Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana
- Government has provided cash incentives to nearly 23.6 lakh beneficiaries out of an estimated 51.6 lakh a year under Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana.
- The scheme was approved by the Union Cabinet in 2017 and is implemented by Ministry of Women and Child Development.
- Under the scheme, pregnant women and lactating mothers are offered a cash incentive of Rs. 6,000 on the birth of their first child as partial compensation for wage loss.
- It was done to reduce maternal mortality and malnutrition levels among children.
- Many States like Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Odisha and West Bengal have not yet implemented the scheme.
- These states account for 25 percent of the beneficiaries.
- Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Odisha and West Bengal have their own maternity benefit schemes and have been reluctant to implement the PMMVY.
Initiatives of the Ministry of Coal
- Some of the important initiatives of Ministry of Coal are discussed below.
- UTTAM App has been launched for ensuring transparency and efficiency in coal quality monitoring process.
- Scheme for Harnessing and Allocating Koyala Transparently in India (SHAKTI), for auction and allotment of coal linkages, will lead to affordable power and transparency in allocation of coal.
- Commercial Coal Mining, most ambitious coal sector reform ever, will help in creating direct and indirect employment through higher investment and better technology.
- The reforms in the country’s coal sector have contributed to enhancing energy capacity, efficiency, and security showcasing Government’s philosophy of “Saaf Niyat, Sahi Vikas”.
Iceberg B-15
- Iceberg B-15 broke away from Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf 18 years ago in 2000.
- It measured about 296 km long and 37 km wide.
- It is the largest iceberg ever recorded and could be nearing the end of its voyage.
- The iceberg may not be tracked if it splinters into smaller pieces.
- B-15 has since fractured into numerous smaller bergs, and most have melted away.
- Melting and breakup would not be surprising, given the berg’s long journey and northerly location.
- Currents prevented the berg from continuing through the Drake Passage.
Rail Madad
- Indian Railways has for the first time completely digitized the Complaint management system.
- Rail MADAD (Mobile Application for Desired Assistance During travel) aims to expedite & streamline passenger grievance redressal.
- It registers a complaint with minimum inputs from passenger (option of photo also available), issues unique ID instantly and relays the complaint online to relevant field officials for immediate action.
- It also displays various helpline numbers (e.g., Security, Child helpline etc) and provides direct calling facility for immediate assistance in one easy step.
- All modes of filing complaints including offline and online modes are being integrated on a single platform.
- Therefore the resultant management reports present a holistic picture of weak/deficient areas and enable focused corrective action by officials concerned.
K2 Mission
- A new mission plan named K2 "Second Light" was presented for consideration in 2013 by NASA.
- The K2 mission represents a new concept for spacecraft operations that enables continued scientific observations with the Kepler space telescope.
- K2 would involve using Kepler's remaining capability, photometric precision of about 300 parts per million, to collect data for finding and studying more exoplanets.
- In this proposed mission plan, Kepler would search a much larger area in the plane of Earth's orbit around the Sun.
- It entails a series of sequential observing Campaigns of fields distributed around the ecliptic plane and offers a photometric precision approaching that of the original Kepler mission.
- The K2 mission welcomes all proposals including, but not exclusive to, exoplanet, stellar, extragalactic, and solar system science.
eDNA extraction
- The technique of extracting environmental DNA (eDNA) was used to confirm the presence of specific varieties of rare turtles in the scared ponds of North east.
- Due to the ritual nature of Ponds, scientists were denied complete access to these ponds and so this technique was used.
- Indian softshell turtle (Vulnerable) and South Asian narrow-headed softshell turtle (Endangered) were the species whose presence was confirmed by this technique.
- eDNA testing is fast emerging as a tool for monitoring the biodiversity of an area without physically collecting specimens.
- Coupled to DNA metabarcoding, eDNA is a powerful means of biodiversity monitoring.
- Environmental DNA or eDNA is DNA that is collected from a variety of environmental samples such as soil, seawater, or even air rather than directly sampled from an individual organism.
- In other words, Environmental DNA (eDNA) is genetic material that persists in an environment and is derived from organisms living there.
- Researchers have recently been using eDNA to detect the presence of macro-organisms, particularly those living in aquatic/semiaquatic ecosystems.
Source: PIB, The Hindu
