. • Most states have failed to disburse wages within 15 days as mandated by MGNREGA. In addition, workers are not compensated for a delay in payment of wages. This has turned the scheme into a supply-based programme and subsequently, workers had begun to lose interest in working under it. • There has been a delay in the completion of works under MGNREGA and inspection of projects has been irregular. Also, there is an issue of quality of work and asset creation under MGNREGA.

■ World Wetland Day, February 2: • World Wetlands Day is celebrated each year on February 2 to raise Awareness about wetlands. • This day marks the Anniversary of the Convention on Wetlands, which was adopted as an International treaty in 1971. • World Wetland Day 2022 theme is "Wetlands Action for People & Nature." • As per the Ramsar Convention, a wetland is defined as 'areas of marsh, fen, peatland or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt, including areas of marine water the depth of which at low tides does not exceed 6 meters'. • Currently, India has 47 Ramsar sites. • Recently, Haiderpur wetland in Uttar Pradesh became the 47th Ramsar Site in India. • Uttar pradesh has the highest number of Ramsar sites in India. It has 9 Ramsar sites. • The Largest and Samllest Ramsar site in India is Sundarbans wetland (4220 sq-km) of West Bengal and Renuka Wetland (0.2 sq-km) of Himachal Pradesh respectively.

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