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Daily PIB/ 15 Feb
General Studies- II
Topic- Parliament and State Legislatures – structure, functioning, conduct of business, powers & privileges and issues arising out of these.
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President’s Address and Motion of thanks
Context:
PM’s replied to the motion of thanks on the President’s Address in Lok Sabha.
President’s Address:
Article 86(1) of the Constitution provides that the President may address either House of Parliament or both Houses assembled together, and for that purpose require the attendance of members.
Article 87 provides for the special address by the President.
- Clause (1) of that article provides that at the commencement of the first session after each general election to the House of the People and at the commencement of the first session of each year, the President shall address both Houses of Parliament assembled together and inform Parliament of the causes of its summons.
- Such an Address is called ‘special address’; and it is also an annual feature.
- No other business is transacted till the President has addressed both Houses of Parliament assembled together.
Contents of the Address:
The President’s Address is the statement of policy of the Government and, as such, is drafted by the Government which is responsible for its contents.
- The Address contains a review of various activities and achievements of the Government during the previous year.
- It sets out the policies, projects and programmes which Government of the day wishes to pursue with regard to the important national and international issues.
- The Address also indicates, in broad terms, items of legislative business which are proposed to be brought during the sessions to be held in that year.
Discussion on the Address by Motion of Thanks
The President’s address to a joint sitting of Parliament followed by a motion of thanks moved in each House by ruling party MPs.
- During the session, political parties discuss the motion of thanks also suggesting amendments.
- The members cannot refer to matters which are not the direct responsibility of the Central Government and that the name of the President cannot be brought in during the debate since the Government and not the President is responsible for the contents of the Address.
Amendments to the “Motion of Thanks”:
- Notices of amendments to Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address can be tabled after the President has delivered his Address.
- Amendments may refer to matters contained in the Address as well as to matters, in the opinion of the member, the Address has failed to mention.
- Amendments can be moved to the Motion of Thanks in such form as may be considered appropriate by the Speaker.
Passage of ‘Motion of Thanks’:
- Members of Parliament vote on this motion of thanks. This motion must be passed in both of the houses.
- A failure to get motion of thanks passed amounts to defeat of government and leads to collapse of government.
- Therefore, the Motion of Thanks is deemed to be a no-confidence motion.
General Studies-III
Topic- Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life.
PSLV-C52/EOS-04 Mission
Context:
The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) successfully launched its earth observation satellite EOS-4 and two co-passenger technology demonstrator and scientific satellites.
- The mission was launched from the first launch pad at the country’s only spaceport in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.
- This was the country’s first mission this year, in fact, it was the first mission since the failure of the GSLV F10 mission in August 2021.
The satellites board on PSLV-C52:
According to the ISRO, the PSLV-C52 carried EOS-04, a radar imaging satellite, and two other satellites.
EOS-04:
- The 1,700kg EOS-04 is a radar imaging satellite capable of providing high-quality images under all weather conditions.
- It can be used to capture images for agriculture, forestry, flood mapping, soil moisture and hydrology.
- The satellite has a mission life of 10 years.
INS-2DT technology demonstrator satellite:
- The spacecraft will also carry the INS-2DT technology demonstrator satellite.
- It has a thermal imaging camera and can help in the assessment of land and water surface temperatures apart from mapping vegetation.
InspireSat-1 satellite:
- The third InspireSat-1 satellite was developed by the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, University of Colorado, US, Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, and National Central University in Taiwan.
- This satellite will use two instruments to study ionosphere dynamics and the Sun’s coronal heating process.
The PSLV:
Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is the third generation launch vehicle of India.
- It is the first Indian launch vehicle to be equipped with liquid stages.
- After its first successful launch in October 1994, PSLV emerged as the reliable and versatile workhorse launch vehicle of India with 39 consecutively successful missions by June 2017.
- During 1994-2017 period, the vehicle has launched 48 Indian satellites and 209 satellites for customers from abroad.
- Besides, the vehicle successfully launched two spacecraft – Chandrayaan-1 in 2008 and Mars Orbiter Spacecraft in 2013 – that later traveled to Moon and Mars respectively.
Difference between PSLV and GSLV:
India has two operational launchers- Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV).
- PSLV was developed to launch low-Earth Orbit satellites into polar and sun synchronous orbits. It has since proved its versatility by launching geosynchronous, lunar and interplanetary spacecraft successfully.
- On the other hand, GSLV was developed to launch the heavier INSAT class of geosynchronous satellites into orbit. In its third and final stage, GSLV uses the indigenously developed cryogenic upper stage.
Geosynchronous vs Sun- synchronous:
- When satellites are about 36,000 km from the Earth’s surface, they enter what is called the high Earth orbit. Here, it orbits in sync with the Earth’s rotation, creating the impression that the satellite is stationary over a single longitude. Such a satellite is said to be geosynchronous.
Just as the geosynchronous satellites have a sweet spot over the equator that allows them to stay over one spot on Earth, polar-orbiting satellites have a sweet spot that allows them to stay in one place. This orbit is a Sun-synchronous orbit, which means that whenever and wherever the satellite crosses the equator, the local solar time on the ground is always the same.
General Studies- III
Topic– Issues related to direct and indirect farm subsidies and minimum support prices; Public Distribution System- objectives, functioning, limitations, revamping; issues of buffer stocks and food security; Technology missions; economics of animal-rearing.
Promotion of Agricultural Mechanization for In-Situ Management of Crop Residue
Context:
Central Sector Scheme on ‘Promotion of Agricultural Mechanization for In-Situ Management of Crop Residue in the States of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCT of Delhi’.
About the scheme:
- To support the efforts of the governments of Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and the NCT of Delhi to address air pollution, an announcement was made in Budget 2018 regarding a special Scheme.
- In pursuance of this, to subsidize machinery required for in-situ management of crop residue, a Central Sector Scheme (100% funded by the Central Government) on ‘Promotion of Agricultural Mechanization for In-Situ Management of Crop Residue in the States of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCT of Delhi’ has been implemented during 2018-19 and 2019-20.
Objectives:
- To protect environment from air pollution;
- Prevent loss of nutrients and soil micro-organisms caused by burning of crop residue;
- Promoting in-situ management of crop residue by retention and incorporation into the soil through the use of appropriate mechanization inputs;
- Creating awareness among stakeholders through demonstration and capacity building activities;
- Differentiated Information, Education and Communication strategies for effective utilization and management of crop residue.
Impact of this scheme:
This Scheme was further extended for the year 2020-21.
- The residue burning events in 2020 in Punjab, Haryana and UP together have reduced by -30% as compared to 2016.
- In Punjab the reduction is -22.7%, Haryana – 63.8% and UP – 52.01%.
General Studies-III
Topic- Important Geophysical phenomena such as Earthquakes, Tsunami, Volcanic activity, Cyclone etc., geographical features and their location- changes in critical geographical features and in flora and fauna and the effects of such changes.
National Monsoon Mission (NMM)
Context:
Under the Monsoon Mission, Ministry of Earth Science, has developed the state-of-the-art weather and climate prediction models, which are now in operational use.
- These models include models for short range to medium range (1-10 days), extended range (10days to 30 days) and seasonal (up to one season).
- The models developed under the National Monsoon Mission (NMM) have shown very high skill in predicting important weather events on different time scales during the last 3 years.
What is the ‘National Monsoon Mission’?
Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), has launched ‘National Monsoon Mission’ (NMM) with a vision to develop a state-of-the-art dynamical prediction system for monsoon rainfall on different time scales.
- It was launched in 2012.
- MoES has bestowed the responsibility of execution and coordination of this mission to the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune.
Objectives:
- To improve Seasonal and Intra-seasonal Monsoon Forecast
- To improve Medium Range Forecast.
Participating Institutions:
- Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune
- National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecast, Noida
- India Meteorological Department, New Delhi
Targets of Monsoon Mission:
- Development of a seamless prediction system using monsoon mission model, on different time scales, like Seasonal (for whole Monsoon season), Extended range (up-to 4 weeks), Short range prediction (up-to 5days).
- Initiate and coordinate working partnership between Indian and foreign institutes to develop a system for prediction of extremes and climate applications.
- Develop and implement system for climate applications having social impacts (such as agriculture, flood forecast, extreme events forecast, wind energy,etc.)
- Advanced data assimilation system for preparing high quality data for model predictions.
Background:
El Nino and Southern Oscillation (ENSO) being a dominant mode of global inter-annual variability and due to its vast influence on other regional climates.
- In last few decades researchers have made large number of studies on the ENSO phenomena and its various impacts using atmospheric and ocean-atmosphere coupled general circulation models.
- In recent decades, dynamical numerical models have considerably improved and most of the global coupled models have shown good prediction skill of ENSO SST with six months lead time.
Need for NMM:
The seasonal mean rainfall hind cast skill, at one season lead time, over the central Pacific is also very good.
- This has been possible due to a concerted effort by a group of devoted scientists.
- However, not much breakthrough has taken place in improving the prediction skill of Indian summer monsoon rainfall, even though it was expected as a prominent heat source over Indian region during summer monsoon period that drives the major atmospheric circulations.
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