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.
