Haryana govt approves new AatmaNirbhar Textile Policy (GS Paper 3, Economy)
Why in news?
- Recently, the Haryana Cabinet approved a new ‘AatmaNirbhar Textile Policy 2022-25’, which aims to attract investment worth Rs 4,000 crore and generate 20,0000 new jobs in the state.
Details:
Aim:
- The ‘Haryana AatmaNirbhar Textile Policy 2022-25’ aims at fostering an ecosystem of self-reliance and innovation by offering a robust incentive framework for backward integration, enhanced production of man-made fibres, promoting circular economy, attracting investments in weaving, knitting, processing, ready-made garments, apparel making, technical textiles, integrated units, textile parks, textile clusters, etc.
Key Highlights:
- The policy aims to attract investment in the textile sector to the tune of Rs 4,000 crore, generate 20,000 new jobs in the textile sector across the value chain, achieve higher and sustainable growth in the entire textile value chain with emphasis on innovation, backward integration and adoption of clean and green technologies, it said.
- It also targets to support the industry, adopt world-class state-of-the-art technology in conformity with the environment and social standards, encourage the industry to innovate, develop new designs, diversify and enhance value addition and facilitate and promote sunrise sectors like technical textiles in the critical areas such as defence, automobiles, construction, etc.
- The policy further aims to support the industry with a skilled workforce and create additional employment opportunities and promote the export of all types of textiles with a special thrust on products such as garments, made-ups, technical textiles etc.
Way Forward:
- It will have a special emphasis on value addition, employment generation and productivity enhancement.
Bengaluru researchers develop highly energy-efficient computer platform
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Why in news?
- Researchers at the Centre for Nano Science and Engineering (CeNSE), have developed a highly energy-efficient computing platform that offers promise in building next-generation electronic devices.
- With rising demand for faster and more intelligent computers and devices, there is a pressing need to develop alternatives to traditional electronic components that will make these devices more energy-efficient.
Memristors:
- Instead of using complementary metal-oxide semiconductors (CMOS) which are the building blocks of most electronic circuits today, the team of researchers used components called memristors that can both store data and perform computation.
- By designing unique memristors based on metal-organic complexes, the team could cut down the number of components needed in a circuit, greatly increasing the speed and efficiency.
New Vs. Old:
- Existing computing architectures process and store data at separate physical locations. The back-and-forth communication between two locations consumes the lion's share of the computing energy. They are resolving this problem by performing both computation and storage at the same physical location.
- Previously developed memristor-based circuits also suffer from limitations in speed and have a greater chance of errors accumulating because they carry out operations sequentially. The design of the new platform reduces the number of operational steps, increasing speed and reducing error.
New platform:
- The metal-organic complexes used to build their platform were designed by specialist scientist at CeNSE. These (complexes) are like electron sponges that can take and give away electrons for billions of cycles without degradation.
- By making small chemical modifications adding or swapping out one or two ions in the complexes, for example researchers might be able to adapt the same circuit for multiple functions.
- When they built circuits that carry out mathematical operations and compared them with a typical CMOS circuit, the team found that the new platform offered 47 times higher energy efficiency and 93 times faster operating speed, while only taking up nine per cent of the physical footprint.
Way Forward:
- Moving forward, theyplan to connect the platform to a sensor for example, a smartphone screen that senses touch and study how efficiently the platform processes the data it collects.
Chhattisgarhs first-ever inter-state bird survey
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Why in news?
- Recently, Chhattisgarh’s first-ever inter-state bird survey was conducted in the Kanger Valley National Park from November 25-27, 2022.
Details:
- The survey was organised by the forest department of and birders from Chhattisgarh, in collaboration with non-profits Birds & Wildlife of Chhattisgarh and Bird Count India.
- Bird watchers and forest department officials counted 200 types of birds here.
- Nine species of owls (including the spot-bellied eagle-owl), 10 birds of prey, 11 species of woodpeckers (including white-bellied woodpecker, the largest woodpecker in peninsular India), and many other species were documented during the survey.
Key Highlights:
- The survey revealed that the landscape of Kanger Valley can potentially host species found in the Himalayas, the Northeast, the Eastern and Western Ghats.
- For instance, the Malabar trogon and white-bellied woodpecker are thought to be birds of the Western Ghats. Many species of flycatchers and warblers from temperate Eurasia visit the region during the winter.
- Among visitors, pied wheatear and northern lapwing are new birds for Chhattisgarh, with the pied wheatear having never before been observed in Central India.
- The Kanger Valley National Park is also home to a population of Chhattisgarh’s state bird, the hill myna.
- During the bird survey, participants also saw mammals like Malabar giant squirrel, chital, rhesus macaques, grey langurs, scat of sloth bears and pugmarks of leopards. The Indian wolf, an endangered species, was also seen.
Way Forward:
- Periodic bird surveys can help monitor the health of the national park’s bird populations for conservation and showcase to the world the unique diversity of the region.
