62% rural houses have tap water connections

62% rural houses have tap water connections

Around 62% of rural households in India have fully functional tap water connections within their premises, according to a survey commissioned by the Union Ministry of Water Resources to assess the functioning of the government’s marquee Jal Jeevan Mission.

• In June, the Centre reported this figure to be 52%.
• Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Goa, and Puducherry reported more than 80% of households with fully functional connection.
• fewer than half the households in Rajasthan, Kerala, Manipur, Tripura, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram and Sikkim

A fully functional tap water connection is defined as a household getting at least 55 litres per capita per day of potable water all through the year.

• The report mentions a concerning problem of chlorine contamination. Though 93% of the samples were reportedly free of bacteriological contamination, most of the anganwadi centres and schools, had higher than the permissible range of residual chlorine and indicated inappropriate local dosing. Thus, there is a need to monitor the correct dosing of chlorine in the pipe water supply system.

Groundwater Contamination:

Ground water contamination is the presence of certain pollutants in ground water that are in excess of the limits prescribed for drinking water

Extent of Groundwater Contamination in India:

1. Arsenic:
2. West Bengal, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Assam and Uttar Pradesh.
3. The permissible limit according to the Indian standards for drinking water is 1.5ppm/l
4. Fluoride:
5. Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
6. Permissible limit according to Indian standards is 50ppb/l

3. 3. Iron: Assam, West Bengal, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, and Karnataka. Localized pockets in Bihar, UP, Punjab, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and North Eastern States
4. Uranium:
5. 16 states in north western, southern and south-eastern India. High prevalence in Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh
6. WHO and US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards for uranium level for safe drinking water: 30 micrograms of uranium/litre
7. However, in India Uranium is not included in list of contaminants monitored in drinking water specifications provided by the Bureau of Indian Standards
8. Nitrate:
9. Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa. Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.
10. Permissible level is 45 ppm/l
11. Salinity:
12. Inland: Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab and Gujarat; to a lesser extent in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh Maharashtra, Karnataka, Bihar and Tamil Nadu.
13. Coastal: Minjur area of Tamil Nadu, Saurashtra Coast, Subarnrekha, Salandi, Brahamani outfall regions of Odhisa, Pondicherry, Sundarban region

Government Initiatives

1. Groundwater (Sustainable Management) Bill, 2017
2. The bill proposes a new regulatory framework based on the recognition of the unitary nature of groundwater pool
3. It highlights the need for decentralised control and the necessity to protect water at the aquifer level.
4. It recognizes water as a public trust and a fundamental right
5. It seeks to give regulatory control over groundwater resources to local bodies.
6. Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974
7. Main objective: to provide for prevention, control and abatement of water pollution and the maintenance or restoration of water resources
8. The Act prohibits any person from releasing any poisonous/polluting matter, directly or indirectly, into any stream/ well/sewer/ land
9. Initiatives to Combat Arsenic Contamination- West Bengal
10. Arsenic Task Force set up.
11. 2005- Setting up of Arsenic Removal Units (ARUs). These were reported as one of the finest performing devises and capable to remove arsenic from very high level of contamination.
12. Salinity Ingress Prevention Scheme, Gujarat
13. Regulates lifting underground water
14. Provisions for recharge dam/ recharge wells
15. Change in cropping patterns
16. Fresh water barriers
17. Rejuvenation of salinity land of oceanic area
18. Environmental Protection Act, 1986
19. The Act prohibits a person carrying on any industry, operation or process from discharging or emitting water pollutants in excess of the prescribed standards
20. National Project on Aquifer Management:
21. Objective: to achieve equitable, safe and sustainable management of India’s groundwater resources through improved systems of resource mapping, utilization and governance.
22. Mapping of aquifers can help determine the quantity as well as quality of groundwater

Telangana scoops Swachh Survekshan Gramin, 2022 award

Telangana was ranked first for the cleanliness of its villages in the Swachh Survekshan Gramin (SSG), 2022, which looked into the sanitation status of rural areas.

• The Swachh Survekshan Gramin, 2022 award ranks States and districts on the basis of their performance attained on Swachh Bharat Mission Gramin (SBM­G) parameters and engagement of the rural community in improvement of their sanitation status
• since the launch of SBM­G in 2014, over 11 crore toilets had been built and about 60 crore people had given up open defecation.
• The second phase of the mission, launched in 2020, aims to make all six lakh villages in India ‘Open Defecation Free Plus’,
• It now address more complex and technical problems like solid and liquid waste management

WHAT IS SWACHH SARVEKSHAN –

• Swachh Survekshan 2022 is the world’s largest urban cleanliness survey, performed by Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U).
• The Swachh Survekshan 2022 framework will level the playing field for smaller cities, and it will propel the Swachh Bharat Mission toward a circular economy strategy through optimal resource recovery, thanks to its multi-faceted efforts.
• The updated version of the Swachhata App was also introduced with the introduction of Swachh Survekshan 2022. The Swachhata App is a digital tool for resolving sanitation complaints that was created by MoHUA in 2016. Too far, the app has handled over 2 crore citizen concerns.

FEATURES OF THE PROGRAM –

• There are two population categories: under 15,000 and 15 to 25,000.
• To further broaden the Survekshan reach, district rankings have been presented for the first time.
• In comparison to prior years, the survey’s scope has been increased to include 100% of wards for sample, up from 40% in previous years.
• In the program, there will be more than twice assessors in comparison to the last year for the on-field assessment.
• The survey will include more and better technology interventions, such as QR code-based public input for more outreach, geo-tagging of sanitation and waste management facilities for improved efficiency, and digital document monitoring.

India Climbs To The 40th Rank In The Global Innovation Index of WIPO

Recently, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) released the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2022. Switzerland has emerged as the world’s most innovative economy for the 12th consecutive year.

• India surpassed Vietnam to become the world’s most innovative lower middle-income economy, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), after moving up six spots to the 40th position in 2022 from the 46th position in 2021.
• The GII reveals the most innovative economies in the world, ranking the innovation performance of 132 economies.

About Global Innovation Index 2022

• The Global Innovation Index 2022 (GII), in its 15th edition this year, is published by WIPO, in partnership with the Portulans Institute and with the support of various Corporate Network partners like the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the Brazilian National Confederation of Industry (CNI), Ecopetrol (Colombia), and the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM).
• UN Economic and Social Council in its 2019 resolution on Science, Technology and Innovation for Development has recognized GII as an authoritative benchmark for measuring innovation in relation to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
• This index is published annually.
• The core of the GII provides performance measures and ranks 132 economies on their innovation ecosystems.
• The Index is built on a rich dataset the collection of 81 indicators from international public and private sources.
• The GII 2022 is calculated as the average of two sub-indices. The Innovation Input Sub-Index gauges elements of the economy that enable and facilitate innovative activities and is grouped in five pillars:

1. Institutions,
2. Human capital and research,
3. Infrastructure,
4. Market sophistication, and
5. Business sophistication.

The Innovation Output Sub-Index captures the actual result of innovative activities within the economy and is divided in two pillars:

1. Knowledge and technology outputs and
2. Creative outputs.

Highlights of report

• The report demonstrates that despite the COVID-19 epidemic, research and development (R&D) and other investments that fuel global inventive activity continued to expand in 2021.
• However, obstacles are emerging in translating innovation investments into impact.
• The GII discovers that productivity growth, the specific subject for GII in 2022, which is often sparked by greater innovation, has actually slowed down.
• Despite the recent boom in R&D spending and venture capital investments, it also indicates that current technology advancement and acceptance show signals of slowing growth.
• However, a new era of innovation-driven growth powered by Deep Science and Digital Age innovation waves may begin if innovation ecosystems are nurtured with greater care and attention.

GII’s key findings

• R&D Expenditure:Prior to the pandemic in 2019, the top global corporate R&D spenders boosted their R&D spending by approximately 10% to over USD 900 billion in 2021.
• Four industries, including ICT hardware and electrical equipment, software and ICT services, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, and construction and industrial metals, were principally responsible for this increase.
• Despite slowing from the historically high 6.1 percent R&D growth rate seen in 2019, global R&D investments expanded at a rate of 3.3 percent in 2020.
• Government expenditure on R&D: For the top R&D expenditure economies, government budget allocations showed a significant rise in 2020.
• Budgets for government R&D in 2021 showed a more mixed picture, with rising spending in Germany and the Republic of Korea and declining investment in the US and Japan.
• Venture capital: In 2021, venture capital (VC) agreements increased by 46 percent, reaching heights comparable of the late 1990s internet boom.
• The fastest-growing VC markets are in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa. However, the VC outlook for 2022 is less optimistic; tighter monetary policies and their impact on risk capital would cause VC to slow down.
• Annual ranking of the world’s economies on innovation capacity and output: In its annual ranking of the world’s economies on innovation capacity and output, the GII shows some key changes in the top 15 of the ranking, with the United States climbing to the 2nd position, the Netherlands reaching the 5th position, Singapore reaching 7th, Germany reaching 8th and China up one place to 11th and on the doorstep of the top 10.
• Canada is back among the top 15 global innovators (15th). India (40th) and Turkey (37th) make their maiden appearances in the top 40.
• Beyond these, the middle-income economies with the fastest current growth in innovation performance are Viet Nam (48), the Islamic Republic of Iran (53), and the Philippines (59).

India

• India is the innovation leader in the lower middle-income group.
• It continues to lead the world in ICT services exports and holds top rankings in other indicators, including venture capital receipt value, finance for startups and scaleups, graduates in science and engineering, labor productivity growth and domestic industry diversification.
• With the exception of Infrastructure, where it performs below average for the upper-middle-income group, India’s innovation performance is above average overall.
• In Central and Southern Asia, India ranked highest among three the “most innovation economies” followed by Iran and Uzbekistan.

Telecom Technology Development Fund scheme

Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) recently launched Telecom Technology Development Fund scheme.

• Telecom Technology Development Fund (TTDF) aims to fund R&D in rural-specific communication technology applications and form synergies among academia, start-ups, research institutes, and the industry to build and develop the telecom ecosystem.
• Additionally, the Scheme aims to promote technology ownership and indigenous manufacturing, create a culture of technology co-innovation, reduce imports, boost export opportunities and creation of Intellectual Property.
• Under the scheme, USOF is also targeting to develop standards to meet countrywide requirements and create the ecosystem for research, design, prototyping, use cases, pilots, and proof of concept testing, among others.
• The scheme entails grants to Indian entities to encourage and induct indigenous technologies tailor-made to meet domestic needs.