Important topics and their relevance in UPSC CSE exam for September 14, 2023. If you missed the September 13, 2023 UPSC CSE exam key from the Indian Express, read it here
THE WORLD
Kim meets Putin, comes out in support of Russia looking for weapons of war
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.
Mains Examination: General Studies II: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un told Russian President Vladimir Putin Wednesday that his country offers its “full and unconditional support” for Russia’s “sacred fight” to defend its security interests, in an apparent reference to the war in Ukraine, and said Pyongyang will always stand with Moscow on the “anti-imperialist” front.
• North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet-Know in detail
• Map Work-North Korea, Russia, and Border between these two countries
• The decision to meet at Vostochny Cosmodrome, a major satellite launch facility, may communicate what to the world?
• What is a military spy satellite?
• Why North Korea wants to put its military spy satellite into orbit?
• Do You Know-Spy satellites are among an array of major weapons systems Kim publicly vowed to develop during a major political conference in 2021.Kim has used the international distraction caused by Putin’s war on Ukraine to ramp up his weapons demonstrations, test-firing more than 100 missiles since the start of 2022, including two short-range launches toward the sea on Wednesday. Kim has also punctuated his testing activity with an escalatory nuclear doctrine that authorises his military to conduct preemptive nuclear attacks against enemies if it perceives Pyongyang’s leadership as under threat. Space-based reconnaissance capabilities would potentially enhance the threat posed by Kim’s missiles. While examining the North’s spy satellite at the country’s aerospace agency in April, weeks before its first failed launch, Kim said the device would allow his forces to “use “pre-emptive military force when the situation demands.” After repeated failures, North Korea successfully put its first satellite into orbit in 2012, and the second one in 2016, but experts say there has been no evidence that both satellites have ever transmitted imagery back to North Korea.
The UN Security Council imposed economic sanctions on North Korea over its previous satellite launches, seeing them as covers for long-range ballistic missile tests. Asked whether Russia would help North Korea build satellites, Putin was quoted by Russian state media as saying “That’s why we have come here. The DPRK leader shows keen interest in rocket technology. They’re trying to develop space, too.” He used the abbreviation for North Korea’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
• What is Intercontinental ballistic missile?
• Which countries have intercontinental ballistic missile?
• “Russia, which has always closely guarded its most important weapons technologies, even from key partners like China, would be willing to share them with North Korea”-Discuss
• Russia and North Korea meet implication on rest of the world-analyse
• What does Russia want from North Korea?
• What does North Korea want from Russia?
• What could be the other likely outcomes of the meeting?
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍What Kim’s meeting with Putin at Russian spaceport hints at
FRONT PAGE
Export demand low, farmers call for lifting of curbs on basmati
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development
Mains Examination: General Studies III: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilisation of resources, growth, development and employment, Major crops-cropping patterns in various parts of the country
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story- As per the August 25 directive, the $1,200/tonne floor price restriction for exports is to “remain effective till 15.10.2023 and the situation reviewed in the first week of October 2023”. But that period, from mid-September to mid-October, is the peak marketing season for the 90-100 days’ basmati varieties. The maturity time is more, at 115-125 days, for other improved Indian Agricultural Research Institute-bred Pusa varieties such as 1121 and 1401.
• What are the restrictions that have been put on rice exports?
• What was India’s total rice exports in the year 2021-22?
• India is a major rice cultivation country. Rice is grown in which part of the country?
• What are the Climate Conditions required for rice cultivation?
• What is “optimal export tax”?
• ‘Ban on rice export help tame inflation’-Do you agree?
• How Export bans on food items shows irresponsible behaviour at the global level?
• How much would all this impact the country’s overall rice exports?
• Why have these restrictions been placed?
• How important is India to the global rice trade?
• Where does India export rice to?
• Will India’s rice exports take a massive hit?
• What is virtual water trade (VWT)?
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍India’s water is being exported as agri-exports; is there a solution
EXPRESS NETWORK
Lancet Commission flags concern over increase in tuberculosis deaths
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development-Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, etc.
Main Examination: General Studies II: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story-The world is not on course towards ending tuberculosis, a new Lancet Commission on TB has said, flagging concerns over the increase in TB deaths for the first time in 20 years. According to the Commission’s review report slated for release on Thursday, there has been a deterioration in the rate of decline in TB mortality and two-thirds of tuberculosis deaths occurred in just eight countries, and over half occurred in India (33%), Indonesia (10%), and Nigeria (8%). As per the Global TB report 2022, India reported 5.04 lakh deaths in 2021 as against 5.52 lakh in 2010. In 2017, however, the number of deaths reported were 4.62 lakh. While the Covid pandemic had an impact on the ability of global health systems to prevent, screen and treat TB, the report estimated that one-third of people were undiagnosed and untreated in 2022.
• A new Lancet Commission on TB has said what?
• Health Sector in India-Pre and Post Pandemic
• Tuberculosis (TB) and India-Impact
• India TB Report 2021 and Global TB Report 2021-key Highlights and who publishes?
• Know the term-BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guerin)
• National Strategic Plan 2017-2025 for TB Elimination in India-Issues and Challenges
• Why is it important for India’s TB goal of 2025?
• National Strategic Plan 2017-2025 for TB Elimination in India-Issues and Challenges
• What will be the global impact?
• For Your Information-This new report is a follow-up to the 2019 Lancet Commission on tuberculosis. The first report outlined a blueprint for reaching the goals set by the first UN HLM in 2018. While progress has been made in some areas, the targets of the UN HLM have not yet been achieved. As Covid-19 erased years of reduction in TB mortality rates, the Commission authors in their review, ‘Scientific advances and the end of tuberculosis’, have said that there has been an increase in TB deaths — rising from 1.4 million in 2019 to 1.6 million in 2021. The Commission has also made a series of recommendations including immediate scale-up in access to molecular diagnostics and AI-assisted chest x-ray technology. There is also a strong pitch for newer shorter 1/4/6 treatment regimens.
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍National Strategic Plan 2017-2025 for TB Elimination in India
SC: Police briefing on crime probes must not result in media trial
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.
Mains Examination: General Studies IV: Ethics and Human Interface
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story-Police briefings to the media about the investigation of crimes “must not result in a media trial so as to allow for the pre-judging of the guilt of the accused”, the Supreme Court cautioned Wednesday and directed the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to prepare within three months “a comprehensive manual on media briefings by police personnel”.
• What exactly Court said?
• For Your Information-A three-judge bench presided by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud said, “Media trials are liable to result in a deflection of the course of justice by impacting upon the evidence which would be adduced and its assessment by the adjudicating authorities.”
The bench also comprising Justices P S Narasimha and Manoj Misra noted that the existing guidelines on the subject were prepared by the Ministry of Home Affairs “over a decade ago on April 1, 2010” and added that “since then, with the upsurge in reporting on crimes not only in the print media but in the electronic and social media, it becomes extremely important that there should be there should be a standard operating procedure which balances out all the considerations….”.
“There can be no denying the fact that the disclosure of an official version of the investigation would ensure against speculation on crime reporting, which may be of disservice both to the public interest involved and the interest of the accused, witnesses, prospective witnesses as well as victims and survivors of crime. There is in that sense a need to have a uniform policy which can be adopted for notifying nodal officers who would be available to share the official version of the stage of the investigation consistent with the need to ensure that the disclosure itself does not derail the course of the investigation,” said the bench.
• What is a Media Trial?
• What are the ramifications of trial by media?
• Can you give some examples of Media Trial?
• What is the problem of media trial?
• What is the impact of media trial on evidence?
• Why Media Is Called as The Fourth Pillar of Democracy?
• What are the responsibilities of Journalist towards the Society?
• Importance of Journalism-Know in detail
• What do you understand by the term “Journalism ethics”?
• Media Ethics and Journalism Ethics-Compare and Contrast
• What are the Ethical dilemmas faced by Journalists anywhere in the world?
• What are the Issues Associated with Media and Journalism in India?
• What do you understand by ‘Yellow journalism’?
• How Media Is Regulated in India?
• What are the Loopholes in Media Regulation in India?
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍Kangaroo courts by media, agenda-driven debates weakening democracy, says CJI
EXPLAINED
Nipah cases reported in Kerala: What makes this virus deadly
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.
Mains Examination: General Studies II: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story-Cases of Nipah infection have been found in Kerala again, after two people were confirmed to have died of the viral disease in Kozhikode district. Two others, aged nine and 24, are under treatment. They are family members of the first victim, who died on August 30. Kerala health Minister Veena George held a high-level meeting to review the situation in Kozhikode on Tuesday morning. Union Health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said a central team of experts has been sent to the state. While the Nipah virus does not spread as quickly as the Covid-19 virus, it is more deadly. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the overall global case fatality rate of Nipah is estimated at 40% to 75% .
• What is the Nipah virus infection?
• Do You Know-Nipah is a zoonotic disease, which means it is transmitted to humans through infected animals or contaminated food. It can also be transmitted directly from person to person through close contact with an infected person, the WHO says. Its symptoms, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), fever, headache, cough, sore throat, difficulty in breathing, and vomiting.
In severe cases, disorientation, drowsiness, seizures, encephalitis (swelling of the brain) can occur, progressing to coma and death.
• How is Nipah transmitted?
• How fast does the Nipah virus spread?
• How is Nipah transmitted?
• For Your Information-The first outbreaks of the Nipah virus among humans was reported from Malaysia (1998) and Singapore (1999). The virus takes its name from the village in Malaysia where the person in whom the virus was first isolated died of the disease.
The transmission from animals happens mainly through consumption of contaminated food. According to the CDC, transmission can happen due to “consumption of raw date palm sap or fruit that has been contaminated with saliva or urine from infected bats. Some cases of NiV [Nipah] infection have also been reported among people who climb trees where bats often roost.”
The animal host reservoir for this virus is known to be the fruit bat, commonly known as flying fox. Fruit bats are known to transmit this virus to other animals like pigs, and also dogs, cats, goats, horses and sheep.
Humans get infected mainly through direct contact with these animals, or through consumption of food contaminated by saliva or urine of these infected animals. But human-to-human transmission is also considered possible. The CD says “person-to-person spread of NiV is regularly reported in Bangladesh and India. This is most commonly seen in the families and caregivers of NiV-infected patients, and in healthcare settings.”
Since it was first identified in 1998-99, there have been multiple outbreaks of the Nipah virus, all of them in South and Southeast Asian nations. In Bangladesh, there have been at least 10 outbreaks since 2001.
In India, West Bengal had seen an outbreak in 2001 and 2007, while Kerala had reported several cases in 2018, and isolated cases in 2019 and 2021.
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍Nipah kills two in Kerala: What is this virus, why is it dangerous even though it doesn’t spread fast
India’s supply chain opportunity
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.
Mains Examination: General Studies II: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story-Amid the efforts to cut dependence on China-centric global supply chains, countries such as Vietnam have grabbed the China+1 headlines more than India. However, the announcement at the G20 Leaders’ Summit on the landmark India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) has the potential to make India an Asian hub in global supply chains.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington DC in June showed that supply chains are at the centre of the latest chapter in India-United States relations.
• What are supply chains?
• For Your Information-Supply chains — variously described as global production networks, production fragmentation, or global value chains — refer to the geographical location of stages of production (such as design, production, assembly, marketing, and service activities) in a cost-effective manner.
Global supply chains have been the leading model of industrial production since the 1980s, influencing the pace and nature of globalisation and regionalisation. The shift in industrial production from local and regional supply to global supply took place gradually over the last 100 years.
Global supply chains can be found in a wide range of simple (textiles and clothing, food processing and consumer goods, etc.) and complex industries (e.g., automotives, aircraft, machinery, electronics and pharmaceuticals).
• Why are global supply chains moving from China?
• Why is India being considered an attractive supply chain hub?
• What must India do going forward?
• Could the South Asian region as a whole benefit from this approach?
• What is India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC)?
• For Your Information-The rail and shipping corridor is part of the Partnership for Global Infrastructure Investment (PGII) — a collaborative effort by G7 nations to fund infrastructure projects in developing nations. PGII is considered to be the bloc’s counter to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
The project will aim to enable greater trade among the involved countries, including energy products. “It could also be one of the more ambitious counters to China’s massive infrastructure program, through which it has sought to connect more of the world to that country’s economy,” AP said.
The corridor will include a rail link as well as an electricity cable, a hydrogen pipeline and a high-speed data cable, according to a document prepared by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The document also called the project “a green and digital bridge across continents and civilizations.”
Speaking to AP, Jon Finer, President Biden’s principal deputy national security adviser, gave three major reasons for developing the corridor. First, it would increase prosperity among the countries involved through an increased flow of energy and digital communications. Second, the project would help deal with the lack of infrastructure needed for growth in lower- and middle-income nations. And third, it could help “turn the temperature down” on “turbulence and insecurity” coming out of the Middle East, Finer said, according to AP.
“We see this as having a high appeal to the countries involved, and also globally, because it is transparent, because it is a high standard because it is not coercive,” he added. Moreover, the project could be seen as Biden’s attempt to further strengthen the G20 group to counter the dominance of China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
• The IMEC will include two separate corridors-Know them and mark them on map
• Can you mark or sketch the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) on world map?
• Which are the key places, water bodies and industrial belt in India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor? Mark them on the map
• What is the objective behind this corridor?
• What is the India-Saudi Arabia Strategic Partnership Council?
• How India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) is different from China’s Belt and Road initiative (BRI)?
• India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) and China’s Belt and Road initiative-Compare and contrast
• To what degree will the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) contribute to the enhancement of India’s
external trade?
• What will be the challenges in implementing India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC)?
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍India-Middle East-Europe mega economic corridor: What is the project and why is it being proposed?
OPERATION POLO
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: History of India
Mains Examination: General Studies I: Post-independence consolidation and reorganisation within the country.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story- Wednesday marks the 75th anniversary of Operation Polo, the military action launched by the Indian Army on September 13, 1948, to integrate the princely state of Hyderabad. The Nizam of Hyderabad was dithering on joining India ever since Independence on August 15, 1947. The military offensive in Hyderabad state was termed as ‘Police Action’ at the time by the then home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and the Nizam’s forces surrendered to the Indian Army by September 18.
• What was the background against which Operation Polo was launched?
• Operation Polo and Hyderabad-Connect the dots
• Why was Operation Polo launched on September 13, 1948?
• How were the Nizam’s forces placed vis-a-vis the Indian Army?
• How was Operation Polo conducted on the ground?
• When did Hyderabad forces surrender?
• The Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, commonly known as the Telangana Act-Know the key Features
• Srikrishna Committee on Telangana/Committee for Consultations on the Situation in Andhra Pradesh (CCSAP) headed by former chief justice B. N. Srikrishna-Know their recommendations
• ‘The seeds of the Telangana struggle were sown in 1955, when the States Reorganisation Commission’s recommendation to keep Hyderabad as a separate state was ignored’. How far you agree with this statement?
• Integration of Princely States After Independence-What were the challenges?
• Integration of Princely States After Independence-What was the status of Hyderabad?
• Who were Razakars?
• Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Instrument of Accession and Standstill Agreement-Connect the dots
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍Telangana Formation Day 2021: History, significance and facts you should know about India’s newest state
📍The horses that led Operation Polo
📍Behind the freedom of Hyderabad, a struggle against the Nizam
5,000 dead, 30,000 displaced: What made Libya’s floods so devastating
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.
Mains Examination: General Studies III: Disaster and disaster management.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story-More than 5,000 people were killed, about 10,000 went missing, and 30,000 were displaced in Libya after torrential rains caused flooding on September 10 that burst dams, swept away buildings and destroyed nearly a quarter of the eastern port city of Derna. The death toll is likely to rise significantly and may even double, a minister in the regional administration said, according to Reuters.
Experts suggest three key factors — extreme weather, vulnerable geography, and crumbling infrastructure — coalesced into one catastrophe, causing the most devastating floods to have hit North Africa in almost a century.
• Where did the flood hit?
• Map Work-Libya
• Who’s in control in Libya?
• ‘The north African country has been divided between rival administrations and beset by militia conflict since NATO-backed Arab Spring uprising toppled autocratic ruler Moammar Gadhafi in 2011’-Know more in detail
• Since 2014. Libya has been split between two rival governments, each backed by international patrons and numerous armed militias on the ground-why?
• What’s happening with aid?
• How did the flood happen and what role did climate change play?
• For Your Information-The flooding has occurred in Libya’s eastern region, which witnessed extreme rainfall from Sept 10 to 11. Take the city of Al-Bayda, located near Derna, for example. Usually, it receives about half an inch of rain in Sept and about 21.4 inches of rain in an average year. But from Sept 10 night till the next day, the city reported a record rainfall of 414.1 mm — more than 16 inches — according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Similarly in Derna, where average monthly rainfall in the whole of September is under 1.5 mm, rainfall exceeded 150 mm in about two days. The rains were accompanied by strong winds of up to 80 kph, The Washington Post reported.
And what produced this torrential rainfall and wind? It was Storm Daniel, also known as Cyclone Daniel. Formed in Greece, the storm is also responsible for causing floods and deaths in Spain, Turkey and Bulgaria earlier this month.
Before reaching Libya, “Daniel transitioned into what is known as a ‘medicane,’ or tropical-like cyclone that occasionally forms over the Mediterranean Sea. The storm became stronger as it drew energy from the abnormally warm waters (the Mediterranean has been 2 to 3 degree Celsius warmer this year than in the past), before drifting to the south and unloading excessive rainfall over northeastern Libya, where rain flowing down the mountainous terrain overwhelmed dams,” The Post added.
Focus on the words: abnormally warm waters. Medicanes are known to be weak storms that don’t last long. But higher sea surface temperatures (obviously a consequence of global warming), help them become stronger and last longer — when storms travel across hot oceans, they gather more water vapour and heat, resulting in more powerful winds, heavier rainfall and more flooding when they reach the land.
The floods seem to have caused the most destruction in Derna — a coastal city with an estimated 100,000 inhabitants. So far, Derna alone has recorded the death of more than 5,300 people. Videos on social media show submerged buildings, schools and houses.
One reason behind the city’s widespread damage is its location. It is situated at the end of a valley and bisected by the Wadi Derna, a seasonal river that flows from mountains to the south (towards the sea) and is normally protected from flooding by dams.
“But on Sunday night, Storm Daniel pounded the coast and residents of Derna reported hearing loud explosions before they realised dams outside the city had collapsed, unleashing flash floods down Wadi Derna that eventually crashed into the city,” a report by Sky News mentions.
Derna has two dams. The first one is about 12 km upstream from the city where two river valleys converge and the second one sits on the southern edge. After breaching the first dam, the floodwater probably continued downstream along the canyon and then swept off the second dam, entering the city centre, and smashing into buildings on either side, the report adds.
The collapse of the two dams in Derna highlights the dilapidated infrastructure of Libya. The country has been gutted by a war between two rival factions for more than a decade. In Tripoli, Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah leads Libya’s internationally recognised government. In Benghazi, the rival prime minister, Ossama Hamad, heads the eastern administration, which is backed by powerful military commander Khalifa Hiftar.
In the tussle for power, focus on socio-economic issues, including maintaining and developing infrastructure has been put on the backburner.
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍Thousands missing as two dams collapse, worsening Libya floods
THE EDITORIAL PAGE
The new sharing
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development-Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, etc.
Mains Examination: General Studies II: Appointment to various Constitutional posts, powers, functions and responsibilities of various Constitutional Bodies.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story-–Haseeb Drabu writes: The 122nd Constitutional Amendment of 2016 giving the Union and states concurrent powers of indirect taxation has been the most far-reaching change from a fiscal standpoint, since the setting up of the First Finance Commission in 1951. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, introduced in 2017, is based on a system of concurrency of indirect taxes, where every transaction attracts central as well as state GST. The inter-state transactions, as well as imports, are levied an integrated GST. With this, a consumption-based taxation system has replaced a production-based one. The collection of indirect taxes in the state where goods or services are consumed, and not in the state where they are produced, changes both the vertical as well as the horizontal dynamics of federalism.
• What is the Finance Commission?
• What are the functions of the Finance Commission?
• Who appoints the Finance Commission and what are the qualifications for Members?
• Article 280 of the Constitution says what?
• How are the recommendations of Finance Commission implemented?
• What is the tenure of the Fifteenth Finance Commission?
• What are the changes in fiscal federalism in India subsequent to the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax
(GST)?
• “The 122nd Constitutional Amendment of 2016 giving the Union and states concurrent powers of indirect taxation has been the most far-reaching change from a fiscal standpoint, since the setting up of the First Finance Commission in 1951”-Analyse the statement
• “The 16th Finance Commission (SFC), due to be constituted soon, must be mandated to re-examine the tax-sharing principles in light of the altered landscape of fiscal federalism in India”-why?
• What do you understand by both vertical and horizontal sharing?
• According to the author, what changes should the 16th Finance Commission implement?
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍Report of the 15th Finance Commission for 2021-26
ECONOMY
Govt approves`1,650 cr for 75 lakhs new PMUY connections over 3 years
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development-Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, etc.
Mains Examination: General Studies III: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story-The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the expansion of the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) in order to add 75 lakh poor households to the scheme’s beneficiary base over three years at an estimated cost of Rs 1,650 crore. The nod to PMUY expansion and the scheme of release of grant to public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs) for the same follows the government’s August 29 announcement of slashing cooking gas prices for all domestic consumers by Rs 200 per cylinder and expanding the beneficiary base of PMUY to 10.35 crore from 9.60 crore at present.
• What is Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY)?
• How is gas price decided in India?
• What is the Current Gas Pricing in India?
• For Your Information-In May 2016, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MOPNG), introduced the ‘Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana’ (PMUY) as a flagship scheme with an objective to make clean cooking fuel such as LPG available to the rural and deprived households which were otherwise using traditional cooking fuels such as firewood, coal, cow-dung cakes etc. Usage of traditional cooking fuels had detrimental impacts on the health of rural women as well as on the environment.
The scheme was launched on 1st May 2016 in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh by Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Shri. Narendra Modi.
The target under the scheme was to release 8 Crore LPG Connections to the deprived households by March 2020. On 7th September 2019, Prime Minister of India handed over the 8th Crore LPG connection in Aurangabad, Maharashtra. The release of 8 Crore LPG connections under the scheme has also helped in increasing the LPG coverage from 62% on 1st May 2016 to 99.8% as on 1st April 2021.
Ujjwala 2.0: Additional allocation of 1.6 Crore LPG Connections under PMUY Scheme with special facility to migrant households. The scheme was launched in Mahoba, Uttar Pradesh by Prime Minister of India.
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍‘Ujjwala Effect’: Study estimates over 1.5 lakh lives saved in a year, 13% reduction in air pollution deaths
For any queries and feedback, contact priya.shukla@indianexpress.com
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Priya Kumari ShuklaPriya is an avid reader and takes a keen interest in current affairs. … read more