‘eBloodServices’ Mobile App, Urban Missions, Paleoclimatic History, Decline in Arctic sea ice
1. Launches Indian Red Cross Society’s ‘eBloodServices’ Mobile App
- Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare launched the ‘eBloodServices’ mobile App developed by The Indian Red Cross Society (ICRS).
- The Union Health Minister is also the Chairman of Indian Red Cross Society.
- This application is developed by the E-Raktkosh team of Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) under the Digital India scheme launched by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi in 2015.
- Digital India has now become an integral part of every person’s daily life.
- This Blood Donation App is a prime example of how the Digital India Scheme is serving the need for accessing blood services.
- Many people require blood related services on regularly because of certain medical conditions in their families.
- Through this App, four units of blood can be requisitioned at a time and the blood bank will wait for as long as 12 hours for the person to collect it.
- This app makes it easy for those in need to request for Blood units at IRCS NHQ.
- Once the request is placed through the app, the requisite units become visible to IRCS, NHQ blood bank in its E-Raktkosh dashboard and this allows assured delivery within the specified time.
- This feature will make it easy for a blood seeker to obtain blood & shall bring the added advantage of complete transparency & single window access to the service.
- Blood Donation can be done by any person under the age of 65 years as many as four times in a year.
- Regular blood donation can prevent obesity, cardiac problems and many other ailments.
- Not just this, blood donation is also a spiritual path by which mankind can be served.
- All 89 IRCS Blood Banks & 1100 branches across the country have collected a staggering more than 1,00,000 units of blood through in house donations & from around 2000 blood donation camps organised during the lockdown period.
- Also, more than 38,000 voluntary blood donors registered with NHQ Blood Bank have been contacted & motivated to donate blood.
- The NHQ Blood Bank conducted 55 blood donation camps collecting 2896 units of blood.
- A total of 5221 units were collected during the lockdown period.
- Blood has been issued to 7113 patients, including 2923 thalassaemic patients as well as to Government hospitals such as AIIMS Delhi (378 units) and Lady Hardinge (624 units).
- Also, IRCS has served more than 3,00,00,000 cooked meals, and provided ration to more than 11,00,000 families.
2. 5th Anniversary of Urban Missions
- India has undertaken one of the most comprehensive planned urbanization programmes in the history of the world.
- The vision of our Hon’ble Prime Minister of a New India is closely intertwined with our flagship programme achievements.
Progress, Achievements and Outcomes of AMRUT, SCM and PMAY-(U):
a) Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT)
- Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT),launched by Hon’ble Prime Minister on 25 June 2015, has completed 5 successful years.
- The Mission aims at ensuring universal coverage of drinking water supply and substantial improvement in coverage and treatment capacities of sewerage and septage, along with storm water drainage, non-motorized urban transport and green spaces & parks.
- The Mission spans across 500 cities, covering more than 60% of urban population.
- State Annual Action Plans (SAAPs) worth ₹ 77,640 crore approved and projects worth ₹ 75,829 crore grounded so far. Projectsworth ₹ 10,654 crores completed and ₹ 65,175 crore in advanced stages of implementation.
- ₹ 39,011 crore allocated for drinking water supply projects, and ₹ 32,546 crore for sewerage and septage projects.
- The Mission helped cities to undertake a set of 11 reforms comprising 54 milestones aimed at strengthening capacities of city level institutions for effective governance and citizen service delivery.
- In order to promote energy efficiency across the Indian cities, 76 lakh streetlights replaced with energy efficient LED streetlights.
b) Smart Cities Mission (SCM)
- Smart Cities Mission (SCM) was launched on 25thJune 2015 with the objective of promoting cities that provide core infrastructure and give a decent quality of life to its citizens, a clean and sustainable environment and application of ‘Smart’ solutions.
- As on date, the value of tendered smart city projects is over ₹1,66,000crores, the value of work orders issued is about₹ 1,25,000 crores and the value of all completed projects is more than ₹ 27,000 crores.
- An additional 1000 projects amounting to ₹32,500 crore have been tendered and 1000 projects amounting to ₹ 36,000 crore grounded during last one year.
- 180% growth in the completed project in the last one year, amounting to ₹ 12,100 Crore.
- 33 ICCCs are at various stages of implementation. Smart Roads / Complete Streets, Smart Solar, Smart Water, PPPs and Vibrant Public Spaces projects are heading towards progressive paths in the Mission.
- The Urban Learning Internship Program (TULIP)’ is designed for all ULBs and Smart City SPVs to engage fresh graduates as interns. More than 25,000 students have registered on the platform so far and more than 1000 internship positions have been posted by the cities. This will increase the capacity of our cities and positively engage our youth by making them market ready.
- ClimateSmart Cities and DataSmart Cities are two important programs under Smart Cities Mission. They are key enablers, driving the future course of action through data driven performance management, urban innovation and institutional capacity building.
c) Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Urban (PMAY-U)
Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Urban (PMAY-U) completed five years on 25 June 2020.
The scheme was launched in 2015 with the objective of providing pucca house to all eligible beneficiaries of Urban India by 2022 with the vision of ‘Housing for All’.
The Mission’s journey of five years has seen several milestones.
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has received a validated demand of about 1.12 Cr houses under PMAY (U).
Approvals for 1.05 Cr houses have already been sanctioned, of which 65 lakhs are grounded and 35 lakhs have been built and delivered to beneficiaries across the country.
The number of houses sanctioned in last five years under the Mission is almost eight times more than those sanctioned under earlier urban housing schemes during the span of 10 years.
- To ensure regular flow of funds for implementation of PMAY(U), National Urban Housing Fund has been created to mobilize ₹ 60,000 Cr throughExtra Budgetary Resources over and above the budgetary allocation for the Mission.
- In line with ‘AtmaNirbhar Bharat’, an Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHCs) scheme for providing ease of living to Urban Migrants/ Poor has been announced by the Hon’ble Finance Minister on 14 May, 2020.
- The beneficiaries for ARHCs scheme would be the urban migrants/poor from EWS/LIG categories including labours, urban poor (street vendor, rickshaw puller, other service providers etc.), industrial workers, educational/ health institutions, hospitality sector, long term tourists, students or any other category as deemed fit by the States/UTs.
- Construction activity under the scheme has had a huge impact on the other sectors of the economy with a multiplier effect in employment generation.
- Employment for approximately 1.65 Cr citizens has been generated through forward and backward linkages. Around 370 lakh metric tonne cement and 84 Lakh metric tonne steel has been consumed due to investment being made in the houses grounded.
3. Gravel geometry of the Indus river unravel its paleoclimatic history
- Researchers from Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (WIHG), Dehradun, an autonomous institute under the Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India, have traced the paleoclimatic history of the Indus River in Ladakh Himalaya with the help of geometric data from overlapping gravels of channel fills.
- They studied the discharge during periods in which the river experienced an increase in land elevation, due to the deposition of sediment) and its incision.
- River Terraces are ubiquitous in mountains that nourish and help sustain past, present, and future human societies. These terraces are part of valley-wide aggradations, which has been studied extensively in Himalaya to understand the processes driving such a periodic increase in river valley land elevation and incision. Scientists are still debating whether wetter climate intervals with increased rainfall and glacial melting promote river aggradation through increased discharge and enhanced sediment load, or instead, is it during drier conditions when aggradation occurs through increased sediment to water ratio.
- The researchers studied the discharge during periods of established river aggradation and incision of the Indus River, Ladakh Himalaya over late Quaternary (the current and most recent of the three periods in the geologic time scale).
- They used geometric data from overlapping gravels of channel fills to calculate paleodischarges during net river aggradation at 47–23 ka (thousand years),and preserved slack water deposits (SWDs) at 14–10 ka to constrain paleodischarges that occurred during net river incision.
- They observed that the aggradation in the Himalayan rivers occurred in glacial-interglacial transient warm climatic conditions (33–21 ka and 17–14 ka) when the sediment budget in the rivers increased just after the glacial events.
- Their study published in the journal Geomorphology shows that aggradation took place in the Indus River when sediment to water ratio was higher during MIS-3 (Marine isotope stages (MIS), marine oxygen-isotope stages, are alternating warm and cool periods in the Earth’s paleoclimate, deduced from oxygen isotope data reflecting changes in temperature derived from data from deep-sea core samples) and incision initiated when sediment to water ratio reduced during post-glacial climatically wet phase (early Holocene).
4. Decline in Arctic sea ice does not sound good for the environment
- The National Centre of Polarand Ocean Research (NCPOR) has found a dramatic decline in the Arctic sea ice due to global warming.
- The decline of sea ice has led to localised increase in evaporation, air humidity, cloud cover, and rainfall.
- Arctic sea ice is a sensitive indicator of climate change and has strong retaliatory effects on other components of the climate system.
- In its observations, NCPOR has noted that the largest decline in Arctic sea ice in the past 41 years happened in July 2019. In the last 40 years (1979-2018), the sea ice has been declining at a rate of ‘-4.7%’ per decade, while its rate was found to be ‘-13%’ in July 2019.
- If this trend continues, there would be no ice left in the Arctic sea by 2050, which would be dangerous for humanity and the entire environment.
- With the help of satellite data collected from 1979 to 2019, NCPOR has tried to understand the rate of surface warming and the changes in global atmospheric circulation.
- The study has also pointed out that the decrease of the Arctic sea ice area and the increase in the duration of summer and autumn seasons have affected the local weather and climate over the Arctic Ocean and its marginal seas.
- Being a sensitive indicator of climate change, the loss of ice cover in the Arctic sea has had strong feedback effects on other components of the climate system such as prevention or reduction of heat and momentum, water vapour, and other material exchange between the atmosphere and the sea.
- The worrying element to note is that the volume of ice formation during winters is unable to keep pace with the volume of ice loss during summers.
- In the background of the global warming scenario, the study reveals that global ocean-atmospheric warming has enhanced the Arctic sea ice loss.
- The study demonstrated the application of satellite observations and model reanalysis data for the determination and validation the 2019 sea-ice extended to the second-lowest sea-ice minimum record.
- Although there are no extreme weather events recorded this year, an accelerated decline in sea-ice extent and sea-ice volume in summer 2019 was dominant, and also the northern hemisphere has experienced record high-temperature rise especially during the spring and summer months.
- The sea-ice loss at this rate, concerning to all the lives on Earth, can have a catastrophic impact due to rising global air temperature and slowing down of global ocean water circulation.
