IASbaba's Daily Current Affairs Analysis, IASbaba's Daily News Analysis
IASbaba PIB Weekly: Press Information Bureau – 26th June to 30th June , 2017
GS-2
Open Defecation Free states in India—
(Topic: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation)
- Sikkim
- Himachal Pradesh
- Kerala
- Uttarakhand
- Haryana
Launch of Web Application for Legal Services to Prisoners
(Topic: Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability, e-governance- applications, models, successes, limitations, and potential; citizens charters, transparency & accountability and institutional and other measures)
By: National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) – entrusted with responsibility to provide legal aid inter-alia to all persons in custody.
- Data will be fed for each individual prison inmate in the jails, with regard to their being represented through a counsel in the court.
- The software will be able to generate reports showing total number of inmates, number of inmates unrepresented, number of inmates represented by legal services lawyers and number of inmates represented by private lawyers.
Impact:
- Transparency in the legal system
- Will be useful in monitoring the grant of legal aid to the prisoners in order to ensure that absolutely no prisoner goes unrepresented right from the first day of his production in the court.
Must read: Prison Reforms
Inauguration of Textile India 2017
(Topic: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation)
FDI – 100 percent FDI through automatic route
India
- World’s largest producer of cotton and jute
- World’s second largest producer of silk and man-made fibre
- World’s second largest exporter of textiles, commanding a global share of around five percent
Based on the “Make-in-India” initiative, the organized textile industry is being infused with the mantras of ‘skill, scale, speed’ and ‘zero-defect, zero-effect’ for scaling up employment, production and exports.
Textile and India
- India has an abundant supply of raw material, like cotton, wool, silk, jute, and man-made fibre
- Has strong spinning, weaving, knitting and apparel manufacturing capacities
- Young, skilled labour is available at a reasonable cost
- High demand for textiles, apparel, and handcrafted lifestyle products by today’s youth with higher disposable income
- High global demand for textiles and apparel manufactured in India
- Employment: Second largest employer after agriculture; over forty-five million people are employed directly in the sector, and over sixty million people are employed in allied activities.
6th Joint Trade Committee Meeting between India and Myanmar
(Topic:
- India and its neighborhood- relations.
- Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests)
Myanmar – India’s gateway to South East Asia and ASEAN
- India is seeking greater economic integration with ASEAN through ‘Act East’ Policy
- Myanmar shares a long land border of over 1600 Kms with India as well as a maritime boundary in the Bay of Bengal.
- India’s trade with Myanmar grew by 6.01% from USD 2.05 bn in 2015 -16 to USD 2.18 bn in 2016-17. The total export achieved in 2016-17 was 1.11 USD Billion, reflecting an annual growth of 3.79%. The import stood at 1.06 USD Billion showing a growth of 8.43%.
Discussion Points:
- Border Haats on the ‘India-Myanmar border’: 10 points spread across 4 states viz., Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland and Manipur, have been identified for operationalising Border Haats.
- To explore opening of two new Border Trade Points at Pangkhuwa and Zoninpuri.
- Comprehensive MoUs would be explored in areas— Health Care, Textiles, Capacity building between RBI and CBM and on cooperation in the field of Power Sector
- The proposed MoU between RBI and Central Bank of Myanmar on currency exchange rate fixation also needs to be expedited.
Read about: India Myanmar Relations: An analysis
Locate on the map: Pangkhuwa and Zoninpuri
MoU between India and Israel on National Campaign for Water Conservation in India approved
(Topic:
- India and its neighborhood- relations.
- Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests)
India and Israel shall work to enhance cooperation at the national, regional and international level to design, implement and monitor a professionally-designed National Water Conservation campaign in India.
Objectives:
- Put water conservation on the national agenda in India
- Encouraging every citizen to save water in everyday life
- Generating awareness about water
- Promoting Re-use, Recharge and Recycling of water
- Development of digital tools such as websites, mobile applications on the subject of water conservation.
You can also read: PM Modi’s visit to Israel
Swasth Saarthi Abhiyaan
(Topic:
- Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes; mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections.
- Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources)
Purpose: To address the major issues being faced by public transport drivers of the region by focusing on providing preventive healthcare (basic health check-up) to the auto, taxi and bus drivers of the region
Initiative of: Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL) – 2 month long medical camp at all their stations in the Capital
Key notes:
- Drivers in the capital region are partners in the growth story of gas used as fuel in vehicles.
- Free health checkup includes blood test, sugar test, eye test, cataract surgeries, etc.
- Provision of health insurance which would also include death benefits for drivers in the Capital
Launch of the Swasth Saarthi web application: Will enable the drivers undergoing the health checkups during the campaign to access their health records online from anywhere, in case of need.
GS-3
Pathways to Integrate 175 Gigawatts of Renewable Energy into India’s Electricity Grid
(Topic: Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways, etc.)
Study developed under: U.S.-India bilateral program “Greening the Grid”
2015 Target: The Government of India in 2015 had set the ambitious target of adding 100 GW of solar energy and 60 GW of wind energy into the country’s energy mix.
Key operational impacts:
- Large-scale benefits of fuel savings and reduced emissions due to increased renewable energy production
- Existing fast-ramping infrastructure is sufficient to maintain grid balance
- In post-175 GW clean energy scenario, coal plants operating at part capacity will need suitable incentives for flexibility.
Must Read:
Harnessing wind power through Kites
Launch of National Data Repository (NDR) and Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP)
(Topic: Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways, etc.)
Under: Market driven Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP) of Government of India
National Data Repository: Will serve as an integrated data repository of E&P data of the Indian sedimentary basins, in line with the Digital India initiative
Open Acreage Licensing: Will accelerate exploration activities in the country since investors can express their interest in an area which they feel has prospective without waiting for formal bidding.
Launch of National Biopharma Mission
(Topic: Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology, bio-technology and issues relating to intellectual property rights)
Program: Innovate in India (i3) aspires to create an enabling ecosystem to promote entrepreneurship and indigenous manufacturing in the sector.
Implementing Agency: Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), a Public Sector Undertaking of Department of Biotechnology
Key notes:
- India has been an active player in the pharmaceutical industry and has contributed globally towards making life saving drugs and low cost pharmaceutical products accessible and affordable for those in need. But Indian biopharmaceutical industry is still 10-15 years behind their counterparts and faces stiff competition from China, Korea and others.
- Currently India has only 2.8% share in the global biopharmaceutical market, the program would elevate this to 5% resulting in an additional business opportunity of 16 Billion USD.
- Reasons behind the lacuna:
- Disconnected centers of excellence
- Less focus on translational research
- Staggered funding
- With i3:
- Increased focus on product discovery, translational research and early stage manufacturing to ensure inclusive innovation
- Make India a hub for design and development of novel, affordable and effective biopharmaceutical products and solutions
- Boost the growth curve for domestic biopharma in India by accelerating the translation of research concepts into viable products, supporting clinical validation, enabling sustainable networks for collaboration between industry and academia, and supporting entrepreneurial ecosystem amongst many others.
- Provision of a holistic and integrated approach to strengthen and support the entire product development value chain for accelerating the research leads to product development.
India’s GSAT-17 Communication Satellite Launched Successfully
(Topic: Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology, bio-technology and issues relating to intellectual property rights)
GSAT-17 –
- India’s third communication satellite to successfully reach orbit
- Carries communication payloads in C-band, Extended C-band and S-band for providing various services to the country
- Also carries equipment for meteorological data relay and satellite based search and rescue services.
Did you know –
India has moved up by
- Thirty two places in the last two years in the Global Competitiveness Index of the World Economic Forum.
- Nineteen places on the World Bank Logistics Performance Index of 2016.
- Sixteen places on the Global Innovation Index of the World Intellectual Property Organisation in 2016
India is third among the top ten FDI destinations listed by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
