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Small steps can bring big changes. The Uttarakhand government has chosen the Char Dham yatra route that covers temples at Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri to implement a unique waste-disposal system in the Himalayas.
Hemkund Sahib and the Valley of Flowers will also see the implementation of a QR code-based system that will streamline collection of waste and reduction of garbage along the route.
Visitors will scan a QR code on each plastic bottle and multi-layer plastic bag (of chips or biscuits) and pay a deposit over the maximum retail price (MRP).
They can claim this amount back as a refund when they deposit the waste at a point at the end of the yatra. Up to 45 lakh QR codes are expected to be printed this year.
The idea and execution is being carried out by Recykal, a Hyderabad-based start-up that provides software solutions for better recycling and sustainability.
Earlier this year, Uttarakhand and Recykal won silver for the project, in the Digital India Awards under the category of a government’s digital initiatives in collaboration with start-ups.
Last year, the project was piloted during the summer months, and executed compulsorily in Kedarnath, en route to the centuries-old Siva temple on the banks of the Mandakini river at an altitude of 3,584 metres above sea level.
It was done only on plastic bottles and 94,000 QR codes were distributed among traders on the way. The initiative across a 33-km stretch from Guptakashi to the Kedarnath temple reached 546 shops, 334 eateries, and 94 hotels during the six-month duration of the yatra.
News
AFSPA areas further reduced owing to improved security situation: Shah (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 3, Internal Security)
Home Minister Amit Shah said that the Centre had decided to “reduce the disturbed areas” under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) in Nagaland, Assam and Manipur due to the “significant improvement in the security situation in northeast India.
The AFSPA has been removed from one district of Assam, and within the limits of four police stations (Wangoi, Leimakhong, Nambol and Moirang) in Manipur, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
A day earlier, the AFSPA was removed from the jurisdiction of three police stations in the Wokha and Zunheboto districts of Nagaland, while one police station in Arunachal Pradesh — Chowkham — was declared a “Disturbed Area” under the Act.
Compared to the year 2014, there is a reduction of 76% in the extremist incidents in the year 2022. Similarly, the deaths of security personnel and civilians have come down by 90% and 97% respectively during this period.
The Ministry said that the Central government was in constant dialogue with the State Governments and other stakeholders, and due to the improvement in the security situation, the ‘Disturbed Area’ notification under the AFSPA was completely withdrawn from Tripura in 2015 and Meghalaya in 2018.
Plea seeks removal of defamation as ground for disqualification (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
A Ph.D. student from Kerala urged the Supreme Court to remove “criminal defamation” as a ground to “automatically” expel MPs.
Aabha Muralidharan said parliamentarians are the voice of the people they represent. Their expulsion has a “chilling effect on the right of representation” of their constituents.
The petitioner, represented by advocates Deepak Prakash and Sriram Parakkat, said the immediate reason for her petition is the “automatic disqualification” of Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi on Friday, on the basis of a 2013 verdict of the Supreme Court in Lily Thomas versus Union of India.
The freedom of speech and expression enjoyed by a Member of the Parliament is an extension of the voice of millions of his supporters.
If criminal defamation, which technically has a maximum punishment of only two years, is not removed from the sweeping effect of the judgment in Lily Thomas, it will have a chilling effect on the right of representation of the citizens,” she argued in her petition.
She said the Constitution makers had never intended to use criminal defamation as a “reasonable restriction” on free speech.
The operations of Lily Thomas are being blatantly misused for wreaking personal vengeance in political parties. The present scenario provides a blanket disqualification, irrespective of the nature, gravity, and seriousness of the offences, allegedly against the Member concerned.
India’s first cable-stayed rail bridge nearing completion (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 3, Infratructure)
Twenty years on, the delayed construction of the Anji Khad bridge in Reasi district of Jammu is a major chink in the Indian Railways’ ambitious plan to connect Kashmir to Jammu and the rest of India seamlessly.
After missing multiple deadlines, including those in 2017 and 2022, the ₹400-crore project to build India’s first cable-stayed rail bridge is finally nearing completion.
We will launch the superstructure deck of the bridge by the first week of May. Ancillary works such as fine tuning the cabling, deck casting, linking of railway tracks will then follow, which will be critical to the completion of the project.
Perched precariously over the Anji Khad river that swells every monsoon, the bridge is supported by a single pylon — a large vertical tower-like structure — soaring 1,086 feet from the river bed, the height of a 77-storey building. Surrounded by mountain peaks, the construction site is buffeted by billowing, gusty winds.
The official, who did not wish to be named, said that the structure of the bridge itself could sustain winds blowing up to 216 km per hour.
However, every time the windspeed crosses 45 kmph, construction work, including laying casts, has to be stopped, due to the risk of machinery, like tower cranes, swaying.
A running train, whose speed limit would be restricted to 30 kmph, can sustain a wind speed of up to 90 kmph. After the bridge is completed, it will pave the way for a single broad-gauge track for trains connecting Jammu to Baramulla, via Srinagar, along a 326-km railway line.
The project was commissioned by the Northern Railways and is being executed by Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd. (KRCL) and Hindustan Construction Company.
Konkan Railway has prior experience of executing the largest railway project of the century in Asia. It cut through ghat sections and built 96 tunnels while laying a 756-km railway line.
However, engineers at the bridge site said that the execution of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail link project, pegged at over ₹37,000 crore, is more challenging due to persistent climatic issues and the treacherous nature of the difficult Himalayan terrain. Two months ago, a worker died after sustaining multiple injuries while conducting a slope stability survey on site, officials said.
Science & Tech
New technique can say where spent nuclear fuel came from (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Scientists in China have developed a technique to reliably identify whether some nuclear fuel originated in one of two common kinds of nuclear reactors, a difficult task in nuclear forensics, using experimental data and machine-learning (ML).
Nuclear fuel is a highly regulated material because of its destructive potential. Countries maintain detailed inventories to safeguard it.
Nuclear forensics use analytical methods to identify the origins of nuclear materials and whether they were used for military applications.
Spent fuel from boiling water reactors (BWRs) is hard to differentiate from that from pressurised water reactors (PWRs) because both “use water as moderator and have similar thermal neutron spectra, so they are quite similar in neutron reaction mechanism.
The reactor type, the fuel’s exposure time inside the reactor, and the extent of the fuel’s enrichment can uniquely identify spent nuclear fuel.
FAQ
Why did India reject J&J’s patent on TB drug? (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
On March 23, the Indian Patent Office rejected an application by pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson (J&J) to extend its patent on the drug bedaquiline beyond July 2023.
Bedaquiline is a drug in tablet form used to treat drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB). This opens the door for drug manufacturers to produce generic versions of bedaquiline, which are expected to be more affordable and to contribute to India’s goal of eliminating TB by 2025.
As of 2017, India accounted for around one-fourth of the world’s burden of multi-drug-resistant (MDR) TB and of extensively-drug-resistant (XDR) TB.
MDR TB resists treatment by at least two frontline drugs in TB treatment, isoniazid and rifampicin. XDR TB resists these two drugs as well as fluoroquinolones and any second-line injectable drug.
XDR TB is rarer than MDR TB — there were 1,24,000 cases of the latter in India (2021) versus 2,650 cases of the former (2017).
TB incidence in India has been on the decline, but MDR TB and XDR TB endanger initiatives to locally eradicate the disease. In the first two years of the pandemic, there were reports that TB treatment was hit by disrupted supply chains, availability of healthcare workers for non-pandemic work, and access to drug-distribution centres.
A peer-reviewed 2020 study found that the incidence of MDR TB was “strongly correlated with treatment failure and spread through contact, and not to treatment compliance”.
TB is an infection of the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the lungs, but often in other organs as well. It can be treated by strictly adhering to the doses and frequencies of drugs prescribed by a physician.
Deviations from this schedule can lead the bacteria to become drug-resistant. Yet they happen because the drugs often have side effects that diminish the quality of life and/or because patients haven’t been afforded access to the requisite drugs on time.
Drug-resistant TB is harder to treat. One important option for those diagnosed with pulmonary MDR TB is bedaquiline. In 2018, the World Health Organization replaced two injectable drugs for MDR TB with an oral regimen that included bedaquiline.
At this time, bedaquiline hadn’t completed phase III trials. The recommendation was based on smaller studies, outcomes in TB elimination programmes worldwide, the difficulty of treating MDR TB, and close monitoring of patients receiving the drug.
Will mega textile parks help boost the sector? (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
On March 17, the government announced that seven mega textile parks under the ₹4,445-crore PM Mega Integrated Textile Regions and Apparel (PM MITRA) scheme will be set up in the first phase.
The notification for large-scale textile parks under PM MITRA had been given in October 2021. The scheme which seeks to streamline the textile value chain into one ecosystem, taking in spinning, weaving and dyeing to printing and garment manufacturing, is expected to generate investments worth ₹70,000 crore.
It would also lead to the creation of 20 lakh jobs, according to Commerce & Industry and Textiles Minister Piyush Goyal.
Under the first phase of the PM MITRA scheme, large textile parks, spread across at least 1,000 acres, will come up in seven States —Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Uttar Pradesh — housing the entire textile value chain, from fibre to fabric to garments. The parks will have plug-and-play manufacturing facilities and all the common amenities required.
The Central government’s budget outlay for the scheme, which is ₹4,445 crore, is to be spent till 2027-28. Special purpose vehicles, with a 51% equity shareholding of the State government and 49% of the Centre, will be formed for each park.
The State governments will provide the land, be part of the SPV, and give the required clearances. The Central government will disburse Development Capital Fund of ₹500 crore in two tranches for each of the seven facilities.
This is for the creation of core and support infrastructure. It will also give a Competitive Incentive Support of ₹300 crore per park to be provided to the manufacturing units.