02-12-22 Daily-Punjab-PPSC Current Affairs

With the farm fire season coming to an official end for this year, the state reported 49,922 incidents of stubble-burning. The number is a lot less than the tally of two years. On the last day of the season, the state reported 15 cases of farm fire.

The state records stubble-burning data from September 15 to November 30 every year after the harvesting of paddy.

As compared to 76,755 farm fires in 2020 and 71,286 incidents in 2021, the state reported a sharp decline with only 49,922 farm fires this year.

With continuous efforts of all stakeholders, the area on which paddy stubble is burnt is expected to decline with a significant quantum in coming years. The trend of farm fires is declining. A comparison of data of the past three years shows that farm fires are on the decline in the state.

India has emerged as a regional power and net security provider in the Indo-Pacific as its capacity to provide humanitarian assistance and disaster relief to its citizens as well as regional partners has grown in recent years. This was stated by Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh at the multi-agency Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) exercise Samanvay 2022 in Agra.

The Raksha Mantri highlighted that prediction of natural disasters has to be accompanied by dissemination of information to a larger Population and shifting people to safer locations, which requires an empowered machinery. As nations have different capacities, collaborative preparation to deal with disasters is required, he stressed. Shri Rajnath Singh called upon the nations to come together in dealing with natural disasters by sharing Resources, equipment and training. In HADR, there is a need to share information for regional cooperation and best practices

CCUS is key to ensuring and Growth in India, particularly for the production of clean products and energy, leading to an Atmanirbhar Bharat

A study report, titled Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage Policy Framework and its Deployment Mechanism in India, was released today. The report explores the importance of Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage as an emission reduction strategy to achieve deep decarbonization from the hard-to-abate sectors. The report outlines broad level policy interventions needed across various sectors for its application.

As, India has updated its NDC targets for achieving 50% of its total installed capacity from non-fossil-based energy sources, 45% reduction in emission intensity by 2030 and taking steps towards achieving Net Zero by 2070, the role of Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage (CCUS) becomes important as reduction strategy to achieve decarbonization from the hard-to abate sectors.

The report indicates that CCUS can provide a wide variety of opportunities to convert the captured CO2 to different value-added products like green urea, food and beverage form application, building materials (concrete and aggregates), chemicals (methanol and ethanol), polymers (including bio-plastics) and enhanced oil recovery (EOR) with wide market opportunities in India, thus contributing substantially to a circular economy.

The government has settled 33,997 crore to CGST and 28,538 crore to SGST from IGST as regular settlement. The total revenue of Centre and the States after regular settlements in the month of November 2022 is 59678 crore for CGST and 61189 crore for the SGST. In addition, Centre had also released 17,000 crore as GST compensation to States/UTs in November 2022.

Union Minister for Civil Aviation Shri Jyotiraditya Scindia today launched Digi Yatra from the Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi for three in the country, namely New Delhi, Varanasi and Bengaluru. Digi Yatra is conceived to achieve contactless, seamless processing of passengers at airports based on Facial Recognition Technology (FRT).

The project envisages a traveller today pass through various check points at the airports through a paperless and contactless processing using facial features to establish her identity which could be linked to the boarding pass. To use this facility, one-time registration on Digi Yatra app is required using Aadhar based validation and a self-image capture. The project has tremendous advantages of improving passenger convenience and ease of travel.

With Digi Yatra, India will now stand in the ranks of world class airports like Heathrow in London and Atlanta in United States of America. Elucidating on the benefits of Digi Yatra, the Minister stated the example of Dubai Airport where passenger time upto 40 percent was saved due to this technology.

Doing Business in India Report 2022 was released by the UK India Business Council (UKIBC). Its findings are based on a survey of 111 UK businesses and higher Education institutions. It is consistent with the 7 previous surveys that were conducted each year from 2015 to 2021. Their purpose is to assess the views and experiences of UK businesses and higher education institutions in Indias business Environment.

The findings of the 2022 report was shared with the Department for Promotion of and Internal Trade (DPIIT) the nodal department for promoting Ease of Doing Business in India and with the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation, which is responsible for supporting investors in the state.

The requirement to transfer intellectual property is seen as an issue by the UK business. These businesses are looking for improved investor protection, regulatory certainty and IP protection and processes.