‘Nano Urea (Liquid) Plant’
Why in News
• The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, addressed the ‘Sahakar Se Prosperity’ conference in Gandhinagar, the capital of Gujarat. Prime Minister Modi also inaugurated the world’s first ‘Nano Urea (Liquid) Plant’ at IFFCO’s Kalol unit.
Key point
• There was a demand of the people associated with the cooperative sector in the country for a long time that a separate ministry should be created for cooperatives in the central government. And the first cooperative ministry was created.
• With the formation of the ministry, many steps were taken in this year’s budget. The country’s cooperative sugar mills had a problem for many years that they were taxed on transferring more profits to farmers.
• In this budget, farmers have benefited more than Rs. 8,000 crore by abolishing that system. Apart from this, the surcharge on all the cooperative units has been reduced from 12 percent to seven percent.
Benefit:
• Nano urea liquid form has a lot of advantages. With this, our land, water and air will not be polluted, the health of the farmers will also be safe and it will be very easy to carry it which will not require any kind of transportation and also save a lot of labor.
• The cooperative movement of Gujarat is considered a successful model for cooperatives across the country and Gujarat has worked to preserve the spirit of cooperatives.
• There are very few states in the country where cooperatives run from PACS to APEX in a good manner, according to principles and with transparency, Gujarat is included in them.
• From the time of independence, Sardar Patel and Morarji Desai started the cooperative movement under the leadership of Gandhiji on the basis of two pillars of Swadeshi and self-reliance and later many activists from Tribhuvandas Patel and Baikunthbhai Mehta joined it. He spent his whole life in strengthening the cooperative and the seed sown by him is standing in front of the country and the world today as a banyan tree.
Achievements
• Co-operative banks were not recognized under the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust, but the Government of India decided that all the schemes of the Credit Guarantee Fund would be brought to the bottom through cooperative banks.
• Government of India and NABARD are going to work together for computerization of more than 65,000 PACS (PACS) across the country.
• The Government of India has also sought suggestions for making a new cooperative policy and the government is also working to make PACS multipurpose.
• The Government of India is also going to make a very big data bank of all the units of the cooperative. There is currently no system for marketing organic agricultural products, but the Government of India has taken an initiative under the aegis of Amul.
• The government is also going to amend the Multi State Cooperative Societies Act. After the creation of the Ministry of Cooperation, the changes that will come from this new beginning will also bring transparency in our recruitment, procurement and audit system etc.
• This will increase the credibility of the cooperative movement among the people of the country and the cooperative movement will be ready to take a new life and contribute in realizing the dream of 5 trillion dollar economy of Modi ji.
Jal Jeevan Mission
Why in News
• In line with the vision of the Prime Minister to provide safe drinking water to every rural household, the country has achieved a major milestone by reaching 50 per cent of rural households with tap water.
Key point
• Goa, Telangana, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Puducherry and Haryana have already made significant achievements by reaching 100% household tap water.
• Punjab, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Bihar have more than 90 percent coverage and are making rapid progress towards achieving ‘Har Ghar Jal’ status.
Objective of Jal Jeevan Mission
• The Jal Jeevan Mission aims at empowering Panchayati Raj Institutions and communities by involving them in water supply schemes from the very beginning, to achieve “Gram Swaraj” – the dream of Mahatma Gandhi.
• More than 9.59 crore rural households residing in States/UTs are getting water in their premises. These families are now freed from the age-old labor of traveling long distances in the scorching heat, rain and snow in search of water.
• ‘Har Ghar Jal’ is a flagship program of the Central Government, implemented by the Jal Jeevan Mission under the Ministry of Jal Shakti in partnership with States/UTs to ensure every rural household has a tap water connection by 2024. Can you
• At the time of the launch of Jal Jeevan Mission in 2019, only 3.23 crore households i.e. 17 percent of the rural population had access to drinking water through taps.
• The burden of arranging water for daily household needs mostly falls on women and young girls. The very low school attendance of girls in summer is a sufficient basis to prove that because of the increasing water requirements, they had to go to fetch water several times.
• After the launch of Jal Jeevan Mission and increased access to tap water connections in their campuses, considerable improvement has been seen in this regard.
• As of May 27, 2022, 108 districts, 1,222 blocks, 71,667 gram panchayats and 1,51,171 villages have become “Har Ghar Jal”, with drinking water provided through taps to all rural households.
• Under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), Panchayats are assisted by the State Government through community engagement, capacity building of water committees and Support Agencies (ISAs) in implementing O&M activities.
Way forward:
• This year as the country celebrates ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’, special Gram Sabhas are being convened across the country to discuss and deliberate on issues related to drinking water to achieve the goal of ‘Wash Enlightened Village’.
• The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, has addressed and interacted with Sarpanchs and members of water committees on several occasions in the past, prompting them to take up the responsibility of the program, as they are the mainstay of water supply created under ‘Har Ghar Jal’. are the ultimate custodians of the framework.
‘Amrit Sarovar Campaign’
why in News
• The Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Shri Nitin Gadkari dedicated 20 Amrit Sarovars to the nation at Akola, Maharashtra.
Key point
• 20 fully prepared reservoirs have been declared as part of Amrit Sarovar Abhiyan today. The water storage capacity of these 20 reservoirs is 1276 TCM.
‘Amrit Sarovar Campaign’
• It has been decided to rejuvenate and develop around 50,000 Amrit Sarovars across the country by 15th August 2023 under the ‘Amrit Sarovar Abhiyan’ announced by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, which will change the picture of water conservation and reservoirs across the country.
• In this context, at least 75 Amrit Sarovars will be rejuvenated in each district.
• After successful use of Buldhana pattern in Maharashtra, more than 500 reservoirs, 270 farm ponds have been rejuvenated by 2022 under Amrit Sarovar Abhiyan resulting in creation of additional water storage capacity of 34,000 TCM without any expenditure in the state .
• Shri Gadkari said that based on the success of the pioneering project of water conservation, Buldhana Pattern, through the improvement of highways related to Amravati-Akola National Highway 53, the work of deepening and rejuvenation of water bodies is being done free of cost. .
• The soil, silt and other things extracted from these reservoirs are being used for the work of National Highways.
• Through this model plan, 34 ponds/lakes are planned to be constructed in PKV and MAFSU campuses in which 2468 TCM reservoirs are proposed out of these 20 lakes have been completed and 9 lakes are under construction while 5 lakes are under construction. The construction will be started soon.
• Initially, the irrigation potential here was 150 hectares, but after the creation of these reservoirs, it has increased to 663 hectares.
• After the construction of the proposed 34 reservoirs, this irrigation potential will increase to 2468 hectares. He had earlier said that one kharif crop was taken out in the campus, after this project now more than one crop can be taken.
• This model of Amrit Sarovar should be used in all drought affected areas and agricultural universities of the country.
• A total of 71 agricultural universities across the country can benefit from this. He called upon all the ministers of the state and the country to visit these Amrit Sarovar projects of Panjabrao Deshmukh University and try to create such projects in their area.
Hindi Journalism Day
• Why in News
• Hindi Journalism Day is celebrated every year on 30 May.
• Key point
• The main reason for celebrating it is that on this day in the year 1826, the first Hindi language newspaper ‘Udant Martand’ started being published.
• It was published from the then city of Calcutta and was started by Pandit Jugal Kishore Shukla.
• Pandit Jugal Kishore Shukla, a Kanpur-born lawyer by profession, was its editor. It was Pandit Jugal Kishore Shukla who started journalism in India.
Udant Martand
• Prior to this, the publisher and editor Pandit Jugal Kishore Shukla has a huge place in the world of Hindi journalism.
• Pandit Jugal Kishore Shukla started a weekly newspaper named “Udant Martand” from Calcutta on 30 May 1826. Hindi journalism had to face many challenges from the beginning.
• This newspaper was published every Tuesday in book format. Only 79 issues of this newspaper could be published. This newspaper started on 30 May 1826 and finally closed on 4 December 1827.
• The main reason for this was financial problems. According to historians, the company government had given the facility of postal etc. to the letters of the missionaries, but “Udant Martand” did not get this facility. The reason for this was the impeccable behavior of this newspaper.
• 500 copies of the first issue of ‘Udant Martand’ were printed. However, at that time this newspaper did not get many readers. Being a Hindi newspaper, its readership in Kolkata was negligible, so it had to be sent to other states by post.
• The government had not even given postal facility to this newspaper. Due to this the newspaper had to face a lot of troubles.