6th, March, 2023
Topic: Women have been shaping societies since ages said Chief Minister
Importance: Himachal HPAS Prelims and Mains
Importance for Prelims: Economic and social development – Inclusion.
Importance for Mains Exam:
- PAPER-IV: GENERAL STUDIES-I: UNIT II: Women empowerment and social justice: Policies for women Empowerment in India, Laws for protection of women, women security and safety initiatives in India.
What is the news?
- Chief Minister, Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu while presiding over the International Women’s Day State Level function here today said that women were the pillars of the society and when women were empowered, the whole world was empowered.
- Organized by the Social Justice and Empowerment Department, several series of awareness programmes were being organised all over the State from 1st to 8th March 2023 to apprise the women folk on sensitive issues such as domestic violence, drug abuse, women persecution at work places etc. Besides, the Social Justice and Empowerment department has also organised various programmes to highlight the social, economic, cultural and political achievement of women.
Chief Minister shared:
- Late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi paved the way for 33 percent reservation for women in panchayats and local bodies through the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments. Although it was opposed by many, Rajiv Gandhi was determined to strengthen the women folk and increase their participation in Nation building. Today around 57 percent of the women in Himachal were representing the Panchayats and local bodies.
Announcement by CM:
- Chief Minister also announced to increase the amount of Himachal Pradesh Mahila Vikas Protsahan Puraskar from Rs 21,000 to Rs 1 lakh and district level awards from Rs 5,000 to Rs 25,000.
- The Chief Minister also formally launched the website of Sukh-Ashray Kosh and the Him-Poorak Poshahar Pushti App and visited the exhibition set up by SHGs.
Women honoured by CM:
- On this occasion, he also honoured the women who have excelled in various fields. Those who were honoured with Himachal Pradesh Mahila Vikas Protsahan Puraskar were Free lance journalists, Dev Kanya Thakur, social worker Sangeeta Khurana in the field of drug addiction and Dr. Anvesha Negi, working in the health sector, for their contribution in eradicating malnutrition among children
- The Chief Minister also honoured women from the districts for their remarkable contribution in sports and other fields. The awardees includes Para player Rachna Kumari of Bilaspur district, Ayushi Bhandari and Mala Bhagti of Kinnaur district, writer Rekha Vashisht of Mandi district, International women cricketer Renuka Singh Thakur in her absence, and Suman and Manju the specially abled from Shimla for Para sports, mountaineer Baljit Kaur from Solan and International skier Aanchal Thakur from Kullu.
(Source: HP Government)
Topic: 257 clusters selected under phase one of HP Shiva main project: CM
Importance: Himachal HPAS Prelims and Mains
Importance for Prelims: Economic and social development – sustainable development poverty, inclusion, demographics, social sector initiatives, etc.
Importance for Mains Exam:
- PAPER-VI: GENERAL STUDIES-III: UNIT III: Horticulture
What is the news?
- Asian Development Bank’s Project Readiness Financing Mission team led by Ms. Sunae Kim, Team Leader for the HP Shiva Project, met Chief Minister, Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu here today and briefed about the objectives and scope of the mission.
- On this occasion, the Chief Minister said that 257 clusters have been selected for the first phase of Rs. 1292 crore HP Shiva main project.
- Target has been set to benefit about 15,000 farmers and orchardists by setting up orchards in an area of 4,000 hectares, he added. He said that this project will be implemented in 5 years and sub-tropical fruit-crop gardens will be set up in about 400 clusters on a total of 6 thousand hectares of land in two phases.
Which international organisation supported this project?
- The Asian Development Bank Mission.
What is HP SHIVA Scheme 2023?
- Horticulture development under the HP Shiva Scheme would be based on the seed-to-market concept. The goal of the HP Shiva project is to connect as many unemployed youth and women as possible with horticulture. The orchardist would receive assistance and facilities ranging from suitable saplings to mass marketing in order to develop new orchards.
Benefits of HP Shiva Scheme:
- High density farming would be promoted under HP SHIVA in order to bring about a horticulture revolution.
- Scientific methods would be used to protect and maintain orchards.
- Aside from that, provisions for composite solar fencing have been made to protect fruits and crops from wild animals.
- A subsidy on agricultural equipment and agricultural inputs is also provided for the installation of drip irrigation systems and cluster management to ensure proper utilisation of available water resources.
- Under the project, 100 irrigation schemes would be developed to revolutionise horticulture, with 60% of irrigation schemes being revamped and 40% being new irrigation schemes to reduce reliance on rain water.
(Source: HP Government)
Topic: All 12 districts of Himachal Pradesh prone to landslides: ISRO study
Importance: Himachal HPAS Prelims and Mains
Importance for Prelims: Economic and social development – sustainable development poverty, inclusion, demographics, social sector initiatives, etc.
Importance for Mains Exam:
- PAPER-VI: GENERAL STUDIES-III: UNIT III: Horticulture
What’s the latest?
- The National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) has identified all 12 districts in Himachal Pradesh as being prone to landslides, with socioeconomic factors playing a key role in the onset of the calamity.
Who made this available?
- The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman S Somnath unveiled the Landslide Atlas of India on February 28 at the “National Meet on Disaster Risk Management — Trends & Technologies” in Hyderabad. The NRSC, an ISRO facility, manages data from aerial and satellite sources.
- The atlas includes a list of 147 districts in 17 states and two UTs that are vulnerable to landslides based on key socioeconomic parameters.
- Mandi (ranked 16), Hamirpur (ranked 25), Bilaspur (ranked 30), Chamba (ranked 32), Solan (ranked 37), Kinnaur (ranked 46), Kullu (ranked 57), Shimla (ranked 61), Kangra (ranked 62), Una (ranked 70), Sirmaur (ranked 88), and Lahaul and Spiti are the Himachal districts on the list (rank 126).
ISRO shared:
- Total population, number of households, roads, and livestock are examples of socioeconomic parameters (SEP). According to the NRSC’s atlas, the Rudraprayag district in Uttarakhand has the highest landslide density in India, as well as the highest exposure to total population, working population, literacy, and number of houses.
- Contribution of each exposure element for the top 10 landslide-exposed districts is shown in bar diagram in the atlas. The chart showed population exposure and livestock exposure as the two major contributions for landslides. Two of these districts fall in Uttarakhand (Rudraprayag and Tehri Garhwal), two in Kashmir (Rajouri and Pulwama), four in Kerala (Thrissur, Palakkad, Malappuram and Kozhikode) and two in Sikkim (south and east district).
- Noting that landslides from remote steep slopes put people living downhill at risk, the atlas says slow-moving mountain slope identification is now possible thanks to time series measurements from space using microwave satellite data and the synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) technique, which can detect displacement at the millimetre level.
- The availability of open-source Sentinel-1 data has transformed research into landslide kinematics and predicting failure time. “However, identifying accelerating trends, demarcating the release area, and predicting flow path after failure initiation remain difficult,” the atlas notes.
- The Northwest Himalayas account for 66.5% of landslides in India, followed by the Northeast Himalayas (18.8%) and the Western Ghats (14.7%), according to the landslide atlas.
(Source: HP Tribune)