 Welcome to Civil Speedia, the current of S Digital Library powered by Shankar IAS Academy. As part of today's discussion, we will be looking at Gaganyan National Statistical Commission, National Salt Satya Graha Memorial, India Post, Payments Bank as part of Trillium and as part of Mainz we will discuss the Mainz article discussed in the Hindu newspaper about the minimum basic income. First let us discuss about this Gaganyan. Let us discuss the literal meaning of the term Gaganyan. The word Gaganyan means space and yarn means vehicle. The word Gaganyan means space and yarn means vehicle, literally the term means space vehicle. However, the program Gaganyan means India's first manned space mission, which is to be launched by Indian Space Research Organization by the year 2022. The target to achieve this first maiden, first maiden space mission, human space mission by the year 2022 was given by the prime minister and the independence they speech last year. And there should be various technologies, critical technologies that the India or ISRO has to master before sending human beings to space. Some of them are re-entry mission capability, which makes a space capsule or a crew module to come from outer space to enter Earth's atmosphere and crew escape system because usually we use to send the satellites to space, not human beings. So even though some damages occur, it will not cost lives. But here it is a manned space mission or a human spaceflight program and the lives of the astronauts or the members, crew members is our extreme importance. And crew module configuration, which deals with various aspects related to the crew module which will carry the crew, which is the crew module is a part of the orbital module. Orbital module includes crew module and service module. The orbital module totally will weigh around approximately 7 tens according to ISRO. And thermal protection system, this technology is important because whenever a space, whenever crew module enters the Earth's atmosphere, there will be the angle at which it enters and the velocity is very important because if there is some kind of change, unexpected change, then there are chances that the crew module could burn or could never enter the atmosphere of the Earth. In order to protect the crew module from various possibilities of getting burned, the thermal protection system is of extreme importance and then the deceleration and flotation system because once it enters into Earth's atmosphere, the crew module will fall under the influence of gravity or in other words, it is also called as falling in ballistic mode and in case if it falls on ocean, then it has to float on the surface of the sea and also various subsystems of life support system and other technologies are very critical related to carry out this mission successfully. And some of the important major experiments wherein the ISRO has proved its capability related to which are highly relevant to the mission of Gaganyan R, the space capsule recovery experiment which was conducted in the year 2007 and crew module atmospheric reentry experiment which is also called as SCAR 2000, it was carried out in December 2014 successfully tested and very recently in month of July 2018, six months before with the ISRO carried out pad abort test. The pad abort test means whenever the crew module is in the launch pad with the launch vehicle for this Gaganyan program, the launch vehicle is GSLV Mark III. Whenever it is in the launch vehicle, if some exigency or some emergency happens in the launch pad, then the crew module cannot be made to suffer because of some blast going to happen in the launch vehicle. Therefore, the crew module has to escape. Therefore, this pad abort test portrayed the escape, the crew escape system. The crew module, you know, escaped from the launch vehicle to a safe distance of about 2.5 kilometer not going away from the gravitational limit of the earth and the launch vehicle would explode and then the crew will fall under the influence of this gravity or otherwise called as ballistic mode or deceleration and flotation system and thus the crew will be safe even though there is some exigency happens at the time of launch even at the time of launch in the launch pad. This is about pad abort test and the launch vehicle for this Gaganyan program is GSLV Mark III and coming to various objectives of this program, this program will enhance the science and technology levels in the country because only very, very few nations but very simply it is only three nations have mastered this technology, these technologies and have sent human beings to space and conducted these missions successfully. They are United States, Russia and China and if India becomes successful in its maidens human space program, then India will become the fourth nation in the world to have achieved this feat and it will also be a national project involving several institutes, academia and industry here and we can mean that there will be extreme collaboration and that this will help in getting cooperation and collaboration from industry and various academic institutions because according to ISRO bioscience is a new field even for ISRO and it requires collaboration and improvement of industrial growth because it is perfectly in advanced science what ISRO is going to carry out through the program of Gaganyan. So whatever happens will lead to improvement in industrial growth and also inspiring youth this program will help or inspire youth to take greater challenges particularly they will also help them or think about taking research in the field of space programs and science and technology and it will make them to look for job opportunities related to advanced sciences and development of technology for social benefits is also one of the objectives and finally improving international collaboration for this scheme which will help us in a long way in even in our future programs and main benefit among others is that if India is going to be successful in this program by the which is to be launched by the end of by 2022 then India can be one of the major collaborator related to space exploration along with other countries such as the United States Russia and China and with this and the ISRO has also planned two unmanned missions prior to sending human beings to space by this Gaganyan program the ISRO has planned to send at least three crew members to space and place the spacecraft in our own low earth orbit of around 300 to 400 kilometer wherein the crew module will orbit around the earth for a period of five to seven days wherein the crew members or the astronauts will carry out the tasks such as micro gravity experiments from the space and this is about the program Gaganyan and we'll now look into our next topic national statistical commission in January 2000 the government of India has set up a commission under the chairmanship of Dr. C. Rangarajan and therefore the commission was also called as Dr. C. Rangarajan commission and this commission reviewed the statistical system of the country in the year 2001 and gave its report wherein it has recommended or suggested creation of a statutory national statistical commission for the country to review and to identify various aspects related to statistics of the country. However it initially suggested that at the beginning let us let it let the national statistical commission be established by a resolution or an executive order and accordingly based on a resolution of ministry of statistics and program implementation in the month of June 2005 this that notification that resolution has set up this national statistical commission in June 2005 however we should keep in mind this commission was constituted in July 2006 and we should know about the members of this national statistical commission the members include a part-time chairperson and four part-time members and one ex-officer member and a member secretary alright the chairperson part-time chairperson and part-time members are nominated by the government of India and they are related to the field of statistics that he must be an imminent statistician and the four members must be you know having relevant experience and expertise in socialist statistics, economic statistics, environmental statistics and other works related to statistics as given in the resolution and at present the chief executive officer of Nithya Yag is also is a ex-officer member and the chief statistician of India or the that is the secretary of ministry of statistics and program implementation is the member secretary of this commission originally when the resolution came the Nithya Yag was not there and therefore in the place of chief executive officer of Nithya Yag it was the secretary of the planning commission after the Nithya after Nithya came into being the position of secretary of this planning commission was amended or changed to chief executive officer of Nithya Yag alright coming to the functions one of the main function is to identify the core statistics that are of national importance and are important for the development of the country and to constitute such committees or working groups so that these committees or working groups will assist this national statistical commission on technical issues and to evolve national policies and priorities related to statistical system in the country and to evolve various standard statistical concepts definitions you know classifications and methodologies related to core statistics or official statistics and to lay down national quality standards on these statistics and also to evolve these national strategies on collection, tabulation and human resource development and related to information technology related to the statistical system and to evolve measures for improving public trust in official statistics recently this national statistical commission was in news because two of its members a chapter and a member has tendered the resignation from this national statistical commission citing reasons that this NSE national statistical commission was not involved in key decision making of the government of India and various recommendations of this national statistical commission are not respected therefore those the chapter and who and the member who resigned tender resignation has stated that this means it's not improving public trust in official statistics and that they are going to resign and this is one important function of this national statistical commission and it has to evolve effective coordination statistical coordination between various agencies of the central government various departments of the central government and also with the state governments and to exercise this statistical audit over all the statistical activities to ensure quality and integrity of the statistical products and to recommend the central government on various issues related to the statistical system of the country and particularly to advise the government on legislative measures related to this statistical activities or statistical system particularly it should definitely include about bringing a statute or a law for this national state national statistical commission itself that is also coming part of this advisory nature of the commission and finally to monitor and review the functioning of the statistical system it will submit annual report which will be laid before both the houses of parliament and these are the functions and thus we have seen about this national statistical commission next we look into national salt Satyagraha memorial in remembrance of the famous historical Dandi March which is part of our independence struggle by our Mahatma Gandhi along with 80 followers or Satyagrahis the central government particularly in the year 2005 the prime then prime minister of India has approved the Dandi memorial project in other words national salt Satyagraha memorial we should know that this project was coming under ministry of culture government of India and to oversee the project or to advise a committee was formed called as a high level Dandi memorial committee and the chairperson of this committee was Mr. Gopal Mr. Gopal Krishna Gandhi the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and we should know that design coordination agency for this project or in other words the project this design and coordinate design coordination and implementation is was being was carried out by IIT Bombay all right in other words they will say that design coordination agency for this memorial is IIT Bombay and it is this memorial is located in the place Dandi which is part of Nausari district in Gujarat state of India and we should also know that the highway between Sabarmathi and Dandi is to be called is is being called as national highway 228 we know that the salt Satyagraha March or the Dandi March began from Sabarmathi ashram in Akhar Ahmedabad to the Dandi coast where Mahatma Gandhi picked up salt and broke the salt law of the British government and this memorial consists of Mahatma Gandhi statue of Mahatma Gandhi and 81 marcher statues all right the 81 leaders 81 Satyagrahi's who were part of this Satyagraha along with Gandhi and it also includes you know the 24 narrative murals through which various events and stories of historic march are depicted in this memorial and an artificial lake so as to portray the the Dandi and the coastal coastal platform wherein Mahatma Gandhi has picked up salt and also solar salt making pants whereas so that visit as any visitor who come come who comes to visit this memorial can make salt and also solar trees which is which are of importance because this memorial is going to be powered by these solar solar trees all the it's not going to get power outside the memorial rather all the power requirement are produced within the memorial through solar trees and during the day the extra energy created or produced will be saved and during night that extra energy will be imported for use so the overall energy requirement is fulfilled within the produced and fulfilled within the memorial region itself so with this we come to the end of this discussion next we'll look into India Post Payments Bank it was created or instituted in the month of September 2018 and we should note that Dr. Nachiket Moore committee the committee on comprehensive financial services for small businesses and low income households has recommended that there should be there should be payments bank in India particularly to care take care of payments or remittance services related to high wall related to low value transactions particularly in day-to-day lives the main objectives of this payments bank bringing this payments bank is to further financial inclusion by providing small savings accounts and payments or remittance services particularly to migrant labor labor workforce low income households small businesses and other unorganized sector entities and other uses so that it will be able to get high transfer high volume low value transactions in deposits and payment or remittance services through a secure technology and it comes under department of sports ministry of communications where the government of India's stake is 100 percent and one of the benefit of this India Post Payment Bank is that it has a rural India penetration of around 1,00,000 access points which are nothing but post offices and also has more than 3,00,000 plus postmen in other words they are also called as Ducksay works to so that they can assist they can provide assisted doorstep banking or financial services in rural urban or remote areas this Ducksay works will be also called as friend or philosopher or financial trainer related to the matters of pertaining to financial services related to payment bank and this payment we should know what this payment banks can do what it cannot do particularly these payments bank can accept only savings and current deposits and at any time the maximum balance of one beneficiary or one account holder shall not exceed rupees one lakh this is one important provision and this payment bank cannot lend money to anyone and it cannot issue credit cards it can issue it can institute atm's and it can provide debit cards but it cannot provide credit cards and and also although it can accept demand deposits it can never accept fixed deposits or term deposits or recurring deposits it cannot accept fixed deposits and cannot accept term deposits cannot accept recurring deposits these are about this india post payments bank and with this we come to the end of this discussion next we look into the mains discussion given in the hindu newspaper as part of an article by miss puja mera the case for minimum basic income what in here the author primarily argues for or asks for is to have a minimum basic income support for the poor the poor here particularly the author mentions us rural poor the farmers and the urban poor mal farmers particularly a marginally marginal farmers or you know small farmers and the author has stated that generally when we discuss about some program related to minimum basic income there will be questions from our there will be perceptions that if you provide with if you provide some minimum basic income it will obviously make the people to spend in unwanted areas for example people may get money and may spend for you know drinking alcohol but the study conducted in delhi and maharashtra delhi and madhya pradesh during the period of 2010 to 2013 has proved that you know at high levels of impoverishment at high levels of poverty even a small amount of support schemes such as this minimum basic income can show a remarkable improvement in consumption of nutrients nutrient intake and you know and going the part the partaking of children in school activities and also enrollment in schools particularly women female children and there are there are strong correlations related to health and education that is what this pilot project has proved and that means the author also calls this minimum basic income as welfare payments and also as redistributive policy intervention because the state of poverty particularly for the agricultural farmers or the or the rural distress in general is majorly because of ineffective policies for which the government of India has to pay reparations in the form of minimum basic income is what the author's point and why income support the author argues that particularly after 1991 the reforms as since 1991 and the incomplete economic liberalization and technological advances have left the entire agriculture and allied sectors and because of which there was wide inequality between the other sectors and those who work in the agricultural sector and therefore to improve equity for the particularly for the those who are involved in agriculture this minimum basic income is required and then we have to address this rural distress because we should know that agricultural prices are according to the author are not natural rather they are set artificially so that the entire nation will not fall into the fall into the you know pit of inflation and those two not reduce the purchasing power parity of the citizens of the country that means these policies affect the agricultural prices which means these policies affect the agricultural income of the farmer which means the policy failure or the ineffective policies which affect obviously the farmers income the policy failures such as ineffective procurement and other perverse trade and pricing policies affects farmers income and therefore the government should repair this damage by providing reparation cost such as this minimum basic damage is what argued by the author and he has the author has given two states as examples wherein some kind of support is given being given to the farm sector in the state of Telangana we could see this agriculture investment support scheme also called as Ritu Bandhu scheme wherein amount of rupees 4000 is being given for a farmer for one crop season for those who has an acre of land but the problem here is it is not this program by and large support by and large helps or benefits only those who possess lands it does not talk about all the people who cultivate in land rather it talks only about those who possess land and this success is depends on you know purified land records rather than the landless laborers or those who cultivate in the soil or the tenants and in contrast in Odisha there is a program called Khrushak assistance for livelihood and income augmentation also called as Kalia scheme wherein one family will receive amount of rupees 5000 for a single crop season this program is slated to continue till 2021 2021 the difference between the one in Telangana here is that here marginal farmers small farmers landless laborers tenants are given most at most importance rather than large and rich farmers and these are the two schemes the author has highlighted that the country has started in some states but through the through their state government some kind of assistance to the people working in farm sector and the author suggests this redistributive policy is another also called as income transfer this income transfer could be done through Jan then accounts or through post office accounts and the beneficiaries can be identified through socio economic and caste census and how can we create a fiscal space for to operate such a program the author says one should not increase fiscal deficit to create this program because if we create if we increase fiscal deficit it will increase inflation and if we could streamline distortionary and demerit subsidies such as on New Year the government could get around rupees 70,000 crore per year and through which we can fund and what should not be reduced author says the social spending particularly for health education and other relevant sectors should not be reduced to contribute to this minimum basic income and the author has also suggested the reintroduction of wealth tax which was abolished in the year 2015 so as to tax on the super rich ultimately because it is the circular flow of this money from one hand to another and we see we are seeing consistently the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer and the inequality is widening and deepening of course we can tax this super rich through a reintroduction of wealth tax these are the some of the ways in which we can address the you know financial requirement of this minimum basic income if at all they are going to roll out with this we come to the thus we have discussed this minimum basic income with this we come to the end of today's discussion on civil speedy we request you to like our video comment our video and also to subscribe to our Shankara is Academy YouTube channel for more updates and content on civil services preparation