Daily Mains Practice Questions 18-02-2023

KEY POINTS

·        In the 17 years since the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) has been implemented, studies have asserted its net positive impact in the rural areas.

·        From reducing penury through providing off-season employment, and thereby improving household consumption among the invariably poor citizens who avail the scheme.

·        There is of course the case that the scheme has still not transcended into creating more useful assets beyond roads and irrigation canals and requires broadbasing and better implementation.

·        Such a reading can be justifiably made if the reduced allocation for the scheme in the Union Budget, from 2.14% of overall outlay in FY23 to 1.33% in FY24, is considered.

·        This was despite implementation in recent years experiencing wage delays and underfunding. This has also depressed demand, with formal requests for work only being a portion of the actual demand.

·        There has been a shrinking in the States’ share of taxes following GST and the financial stresses during the pandemic. States taking up 40% of the funding burden would affect the payment of wages even further.

·        The government must change its approach towards the MGNREGS by recognising its potential in catering to the poor’s right to work.

KEY POINTS

·        The use of drones in the agriculture sector has risen significantly, with several novel applications in aerial seeding, pesticide spraying and remote data collection for research.

·        India’s Drone Rules regulations that authorise civilian use of the technology were only introduced in August 2021 and broadly categorise unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) based on a two-fold classification.

·        Despite recognising autonomous UAS as a separate category, the Drone Rules do not provide any specifications or guidelines for such aircraft systems.

·        India’s agri-tech sector is increasingly leveraging this technology. In 2020, the Haryana government engaged pesticide-spraying drones to tackle locust attacks on crops.

·        Drone technology is a rapidly developing space and unsurprisingly, the regulatory environment is continuing to evolve and yet to take a concrete shape.

·        Unless specifically exempted, each drone is required to be mandatorily registered with a unique identification number on a Digital Sky Platform (DSP).

·        Any subsequent transfer of ownership of a drone, or a change to the flight control module or remote pilot station is required to be updated on the DSP.

·        Privacy is a major concern that looms over the trajectory of this sector since aerial vehicles come equipped with sophisticated sensors and cameras.

KEY POINTS

·        By creating a carbon trading market, it has the potential to integrate several discreet initiatives like the renewable energy certificates, the Perform, Achieve and Trade scheme.

·        Overall, it will accelerate the clean energy transition by galvanising cleaner alternatives such as natural gas, pumped storage, and hydrogen.

·        International gas prices are expected to soften, given an unusually mild winter in Europe and the possibility of an economic downturn in 2023.

·        As a relatively cleaner fuel, natural gas significantly reduces urban air pollution. This is relevant given that 21 out of 30 most polluted cities are in India.

·        Therefore, natural gas will play a key role in decarbonizing the transport sector and emerge as the preferred option for personal and commercial vehicles.

·        The government has been actively driving and supporting the natural gas industry through calibrated policy reforms and programmatic initiatives.

·        Some of the key ones include enabling development of “One Nation, One Gas Grid”, marketing reforms and the launch of the first Gas Exchange in 2020.

·        In addition, the government recently announced a hydrogen policy and a National Green Hydrogen Mission.

·        India’s commitment to clean energy transition requires deployment of multiple technologies and fuel options. Continuing to use natural gas as a bridge to cleaner future will support climate mitigation.

Q.1] MGNERGA

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