Why in the News?

Recently residents of Thergaon area in Pune, are worrieda a lot owing to the thick layer of toxic foam on Pavana river near Kejudevi temple.

About the Pavana River:

• Location: The Pavana River is in the western part of Maharashtra, specifically in the Pune District.
• It crosses Pune City and acts as a natural boundary between Pune City and the Pimpri-Chinchwad area.
• Origin: The river begins in the Western Ghats, approximately 6 kilometers south of Lonavala.
• It's a tributary of the Bhima River and meets the Mula River within Pune city.
• Initially flowing east, it turns south and passes through the suburbs of Dehu, Chinchwad, Pimpri, and Dapodi before joining the Mula River.
• There is a dam is built on this river at Pavana Nagar, called the "Pavana Nagar Dam".
• The Pavana Nagar Dam is an earthfill gravity dam.
• It's 1,329 meters (4,360 feet) long and 42.37 meters (139.0 feet) high.
• The dam has a total storage capacity of 30,500.00 cubic kilometers.
• Its main purpose is to supply sufficient water to the nearby areas and is a crucial water source for the region.

Why in the News?

A controversy over alleged engineering lapses in the ?1 lakh crore Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project on the Godavari river triggered an electoral slugfest in poll-bound Telangana.

About Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP):

• Location: The Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP) is situated at Kaleshwaram village in Telangana, along the Godavari River.
• Confluence Point: It is located at the confluence of the Pranhita and Godavari Rivers.
• At this confluence, the Wardha, Painganga, and Wainganga rivers also meet, forming the seventh-largest drainage basin in the subcontinent.
• Originally called Pranahita-Chevella project in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, it was redesigned, extended and renamed as Kaleshwaram project in Telangana in 2014.
• KLIP is known as the world's largest multi-stage and multi-purpose lift irrigation project.
• A significant feature of KLIP includes a series of underground and surface water pumping stations, claimed to be the world's largest of their kind.
• This lift irrigation system stretches over 300 kilometers and moves large volumes of water from rivers or reservoirs to be distributed through channels and additional reservoirs before reaching the next stations.
• Objective: The project's goal is to provide water to 45 lakh acres of land in Telangana for irrigation and drinking water.
• KLIP started in 2016 and will utilise approximately 283 thousand million cubic feet (TMC) of water from the Godavari River to serve 13 districts in Telangana.

Why in the News?

The Adaptation Gap Report states that funding for adaptation measures in developing nations has been declining and is insufficient of what is required.

About the Adaptation Gap Report:

• The Adaptation Gap Report (AGR) is an annual United Nation Enviroment Programme (UNEP) flagship publication.
• The report's primary objective is to inform the negotiators of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Member States, and the broader UNFCCC constituency, about the status and trends within climate adaptation at global and regional levels.
• AGR offers science-based recommendations to policymakers and decision-makers to enhance climate adaptation efforts in key climate-sensitive sectors.
• Since 2014, UNEP has been producing these assessments to support effective adaptation responses aligned with the UNFCCC's temperature and adaptation goals.
• The "adaptation gap" refers to the difference between actual adaptation efforts and the goals set by society, influenced by factors like climate change impacts, available resources, and competing priorities.

Key Findings of the Report:

• Adaptation costs are expected to rise significantly by 2050, especially in high-warming scenarios.
• The financial needs for adaptation are 10-18 times higher than the current international public adaptation fund flows.
• Urgent action is required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance adaptation efforts to protect vulnerable populations worldwide.
• In 2021, funding from developed countries to support adaptation projects in developing countries decreased by 15% compared to previous years.
• The report suggests seven strategies to bridge the adaptation gap, including increasing international financial support and mobilizing domestic resources.
• It also calls for a reform of the global financial system to facilitate easier access to climate-related funding from multilateral agencies such as the World Bank or the IMF.

Why in the News?

Recently NASA's Lucy mission has discovered that the asteroid Dinkinesh is actually a binary system of two asteroids.

About Lucy Mission:

• The Lucy Mission is a NASA space probe designed to explore the Trojan asteroids.
• These are the asteroids that share an orbit with Jupiter around the Sun.
• It's on a twelve-year journey to visit eight different asteroids and the entire mission costs around $981 million.
• It was launched on October 16, 2021, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station or Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.
• The Lucy Mission is named for the fossilized skeleton of a human ancestor, which was named for the Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."
• The mission's scientists hope that Lucy will help them to better understand our own origins, just as the Lucy fossil helped us to better understand our evolutionary history.
• The Lucy spacecraft is equipped with a suite of instruments that will be used to study the asteroids it encounters. These instruments include:
• A high-resolution visible camera
• A near-infrared spectrometer
• A thermal emission spectrometer
• A dust detector
• A radio occultation instrument
• Lucy's mission will provide new insights into the diversity of the Trojan asteroids, their formation, and their role in the early solar system.
• The mission will also test new technologies for deep space exploration, such as a solar-powered propulsion system and a terminal tracking system.
• It made its first gravity assist from Earth on October 16, 2022, and on November 1, 2023, it flew by its first asteroid, Dinkinesh, a binary asteroid in the main belt.
• Lucy will make another gravity assist from Earth in 2024, and in 2025, it will fly by the inner main-belt asteroid 52246 Donaldjohanson.

Why in the News?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated that India's food diversity benefits investors worldwide as he inaugurated the second edition of "World Food India 2023" at Bharat Mandapam in Delhi recently.

What is World Food India 2023?

• World Food India 2023 provides a gateway of access to the Indian food market, promoting collaborations between domestic and foreign investors.
• It is organized by India's Ministry of Food Processing Industries in New Delhi from November 3rd to 5th.
• Objective: It aims to exhibit India's rich food culture and attract global investments in the food processing sector.
• The event brings together manufacturers, producers, investors, policymakers, and organizations from around the world involved in the food industry.
• Key Areas of Focus: The event is focused on leveraging millets as a superfood, positioning India as a global hub for food processing, unlocking growth potential in strategic segments, establishing an efficient ecosystem, and promoting sustainable development.
• India's Vision: This event aligns with India's vision to become a global leader in the food processing industry, highlighting the country's production, consumption, and export potential across various food sectors.
• India is taking steps to create an inclusive and sustainable ecosystem, attract foreign investment, and improve the ease of doing business in the food processing sector.
• Notably, the first edition of World Food India took place in 2017.
• India is a global leader in the production of various agricultural products, such as milk, bananas, mangoes, papayas, guavas, ginger, okra, and buffalo meat.
• It also ranks second in the production of rice, wheat, potatoes, garlic, and cashew nuts.
• Moreover, the United Nations has declared 2023 as the International Year of Millets (IYM 2023) with the goal of increasing millet production and consumption worldwide.