29 March 2023

• Technology: India's first quantum key distribution (QKD) communication link becomes operational between Sanchar Bhawan and the CGO Complex in New Delhi.
• Urban development: Twenty-six proposals from 21 states are under evaluation for the 15th Finance Commission's new-cities grant of Rs 1,000 crore each.
• Health: India crossed the replacement-level fertility rate of 2.1 in 2020 per NFHS-5, but non-communicable disease burden has risen from 38 to 62 per cent of total disease burden.
• Energy: Green hydrogen production remains at 0.04 per cent of global hydrogen output in 2021, far from the scale required for India's 5 MT target by 2030.
• Biodiversity: The Sarus Crane, world's tallest flying bird and state bird of Uttar Pradesh, faces continued habitat loss in the Indo-Gangetic wetlands.

GS Paper III: Science and technology; cybersecurity.

India's first operational quantum key distribution link became functional between Sanchar Bhawan (Ministry of Communications headquarters) and the CGO Complex in New Delhi, both in the central government enclave. The link was developed by C-DOT (Centre for Development of Telematics).

• What quantum key distribution (QKD) is: QKD is a method of distributing encryption keys using the principles of quantum mechanics. Two parties exchange photons to generate a shared random key. Any attempt by an eavesdropper to intercept the photons disturbs their quantum state, making the interception detectable immediately.
• Why it matters: Conventional encryption (RSA, AES) depends on computational difficulty. A sufficiently powerful quantum computer could break RSA encryption by factoring large primes efficiently. QKD is information-theoretically secure: it does not depend on computational assumptions.
• C-DOT's role: C-DOT (Centre for Development of Telematics) is a premier telecom R&D centre under the Department of Telecommunications. It developed the QKD hardware, software and the management system for the New Delhi link.
• Security demonstration: A Rs 10 lakh reward has been announced for anyone who can demonstrate a breach of the link, underscoring confidence in its security.
• Global context: China, the US and the EU all have advanced QKD and quantum communication networks. China has the world's longest operational QKD link, covering over 2,000 km via a combination of fibre and satellite relay. India's first link is a significant but early step.
• National Quantum Mission: India approved the National Quantum Mission (NQM) in April 2023 with a Rs 6,003 crore outlay over 2023-24 to 2030-31, targeting satellite-based quantum communications, quantum computers and QKD networks as deliverables.

Revises: Science and technology; Cybersecurity; Digital India.

GS Paper II / III: Urban development; fiscal federalism.

The 15th Finance Commission's framework for urban development included a provision for funding eight entirely new cities at Rs 1,000 crore each, with 26 proposals from 21 states now under evaluation.

• Commission recommendation: The 15th Finance Commission (2021-26 award period) recommended a dedicated grant of Rs 8,000 crore for the development of eight new greenfield cities, at Rs 1,000 crore per city, subject to the cities meeting population, land and urban planning conditions.
• Eligibility criterion: Maximum one new city per state. States must demonstrate a minimum population catchment, availability of clear land title for a specified minimum area and a statutory urban local body framework ready for activation.
• Notable proposals: Gurgaon (a potential second planned city in Haryana to ease NCR pressure), Ayodhya (UP, following the development push post the Supreme Court judgment), GIFT City expansion (Gujarat, already an operational financial centre), and Bantala (West Bengal, a new township proposal on the eastern fringe of Kolkata).
• Policy context: India is urbanising rapidly but concentrating growth in a handful of megacities. The new-cities framework attempts to redirect some growth to planned urban nodes with pre-built infrastructure, avoiding the unplanned sprawl that characterises most Indian urban growth.
• Historical parallel: India's post-Independence planned cities include Chandigarh (1953), Gandhinagar (1960), Bhubaneswar (1948), Naya Raipur (2012) and GIFT City (2011). Experiences vary; Chandigarh and GIFT City are often cited as successes; others grew more slowly than planned.

Revises: Urban development; Fiscal federalism; 15th Finance Commission.

GS Paper II: Social sector; health; women.

Data from the National Family Health Survey Round 5 (NFHS-5, 2019-21) provided a comprehensive picture of India's demographic and health transition.

• Replacement-level fertility: India's Total Fertility Rate (TFR) reached 2.1 in 2020 per NFHS-5, at the replacement level for the first time. A TFR of 2.1 means the average woman will have 2.1 children over her lifetime, sufficient to replace the current generation without population growth or decline (net of mortality).
• Institutional deliveries: The share of births in a health institution has risen sharply. In the BIMARU states (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh), institutional delivery now reaches 89 per cent, a significant improvement from NFHS-4 levels of 55-60 per cent in several of these states.
• Insurance coverage: Approximately 74 per cent of Indians are covered or eligible under Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY), which provides a Rs 5 lakh per year per family cashless hospitalisation benefit.
• NCD burden: Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) now account for 62 per cent of the total disease burden in India, up from 38 per cent in 2016. The four dominant NCDs are cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes.
• NFHS-5 methodology: NFHS-5 is the fifth round of a nationally representative household survey covering over 6.37 lakh households. It is conducted by the International Institute for Population Sciences under MoHFW.

Revises: Social sector; Health; Demographics.

GS Paper III: Energy; environment.

Detailed analysis of India's National Green Hydrogen Mission targets revealed how large the gap is between current global production and the scale needed for green hydrogen to become a meaningful energy source.

• Current global production: Only 0.04 per cent of global hydrogen production in 2021 was green hydrogen (produced by electrolysis using renewable energy). The rest is grey hydrogen (from natural gas with CO2 emissions) or blue hydrogen (grey with carbon capture).
• Electrolysis inefficiency: Approximately 30 per cent of the renewable electricity used in electrolysis is lost as heat in the process. This energy loss raises the cost of green hydrogen relative to fossil-fuel alternatives.
• EU REPowerEU plan: The European Union's REPowerEU plan targets production and import of 20 million tonnes of green hydrogen annually by 2030 to reduce dependence on Russian gas.
• India's National Green Hydrogen Mission: Launched in January 2023 with an outlay of Rs 19,744 crore, targeting 5 million tonnes (MT) per year of domestic green hydrogen production by 2030. The mission includes financial incentives for electrolyser manufacturing and green hydrogen production under the Strategic Interventions for Green Hydrogen Transition (SIGHT) programme.
• Cost challenge: Green hydrogen costs approximately USD 4-6 per kg currently. Fossil-fuel hydrogen costs USD 1-2 per kg. The mission targets a cost reduction to below USD 1 per kg by 2030 through scale and technology improvement.

Revises: Energy; Environment; Government schemes.

GS Paper I / III: Physical geography; disaster management.

The India Meteorological Department launched an enhanced heat warning system based on the Heat Index rather than air temperature alone.

• What the Heat Index is: The Heat Index is a measure of how hot it feels to the human body, combining dry-bulb air temperature and relative humidity. At high humidity, sweat does not evaporate efficiently, impairing the body's natural cooling. A temperature of 35°C at 80 per cent relative humidity has a Heat Index equivalent to approximately 47°C.
• IMD threshold for heatwave: A heatwave is declared when the maximum temperature exceeds 40°C in plains areas and 30°C in hilly areas, and is at least 4.5°C above the climatological normal. The new system adds a humidity-adjusted Heat Index layer to this threshold-based alert.
• Other factors incorporated: Wind speed (higher wind increases evaporative cooling), cloud cover (direct radiation vs. diffuse) and surface conditions are additional modifiers in the full Heat Index model.
• Operational colour-coded warnings: The new system maps Heat Index values to the same green-yellow-orange-red colour scheme as existing weather warnings, allowing integration with existing emergency response communication channels.

Revises: Physical geography; Disaster management; IMD.

GS Paper II / III: Social justice; skill development; government schemes.

DDU-GKY's Captive Employment model achieved placements of 31,000 rural youth in positions with a minimum CTC of Rs 10,000 and a six-month assured placement guarantee.

• Scheme overview: DDU-GKY (Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana) is a central sector scheme under the Ministry of Rural Development. It provides market-linked skill training to rural youth aged 15-35 from poor families.
• Demographic quotas: At least 50 per cent of trainees must belong to Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe communities; 15 per cent from minority communities; 33 per cent women.
• Captive Employment model: Under this sub-component, a corporate employer partners with the training provider before training begins and commits to hiring all graduates who meet minimum competence thresholds. The employer defines the training content, guaranteeing that the curriculum is directly matched to actual job requirements.
• CTC and retention: The minimum CTC is Rs 10,000 per month with a six-month assured retention. Monitoring of post-placement retention has been a persistent challenge for the broader scheme; the Captive model attempts to address this by building employer commitment upfront.
• Parent scheme: DDU-GKY is one of the programmes under the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM), which in turn sits under the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-Grameen administrative umbrella at MoRD.

Revises: Government schemes; Skill development; Social justice.

GS Paper II: India's foreign policy; infrastructure; Act East Policy.

Bangladesh's Matarbari deep-sea port, financed by Japan, is significant for India because it offers landlocked Northeast India an overland route to a deep-water port for the first time.

• Location: Matarbari is in Cox's Bazar district, southern Bangladesh, on the Bay of Bengal. It is designed to accommodate post-Panamax vessels that the Chittagong port cannot handle.
• Japanese financing: Japan is funding the Matarbari port development under ODA loans through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). It is part of Japan's Bay of Bengal Industrial Growth Belt (BIG-B) initiative.
• India's interest: Landlocked states of Northeast India currently route imports and exports via Kolkata port through the "chicken's neck" Siliguri Corridor. Matarbari would give Northeast producers a shorter, cheaper route to a deep-water port via Bangladesh.
• India-Japan Act East Forum: The India-Japan Act East Forum, established in 2017, specifically coordinates infrastructure connectivity projects benefiting Northeast India. Matarbari fits directly into its mandate.
• Transit agreement requirement: Access to Matarbari for Indian goods requires Bangladesh's cooperation on transit or transshipment rights, governed by the India-Bangladesh Agreement on the Use of Chattogram and Mongla Ports for Movement of Goods to and from India (signed 2020, operational from 2023).

Revises: India's foreign policy; Infrastructure; Bangladesh.

GS Paper III: Economy; financial markets; regulation.

SEBI introduced regulations for index providers, requiring a minimum net worth of Rs 25 crore and mandatory registration with SEBI for entities that compute and publish indices used in financial products.

• What an index provider does: An index provider calculates and maintains market indices such as the Nifty 50 (NSE) and the Sensex (BSE and S&P Dow Jones Indices jointly). These indices are used as benchmarks for mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and derivatives contracts.
• Nifty 50: Maintained by NSE Indices Limited (a subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange). Tracks 50 large-cap stocks on the NSE weighted by free-float market capitalisation.
• Sensex: A 30-stock index maintained jointly by BSE and S&P Dow Jones Indices. It is the oldest Indian equity index (since 1986).
• Regulatory gap: Before these regulations, index providers in India operated without a formal regulatory framework. SEBI's regulations bring them under oversight, requiring governance standards, conflict-of-interest policies, methodology disclosure and complaint redress.
• Minimum net worth: The Rs 25 crore minimum net worth requirement ensures that registered index providers have a minimum financial standing to sustain operations and meet liabilities.

Revises: Financial markets; SEBI; Economy.

GS Paper III: Environment; biodiversity.

The Sarus Crane faced renewed habitat pressure as wetland encroachments reduced the availability of shallow freshwater habitats in Uttar Pradesh, the primary stronghold for the species.

• Species profile: The Sarus Crane (Antigone antigone) is the world's tallest flying bird at 152-156 cm. It is also the only resident (non-migratory) crane in India.
• IUCN status: Vulnerable. Population estimated at fewer than 27,000 globally, with the Indian subcontinent holding the largest population.
• CITES status: Listed on CITES Appendix II, meaning international trade is regulated but not banned.
• State bird: The Sarus Crane is the state bird of Uttar Pradesh.
• Habitat: It inhabits shallow freshwater wetlands, flooded agricultural fields and the margins of lakes and ponds. Its dependence on both natural wetlands and agricultural landscapes makes it sensitive to both wetland drainage and changes in farming practice.
• Primary threats: Wetland drainage for agriculture and urban encroachment; pesticide use in paddy fields (the bird forages in paddy at certain growth stages); deliberate killing in some areas.

Revises: Biodiversity; Environment; State symbols.

• Universal Acceptance Day (28 March): Promotes adoption of multilingual email addresses and domain names, allowing non-ASCII characters. ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) coordinates the global domain name system and is the body overseeing Universal Acceptance implementation.
• Dawoodi Bohras: A Shia Ismaili Mustali Muslim community of approximately 10 lakh globally, 5 lakh in India. Their spiritual leader is the Dai-al-Mutlaq. The community came to public attention over internal reform disputes involving the right to practice excommunication.