Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 11 August 2021

::NATIONAL::

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The bill seeks to restore the power of State governments to identify Other Backward Classes that are socially and economically backward after a Supreme Court order in May 2021, which had empowered only the Central government for such identification.
The amendment was thought necessary because the SC in its order on Maratha reservations upheld the 102nd Constitutional Amendment Act.
It is inserted Articles 338B and 342 A (with two clauses) after Article 342 which said that the President of India, in consultation with governors would specify socially and economically backward classes, taking away the powers of state governments to do so.
The bill should be considered as the 105th Constitution Amendment Bill after being renumbered.

Recently, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister launchedPradhan Mantri Dakshta Aur Kushalta Sampann Hitgrah (PM-DAKSH) Portal and PM-DAKSHmobile app.
It has developed in collaboration with National e-Governance Division (NeGD), to make the skill development schemes accessible to the target groups.

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PM-DAKSH is a skill development scheme from Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
Started from 2020-21, it aims to provide free training to 2.71 lakh persons from SCs/OBCs, SafaiKaramcharis etc. through interventions as:

1. Up-skilling/Reskilling

2. Short Term Training Programme (focus on self-employment)

3. Long Term Training Programme (for global class skills), and

4. Entrepreneurship Development Program

India and Saudi Arabia are all set to conduct their first-ever naval exercise.
Indian Navy’s guided-missile destroyer INS Kochi reached Saudi Arabia for the ‘Al-Mohed Al-Hindi 2021’ exercise.
The warship went to Saudi Arabia after carrying out a naval exercise named Zayed Talwar exercise with the UAE Navy off the coast of Abu Dhabi.
The exercise is taking place amid rising tension in the Gulf region after a drone attack on a merchant tanker off Oman killed a British national and a Romanian citizen over a week back.
The UK and the US pointed fingers at Iran for the attack on MV Mercer Street, operated by an Israeli-owned firm. Tehran has already rejected the charges.

After the talks on July 31, India and China have taken one more step towards restoring peace and normalcy on the LAC by disengaging at Gogra. It is, however, only one step, and the road ahead towards returning to the status quo of April 2020, before the tensions of last summer upended years of a carefully managed even if uneasy peace along the LAC, remains uncertain.

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It has taken 12 rounds of military-level talks to see both sides disengage and put in place buffer zones in the Galwan Valley, the site of the June 2020 clash that marked the worst violence since 1967, Pangong Lake, and now Patrolling Point 17 in Gogra.
The disengagement process at PP17 took place on August 4 and 5, with a return to permanent bases.
The next round of talks will discuss PP15 in Hot Springs. Demchok, where China has transgressed in relatively smaller numbers than the deployments seen in Pangong Lake, also remains unresolved.
Beijing has appeared unwilling to discuss the strategically significant Depsang plains, where the Chinese side has been blocking Indian patrols.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has launched a loan interest subvention scheme to provide financial assistance for innovative waste to energy biomethanation projects.

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The loan scheme provides financial assistance to beneficiaries to reduce the financial burden on account of interest on the loan component faced by such demonstration projects.
A GIS-based inventory tool of organic waste streams developed under the GEF-MNRE-UNIDO project was also launched.
The tool provides district level estimates of available urban and industrial organic wastes and their energy generation potential across India.
The tool will enable SMEs and project developers to set up new waste to energy projects and may facilitate the rapid growth of biomethanation in waste-to-energy sector in the country.

According to IIT Bombay researchers, Marrying mechanised Sewage Treatment plants (STPs) with natural treatment systems can be a cost effective option to prevent dumping of untreated wastewater into rivers.

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The hybrid model aims to tap the merits of both mechanised treatment system and natural system.
Mechanised systems are feasible until a BOD of 30 mg/L. Any further purification would increase the costs multifold as this requires advanced treatment technologies.
Natural systems such as the constructed wetlands, on the other hand, would need extensive land to meet the requirements since land requirement grows in multiples for every additional BOD to be removed.

Combo system:

To solve this problem, a novel system called the hybrid treatment system, which pairs both mechanised systems and natural systems to achieve the discharge requirements.
First, the wastewater (typically having a BOD of about 300 mg/L) is treated with a mechanised system, and it is brought to a BOD of 30 mg/L.
The water can then be treated with a natural system until a BOD of 10 mg/L is attained.
During the typical lifetime of 30 years for a treatment plant, a mechanised system would accumulate annual costs that would exceed the initial land investment required for a hybrid system.
The use of hybrid systems in place of high-demand mechanised systems for treatment beyond 30 mg/L significantly reduces costs and resources, Kalbar suggested.
As per his calculation, deploying such a hybrid systems throughout the country would ultimately lead to an annual savings of 540 GWh, enough to power all of Mumbai for half a year.