Hurricane Sally

IN NEWS

• Hurricane Sally moved slowly closer to the U.S. Gulf Coast, threatening historic floods as rain and storm-force winds started lashing the shore, and governors of four states urged people to flee the coastline.

Its Effect

• Sally could hit the Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi coasts causing massive flash flooding and storm surges of up to 7 feet (2 meters) in some spots.
• Its languid pace recalls 2017`s Hurricane Harvey, which dumped several feet of rain over a period of days on the Houston area, causing major damage.
• More than 2 feet of rain was expected in some areas, with "extreme life-threatening flash flooding likely through Wednesday," the National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecaster said.
• While Sally`s winds decreased to 80 mph (130 kpm) at 7 p.m.(2400 GMT), it was moving at a glacial pace of two mph. Sally was 75 miles (135 km) south of Mobile, Alabama, and spreading tropical-storm-force winds onshore.
• Sally will slow even more after landfall, causing Atlanta to see as much as 6 inches (15 cm) of rain through September 18 .
• It’s going to be a catastrophic flooding event for much of the south-eastern United States, with Mobile to the western part of the Florida Panhandle taking the brunt of the storm.

STORM-SURGE RISK

• Nearly 11,000 homes are at risk of storm surge in the larger coastal cities in Alabama and Mississippi, according to estimates from property data and analytics firm CoreLogic.
• Steady winds and bands of rain had started to arrive in Gulf Shores, Alabama.
• President Donald Trump made emergency declarations for Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, which help coordinate disaster relief.
• Ports, schools, and businesses closed along the coast. The U.S. Coast Guard restricted travel on the lower Mississippi River from New Orleans to the Gulf and closed the ports of Pascagoula and Gulfport, Mississippi, and Mobile.
• Energy companies buttoned up or halted oil refineries and pulled workers from offshore oil and gas production platforms. More than a quarter of U.S. offshore oil production was shut.

About Naming

• Sally is the 18th named storm in the Atlantic this year and will be the eighth tropical storm or hurricane to hit the United States - something "very rare if not a record", said Dan Kottlowski, senior meteorologist at AccuWeather, noting that accurate data on historic tropical storms can be elusive.
• The NHC is tracking four named storms in the Atlantic basin.

Homoeopathy Bill and National Commission for Indian System of Medicine Bill, 2020 SCHEME

Why in NEWS?

• Recently it has been seen that one bright spot in this turbulent and challenging year has been the record procurement of MFPs under the MSP for MFP Scheme in 16 states which has now touched Rs. 148.12 crores.

ABOUT

• This is the highest-ever in terms of the number of MFPs, the total value of procurement and the number of states involved, since the implementation of the scheme.
• With this, the total procurement for the year (both Government and private trade) crossed more than Rs3000 crores, proving to be a much needed panacea in these distressing times of the Covid-19 pandemic which has disrupted lives and livelihoods of tribal people.
• Over the last few months since April 2020, with the Government push and the Van Dhan scheme proving to be a catalyst and active participation from the States, the Guidelines for the Scheme for ‘Mechanism for Marketing of Minor Forest Produce (MFP) through Minimum Support Price (MSP) & Development of Value Chain for MFP’ initiated to provide MSP to gatherers of forest produce and introducing value addition and marketing through tribal groups and clusters has taken firm roots across the country and found widespread acceptance.
• Among the States, Chhattisgarh has taken the lead by procuring 46,857 Metric tonnes of Minor Forest Produces worth a whopping Rs 106.53 crores. Odisha and Gujarat follow with a procurement of 14391.23 MTs of MFPs worth Rs 30.41 crores and 772.97 MTs of MFPs worth Rs 3.41 crores respectively. MSP
• Minimum Support Price (MSP) is a form of market intervention by the Government of India to insure agricultural producers against any sharp fall in farm prices. The minimum support prices are announced by the Government of India at the beginning of the sowing season for certain crops on the basis of the recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP).

CONCLUSION

• The unprecedented circumstances caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic threw up challenges and resulted in a severe crisis among the tribal population. Unemployment among youth, reverse migration of tribals threatened to throw the entire tribal economy off track. It is in such a scenario that the MSP for MFP presented an opportunity to all the States.
• The successful implementation of the Van DhanYojana across the 22 States involving 3.6 lakh tribal beneficiaries and continuous engagement & on-boarding of the States by TRIFED has invariably acted as a catalyst for putting theMSP for MFP Scheme on the right track. 2020.

Department of Science & Technology is having three Binational Centres

Why in NEWS?

• Presently the Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India is having three binational Centres namely Indo- French Centre for Promotional of Advanced Research (IFCPAR) established with France in 1987, Indo-US Science & Technology Forum (IUSSTF) established in2000 with USA and Indo-German Science & Technology Centre (IGSTC) established in 2010under inter-governmental agreements.

ABOUT

INDO-US SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY FORUM:

• Phase II of Joint Clean Energy Research and Development Centre (JCERDC)
• Research Initiative for Real-time River Water and Air Quality Monitoring (WAQM)Program
• Indo-US Fellowship for Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine (WISTEMM)

INDO-GERMAN SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY CENTRE IGSTC-CONNECT PLUS PROGRAMME

• Under the JCERDC Phase II program, the “UI-ASSIST: U.S.-India collaborative for smart disribution System with Storage” project co-led by the Indian Institute of Technology,Kanpur and Washington State University, Pullman was awarded in September 2017.
• The project seeks to address critical issues related to adoption and deployment of smart grid concepts along with Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) including storage in distribution network for its efficient and reliable operation.
• Government of India and Department of Energy (DOE) of the United States of America has each allocated $1.5 million (INR 10.2 crores) annually for the consortia over the period of performance (5 years).
• Recognizing the importance of developing online River Water and Air Quality Monitoring (WAQM) systems, Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India and Intel collaborated to jointly initiate the Research Initiative for Real-time River Water and Air Quality Monitoring Program. Four projects were identified for award in 2017-18. Of these, two have been funded under ‘Air’ and ‘Water’ Quality Monitoring categories respectively.
• The “Indo-US fellowship for women in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (wistemm)” is a fellowship program, conceptualized by itself in partnership with the department of science & technology (dst), to provide opportunities to bright Indian women students and scientists for capacity building, gain exposure and access to excellent research facilities in US. academia and labs.
• Since the year 2017, two calls have been announced and through the program, 40 young women researchers/scientists/technologists have undertaken research at premier us institutes/universities and labs for duration between 3-6months in front-line areas of science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine.

Namami Gange Yojana and AMRUT Yojana

IN NEWS

• Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi inaugurated various projects under 'Namami Gange' Yojana and 'AMRUT' Yojana in Bihar.

ABOUT

• Four schemes inaugurated on 15 th September,2020 includes sewerage treatment plants at Beur and Karam-Leechak in Patna city, as well as water-related projects in Siwan and Chhapra under the 'AMRUT' Yojana.
• Apart from this, foundation stones were laid for water supply projects in Munger and Jamalpur and River Front Development Scheme under Namami Gange in Muzaffarpur.

Namami Gange Yojana

• It is an Integrated Conservation Mission, approved as a ‘Flagship Programme’ by the Union Government in June 2014 to accomplish the twin objectives of effective abatement of pollution and conservation and rejuvenation of National River Ganga.
• It is being operated under the Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Ministry of Jal Shakti.
• Government of India is supplementing the efforts of the state governments in addressing the pollution of river Ganga by providing financial assistance to the states.
• The program is being implemented by the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) (set in 2016; which replaced the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NRGBA)), and its state counterpart organizations i.e., State Program Management Groups (SPMGs).
• NMCG endeavours to deploy best available knowledge and resources across the world for Ganga rejuvenation. Clean Ganga has been a perennial attraction for many international countries that have expertise in river rejuvenation.

Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT)

• It was launched in June 2015 by PM Narendra Modi under the Government of India.
• The AMRUT scheme is an initiative to provide basic civic amenities to the urban areas to improve the quality of life with major focus to the poor and the disadvantaged.
• The Mission will focus on the following areas:

• Water Supply
• Sewerage and septage management
• Storm Water Drainage to reduce flooding
• Non-motorized Urban Transport
• Green space/parks