2 July 2024

• Governance: Smart Cities Mission extended to March 2025 after Telangana CM's request. Only 66 per cent of projects completed.
• North-East: Government schemes for North-East development reviewed. Region holds 58,000 MW hydropower potential and is gateway to ASEAN.
• History: Santhal Hul anniversary. The 1855 rebellion remains a landmark in India's tribal resistance history.
• Environment: Great Indian Bustard conservation gets 56 crore rupees for 2024 to 2033.

GS area: Governance, Urban Development

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs extended the Smart Cities Mission deadline to 31 March 2025. The original mission launched in 2015 covered 100 cities. Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy's appeal for an extension cited incomplete projects.

• Progress: Roughly 66 per cent of projects completed nationwide. Madurai is among the cities that achieved 100 per cent completion. Fourteen cities remain below 50 per cent progress.
• Central funds: Only 28 of the 100 cities received 100 per cent of their pledged central grants.
• Integrated Command and Control Centres (ICCCs): Operational in all 100 Smart Cities. These centres integrate city services such as traffic, utilities, and emergency response.
• PPP gap: Only 6 per cent of smart city projects are funded through public-private partnerships. The mission relies heavily on government grants.
• Master plans: Sixty-five per cent of urban local bodies still lack master plans, limiting long-term planning capacity.
• Fund utilisation paradox: Ninety per cent of funds are reported as utilised even though only 66 per cent of projects are complete. This points to accounting issues rather than completion.

The extension gives lagging cities more time but does not resolve the structural problems: weak SPV governance, poor private sector participation, and gaps between fund flow and physical progress.

Static linkage: Urban governance (Polity), urbanisation (Indian geography).

GS area: Economy, Governance, Polity

India's North-East region is strategically positioned as the gateway for the Act East Policy. Eight states cover roughly 8 per cent of India's territory but hold a disproportionate share of the country's natural resources.

• Hydropower potential: 58,000 MW. This is roughly a third of India's total assessed hydropower potential. Most remains untapped because of poor grid connectivity and environmental sensitivities.
• Biodiversity: Over 220 ethnic groups and dialects. The region hosts rare species and high-altitude wetlands.
• Key central schemes: Bharatmala Pariyojana for national highway connectivity; RCS-UDAN for air connectivity to underserved areas; Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project linking India to Myanmar's Sittwe Port; National Bamboo Mission for livelihoods.
• India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway: Under construction. Aims to link Moreh (Manipur) to Mae Sot (Thailand) via Myanmar. Delayed by conflict in Myanmar since the 2021 coup.
• Brain drain: High youth unemployment drives migration out of the region. Lack of industrial base is the root cause.
• Assam floods 2022: Recurring floods highlight climate vulnerability. Brahmaputra basin management is a perennial governance challenge.

Static linkage: North-East India (Indian geography), Act East Policy (IR).

GS area: Modern History

Hul Diwas is observed on 30 June each year to mark the Santhal Hul of 1855 to 1856. The rebellion was led by the Santhal tribal community against the British East India Company's revenue system and the zamindari class that exploited tribal peasants.

• Leadership: Sidhu and Kanhu Murmu are the primary leaders. Their siblings Chand and Bhairav also participated. Women commanders including Phulo and Jhano led a force of around 1,000 women.
• Background: British administrators had relocated Santhals to the Damin-i-Koh forested tracts in what is now Jharkhand. When zamindars and moneylenders extracted usurious interest and the police sided with landlords, Santhals rose in armed resistance.
• Scale: The rebellion engulfed parts of present-day Jharkhand, West Bengal, and Odisha. British authorities imposed martial law. The rebellion was suppressed by January 1856.
• Legacy: The Santhal Pargana region was later carved out as a special administrative zone. The revolt is considered a precursor to the 1857 uprising and influenced later tribal rights movements.

Static linkage: Tribal revolts (Modern History), rights of forest-dwelling communities.

GS area: Environment and Ecology

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change approved 56 crore rupees for Great Indian Bustard conservation for the period 2024 to 2033. The Wildlife Institute of India has led the programme since 2016.

• Conservation status: Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List. Listed in Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act (highest protection) and Appendix I of CITES (strictest trade ban).
• Population: Fewer than 200 birds remain, concentrated in Rajasthan with small populations in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh.
• Lesser Florican: Also covered under the same scheme. Critically Endangered and restricted to grasslands of central and western India.
• Key threats: Power line collisions are the leading cause of death. Underground cabling of high-tension lines through the Desert National Park is the highest-priority intervention.
• Breeding programme: An egg-hatching and chick-rearing facility operates in Jaisalmer. Male bustards do not participate in incubation or chick care.

Static linkage: Threatened species conservation (Environment and Ecology).

GS area: Governance, Economy

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation launched the eSankhyiki Portal on 29 June (Statistics Day, observed on P.C. Mahalanobis's birth anniversary).

• Content: Over 2,291 datasets available for download and visualisation.
• Two modules: Data Catalogue (browse and download official datasets) and Macro Indicators (key economic indicators in one place).
• P.C. Mahalanobis: Statistician who founded the Indian Statistical Institute and designed India's second Five-Year Plan. Statistics Day (29 June) honours his birth anniversary.

Static linkage: Government data systems (Governance), national income accounting (Economy).

• Shyok River: Flows through Ladakh as a tributary of the Indus. Originates from the Rimo Glacier. Joins the Indus at Skardu in Pakistan-administered territory. In the news after a T-72 battle tank was swept away during training, with five soldiers killed.
• Eco-friendly supercapacitors: Researchers at Government College for Women, Thiruvananthapuram, developed supercapacitors using activated carbon from coconut husks. Supercapacitors store energy electrostatically and discharge faster than batteries.
• Project REPLAN: Government initiative to build plastic recycling infrastructure. Linked to the Extended Producer Responsibility framework under which plastic producers must ensure collection and recycling of the plastic they put into the market.