23-05-23 Daily-Haryana-HPSC Current Affairs

A sum of Rs 111.58 crore has been approved for compensatory afforestation (CA), additional compensatory afforestation (ACA) and penal compensatory afforestation (PCA) to be carried out over an area of 1,197.73 hectares during the year 2023-24.

It was highlighted at the meeting that the Shivalik Hill Region in the northern part and the Aravalli hills in the southern part of the state are highly prone to runoff and erosion due to their hilly and undulating topography. During the rainy season, rainwater drains rapidly from these areas, leading to soil erosion and loss of topsoil. Therefore, soil conservation measures, including the construction of earthen Dams, masonry structures, cement concrete structures, check dams, silt detention dams and crate wire structures, were required. A substantial budget of Rs 20 crore has been allocated for this purpose.

Further, Rs 10 crore has been approved for habitat improvement and Infrastructure development in Protected Areas under the wildlife management plan for 2023-24. The state manages two national parks, seven wildlife sanctuaries, two conservation reserves and five community reserves through the Wildlife Wing.

In a move that would make the decentralised (DRE) livelihood applications such as solar dryer, solar or Biomass powered cold storage/chiller, solar charkha, etc affordable, the Government is mooting a mechanism wherein banks will dole out finance for purchase of such solutions which are not only energy efficient but also economically viable.

If a family wants to own a solar dryer, they should be able to get financing from the banks we will work towards it. Manufacturers and users of DRE for livelihoods are pioneers and now the government will scale it up to the next level, said Union Power Minister RK Singh at the national summit on powering sustainable livelihoods held recently. He said that a new scheme for distributed applications of renewable energy (RE) is on anvil. There is already major work happening on the ground and our scheme could benefit lakhs of families across the country. However, for that government will, however, need large scale-manufacturing and standardising of distributed applications of RE to lower prices and expand the sector.

South Korea successfully launched a commercial-grade satellite for the first time as part of its growing space development program, as rival North Korea is pushing to place its first military spy satellite into orbit. The two Koreas, technically in a state of war, have no military reconnaissance satellites of their own and both are eager to possess them.

The domestically built three-stage Nuri rocket lifted off from a launch facility on a southern island with a payload of eight satellites, including a main commercial-grade satellite whose mission is to verify radar imaging technology and observe cosmic radiation in a near-Earth orbit.

The launch boosted South Koreas hopes of catching up with Asian neighbors such as China, Japan and India in a regional space race.

Lee, the science minister, said South Korea plans to conduct three more Nuri rocket launches by 2027 and will seek to develop more advanced launch vehicles.