Ministry of Coal Launched ‘Khanan Prahari’ Mobile App to Curb Illegal Mining
Ministry of Coal Launched
‘Khanan Prahari’ Mobile App to Curb Illegal Mining
Why In News
·
The
Government of India has launched a mobile app “KhananPrahari” and a web app Coal
Mine Surveillance and Management System (CMSMS) for reporting unauthorized coal
mining activities.
Key Points
·
The
Government of India has launched a mobile app “KhananPrahari” and a web app Coal
Mine Surveillance and Management System (CMSMS) for reporting unauthorized coal
mining activities so that monitoring and taking suitable action on it can be
done by the concerned Law & Order enforcing authority.
·
The
CMSMS has been developed to curb illegal mining and take transparent action as
an e-Governance initiative of GoI on the use of Space Technology.
·
The
objective of the development and launching of the CMSMS application was to detect
citizens’ participation against illegal mining by receipt of citizen complaints
through a mobile app – KhananPrahari.
·
The
app will help to monitor and take action on any kind of illegal coal mining
activity being carried out within the leasehold boundaries of any Coal Mining
Project in the Coalfield Areas.
·
It
is a Mobile App of the Ministry of Coal for Reporting Illegal Coal Mining and a
tool for reporting any illegal coal mining incident through geo-tagged
photographs as well as textual information by any citizen from the place of
incidence.
·
The
following measures are taken to reduce illegal coal mining operations in the
country: –
o
Concrete
walls
have been erected on the mouth of the abandoned mines to prevent access and
illegal activities in these areas.
o
Surprise
raids/checks
are being conducted jointly by security personnel and law and order authorities
of the concerned State Government.
o
Dumping of
the overburden is
being done on the outcrop zones.
Namami Gange Mission-II Approved with Budgetary Outlay of 22,500 cr till 2026
Namami Gange Mission-II
Approved with Budgetary Outlay of 22,500 cr till 2026
Why In News
·
Namami
Gange Programme was launched from June 2014 till 31st March 2021 to rejuvenate
River Ganga and its tributaries with a budget of Rs.20,000 crore.
Key Points
·
Namami
Gange Programme was launched from June 2014 till 31st March 2021 to rejuvenate
River Ganga and its tributaries with a budget of Rs.20,000 crore.
·
The
Government of India has approved Namami Gange Mission-II with a budgetary
outlay of Rs.22,500 crore till 2026 including projects for existing liabilities
(Rs.11,225 Cr) and new projects/interventions (Rs.11,275 crore).
·
A
total of Rs.14,084.72 crore has been released by the Government of India to the
National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), from Financial Year 2014-15 till 31st
January 2023, out of which Rs.13,607.18 crore have been released by NMCG to
State Governments, State Missions for Clean Ganga and other agencies for
implementation of projects related to Ganga rejuvenation.
·
There
is no State-wise allocation under the Namami Gange Programme. However, the
amount released by NMCG to various agencies for implementation of projects,
compiled State-wise, from 2014-15 up to 31 January 2023, is as under:
State Amount
·
Uttarakhand 1,149.01
·
Uttar
Pradesh 4,347.24
·
Bihar 3,526.43
·
Jharkhand 250.05
·
West
Bengal 1,369.12
·
Madhya
Pradesh 9.89
·
Delhi 1,253.86
·
Haryana 89.61
·
Rajasthan 71.25
·
Himachal
Pradesh 3.75
·
Under
Namami Gange
Programme, a comprehensive set of interventions such as wastewater treatment,
solid waste management, riverfront management, e-flow, afforestation,
biodiversity conservation Public Participation, etc. have been taken up for the
rejuvenation of river
Ganga and its tributaries.
·
Till
31st December 2022, a total of 409 projects have been taken up at an estimated
cost of Rs. 32,912.40 Crore, out of which 232 projects have been completed and
made operational.
·
The
majority of the projects pertain to the creation of sewage infrastructure as
untreated domestic/industrial wastewater is the main reason for pollution in
the river.
·
177
sewerage infrastructure projects have been taken up with a cost of Rs.
26,673.06 Crore for the creation & rehabilitation of 5 million Liters per Day (MLD)
of Sewage
Treatment Plant (STP) capacity and laying of around 5,213.49 KM
sewerage network.
·
Among
these, 99 sewerage projects have been completed resulting in the creation &
rehabilitation of 2,043.05 MLD of STP capacity and the laying of a 4,260.95 KM
sewerage network.
·
To
sustain the continued operation of the sewage treatment infrastructure, a
Hybrid Annuity based PPP mode has also been adopted.
Reserve Bank of India Announces 2nd Global Hackathon “HARBINGER 2023”
Reserve Bank of India
Announces 2nd Global Hackathon “HARBINGER 2023”
Why In News
·
The
Reserve Bank announced its second global hackathon - 'HARBINGER 2023 -
Innovation for Transformation' with the theme 'Inclusive Digital Services'.
Key Points
·
The
Reserve Bank announced its second global hackathon – ‘HARBINGER 2023 – Innovation for
Transformation’ with the theme ‘Inclusive Digital Services’. Registration for
the hackathon starts from February 22, 2023.
·
It
had received 363 proposals submitted by teams from within India and from 22
other countries including the US, UK, Sweden, Singapore, Philippines, and Israel.
·
Fintechs
have been invited to develop solutions that have the potential to make digital
financial services accessible to the differently-abled, facilitate efficient
compliance, extend the reach of Central Bank Digital Currencies and enhance the
scalability of blockchains.
The RBI has invited innovative ideas in four
segments:
·
‘Innovative,
easy-to-use, digital
banking services for differently-abled (Divyaang);
·
RegTech
solutions
to facilitate more efficient compliance by Regulated Entities (REs)’;
·
Exploring
use cases/solutions for CBDC-Retail transactions, including transactions
in offline mode’;
·
‘increasing
Transactions Per Second (TPS)/ throughput and scalability of blockchains’.
More About The Global Hackathon:
·
Winner
of the hackathon will be given a prize of Rs 40 lakh and runner-up Rs 20
lakh. The first hackathon was announced in November 2021 and results were
declared in June 2022.
RBI Cancels Registration of Two Entities for Regulatory Lapses
RBI Cancels Registration of
Two Entities for Regulatory Lapses
Why In News
·
The
Reserve Bank of India said it has cancelled the registration of Pune-based
Kudos Finance and Investments and Mumbai-based Credit Gate for regulatory
lapses in lending practices.
Key Points
·
The
Reserve Bank of India said it has cancelled the registration of Pune-based
Kudos Finance and Investments and Mumbai-based Credit Gate for regulatory
lapses in lending practices. With cancelled Certificate of Registration(CoR),
the two NBFCs should not transact the business of a non-banking financial
institution, the RBI said in a statement.
Need of The Cancellation:
·
The
Certificate of Registration(CoR) of the two NBFCs have been cancelled on account of
violation of RBI Guidelines on Outsourcing and Fair Practices Code in their
digital lending operations undertaken through third party apps, which was
considered detrimental to public interest,” it said.
·
According
to the statement, the entities were also not complying with the extant
regulations pertaining to charging of excessive interest and had resorted to
undue harassment of customers for loan recovery purposes.
RBI’s Continuous Effective Regulation:
·
Prior
to this, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked online payment gateway PayU
India to reapply for its initial payment aggregator (PA) licence.
Science Center and Planetarium to be constructed in Kota by NCSM
Science Center and
Planetarium to be constructed in Kota by NCSM
Why In News
·
Science
Center and Planetarium will be constructed in Kota, Rajasthan. The Science
Center and Planetarium will be one of the best science centers and planetariums
in the world.
Key Points
·
The
Science Center and Planetarium will be constructed in Kota, Rajasthan. The Science Center
and Planetarium will be one of the best science centers and planetariums in the
world. About 35
crore 25 lakh rupees will be spent on these.
·
An
MoU was signed between the National Council of Science Museums and the Science and
Technology Department of the Government of Rajasthan in this regard.
·
National
Council of Science Museums (NCSM) is an autonomous organization under the
Ministry of Culture. It is the largest chain of science centers or museums
under a single administrative umbrella in the world.
·
There
are 24 science centers or museums and one R & D laboratory and training
center of NCSM, located in different states in India.
·
The
first science museum, Birla Industrial and Technological Museum (BITM), Kolkata
under CSIR43, was opened on 2 May 1959. In July 1965, the second science museum
of the country, the Visvesvaraya Industrial & Technological Museum (VITM)
was opened in Bangalore.
The largest Planetarium in India?
·
Birla
Planetarium in Kolkata is the largest planetarium in Asia and the second
largest in the world. It is one of the most famous planetariums in India.
·
Popularly
known as Taramandal,
the planetarium was inaugurated on 2 July 1963 by the then Prime Minister of India,
Jawaharlal Nehru.
·
It
has an electronics laboratory for the design and fabrication of science
equipment. It has an astronomy gallery that maintains a huge collection of fine
paintings and celestial models of renowned astronomers.