Centre accords ST status to 4 new tribes
GS Paper 2: Indian Constitution—Historical Underpinnings, Evolution, Features, Amendments, Significant Provisions and Basic Structure.
Important For:
Prelims Exam: Tribes in news
Why in News
The Union Cabinet under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the addition of four tribes to the list of Scheduled Tribes.
What are the newly added tribes?
- Hatti tribe in the Trans-Giri area of Sirmour district in Himachal Pradesh.
- Narikoravan and Kurivikkaran hill tribes of Tamil Nadu.
- Binjhia tribe in Chhattisgarh, who were listed as ST in Jharkhand and Odisha but not in Chhattisgarh.
What are the other decisions taken?
- The Cabinet approved a proposal to bring the Gond community residing in 13 districts of Uttar Pradesh, under the ST list from the Scheduled Caste list.
- The Cabinet approved ‘Betta-Kuruba’ as a synonym for the Kadu Kuruba tribe In Karnataka.
- In Chhattisgarh, the Cabinet approved synonyms for tribes like the Bharia (variations added include Bhumia and Bhuyian), Gadhwa (Gadwa), Dhanwar (Dhanawar, Dhanuwar), Nagesia (Nagasia, Kisan), and Pondh (Pond), among others.
Definition of Scheduled Tribes
The tribal communities in India have been recognized by the Indian Constitution under ‘Schedule 5’ of the constitution.
- Article 366 (25) defined scheduled tribes as “such tribes or tribal communities or parts of or groups within such tribes or tribal communities as are deemed under Article 342 to be Scheduled Tribes for the purposes of this constitution”.
- Article 342 prescribes procedure to be followed in the matter of specification of scheduled tribes.
Article 342:
- Article 342 deals with the provisions related to Scheduled Tribes. It states that the President may, with respect to any State or Union territory, and where it is a state, after consultation with the Governor thereof by public notification, specify the tribes or tribal communities or parts of or groups within tribes or tribal communities which shall, for the purposes of this constitution, is deemed to be scheduled tribes in relation to that State or Union Territory, as the case may be.
- Parliament may by law include in or exclude from the list of Scheduled tribes specified in a notification issued under clause (1) any tribe or tribal community or part of or group within any tribe or tribal community, but save as aforesaid, a notification issued under the said clause shall not be varied by any subsequent notification.
- Thus, the first specification of Scheduled Tribes in relation to a particular State/ Union Territory is by a notified order of the President, after consultation with the State governments concerned.
- These orders can be modified subsequently only through an Act of Parliament.
‘EWS quota an affront to equal society’
GS Paper 2: Indian Constitution—Historical Underpinnings, Evolution, Features, Amendments, Significant Provisions and Basic Structure.
Important For:
Prelims Exam: Reservation provisions
Mains Exam: Is EWS reservation violative of Basic structure? What are the issues associated with it?
Why in News
A CJI led Supreme Court bench is hearing petitions challenging the 103rd Constitutional Amendment Act which provided reservation to Economically weaker sections (EWS).
What have the petitioners argued?
- Against the constitutional goal: The 10% reservation of seats and jobs in government educational institutions and offices for economically weaker forward classes is an affront to the constitutional goal of an egalitarian and casteless society.
Condemning the members of backward classes: By excluding Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes from claiming benefits under the 10% quota for ‘economically weaker sections’ or EWS, the government, through its 103rd Constitutional Amendment, has condemned the members of backward classes for belonging to the religions or caste they are born into.
- The backward classes, who were given the fundamental right to claim reservation, are disqualified from even making an application for admission or applying for a job under the 10% quota.
- A hurdle in breaking Caste shackles: The EWS quota stops people from freeing themselves from the shackles of their caste and religion.
- Even people who do not see themselves as SC/ST/OBC are compelled to identify themselves on the basis of their castes and claim quota from within the 50% available to them.
- By doling out 10% reservation to forward classes, took away the 10% from the population.
- An arbitrary move: The EWS quota was “manifestly arbitrary” as it violated the tenet of equal opportunity and equal rights before the laws.
- Under the EWS quota, without prescribing any criteria, anyone can be given 10 seats in a medical college.
- Securing social justice not economical: A Senior advocate argued that the concept of reservation was meant to achieve social justice and not economical justice. He also argued, “Reservation was meant as a cure for historical discrimination impeding access of backward classes to public administration and education… Poverty as an exclusive test cannot be the basis of reservation”.
BackToBasics: EWS Reservation
It was added to the Constitution through 103rd Constitutional Amendment Act which amended the Articles 15 and 16, more precisely Art 15(6) & 16(6) were added.
- It is for economic reservation in jobs and admissions in education institutes for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS).
- It was enacted to promote the welfare of the Economically weaker section not covered by the 50% reservation policy for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBCs).
- It enables both Centre and the states to provide reservation to the EWS of society.
** For further details on EWS, go through our 7th September’s DNA:
NASA’s DART Mission
GS Paper 3: Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, Robotics, Nano-technology, Bio-technology and issues relating to Intellectual Property Rights.
Important For:
Prelims Exam: Dart Mission
Why in News
NASA is ready to make an attempt to deflect an asteroid via Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) on September 26.
About the DART Mission
- Launched in November 2021
- DART Stands for: Double Asteroid Redirection Test
- The mission is the first-ever space probe to demonstrate asteroid deflection by a kinetic impactor.
- DART will provide important data to help better prepare for an asteroid that might pose an impact hazard to Earth
- The test will show a spacecraft can autonomously navigate to a target asteroid and intentionally collide with it to change the asteroid’s motion
- It will strike the asteroid at a very high speed of nearly 24,000 kmph, with an aim to slow down the asteroid slightly and change its course in another direction.
Asteroids
Asteroids, sometimes called minor planets, are rocky, airless remnants left over from the early formation of our solar system about 4.6 billion years ago.
The current known asteroid count is: 1,113,527
Binary Asteroid System
The binary asteroid system consists of Didymos and its moonlet Dimorphos.
What is Didymos?
- According to Space.com, it’s a pair of asteroids together-Didymos and Dimorphos. The latter one orbits Didymos.
- It rotates around its larger twin every 11 hours and 55 minutes.
What will the DART spacecraft do?
- The asteroid mission is to change their trajectory.
- DART will re-route the asteroid by using kinetic impact.
- The spacecraft is designed to smash into the smaller member of the binary asteroid system.
Significance of the mission
- It’s a part of NASA’s larger planetary defense strategy to safeguard Earth in case of an asteroid that is actually posing threat to Earth.
Role of ESA’s HERA mission
Hera is a planetary defense mission under development at the European Space Agency (ESA) – launching in October 2024. Its objectives are to investigate the Didymos binary asteroid, including its internal properties, and to measure in great detail the outcome of NASA’s DART mission kinetic impactor test.
- In the world’s first test of asteroid deflection, Hera will perform a detailed post-impact survey of the target asteroid, Dimorphos – the orbiting Moonlet in a binary asteroid system known as Didymos.
- Once NASA’s DART mission has impacted the moonlet, Hera will turn the grand-scale experiment into a well-understood and repeatable planetary defence technique.
India’s first: ISRO launches high-speed satellite-based internet service
GS Paper 3: Achievements of Indians in Science & Technology; Indigenization of Technology and Developing New Technology.
Important For:
Prelims Exam: High Throughput Satellite (HTS) broadband internet service, BharatNet Project
Mains Exam: Right to Internet, Digital Literacy
Why in News
Satellite internet provider Hughes Communications India has partnered with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) to bring the country’s first satellite internet service.
Internet service to connect the remotest corners of India
- Bringing a new dawn in the internet services of the country, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) along with Hughes Communications India (HCI) has officially launched its first High Throughput Satellite (HTS) broadband internet service to connect the remotest corners of India from mighty Himalayas of Leh and Ladakh to dense forests of the Northeast.
What are the advantages?
- The new HTS service will play a pivotal role in extending broadband connectivity to the remotest locations, difficult to reach otherwise,
- It’ll create economic opportunities to boost the local economy.
- It’ll connect enterprise and government networks.
- It’ll provide service supports applications such as Wi-Fi hotspots for community internet access, backhaul to extend mobile network reach, and satellite internet for small businesses.
- The satellite boosts the broadband connectivity to rural and inaccessible Gram Panchayats in the country coming under the Bharat Net Project.
- This new broadband service will address:
- connectivity gaps,
- improve network performance, and
- support the high bandwidth requirements of government organizations, financial companies, cellular operators, mining and energy companies, among other businesses, large and small, helping to connect India to a limitless future.”
Public Private partnership in Space ecosystem
The Government of India has been making continuous efforts in the growing public-private partnership in country’s space ecosystem. ISRO is also expanding the ways to work with the private sector to help improve people’s lives and bridge the digital divide.
How it’ll work
The broadband satellite provider uses Ku-band capacity from ISRO’s GSAT-11 and GSAT-29 satellites to provide high-speed broadband service across India, including in the most remote regions beyond the reach of terrestrial networks.
Do you know?
GSAT-11 is India’s heaviest communication satellite
- ISRO’s heaviest and most-advanced high throughput communication satellite GSAT-11 was successfully launched from the Spaceport in French Guiana in December 2018.
BackToBasics: BharatNet Project
- BharatNet Project was originally launched in 2011 as the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) and renamed as Bharat-Net in 2015.
- It seeks to provide connectivity to 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats (GPs) through optical fiber.
- It is a flagship mission implemented by Bharat Broadband Network Ltd. (BBNL).
- The objective is to facilitate the delivery of e-governance, e-health, e-education, e-banking, Internet and other services to rural India.
- The project is a Centre-State collaborative project.
Vision of the project:
- To establish a highly scalable network infrastructure accessible on a non-discriminatory basis.
- To provide on demand, affordable broadband connectivity of 2 Mbps to 20 Mbps for all households and on demand capacity to all institutions.
- To realize the vision of Digital India, in partnership with States and the private sector.
National Logistics Policy
GS Paper 3: Indian Economy and issues relating to Planning, Mobilization of Resources, Growth, Development and Employment.
Important For:
Prelims Exam: Provisions of National logistic Policy
Mains Exam: NLP and how it’ll help economy
Why in News
The government will announce the National Logistics Policy (NLP) on 17 September, aiming to bring down logistics costs and address challenges plaguing importers and exporters.
India: Lagging behind
India’s logistics sector is largely unorganized and fragmented, which is why the country’s logistics costs are as high as 14-15% of the GDP, against 7-8% in developed nations such as the Singapore and the US, who leverage it to boost exports.
What does the policy aim to achieve?
- The NLP aims to bring down India’s logistics cost to 8% in the next five years. As per some estimates, about 16% of India’s agriproduction is wasted at different stages of the supply chain.
- The policy seeks to limit losses incurred while transporting perishable commodities to under 5% by improving the warehouse facilities and cold chain efficiency.
What role will technology play?
- The NLP will aim to harness technologies such as AI and blockchain.
- It aims to create a data analytics center for driving greater transparency and continuous monitoring of key logistics metrics.
- Currently, several certifications are required, slowing the entire process.
- Moreover, due to factors such as limited capacity and availability of warehouses, the cost of transaction increases.
- Under NLP, a single window portal will be created, where service providers such as warehousing providers, shipping experts, transporters, customs brokers, and various governmental agencies will be unified.
Will it boost cooperation between ministries?
- Currently, the logistics value chain is managed by several ministries—road transport and highways, shipping, railways, and civil aviation.
- Agencies like the Central Drug Standard Control Organization and the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India provide clearances.
- The NLP could enhance their integration at the central level.
What about reducing the carbon footprint?
- The draft logistics policy lays emphasis on the shift to more energy-efficient means of transportation, as well as the use of greener fuels which could reduce the supply chain’s carbon footprint.
- Moreover, the draft policy, released earlier, emphasized creating regulations for controlling vehicular noise, emissions, and wastage.
- The new logistics policy also aims to incorporate green principles in the functioning of warehouses which contribute to nearly 10% of the logistics costs.
Will it change India’s commodity transport?
- The proposed policy aims to focus on the transport of crucial commodities such as coal, steel, iron ore, food grains, steel, cement, fruits and vegetables.
- The current logistical network for transporting them is mainly confined to regional clusters.
- The NLP could help establish a link between the place of origin, and destination place and integrate the supply on a national level.
- The draft also proposes identification of the right mode of transport for each of these commodities to minimize losses during transport.
Centre accords ST status to 4 new tribes
GS Paper 2: Indian Constitution—Historical Underpinnings, Evolution, Features, Amendments, Significant Provisions and Basic Structure.
Important For:
Prelims Exam: Tribes in news
Why in News
The Union Cabinet under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the addition of four tribes to the list of Scheduled Tribes.
What are the newly added tribes?
- Hatti tribe in the Trans-Giri area of Sirmour district in Himachal Pradesh.
- Narikoravan and Kurivikkaran hill tribes of Tamil Nadu.
- Binjhia tribe in Chhattisgarh, who were listed as ST in Jharkhand and Odisha but not in Chhattisgarh.
What are the other decisions taken?
- The Cabinet approved a proposal to bring the Gond community residing in 13 districts of Uttar Pradesh, under the ST list from the Scheduled Caste list.
- The Cabinet approved ‘Betta-Kuruba’ as a synonym for the Kadu Kuruba tribe In Karnataka.
- In Chhattisgarh, the Cabinet approved synonyms for tribes like the Bharia (variations added include Bhumia and Bhuyian), Gadhwa (Gadwa), Dhanwar (Dhanawar, Dhanuwar), Nagesia (Nagasia, Kisan), and Pondh (Pond), among others.
Definition of Scheduled Tribes
The tribal communities in India have been recognized by the Indian Constitution under ‘Schedule 5’ of the constitution.
- Article 366 (25) defined scheduled tribes as “such tribes or tribal communities or parts of or groups within such tribes or tribal communities as are deemed under Article 342 to be Scheduled Tribes for the purposes of this constitution”.
- Article 342 prescribes procedure to be followed in the matter of specification of scheduled tribes.
Article 342:
- Article 342 deals with the provisions related to Scheduled Tribes. It states that the President may, with respect to any State or Union territory, and where it is a state, after consultation with the Governor thereof by public notification, specify the tribes or tribal communities or parts of or groups within tribes or tribal communities which shall, for the purposes of this constitution, is deemed to be scheduled tribes in relation to that State or Union Territory, as the case may be.
- Parliament may by law include in or exclude from the list of Scheduled tribes specified in a notification issued under clause (1) any tribe or tribal community or part of or group within any tribe or tribal community, but save as aforesaid, a notification issued under the said clause shall not be varied by any subsequent notification.
- Thus, the first specification of Scheduled Tribes in relation to a particular State/ Union Territory is by a notified order of the President, after consultation with the State governments concerned.
- These orders can be modified subsequently only through an Act of Parliament.
‘EWS quota an affront to equal society’
GS Paper 2: Indian Constitution—Historical Underpinnings, Evolution, Features, Amendments, Significant Provisions and Basic Structure.
Important For:
Prelims Exam: Reservation provisions
Mains Exam: Is EWS reservation violative of Basic structure? What are the issues associated with it?
Why in News
A CJI led Supreme Court bench is hearing petitions challenging the 103rd Constitutional Amendment Act which provided reservation to Economically weaker sections (EWS).
What have the petitioners argued?
- Against the constitutional goal: The 10% reservation of seats and jobs in government educational institutions and offices for economically weaker forward classes is an affront to the constitutional goal of an egalitarian and casteless society.
Condemning the members of backward classes: By excluding Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes from claiming benefits under the 10% quota for ‘economically weaker sections’ or EWS, the government, through its 103rd Constitutional Amendment, has condemned the members of backward classes for belonging to the religions or caste they are born into.
- The backward classes, who were given the fundamental right to claim reservation, are disqualified from even making an application for admission or applying for a job under the 10% quota.
- A hurdle in breaking Caste shackles: The EWS quota stops people from freeing themselves from the shackles of their caste and religion.
- Even people who do not see themselves as SC/ST/OBC are compelled to identify themselves on the basis of their castes and claim quota from within the 50% available to them.
- By doling out 10% reservation to forward classes, took away the 10% from the population.
- An arbitrary move: The EWS quota was “manifestly arbitrary” as it violated the tenet of equal opportunity and equal rights before the laws.
- Under the EWS quota, without prescribing any criteria, anyone can be given 10 seats in a medical college.
- Securing social justice not economical: A Senior advocate argued that the concept of reservation was meant to achieve social justice and not economical justice. He also argued, “Reservation was meant as a cure for historical discrimination impeding access of backward classes to public administration and education… Poverty as an exclusive test cannot be the basis of reservation”.
BackToBasics: EWS Reservation
It was added to the Constitution through 103rd Constitutional Amendment Act which amended the Articles 15 and 16, more precisely Art 15(6) & 16(6) were added.
- It is for economic reservation in jobs and admissions in education institutes for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS).
- It was enacted to promote the welfare of the Economically weaker section not covered by the 50% reservation policy for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBCs).
- It enables both Centre and the states to provide reservation to the EWS of society.
** For further details on EWS, go through our 7th September’s DNA:
NASA’s DART Mission
GS Paper 3: Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, Robotics, Nano-technology, Bio-technology and issues relating to Intellectual Property Rights.
Important For:
Prelims Exam: Dart Mission
Why in News
NASA is ready to make an attempt to deflect an asteroid via Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) on September 26.
About the DART Mission
- Launched in November 2021
- DART Stands for: Double Asteroid Redirection Test
- The mission is the first-ever space probe to demonstrate asteroid deflection by a kinetic impactor.
- DART will provide important data to help better prepare for an asteroid that might pose an impact hazard to Earth
- The test will show a spacecraft can autonomously navigate to a target asteroid and intentionally collide with it to change the asteroid’s motion
- It will strike the asteroid at a very high speed of nearly 24,000 kmph, with an aim to slow down the asteroid slightly and change its course in another direction.
Asteroids
Asteroids, sometimes called minor planets, are rocky, airless remnants left over from the early formation of our solar system about 4.6 billion years ago.
The current known asteroid count is: 1,113,527
Binary Asteroid System
The binary asteroid system consists of Didymos and its moonlet Dimorphos.
What is Didymos?
- According to Space.com, it’s a pair of asteroids together-Didymos and Dimorphos. The latter one orbits Didymos.
- It rotates around its larger twin every 11 hours and 55 minutes.
What will the DART spacecraft do?
- The asteroid mission is to change their trajectory.
- DART will re-route the asteroid by using kinetic impact.
- The spacecraft is designed to smash into the smaller member of the binary asteroid system.
Significance of the mission
- It’s a part of NASA’s larger planetary defense strategy to safeguard Earth in case of an asteroid that is actually posing threat to Earth.
Role of ESA’s HERA mission
Hera is a planetary defense mission under development at the European Space Agency (ESA) – launching in October 2024. Its objectives are to investigate the Didymos binary asteroid, including its internal properties, and to measure in great detail the outcome of NASA’s DART mission kinetic impactor test.
- In the world’s first test of asteroid deflection, Hera will perform a detailed post-impact survey of the target asteroid, Dimorphos – the orbiting Moonlet in a binary asteroid system known as Didymos.
- Once NASA’s DART mission has impacted the moonlet, Hera will turn the grand-scale experiment into a well-understood and repeatable planetary defence technique.
India’s first: ISRO launches high-speed satellite-based internet service
GS Paper 3: Achievements of Indians in Science & Technology; Indigenization of Technology and Developing New Technology.
Important For:
Prelims Exam: High Throughput Satellite (HTS) broadband internet service, BharatNet Project
Mains Exam: Right to Internet, Digital Literacy
Why in News
Satellite internet provider Hughes Communications India has partnered with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) to bring the country’s first satellite internet service.
Internet service to connect the remotest corners of India
- Bringing a new dawn in the internet services of the country, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) along with Hughes Communications India (HCI) has officially launched its first High Throughput Satellite (HTS) broadband internet service to connect the remotest corners of India from mighty Himalayas of Leh and Ladakh to dense forests of the Northeast.
What are the advantages?
- The new HTS service will play a pivotal role in extending broadband connectivity to the remotest locations, difficult to reach otherwise,
- It’ll create economic opportunities to boost the local economy.
- It’ll connect enterprise and government networks.
- It’ll provide service supports applications such as Wi-Fi hotspots for community internet access, backhaul to extend mobile network reach, and satellite internet for small businesses.
- The satellite boosts the broadband connectivity to rural and inaccessible Gram Panchayats in the country coming under the Bharat Net Project.
- This new broadband service will address:
- connectivity gaps,
- improve network performance, and
- support the high bandwidth requirements of government organizations, financial companies, cellular operators, mining and energy companies, among other businesses, large and small, helping to connect India to a limitless future.”
Public Private partnership in Space ecosystem
The Government of India has been making continuous efforts in the growing public-private partnership in country’s space ecosystem. ISRO is also expanding the ways to work with the private sector to help improve people’s lives and bridge the digital divide.
How it’ll work
The broadband satellite provider uses Ku-band capacity from ISRO’s GSAT-11 and GSAT-29 satellites to provide high-speed broadband service across India, including in the most remote regions beyond the reach of terrestrial networks.
Do you know?
GSAT-11 is India’s heaviest communication satellite
- ISRO’s heaviest and most-advanced high throughput communication satellite GSAT-11 was successfully launched from the Spaceport in French Guiana in December 2018.
BackToBasics: BharatNet Project
- BharatNet Project was originally launched in 2011 as the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) and renamed as Bharat-Net in 2015.
- It seeks to provide connectivity to 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats (GPs) through optical fiber.
- It is a flagship mission implemented by Bharat Broadband Network Ltd. (BBNL).
- The objective is to facilitate the delivery of e-governance, e-health, e-education, e-banking, Internet and other services to rural India.
- The project is a Centre-State collaborative project.
Vision of the project:
- To establish a highly scalable network infrastructure accessible on a non-discriminatory basis.
- To provide on demand, affordable broadband connectivity of 2 Mbps to 20 Mbps for all households and on demand capacity to all institutions.
- To realize the vision of Digital India, in partnership with States and the private sector.
National Logistics Policy
GS Paper 3: Indian Economy and issues relating to Planning, Mobilization of Resources, Growth, Development and Employment.
Important For:
Prelims Exam: Provisions of National logistic Policy
Mains Exam: NLP and how it’ll help economy
Why in News
The government will announce the National Logistics Policy (NLP) on 17 September, aiming to bring down logistics costs and address challenges plaguing importers and exporters.
India: Lagging behind
India’s logistics sector is largely unorganized and fragmented, which is why the country’s logistics costs are as high as 14-15% of the GDP, against 7-8% in developed nations such as the Singapore and the US, who leverage it to boost exports.
What does the policy aim to achieve?
- The NLP aims to bring down India’s logistics cost to 8% in the next five years. As per some estimates, about 16% of India’s agriproduction is wasted at different stages of the supply chain.
- The policy seeks to limit losses incurred while transporting perishable commodities to under 5% by improving the warehouse facilities and cold chain efficiency.
What role will technology play?
- The NLP will aim to harness technologies such as AI and blockchain.
- It aims to create a data analytics center for driving greater transparency and continuous monitoring of key logistics metrics.
- Currently, several certifications are required, slowing the entire process.
- Moreover, due to factors such as limited capacity and availability of warehouses, the cost of transaction increases.
- Under NLP, a single window portal will be created, where service providers such as warehousing providers, shipping experts, transporters, customs brokers, and various governmental agencies will be unified.
Will it boost cooperation between ministries?
- Currently, the logistics value chain is managed by several ministries—road transport and highways, shipping, railways, and civil aviation.
- Agencies like the Central Drug Standard Control Organization and the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India provide clearances.
- The NLP could enhance their integration at the central level.
What about reducing the carbon footprint?
- The draft logistics policy lays emphasis on the shift to more energy-efficient means of transportation, as well as the use of greener fuels which could reduce the supply chain’s carbon footprint.
- Moreover, the draft policy, released earlier, emphasized creating regulations for controlling vehicular noise, emissions, and wastage.
- The new logistics policy also aims to incorporate green principles in the functioning of warehouses which contribute to nearly 10% of the logistics costs.
Will it change India’s commodity transport?
- The proposed policy aims to focus on the transport of crucial commodities such as coal, steel, iron ore, food grains, steel, cement, fruits and vegetables.
- The current logistical network for transporting them is mainly confined to regional clusters.
- The NLP could help establish a link between the place of origin, and destination place and integrate the supply on a national level.
- The draft also proposes identification of the right mode of transport for each of these commodities to minimize losses during transport.
Centre accords ST status to 4 new tribes
GS Paper 2: Indian Constitution—Historical Underpinnings, Evolution, Features, Amendments, Significant Provisions and Basic Structure.
Important For:
Prelims Exam: Tribes in news
Why in News
The Union Cabinet under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the addition of four tribes to the list of Scheduled Tribes.
What are the newly added tribes?
- Hatti tribe in the Trans-Giri area of Sirmour district in Himachal Pradesh.
- Narikoravan and Kurivikkaran hill tribes of Tamil Nadu.
- Binjhia tribe in Chhattisgarh, who were listed as ST in Jharkhand and Odisha but not in Chhattisgarh.
What are the other decisions taken?
- The Cabinet approved a proposal to bring the Gond community residing in 13 districts of Uttar Pradesh, under the ST list from the Scheduled Caste list.
- The Cabinet approved ‘Betta-Kuruba’ as a synonym for the Kadu Kuruba tribe In Karnataka.
- In Chhattisgarh, the Cabinet approved synonyms for tribes like the Bharia (variations added include Bhumia and Bhuyian), Gadhwa (Gadwa), Dhanwar (Dhanawar, Dhanuwar), Nagesia (Nagasia, Kisan), and Pondh (Pond), among others.
Definition of Scheduled Tribes
The tribal communities in India have been recognized by the Indian Constitution under ‘Schedule 5’ of the constitution.
- Article 366 (25) defined scheduled tribes as “such tribes or tribal communities or parts of or groups within such tribes or tribal communities as are deemed under Article 342 to be Scheduled Tribes for the purposes of this constitution”.
- Article 342 prescribes procedure to be followed in the matter of specification of scheduled tribes.
Article 342:
- Article 342 deals with the provisions related to Scheduled Tribes. It states that the President may, with respect to any State or Union territory, and where it is a state, after consultation with the Governor thereof by public notification, specify the tribes or tribal communities or parts of or groups within tribes or tribal communities which shall, for the purposes of this constitution, is deemed to be scheduled tribes in relation to that State or Union Territory, as the case may be.
- Parliament may by law include in or exclude from the list of Scheduled tribes specified in a notification issued under clause (1) any tribe or tribal community or part of or group within any tribe or tribal community, but save as aforesaid, a notification issued under the said clause shall not be varied by any subsequent notification.
- Thus, the first specification of Scheduled Tribes in relation to a particular State/ Union Territory is by a notified order of the President, after consultation with the State governments concerned.
- These orders can be modified subsequently only through an Act of Parliament.
‘EWS quota an affront to equal society’
GS Paper 2: Indian Constitution—Historical Underpinnings, Evolution, Features, Amendments, Significant Provisions and Basic Structure.
Important For:
Prelims Exam: Reservation provisions
Mains Exam: Is EWS reservation violative of Basic structure? What are the issues associated with it?
Why in News
A CJI led Supreme Court bench is hearing petitions challenging the 103rd Constitutional Amendment Act which provided reservation to Economically weaker sections (EWS).
What have the petitioners argued?
- Against the constitutional goal: The 10% reservation of seats and jobs in government educational institutions and offices for economically weaker forward classes is an affront to the constitutional goal of an egalitarian and casteless society.
- Condemning the members of backward classes: By excluding Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes from claiming benefits under the 10% quota for ‘economically weaker sections’ or EWS, the government, through its 103rd Constitutional Amendment, has condemned the members of backward classes for belonging to the religions or caste they are born into.
- The backward classes, who were given the fundamental right to claim reservation, are disqualified from even making an application for admission or applying for a job under the 10% quota.
- A hurdle in breaking Caste shackles: The EWS quota stops people from freeing themselves from the shackles of their caste and religion.
- Even people who do not see themselves as SC/ST/OBC are compelled to identify themselves on the basis of their castes and claim quota from within the 50% available to them.
- By doling out 10% reservation to forward classes, took away the 10% from the population.
- An arbitrary move: The EWS quota was “manifestly arbitrary” as it violated the tenet of equal opportunity and equal rights before the laws.
- Under the EWS quota, without prescribing any criteria, anyone can be given 10 seats in a medical college.
- Securing social justice not economical: A Senior advocate argued that the concept of reservation was meant to achieve social justice and not economical justice. He also argued, “Reservation was meant as a cure for historical discrimination impeding access of backward classes to public administration and education… Poverty as an exclusive test cannot be the basis of reservation”.
BackToBasics: EWS Reservation
It was added to the Constitution through 103rd Constitutional Amendment Act which amended the Articles 15 and 16, more precisely Art 15(6) & 16(6) were added.
- It is for economic reservation in jobs and admissions in education institutes for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS).
- It was enacted to promote the welfare of the Economically weaker section not covered by the 50% reservation policy for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBCs).
- It enables both Centre and the states to provide reservation to the EWS of society.
** For further details on EWS, go through our 7th September’s DNA:
NASA’s DART Mission
GS Paper 3: Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, Robotics, Nano-technology, Bio-technology and issues relating to Intellectual Property Rights.
Important For:
Prelims Exam: Dart Mission
Why in News
NASA is ready to make an attempt to deflect an asteroid via Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) on September 26.
About the DART Mission
- Launched in November 2021
- DART Stands for: Double Asteroid Redirection Test
- The mission is the first-ever space probe to demonstrate asteroid deflection by a kinetic impactor.
- DART will provide important data to help better prepare for an asteroid that might pose an impact hazard to Earth
- The test will show a spacecraft can autonomously navigate to a target asteroid and intentionally collide with it to change the asteroid’s motion
- It will strike the asteroid at a very high speed of nearly 24,000 kmph, with an aim to slow down the asteroid slightly and change its course in another direction.
Asteroids
Asteroids, sometimes called minor planets, are rocky, airless remnants left over from the early formation of our solar system about 4.6 billion years ago.
The current known asteroid count is: 1,113,527
Binary Asteroid System
The binary asteroid system consists of Didymos and its moonlet Dimorphos.
What is Didymos?
- According to Space.com, it’s a pair of asteroids together-Didymos and Dimorphos. The latter one orbits Didymos.
- It rotates around its larger twin every 11 hours and 55 minutes.
What will the DART spacecraft do?
- The asteroid mission is to change their trajectory.
- DART will re-route the asteroid by using kinetic impact.
- The spacecraft is designed to smash into the smaller member of the binary asteroid system.
Significance of the mission
- It’s a part of NASA’s larger planetary defense strategy to safeguard Earth in case of an asteroid that is actually posing threat to Earth.
Role of ESA’s HERA mission
Hera is a planetary defense mission under development at the European Space Agency (ESA) – launching in October 2024. Its objectives are to investigate the Didymos binary asteroid, including its internal properties, and to measure in great detail the outcome of NASA’s DART mission kinetic impactor test.
- In the world’s first test of asteroid deflection, Hera will perform a detailed post-impact survey of the target asteroid, Dimorphos – the orbiting Moonlet in a binary asteroid system known as Didymos.
- Once NASA’s DART mission has impacted the moonlet, Hera will turn the grand-scale experiment into a well-understood and repeatable planetary defence technique.
India’s first: ISRO launches high-speed satellite-based internet service
GS Paper 3: Achievements of Indians in Science & Technology; Indigenization of Technology and Developing New Technology.
Important For:
Prelims Exam: High Throughput Satellite (HTS) broadband internet service, BharatNet Project
Mains Exam: Right to Internet, Digital Literacy
Why in News
Satellite internet provider Hughes Communications India has partnered with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) to bring the country’s first satellite internet service.
Internet service to connect the remotest corners of India
- Bringing a new dawn in the internet services of the country, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) along with Hughes Communications India (HCI) has officially launched its first High Throughput Satellite (HTS) broadband internet service to connect the remotest corners of India from mighty Himalayas of Leh and Ladakh to dense forests of the Northeast.
What are the advantages?
- The new HTS service will play a pivotal role in extending broadband connectivity to the remotest locations, difficult to reach otherwise,
- It’ll create economic opportunities to boost the local economy.
- It’ll connect enterprise and government networks.
- It’ll provide service supports applications such as Wi-Fi hotspots for community internet access, backhaul to extend mobile network reach, and satellite internet for small businesses.
- The satellite boosts the broadband connectivity to rural and inaccessible Gram Panchayats in the country coming under the Bharat Net Project.
- This new broadband service will address:
- connectivity gaps,
- improve network performance, and
- support the high bandwidth requirements of government organizations, financial companies, cellular operators, mining and energy companies, among other businesses, large and small, helping to connect India to a limitless future.”
Public Private partnership in Space ecosystem
The Government of India has been making continuous efforts in the growing public-private partnership in country’s space ecosystem. ISRO is also expanding the ways to work with the private sector to help improve people’s lives and bridge the digital divide.
How it’ll work
The broadband satellite provider uses Ku-band capacity from ISRO’s GSAT-11 and GSAT-29 satellites to provide high-speed broadband service across India, including in the most remote regions beyond the reach of terrestrial networks.
Do you know?
GSAT-11 is India’s heaviest communication satellite
- ISRO’s heaviest and most-advanced high throughput communication satellite GSAT-11 was successfully launched from the Spaceport in French Guiana in December 2018.
BackToBasics: BharatNet Project
- BharatNet Project was originally launched in 2011 as the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) and renamed as Bharat-Net in 2015.
- It seeks to provide connectivity to 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats (GPs) through optical fiber.
- It is a flagship mission implemented by Bharat Broadband Network Ltd. (BBNL).
- The objective is to facilitate the delivery of e-governance, e-health, e-education, e-banking, Internet and other services to rural India.
- The project is a Centre-State collaborative project.
Vision of the project:
- To establish a highly scalable network infrastructure accessible on a non-discriminatory basis.
- To provide on demand, affordable broadband connectivity of 2 Mbps to 20 Mbps for all households and on demand capacity to all institutions.
- To realize the vision of Digital India, in partnership with States and the private sector.
National Logistics Policy
GS Paper 3: Indian Economy and issues relating to Planning, Mobilization of Resources, Growth, Development and Employment.
Important For:
Prelims Exam: Provisions of National logistic Policy
Mains Exam: NLP and how it’ll help economy
Why in News
The government will announce the National Logistics Policy (NLP) on 17 September, aiming to bring down logistics costs and address challenges plaguing importers and exporters.
India: Lagging behind
India’s logistics sector is largely unorganized and fragmented, which is why the country’s logistics costs are as high as 14-15% of the GDP, against 7-8% in developed nations such as the Singapore and the US, who leverage it to boost exports.
What does the policy aim to achieve?
- The NLP aims to bring down India’s logistics cost to 8% in the next five years. As per some estimates, about 16% of India’s agriproduction is wasted at different stages of the supply chain.
- The policy seeks to limit losses incurred while transporting perishable commodities to under 5% by improving the warehouse facilities and cold chain efficiency.
What role will technology play?
- The NLP will aim to harness technologies such as AI and blockchain.
- It aims to create a data analytics center for driving greater transparency and continuous monitoring of key logistics metrics.
- Currently, several certifications are required, slowing the entire process.
- Moreover, due to factors such as limited capacity and availability of warehouses, the cost of transaction increases.
- Under NLP, a single window portal will be created, where service providers such as warehousing providers, shipping experts, transporters, customs brokers, and various governmental agencies will be unified.
Will it boost cooperation between ministries?
- Currently, the logistics value chain is managed by several ministries—road transport and highways, shipping, railways, and civil aviation.
- Agencies like the Central Drug Standard Control Organization and the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India provide clearances.
- The NLP could enhance their integration at the central level.
What about reducing the carbon footprint?
- The draft logistics policy lays emphasis on the shift to more energy-efficient means of transportation, as well as the use of greener fuels which could reduce the supply chain’s carbon footprint.
- Moreover, the draft policy, released earlier, emphasized creating regulations for controlling vehicular noise, emissions, and wastage.
- The new logistics policy also aims to incorporate green principles in the functioning of warehouses which contribute to nearly 10% of the logistics costs.
Will it change India’s commodity transport?
- The proposed policy aims to focus on the transport of crucial commodities such as coal, steel, iron ore, food grains, steel, cement, fruits and vegetables.
- The current logistical network for transporting them is mainly confined to regional clusters.
- The NLP could help establish a link between the place of origin, and destination place and integrate the supply on a national level.
- The draft also proposes identification of the right mode of transport for each of these commodities to minimize losses during transport.