[Mission 2022] INSIGHTS DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS + PIB SUMMARY 14 APRIL 2022 – INSIGHTSIAS

GS Paper 1:

Topics Covered: The Freedom Struggle – its various stages and important contributors /contributions from different parts of the country.

Context:

On April 13, 1919, British forces opened fire on unarmed Indians at Jallianwala Bagh killing hundreds of people.

• 13th April, 2022 marks the 103 years of the incident.

About the incident:

• It was Baisakhi that day, Local residents in Amritsar decided to hold a meeting that day to discuss and protest against the confinement of Satya Pal and Saifuddin Kitchlew, two leaders fighting for Independence, and implementation of the Rowlatt Act, which armed the British government with powers to detain any person without trial.
• The crowd had a mix of men, women and children. They all gathered in a park called the Jallianwala Bagh, walled on all sides but for a few small gates, against the orders of the British. While the meeting was on, Brigadier-General Reginald Edward Harry Dyer, who had crept up to the scene wanting to teach the public assembled a lesson, ordered 90 soldiers he had brought with him to the venue to open fire on the crowd. Many tried in vain to scale the walls to escape. Many jumped into the well located inside the park.

Outcomes:

• Considered ‘The Butcher of Amritsar’in the aftermath of the massacre, General Dyer was removed from command and exiled to Britain.
• Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi, as a sign of condemnation, renounced their British Knighthood and Kaiser-i-Hind medal respectively.
• In 1922, the infamous Rowlett Act was repealed by the British.

Insta Curious:

Did you know that the Gujarat government recently marked 100 years of the Pal-Dadhvav killings, calling it a massacre “bigger than the Jallianwala Bagh”? Reference: read this.

InstaLinks:

Prelims Link:

1. Who was the Viceroy when this incident took place?
2. Outcomes of the incident?
3. What is Rowlatt Act?

Mains Link:

The tragedy of Jallianwala Bagh is a shameful scar on British Indian history. Comment.

Sources: the Hindu.

GS Paper 1:

Topics Covered: The Freedom Struggle – its various stages and important contributors /contributions from different parts of the country.

Context:

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan recently released a book on the life of tribal freedom fighter Birsa Munda.

• The book titled ‘Birsa Munda – Janjatiya Nayak’ is written by Prof Alok Chakrawal, Vice-Chancellor of Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya, Bilaspur.
• The book is a comprehensive attempt to bring to the fore the struggle of Bhagwan Birsa Munda and the contribution of forest dwellers in the freedom movement.

Who was he?

Bisra Munda was a folk hero and a tribal freedom fighter hailing from the Munda tribe. He was a spearhead behind the Millenarian movement that arose in the Bihar and Jharkhand belt in the 19th century under British colonisation. He is also known as ‘Dharti Abba’ or the Earth Father.

• Born on 15th November 1875.

Birsait:

Bisra wanted to reform the tribal society and so, he urged them to let go of beliefs in witchcraft and instead, stressed on the importance of prayer, staying away from alcohol, having faith in God and observing a code of conduct. Based on these, he started the faith of ‘Birsait’.

Achievements:

Bisra started a movement called ‘Ulgulan’, or ‘The Great Tumult’. His struggle against the exploitation and discrimination against tribals led to a big hit against the British government in the form of the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act being passed in 1908. The act restricted the passing on of land from the tribal people to non-tribals.

Munda Rebellion:

• It is one of the most important tribal movements.
• It was led by Birsa Munda in the south of Ranchi in 1899-1900.

The movement identified following forces as the cause of the misery the Mundas were suffering:

1. The land policies of the British were destroying their traditional land system.
2. Hindu landlords and moneylenders were taking over their land.
3. Missionaries were criticising their traditional culture.

Significance of Munda Rebellion:

• It forced the colonial government to introduce laws so that the land of the tribals could not be easily taken over by dikus (Chotanagpur Tenancy Act, 1908).
• It showed that the tribal people had the capacity to protest against injustice and express their anger against colonial rule.

Insta Curious:

Do you know about the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People? Reference: read this.

InstaLinks:

Prelims Link:

1. Where was Birsa Munda born?
2. What is Ulgulan?
3. Overview of the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act, 1908.

Mains Link:

Write a note on Birsa Munda and his key contributions to India’s freedom struggle.

Sources: PIB.

GS Paper 1:

Topics Covered: Important Geophysical phenomena such as earthquakes, Tsunami, Volcanic activity, cyclone etc.

Context:

The southwest monsoon is likely to be “normal” in 2022, though rainfall in August, the second rainiest month, will likely be subdued, according to the private weather company Skymet.

Key findings:

• Rajasthan, Gujarat, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura are likely to be rain deficit throughout the season.
• Northeastern States have a high base-level of rainfall.
• In the South, Kerala and north interior Karnataka would see subdued rainfall in the core monsoon months of July and August.
• On the other hand, Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh — key kharif crop regions — and rainfed areas of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh would witness “above normal”’ rainfall.

What is ‘Normal’?

“Normal”, according to Skymet, is 98% of the historical average of 88 cm for the four-month stretch from June-September.

Impact of ENSO:

The El Nino, characterised by a warming of temperatures in the Central Pacific and associated with drying up rainfall over India, wasn’t expected to surface this year. Its converse, or a La Nina, had helped with two years of above normal rainfall in 2019, 2020 and “normal” rain in 2021.

What are the Niño and La Niña?

They are two natural climate phenomena occurring across the tropical Pacific Ocean and influence the weather conditions all over the world.

• While the El Niño period is characterised by warming or increased sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, a La Niña event causes the water in the eastern Pacific Ocean to be colder than usual.
• Together, they are called ENSO or El Niño-Southern Oscillation.

What causes El Nino?

1. El Nino sets in when there is an anomaly in the pattern.
2. The westward-blowing trade winds weaken along the Equator and due to changes in air pressure, the surface water moves eastwards to the coast of northern South America.
3. The central and eastern Pacific regions warm up for over six months and result in an El Nino condition.

Insta Curious:

Do you know about Param Shivay, a Supercomputer built under the National Super Computing Mission? Reference

Do you know about the Indian Ocean dipole that influences monsoon? Its “positive” phase corresponds to good rains and “negative” the opposite.

InstaLinks:

Prelims Link:

1. What is El Nino?
2. What is La Nina?
3. What is ENSO?
4. When do these events occur?
5. Impact of ENSO on Asia, Africa and Australia.

Mains Link:

Discuss the impact of La Nina weather phenomenon on India.

Sources: the Hindu.

GS Paper 3:

Topics Covered: Infrastructure – Energy.

Context:

The government has launched Indigenous Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Solutions for Indian Traffic Scenario under Intelligent Transportation System Endeavor for Indian Cities Phase-II Program.

• InTranSE -II is an initiative of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).

Recently launched solutions include:

An indigenous Onboard Driver Assistance and Warning System – ODAWS: It incorporates vehicle-borne sensors for monitoring driver propensity and vehicle surroundings to deliver acoustic and visual alerts for driver assistance.

Bus Signal Priority System: It is an operational strategy that modifies normal traffic signal operations to better accommodate in-service public buses at signal-controlled intersections.

Common SMart iot Connectiv (CoSMiC) software: CoSMiC provides a Dashboard page showing IoT units, products, applications, and its live data in a Geographical Information System (GIS) map.

What is InTranSe?

Intelligent Transportation System Endeavour (InTranSe) for Indian IndianCities” is a National level Collaborative Research and Development Program.

Funded by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India.

Aim: InTranSe aims at Development, Demonstration, Deployment, Technology Transfer and Commercialization of products and technologies relevant to Intelligent Transportation System (ITS).

Overall objective of the program is to provide the country with the capability to become a significant player in the area of Intelligent Transportation System (ITS).

InstaLinks:

Prelims Link:

Intelligent Transportation System (ITS).

1. Common SMart iot Connectiv (CoSMiC) software.
2. Bus Signal Priority System.
3. An indigenous Onboard Driver Assistance and Warning System.
4. InTranSE -II Program.

Mains Link:

Discuss the significance of the InTranSE -II Program.

Sources: PIB.

GS Paper 3:

Topics Covered: Infrastructure – Energy.

Context:

Released by: Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC).

What is GWEC? Established in 2005, it is the international trade association for the wind power industry, representing the united voice of the industry, globally.

Highlights of the Report:

1. Wind energy installations every year across the world must quadruple from the 94 GW installed in 2021 within this decade to meet the global climate targets.
2. Without the necessary amplification, restricting global warming over pre-industrial levels to 1.5 degrees Celsius — a target set by the Paris Agreement — and achieving Net Zero emissions by 2050 may become difficult.
3. New offshore installations in 2022 are likely to decline to the 2019 / 2020 levels, primarily due to the reduction of installations in China.
4. Market growth is expected to regain momentum from 2023, eventually passing the 30GW-mark in 2026.
5. Offshore wind energy generation increases return on investment, along with reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Challenges to growth:

• Inconsistent policy environments focused on short-term political aims.
• Badly designed markets which do not enable bankable renewable energy projects.
• Infrastructure and transmission bottlenecks.
• A lack of adequate industrial and trade policies related to renewable technologies Hostile political or misinformation campaigns.

Scope in India:

• More than 1.4 GW of wind was installed in 2021, exceeding the 1.1 GW of installations during the previous year.
• The Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has set a target of installing 5 GW of offshore capacity by 2022 and 30 GW by 2030. India is yet to develop its offshore wind energy facility.
• India can generate 127 GW of offshore wind energy with its 7,600 km of coastline.

Need of the hour:

1. Governments to tackle issues such as planning barriers and grid connection challenges.
2. To sustain and increase growth in wind-based generation capacity, policymakers are urged to streamline the procedures to grant permits, including land allocation and grid connection projects.
3. Workforce planning for large-scale renewables deployment should be an early policy priority and investment in grids must treble from current levels through to 2030.
4. Annual transition-related investment in the energy system must increase 2.7 times from the 2019 level, to $5.69 trillion a year till 2030.
5. There is also a need for greater public-private co-operation to confront “the new geopolitics of the wind supply chain”.
6. A stronger international regulatory framework is needed to address the increased competition for commodities and critical minerals.

Insta Curious:

The state of Gujarat has highest Wind Energy potential, followed by Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh.

• India currently has the fourth highest wind installed capacity in the world with total installed capacity of 39.25 GW.
• The state of Tamil Nadu tops the list, with an annual wind power output of around 9,000 MW per annum; followed by Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Rajasthan.

InstaLinks:

Prelims Link:

1. About GWEC.
2. Global Wind Report 2022.
3. Highlights.
4. Wind energy in India.

Mains Link:

Discuss the significance of wind energy for India.

Sources: Down to Earth.

GS Paper 2:

Topics Covered: Schemes

Context:

The Union Government has launched the ‘SVANidhi se Samriddhi’ program in additional 126 cities across 14 States/ UTs.

About the ‘SVANidhi se Samriddhi’:

• It is an additional program of
• Launched under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
• Implementing Partner: Quality Council of India (QCI).
• During Phase 1 of the program, it covered 125 cities, covering approximately 35 Lakh Street vendors and their families.
• Aim: To provide social security benefits to street vendors for their holistic development and socio-economic upliftment.
• Under the program, socio-economic profiling of PM SVANidhi beneficiaries and their families is conducted to assess their eligibility for Eight Government of India’s welfare schemes and facilitate sanctions of eligible schemes.

These Eight schemes include:

1) Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana.

2) PM Suraksha Bima Yojana.

3) Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana.

4) Building and other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act (BOCW).

5) Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maandhan Yojana.

6) National Food Security Act (NFSA)-portability benefit – One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC).

7) Janani Suraksha Yojana and 8) Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana.

PM SVANidhi Scheme:

It is a special micro-credit facility plan to provide affordable loan of up to ₹10,000 to more than 50 lakh street vendors, who had their businesses operational on or before 24 March 2020.

• Small Industries Development Bank of India is the technical partner for implementation of this scheme.
• It will manage the credit guarantee to the lending institutions through Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises.

Loans under the scheme:

• Under the scheme, vendors can avail working capital loan of up to ₹10,000, which is repayable in monthly installments within one year.
• On timely/early repayment of the loan, an interest subsidy of 7% per annum will be credited to the bank accounts of beneficiaries through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) on six-months basis.
• There will be no penalty on early repayment of loan.

Eligibility:

The scheme is applicable to vendors, hawkers, thelewalas, rehriwalas, theliphadwalas in different areas/contexts who supply goods and services. Street vendors belonging to the surrounding peri-urban/rural areas are also included.

InstaLinks:

Prelims Link:

1. PMSVANidhi.
2. Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.
3. Economic Stimulus-II.
4. Issues related to Development.
5. Government Policies and Interventions.
6. Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.

Sources: PIB.