IASbaba Press Information Bureau 6th May to 12th May, 2018

ARCHIVES

GS-2

TRIFED goes digital for Inventory Management and Sales

(Topic:

• Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
• Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes)

Tribal Co-operative Marketing Development Federation (TRIFED) of Ministry of Tribal Affairs has operationalised Retail Inventory Software (RIS) in all its Tribes India Outlets, Regional Offices and Head Office for inventory control.

• Will streamline the entire retail operations from purchases upto sales by automating the transaction process and tracking important purchase, stocks and sales data
• Implementation of RIS software will bring greater transparency and control over various transactions under Retail sale

The various stages of retail sale process included in the Retail Inventory Software (RIS) include item selection for vendor at Regional Offices, request for code generation for selected items, generation of purchase order, stock and inventory details through POS and inventory management, monitoring of sale/purchase at regional office and report generation of sales/purchase at Head Office among others.

Van Dhan Vikas Kendras by TRIFED

(Topic:

• Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
• Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes)

TRIFED will facilitate establishment of MFP-led multi-purpose Van Dhan Vikas Kendras, a cluster of 10 SHGs comprising of 30 tribal MFP gatherers each, in the tribal areas. About 3000 such Van Dhan Kendras are proposed to be set up in two years in the forested Tribal Districts of the country.

Aim:

Mainstream the tribal community by promoting primary level value addition to MFP at grassroots level: Through this initiative, the share of tribals in the value chain of Non-Timber Forest Produce is expected to rise from the present 20% to around 60%.

Promote MFPs – centric livelihood development of tribal gatherers and artisans: MFP or what may be  more aptly referred to as Non Timber Forest Produces (NTFPs) are the primary source of income and livelihood for about 5 crore tribal people in the country.  

A typical Van Dhan Vikas Samuh would have the following facilities:

• Provision for required building/ infrastructure support to be established in one of the beneficiary’s house/ part of house or Government/ gram panchayat building
• Equipment/ Tool Kit comprising of equipment such as small cutting and sieving tools, decorticator, dryer, packaging tool etc. based on MFPs available in the area
• Fully equipped training facilities for a batch of 30 trainees with provision for raw material for training purpose and supply of trainee kits (comprising of bag, scribbing pad, pen, brochures, training manual, booklet etc)
• Provisioning of working capital for the SHGs through tie up with financial institutions, banks, NSTFDC etc
  • A cluster of ten such SHGs within the same village shall form a Van Dhan Vikas Kendra. Subject to successful operations of the samuhs in a Kendra, common infrastructure facilities (pucca Kendra) may be provided to the Kendra in the next phase in terms of building, warehouse, etc. for use of the samuh members
  • An illustrative list of major MFPs which may be covered under the initiative are tamarind, mahua flower, mahua seed, hill broom, chironjee, honey, sal seed, sal leaves, bamboo split, myrobalan, mango (amchur), aonla (churan/candy), seed lac, tez patta, cardamom, black pepper, turmeric, dry ginger, cinnamon, coffee, tea, sea buckthorn tea, etc. Apart from these, any other MFP with potential for value addition may be included.

India signs 200 million US Dollar Loan Deal with World Bank for National Nutrition Mission (POSHAN Abhiyaan)

(Topic:

• Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
• Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health)

The loan would help the Government of India in achieving its goal of reducing stunting in children 0-6 years of age from 38.4% to 25% by the year 2022.

POSHAN Abhiyaan: PM’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nourishment

A large component of POSHAN Abhiyaan involves gradual scaling-up of the interventions supported by the ongoing World Bank assisted Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Systems Strengthening and Nutrition Improvement Project (ISSNIP) to all districts in the country over a 3-year period.

With a focus on improving the coverage and quality of ICDS nutrition services to pregnant and lactating women and children under 3 years of age, the project will include

• Investments in improving the skills and capacities of ICDS staff and community nutrition workers,
• Instituting mechanisms of community mobilization and behavior change communication,
• Strengthening systems of citizen engagement and grievance redress
• Establishing mobile technology based tools for improved monitoring and management of services for better outreach to beneficiaries during the critical 1,000 day window for nutrition impact
• Ensure convergence of all nutrition related schemes and provide performance based incentives to states and community nutrition and health workers, facilitating a focus on results.

NITI Aayog and Google sign SoI

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

Aim: To foster growth for India’s nascent artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) ecosystem

The NITI Aayog has been entrusted to setup a national programme to conduct research and development in frontier technologies such as AI. NITI Aayog has been developing India’s national strategy on AI along with the National Data and Analytics Portal to enable the wide deployment and use of AI.

NITI’s partnership with Google will unlock massive training initiatives, support startups and encourage AI research through PhD scholarships, all of which contributes to the larger idea of a technologically-empowered New India.

Google and NITI Aayog will work on the following initiatives:

• Organise trainings for relevant government functionaries to introduce them to open source AI tools with the goal of enabling more effective governance.
• Awarding grants and scholarships to researchers, scholars and university faculty conducting cutting edge research in the field of AI/ML in India
• Organising AI/ML study jams for students and developers based on Google’s Machine Learning Crash Course (MLCC) on the fundamentals of machine learning
• Incubating Indian AI/ML startups in a program where they will be mentored by Google to better leverage AI in their respective business models.
• Organise a Hackathon focused on using AI/ML and open data sets to solve key challenges within agriculture, education, healthcare, etc. in India

India and Guatemala agree to support each other for Non-permanent membership of UNSC

(Topic: Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests)

Agreeing to push the ‘complementary’ and ‘not competitive’ nature of bilateral relations to a new level for mutual benefit from the emerging opportunities in both the countries, India and Guatemala have agreed to support each other’s candidature for Non-Permanent Membership in the United Nations Security Council.

Guatemala will support India’s candidature for UNSC membership for 2021-22 while New Delhi will do so for 2031-32 for Guatemala.

• • Both sides agree to take ‘complementary’ relationship to a new high taking advantage of emerging opportunities in both countries
  • Governance issues, terrorism in different forms, poverty, and economic disparities identified as common challenges
  • Indian side agreed to the Guatemala’s request for supplying solar panels to its airports.

• Both the sides signed a Memorandum of Understanding for training of diplomats and a Letter of Intent for training Guatemalan English Teachers in India.

GS-3

NABH (Nextgen Airports For Bharat) Nirman initiative

(Topic: Infrastructure: Airports)

The government is committed to the building of airport capacity as part of NABH (NextGen Airports for BHarat) Nirman initiative

Three key aspects of NABH Nirman:

• Fair and equitable land acquisition
• Long-term master plan for airport and regional development
• Balanced economics for all stakeholders

Key Focus Areas under UDAN Scheme:

• Improving passenger amenities
• Promoting cargo handling facilities
• Early operationalisation of 56 new airports
• Improving regional connectivity
• Improving passenger services

Prelims oriented News

National Technology Day: 11th May

International Nurses Day: 12th May

• International Nurses Day is an occasion for the entire nursing community to remember Florence Nightingale and renew their commitment to her ideals. Florence Nightingale had established nursing as a service to humanity. She motivated nurses to follow the path of dedication, commitment and compassion.
• At present, there are 1.7 nurses per 1,000 people in India, but the world average is 2.5 nurses.

Antigua (old) Guatemala city

• Declared as a World Heritage City by the UNESCO in 1979
• Antigua Guatemala was the third capital built by the Spanish rulers since their invasion of Guatemala in 1524. The first two capitals had to be abondoned by 1541 on account of resistance from the local warriors and natural calamities respectively. Old Guatemala witnessed series of earthquakes since 1565 and was destroyed by earthquake Santa Marta in 1773 forcing the shifting of capital to the present Guatamela City.
• Shri Naidu referred to the ancient Mayan civilisation of Guatemala and the Indus civilisation of India and stressed on the need to preserve the rich cultural roots which would in turn guide the present and future generations.

Health Assurance programme

• Under Ayushman Bharat
• The scheme will provide a cover of up to Rs. 5 lakh per family
• Will be targeted to cover over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families.

Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karykram (PMJVK):

• The Minority Affairs Ministry will construct schools, colleges, ITIs, skill development centres, multi-purpose community centres “Sadbhav Mandap”, “Hunar Hub”, hospitals, business centres, etc. on waqf properties across the country.
• Has provision to utilise Waqf properties for various infrastructure for socio-economic-educational empowerment of the society.

One Stop Centres (OSCs): For women affected by violence; Purpose of these OSCs is to facilitate integrated services for women affected with violence such as police assistance, medical aid, psycho-social counselling, legal aid/counselling, temporary stay for 5 days etc. such that aggrieved women can avail services under one roof.

World’s highest battlefield: Siachen – President Kovind becomes first President of India to visit Siachen in 14 years

Quote:

Hon’ble President of India Shri Ram Nath Kovind

Technology is Destiny, but Technology must also be Equity

New technologies should have three attributes in common –

• First, they offer solutions that are necessary in the Indian context, and contribute to the social and economic needs of our people.
• Second, they achieve all this at competitive price points.
• Third is the most critical, they don’t compromise on quality.