The Hindu Newspaper Analysis 10 August 2023

The Hindu Newspaper Analysis for UPSC

The Hindu Newspaper Analysis 8 August 2023

• he Indian Space Research Organisation on Wednesday carried out another orbit reduction manoeuvre of India’s third moon mission, Chandrayaan-3.
• The manoeuvre was performed from ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) centre in Bengaluru. The spacecraft is now just 1,437 km from the moon.
• Following that, a series of complex braking manoeuvres will be executed to facilitate a soft landing on the south polar region of the moon on August 23, 2023.”

 The Hindu Editorial Today

• “The name of our State is Keralam in Malayalam language. States were formed based on language on November 1, 1956. Kerala Day is also on November 1.
• Article 3 deals with the formation of new States and alteration of areas, boundaries or names of existing States.
• The procedure of renaming of the state can be initiated by either the Parliament or the State Legislator and the procedure is as follows:
• The renaming of a state requires Parliamentary approval under Article 3 of the Constitution.
• A bill for renaming a state may be introduced in the Parliament on the recommendation of the President.
• Before the introduction of the bill, the President shall send the bill to the respective state assembly for expressing their views within a stipulated time. The views of the state assembly are not binding, neither on the President nor on the Parliament.
• On the expiry of the period, the bill will be sent to the Parliament for deliberation. The bill in order to take the force of a law must be passed by a simple majority.
• Initiation by a State:
• If any fresh proposal comes from states to the Home Ministry, it will prepare a note for the Union Cabinet for an amendment to the Schedule 1 of the Constitution. Thereafter, a Constitution Amendment Bill will be introduced in Parliament, which has to approve it with a simple majority, before the President gives his assent to it.

• The number of elephants in Karnataka has increased by 346, from an estimated 6,049 in 2017 to 6,395 now, which is the highest in the country, according to an interim report on Asian Elephant Population and Demography Estimates, 2023. Their population range is estimated to be between 5,914 and 6,877.
• The number of elephants in Karnataka that had risen from 5,740 in 2010 to 6,072 in 2012 had decreased to 6,049 in 2017. However, this time the number of pachyderms has increased by 346. With this, the elephant numbers have increased by 655 in the State since 2010.

• Status of Elephants in India:
• India has about 27,000 Asian Elephants, which is the world’s largest population of the species.
• As per Elephant Census (2017), Karnataka has the highest number of elephants (6,049), followed by Assam (5,719) and Kerala (3,054)
• More than 60% of the world’s elephant population is in India.
• The elephant is the Natural Heritage Animal of India

• The decision by the United States to send cluster munitions to Ukraine, as part of a new military aid package to bolster Kyiv’s war efforts against Russia, has raked up controversy. Cluster munitions, or cluster bombs, are weapons that release multiple explosive submunitions, also called bomblets, into the air.

• Many bomblets do not blow up instantly and remain dormant for years (also known as the dud rate). These inactive bomblets act as precarious landmines, posing a grave threat to the civilian population, including women and children, for a long time.
• According to the Human Rights Watch, which is a civil society organisation, Russia, since launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, has used cluster bombs against Ukraine in cities such as Kharkiv, resulting in hundreds of civilian deaths and damaging civilian objects such as homes, hospitals, and schools. Now, Ukraine using these dangerous weapons will worsen the situation.
• This resulted in an international treaty called the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) being enacted in May 2008.
• The enactment of the CCM has been a major step in eradicating cluster bombs. However, the treaty is not universal — 112 countries have acceded to the CCM including many North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) members such as Canada, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom.
• But important countries such as the U.S., Russia, China, Israel, and India have not signed the CCM. Ukraine is not a member.
• Article 1 of the CCM bans the use, production, stockpiling, and transfer of cluster bombs.

• Concerned over the increase in prices of foodgrains, the Centre on Wednesday decided to additionally sell 50 lakh tonnes of wheat and 25 lt of rice through the Open Market Sales Scheme for Food Corporation of India stocks.
• The government hoped that the sale would ensure adequate domestic availability of rice, wheat and atta and check their prices.
• What is the Open Market Sale Scheme?
• The OMSS is a program implemented by the FCI to facilitate the sale of surplus food grains, primarily wheat, and rice, from the central pool in the open market.

Purpose and Objectives:

• Enhance food grain supply during lean seasons.
• Moderate open market prices and control inflation.
• Ensure food security and availability of grains in deficit regions.
• Facilitate the sale of surplus food grains from the central pool.
• Implementation and Process:
• Conduct e-auctions by the FCI for traders, bulk consumers, and retail chains to purchase specified quantities of food grains at pre-determined prices.
• Allow states to procure additional food grains through OMSS for distribution under the National Food Security Act,2013 (NFSA).
• FCI conducts weekly auctions for the OMSS for wheat on the platform of the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange Limited (NCDEX).
• NCDEX is a commodity exchange platform in India that provides a platform for trading in various agricultural and other commodities.
• What is the Food Corporation of India?
• FCI is a statutory body set up in 1965 under the Food Corporations Act of 1964. It was established against the backdrop of a major shortage of grains, especially wheat.
• The FCI manages the food security system in India.
• The FCI also maintains buffer stocks of food grains to ensure food security during times of scarcity or crisis.
• The FCI is also responsible for distributing foodgrains throughout the country for the public distribution system.
• FCI also conducts e-auction as one of the methods to dispose of its surplus food grains.

• The CAG’s performance audit report, tabled in the Lok Sabha on Monday, noted multiple cases of the Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) providing treatment for patients who had been declared dead, as well as for thousands of people using the same Aadhaar or invalid mobile phone number.
• For instance, almost 7.5 lakh people in the scheme’s beneficiary database were linked with a single cellphone number: 9999999999. In Tamil Nadu, 4,761 registrations were made against just seven Aadhaar numbers.
• In its statement, the Health Ministry said that the scheme only used mobile numbers to reach out to the beneficiaries in case of any need and for collecting feedback regarding the treatment, rather than for any verification purposes.
• “AB-PMJAY identifies the beneficiary through Aadhaar identification wherein the beneficiary undergoes the process of mandatory Aadhaar-based e-KYC. The details fetched from the Aadhaar database are matched with the source database and accordingly, the request for Ayushman card is approved or rejected based on the beneficiary details,” the Ministry said.
• It explained that treatment to beneficiaries could not be withheld just because they do not carry a valid mobile number, or the mobile number had changed.
• AB-PMJAY?
• Health Cover:
• The scheme provides a health cover of Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization to more than 12 crore families (bottom 40% of the population).
• Packages:
• The scheme covers medical and surgical procedures for almost all health conditions through a comprehensive list of 1,949 packages, including cancer care, cardiac care, neurosurgery, orthopedics, burns management, mental disorders, etc.
• Funding:
• The scheme is a centrally sponsored scheme, which means that it is funded by both the central and state governments.

• Conventional nuclear power plants often suffer from time and cost overruns. As an alternative, several countries are developing small modular reactors (SMRs) — nuclear reactors with a maximum capacity of 300 MW — to complement conventional NPPs.
• Studies have found that SMRs can be safely installed and operated at several brownfield sites that may not meet the more stringent zoning requirements for conventional NPPs.
• Most land-based SMR designs require low-enriched uranium, which can be supplied by all countries that possess uranium mines and facilities for such enrichment if the recipient facility is operating according to international standards. Since SMRs are mostly manufactured in a factory and assembled on site, the potential for time and cost overruns is also lower.
• The world’s quest to decarbonise itself is guided, among other things, by the UN Sustainable Development Goal 7: “to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all”.
• The transition from coal-fired power generation to clean energy poses major challenges, and there is a widespread consensus among policymakers in several countries that solar and wind energy alone will not suffice to provide affordable energy for everyone.
• According to the International Energy Agency, the demand for critical minerals like lithium, nickel, cobalt, and rare earth elements, required for clean-energy production technologies, is likely to increase by up to 3.5 times by 2030.

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