01 October 2022

DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS ANALYSIS

 1 – Taj Mahal: GS I – Topic Indian Culture

Context:

• Architectural wonders like the Taj Mahal’s complex latticework and embellishments are well known. The supreme court has regularly drawn attention to the Taj Mahal’s inadequate protection from various types of pollution.

About:

• In honour of his wife Mumtaz Mahal, the Mughal emperor Shahjahan built the Taj Mahal, a structure made of white marble. Alongside the Yamuna River, it is located.
• It also serves as a great example of Mughal splendour and architecture at its height.
• Between 1631 and 1648 AD, a total of 17 years were needed to construct the Taj Mahal.

The Taj Trapezium Zone condition and the increase in pollution:

• The national government created the Taj Trapezium Zone, a 10,400 sq km region surrounding the Taj, in the M.C. Mehta case (1996) to protect the monument from pollution (TTZ).
• Furthermore, it sent directions to the 292 firms operating in the zone on whether to switch to using natural gas as their industrial fuel or relocate.
• According to a National Environmental Engineering Research Institute assessment released in 2010, the iconic Taj Mahal is still in danger due to water and air pollution (NEERI). Despite several government efforts to reduce pollution in the TTZ area, this was still the case.

Source The Hindu

2 – Symphone: GS I – Topic à Indian Culture:

 Context:

• The Ministry of Development of the North Eastern Region is sponsoring the online conference “SymphoNE” on September 27, World Tourist Day, with the aim of creating a strategy to advance the area’s tourism business and draw attention to the untapped beauty of North East India.
• The North East of India is referred to as a “Traveller’s Unexplored Paradise” for its unique combination of scenic beauty, varied civilizations, and a wealth of natural resources.

About:

• 74 million foreign tourists visited India in 2020, and 1.52 million did so in 2021, per government statistics (India Tourism Statistics 2022).
• In 2021, the United States, the United Kingdom, Bangladesh, Canada, Nepal, Afghanistan, and Australia were the top 15 countries from which visitors travelled to India.
• In 2019, 10.93 million foreign visitors entered the country.

Source à The Hindu

3 – Jaldoot App: GS III –  Topic Environmental Conservation

• Context: The Ministry of Rural Development developed this app to let Gram Rojgar Sahayak measure the groundwater level of selected wells twice a year in selected communities.
• The data will be used to create groundwater augmentation projects for the Gram Panchayat Development Plan and the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA (GPDP).

Source The Hindu

4 – Green Economy: GS III –  Topic Environmental Conservation

Context:

• A Green Economy Ecosystem will be built by the women of Kodalpali, Sinduria, and other villages in Odisha’s Nayagarh. These women call the forests home.
• With the help of Vasundhara, a non-profit organisation that focuses on tribal problems, they have over the years built a federation of village protection committees at the block and district levels. The executives meet each month to settle disagreements between villages and other issues. The majority of the executives are female.

Other Details:

• The rules for using the forest, which prohibit grazing during the monsoon, felling green trees on Sundays, and gathering minor forest products like bamboo and kendu (or tendu leaves used to manufacture beedis) by anyone other than village members, must be followed by all locals.
• This enormous experiment has now advanced to a new phase. 24 communities will finally acquire communal forest rights in November 2021 after years of conflict. The Forest Rights Act of 2006 contains a provision that grants communities the only right to a section of publicly owned forestland that has historically been used for resource harvesting and protection.
• The first eco-village in the state was Muduligadia, a plain community in the Nayagarh district, which had already gained notoriety.

Source The Hindu