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Seven years after an in-principle approval, the government’s final go-ahead to the LIGO project paves the way for construction to begin on India’s largest scientific facility that will bolster global efforts to probe the universe through the detection and study of gravitational waves.
LIGO, or Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, is an international network of laboratories meant to detect gravitational waves — the ripples in space-time produced by the movement of large celestial bodies like stars and planets. Postulated over 100 years ago in Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity that encapsulates the current understanding of how gravitation works, gravitational waves were first discovered in 2015 by two LIGOs based in the United States.
Two years later, in 2017, this experimental verification of the century-old theory received the Nobel Prize in Physics.
LIGO-India is part of the plan to expand the network of gravitational wave observatories in order to increase the chances of detecting these waves from anywhere in the observable universe and improve the accuracy and quality of information gleaned from them.
Until now, at least 10 events producing gravitational waves have been detected. Besides the United States, such gravitational wave observatories are currently operational in Europe and Japan. LIGO-India will be the fifth, and possibly the final, node of the planned network.
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Govt’s nod for 42 of 75 biogas plants marked for urban areas (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
The Budget announcement of setting up 75 biomethanation plants, which convert wet waste into biogas, in cities has got underway, with the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry approving plans for 42 such facilities.
In her Budget 2023-24 speech on February 1, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced the setting up of 500 biogas plants across the country under the Gobardhan scheme. Of these, 75 plants were to be set up in urban areas.
According to Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry officials, 42 plants with a total capacity of 6,213 tonnes per day (TPD) at a cost of Rs 1,082 crore had been approved and the remaining proposals would be cleared soon. Most of these plants were in Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Punjab.
While waste-to-energy plants, nine of which with capacity of 12,000 TPD are functional currently, use dry waste to produce power, the biomethanation plants use wet waste to produce biogas or bio-CNG, depending on the quality of the waste provided.
The scheme’s target is to create capacity of 15,000 TPD. As of now, there are 99 biomethanation plants functioning in cities, with a total capacity of 2,288 TPD, as per sources. Of these, 18 are big plants, the largest in Indore with 550 TPD capacity.
Though the move has been welcomed, some experts have raised a basic concern. “Any plant will be as successful as the level of segregation of waste, the programme director for municipal solid waste at the Centre for Science and Environment.
For a plant to be successful, it needs uncontaminated wet waste. Biswas said the level of waste segregation still left a lot to be desired. Ministry officials said it was not known what percentage of the daily 1.5 lakh MT waste in the country gets segregated, though 88% of all MC wards practised segregation at some level or the other.
Explained
New Domestic gas pricing formula: What and why (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The Union Cabinet approved significant changes in the pricing regime for domestic natural gas under the ambit of the administered price mechanism (APM), which mainly applies to gas produced by legacy fields, or nomination fields, of national oil companies Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Ltd and Oil India Ltd (OIL).
Nomination fields are acreages that the government awarded to ONGC and OIL before 1999, after which auctions became the basis of awarding oil and gas blocks.
The price of APM gas, which accounts for about two-thirds of India’s natural gas production, has been determined as per the ‘modified’ Rangarajan formula since November 1, 2014.
(Soon after coming to power, the Narendra Modi government tweaked the formula devised by a committee appointed by the UPA government under C Rangarajan, chairman of the PM-EAC.)
Key changes in the pricing regime, which were notified on Friday and will take effect from Saturday, include benchmarking the price of APM gas to the price of imported crude instead of gas prices in four international gas trading hubs, and monthly, rather than biannual revisions in prices.
The new pricing regime also provides for floor and ceiling prices — $4 and $6.5 per million British thermal units (mBtu), respectively — for ONGC and OIL’s APM gas with the intention of shielding consumers from high prices while ensuring that the producers are not forced to book losses on gas sales.
The government expects the new pricing system to result in significant reduction in the retail price of piped natural gas (PNG) for households and compressed natural gas (CNG) used as an automobile fuel. It is also expected to lower the government’s fertiliser subsidy burden, and aid gas-based power generation units.
After international gas prices shot up over the past couple of years due to a combination of factors including the war in Ukraine, CNG and PNG prices in India surged, in addition to the higher fertiliser subsidy burden.
Information & Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said that as soon as the new pricing formula is implemented, PNG prices for households will fall by about 10 per cent, and CNG prices by 7-9 per cent.
Why tiger-loving Idu Mishmi are against tiger reserves in Dibang Sanctuary (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 1, Population and Associated Issues)
The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) chief said that the Dibang Wildlife Sanctuary in Arunachal Pradesh would soon be notified as a tiger reserve.
The announcement has caused disquiet among the area’s Idu Mishmi people, who feel that a tiger reserve would “hinder their access” to the forest.
The Idu Mishmi is a sub-tribe of the larger Mishmi group (the other two Mishmi groups are Digaru and Miju) in Arunachal Pradesh and neighbouring Tibet.
Known for their weaving and craftsmanship skills, the Idu Mishmis primarily live in Mishmi Hills, bordering Tibet. Their ancestral homelands are spread over the districts of Dibang Valley and Lower Dibang Valley as well as parts of Upper Siang and Lohit.
The tribe is estimated to comprise around 12,000 people (as per census 2011), and their language (also called Idu Mishmi) is considered endangered by UNESCO.
Traditionally animists, the tribe has strong ties with the region’s rich flora and fauna. Animals such as the hoolock gibbons and tigers have deep cultural relations with the Idu Mishmi.
Tigers are especially important to the Idu Mishmis — according to Idu mythology, they were born to the same mother, and thus, tigers are their “elder brothers”.
While hunting has traditionally been a way of life, the Idu Mishmis also follow a strict belief system of myths and taboos — ‘iyu-ena’ — that restrict them from hunting many animals, including a complete prohibition on killing tigers.
Anthropologists and other researchers who have studied the area say that this belief system has led to a unique model of wildlife conservation.