Daily Mains Practice Questions 10-01-2023

green hydrogen 2

green hydrogen 1

1) KEY POINTS

·        A red flag against a massive infrastructural project called the Char Dham road project that is being implemented in the Uttarakhand Himalaya.

·        It is indeed turning out to be an unscientific road-construction project with catastrophic consequences for the mountain ecology.

·        In the next decade, the Government proposes to build 66 tunnels in the Uttarakhand Himalaya and 18 tunnels are already in operation.

·        The increased anthropogenic activities such as road construction have made the hill slopes extremely unstable.

·        Erratic rainfall and ecological degradation associated with land use change for infrastructural development are already impacting mountain aquifer systems.

·        Groundwater use in the Himalayan States differs from that in the plains, as large and contiguous aquifers do not exist in the hills.

·        It has been recorded that the Tapovan-Vishnugad hydro project tunnel that passes just below Joshimath, which is sitting on an old glacial deposit, could be a contributing factor to this phenomenon.

·        This has become amply clear from the recent series of disasters, the impact of which was exacerbated by the unsustainable human interferences in natural systems.

·        The Joshimath episode is a warning that the Himalayan environment is at a tipping point and it may not be able to withstand another push generated by intrusive anthropogenic activities.

2) KEY POINTS

·        Census data are also critical as they are used as a frame to underpin other sample surveys that are representative of the whole population.

·        The national Census is utilised by international agencies to project the world’s population as well. India has conducted the Census every 10 years since 1881.

·        With the deadline for freezing of boundaries further extended to June 30, 2023, the Census can effectively be conducted only some months after this event.

·        Census enumeration is preceded by activities such as house-listing. Most States were in line to begin this in early 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

·        But the repeated postponement and, consequently, the undue delay in the Census’s commencement will severely affect the availability of vital information on population numbers at district and other lower levels.

·        In fact, Census data should validate the various estimates on mortality based on ‘excess deaths’ analyses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

·        Welfare schemes such as the targeted Public Distribution System under the National Food Security Act depend on population estimates, and the government continues to rely on Census 2011.

·        Considering these and other imperatives for the smooth planning and implementation of administrative, welfare and statistical management for governance, the Union government must show alacrity in commencing the Census.

3) KEY POINTS

·        The Centre’s much-awaited green hydrogen policy is finally here, with an allocation of Rs 19,744 crore for promoting the production of electrolysers.

·        The policy is expected to generate five million tonnes of green hydrogen annually from 2030, which is the quantity of (non-green) hydrogen consumed by the industry today.

·        All through 2022, there had been many corporate announcements with respect to green hydrogen.

·        However, for the policy to work, the government needs to create an assured demand and resolve ecosystem issues.

·        It can be presumed that the promised ‘green hydrogen purchase obligation’ is round the corner.

·        The government has promised separate frameworks for the creation of a green hydrogen ecosystem, standards and regulations, public-private partnership for R&D and skill development.

·        By all accounts, the holy grail of ‘$1 per kg’ is unattainable. Rough calculations show that with the best of technologies, the cost of production of a kilogram of green hydrogen would be not less than $3, which would be higher at the point of use.

·        Since it is not always possible to co-locate renewable power and hydrogen production plants, reducing green energy costs would mean slashing open access charges and removing other policy niggles.

1)himalaya