Special Campaign 2.0 to reduce pendency in government offices (GS Paper 2, Governance)
Why in news?
- Recently, the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensionslaunched its month-long Special Campaign 2.0 focusing on the timely disposal of pending references in government offices and departments, as well as a clean workspace.
Key Highlights:
- As part of a campaign from 2 October to 31 October, a review will be done of all kinds of pendency in different categories like Minister of Parliament (PM) references, Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) references, Cabinet references, state government references, public grievances, easing of rules and processes, files taken up for review, cleanliness campaign sites taken up and rules identified for easing.
- The Special Campaign 2.0 is expected to cover over 1.5 lakh Post Offices, overseas mission/posts, Railway Stations, and other public offices in mission mode during the month-long campaign.
- The scope and mandate of Special Campaign 2.0 has been expanded and it will focus more on field/outstation offices in addition to the Ministries/ Departments and their attached/subordinate offices and Autonomous Bodies of Government of India.
Implementation:
- Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) will oversee implementation of the Special campaign 2.0.
Background:
- The first phase of Special Campaign launched in October 2021, about 12 lakh sq. ft. of space was freed up in offices for productive use and Rs.62 Crore earned from disposal of scrap.
PMs Scheme for Mentoring Young Authors YUVA 2.0 launched
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
Why in news?
- Recently, the Ministry of Education, Department of Higher Education, launched YUVA 2.0 - Prime Minister’s Scheme for Mentoring Young Authors.
- It is an Author Mentorship programme to train young and budding authors (below 30 years of age) in order to promote reading, writing and book culture in the country, and project India and Indian writings globally.
Vision & Theme:
- The launch of YUVA 2.0 (Young, Upcoming and Versatile Authors) is in tune with the Prime Minister’s vision to encourage the youth to understand and appreciate India's democracy.
- YUVA 2.0 is a part of India@75 Project (AzadiKaAmritMahotsav) to bring to the fore the perspectives of the young generation of writers on the THEME: ‘Democracy (institutions, events, people, constitutional values – past, present, future)’ in an innovative and creative manner.
- This scheme will thus help to develop a stream of writers who can write on a spectrum of subjects to promote Indian heritage, culture and knowledge system.
Implementation:
- The National Book Trust, India, under the Ministry of Education as the Implementing Agency will ensure phase-wise execution of the Scheme under well-defined stages of mentorship.
- The books prepared under this scheme will be published by National Book Trust, India, and will also be translated into other Indian languages ensuring the exchange of culture and literature, thereby promoting 'Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat'.
- The selected young authors will interact with some of the best authors of the world, participate in literary festivals etc.
Way Forward:
- NEP 2020 has emphasized on the empowerment of the young minds and creating a learning ecosystem that can make the young readers/learners ready for leadership roles in the future world.
- India tops the chart in youth population being 66% of the total, waiting to be tapped for capacity building and thereby nation building.
- With the purpose of mentoring a new generation of young creative writers, there is an imminent requirement to take initiatives at highest level, and in this context, YUVA 2.0 will go a long way in laying the foundation of the future leaders of the creative world.
Fast-melting Arctic ice is turning the ocean acidic, threatening life
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Why in news?
- Recently, a team of researchers identified a strong correlation between the accelerated rate of melting ice and the rate of ocean acidification.
- The study is the first analysis of Arctic acidification that includes data from 1994 to 2020.
Key Highlights:
- They flagged the changing chemistry of the western region of the Arctic Ocean after discovering acidity levels increasing three to four times faster than ocean waters elsewhere.
- Scientists have predicted that by 2050, Arctic sea ice in this region will no longer survive the increasingly warm summers.
Reasons for acidification:
- Seawater is normally alkaline, with a pH value of around 8.1.
- They point to sea-ice melt as the key mechanism to explain this rapid pH decrease, because it changes surface water in three primary ways.
- First, the water under the sea ice, which had a deficit of carbon dioxide, now is exposed to the atmospheric carbon dioxide and can take it up freely.
- The seawater mixed with meltwater is light and can’t mix easily into deeper waters, which means the carbon dioxide is concentrated at the surface.
- The meltwater dilutes the carbonate ion concentration in the seawater, weakening its ability to neutralise the carbon dioxide into bicarbonate and rapidly decreasing ocean pH.
Threat to biodiversity:
- As a result, the ocean’s chemistry will grow more acidic, creating life-threatening problems for the diverse population of sea creatures, plants and other living things that depend on a healthy ocean.
- Crabs, for example, live in a crusty shell built from the calcium carbonate prevalent in ocean water. Polar bears rely on healthy fish populations for food, fish and sea birds rely on plankton and plants, and seafood is a key element of many humans’ diets.
