09 Mar 2022

Section-A (National)

Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is organising “Devayatanam Conference”, as a part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.

Devayatanam conference is a two-day international conference. ‘Devayatanam is an odyssey of Indian temple architecture.
Conference is being held on February 25 and 26, 2022 at Hampi, Karnataka.
It was inaugurated by union minister for Culture, Tourism and DoNER Shri G Kishan Reddy.

Aim of the conference The conference is being organised with the aim of deliberating upon philosophical, social, religious, technical, economic, scientific, art and architectural aspects of temple. It also seeks to initiate a dialogue on evolution and development of various styles of temple architecture like Vesara, Nagara, Dravida, Kalinga and others. Aim of the conference would be creating interest among scholars and students, to learn and respect our heritage. Inaugural Session The inaugural session took place at Pattabhirama Temple in Hampi. The academic sessions will be held in Auditorium, Kannada University in Hampi. During the conference, eminent scholars discussing on various facets of the great temples of India. different sessions of discussions include:

Temple- From the Formless to Form
Temple- Evolution of Temple Architecture
Temple-Regional Development Forms and Styles
Temple-Epicenter of art, culture, education, administration and economy
Temple-Protector of environment
Temple- Culture diffusion in South east Asia.

Significance of the conference The conference will be beneficial for students of Indian history, scholars, archeology, culture and architecture as well as general public. Temples in India Temple has been an integral part of Indian life, always. Temple construction was practiced as a pious act in the subcontinent and it also travelled to the nearest neighbourhood like south-east and East Asia. Thus, it is an interesting study as to how art and technique of temple architecture was modified and spread from India to other regions.

According to an analysis by a NGO, Children in the country received the lowest share of allocation in the Budgetin 11 years.

Budgeting for children by the Union Government had started as early as 2008 with the publication of the first-ever Child Budget Statement. Subsequently, several states have also initiated the practice.

What is in the Budget for the Children?

About:
- The total allocation for children in Union Budget 2023 is Rs. 92,736.5 crore, against an allocation of Rs. 85,712.56 crore in the last Budget.
  - Though this is an increase of 8.19% in absolute terms, it’s not proportionate to the increase in the total expenditure in the Union Budget.
  - The share of the Budget for children is a meagre 2.35% of the Union Budget for the next fiscal (2022-23), which is a reduction of 0.11%, which is the lowest share children have received in the last 11 years.
- Sector-wise Analysis:
  - For Child health:
    - The allocation for child health has decreased by 6.08%.
    - One of the most important child health schemes, the NRHM-RCH FlexiPool, has observed a reduced allocation of 8.22%.
      - This flexipool addresses the needs of health systems strengthening and Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCH+A) of the States.
    - For Child Development Programme:
      - They have seen a drop of 10.97% in allocation for the next fiscal at R.17,826.03 crore. These include supplementary nutrition and anganwadi (day care) services.
        
        Schemes for children such as Poshan 2.0, which provide integrated benefits to women and children, did not get any additional funds this year.
        
        In 2022-23, an estimated budget of Rs 10,234 crore has been sanctioned to the Pradhan Matri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM POSHAN) programme.Last year, the revised estimate was Rs 10,234 crore.
        
        This scheme was earlier known as the ‘National Program of Midday Meal in Schools’ and provided hot cooked meals to school children between the ages of 6 and 14 years.
        
        For Child Education:
        
        The share of child education has witnessed only a marginal increase of 0.3% points from 1.74% in the current fiscal to 1.73% for the next fiscal.
        
        A ‘One class, one TV channel’ programme announced in the budget is a difficult mode of learning for children.
        
        The ‘One class, one TV channel’ programme of PM eVIDYAwill be expanded from 12 to 200 TV channels.
        
        For Protection and Welfare of Children:
        
        Schemes for the protection and welfare of children clubbed under the Mission Vatsalaya of the Ministry of Women and Children received Rs. 1,472.17 crore.
        
        This is 65% more than this fiscal, but below the allocation of Rs. 15,000 crore in 2019-2020, before the scheme was restructured.

What are the issues with the Budgeting for Children?

Mere Annual Accounting Exercise:
- Budgeting for children by the Union Government has remained limited to being a mere annual accounting exercise culminating in the publication of the Child Budget Statement (CBS) by simply collating relevant budget heads across departments.
  - This alone does little to address the core objective of remaining responsive to the special needs of children.
- Lack of Responsibility from State Governments:
  - State Governments, being mainly responsible for implementing many of the critical schemes for children, play an important role in taking this exercise forward.
    - But even for them, it has mostly been perceived as an accounting responsibility rather than as a tool to plan and execute interventions for children more effectively.
  - Lack of Standardisation:
    - Moreover, there is a lack of standardisation of norms among government entities for reporting in their respective Child Budget Statement (CBS).

What about the State of Children in India?

NHFS-5 Findings: The recent NFHS 5 surveyhas revealed a mixed picture on child health and nutrition.
- On one hand there are definite positives like reduction in child mortality rates, improvements in the levels of nutrition indicators like stunting and wasting etc.
- On the other hand, incidents of anemiaamong children have gone up from 58.6% in NFHS 4 to an alarming level of 67.1% in this round, leading experts to point out that more efforts are needed for meeting the 2030 SDG targets.
ASER Surveys Findings:
- The consecutive ASER surveyshave pointed out that there has been no improvement in the proportion of children currently not enrolled in school between 2020 and 2021 and there exists a lot of variability among the states in this regard.
Impact of Covid-19:
- Covid-19has impacted children in diverse ways – be it physical, emotional, cognitive, or social repercussions, including transition or migration, familial crises, isolation from friends, discontinuity of learning, environment, quarantine, hospitalisation of self or family members, and entry into adult roles of work or marriage.
- Consequently, the lives of India’s children were severely restricted in terms of their access to education, nutrition and development, and child protection.

Section- B (International)

The attack on Ukraine by Russia is potentially the onset of war in Europe on top of Russia’s behest for an end to NATO’s eastward expansion. The launch of the major invasion by Russia on Ukraine, that started with air and missile assaults on Ukrainian military targets before sending troops and tanks across the country’s northern, eastern, and southern borders. On many fronts, the Ukrainian military fought back. In a video speech delivered early Friday, February 25, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that 137 people had been killed, including troops and civilians, and that hundreds more had been injured.

Background: Since the invasion of Crimea in 2014, Ukraine has been living in fear of war with Russia for nearly eight years. Russia and Ukraine have been at odds for a long time, with Russia claiming Ukraine as a part of its country and opposing Ukraine’s developing ties to the West. Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to recapture the former Soviet Union Republic. He requested that the Ukrainian military put down their weapons. Prior to its cessation in 1991, Russia and Ukraine were both members of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), which consisted of 15 republics. Genesis of the Conflict:

The heat between Russia and Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, have existed for a decent amount of time, they began to escalate out of control in early 2021. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s President hinted the US President Joe Biden to allow Ukraine to join the NATO forces in January of last year.
This Russia is highly infuriated , which began sending soldiers near the Ukrainian border for “training exercises” in the spring of last year and boosted the number in the fall. The US began to hype that there is a deployment of Russian troops, and Vice President Joe Biden had threatened Russia with heavy sanctions if Russia attacked Ukraine.
Russia wants a legally enforceable promise from the US that NATO forces will not conduct any military operations in eastern Europe, especially in Ukraine. According to the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, Ukraine is merely a puppet of the US and was never a real sovereign country in the first place.
This isn’t the first time that conflicts between Russia and Ukraine have erupted. Russia had previously invaded Ukraine in 2014, it happened when pro-Putin separatists captured major swaths of eastern Ukraine, and they have been fighting the Ukrainian army since the invasion. Russia also annexed Crimea at that time.
Ukraine has extensive social and cultural ties with Russia, and Russian is widely spoken there, but those ties have deteriorated since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014.
When Ukraine’s pro-Russian president lost in early 2014, Russia came to an offensive. It is estimated that more than 14,000 people have died as a result of the continuous war happening in the east.
The Minsk peace agreement was signed by Russia and Ukraine to end the ongoing violent armed conflict which was going on in east Ukraine, including Donbas region. However, as the armed conflict continues, Russia said that it will be sending “peacekeepers” to the affected region. According to the , Moscow is using it as a cover to occupy sovereign Ukrainian country.
The rising tension between Russia and Ukraine, which shares a border with the European Union, has ramifications for the European Union. This is why the European Union has joined the US in declaration of the penalties against Russian firms, the majority of which the NATO members.
Just a few weeks back, French President Emmanuel Macron had travelled to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in an effort to calm down the ongoing tensions.
India is also suggesting for a diplomatic solution, through talks to the present Russian-Ukraine violent conflict.

Section C (Economy)

A 1.7-megawatt solar photovoltaic plant has been commissioned by Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. (BHEL) at Bina, Madhya Pradesh for the Indian Railways.

Power to the traction systems of Indian Railways will be fed directly through this plant.
This plant was commissioned after the Indian Railways decided to become self-reliant for their electricity need and planned to solarise railway stations by utilizing the vacant lands it has for various Renewable Energy (RE) projects.
This is the first such Solar Power Plant commissioned on the Indian Railways network to directly feed Traction Power.
The Solar Plant commissioned at Bina covers an area of over ten acres. 5800 solar modules are put on 145 sets of modular mounting structures on 1015 pile foundations at the Solar Plant.
The electricity generated in this plant will be provided to the Indian Railways free of cost.
8 MU of electricity per year is being expected to be generated from this Solar Plant.
2,160 Tonnes of Carbon dioxide emission annually will be saved from this Solar Plant.

The Plan of Utilizing Solar Energy to Power the Railway Stations In the Union Budget 2017-18, it was announced that solar power would be used to power approximately 7,000 railway stations across the country in the medium term. The government declared in the budget that 2,000 railway stations would be built as part of its 1000-Megawatt solar project. The objective of the Indian Railways to become a Net Zero Carbon Emission Rail Network will be accelerated by the usage of solar power. To achieve this, the Indian Railways had developed plans to set up 20 GW capacity solar power plants by utilizing its vacant land by 2030. About BHEL Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited is a government-owned manufacturing and engineering organization which is headquartered in New Delhi. It falls under the ambit of the Ministry of Heavy Industries. BHEL is India’s largest power generation equipment company and was established in 1956. Nalin Shinghal is the Chairman & Managing Director of BHEL. Section C (Science & tech) & Envt.

Chinese rover Yutu-2 recently discovered mysterious glass spheres on far side of the moon. The paper highlighting the discovery was published in Science Bulletin.

Peculiar morphology, geometry, and local context of the glass globules, collectively, are consistent with being anorthositic impact glasses.
As the first discovery of translucent and macroscopic glass globules on the Moon, the study predicts that such globules should be abundant across lunar highland. It also provides promising sampling targets to reveal early impact history of the Moon.
The cube-like object was sighted on the horizon, around 80 metres from its location. It triggered new speculation over what it could be.
Solar-powered Yutu, called as “Jade Rabbit” in Chinese, will cover a distance of 80 metres in two to three lunar days.

Glass isn’t uncommon on the Moon. Glass forms when silicate material is subjected to high temperature. Silicate material and high temperature are readily available on the Moon. There was extensive volcanism in the lunar past, which in turn lead to the formation of volcanic glass. Furthermore, impacts from smaller objects like meteorites also generate intense heat, which led to formation of glass. About Yutu Yutu-2 is a robotic lunar rover component of Chang’e 4 mission to the Moon, by CNSA. It was launched on December 7, 2018. The rover entered lunar orbit on December 12, 2018 before its first soft landing on far side of the Moon on January 3, 2019. It is currently operational as most long-lived lunar rover. It is the first lunar rover to traverse the far side of the Moon. It is operating in Von Karman Crater in South Pole-Aitken Basin. As of January 2022, it has travelled a distance of around 1,000 metres along the Moon’s surface. China National Space Administration (CNSA) CNSA is the government agency of China, which is responsible for international space cooperation and civil space administration. It organizes or leads foreign exchanges and cooperation in aerospace field. It works under ‘Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’. It is headquartered in Haidian District, Beijing.