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THE ART AND CULTURE

1. “PASUVULA PANDUGA”

THE CONTEXT: Tension prevailed at Chittoor district in Andhra Pradesh after villagers protested against the police over the conduct of a traditional bull-taming match – a version of Tamil Nadu’s jallikattu.

THE EXPLANATION:

• The villagers and the police vehemently reject the “bad propaganda” against the bull races by wrongly terming the events as “Jallikattu”.
• According to the villagers, these annual festivities, history of which dates back to the British Raj, are responsible for the preservation of the native breeds of cattle and the continuing love for the bulls despite mechanised agriculture practices.”
• As per “HaddulaPanduga”, the bulls brought to the race would be unleashed into a set track flanked by the curious crowds. The participants, mostly youth, would be encouraged to stop the raging bulls, fixing the parameters of distance and time.
• The bulls would be stopped by the youth, who pull and manage the long ropes tied to the animals. This is unlike Jallikattu of Tamil Nadu, where a frenzied bull would be released unfettered into an open ring, posing grave danger to youth who are set to tame it.

Value Addition:

PasuvulaPanduga (Festival of Cattle):

• It is considered as the ‘milder equivalent’ of Jallikattu in Tamil Nadu.
• It is conducted every yearin the villages of Chittoor district during the Kanuma festival (Sankranti).
• The bulls ran amok as the participants gave them hard chase in their attempt tame the animals and grab the prize money tied to their horns.

Kanuma festival is quite similar to the Mattu Pongal observed in Tamil Nadu. The festival is dedicated to cows, bulls and other animals that are part of agrarian economy. Cattle and cattle sheds are cleaned on the day. Cows are decorated with marigold flowers and are worshipped.

QUICK FACTS:

Bhumi Panduga is a festival celebrated by the Koya Tribe in the Chintoor Agency of East Godavari district. The tribals go hunting as part of the ‘Bhumi Panduga’ celebrations, marking the beginning of farm operations every year.

THE HEALTH AFFAIRS

2. GILOY IS SAFE TO USE: MINISTRY OF AYUSH

THE CONTEXT: Certain sections of the media have falsely linked again Giloy/Guduchi to liver damage. The Ministry of Ayush reiterates that Giloy/Gudduchi (Tinospora cordifolia) is safe and as per available data, Guduchi does not produce any toxic effect.

THE EXPLANATION:

• In Ayurveda, it is said to be the best rejuvenating herb. Acute toxicity studies of aqueous extract of Guduchi reports that it does not produce any toxic effect. However, the safety of a drug depends on how it is being used. Dosage is one of the important factors that determine the safety of a particular drug.
• A special focus has been made on its health benefits in treating various metabolic disorders and its potential as an immune booster. It is used as a major component of therapeutics for ameliorating metabolic, endocrinal, and several other ailments, aiding in the betterment of human life expectancy.
• It is a popularly known herb for its immense therapeutic applications in traditional systems of medicine and has been used in the management of COVID-19. Considering the overall health benefits, the herb cannot be claimed to be toxic.

Value Addition:

Guduchiis known in Ayurvedic medicine for the power to detoxify, rejuvenate, boost the immune system, and more. This popular adaptogenic herb is thought to prolong life and was recognized by ancient rishis of the Vedic era in the classic healthcare text, the revered Charak Samhita, written by Maharishi Agnivesha.

Also, its helps in:

• Ability to balance blood sugar
• Relieve fever and spasms
• Fight inflammation
• Promote joint health
• Calm allergic reactions
• Reduce stress
• Protect the kidneys
• Support the immune system.

THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

3. THE FINTECH OPEN HACKATHON

THE CONTEXT: NITI Aayog in association with the digital payment’s platform PhonePe launched the first-ever open-to-all hackathon that aims to showcase path-breaking solutions for the fintech ecosystem.

THE EXPLANATION:

The Hackathon will provide an opportunity for innovators, digital creators and developers from all over India to think, ideate and code.

Participants at the hackathon need to use any open-data APIs like PhonePe Pulse along with frameworks such as Account Aggregator as a foundation to power the following use cases:

• Alternate risk models for Lending, Insurance or Investments with focus on financial Inclusion.
• Innovative Products that use the power data signals for various demographics and Geos for broader adoption of financial services.
• Improved Visualisation and Derived intelligence based on the Digital payments data.

Aim:

Creating an immersive learning experience, the FinTech month with the overarching theme ‘OPEN’ aims to achieve three key objectives – 1) encourage an OPEN ecosystem across the FinTech industry; (2) Foster co-innovation and growth; (3) Ensure financial inclusion and leverage new models like Account Aggregator to unleash the next wave of fintech innovation.

 What is Fintech Company?

• Fintech is a portmanteau of the terms “finance” and “technology” and refers to any business that uses technology to enhance or automate financial services and processes.
• Fintech companies integrate technologies (like AI, blockchain and data science) into traditional financial sectors to make them safer, faster and more efficient. Fintech is one of the fastest-growing tech sectors, with companies innovating in almost every area of finance; from payments and loans to credit scoring and stock trading.

Areas of FinTech:

• Banking

• Cryptocurrency & Blockchain

• Investment & Savings

• Machine Learning & Trading

• Payments

• Lending

• Insurance

THE ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

4. THE MIGRATION OF CRIMSON ROSE BUTTERFLIES

THE CONTEXT: Thousands of Crimson Rose butterflies swarmed all available flowering plants along the beach of Dhanushkodi, Tamil Nadu. It was their stopover for nectaring, before the butterflies undertook their ultimate flight towards Sri Lanka, which is around 25 km away from the tip of Dhanushkodi.

THE EXPLANATION:

According to the officials, Migration by Tigers and Crows from the sub-family Danainae of Nymphalidaeknown to migrate just before the onset of the southwest and northeast monsoons from the Western Ghats to the Eastern Ghats and plains, and vice-versa. Butterfly species like Common Emigrant, Common Albatross and Lime Butterfly are also known to undertake migration on a large scale.

Value Addition:

Pachliopta hector, the crimson rose, is a large swallowtail butterfly belonging to the genus Pachliopta (roses) of the red-bodied swallowtails.

Distribution:

• It is found in India, Sri Lanka, Maldives and possibly the coast of western Myanmar.
• In India, it is found in the Western Ghats, southern India (Tamil Nadu, Kerala), eastern India (West Bengal and Odisha). It is a straggler in the Andaman Islands

Conservation Status:

• It is generally common and not known to be threatened.
• IUCN STATUS: LEAST CONCERN
• Wildlife Protection Act: Schedule 1 of Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.

 5. INDIA LACKS SOLAR WASTE HANDLING POLICY

THE CONTEXT: The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) estimated that the global photovoltaic waste will touch 78 million tonnes by 2050, with India expected to be one of the top five generators of such waste.

 THE EXPLANATION:

• According to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), India currently considers solar waste a part of electronic waste and does not account for it separately. And also the Ministry constituted a committee to propose an action plan to evolve a “circular economy” in solar panel, through reuse/recycling of waste generated.
• There was no commercial raw material recovery facility for solar e-waste operational in India, but a pilot facility for solar panel recycling and material recovery had been set up by a private company in Gummidipoondi in Tamil Nadu. India has set a target of producing 100 GW of solar energy by 2022.
• The cumulative capacity of grid-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) installations is around 40 GW and of the current capacity, about 35.6 GW, is generated from ground-mounted plants and 4.4 GW from rooftop solar. A gigawatt is 1,000 megawatt.

Solar panel’s life       

• Solar panels have an estimated life of 25 years and given that India’s solar manufacturing industry took off around 2010, most of the installed systems were new and early in their calendar lifecycle and therefore unlikely to generate a large quantity of solar waste.
• That, however, is only partially accurate, according to the Council for Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), a Delhi based think-tank. End-of-life was only one of the possible waste streams for PV modules and there were several other stages where modules could get damaged.
• However,India’s solar PV manufacturing uses imported components with parts mostly sourced from China.

6. WORLD SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT SUMMIT 2022

THE CONTEXT:Prime Minister delivered the inaugural address at the 21st World Sustainable Development Summit 2022 (WSDS-22)on the three-day summit organised by TERI with participation from over 100 nations.

 THE EXPLANATION:

• The theme of the summit is ‘Towards a Resilient Planet: Ensuring a Sustainable and Equitable Future’.
• According to the Prime Minister “the energy requirements of the people of India are expected to double in the next 20 years, also he urged developed countries to fulfil their commitments on finance and technology transfer.

Prime Minister Speech Highlights:

• “The Energy requirements of the people of India are expected to double in the next 20 years. Denying this energy would be denying life itself to millions. Successful climate action also needs adequate financing. For this, developed countries need to fulfil their commitments on finance and technology transfer’.
• Also, India believes in fulfilling commitments under the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and added that the country has raised its ambitions during CoP-26 at Glasgow. Sustainability requires coordinated action for the global commons.
• The International Solar Alliance, our aim is One Sun, One World, One Grid. We must work towards ensuring availability of clean energy from a worldwide grid everywhere at all times. This is the ‘whole of the world’ approach that India’s values stand for”.
• He also noted the measures taken and schemes like
  • Ujjwala Yojana
  • M-KUSUM scheme
  • Broder focus on ‘chemical-free natural farming’
  • LED bulbs distribution scheme
  • National Hydrogen Missionand alsoIndia now has 49 Ramsar sites spread over more than 1 million hectaresrestoring degraded land has been one of the main focus areas.

THE GOVERNMENT SCHEMES AND INITIATIVES IN NEWS

7. THE SCHEME FOR ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT OF DNTS (SEED)

THE CONTEXT: The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, launched the Scheme for Economic Empowerment of DNTs (SEED) for the welfare of De-notified, Nomadic and Semi Nomadic Communities.

THE EXPLANATION:

Who are De-notified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes?

The De-notified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes are the most neglected, marginalized and economically and socially deprived communities. Most of them have been living a life of destitution for generations and still continue to do so with an uncertain and gloomy future. De-notified, Nomadic and Semi- nomadic Tribes somehow escaped the attention of our developmental framework and thus are deprived of the support unlike Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

The term ‘De-notified Tribes’ stands for all those communities which were once notified under the Criminal Tribes Acts, enforced by the British Raj between 1871 and 1947. These Acts were repealed by the Independent lndian Government in 1952, and these communities were “De-Notified”. A few of these communities which were listed as de-notified were also nomadic.

About the Scheme:

• To provide coaching of good quality for DNT/NT/SNT candidates to enable them to appear in competitive examinations.
• To provide health insurance to DNT/NT/SNT Communities.
• To facilitate livelihoods initiative at community level to build and strengthen small clusters of DNT/NT/SNT Communities institutions.
• To provide financial assistance for construction of houses to members of the DNT/NT/SNT Communities.

The funds will be transferred directly to the beneficiaries in their account. The other implementing agencies are Ministry of Rural Development, National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) and National Health Authority (NHA).

POINTS TO REMEMBER:

• The Government in July 2014 had constituted National Commission for Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes (NCDNT) for a period of three years to prepare a State-wise list of castes belonging to Denotified and Nomadic Tribes and to suggest appropriate measures in respect of Denotified and Nomadic Tribes that may be undertaken by the Central Government or the State Government.
• The Renke Commission (2008) was earlier commissioned to identify and list the DNT communities.

THE PRELIMS PRACTICE QUESTIONS

QUESTIONS OF THE DAY 17^TH FEBRUARY 2022

Q. Which of the following pairs of Ramsar sites is/are correctly matched?

1. DeeporBeel – West Bengal
2. Kabartal Wetland – Bihar
3. Bhoj Wetland – Madhya Pradesh

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

a) 1 and 2 only

b) 2 and 3 only

c) 3 only

d) 1, 2 and 3

ANSWER FOR 16^TH FEB 2022

Answer: B

Explanation:

• Statement 1 is incorrect: SVAMITVA (Survey of Villages and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas) is a Central Sector Scheme of Ministry of Panchayati Raj was nation-wide launched by the Hon’ble Prime Minister on National Panchayati Raj Day, 24^th April 2021 after successful completion of pilot phase of scheme (2020-2021) in 9 states.

Scheme is a reformative step towards establishment of clear ownership of property in rural inhabited (Abadi) areas, by mapping of land parcels using drone technology and providing ‘Record of Rights’ to village household owners with issuance of legal ownership cards (Property cards/Title deeds) to property owners.

Statement 1 is correct: The Scheme is implemented with the collaborative efforts of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, State Revenue Department, State Panchayati Raj Department and Survey of India.