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Tuesday, August 31, 2021

THE HINDU NEWSPAPER IMPORTANT ARTICLES 31.08.2021

08:07
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Monday, August 30, 2021

Daily Current Affairs, 30th August 2021

16:15

 


1)  International Day against Nuclear Tests: 29 August

•The International Day against Nuclear Tests is observed globally on 29th August. The day aims to increase awareness about the effects of nuclear weapon test explosions or any other nuclear explosions and the need for their cessation as one of the means of achieving the goal of a nuclear-weapon-free world.


2)  National Sports Day: 29 August

•Every year, 29th August has been observed as National Sports Day in India. The first National Sports Day was celebrated on 29th August 2012, on the birth anniversary of Major Dhyan Chand who was the star of hockey team of India. The day is used as a platform to launch various sports schemes as well as organise various sporting events and seminars to spread awareness about the importance of physical activities and sports in life.


3)  National Small Industry Day: 30 August

•In India, the National Small Industry Day is celebrated on 30 August every year, to support and promote small Industries for their overall growth potential and opportunities received for their development in the year. The industry day is a medium to provide balanced growth to existing small, medium and large scale enterprises and render assistance for setting up new industries to boost the state’s financial health.


4)  International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances

•United Nations observes International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances globally on the 30th of August every year. The day is being observed to express deep concern about the rise in enforced or involuntary disappearances in different regions of the world including the incidents of arrest, detention and abduction.


•All of the above incidents result in an increasing number of reports pertaining to harassment, ill-treatment and intimidation of witnesses of disappearances or relatives of persons who have disappeared. UN General Assembly declared the 30th of August as International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances and the day was observed for the first time in the year 2011.


5)  Rajnath Singh names Army Sports Institute, Pune as “Neeraj Chopra Stadium”

•Raksha Mantri, Rajnath Singh visited the Army Sports Institute (ASI), Pune and named the Army Sports Institute stadium as “Neeraj Chopra Stadium”. The focus of the Indian Army (in the field of sports) is to identify and train promising sportspersons in 11 disciplines. The Indian Army’s “Mission Olympics” programme was launched in 2001 with the intent to deliver medal-winning performances in the Olympics and other international events.


6)  World’s Highest Altitude Movie Theatre open in Ladakh

•The world’s highest movie theatre has recently been inaugurated in Ladakh, which got its first-ever mobile digital movie theatre in the Paldan area of Leh, at an altitude of 11,562 feet. The inflatable theatre can operate in -28 degrees Celcius. The initiative aims to bring cinema watching experience to most remotest areas of India. It must be noted that four such theatres will be established in Leh in the coming period.


7)  Govt introduces “Bharat series (BH-series)” registration

•Ministry of Road Transport & Highways has introduced a new registration mark for new vehicles i.e. “Bharat series (BH-series)”. The vehicles bearing the BH-series mark will not have to require the assignment of a new registration mark when the owner of the vehicle shifts from one State to another.


•Earlier, under section 47 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, if a person moves from one state to another, a person is allowed to keep the vehicle for not more than 12 months in any state other than the state where the vehicle is registered, but a new registration with the new state- registering authority has to be made within the stipulated time of 12 months.


8)  World’s Highest Altitude Movie Theatre open in Ladakh

•The world’s highest movie theatre has recently been inaugurated in Ladakh, which got its first-ever mobile digital movie theatre in the Paldan area of Leh, at an altitude of 11,562 feet. The inflatable theatre can operate in -28 degrees Celcius. The initiative aims to bring cinema watching experience to most remotest areas of India. It must be noted that four such theatres will be established in Leh in the coming period.


9)  Paralympics 2020: Avani Lekhara wins gold in Shooting

•Shooter Avani Lekhara has scripted history as she became the first Indian woman to win a gold medal at the Paralympics, firing her way to the top of the podium in the R-2 women’s 10m Air Rifle Standing SH1 event. The 19-year-old from Jaipur, who sustained spinal cord injuries in a car accident in 2012, finished with a world record-equalling total of 249.6, which is also a new Paralympic record.


•Avani is only the fourth Indian athlete to win a Paralympics gold after swimmer Murlikant Petkar (1972), javelin thrower Devendra Jhajharia (2004 and 2016) and high jumper Mariyappan Thangavelu (2016).


10)  Paralympics 2020: Bhavinaben Patel wins silver in table tennis

•In table tennis, Indian paddler Bhavinaben Patel has claimed the historic silver medal at the 2020 Paralympic Games at Tokyo, in the women’s singles summit clash. The 34-year-old Patel lost to Chinese paddler Ying Zhou, 0-3, in her maiden Paralympic Games. This is the first medal for India at the ongoing Tokyo Paralympic Games.


•Patel is the only second Indian woman to win a medal at the Paralympics, after Deepa Malik, who claimed silver in shotput at the 2016 Rio Olympics.


11)  Paralympics 2020: Nishad Kumar wins silver in men’s high jump

•India’s Nishad Kumar has clinched a silver medal in the men’s high jump T47 event at the Tokyo Paralympics 2020. This is the second medal for India at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics. The 23-year-old Nishad made a jump of 2.06m, and in doing so created an Asian record. He also equalled his jump with USA’s Dallas Wise, who also took home silver.


•Another American, Roderick Townsend, won the gold with a world record jump of 2.15m. T47 class is meant for athletes with a unilateral upper limb impairment resulting in some loss of function at the shoulder, elbow and wrist.

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The HINDU Notes – 30th August 2021

15:08

 


📰 Oil palm plan for northeast, Andamans a recipe for disaster, say activists

Environmental experts and politicians raise concern over Centre’s proposal.

•Given the widespread destruction of rainforests and native biodiversity caused by oil palm plantations in Southeast Asia, environmental experts and politicians are warning that the Centre’s move to promote their cultivation in India’s northeastern States and in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands could be disastrous.

•Other concerns include the impact on community ownership of tribal lands, as well as the fact that the oil palm is a water-guzzling, monoculture crop with a long gestation period unsuitable for small farmers. However, the government says land productivity for palm oil is higher than for oilseeds, with the Agriculture Minister giving an assurance that the land identified for oil palm plantations in northeastern States is already cleared for cultivation.

•In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week, soon after the launch of the ₹11,040 crore National Mission on Edible Oil-Oil Palm (NMEO-OP), Meghalaya MP Agatha Sangma warned that the focus areas were “biodiversity hotspots and ecologically fragile” and oil palm plantations would denude forest cover and destroy the habitat of endangered wildlife. It could also detach tribespeople from their identity linked with the community ownership of land and “wreak havoc on the social fabric”, said the National People’s Party.

•Congress leader and former Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said proposals for large-scale oil palm cultivation had been studied and rejected as part of the technology mission on edible oils in the late 1980s as it was a “recipe for ecological disaster”. He alleged that “the present proposal of course is designed to benefit Patanjali and Adani”, both corporates with interests in edible oil expansion.

•“The palm is an invasive species. It’s not a natural forest product of northeastern India and its impact on our biodiversity as well as on soil conditions has to be analysed even if it is grown in non-forest areas. Any kind of monoculture plantation is not desirable,” said Bibhab Talukdar, a biologist who heads the Guwahati-based conservation organisation Aaranyak, advising caution in introducing oil palm.

•The Central government insists it is already proceeding on the basis of cautious scientific analysis. A study done by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research recommended 28 lakh hectares across the country where oil palm can be cultivated, out of which only 9 lakh hectares are in the northeastern States, said Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar.

•“This 9 lakh hectares is not being given by cutting forests or other crops. This is land available for cultivation. The other reason is that besides the availability of land and the suitability of climate, in the context of environment too, it will help bring balance,” he told journalists after the Cabinet approved the new Mission.

•“There is research going on to increase the production of oilseeds like mustard, groundnut, soyabean, sunflower, and there has been increasing growth in the production of these oilseeds, but if we have to fill huge gap in production versus demand [of edible oils] soon, we will have to venture into crops where production is more. The production of palm oil from one hectare is far greater than the production of mustard oil in the same area. So naturally, though we are promoting the production of other oilseed, the production rate of oilseeds cannot be compared to that of palm oil,” he said. Palm oil currently makes up a whopping 55% of India’s edible oil imports, and the new Mission is intended to move towards domestic production and self reliance instead.

•The Andaman and Nicobar Islands have already had some experience with oil palm, including some abandoned plantations on Katchal Island in the Nicobar chain, and a 1,593-hectare area on Little Andaman which was planted more than 35 years ago and abandoned on the instructions of the Supreme Court.

•According to a feasibility report prepared by the Indian Institute of Oil Palm Research (IIOPR) based on visits to the islands in late 2018, these can be revived and supplemented by plantations in the grasslands, which make up over 75% of the land area of Little Andaman, Katchal, Baratang, Kamorta and Teressa. “Existing grass in the islands is not of any use and is being burnt every year to avoid snakebites,” said the IIOPR’s feasibility report, which added that the soil and climatic conditions were suitable for oil palm plantation, with high rainfall doing away with the need for irrigation which could suck out groundwater. All five islands are home to tribal communities, including the Jarawa and Onge tribes. The IIOPR suggested that multi-cropping during the first three years of the oil palm’s life cycle would help provide income before the plantation yields returns from the fourth to seventh years.

•However, in a January 2019 letter to the Agriculture department, the Chief Conservator of Forests of the Union Territory pointed out that much of these lands are protected or reserve forests and any land use changes would require the approval of the Supreme Court, whose 2002 order had directed that existing plantations, whether of oil palm, rubber or teak, should be phased out. The land should be regenerated to its natural profile without any further introduction of exotic species, it said. In its feasibility report, IIOPR said the Chief Secretary of the islands gave an assurance that “A&N administration would take care of issues relating to Supreme Court Ban and other Committee Reports with the help of the Government of India”.

•Although it shares similarly suitable climatic conditions, Sri Lanka has recently disavowed oil palm, with a May announcement to raze existing plantations and ban palm oil imports as the crop has replaced more environmentally friendly and employment generating plantation crops, dried up local streams, and shows signs of becoming an invasive species threatening native plants and animals.

•In the parts of peninsular India which already grow oil palm, the response has been mixed. Industry stakeholders in Kerala, which has had widespread experience with plantation crops, are excited about growth prospects via the new Mission. Former Oil Palm India chairman Vijayan Kunissery told The Hindu that a number of rubber farmers are interested in switching to oil palm and expected a revival of the sector by 2022. The State government has identified potential sites for cultivation in Wayanad and Palakkad districts, apart from rejuvenation of existing gardens supported by the new Mission.

•In Andhra Pradesh, which currently grows more than 90% of India’s oil palm, farmers depended on bore well irrigation. G.V. Ramanjaneyulu, an agricultural scientist who heads the Hyderabad-based Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, pointed out that oil palm requires 300 litres of water per tree per day, as well as high pesticide use in areas where it is not a native crop, leading to consumer health concerns as well.

•The high levels of investment and the long wait for high returns tend to attract large corporate investors, while small cultivators have struggled with the long gestation period, and have required heavy government support. “If similar subsidies and support are extended to oilseeds which are indigenous to India and suited for dryland agriculture, they can help achieve self-reliance without dependence on oil palm,” said Dr. Ramanjaneyulu.

•He accused faulty trade policy for undercutting the gains in oilseed productivity which were driven by the technology mission of the late 1980s and early 90s. “When the government cut duties on edible oil imports, the Indian domestic market collapsed. Palm oil imports from Southeast Asia became cheaper than domestic oilseeds because of the subsidies provided in those countries,” he said. “We need to find the solutions that fit into our existing ecological and socio-economic situation,” he added.

📰 NITI Aayog bats for tax breaks to achieve monetisation goal

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GS SCORE PIB 1-15 August 2021 PDF

08:41

 GS SCORE PIB 1-15 August 2021 PDF

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GS SCORE Gist Of Yojana August 2021 PDF

08:37

 GS SCORE Gist Of Yojana August 2021 PDF

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THE HINDU NEWSPAPER IMPORTANT ARTICLES 30.08.2021

08:25
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Sunday, August 29, 2021

Insights IAS Prelims Exclusive 2021 Government Schemes-2 PDF

08:48

 Insights IAS Prelims Exclusive 2021 Government Schemes-2 PDF

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Higher education in regional languages

08:40

 Why in news?

Indian  policy’s  aim to empower the disadvantaged by turning  the higher education multilingual has to be analyzed in the prism of internationalization of education

What are the recent developments in this regard?

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Amendment to retrospective taxation

08:35

 Why in news?

The government’s move to scrap the retrospective tax law would act as a booster for the reviving economy

What is retrospective tax?

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PLFS Data - Structural Crisis of Employment

08:33

 What is the issue?

  • NSO Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data for 2019-2020 was released recently.
  • While the increase in Workforce Participation Rate (WPR) is taken for good, the underlying reasons suggest at a deeper crisis in the economy.

What are the PLFS and WPR?

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