THE POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. THE INCLUSION OF TRIBES FROM 5 STATES IN ST CATEGORY

THE CONTEXT: The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister recently gave nod for the inclusion of tribes of five states in the Scheduled Tribes (ST) category.
THE EXPLANATION:
• The Union Cabinet has approved the inclusion of tribes from Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Uttar Pradesh in the ST category.
• It has included 12 communities to the ST list.
• Among them is the Hattee Community living in the Trans-Giri region in Sirmaur district of Himachal Pradesh.
• This community is named based on its traditional occupation of selling home-grown crops, vegetables, meat and wool at small-town markets called haats.
• It has been demanding ST status since 1967, when the status was granted to people living in Jaunsar Bawar area in Uttarakhand, which shares a border with the Sirmaur district.
• Other communities that were recently granted ST status were Gond along with their five sub-castes in Bhadohi District of Uttar Pradesh, Betta-Kuruba community in Karnataka, Binjhia in Chhattisgarh and Narikuravan and Kuruvikaran in Tamil Nadu.
• The Narikuravans and Kuruvikarans in Tamil Nadu have been demanding ST status since 1965 based the recommendations by the Lokur Panel. They were earlier recognized as the Most Backward Community.
• This community is mostly involved in traditional occupation of hunter-gathering and selling of bead necklaces.
• The Union Cabinet has included the Betta-Kuruba community as synonym of “Kadu Kuruba” in the ST list.
• Betta-Kuruba tribe in Karnataka’s Chamarajanagar, Kodagu and Mysuru districts have been demanding ST status for the past 3 decades but have not been granted because of spelling errors and similar sounding names.
• The newly listed communities in the ST list would benefit from existing schemes targeting the Scheduled Tribes in the country.
• Some of these benefits include post-matric scholarship, overseas scholarship and the national fellowship, concessional loans from the National Scheduled Tribes Finance and Development Corporation, and hostels for students.
• Members of these communities would also benefit from reservations in services and admissions in educational institutions.

2. UP BUILDS HIGHEST NUMBER OF AMRIT SAROVARS

THE CONTEXT: Recently, Uttar Pradesh has constructed largest number of lakes under the Indian Government’s ambitious Mission Amrit Sarovar.
THE EXPLANATION:
• Uttar Pradesh has constructed 8,462 Amrit Sarovars (lakes) under the Modi Government’s ambitious Mission Amrit Sarovar, which aims to conserve water for the future generation.
• The other top performers under this mission are Madhya Pradesh (1,668 lakes), Jammu and Kashmir (1,458 lakes), Rajasthan (898 lakes) and Tamil Nadu (818 lakes).
• Within Uttar Pradesh, Lakhimpur Kheri was the top performer with the construction of 256 Amrit Sarovars.
• This is followed by Pratapgarh (244 lakes) and Pratapgarh (231 lakes).
• Currently, Uttar Pradesh is planning to construct 1.20 lakh Amrit Sarovars.
• The state had developed 7,500 Amrit Sarovars as part of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.
• Under the first phase of Mission Amrit Sarovar, the UP Government sought to develop 75 Amrit Sarovars in 75 districts of the state under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
• This goal was completed ahead of the schedule.
• In the second phase, the government is planning to develop a minimum of 2 Amrit Sarovars in 58 gram panchayats, which is a total of about 1.20 lakh lakes.
• The large-scale construction of Amrit Sarovars is providing jobs for a large section of the rural population in the state and increased their income as well.
• It had minimised the irrigation issues faced by farmers in the state.
• Currently, the fully completed Amrit Sarovars are being used by farmers for fish farming as an additional source of income.
VALUE ADDITION:
Amrit Sarovar Mission
The Amrit Sarovar Mission was launched by the Indian Government on April 24, 2022 to promote water conservation by developing and rejuvenating water bodies in all districts across India. Under this initiative, 50,000 water bodies of the size of about an acre will be created. The overall mission is expected to be completed by August 15, 2023. Each of the Amrit Sarovar would be around 1 acre with 10,000 cubic meters of water capacity.

THE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

3. THE EXERCISE KAKADU 2022

THE CONTEXT: Recently,Exercise Kakadu 2022 commenced in Australia’s Darwin on September 12, 2022.

THE EXPLANATION:
• The Exercise Kakadu 2022 (KA22) is a multinational exercise hosted by the Australian Navy in Darwin – the capital of Australia’s Northern Territory.
• It will be held from September 12 to 24 this year by the Royal Australian Navy with the support from the Royal Australian Air Force.
• This two-week long biennial maritime exercise brings together around 3,000 personnel, 15 warships and more than 30 aircraft from 22 countries.
• The Indian Navy is being represented by INS Satpura and P8 I Maritime Patrol Aircraft.
• The theme of this international exercise is ‘partnership, leadership and friendship’.
• The inaugural edition of the Exercise Kakadu was held in 1993.
• Over the past 3 decades, countries that have participated in this exercise are Singapore, New Zealand, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Japan, South Korea, France, India, Pakistan, Brunei, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Hong Kong (UK), Canada, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Vietnam, Fiji, US, UAE, Cook Islands, Sri Lanka, Chile, China and Vanuatu.
• The KA22 kicked off less than a week after the conclusion of Exercise Pitch Black – a biennial exercise hosted by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). It featured 100 aircraft and 2,500 military personnel from 17 countries.
• Exercise Pitch Black 2022 witnessed the largest international contingent for the first time, with the involvement of Canada, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand, UAE, the UK, and the USA.
INS Satpura
INS Satpura is a Shivalik-class stealth multi-role frigate that has better stealth and land attack capabilities than the Talwar-class frigates. The stealth frigate was built at the Mazagon Dock Limited in Mumbai. It was inducted the Eastern Naval Command headquartered at Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.

THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS

4. THE NORWAY’S CENTRAL BANK DIGITAL CURRENCY

THE CONTEXT: Norway’s central bank – Norges Bank – recently hit a major milestone in its digital currency development efforts by releasing the open source code for the country’s CBDC sandbox based on the Ethereum technology.
THE EXPLANATION:
• Norway’s CBDC sandbox, which is accessible on GitHub, was created to provide user interface (UI) for engaging with the test network.
• It has features like minting, burning and transferring ERC-20 tokens.
• The current version of the open code is only accessible to people with necessary credentials.
• It does not support popular Ethereum wallet Meta Mask.
• The second phase of the project would involve making the source code accessible to the public.
• The sandbox has a unique frontend, necessary smart contracts and access controls and network monitoring tools such as BlockScout and Grafana.
• The frontend displays a filterable overview of the network transactions.
• The usage of Ethereum cryptocurrency system provided the basic infrastructure required for the creation, transfer and destruction of digital central bank money (DSP).
• In November last year, the Norges Bank released a working paper referring to possible CBDC designs, including those based on blockchains like Ethereum, Bitcoin and Bitcoin SV.
• One of the key issues faced by the bank was the interoperability while considering various technical solutions.
• The main objective of Norges Bank’s current testing is to study whether DSP is required to ensure that the payment system in Norwegian kroner is secure, efficient and attractive for the local population.
CBDCs
The Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) are an electronic form of central bank-backed fiat money. They work based on blockchain networks. However, they do not need to be on a blockchain. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), 97 countries or more than 50 per cent of all global central banks are developing CBDCs. Presently, only Nigeria and The Bahamans have fully launched the CBDCs.

THE ENVIRONMENT, ECOLOGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE

5. THE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT FACILITY (GEF) SMALL GRANTS PROGRAM

THE CONTEXT: The Ministry of Environment of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFC), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) have jointly launched the Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme.
THE EXPLANATION:
• The GEF Small Grants Programme provides financial and technical assistance to projects focusing on conserving and restoring environment while also enhancing the lives of local communities.
• 2022 marks the 7th operational phase of this programme.
• The grants under this programme are given to non-governmental organizations and other institutions working in specific landscapes.
• The aim of this project is to build local communities’ capacity to take collective action towards conserving the environment and achieving sustainable development.
• It focuses on three regions in India – highlands of the North East, Central semi-arid region and Indian coastal region.
• It would promote participatory landscape planning and management approach that would improve socio-ecological resilience through innovative livelihood opportunities.
• It seeks to strengthen community institutions to promote participatory governance and upscale successful community initiatives.
• It would also promote participatory monitoring and evaluation at the community level.
GEF Small Grants Programme
The GEF Small Grants Programme was launched for the first time in 1992 at the Rio Summit. It works based on the belief that global environment solutions would remain sustainable only if communities are actively involved in it and directly benefit from it. It works based on the principle “thinking globally, acting locally”. It aims to create a balance between human requirements and environment imperatives through community participation. Grants under this initiative are given to local citizens from the civil society organization sector, including non-governmental organizations, academic and scientific institutions, women groups, indigenous groups etc.

THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

6. THE HUGHES-ISRO SATELLITE INTERNET SERVICE

THE CONTEXT: The Hughes Communications India (HCI) and ISRO has jointly launched India’s first high-throughput satellite (HTS) broadband service.
THE EXPLANATION:
• HCI – a joint venture company of US-based Hughes Network Systems and Indian telecom operator Bharati Airtel – launched the first high throughput satellite broadband internet service in India.
• This service would provide satellite internet to remote parts of India by using ISRO’s GSAT-11 and GSAT-29 satellites.
• ISRO launched the GSAT-11 and GSAT-29 in 2018 to provide higher bandwidth satellite connectivity to Indian clients in the space enterprise. The GSAT-11 is capable of providing up to 14 Gbps through satellite network.
• The newly launched HTS broadband service aims to provide high-speed broadband in regions that are inaccessible for terrestrial networks.
• For the past one year, this high-speed internet service was tested in several regions such as Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, which lack terrestrial connectivity because of challenges posed by terrains.
• The newly launched satellite internet service is capable of providing internet connectivity bandwidth of up to 100 Mbps – about 2GB data per day.
• It supports services such as Wi-Fi hotspots for community internet access, SD-WAN solutions, backhaul to extend mobile network reach and satellite internet for small businesses.
• The application of this satellite connectivity is currently limited to fringe markets such as remote locations.
• India currently does not have the market for very high bandwidth satellite internet in such regions and high bandwidth internet are already served by terrestrial network in other places that are having high demands for internet services.
• The Hughes’ HTS service already has clients like Reliance Jio, State Bank of India and others.
• Jio utilizes Hughes’ service for 4G backhaul to provide services to remote locations for its terrestrial telecom networks.
• SBI uses this satellite internet service for providing connectivity to remote bank branches and automated teller machine (ATM) outlets.
High-throughput satellite
High-throughput satellite (HTS) is a satellite connectivity that provides higher bandwidth, which increases the amount of data that can be transferred between a satellite and a ground station. A conventional satellite connectivity has low bandwidth and high latency of connectivity – time taken to transfer data between a sender and receiver. The HTS seeks to address this issue.