CONTENTS
- CYCLONE
- PRADHAN MANTRI GARIB KALYAN ANNA YOJANA
CYCLONE
GS-III: Disaster Management
Why in news?
The Cyclonic Storm “Tauktae” (pronounced as Tau’Te) over east central and adjoining southeast Arabian Sea moved north-north-westwards.
About Cyclone:
- Cyclones are rapid inward air circulation around a low-pressure area. The air circulates in an anticlockwise direction in the Northern hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern hemisphere.
- Cyclones are usually accompanied by violent storms and bad weather.
There are two types of cyclones:
- Tropical cyclones
- Extra Tropical cyclones
Tropical Cyclones
- Tropical cyclones are violent storms that originate over oceans in tropical areas and move over to the coastal areas bringing about large scale destruction caused by violent winds, very heavy rainfall and storm surges.
- Tropical Cyclones are one of the most devastating natural calamities in the world.
- Tropical cyclones originate and intensify over warm tropical oceans.
The conditions favourable for the formation and intensification of tropical storms are:
- Large sea surface with temperature higher than 27° C.
- Presence of the Coriolis force.
- Small variations in the vertical wind speed.
- A pre-existing weak low- pressure area or low-level-cyclonic circulation.
- Upper divergence above the sea level system.
Extratropical Cyclone
- Extratropical cyclones are referred to as mid-latitude depressions, temperate cyclones, frontal depressions and wave cyclones.
- These are active above the mid-latitudinal region between 35° and 65° latitude in both the hemispheres.
- The direction of movement is from west to east and more pronounced in the winter seasons. It is in these latitude zones the polar and tropical air masses meet and form fronts.
PRADHAN MANTRI GARIB KALYAN ANNA YOJANA
Focus: GS II- Government policies and Interventions
Why in news?
States/UTs asked to keep Fair Price Shops open for longer duration and preferably all days of week to ensure safe and timely distribution of NFSA/PM-GKAY III food grains.
About Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana:
- It is considered as world’s largest food security scheme, aims at ensuring sufficient food for the poor and needy during the coronavirus crisis.
- It was announced as part of the first relief package during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Part of the scheme, the food needs to be provided to all the beneficiaries under public distribution system (TPDS) for Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) and priority household (PHH) ration cardholders.
- As per updates, the eligible beneficiaries will receive 5kg of foodgrains and 1 kg Gram per month.
Eligibility
- Families belonging to the Below Poverty Line – Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) and Priority Households (PHH) categories will be eligible for the scheme.
- PHH are to be identified by State Governments/Union Territory Administrations as per criteria evolved by them. AAY families are to be identified by States/UTs as per the criteria prescribed by the Central Government:
- Households headed by widows or terminally ill persons or disabled persons or persons aged 60 years or more with no assured means of subsistence or societal support.
- Widows or terminally ill persons or disabled persons or persons aged 60 years or more or single women or single men with no family or societal support or assured means of subsistence.
- All primitive tribal households.
- Landless agriculture labourers, marginal farmers, rural artisans/craftsmen such as potters, tanners, weavers, blacksmiths, carpenters, slum dwellers, and persons earning their livelihood on daily basis in the informal sector like porters, coolies, rickshaw pullers, hand cart pullers, fruit and flower sellers, snake charmers, rag pickers, cobblers, destitutes and other similar categories in both rural and urban areas.
- All eligible Below Poverty Line families of HIV positive persons.
National Food Security Act
- The basic concept of food security globally is to ensure that all people, at all times, should get access to the basic food for their active and healthy life and is characterized by availability, access, utilization and stability of food.
- In pursuance of this, the enactment of the National Food Security Act, (NFSA) 2013 marks a paradigm shift in the approach to food security from welfare to the rights-based approach.
- The Act legally entitles up to 75% of the rural population and 50% of the urban population to receive subsidized foodgrains under the Targeted Public Distribution System.
