Daily Current Affairs for UPSC IAS: 24th January 2022

Amar Jawan Jyoti:

The government has put out the eternal flame of the Amar Jawan Jyoti underneath India Gate and merged it with the one instituted at the National War Memorial in 2019 a few hundred meters away.

• The eternal flame at the Amar Jawan Jyoti underneath India Gate in central Delhi was an iconic symbol of the nation’s tributes to the soldiers who have died for the country in various wars and conflicts since Independence.
• Established in 1972, it was to mark India’s victory over Pakistan in the 1971 War, which resulted in the creation of Bangladesh.
• The then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had inaugurated it on Republic Day 1972, after India defeated Pakistan in December 1971.
• The key elements of the Amar Jawan Jyoti included a black marble plinth, a cenotaph, which acted as a tomb of the unknown soldier.
• The plinth had an inverted L1A1 self-loading rifle with a bayonet, on top of which was a soldier’s war helmet.
• The installation had four urns on it, with four burners.
• On normal days one of the four burners were kept alive, but on important days like the Republic Day, all four burners were lit.
• These burners were what is called the eternal flame, and it was never allowed to be extinguished.
• For 50 years the eternal flame had been burning underneath India Gate, without being extinguished.
• But on Friday, the flame was finally put off, as it was merged with another eternal flame at the National War Memorial.
• Since 1972, when it was inaugurated, it used to be kept alive with the help of cylinders of liquified petroleum gas, or LPG.
• One cylinder could keep one burner alive for a day and a half.
• In 2006 that was changed.
• Though a project that cost around Rs 6 lakh the fuel for the flames was changed from LPG to piped natural gas, or PNG.
• It is through this piped gas that the flame marking the tribute to Indian soldiers had been kept alive eternally.

National Single Window System (NSWS):

The Minister of Commerce and Industry Shri Piyush Goyal has said simplicity of operations and transparency should be the focus of the National Single Window System (NSWS).

• The digital platform of NSWS facilitates investors to identify and apply for approvals.
• It supports information across 32 Central Ministries/ Departments and the platform has 14 States onboard namely Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The process for inclusion of 6 more States is in progress.
• The Know Your Approvals (KYA) service is live on the NSWS with 544 approvals across 32 Central Ministries/ Departments. A total of 3,259 approvals are listed.
• The first approval through the NSWS portal has been granted on 11 January 2022 to M/s CMR-Kataria Recycling Private Limited for the Vehicle Scrappage Facility RVSF, Kheda, Gujarat with a capacity of 67,000 vehicles.

Online Storage Management (OSM):

The Department of Food and Public Distribution under Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution with its principal agency, FCI, has developed a roadmap to roll out Online Storage Management (OSM) in the country.

• The OSM envisages putting in place a single source of information for the food grains stored in the country for central pool through integrating State portals with the central portal.
• The OSM will develop an ecosystem of storage management applications across the DCP States, each being capable of capturing the Minimum Storage Specifications (MSS).
• These MSSs , which have been identified through intense and elaborate discussions with the concerned States and FCI are : capability to compute storage capacity , depict storage point-wise stock position, stack-wise, truck-wise linkage, quality parameters.
• This would help in route optimization for distribution as well.
• This exercise, expected to be completed by Mar’22, will improve efficiency and transparency in stocking, storage, movement and distribution of foodgrains.
• It will help in driving down costs of food storage and distribution by checking leakages in the entire process.
• It will also enable the Government with readily available information for both monitoring and fast-paced decision making to benefit the stakeholders, especially PDS consumer whose welfare is the priority of the government.

Fourth Asia Ministerial Conference On Tiger Conservation:

Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav delivers India’s statement at the Fourth Asia Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation, an important event for reviewing progress towards the Global Tiger Recovery Programme and commitments to tiger conservation.

• The Government of Malaysia and Global Tiger Forum (GTF) organized the 4th Asia Ministerial Conference on tiger conservation.
• India is one of the Founding members of the intergovernmental platform of Tiger Range Countries – Global Tiger Forum.
• He appreciated the efforts of the Government of Malaysia in creating a role model for mitigation measures with respect to linear infrastructure in tiger habitat, in the form of “Central Spine and landscape level planning.
• The Minister said that India will facilitate Tiger Range Countries towards finalisation of New Delhi declaration for the Global Tiger Summit to be held at Vladivostok, Russia later this year.
• A “Pre-Tiger Summit” meeting was held at New Delhi in 2010, wherein the draft declaration on tiger conservation for Global Tiger Summit was finalised.
• India has achieved the remarkable feat of doubling the tiger population in 2018 itself, 4 years ahead of the targeted year 2022.
• He informed that the model of success of India’s tiger governance is now being replicated for other wildlife like the Lion, Dolphin, Leopard, Snow Leopard and other small wild cats, while the country is on the threshold of introducing Cheetah in its historical range.
• The budgetary allocation for tiger conservation has increased from Rs 185 crore in 2014 to Rs 300 crore in 2022 and informed that 14 Tiger Reserves in India have already been awarded with international CA|TS accreditation and efforts are on to bring in more Tiger Reserves under CA|TS accreditation.

Roof Top Scheme:

The Union Minister of Power and New & Renewable Energy Shri R.K Singh reviewed the progress of the Roof Top Scheme on 19th January 2022

• After the review, the Minister gave directions for simplifying the Roof Top Scheme, so that the people are able to access it easily.
• He has directed that henceforth, it will not be necessary for any household to get the roof top installed by any of the listed vendors.
• The households may also install the roof top by themselves or get the roof top installed by any vendor of their choice, and inform the distribution company about the installation alongwith a photograph of the system which has been installed.
• The intimation to the DISCOM of the installation of the roof top can be given either in the material form through a letter / application or on the designated website which has been set up by every DISCOM and by the Govt. of India for the Roof Top Scheme.
• The distribution company will ensure that the netmetering will be provided within 15 days of the information being received.
• The subsidy to be given by the Govt. of India which is 40% for roof top of upto 3 KW capacity and 20% beyond that upto 10 KW will be credited to the account of the householder by the DISCOM within 30 days of the installation.

Beating the Retreat Ceremony:

Union Minister of Science & Technology Dr Jitendra Singh said, Botlab Dynamics Private Limited, a start-up supported by Technology Development Board, under DST and incubated at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi will light up the sky with 1000 Drones Light Show at ‘Beating the Retreat Ceremony’ on 29th January.

• India will be the 4th country after China, Russia & UK to carry out such a large scale show with 1000 drones.
• Botlab in association with Ministry of Defence has conceptualized the novel ‘DRONE SHOW’ to commemorate the 75th year of Independence.
• He said, the drone show will be 10 minutes long in duration, and will showcase government achievements @75 through many creative formations in the dark sky.
• The project has been developed indigenously within the country, developing all the necessary components, including both hardwares and softwares such as the flight controller (brain of the drone); precision GPS; motor controller; Ground Control Station (GCS) algorithms etc.
• He said, Botlab Dynamics Private Limited was financially supported, for the project “Design and Development of a Reconfigurable Swarming System Consisting of 500-1000 Drones for 3D Choreographed Drone Light Shows”.

World’s Second-Largest Statue (Statue of Equality):

PM Narendra Nodi is all set to unveil the world’s second-largest statue (Statue of Equality)

• The 216-foot-tall statue of 11nth-century social reformer and saint, Ramanujacharya will be in a sitting position.
• The world’s second tallest statue in a sitting position is made up of ‘panchaloha’, meaning a combination of five metals i.e. gold, copper, silver, brass and zinc.
• The inner sanctorum deity of Sri Ramanujacharya is built of 120 kilos of gold. This commemorates the 120 years the saint spent on earth.

About Sri Ramanujacharya:

• Born in 1017 CE in Tamil Nadu.
• He is the most respected Acharya in the philosophy of Sri Vaishnavism.
• He was also referred to as Ilaya Perumal which means the radiant one.
• His philosophical foundations for devotionalism were influential to the Bhakti movement.
• He is famous as the chief proponent of Vishishtadvaita subschool of Vedānta.
• He wrote influential texts, such as bhāsya on the Brahma Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita, all in Sanskrit.

Vishishtadvaita is a non-dualistic school of Vedanta philosophy. It is non-dualism of the qualified whole, in which Brahman alone exists, but is characterized by multiplicity.

• It can be described as qualified monism or qualified non-dualism or attributive monism.
• It is a school of Vedanta philosophy which believes in all diversity subsuming to an underlying unity.

Chandrayaan-3:

New ISRO Chief had said that design changes on Chandrayaan-3 have been incorporated and testing has seen huge progress. The mission could be launched by the middle of next year.

About Chandrayaan 3:

• Chandrayaan-3 will be a mission repeat of Chandrayaan-2 but will only include a lander and rover similar to that of Chandrayaan-2.
• It will not have an orbiter.
• The Orbiter and other instruments of Chandrayaan-2 mission have, in two years, gathered a wealth of new information that has added to our knowledge about the Moon and its environment.
• The Chandrayaan-2 mission, which was lost after it hard landed on the dark side of the Moon in 2019, remains active in the form of its orbiter hovering over the Moon.
• Scientists used the Solar X-ray Monitor (XSM) onboard Chandrayaan-2 in September 2019 to study the Sun.
• The primary objective of Chandrayaan 2 was to demonstrate the ability to soft-land on the lunar surface and operate a robotic rover on the surface.
• The mission consisted of an Orbiter of the Moon, Vikram (after Vikram Sarabhai) – the lander and Pragyan (wisdom) – the rover, all equipped with scientific instruments to study the moon.

Plan To Amend The Wildlife Act:

In December 2021, the Union environment ministry announced a plan to amend the Wildlife Act.

• The Act has been amended several times, in 1982, 1986, 1991, 1993, 2002, 2006 and 2013.
• The proposed amendment is likely the most expansive so far in scope: it covers more areas of legislation, from trade in wild species to permitting filmmaking in protected areas and controlling the spread of invasive species.
• The Bill increases penalties for wildlife crimes. For example, offences that attracted a fine of Rs 25,000 now attract Rs 1 lakh.
• There’s a new and separate chapter on regulating species involved in international trade according to the CITES treaty.
• The Bill prohibits possessing, trading and breeding species without prior permissions from CITES authorities.
• The Bill also recognises threats that invasive alien species pose.

The Wild Life Act provides for:

• state wildlife advisory boards,
• regulations for hunting wild animals and birds
• establishment of sanctuaries and national parks
• regulations for trade in wild animals, animal products and trophies
• judicially imposed penalties for violating the Act
• Harming endangered species listed in Schedule I of the Act is prohibited throughout India.
• Hunting species, like those requiring special protection (Schedule II), big game (Schedule III), and small game (Schedule IV), is regulated through licensing.
• A few species classified as vermin (Schedule V), may be hunted without restrictions.
• Wildlife wardens and their staff administer the act.

An amendment to the Act in 1982, introduced a provision permitting the capture and transportation of wild animals for the scientific management of the animal population.

Inheritance:

The Supreme Court ruled that the property of a man who had died without executing a will and is survived only by a daughter will devolve upon the daughter and not others such as his brother.

• The judgment, which came on an appeal against the Madras High Court verdict, dealt with the property rights of Hindu women and widows under the Hindu Succession Act. Daughters’ right to inheritance has always been disputed in this country despite law stipulating so.
• It said “right of a widow or daughter to inherit the self-acquired property or share received in partition of a coparcenary property of a Hindu male dying intestate is well recognised under the old customary Hindu Law.
• The court discussed Mitakshara law and looked into among others to ‘Vyavastha Chandrika’, a digest of Hindu Law by Shyama Charan Sarkar Vidya Bhushan which quoted ‘Vrihaspati’ as saying ‘the wife is pronounced successor to the wealth of her husband; in her default, the daughter.
• As a son, so does the daughter of a man proceed from his several limbs.
• How then, should any other person (b) take her father’s wealth?
• The SC also noted that the book quoted Manu as saying “the son of a man is even as himself, and the daughter is equal to the son. How then can any other inherit his property, notwithstanding the survival of her, who is, as it were, himself.”

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose:

In order to commemorate the 125th birth anniversary of the great freedom fighter Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and as part of the year-long celebrations, the government has decided to install a grand statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose at India Gate.

• The statue, made of granite, shall be a fitting tribute to the immense contribution of Netaji in our freedom struggle, and would be a symbol of the country’s indebtedness to him.
• Till the work for the statue is completed, a hologram statue of Netaji will be present at the same place. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will unveil the hologram statue of Netaji at India Gate on 23rd January, 2022.
• The hologram statue will be powered by a 30,000 lumens 4K projector.
• An invisible, high gain, 90% transparent holographic screen has been erected in such a way so that it is not visible to visitors. The 3D image of Netaji will be projected on it to create the effect of a hologram. The size of the hologram statue is 28 feet in height and 6 feet in width.

Subhas Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskars

• During the programme, Prime Minister will also confer the Subhas Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskars, for the years 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 in the investiture ceremony. A total of seven awards will be presented during the ceremony.
• Union government has instituted the annual Subhas Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskar to recognize and honour the invaluable contribution and selfless service rendered by individuals and organisations in India in the field of disaster management.
• The award is announced every year on 23rd January.
• The award carries a cash prize of Rs. 51 lakh and a certificate in case of an institution and Rs. 5 lakh and a certificate in case of an individual.