Prelims Focus 28th April 2025
Bihar’s Mukhya Mantri Vidyut Upbhokta Sahayta Yojana
In News: The Bihar Cabinet chaired by the Chief Minister sanctioned ₹15,995 crore as subsidy under the Mukhya Mantri Vidyut Upbhokta Sahayta Yojana for 2025-26.
- The amount is ₹652 crore more than the preceding year’s allocation.
- It was added in Bihar to offer tremendous power subsidies, aiming to alleviate the monetary burden on purchasers and sell equitable access to electricity across the state.
- The subsidy is aimed toward decreasing the per-unit cost for customers, and can be provided immediately to the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) through the Reserve Bank of India.
- This subsidy could be meditated in clients’ month-to-month energy bills and is sanctioned for the period from April 2025 to March 2026, helping to offset higher energy tariff costs.
Line of Control (LoC)
In News: The Indian Army mentioned incidents of small arms firing alongside the Line of Control (LoC) at a few places in J&K, which includes at Kupwara within the Kashmir Valley.
- The LoC demarcates the points to pick out Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK) and India’s Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
- The LoC came into being after the 1972 Simla Agreement and is a bilaterally agreed military line and not a legally recognized border.
- The starting place of the present LoC can be traced to the primary Cease-Fire Line (CFL) established after the India-Pakistan war of 1947, which lasted until 1948.
- In 1949, a UN-brokered ceasefire was announced, after which the 1949 Karachi Agreement was signed between the 2 armies, demarcating points that would outline the de facto boundary between the two countries in Jammu and Kashmir.
Akshvi Digital Wallet
In News: The Akshvi Digital Wallet (Aapda Kshati Vivaran) is a community-driven platform developed by SEEDS India to enable disaster-affected communities to self-report economic and non-economic losses, enhancing climate resilience and disaster response.
Key Features
- Self-reporting mechanisms: Communities log losses via IVRS helplines, WhatsApp chatbots, or assisted data entry, ensuring accessibility for those with limited literacy.
- E-Disaster Wallet: Each household maintains a digital profile documenting losses across categories like shelter, livestock, agriculture, and business.
- Data accuracy: Pilot projects demonstrated 98% verification accuracy for self-reported data, countering assumptions of inflated claims.
- Hyperlocal insights: Aggregated data provides granular, location-specific loss assessments for targeted relief and policy planning.
Benefits
- Credible records: Households maintain verifiable loss histories, aiding compensation claims and insurance processes.
- Direct support: The platform facilitates financial aid distribution and links to government welfare schemes.
- Real-time analytics: AI processes unstructured data (text, audio, video) to generate actionable insights for disaster preparedness.
‘Revive Our Ocean’ Initiative
In News: The ‘Revive Our Ocean’ Initiative is a newly launched global effort aimed at protecting and restoring ocean health, with a primary goal of safeguarding at least 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030. The initiative is led by Dynamic Planet in partnership with the National Geographic Society’s Pristine Seas program, and is supported by prominent figures such as British naturalist David Attenborough.
Key Objectives
- Establish Marine Protected Areas (MPAs): The initiative focuses on creating and expanding MPAs, especially in coastal waters, to combat overfishing and restore marine biodiversity. Initial target regions include Britain, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, Mexico, and Indonesia.
- Support Local Communities: By involving local communities in the creation and management of MPAs, the initiative aims to ensure that conservation efforts also generate economic benefits, such as improved fishing yields and increased tourism.
- Achieve the ‘30 by 30’ Goal: The initiative aligns with the global target to protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030, a commitment made under international biodiversity agreements.
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