Gs-2 Paper
Topic– Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
Water Quality Report
Context
Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution releases Water Quality Report for State Capitals & Delhi as analysed by BIS.
About
- Water Quality Report for State Capitals & Delhi was released by the Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.
- The report is in line with Jal Jeevan Mission, which aims to provide tap water to all households by 2024.
- Department of Consumer Affairs decided to undertake a study through the Bureau of India Standards (BIS) on the quality of piped drinking water being supplied in the country.
- The study was aimed to ensure that clean and safe drinking water is provided to all.
- It also ranks the States, Smart Cities and even Districts based on the quality of tap water.
Criteria
- The study was conducted in two phases.
- In the first phase, the samples of drinking water were drawn from various locations across Delhi.
- In the second phase samples were drawn from 20 State capitals and sent for testing as per Indian Standard set by the BIS.
- Tests were conducted on various parameters such as Organoleptic and Physical Tests, Chemical test, Toxic substances and Bacteriological tests in the first stage.
- A vast majority of the samples have failed to comply with the requirements of IS 10500:2012 in one or more parameters.
Key Findings or the report
- In Delhi, all the 11samples drawn from various places did not comply with the requirements of the Indian Standard& failed on several parameters.
- All the 10 samples drawn from Mumbai were found to comply with the requirements.
- The best performing cities where almost all the samples were up to the standard were Ranchi, Shimla, Bhubaneshwar, Amravati and Raipur.
- None of the samples drawn from 13 of the State Capitals i.e. Chandigarh,Thiruvananthapuram, Patna, Bhopal, Guwahati, Bengaluru, Gandhinagar, Lucknow, Jammu, Jaipur, Dehradun, Chennai, Kolkata complied with the requirements of the Indian Standard.
Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS)
- BIS is the National Standard Body of India established under the BIS Act 2016.
- BIS is set up for the harmonious development of the activities of standardization, marking and quality certification of goods and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
- BIS has its Headquarters at New Delhi.
- Its 05 Regional Offices (ROs) are at Kolkata (Eastern), Chennai (Southern), Mumbai (Western), Chandigarh (Northern) and Delhi (Central).
- BIS has been providing traceability and tangibility benefits to the national economy in a number of ways –
- Providing safe reliable quality goods;
- Minimizing health hazards to consumers;
- Promoting exports and imports substitute;
- Control over proliferation of varieties etc.
Bureau of Indian Standards Act 2016
- The BIS Act, 2016 establishes the BIS as the National Standards Body of India for the purpose of standardization, marking and certification of articles and processes.
- It has broaden BIS’s ambit and allows central government to make it mandatory for certain notified goods, articles, processes, etc to carry the standard mark.
- BIS act provides enabling provisions for making hallmarking of precious metal articles mandatory.
- The new Act also allows multiple types of simplified conformity assessment schemes including self-declaration of conformity against standard which will provide simplified options to manufacturers to adhere to the standards.
- The Act enables Centre to appoint any authority, agency, in addition to BIS, to verify conformity of products and services to a standard and issue certificate of conformity.
- There is a provision for repair or recall, of the products (bearing Standard Mark) that do not conform to the relevant Indian Standard.
- New areas identified in standardization are:
- Alternate fuels
- E-mobility
- Medical Devices
- Smart Cities
- Digital Technologies (e.g. Industry 4.0, Artificial Intelligence, Block Chain etc.)
- New and Renewable energy.
Gs-3 Paper
Topic– Achievements of Indians in science & technology; indigenization of technology and developing new technology.
Winter-Grade Diesel
Context
Union Home Minister launched the the first Winter-Grade Diesel outlet for Ladakh region.
About
- The first Winter-Grade Diesel outlet was launched for Ladakh region.
- It will help to address the problem faced by people due to loss of fluidity in Diesel fuel during extreme winter conditions.
- Motorists in high-altitude sectors like Ladakh, Kargil, Kaza and Keylong face the problem of freezing of diesel in their vehicles when winter temperatures drop to as low as -30o Celsius.
- The winter grade diesel is produced by Panipat Refinery of State-run Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOC).
What is Winter-Grade Diesel?
- Winter diesel fuel, also known as winter diesel, refers to diesel fuel enhanced to prevent it from gelling in cold weather conditions.
- In general it is achieved by treatment with additives that change the low temperature characteristics of the fuel.
- Winter-Grade Diesel remains unfrozen at minus 33 degree Celsius.
Significance
- The fuel would help provide year-round access to snow-capped border regions, and is part of India’s efforts to speed up strategic road connectivity.
- This new fuel will help Indian security forces to stock up on crucial supplies and ammunition that gets cut off due to bad weather in winters.
GS-2 Paper
Topic- Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
Pradhan Mantri Innovative Learning Programme (PMILP)- ‘DHRUV’
Context
Union HRD Minister launched the Pradhan Mantri Innovative Learning Programme- ‘DHRUV’ from Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Headquarters at Bengaluru,
About PMILP
- Pradhan Mantri Innovative Learning Programme is being started to identify and encourage talented children to enrich their skills and knowledge.
Objective
- The objective of the Pradhan Mantri Innovative Learning Programme (PMILP) would be to allow talented students to realize their full potential and contribute to society.
- In centres of excellence across the country, gifted children will be mentored and nurtured by renowned experts in different areas, so that they can reach their full potential.
- It is expected that many of the students selected will reach the highest levels in their chosen fields and bring laurels to their community, State and Nation.
Key features of PMILP
- The programme will be called DHRUV (after the Pole Star) and every student to be called ‘DHRUV TARA’.
- The students will thus both shine through their achievements and light a path for others to follow.
- It will cover two areas e. Science and Performing Arts.
- There will be 60 students in all, 30 from each area.
- The 60 students come from across the country.
- The students will be broadly from classes 9 to 12, from all schools including government and private.
- This is only the first phase of the programme which will be expanded gradually to other fields like creative writing etc.
For Prelims
Sri Lanka President
Highlights
- Gotabaya Rajapaksa has been elected as the president of Sri Lanka.
- He will be sworn in as Sri Lanka’s seventh executive President.
- He defeated Mr. Sajith Premadasa.
- Gotabaya Rajapaksa was Sri Lanka’s former wartime defence chief.
