IASbaba PIB Weekly: Press Information Bureau – 24th Sep to 1st Oct, 2017

ARCHIVES

GS-2

My Home-My Neighborhood (Ghar Bi Saaf-Pados Bhi Saaf) campaign

(Topic: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation)

Objective: As solid waste management in cities is the major challenges in urban areas, there is a need to convert the ‘individual connect’ with sanitation demand into ‘social connect’ to ensure the success of the solid waste management chain through collective action.

Components of the campaign –

• Segregation of waste at source
• Compost making from wet waste within the premises/neighborhood/area
• Recycling of dry waste
• Freeing the neighborhood from open defecation and open urination
• Motivating the residents of neighborhood against throwing garbage in open spaces
• Adopting a nearby park or open place for collection and waste segregation.

Impact –

• Substantial reduction in the quantum of solid waste sent to landfill
• Enabling better performance of Waste-to –Compost and Waste-to-Energy plants

Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY)

(Topic: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation)

Part of the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), tasked with the dual objectives of adding diversity to the incomes of rural poor families and cater to the career aspirations of rural youth

According to Census 2011, India has 55 million potential workers between the ages of 15 and 35 years in rural areas. At the same time, the world is expected to face a shortage of 57 million workers by 2020. This presents a historic opportunity for India to transform its demographic surplus into a demographic dividend.

Enable Poor and Marginalized to Access Benefits: Demand led skill training at no cost to the rural poor

Inclusive Program Design: Mandatory coverage of socially disadvantaged groups (SC/ST 50%; Minority 15%; Women 33%)

Shifting Emphasis from Training to Career Progression: Pioneers in providing incentives for job retention, career progression and foreign placements

Greater Support for Placed Candidates: Post-placement support, migration support and alumni network

Proactive Approach to Build Placement Partnerships: Guaranteed Placement for at least 75% trained candidates

Enhancing the Capacity of Implementation Partners: Nurturing new training service providers and developing their skills

Regional Focus: Greater emphasis on projects for poor rural youth in Jammu and Kashmir (HIMAYAT), the North-East region and 27 Left-Wing Extremist (LWE) districts (ROSHINI)

Standards-led Delivery: All program activities are subject to Standard Operating Procedures that are not open to interpretation by local inspectors. All inspections are supported by geo-tagged, time stamped videos/photographs

Must Read: Link 1 + Link 2 + Link 3 + Link 4

Must Solve: Link 1 + Link 2

SAUBHAGYA Yojana

(Topic: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation)

What: The Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojna – Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched a Rs 16,320-crore scheme to supply electricity to all households by December 2018, providing free connections to the poor and at very low cost to others. This marks a natural transition of government policy from electrification of villages to connecting households.

• Access to electricity to all willing households
• Substitution to kerosene
• Improvement in educational services
• Improvement in health services
• Improvement in communications
• Improvement in public safety
• Increased job opportunities
• Better quality of life, especially for women, in daily chores

Note: Government will use Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011 data to identify the beneficiaries for free electricity connections. Un-electrified households not covered under the SECC data would also be provided electricity connections under the scheme on payment of Rs 500 which will be recovered by DISCOMs in 10 installments through electricity bill.

Nodal Agency: The Rural Electrification Corporation Limited

PENCIL Portal

(Topic: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources)

What: An electronic platform for effective enforcement for ‘no child labour’ policy  developed by Ministry of Labour and Employment

Need: To create a robust implementing and monitoring mechanism for both enforcement of the legislative provisions and effective implementation of the NCLP. It is important due to the fact that the subject of Labour falls in the concurrent list and enforcement to a large extent depends of respective State Governments. This online portal will connect Central Government to State Government, District and to all Project Societies and would provide a mechanism for implementation.

PENCIL Portal has following components:

• Child Tracking System
• Complaint Corner
• State Government
• National Child Labour Project
• Convergence

Government has embarked on a holistic and multi-pronged approach to eliminate child labour from the country in a phased manner.

Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Amendment Act, 2016 – Came into force with effect from 1st September, 2016.

• Employment of a child below 14 years is completely prohibited in any occupation or processes. This is a historic progression since the inception of the Act in 1986, when a complete ban in engaging children below 14 years is foreseen as a reality by this amendment
• First time the age of child is linked with the age of the child in the Right of Children to free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009
• For the first time the definition of adolescent has been introduced and the ambit of the Act is enhanced to include adolescent in the age group of 14-18 years.
• The amendment prohibits the employment of adolescent in hazardous occupations and processes.

National Child Labour Project (NCLP) Scheme – initiated in 1988 to rehabilitate working children by

• Eliminating all forms of child labour through identification
• Withdrawal of all children in the Project Area from child labour
• Preparing children withdrawn from work for mainstream education along with vocational training

Haifa Day

(Topic: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests)

Haifa: In Northern Israel

Every year on September 23, the Indian Army celebrates ‘Haifa Day’ to commemorate the war dead during the Battle of Haifa, considered as one of the bravely-contested battles of World War I.

• Owing to its rail and harbour, Israeli port city of Haifa was a strategic supply base. In addition to Haifa, the Allied Forces also engineered a plan to annexe Nazareth and Damascus in present-day Israel and Syria.
• On September 23, 1918, the 15th (Imperial Service) Cavalry Brigade comprising lancers from the regiments of princely states of Jodhpur and Mysore inflicted heavy assault on positions held by Ottoman Turks in and around the city of Haifa.
• Eventually, the Indian cavalry brigades fighting under the leadership of British General Edmund Allenby helped liberate Haifa from the clutches of the Turkish-German forces.
• A total of 1,350 German and Ottoman prisoners were captured by the two Indian regiments.

The Teen Murti memorial was constructed in 1922 in the memory of the Indian soldiers from three princely states namely Jodhpur, Hyderabad and Mysore who served present day Gaza strip, Israel and Palestine during the World War I under British India Army.

Note: Modi will be the first-ever Indian Prime Minister to visit Israel, aimed at strengthening diplomatic ties with the Jewish nation.

Read: Battle of Haifa

3rd Joint Ministerial Review of the India-Korea Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA)

(Topic: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests)

Progress of the CEPA was reviewed, and had extensive discussions on trade and economic corporation issues between the two countries.

• Both countries should endeavour to finalize the CEPA upgrading negotiations at the earliest, within 2018 to the extent possible.
• The Ministers agreed on the importance of co-operation in the field of standardization and conformity assessment and developing mutual recognition agreements of arrangements of conformity assessment between the two countries.
• The Ministers shared the view that the two countries can take the lead in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution if the new, lower–cost technological competitiveness of India is combined with Korea’s mass production capabilities. Ministers agreed to establish a join future strategy group with a mission to identify areas of high–end technological co-operation between the two countries, as a way to realize the vision of co-leadership in the era of the Fourth Industries Revolution
• Commended the two countries’ dedication to the expansion of power generation from renewable resources and agreed to co-operate to mutually support the national goal of renewable and reliable energy expansion.
• The Ministers agreed that, to attract foreign investment, it is critical to create pioneering success stories to nudge second movers and increase by a more diverse range of entrepreneurs. In this regard, both sides agreed to consider favourably the requests made in the Joint Committee meeting, with regard to investment cooperation of the two countries. In addition, both sides agreed to the continued support of KOREA PLUS in India, to Korean investors.

Cabinet approves Agreement on “Cooperation in the field of Information, Communication and Media” between India and Ethiopia

(Topic: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests)

Aims to harness the growing power of Information, Communication and Media for information dissemination and enhancing outreach between the two countries for inclusive development

• Enhance people to people contact through exchange programmes
• Provide an opportunity for both the nations to share best practices and new innovations in the field of Information, Communication & Media.
• Encourage cooperation between mass media tools such as radio, print media, TV, social media etc. to provide more opportunities to the people of both the nations and create public accountability.
• The Agreement, through an institutional framework will facilitate exchange of delegations, personnel between the two nations, providing them opportunities to learn from each other’s best practices, bringing in equity and inclusiveness.

GS-3

Electronic Negotiable Warehouse Receipt (e-NWR) System

(Topic: Transport and marketing of agricultural produce and issues and related constraints; e-technology in the aid of farmers, Issues of buffer stocks and food security)

This initiative would revolutionise the marketing of agricultural commodities and help farmers realize better price for their produce which will be a step towards doubling the farmers’ income by 2022 as well as Digital India mission.

• Will provide no chances of any tempering, mutilation, fudging, loss or damage and with no possibility of any multiple financing
• Facilitate an easy pledge financing by banks and other financial institutions
• Smooth trading on various trading centres like commodity exchanges, electronic National Agriculture Markets (e-NAM) and other electronic platforms.
• Will save expenditure in logistics as the stocks could be traded through multiple buyers without physical movement and can be even split for partial transfer or withdrawal
• Would enhance WDRA’s regulatory functions and bring greater fiduciary trust among banks, depositors and the trade on the e-NWR system

Minimum Support Price for Minor Forest Produce

(Topic: Issues related to direct and indirect farm subsidies and minimum support prices)

Minor Forest Produce (MFP) is a major source of livelihood for tribals who belong to the poorest of the poor section of society –

• Majority of 100 million tribals depend on MFPs for food, fodder, shelter, medicines and cash income – it provides them critical subsistence during the lean seasons, particularly for primitive tribal groups such as hunter gatherers, and the landless.
• Tribals derive 20-40% of their annual income from MFP on which they spend major portion of their time.
• This activity has strong linkage to women’s financial empowerment as most of the MFPs are collected and used / sold by women.
• MFP sector has the potential to create about 10 million workday’s jobs annually in the country

Scheme: Providing fair price for the MFP collected by tribals through Minimum Support price (MSP)

Objective:

• Providing fair price to MFP gatherers, enhance their income level and ensure sustainable harvesting of MFPs
• Seeks to establish a framework to ensure fair prices for the produce collected by them, assurance of buying at a particular price, primary processing, storage, transportation etc while ensuring sustainability of the resource base
• Envisages training of tribal MFP gatherers on sustainable harvesting and value addition activities including facilitation for marketing of the produces so that natural resources can be optimally utilized in a sustainable manner
• Seeks to institutionalize various medium & long term aspects of sustainable collection, value addition, market infrastructure development, knowledge base expansion of MFPs, market intelligence development etc.
• Strengthening the bargaining power of Gram Sabhas / Panchayats

India Joins Race in 5G Ecosystem, Constitutes High Level Forum on 5G India 2020

(Topic: Telecom)

5G has been conceived as a foundation for expanding the potential of the Networked Society and India is at the cusp of a next generation of wireless technology 5G. It provides an opportunity for industry to reach out to global markets, and consumers to gain with the economies of scale.

Economic benefits from the 5G technology

• Increasing GDP
• Creating Employment
• Digitizing the economy

The primary goals of the forum are to achieve:

• Early deployment of 5G in India
• A globally competitive product development and manufacturing ecosystem targeting 50% of India market and 10% of global market over next 5 to 7 years.

The forum will complement the eco-system by focused actions in the following areas:

Research Ecosystem – for IPR development, standards development and proof of concepts through research projects, PPP projects, testbeds and pilot roll-outs.

Regulatory Framework – including spectrum assignments and a start-up friendly regulatory environment to enable leap-frog and embracing of innovative technologies.

Inclusive Business environment – with special focus on investment incentives favourable to start-ups and innovators and enablement of Venture capitalists.

A vibrant eco-system of research built around 5G that encompasses Industry, Government and Academia will further strengthen the MAKE (& DESIGN) in INDIA initiatives to enable:

• Design and manufacture of 5G technologies, products and solutions in India;
• 5G start-ups that enable this design and manufacturing capabilities;
• Generation of IPR backing the above designs;
• India based companies should have some essential IPR in the 5G standard;
• Manufacture of 5G chipsets, this may require massive investments;
• Appropriate testbeds and technology platforms to enable and help Indian technical ecosystem to have an edge in 5G;
• Accelerated deployment of next generation ubiquitous ultra-high broadband infrastructure with 100% coverage of 10 Gbps across urban India and 1 Gbps across Rural India.

India Hosts Global Wildlife Programme to Address Illegal Wildlife Trade

(Topic: Conservation)

Theme: Peoples’ participation in wildlife conservation

• In an attempt to address illegal wildlife trade across 19 countries of Asia and Africa, India is hosting the Global Wildlife Programme (GWP) jointly with World Bank and United Nations Development Programme.
• The meeting will bring about strengthened cooperation between India and the 18 GWP countries in better management of wildlife habitats and minimizing human-wildlife conflict situations. It will also enable India to strengthen its enforcement mechanism to control illicit trade.
• The GWP will hold discussions on management of wildlife habitat, securing sustainable community livelihood, enhancing enforcement, monitoring, cooperation to reduce wildlife crimes such as poaching and related threats.

The proposed outcomes include:

• Reiterating Mahatma Gandhi principles to the world (the Conference coincides with Gandhi Jayanti and UN International Day of Non- Violence on October 2, 2017)
• Take leadership in Wildlife Conservation by showcasing India’s conservation models for Asiatic lion, single horn rhino, tiger and Asiatic elephants
• Consolidating “people’s participation for wildlife conservation”
• Need to strongly address unaccounted black money generated through illegal wildlife trade at global market
• Sensitise stakeholders like Governments, corporate, banks, public sectors, media, youth etc for investments in wildlife conservation and develop sustainable models for wildlife conservation thorough peoples’ participation in 19 GWP countries.

Please Note:

India has registered a significant decline in Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) –

• IMR of India has declined by three points (8% decline), from 37 per 1000 live births in 2015 to 34 per 1000 live births in 2016, compared to two points decline last year.
• India also recorded a major drop in birth cohort, which has for the first time come down to below 25 million. India has registered 90000 fewer infant deaths in 2016 as compared to 2015. The total number of estimated infant deaths have come down from 930000 (9.3 Lakhs) in 2015 to 840000 (8.4 lakhs) in 2016.
• The gender gap in India for child survival is reducing steadily. The gender difference between female and male IMR has now reduced to <10%, giving a major boost to the ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ scheme

Note: Make a list of all the schemes of the Government that have contributed towards this achievement and read them in detail – Daily News Analysis on IASbaba.

Rural Self Employment Training Institutes (RSETI) – An initiative of Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) to have dedicated infrastructure in each district of the country to impart training and skill upgradation of rural youth geared towards entrepreneurship development. It is being managed by banks with active co-operation from the Government of India and State Governments.

Divyang Sarathi – The accessible and comprehensive mobile application for easy dissemination of information to ‘Divyangjans’

India ranked second amongst the countries with highest increase in contribution to high-quality scientific research just next to China.

India, 60th globally, is the top-ranked economy in central and southern Asia and has outperformed on innovation relative to its GDP per capita for seven years in a row. India has shown improvements in most areas, including in infrastructure, business sophistication, knowledge and technology and creative outputs.

PRAGATI – the ICT-based, multi-modal platform for Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation

Kandla Port has been renamed as Deendayal Port – located on the Gulf of Kutch in Gujarat.

11th October: Birth anniversary of Jai Prakash Narain and Nanaji Deshmukh (joined the Gramodaya Movement)

“Hunar Hub” – Ministry of Minority Affairs working to establish “Hunar Hub” across the country to provide a platform to master artisans and craftsmen to display as well sell their products

Antyodaya Diwas –

• Celebrated on 25^th September to mark the birth anniversary of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay, one of the great thinker and philosopher of the nationalist movement of the country
• One of the key leaders of Bharatiya Jana Sangh from which the BJP later emerged, and launched the weekly Panchjanya and the daily Swadesh
• Message: Reaching person in the last line to build a developed and just India
• Must Read: Contribution of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay in Indian Politics
• Solve: Question

National Dairy Project (NDP) aims to increase the productivity of milch animals which will lead to increase in milk production for meeting growing demand for milk. The purpose of NDP-1 is to help in increasing the productivity of milch animals and thereby increase the milk production to meet the growing demand of milk and to provide more assistance to rural milk producers for more market access, including organized milk processing sector.

The purpose of the Dairy Infrastructure Development Fund (DIDF) is to establish an effective mechanism for creating a basic structure for milk cooling at village level and installing electronic equipment for milk adulteration, manufacturing/modernization/processing facilities and for procuring milk. Educational institutes would set up for value-added products for milk unions/milk producers companies.

Women of India Organic Festival: To celebrate and promote women entrepreneurs and farmers in the organic sector from across India – Theme:  Good for Women; Good for India; Good for You – to highlight the health and environmental advantages of organic goods, provide a platform for women engaged in it and boost the development of sustainable and easily accessible sales outlets for women producers from the remotest corners of India.

International Solar Alliance – The ISA is an Indian initiative jointly launched by the Prime Minister of India and the President of France on 30 November 2015 at Paris, on the sidelines of COP-21. It aims at addressing obstacles to deployment at scale of solar energy through better harmonization and aggregation of demand from solar rich countries lying fully or partially between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn.

• Till date 40 countries have signed and 11 countries have ratified the Framework Agreement of the ISA. With ratifications by 15 countries, the ISA will become a treaty based inter-governmental international organization.
• Three programmes launched under the ISA – Affordable finance at scale, Scaling solar applications for agricultural use, and Scaling Solar Mini Grids
• Common Risk Mitigating Mechanism (CRMM) – The objective of the mechanism is de-risking and reducing the financial cost of solar projects in the ISA member countries. The instrument will help diversify and pool risks on mutual public resources and unlock significant investments

Roll Out of ARPAN Version 3.0 for Defence Security Corps – Will ease personal documentation and all issues related to their progression

• Consists of seven modules facilitates end to end human resource, financial management of Junior Commissioned Officers and Other Ranks with major functional advantages of timely processing of postings, promotions, release of salary, publication of personal occurrences and processing of pension has been rolled out by DCOAS (IS &T) for the Defence Security Corps.
• Provides valuable data for decision and policy making for the Defence Security Corps Directorate
• Defence Security Corps troops would be able to access their service profiles, statement of accounts and adjustment of allowances at par with the troops of Indian Army
• The software has been developed by Tech Mahindra.

Cabinet approves –

• Enhancement of age of superannuation of doctors other than Central Health Service (CHS) doctors to 65 years
• Inter-bank Local Currency Credit Line Agreement by EXIM Bank under BRICS Interbank Cooperation mechanism – Signing of the Agreement will position Exim Bank in the international platform along with large development finance institutions, like CDS, VEB and BNDES. At an appropriate time, Exim Bank, leveraging this umbrella agreement, could enter into bilateral agreement with any of these member institutions to raise resources for its business. As and when an opportunity arises for co-financing in commercial terms, by any two member institutions (say India and South Africa), lending in single currency by both the institutions would also be possible.
• Signing of Cooperation Memorandum relating to Credit Ratings by EXIM Bank under BRICS Interbank Cooperation mechanism – It would enable sharing of credit ratings amongst the BRICS member banks, based on the request received from another bank. This would be an ideal mechanism to mitigate the credit risks associated with cross-border financing. In future, such a mechanism could also serve as pre-cursor to the proposal of having an alternate rating agency by BRICS nations.
• Signing and ratification of the Bilateral Investment Treaty between India and Belarus on investments – The agreement is expected to improve the confidence of the investors resulting in an increase in FDI and Overseas Director Investment (ODI) opportunities and this will have a positive impact on employment generation. The signing and ratification of a BIT between the two countries will work as a strategic initiative as Belarus is the member of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). India has already initiated the BIT text with the Kyrgyz Republic and is in talks with the Russian Federation for a new BIT, based on the Model BIT text.

The first ever India Mobile Congress 2017 – DoT’s first ever Mobile, Internet and Technology event in India – the industry association of mobile and telecom operators and internet companies will be a congregation to display, discuss, unveil, imbibe, educate and recognise the importance of the global and Indian telecommunications, mobile, internet, connectivity and digital services sector to the world.

Cabinet approves umbrella scheme of Modernisation of Police Forces – to boost the capability and efficiency of Central and State Police Forces by modernizing them.

Two CSIR technologies that are being dedicated to the nation on the occasion of conclusion of platinum jubilee year celebrations of CSIR –

• Hand-held milk tester that will allow us to more easily identify adulterants in milk
• Waterless Chrome-Tanning Technology that eliminates the use of water in two processes before and after tanning – and also reduces the solids dissolved in wastewater during tanning

Other major contributions of CSIR:

Anaerobic digester – is making a big difference to the Swachh Bharat mission, as it converts biodegradable kitchen waste to biogas and manure that can be used for family kitchen gardens. Each anaerobic digester has the capacity to convert up to three kg waste per day and produce 400 litre of biogas, which can be used as a clean fuel.

DivyaNayan – a reading device for the visually challenged

Must Revise:

Mudra Scheme

• Must Read: Link 1 + Link 2
• Must Solve: Question 1

UDAY Scheme

UJALA Scheme