National Project on Aquifer Management : Aerial Geophysical Techniques

Water scarcity is endemic in our country. With groundwater irrigation accounting for over 60% of the total area irrigated, it’s important to save this precious resource. Recognizing this, the ministry of water resources has, for the first time, started a Rs 41 crore pilot project to map aquifers. Expected to be completed by May 2014, it will use specialized choppers to find clean, drinking water. The mapping began recently in Dausa near Jaipur and will cover five more areas.

    This pilot project is part of a mega one — the National Project on Aquifer Management — to map aquifers all over India and will cover 21 million sq km. It has been taken up during the 12th and 13th Five Year Plans. The project is in conjunction with the Central Ground Water Board and National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), Hyderabad, and is funded by World Bank.

    While the country has enough water, its distribution is uneven. In order to assess ground water, we need a three-dimensional geometry of aquifers so that we know how much to extract. Eventually, the community and state governments will manage these . Aquifers, incidentally, are ground water deposits and can be found at a depth of 200-500m.

    The six areas covered under the pilot project have been selected on the basis of soil types and topography. Dausa, for example, has hard rock with alluvium. The other places include Chandrabhaga in Nagpur (Deccan basaltic traps), Tumkur in Karnataka (granite), Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu (coastal area), Ramgadh in Jaisalmer (desert environment) and Patna (alluvial soil). The matrix that evolves from this pilot project will be used in the rest of the country.

    For the first time, Aerial Geophysical Techniques are being used to cover a wide area and even inaccessible ones. Using a Danish technology called Skytem, a specialized Eurochopper is hooked below with a 30-m long probe which has a huge frame of 300 sq m. The chopper flies low — 3,500 km high — and slowly at a speed of 60-80 km/hr so that the frame doesn’t swing too much, said Ahmed.

    Through the loop, which is made of fibre optics, electromagnetic currents are sent to the ground and the magnetic field thus generated is measured. This allows us to see the distribution of water—how much there is and at what depth .

    It is important to have a chopper which can carry half-a-ton weight under it. It’s especially useful in dry and coastal areas.

    This technique, incidentally, has been used to map half of Denmark , Australia, Malaysia, Antarctica, South Africa and America.

World Food Day & World Food Prize

World Food Day is celebrated every year around the world on 16 October in honor of the date of the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 1945. The day is celebrated widely by many other organisations concerned with food security, including the World Food Programme.

The World Food Day theme for 2013 is "Sustainable Food Systems for Food Security and Nutrition" while for 2012 was " Agricultural cooperatives – key to feeding the world "

The World Food Prize laureates are formally honoured at the World Food Prize Laureate Award Ceremony annually on or near the World Food Day (16 October). The winners receive 250,000 United States dollar.

The World Food Prize is an international award recognizing the achievements of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity, or availability of food in the world. Since 1987, the Prize has been awarded annually to recognize contributions in any field involved in the world food supply — food and agriculture science and technology, manufacturing, marketing, nutrition, economics, poverty alleviation, political leadership, and the social sciences.

Dr Mary-Dell Chilton ( USA ) , Dr Robert Fraley ( USA ) & Dr Marc Van Montagu ( Belgium ) , has Developed science of modern plant biotechnology supporting improved sustainability and global food security , has been awarded World Food Prize 2013 .

Indicators of Development presented by Raghuram Rajan Committee

Recently , The Finance Ministry has tabled the report of the Raghuram Rajan Committee that was formed to suggest ways to identify indicators of the relative “Backwardness of the States” for equitable allocation of Central funds. The Rajan Committee has come up with a Multi-Dimensional Index that will help measure backwardness and aid the Centre in allocating funds to states.

Finance Minister P.Chidamabaram said that, “ the demand for funds and special attention of different States will be more than adequately met by the twin recommendations on the basic allocation of 0.3 per cent of overall funds to each State and the categorisation of States as “ Least Developed ” States.”

The report places Goa on top with regard to Development, followed by Kerala. Punjab is a distant third.

The committee, which is likely to become the basis of allocation of funds in the future, shows a paradigm shift in how Economic Development is measured. Apparently, it rejects evaluation on the basis economic growth indicators only.

 It also states why developed states like Gujarat are performing poorly on human development indicators (HDI), including infant mortality rate and malnutrition. Due to a better HDI, Kerala has been ranked the second best-developed state. Though Tamil Nadu is far behind Kerala, it is third among the “relatively developed” states.

The index proposed by the committee includes 10 sub-components: Monthly per capita consumption expenditure, education, health, household amenities, poverty rate, female literacy, per cent of SC/ST population, urbanisation rate, financial inclusion and connectivity.

For devolution of funds to the states, the committee has proposed a formula which takes into account population and area of the states.

At present, there are 11 special category states: Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura and Uttarakhand.

The Raghuram Rajan Committee’s report on criteria for determining backwardness of states has placed Karnataka among the relatively developed states. It ranks 10th in terms of development. The state will now lose its share in allocations from the Centre.

According to a finance commission formula, the state gets 4.39 per cent of the Centre’s total allocation. Now, it will get only 3.73 per cent.

Gujarat has been categorized as “less developed state,” just below Tripura.

According to the committee, which was constituted following political pressure from Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Odisha is the least developed state , followed by Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.

Proposed Telangana State

THREE FACTS ABOUT TELANGANA:

Ø Telangana will be India's 29th State, The last time India had seen formation of new states was in 2000.

Ø Telangana is set to comprise 10 of the Andhra Pradesh’s 23 districts – Hyderabad, Adilabad, Karimnagar, Khammam, Mahaboobnagar, Medak, Nalgonda, Nizamabad, Rangareddy and Warangal. Hyderabad will be the joint capital of the two states.

Ø Telangana will have 17 Lok Sabha seats and 119 assembly seats.