18th, August, 2022

 

Topic: Integrated Command and Control Centre of Dharamsala Smart City

 

Importance: Himachal HPAS Prelims and Mains

 

What is the news?

• The Dharamsala Smart City Integrated Command and Control Center became operational for city residents on August 15th.

 

What is an Integrated Command and Control Centre?

• ICCCs will act as the “nerve center” for operational management in the city with the daily management of exceptions and disasters.
• ICCCs provide smart solutions to the municipality and help manage the safety and oversight of the city.
• The centers include video walls for real-time surveillance, emergency response system, business planning to include critical ones and 24×7 manual maintenance.
• The centres are set up to provide a smart life, a smart environment, a smart economy, smart governance, a smart population and smart mobility.
• The centre will also provide valuable information by processing complex datasets at an aggregate level to obtain information to enhance planning and policy development.
• The ICCCs are now also linked to the CCTNS (Crime and Criminal Tracking Networks and Systems) network under the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Aim:

• Consolidate information into multiple applications and sensors deployed across the city and deliver actionable information with appropriate visualization for decision makers.

 

Recent initiative for ICCCs:

• Recently, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has announced that the 100 smart cities will have Integrated Command and Control Centers (ICC), under the Smart Cities Mission (SCM).

 

How is that going to help Dharamshala?

• The inauguration of Integrated Command and Centre (ICCC) will integrate various systems to enable safety, security and provide better public services in the city. It will provide improved quality of service and enhanced service levels through faster turnaround on citizens’ requests and applications.
• It will help start pilot Smart City project with user-friendly applications for differently abled and help in automation of building permission process, bringing accountability into the administration with monitoring through dashboards and by citizens through tracking and real-time assessment, planning and management of electrical, water, sewerage system, etc.
• It will also help in optimal management of assets through advanced utility services like distribution/management system, outage management system, water network optimization and enhanced decision making through business analytics, reporting and tools.

 

What is the Smart Cities Mission?

• It is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme, launched in June 2015 to transform 100 cities to provide the necessary core infrastructure and a clean and sustainable environment to enable a decent quality of life to their citizens through the application of “Smart Solutions”.
• The mission seeks to respond to the aspirations of the Indian population living in cities through various urban development projects.

 

Features:

• Among its strategic components is ‘area-based development’, which includes city improvement (retrofitting), city renewal (redevelopment) and city extension (greenfield development), plus a pan-city initiative in which ‘smart solutions’ are applied covering larger parts of the city.
• The project’s main areas of interest include the construction of bridges, crosswalks, bike paths, efficient waste management systems, integrated traffic management and assessment.
• The program also evaluates various indices to track urban development, such as the Ease of Living Index, Municipal Performance Index, City GDP Framework, Climate Smart Cities Assessment Framework, etc.

 

Status:

• The period of implementation of SCM has been extended to June 2023.
• To date, the SMC has covered more than 140 public-private partnerships, 340 “smart roads”, 78 “dynamic public spaces”, 118 “smart water” projects and more than 63 solar projects.

 

Pillars Of The Smart Cities Mission:

Smart Cities Mission envisaged to have four pillars. They are as follows:

• Social Infrastructure
• Physical Infrastructure
• Institutional Infrastructure
• Economic Infrastructure

 

Objectives of Smart Cities Mission:

 

The objectives of the Smart Cities Commission are given below:

• It creates employment opportunities.
• It makes cities livable, inclusive and sustainable.
• It also promotes cities and provides basic infrastructure and gives a decent life to their citizens.

 

What is a Smart City?

• Smart city is a city in which there is a significant and significant improvement in physical, social and economic infrastructure. Bring in growth and development in a country. It is also necessary for the development of quality of life in urban areas.

 

The six fundamental principles on which the concept of the smart cities is based are given below:

1)  Community at the core – communities at the core of planning and implementation.

2) More than less – this is the ability to generate better results using less resources.

3) Co-operative and competitive federalism – cities selected based on competitive flexibility to implement projects.

4) Integration, Innovation and Sustainability- this is an innovative method, integrated and sustainable solution.

5) Technology as means not as a goal – it is a careful selection of the technology, which is an element in the context of the cities.

6) Convergence – it means sectoral and financial conversion.

 

Progress Made Under This Scheme:

The progress that is made under this smart cities Commission scheme are given below:

• Of the total projects proposed under this program, 5924 were the subject of a call for tenders, work orders were issued for 5336 projects and 2665 projects are operational.
• 212 PPP projects valued at 24964 million rupees were completed.
• 70 smart cities have been developed.It is operationalized their Integrated Command and Control Centres (ICCCs).

 

Key Challenges Of The Smart Cities Mission:

• Slow progress – less than 50 per cent of the project had been completed.
• It has difficulty mobilizing funds, transferring them to concerned and making effective use of them.
• Digital security- it may be vulnerable to piracy by cyber criminals.
• Citizens’ lack of confidence is a lack of clarity as to the benefits.
• Urban problems- such as air pollution, general congestion and declining public transportation.
• Policy Issues – This is like a hindrance in getting environmental clearances.

 

Examples of implementation of SCM:

• Surat is providing amenities such as better roads, footpaths, utility crossings, median parking, hawking zones, art galleries, children’s play areas under the Mission and increasing its green cover along a canal.
• Prayagraj has installed a 2 MT capacity plastic-diesel converting plant. It can convert 100 kg of plastic/ polyethylene to 40-60 liters of diesel, operating natural gas production as well.
• Coimbatore restores eight lakes, develops the lakeside, provides outdoor leisure, food kiosks, open squares, bike paths, fountains and the construction of an amphitheatre. It also uses robotic machines (called Bandicoot V 2.0) to clean and unclog manholes and septic tanks, thus eliminating the manual scanning.
• Kavaratti has installed a rainwater harvesting system. Its solid waste management system has been reformed: biodegradable waste is buried to produce manure, recyclable waste is processed, while the remaining waste is incinerated.

(News Source: The Tribune)

 

 

Topic: Grihini Suvidha Yojna

 

Importance: Himachal HPAS Prelims and Mains

 

What is the news?

• Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said that 3.34 lakh families have been benefited under Grihini Suvidha Yojna so far and a sum of Rs.131 crore spent to facilitate the women of the state.
• Himachal Pradesh has become the first smoke-free state in the country where every household is having LPG connection now.
• The Cabinet has also approved free domestic water supply in rural areas and two free LPG cylinders to the beneficiaries of Mukhya Mantri Grihini Suvidha Yojna.

About Grihini Suvidha Yojna:

• Mukhya Mantri Grihini Suvidha Yojana was launched on 26th May, 2018. With the concerted efforts of the Centre and State government, the women of the state have become free from the indoor pollution. Besides this, in order to conserve environment, free LPG connection is given to families with no gas connection.

 

Objective:

• The objective of launching the Mukhyamantri Grihini Suvidha Yojna was to provide free gas connections to those families who were not covered under the Centre’s Ujjwala scheme. On the lines of the Ujjwala scheme, the state government started the Mukhya Mantri Grihini Suvidha Yojana. The Ujjwala Yojana being run by the Central Government and the Mukhya Mantri Grihini Suvidha Yojana of the State Government have proved to be a boon for the women of Himachal.
• Ujjwala and Himachal Grihini Suvidha scheme of Centre and State government prove boon for the people of the state and making Himachal Pradesh the first state in the country to become smoke-free state.
• Ujjwalla Yojna was started by the Centre government with the view to free the women of the country from indoor pollution. Along with this, the Himachal government also started the Grihini Suvidha Yojana to benefit as many women as possible, under the scheme.
• Under the Ujjwala yojna with an expenditure of Rs. 21.81 crore 1.36 lakh free domestic connections were given in Himachal, while under the Grihini Suvidha Yojana of the Himachal government, 3.23 lakh housewives were provided free gas cylinders at a cost of Rs. 120 crore.

(Source: HP Government)

 

 

Topic: Air Services to the Kullu-Manali airport

 

Importance: Himachal HPAS Prelims and Mains

 

What is the news?

• Alliance Air, yesterday started its daily operations with newly inducted ATR-42 600 series aircraft to the Kullu-Manali airport at Bhuntar.

 

Who owned Alliance Air?

• Which is owned by the Central Government.

 

• Airports Authority of India (AAI) officials welcomed the aircraft with a spray of water cannons from fire engines at the airport. The operations were scheduled to start yesterday but the flight was cancelled due to bad weather.

 

About Airports Authority of India (AAI):

• The AAI Act of 1994 formed the Airport Authority of India under the Ministry of Civil Aviation in 1995. So this is a legal entity.
• The Airport Authority of India (AAI) was created by an Act of Parliament on April 1, 1995, when the National Airport Authority and the International Airport Authority of India amalgamated. The merger resulted in the formation of a single organization responsible for developing, improving, maintaining and monitoring civil aviation infrastructure on the ground and in the country’s airspace.
• This authority is responsible for providing safe and efficient air traffic services, as well as aeronautical communication services for effective air traffic control across Indian airspace.
• It controls and manages the entire Indian space even beyond the territorial limits of the country, in accordance with the norms set by International Civil Aviation Organisation.

 

What is AAI?

• Airports Authority of India
• Headquarter: Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan, Safdarjung Airport, New Delhi India.
• Chairman Sanjeev Kumar
• Date of enactment 1 April 1995
• Predecessor Civil Aviation Department, Government of India
• Act Name the Airports Authority of India Act, 1994
• Ministry Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India.
• Purpose Responsible for the establishment, upgrading, maintenance and management of the civil aviation infrastructure in India. It provides communications navigation surveillance and air traffic management (CNS/ATM) services over Indian airspace and adjoining oceanic areas.

(Source: The Tribune)

 

 

Topic: Kullu CMO gets Life Time Achievement

 

Importance: Himachal HPAS Prelims and Mains

 

What is the news?

• Kullu Chief Medical Officer Dr Sushil Chander Sharma has been honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award.
• The award was presented to him by Education Minister Govind Singh during the district-level Independence Day function here on Monday.

Achievements during his tenure:

• The Kullu Regional Hospital had received various awards during the tenure of Dr Sushil. The first award of ‘Kayakalp’ in 2017-18 was received by then Union Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda for top performance in the state. He again received the first award of ‘Kayakalp’ of the hospital in 2021-22 from the Chief Minister in Shimla.
• The District Hospital has been awarded a certificate by the Ministry of Health, New Delhi, for qualifying the NQAS at the national level and the hospital is receiving Rs 30 lakh every year for three years.
• In 2019, the CMO has also got the state’s first award for making the most cards in Ayushman Bharat and Himcare schemes. The hospital was awarded a silver medal at the national level in the TB-free campaign.
• During his tenure as the District Health Officer and later as the CMO, Dr Sushil had done ‘Kayakalp’ (transformation) of the Kullu hospital. Residents lauded the health facilities in the hospital, especially during the pandemic.

(Source: The Tribune)