Current Affairs 03 December 2025

పి ఐ బి కరెంట్ అఫైర్స్

Satellite-Based Crop Monitoring under FASAL Programme

The Government of India is expanding the use of satellite-based crop monitoring through the FASAL (Forecasting Agricultural output using Space, Agro-meteorology and Land-based observations) programme. Under this initiative, the Mahalanobis National Crop Forecast Centre (MNCFC) generates pre-harvest production estimates for 11 major crops including paddy, wheat, jute, cotton, sugarcane, soybean, tur, gram, mustard, lentil and rabi sorghum.

How FASAL Works:

• Uses multispectral and microwave satellite data for crop mapping.
• Combines satellite-based indices + weather data for yield estimation.
• Covers 20 states / 557 districts across India.
• In Andhra Pradesh all districts are covered under FASAL Program.
• Helps reduce discrepancies by supporting PMFBY, especially in crop-cutting experiments and gram panchayat–level yield estimation using YESTech.
• DA&FW, MNCFC and ISRO are jointly developing an operational Semi-Physical yield estimation model.

AI-Based Monsoon Forecast Pilot project

An AI-based pilot project was conducted by the Government of India in collaboration with the Development Innovation Lab–India to provide local monsoon onset forecasts for Kharif 2025. The system used an open-source blended model combining:

• Google’s NeuralGCM
• ECMWF’s AIFS (Artificial Intelligence Forecasting System)
• 125 years of historical rainfall data from IMD

The forecasts were probabilistic and focused only on local monsoon onset, helping farmers decide the right sowing dates. Forecasts were sent through M-Kisan SMS portal to 3.88 crore farmers across 13 States in 5 languages Hindi, Odia, Marathi, Bangla, and Punjabi.

e-Panchayat Mission Mode Project

The Government of India is implementing the e-Panchayat Mission Mode Project (MMP) under the Digital India Programme to strengthen e-Governance in Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs). The project aims to enhance transparency, accountability, and efficiency at the grassroots level by digitizing Panchayat functions. The e-Panchayat Mission Mode Project was launched on 27 April 2012.

The flagship platform eGramSwaraj enables planning, budgeting, accounting, and monitoring of Gram Panchayat works. Its integration with PFMS allows real-time digital payments, improving financial transparency. The eGramSwaraj application was launched on 24 April 2020.

Other major applications include:

• Meri Panchayat – provides dashboards on Panchayat planning and activities
• Panchayat NIRNAY – digitizes and records Gram Sabha proceedings
• AuditOnline – enables online auditing of Panchayat accounts

NHAI partners with Reliance Jio for safety alert system

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Reliance Jio to introduce a telecom-based road safety alert system across India’s National Highway network.

• Using Jio’s 4G and 5G infrastructure, travellers will now receive advance warnings on their mobile phones when approaching accident-prone zones, fog-affected stretches, stray-cattle areas, or emergency diversions.
• Alerts will be sent via SMS, WhatsApp, and high-priority calls, enabling drivers to adjust speed and improve road safety.
• The system will integrate with NHAI’s Rajmargyatra app and the emergency helpline 1033.

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