15 November 2023

• Agriculture: PM-KISAN's 15th instalment of Rs 18,000 crore was released to over 8 crore farmers from an event at Birsa College in Khunti, Jharkhand, on Tribal Pride Day.
• Culture: 15 November is Tribal Pride Day, marking Birsa Munda's birth anniversary. Jharkhand also celebrates its foundation day on this date.
• Environment: India was exempted from CITES's Review of Significant Trade for Red Sanders, allowing farmers in Andhra Pradesh to trade the endangered timber legally for the first time since 2004.
• Governance: The parliamentary panel studying the three criminal law bills recommended gender-neutral framing for Section 377 and partial retention of adultery provisions.
• Energy: Mini solar grids at Rs 24 per MWh could address energy poverty for 675 million people globally who lack access to modern energy services.

GS area: Modern Indian History (Tribal History, Culture)

15 November is Tribal Pride Day (Janjatiya Gaurav Diwas), celebrating the birth anniversary of Birsa Munda, born on 15 November 1875 in Khunti district, Jharkhand. Jharkhand's foundation day also falls on 15 November. The PM-KISAN 15th instalment release was timed to this day with an event at Birsa Munda's home district.

• Birsa Munda (1875-1900): led the Ulgulan (Great Tumult) uprising against British colonial encroachment on tribal land rights in the Chota Nagpur region. His movement also resisted missionary conversion and reasserted indigenous faith.
• Birsait faith: Birsa Munda founded an indigenous religion combining elements of Hindu and Christian practice into a nature-based tribal faith. He is revered as "Dharati Abba" (Father of the Earth).
• Legal legacy: the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act 1908 recognised tribal land rights partly in response to the unrest Munda catalysed.
• Jharkhand: carved out of Bihar on 15 November 2000. The state has the highest concentration of Scheduled Tribe population among large states.

Static linkage: Modern Indian History (Tribal movements), Art and Culture.

GS area: Environment (Biodiversity, International Agreements)

India was exempted from the CITES Review of Significant Trade (RST) for Red Sanders (Pterocarpus santalinus), moving from Category 2 to Category 1 in the CITES Standing Committee. India had been under RST since 2004.

• Red Sanders: listed in CITES Appendix II (trade controlled to prevent it threatening survival) and India's Wildlife Protection Act Schedule IV. Endemic to the Eastern Ghats. Takes 25-40 years to reach maturity.
• Why it matters: the exemption allows farmers in Andhra Pradesh who own private land with Red Sanders to participate in legitimate trade.
• Trigger for exemption: the 2022 Wildlife Protection Act amendment aligned India's domestic framework with CITES provisions.
• Applications of Red Sanders: furniture, red dye ("santalin"), textiles, traditional medicine, food colouring.
• CITES RST process: countries where significant quantities of a CITES-listed species are in trade face review. If domestic management is found adequate, the country is upgraded from Category 2 (require action) to Category 1 (in compliance).

Static linkage: Environment (Biodiversity, International Agreements).

GS area: Economy (Energy, Renewable Energy)

Mini solar grids generating from kilowatts to 10 megawatts can provide electricity to rural, off-grid communities at a cost of approximately Rs 24 per MWh, lower than coal or natural gas. The World Bank is funding 1,000 mini-grids to reach 75 per cent of the 675 million people without access to modern energy services globally.

• Approximately 700 solar mini-grids in India: concentrated in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand.
• Supporting schemes: the International Solar Alliance, PM-KUSUM (solar pumps for farmers), the National Solar Mission, OSOWOG (One Sun One World One Grid) and the Solar Park Scheme.
• Energy poverty: defined as the lack of access to modern energy services. Approximately 9 per cent of the global population still lives in energy poverty. Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are the most affected regions.

Static linkage: Economy (Energy, Rural Development).

GS area: Science and Technology (Space)

Saturn's rings will appear invisible from Earth in 2025 because the rings will be viewed edge-on due to the geometry of Saturn's orbit around the Sun. This happens twice per Saturnian year (a Saturn year is about 29.5 Earth years).

• Ring composition: icy particles, rocks and dust, mostly water ice, from the debris of comets or asteroids.
• Ring structure: the rings are very wide (extending hundreds of thousands of kilometres) but extremely thin (typically tens to hundreds of metres in depth). Edge-on visibility makes them appear to vanish.
• Saturn's moons: Saturn has the most moons of any planet in the solar system (as of 2023).

Static linkage: Science and Technology (Space).

GS area: Economy (Agriculture, Government Schemes)

The 15th instalment of PM-KISAN (Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi) released Rs 18,000 crore to over 8 crore farmers through Direct Benefit Transfer.

• PM-KISAN scheme: provides Rs 6,000 per year in three instalments of Rs 2,000 each to eligible farmers directly to their bank accounts. The scheme was launched in December 2018 and covers small and marginal farmers who hold land up to 2 hectares.
• DBT significance: Direct Benefit Transfer eliminates middlemen, reduces leakage and ensures benefits reach intended beneficiaries. PM-KISAN is one of the largest DBT schemes in the world.
• Connection to Birsa Munda: the instalment release at Birsa College in Khunti on Tribal Pride Day was a deliberate symbolic act linking the government's tribal welfare narrative with the agricultural support scheme.

Static linkage: Economy (Agriculture, Government Schemes, DBT).

GS area: Disaster Management

The Silkyara tunnel rescue operation in Uttarkashi continued into its third day. Horizontal drilling was underway to create a steel-pipe escape route through the 60-metre debris mound. The 41 trapped workers were confirmed safe with food and oxygen supplied through a 6-inch pipeline.

• Geological challenge: the debris kept shifting, pushing back drilling progress.
• Main Central Thrust: the tunnel sits on this major Himalayan fault. The area's fractured rock makes drilling unpredictable.

Static linkage: Disaster Management, Indian Geography.

• Constantine Joseph Beschi (Veeramamunivar): 18th-century Italian Jesuit missionary and Tamil scholar. Served as Dewan to Chanda Sahib, Nawab of Carnatic. Received villages and honorific from the Nawab. His Tamil literary works remain significant cultural contributions. The 2nd Carnatic War (1749-1754) was a succession dispute in which British forces ultimately prevailed, installing Muhammad Ali as Nawab.
• Four fundamental forces: gravitational (mediator: graviton, infinite range, weakest), electromagnetic (mediator: photon, infinite range), strong nuclear (mediator: gluon, 10^-15 m range, strongest), weak nuclear (mediators: W and Z bosons, 10^-18 m range).