Daily Current Affairs

July 29, 2025

Current Affairs

Smart Meters

Context: The Power Ministry has extended the deadline for installing 25 crore smart meters across the country under the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) by two years till March 2028.

Relevance of the Topic: Prelims: Key facts about Smart Meters; Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme.

Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme

  • Initiative of: Ministry of Power
  • Duration: 5 years i.e., from FY 2021-22 to FY 2025-26. Extended by two years till FY 2027-28.
  • Aim: To reduce the Aggregate Technical & Commercial (AT&C) losses to pan-India levels of 12-15% and Average Cost of Supply (ACS)-Average Revenue Realised (ARR) gap to zero by 2024-25.
  • The scheme has two parts: 
    • Part-A: Upgradation of distribution infrastructure and Pre-paid Smart Metering & System Metering. The Smart Meter National Programme under RDSS envisages the installation of 25 crore Smart Meters across the country.
    • Part-B: Training & Capacity Building and other Enabling & Supporting Activities.
  • Progress: As of July 2025, a total of 20.33 crore smart meters have been sanctioned under the RDSS, out of which 2.44 crore smart meters have been installed throughout the country.

Smart Meters:

  • Prepaid Smart Meters are the new generation of energy meters that are used to record electricity consumption in real-time. As they are connected to the internet, users and utilities can easily track and monitor electricity usage and get accurate bills. They can:
    • Eliminate the need for manual inspection, making them highly efficient and convenient.
    • Tell about electricity use during different times of the day, months and seasons.
    • Alert in case of insufficient/low balance or abnormal usage to best optimize their consumption on a user-friendly web portal or mobile app.
    • Notifies about changes in power tariffs that can help to plan activities during low-tariff periods.
    • Point towards appliances that are using more electricity than they should and suggests options to replace them with new, efficient ones.
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How does the Smart Meter Work?

Smart meters are digital devices that measure and record electricity (or gas or water) consumption in real time and relay the information to utility companies.

  • Metering device: For electricity meters, sensors measure the voltage and current flowing through the electrical circuits. These values are then multiplied to calculate the power consumption (measured in watts). By integrating the power consumption over time, the meter can determine total electricity use (measured in kilowatt-hours).
  • Transmit usage information: After recording energy consumption data, the communications module is responsible for transmitting usage information to the company, by using one of the following methods:
    • Radio frequency (RF) signals to transmit data. This method is cost-effective and allows for long-range communication. However, RF signals can be susceptible to interference from other wireless devices and might require more infrastructure, such as repeaters or gateways, to ensure reliable communication.
    • Cellular networks: Some smart meters rely on existing cellular networks (for example, 4G or 5G) to transmit data. This approach offers widespread coverage and can be more resistant to interference than RF signals.
    • Broadband connections  like DSL and fiber-optic networks are another option for smart meter communication.
    • Power line communication technology allows smart meters to transmit data over existing power lines, eliminating the need for additional communication infrastructure.

Way Forward:

As India marches towards its vision of a financially sound and digitalised power sector through smart metering interventions, it must pursue a user-centric design and deployment strategy. 

  • Spread Awareness: The Ministry of Power should drive a nationwide campaign to educate consumers about smart meter benefits and improve the uptake of smart meter apps. The apps should be accessible to users from diverse socio-economic backgrounds and provide actionable tips and information.
  • Capacity Building: The majority of smart meters in India are being deployed by the Advanced Metering Infrastructure Service Providers (AMISPs), responsible for installation and operation of the AMI system for the project lifetime (10 years). Discoms must closely work with AMISPs to ensure a smooth installation and recharge experience for users, to leverage smart meter data for revenue protection and consumer engagement. For this, discoms will need to strengthen their internal capacity through suitable staffing and training interventions.
  • Foster Innovation: Discoms, system integrators and technology providers should collaborate to devise innovative and scalable data solutions. Effective use of smart meter data is fundamental to unlocking their true value proposition. This would require an ecosystem that fosters innovation in analytics, data hosting and sharing platforms, and enables key actors to collaboratively test and scale new solutions.
  • Strengthen Regulatory framework: Policymakers and regulators must strengthen regulations to empower consumers to unlock new retail markets.
    • Currently, important provisions concerning the phase-out of paper bills, arrear adjustment, frequency of recharge alerts, buffer time, rebates, and data privacy are scattered across different regulatory orders or simply missing. Their incorporation within existing State frameworks will be crucial for a positive technology experience for end users.
    • Regulators must also enable simplification and innovation in tariff design and open the retail market to new business models and prosumagers (producers, consumers, and storage users). 

Environment Protection (Management of Contaminated Sites) Rules 2025

Context: The Union Ministry of Environment has notified Environment Protection (Management of Contaminated Sites) Rules 2025 to address chemically contaminated sites across India. 

Relevance of the Topic:  Prelims: Salient Features of Environment Protection (Management of Contaminated Sites) Rules, 2025. 

Environment Protection (Management of Contaminated Sites) Rules 2025

  • Notified by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
  • First formal legal mechanism in India to address the issue of contaminated land.
  • Aim: To establish a comprehensive legal and procedural framework to identify, assess, and remediate chemically contaminated sites across India.

Contaminated Sites:

  • According to the Central Pollution Control Board, contaminated sites are those where hazardous and other waste had been dumped historically.
  • These sites may include landfills, dumps, waste storage and treatment sites, spill sites, and chemical waste handling and storage sites.
  • India has identified 103 such sites, but remedial operations have been initiated in only seven. 
  • Some of the sites were contaminated when there was no regulation on management of hazardous waste.

Salient Features of the Rules:

The rules define a step-by-step legal procedure to identify and clean up contaminated sites. Under these rules: 

  • The district administration would prepare half-yearly reports on suspected contaminated sites.
  • A State Board, or a reference organisation, would examine these sites and provide a preliminary assessment within 90 days of being informed. Following these, it would have another 3 months to make a detailed survey and finalise if these sites were indeed contaminated. 
  • A reference organisation, basically a body of experts, would be tasked with specifying a remediation plan. 
  • The State Board would also have 90 days to identify the person(s) responsible for the contamination. Those deemed responsible would have to pay for the cost of remediation of the site. Else, the Centre and the State, under a prescribed arrangement, would arrange for the costs of clean-up. 
  • Any criminal liability, if it is proved that such contamination caused loss of life or damage would be under the provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (2023).

India’s 1st Private Test Facility for Heavy Water Upgrade

Context: Mumbai-based TEMA India has been entrusted with testing the equipment required for upgrading of depleted heavy water, a crucial requirement for Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors in India. It is a significant step towards speeding up the operationalisation of nuclear power plants. 

Relevance of the Topic: Prelims: India’s 1st private test facility for Heavy Water Upgrade; Heavy Water; Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors. 

India’s 1st Private Test Facility for Heavy Water Upgrade

  • Until now, the assembling and testing of equipment for heavy water upgrade were centralised and done by Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC).
  • TEMA India has inaugurated its test facility at Achchad in Palghar district, Maharashtra, where it will manufacture equipment such as distillation columns and integrate and test them before sending them to reactor sites for installation.
  • The facility was designed and built by TEMA India’s nuclear vertical under technology transfer from BARC and a ‘purchase order’ from Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL).

Significance:  

  • Single-point solutionfor upgrading heavy water:
    • Till now, the distillation columns and modules were manufactured by other vendors, and then assembled and tested by BARC. The entire process took 7-8 years. 
    • The decentralisation will reduce the time period by at least one to two years, and thus speeden up the operationalisation of nuclear power plants. 

What is Heavy Water?

  • Heavy water (D2O) is a form of water (H2O) with deuterium (a heavier isotope of hydrogen), instead of regular hydrogen. 
  • It is used as a coolant as well as moderator for slowing down fast-moving neutrons during a chain reaction essential for sustaining the nuclear fission process.
  • D2O needs to be 99.9% pure for working efficiently. With time it gets contaminated with light or regular water, thus requiring the depleted D2O to be upgraded back to 99.9% using a distillation process. 
image 60

TEMA India has dispatched the first batch of tested distillation column sections for deployment at a unit of the Rawatbhata Nuclear Power Plant (RAPP-8) in Rajasthan, which is scheduled to go critical by December 2025.

Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor:

  • Fuel: Natural Uranium (unenriched) 
  • Moderator and Coolant: Heavy water is used as both moderator and coolant. 
  • Cooling System: Uses a combination of heavy water and light water to cool the reactor. Heat is transferred to a secondary loop, which then generates steam to drive turbines.
  • Control Rods: Boron or Cadmium control rods.
  • Fuel requirement: Annual requirement of fuel (UO2) of a 700 MW PHWR (at 85% Capacity Factor) is about 125 tons. 
  • Advantages: Uses natural Uranium fuel, produces less high-level radioactive waste, and operates at lower pressures compared to some other reactor types.
image 61

India’s Nuclear Energy Generation Target

  • India has set its eyes at achieving 100 GW of installed nuclear energy capacity by 2047. 
  • There are 24 nuclear reactors operational in India with an installed capacity of 8780 MW. 
  • The government had approved construction of 10 more nuclear reactors in 2015- of which one has come onboard, while the rest (with a combined capacity of 13.6 GW) are under construction. 
  • The immediate target is to achieve 22.4 GW of installed capacity by 2032. 
  • The government has also launched a 20,000-crore Nuclear Energy Mission to develop Small Modular Reactors.

Also Read: Nuclear Energy Sector in Union Budget 2025-26 

Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill

Context: Maharashtra Legislative Assembly passed the Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill aiming to combat the perceived rise of "Urban Naxalism", and the activities of left-wing extremist (LWE) frontal organisations in the State.

Relevance of the topic:

Prelims: About Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill.

Mains: Impacts of such legislations on the Right to Freedom of Expression.

Maharashtra has become the fifth State after Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha to enact a Public Security Act for more effective prevention of unlawful activities of such organisations.

Why was the Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill introduced?

  • Maharashtra government claims that the State has become a safe haven for ‘Urban Naxal’ organisations. 
  • As per the State government, Over 60 Naxal-linked "frontal organisations" operate in the State, providing shelter, logistics, and support to armed Maoists.

What is Urban Naxal?

  • Urban Naxal is a political and security term used to describe individuals or groups in urban areas who are alleged to be sympathisers, supporters, or facilitators of Maoist ideology and Left-Wing Extremism (LWE).

Key Provisions of the Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill: 

  • The Bill empowers the government to declare organisations ‘illegal’ without due process.
  • Allows the government to extend ban on an organisation without any limit on the duration.
  • Section 2(f) of the Bill criminalises speech (spoken or written), signs, gestures or visual representations which ‘tend to interfere’ with public order or ‘cause concern’.
  • Excludes lower courts from jurisdiction, effectively closing off easy judicial remedies.
  • Allows the suppression of facts in public interest.
  • Provides full protection to State officials acting in good faith.
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Criticism of the Bill: 

  • The Bill empowers the government to declare organisations ‘illegal’ without due process and allows suppression of facts in ‘public interest’.
  • Vague terms like “tend to interfere with public order” or “cause concern” could criminalise dissent, satire, protests, or criticism. 
  • The ambiguity in the Bill has given rise to fear that it might be used against farmers’ organisations, students’ groups, civil rights groups, political opponents and critics under the label of ‘threat to public order’.
  • Critics argue that stringent laws like UAPA and existing State laws are already sufficient to tackle left-wing extremism.
  • It allows the government to extend a ban on an organisation without any limit on the duration. By excluding lower courts from jurisdiction, the Bill limits judicial remedies and violates principles of natural justice.

The argument in favour of the Bill is that it seeks to prevent Maoists from brainwashing youth, professionals, and civil servants through front organisations, and the new law would only target those who try to undermine the constitutional order. However, this does not deny the probability of misuse of the legislation.

Kudavolai System: Chola Ballot Pots 

Context: In a recent address at Gangaikonda Cholapuram, the Prime Minister of India highlighted Chola empire's indigenous democratic tradition, contrasting it with the often-cited Magna Carta of 1215 CE in Britain.

Relevance of the topic:

Prelims: About Chola Empire, Kudavolai System.

Mains: Features, relevance, and limitations of Cholas governance system.

Chola Empire

  • The Chola Empire (9th to 13th centuries CE) is one of the longest-ruling dynasties in South India. It is known for its maritime power, temple architecture, and democratic administrative systems. 
  • Long before the enlightenment in Europe birthed the ideals of representative governance, the Cholas had rules for local self-rule, literally inscribed into stone. 

Chola Democratic System

  • The Chola model of statecraft relied heavily on decentralised administrative systems. It was built on two core village-level institutions:
    • Sabha: Found in Brahmadeya villages (settlements gifted to Brahmins). Composed exclusively of Brahmin male members. Functioned through various committees (variyams) like garden committee, tank committee, justice committee, etc. Selection to these committees was often through the Kudavolai system.
    • Ur: For non-Brahmin villages. Peasant (Vellvangai) settlements were called Ur. Landholders of Ur (peasant village) acted as members of assembly Urar. Urar were entrusted with upkeep of temples, maintenance of tanks and managing water, and oversaw administrative functions like collection of revenue, maintenance of law & order. Less formal structure than Sabha, but still crucial to village-level decentralisation.
  • These were not symbolic councils, but functioning elected bodies with substantial powers over revenue, irrigation, temple management, and even justice.
  • The ‘Uttaramerur Inscription’ issued by Prantaka Chola offers detailed information about the world’s earliest surviving evidence of a formal electoral system called Kudavolai System.

Kudavolai System: Ballot Pot Elections

  • The Kudavolai system, meaning “ballot pot”, was an early electoral method used in Chola village assemblies.
  • Under this method:  
    • The names of eligible candidates were inscribed on palm leaves and placed inside a pot. 
    • A young boy, typically chosen for his impartiality, would draw the lot in full public view. 
    • The selected individual would assume a position in the village assembly.
  • This randomised draw was not a game of chance, but a civic ritual rooted in transparency, fairness, and collective consent. 
  • To ensure that power was not monopolised by dynastic elites, eligibility criteria under the system were strict. 

Eligibility & Disqualification Criteria:

  • Candidates had to own tax-paying land, be between 35 and 70 years old,
  • Possess knowledge of Vedic texts or administration, and 
  • Have no record of crime or domestic abuse. 
  • Debt defaulters, alcoholics, and close relatives of sitting members were disqualified. 

Accountability Mechanism

  • Annual audits were mandatory.
  • Misappropriation of funds or dereliction of duty could lead to disqualification from future office, a radical mechanism even by modern standards.
  • Inscription no. 24 from Epigraphia Indica details the dismissal of a treasury officer over embezzlement, followed by a fine.
image 53

Trade:

  • By empowering merchant guilds such as the Manigramam and Ayyavole, and sustaining local assemblies, the Cholas expanded both trade and legitimacy. 

Limitation of Cholas Administration:

  • However, the Chola system was far from egalitarian in the modern sense. It excluded women, labourers, and landless groups. 

Also Read: Imperial Chola 

SC panel proposes power corridors through Great Indian Bustard habitat

Context: The Supreme Court panel has proposed power corridors to reroute overhead power lines in Bustard habitats in Gujarat and Rajasthan. The idea behind creating power corridors is to ensure that birds, especially in high-risk habitats are not forced to repeatedly navigate through a maze of criss-crossing power lines.

Relevance of the Topic: Prelims: Key facts about Great Indian Bustard. 

Great Indian Bustard

  • A large bird of the bustard family, it is one of the heaviest flying birds in the world.
  • Physical characteristics and behaviour:
    • Black crown on the forehead contrasting with the pale neck and head. 
    • The body is brownish and the wings are marked with black, brown and grey. 
    • Males and females generally grow to the same height and weight but males have larger black crowns and a black band across the breast. 
    • They breed mostly during the monsoon season when females lay a single egg on open ground. 
    • Males play no role in the incubation and care of the young, which remain with the mother till the next breeding season.
    • They feed on grass seeds, insects like grasshoppers and beetles, and sometimes even small rodents and reptiles.
  • Habitat: 
    • Bustards generally favour flat open landscapes with minimal visual obstruction and disturbance, therefore adapt well in grasslands. 
    • They avoid grasses taller than themselves and dense scrub like thickets.
  • Distribution: Its population is confined mostly to Rajasthan and Gujarat. Small populations occur in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
image 59

Threats

The estimated population of the large bird- once considered a candidate for national bird- is below 150. 

  • Owing to its poor vision, the GIB is at high risk of injury and death due to collisions with high tension electric wires. 
  • Hunting and Occasional poaching for eggs outside Protected Areas 
  • Fast moving vehicles 
  • Free-ranging dogs in villages. 
  • Habitat loss and alteration as a result of widespread agricultural expansion and mechanised farming.
  • Infrastructural development such as irrigation, roads, electric poles, as well as mining and industrialisation.

Conservation Status:

  • IUCN Status: Critically Endangered
  • Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972: Schedule I 
  • CITES: Appendix-I 
  • Declared as the state bird of Rajasthan. 

Conservation Efforts by Government of India

  • Listed in Schedule-I of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, thereby accorded the highest degree of legal protection from hunting.
  • Important habitats of Great Indian Bustards are designated as National Parks/ sanctuaries for their better protection.
  • Identified for conservation efforts under the component ‘Species Recovery Programme’ of the Centrally Sponsored Scheme- Development of Wildlife Habitats. 
  • Conservation breeding has been undertaken in collaboration with Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra Forest Departments with technical support of Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun.
  • A satellite conservation breeding facility has been established at Sam, Jaisalmer, Rajasthan.

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