DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS ANALYSIS
02ndOctober 2021
| S. No. | Topic Name | Prelims/Mains |
| 1. | Ethanol Production | Prelims & Mains |
| 2. | Renunciation of Indian Citizenship | Prelims & Mains |
| 3. | National Mission for Clean Ganga | Prelims & Mains |
| 4. | Landslides and Floods Early Warning System | Prelims & Mains |
| 5. | PM Poshan Shakti Nirman Scheme | Prelims & Mains |
| 6. | Indo-US Defence Industrial Security | Prelims Specific |
| 7. | Meningitis | Prelims Specific |
- Ethanol Production:
GS III
Topic :Environment related issues.
- Why in News:
- Almost two million tonnes (MT) of sugar were diverted for ethanol production during the last sugar season (October 2020 to September 2021).
- About Ethanol and its production:
- Ethanol can be produced from sugarcane, maize, wheat, etc which are having high starch content.
- In India, ethanol is mainly produced from sugarcane molasses by fermentation process.
- Ethanol can be mixed with gasoline to form different blends.
- As the ethanol molecule contains oxygen, it allows the engine to more completely combust the fuel, resulting in fewer emissions and thereby reducing the occurrence of environmental pollution.
- Since ethanol is produced from plants that harness the power of the sun, ethanol is also considered as renewable fuel.
- Prelims Hot-Link:
- About Ethanol
- Government Initiatives in this regard
- Source – The Hindu
- Renunciation of Indian Citizenship:
GS II
Topic :Citizenship related issues:
- Why in News:
- The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has simplified the process for Indians who want to renounce their citizenship
- Provisions have been made for applicants to upload documents online, with an upper limit of 60 days for the renunciation process to be completed.
- About Citizenship:
- In India, Articles 5 – 11 of the Constitution deals with the concept of citizenship. The term citizenship entails the enjoyment of full membership of any State in which a citizen has civil and political rights.
- Termination of citizenship is possible in three ways according to the Citizenship Act, 1955.
- Renunciation: If any citizen of India who is also a national of another country renounces his Indian citizenship through a declaration in the prescribed manner, he ceases to be an Indian citizen.
- Termination: Indian citizenship can be terminated if a citizen knowingly or voluntarily adopts the citizenship of any foreign country.
- Deprivation: The government of India can deprive a person of his citizenship in some cases. It is applicable only in the case of citizens who have acquired the citizenship by registration, naturalization, or only by Article 5 (c)
- Prelims Hot-Link:
- Constitutional Provisions regarding Citizenship
- OCI vs NRI
- Source – The Indian Express
- National Mission for Clean Ganga:
GS II
Topic : Environment related issues:
- Why in News:
- Chacha Chaudhary declared Mascot for NamamiGange Programme
- Content to be designed with the objective of bringing about behavioral change amongst children towards Ganga and other rivers.
- Proposal for conserving and sustainably managing Gangetic floodplain wetlands in Bihar:
- Major components of the project will be Wetland inventory and assessment, Wetland management planning, Wetland’s monitoring, and Capacity development and outreach.
- Aims at creating a knowledge base and capacities for effective management of floodplain wetlands in the 12 Ganga districts in Bihar to ensure sustained provision of wetlands ecosystem services and securing biodiversity habitats.
- Kalpvas: Simariya Ghat is popular for Kalpvas, an ancient tradition in which devotees live on ghats, sing and meditate during the Magh Mela.
- Prelims Hot-Link:
- About the Mission
- Other such initiatives by the Government
- Source – The Hindu
- Landslides and Floods Early Warning System:
GS III
Topic :Disaster Management:
Why in News:
- CSIR-National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) has launched an ‘Environmental Seismology’ group to develop a ‘Landslide and Flood Early Warning System’ for the Himalayan region based on real-time monitoring with dense seismological networks, coupled with satellite data, numerical modelling and geomorphic analysis.
- This would enable a crucial warning several hours prior, which will save precious human lives and property in future during such events.
- Climate change – Cause of landslides and floods:
- Landslides are common in India’s northern Himalayan region, particularly in the current monsoon season when heavy rains lead to subsidence of earth and rocks.
- The situation is exacerbated by climate change making the monsoon more erratic and melting glaciers higher in the mountains.
- Roads in the region are also often poorly maintained.
- About landslide and flood:
- A landslide is defined as the movement of a mass of rock, debris, or earth down a slope.
- A high water level that overflows the natural banks along any portion of a stream is called a flood. Thus, Floods are commonly associated with a stream or river.
- The National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) is a constituent research laboratory of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
- It was established in 1961 with the mission to carry out research in multidisciplinary areas of the highly complex structure and processes of the Earth system and its extensively interlinked subsystems
- Prelims Hot-Link:
- About Landslides and Floods
- About the Disaster Management Initiatives for such disasters
- Source – The Indian Express
- PM Poshan Shakti Nirman Scheme:
GS II
Topic :Policies and Interventions of the Government:
- Why in News:
- The existing Mid-Day Meal scheme, which provides hot meals to students, has been renamed as the National Scheme for PM Poshan Shakti Nirman.
- Key propositions in the PM POSHAN Scheme:
- Supplementary nutrition: Supplementary nutrition for children in aspirational districts and those with high prevalence of anaemia.
- States to decide diet: It essentially does away with the restriction on the part of the Centre to provide funds only for wheat, rice, pulses and vegetables.
- Currently, if a state decides to add any component like milk or eggs to the menu, the Centre does not bear the additional cost. Now that restriction has been lifted
- Nutri-gardens: They will be developed in schools to give children “firsthand experience with nature and gardening”
- Women and FPOs: To promote vocals for local, women self-help groups and farmer producer organisations will be encouraged to provide a fillip to locally grown traditional food items.
- Social Audit: “Inspection” by students of colleges and universities for ground-level execution.
- Tithi-Bhojan: Communities would also be encouraged to provide the children food at festivals etc.
- DBTs to school: States will be asked to do direct benefit cash transfers of cooking costs to individual school accounts, and allowances to the bank accounts of cooks and helpers.
- Holistic nutrition: Use of locally grown traditional foods will be encouraged, along with school nutrition gardens.
- About the Mid-Day meal scheme:
- The National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (NP-NSPE) was launched as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme in 1995.
- Objective: To enhance enrolment, retention and attendance and simultaneously improve nutritional levels among children.
- In 2001 it became a cooked Mid Day Meal Scheme.
- The Scheme covers children of classes I-VIII studying in government, government-aided schools, special training centres (STC) and madarsas/ maqtabs supported under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).
- It is the largest school feeding programme in the world.
- It is covered by the National Food Security Act, 2013.
- Indo-US Defence Security Council:
Prelims Specific Topic:
- The Industrial Security Agreement (ISA) summit between India and the United States was organised to develop protocol for the exchange of classified information between the defence industries of both the nations.
- The ISA was signed in December 2019 to
- Facilitate the exchange of classified information between the defence industries of both the countries
- Create a roadmap for the implementation of the ISA
- In-principle agreement to establish Indo-US Industrial Security Joint Working Group
- Group to meet regularly to align policies for defence industries to collaborate on critical defence technologies
- Meningitis:
Prelims Specific Topic
- The Global Roadmap to Defeat Meningitis by 2030 was recently released by the World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners.
- This is the first-ever global strategy to defeat meningitis.
- It aims to eliminate epidemics of bacterial meningitis and to reduce deaths by 70 per cent and halve the number of cases.
- Significance: The strategy could save more than 200,000 lives annually and significantly reduce disability caused by the disease.
- About Meningitis:
- Meningitis is an inflammation of the membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord.
- It is predominantly caused by bacterial and viral infection.
- Meningitis caused by bacterial infection causes around 250,000 deaths a year and can lead to fast-spreading epidemics.
- It kills a tenth of those infected — mostly children and young people — and leaves a fifth with long-lasting disability.