The Hindu Newspaper Analysis 18 August 2023

The Hindu Newspaper Analysis for UPSC

• After 34 days on board the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, the propulsion module and the lander module parted ways on Thursday, and have now embarked on their respective journeys.
• After the separation, ISRO posted on X (formerly Twitter): “Thanks for the ride, mate!’ said the Lander Module (LM). LM is successfully separated from the Propulsion Module (PM). LM is set to descend to a slightly lower orbit upon a deboosting planned for tomorrow around 1600 Hrs., IST.”

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• The Chandrayaan-3 consists of a lander module, a propulsion module and a rover. According to ISRO, “The lander will have the capability to soft land at a specified lunar site and deploy the rover, which will carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface during the course of its mobility. The lander and the rover have scientific payloads to carry out experiments on the lunar surface.”
• The propulsion module also has one scientific payload that will be operated post-separation of the lander module. The payload will be operational for a period of three to six months.
• Increasing its surveillance of worksites under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the Union Ministry of Rural Development will be pressing drones into service to monitor both the progress and quality of assets produced.
• the drones will be used for four types of monitoring: surveying the ongoing works, inspecting the completed works, impact assessment, and special inspection in case of complaints.
• The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), also known as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) is Indian legislation enacted on August 25, 2005.
• The MGNREGA provides a legal guarantee for one hundred days of employment in every financial year to adult members of any rural household willing to do public work-related unskilled manual work at the statutory minimum wage.
• The employment will be provided within a radius of 5 km: if it is above 5 km extra wage will be paid.
• he Registration of Births and Deaths (RBD) Act, 1969 provides for compulsory registration of births and deaths under a uniform law across India.
• Experience of its working indicates that it is necessary to amend it for several reasons, and things could be changing as a Bill to amend this Act — called the Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Bill, 2023 — for the first time since its inception, has been passed by Parliament and has got the assent of the President of India.
• For this purpose, the Bill makes it compulsory that the Registrar General of India maintains a national level database of births and deaths, and that the Chief Registrar of births and deaths in every State is required to maintain a State-level database of registered births and deaths ‘using the portal approved by the Registrar General of India’.

• In the case of birth, the amendments provide for collecting the Aadhaar number of the parents. Nothing is mentioned about the Aadhaar number of the deceased.
• It is provided that the birth certificate alone would be accepted as proof of date and place of birth for many purposes such as school admission, issue of passport, and issue of Aadhaar number.
• The Government of India, in 1949 established an organisation in the Ministry of Home Affairs under Registrar General and ex-Officio Census Commissioner, India to develop systematic collection of statistics on the size of population, its growth, etc.
• Later, this office was also entrusted with the responsibility of implementation of Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 in the country.
• It arranges, conducts and analyses the results of the demographic surveys of India including Census of India and Linguistic Survey of India.
• the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.
• For example, your Internet activity can be used to study you. An app could find out your religion from what you eat, your health status from your physical activity, or your sexuality from your movie preferences. Maybe you have given your phone number to a business while making a purchase, but do not want to be bombarded with marketing calls.
• One says that you should be properly informed about what you are agreeing to and only clear positive actions by you (as opposed to silence) will be taken to indicate consent.
• But this strict provision is undercut by a second provision permitting use of your data if you have “voluntarily provided” it and “have not indicated” that you do not consent. The choice of words is telling. If you “have not indicated” refusal, governments and businesses can assume your consent for various uses without notifying you.
• The PM Vishwakarma scheme approved by the Cabinet on Wednesday to help traditional craftspeople and artisans can provide an economic boost to these professionals.
• Announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his Independence Day speech, the scheme, with an outlay of ₹13,000 crore, provides loans of up to a total of ₹3 lakh (in two tranches) at a concessional interest rate of 5%.
• The challenges they face are far deeper than just the availability of cheap credit. By far the biggest of these that traditional art and craft professionals face is either the lack of patronage for their goods and services in the wider marketplace, or in the case of other trades, a skewed undervaluation of their economic output.
• Crucially, the lack of access to formal credit may simply be a symptom rather than the cause of the underlying problem these communities face.
• No government scheme can help these communities in the long run unless it helps them overcome the fundamental problem of a lack of economic viability for their output.
• Ultimately, the success of this well-intentioned scheme will hinge on its implementation, an area where the government would do well to rope in professionals with the know-how and entrepreneurial flair to help the craftspeople and artisans upgrade their offerings to cater to new markets and tap fresh opportunities.
• The Central Water Commission on Thursday launched an app, called ‘Floodwatch’, which can forecast the chances of floods a day in advance. It also provides a seven-day advisory on the chances of floods at various stations in the country where the CWC maintains its measurement gauges.
• Available on Google’s Play Store, the app has a map of India with coloured circles at water stations across the country indicating the current risk of flooding. A ‘green’ circle indicates ‘normal’; yellow, above normal; orange, ‘severe’; and red, ‘extreme’. Clicking on a circle shows the water level at the station, the danger level and warning level. The warnings are in English or Hindi with an option for a voice-enabled prompt.
• “The app will also provide State-wise/basin-wide flood forecast up to 24 hours or flood advisory, up to seven days, that can be accessed via selecting specific stations,” the Jal Shakti Ministry said in a statement. Satellite data analysis, mathematical modelling and real-time monitoring are used to provide the forecast.
• Central Water Commission is an attached office of the Ministry of Jal Shakti, Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.
• The Commission is entrusted with the general responsibilities of initiating, coordinating and furthering in consultation of the State Governments concerned, schemes for control, conservation and utilization of water resources throughout the country, for purpose of Flood Control, Irrigation, Navigation, Drinking Water Supply and Water Power Development.
• Central Water Commission CWC is headed by a chairman, with the status of Ex-Officio Secretary to the Government of India.
• The work of the Commission is divided among 3 wings namely, Designs and Research (D&R) Wing, River Management (RM) Wing and Water Planning and Projects (WP&P) Wing.
• A separate Human Resources Management Unit headed by a Chief Engineer, deals with Human Resources Management or Development, Financial Management, Training and Administrative matters of the CWC.
• National Water Academy located at Pune is responsible for training of Central and State in-service engineers and it functions directly under the guidance of Chairman.
• Headquarters: New Delhi.

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