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The Centre has selected sites in Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh to set up new textile parks, a year and a half after the PM Mega Integrated Textile Regions and Apparel (PM MITRA) scheme was announced.
Listing the seven selected States, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the parks would “provide state-of-the-art infrastructure for the textiles sector, attract investment of crores and create lakhs of jobs”.
The scheme was announced in October 2021, and the parks will be set up by 2026-27. The total outlay for the project is ₹4,445 crore, though the intial allocation in the 2023-24 Budget is only ₹200 crore.
PM MITRA mega textile parks will boost the textiles sector in line with 5F (Farm to Fibre to Factory to Fashion to Foreign) vision,” adding that the scheme would be a great example of the government’s policy of ‘Make in India’ and ‘Make for the World’.
The Centre envisages an investment of nearly ₹70,000 crore into the parks, with employment generation for about 20 lakh people, Textiles Minister Piyush Goyal said.
The parks will function as centres of opportunity to create an integrated textiles value chain — from spinning, weaving, processing, dyeing and printing to garment manufacturing — all at one location.
The textile industry has been unorganised. This increased wastage and logistical costs impact the competitiveness of country’s textile sector. The cluster-based approach, a vision of the Prime Minister, will solve several problems of the sector.
Textiles Secretary Rachna Shah said the Ministry had selected the locations in a transparent manner, having considered 18 proposals from 13 States.
States
Carcasses of Olive Ridleys on Krishna district shores in A.P. worry tourists (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Carcasses of endangered Olive Ridley turtles were seen washed up on the shore at several places and in some islands in Krishna district.
Tourists visiting the beaches in the district have expressed concern over the mortality of the Olive Ridley turtles. Injuries were found on some of the carcasses of the turtles.
Dead turtles were found at Palakayatippa, Light House and other places. “The carcasses washed ashore one or two days ago”.
Hamsaladeevi, Light House, Palakayatippa and Sangameswaram are some of the busy tourist places in Krishna district. Tourists were greeted by the sight of decomposing carcasses at the beaches.
There is no significant pollution or oil exploration along the shore in Krishna district. Still, many Olive Ridley turtles are dying. Officials should ascertain the reasons behind the deaths of the endangered species.
Indian Institute of Astrophysics researchers develop low-cost star sensor (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Researchers at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) have developed a low-cost star sensor for astronomy and small CubeSat class satellite missions.
The star sensor named Starberry-Sense can help small CubeSat class satellite missions find their orientation in space.
The Department of Science and Technology (DST) said that the Starberry-Sense is ready for launch on the PS4-Orbital Platform by ISRO and can be used for CubeSats and other small satellite missions in the future.
Based on commercial/off-the-shelf components, this star sensor costs less than 10% of those available in the market. The brain of the instrument is a single-board Linux computer called Raspberry Pi, which is widely used among electronics hobby enthusiasts.
We coupled some highly optimised algorithms with a Raspberry Pi and turned it into a potent star sensor, named StarBerry-Sense.
We could demonstrate that instruments built from easily available components can be qualified for space,” said Bharat Chandra, Ph.D. scholar at IIA and the first author of the research, which has been published in the Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems.
Any satellite needs to know where it is pointed in space, and the instrument used for this purpose is called a star sensor. The position of stars in the sky is fixed relative to each other and can be used as a stable reference frame to calculate the orientation of a satellite in orbit.
This is done by correctly identifying the stars in the sky towards which the star sensor is pointed. The star sensor is essentially a celestial compass”.
Editorial
The forecast after a fake news campaign in Tamil Nadu (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 3, Internal Security)
In early March, a malicious online disinformation campaign led to law-and-order issues and made media headlines across the country.
Over a period of four days, there was a concocted and continuous narrative about migrant workers hailing from Bihar being subjected to violence in Tamil Nadu.
Though the Tamil Nadu police responded with alacrity and countered these false claims with factual reports, on-the-spot investigations and personalised appeals, the spectre of disinformation that has been highlighted should not be disregarded so easily.
The propagation of fake news will be one of the biggest threats to democracy in an election season, when most information is likely to be consumed through social media sources. As such, this issue should be ranked high as any other in terms of potential to destabilise democratic institutions.
On March 1, at a public meeting in Chennai to mark the 70th birthday of the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and president of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), M.K. Stalin, various national leaders such as Indian National Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Jammu and Kashmir National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Tejashwi Yadav and Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav were present.
It was a significant political event as it brought together a group of leaders from parties that are opposed to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The next day, video clips of migrant workers leaving Tamil Nadu for Holi holidays and festivities began to be shared to say that there was an exodus from the State because of incidents of violence.
News
Horseshoe crabs disappearing off Odisha has scientists alarmed (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Horseshoe crabs, one of the oldest living creatures on earth and medicinally priceless, appear to be disappearing from their familiar spawning grounds along Chandipur and Balaramgadi coast in Odisha’s Balasore district.
Scientists have urged Odisha government to come up with a robust protection mechanism before the living fossil becomes extinct due to destructive fishing practices.
Professor B.C. Choudhury, member of Odisha State Wildlife Advisory Board, and Anil Chatterjee, retired scientist of National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Goa, appealed to the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to place the horseshoe crabs on the list of marine species for which a Species Recovery Plan has to be developed.
Dr. Chatterjee first discovered horseshoe crabs along Balasore coast and brought the species to the State’s notice in 1987.
When we used to come to Odisha in 1988-89, the population of horseshoe crab was very high. In 200 square metre area, we were getting 30 to 40 specimens. Last month, I had been to Balasore, I found there were hardly any of such animals.
Like olive ridley sea turtles, these crabs are basically deep-sea animals. They come to coasts of Balasore in Odisha and Digha and Sundarban in West Bengal for breeding purposes. They select a suitable site for laying their eggs. Unfortunately, those eggs are also damaged by local people”.
World
International Criminal Court issues arrest warrant against Putin over Ukraine (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
The International Criminal Court (ICC) announced it had issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin for the “unlawful deportation” of Ukrainian children.
The Hague-based ICC said it had also issued a warrant against Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s presidential commissioner for children’s rights. Russia is not a member of the ICC. It was unclear how the ICC planned to enforce the warrant.
Today, pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court issued warrants of arrest for two individuals in the context of the situation in Ukraine: Mr. Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Ms. Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova”.
Mr. Putin “is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.
The ICC said the crimes dated from February 24, 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine. “There are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. Putin bears individual criminal responsibility for the aforementioned crimes”.
Mr. Putin was allegedly responsible both directly by committing the acts and for “failure to exercise control properly over civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts, or allowed for their commission”.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan launched an investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine. Mr. Khan said after a visit to Ukraine that the alleged abductions of children “are being investigated by my office as a priority”.
The Kremlin said that the ICC’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin was legally “void” since Moscow does not recognise the court’s jurisdiction.