Payments Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF)
- This fund was operationalised by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to increase payments acceptance infrastructure by adding 30 lakh touch points every year in Tier-3 to Tier-6 centres.
- There would be special focus on the north-eastern states.
- An Advisory Council, under the chairmanship of RBI Deputy Governor BP Kanungo, has been constituted for managing the PIDF.
- The types of acceptance devices to be covered under the scheme are physical PoS, mPoS, GPRS, PSTN, and QR code-based payments.
- [mPoS - mobile PoS, GPRS - General Packet Radio Service, PSTN - Public Switched Telephone Network]
- However, payment methods that are not inter-operable would not be considered under the PIDF.
- PIDF scheme is on a reimbursement basis and accordingly, the claim has to be submitted only after making payment to the vendor.
- The maximum cost of the physical acceptance device eligible for subsidy is Rs 10,000 (including one-time operating cost up to Rs 500).
- The maximum cost of the digital acceptance device eligible for subsidy is Rs 300 (including onetime operating cost up to Rs 200).
Cigarettes Draft Bill
- The Centre has drafted this bill to increase the age to allow sale of cigarettes and tobacco products from the current 18 years to 21 years.
- The bill has proposed the penalty for smoking in restricted areas has been increased from Rs.200 to Rs.2,000.
- Trade and commerce in cigarettes or other tobacco products should be in sealed and intact packaging.
- The sale of illicit products will lead to imprisonment of up to one year and a fine of Rs.50,000.
Vertical and Horizontal Reservations
- Vertical reservation refers to as reservation for Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Other Backward Classes (OBC).
- It applies separately for each of the groups specified under the law.
- Horizontal reservation refers to the equal opportunity provided to other categories of beneficiaries such as women, veterans, and individuals with disabilities, cutting through the vertical categories.
- It is applied separately to each vertical category.
- Through the Saurav Yadav case, the Supreme Court clarified the position of law on the interplay of vertical and horizontal reservations.
- The court ruled against the Uttar Pradesh (UP) government.
- It held that if a person belonging to an intersection of vertical-horizontal reserved category had secured scores high enough to qualify without the vertical reservation,
- The person would be counted as qualifying without the vertical reservation, and
- The person cannot be excluded from the horizontal quota in the general category.
Rastriya Kamdhenu Aayog
- It is a high powered permanent advisory body that helps the Central Government to develop programmes for conservation, sustainable development and genetic upgradation of indigenous breeds of cows.
- It will function as an integral part of Rashtriya Gokul Mission.
- It is constituted to organize animal husbandry on modern and scientific lines and to take steps for preserving and improving breeds.
- It is also constituted to prohibit the slaughter, of cows and calves and other milch and draught cattle.
- It will review existing laws, policies and will suggest measures for optimum economic utilization of cow wealth for enhanced production and productivity.
Stratospheric Warming
- Sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) event took place January 5, 2021.
- This would be the reason behind the very cold weather in large parts of the world.
- It was potentially the most dangerous kind, where the polar vortex split into two smaller ‘child’ vortices.
- [The polar vortex is a large area of low pressure and cold air surrounding both of the Earth’s poles. To know more, click here.]
- Researchers from the Universities of Bristol, Exeter, and Bath have come up with a new way to predict the knock-on effects of various changes to this major air current high up in the stratosphere.
- During an SSW, polar stratospheric temperature can increase by up to 50 degrees Celsius over the course of a few days.
- Such events are often followed by very cold weather.
- The last time an SSW event took place was ‘Beast from the East 2018’.
Delhi Earthquakes
- As per the National Centre for Seismology (NCS), Delhi experienced 4 small earthquakes during April - August 2020.
- All these events were located by the National Seismological Network, being operated and maintained by NCS of the Ministry of Earth Sciences.
- Seismic network in Delhi and surroundings was strengthened by deploying 11 temporary additional stations covering the known faults in the region.
- This would precisely locate the earthquakes and their aftershocks for a better understanding of the causative sources
- [Fault - A fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock.]
- Data from these stations are received in near real-time and used for locating the micro and small earthquakes in the region.
- The expanded network has now improved the accuracy of the epicenter location to ~2 km.
- A geophysical survey, namely, Magneto-telluric (MT) is also being conducted over the Delhi region.
- [Magneto-telluric (MT) - A geophysical method that uses natural time variation of the Earth’s magnetic and electric fields to understand geological (underground) structure and processes.]
- These measurements are conducted across three major seismic sources, namely Mahendragarh-Dehradun Fault (MDF), Sohna Fault (SF) and Mathura Fault (MF).
Source: PIB, Times of India, Livemint, The Wire, The Indian Express, Science Alert, Down To Earth
