IASbaba Press Information Bureau 17th June to 23rd June, 2018

ARCHIVES

GS-2

‘Adopt a Heritage’ Scheme

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

Implemented by:

• Ministry of Tourism
• Ministry of Culture
• Archaeological Survey of India

Aim:

• To develop synergy among all partners to effectively promote “responsible tourism”
• Involve public sector companies, private sector companies and corporate citizens/individuals to take up the responsibility for making our heritage and tourism more sustainable through development, operation and maintenance of world-class tourist infrastructure and amenities at ASI/ State heritage sites and other important tourist sites in India.

The project primarily focuses on providing basic amenities that includes cleanliness, public conveniences, drinking water, ease of access for differently abled and senior citizens, standardized signage, illumination and advanced amenities such as surveillance system, night viewing facilities, tourism facilitation center and an enhanced tourism experience that will result in more tourist footfalls, both domestic and foreign.

Chief Ministers Subgroup Constituted to Coordinate Policy Approaches for Agriculture and MGNREGS

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

Convener: Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh

The move comes in the backdrop of the vision of the Prime Minister towards Doubling Farmers’ Income by 2022 which requires a multi-dimensional and inclusive approach.

Terms of Reference of the Sub-Group has tentatively been assigned as follows:

• To suggest a wider choice of State specific interventions both for pre-sowing and post-harvest to further improve the thrust on incomes, water conservation and waste to wealth.
• To align works under MGNREGS fully to the requirements of achieving the goal of Doubling Farmers’ Income by 2022.  This will improve thrust on Water Conservation, individual Beneficiary Schemes, Construction of Rural Haats, Vermi-Composting etc.
• To make recommendations on interventions of MGNREGS that can facilitate reduction of agrarian distress including work availability, wage rates, seasonality etc.
• To explore the possibilities of MGNREGS as a livelihood resource for development and diversification of livelihoods of small and marginal farmers specially belonging to SC/ST households.
• To suggest ways of aligning MGNREGS and its livelihood thrust with women Self Help Groups (SHGs), producer Groups, and Producer Companies to enable a better use of resources for livelihood.
• To explore successful convergence of program resources across Departments to ensure optimal fund utilization, efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability.

Launch of National Digital Library of India

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

By: Ministry of Human Resource Development under the aegis of National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT)

Objective of NDL: To make digital educational resources available to all citizens of the country to empower, inspire and encourage learning

Developed by: IIT Kharagpur

• NDL is the Single Window Platform that collects and collates metadata from premier learning institutions in India and abroad, as well as other relevant sources.
• It is a digital repository containing textbooks, articles, videos, audio books, lectures, simulations, fiction and all other kinds of learning media.

This initiative is Government’s commitment towards “Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat”

Government to team up with Google for flood forecasting

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

Central Water Commission (CWC), India’s apex technical organization in the field of Water Resources, has entered into a Collaboration Agreement with Google.

Under this Agreement, CWC and Google will share technical expertise in the fields of artificial intelligence, machine learning, geospatial mapping and analysis of hydrological observation data to collaborate on

1. Improving flood prediction systems, which will help provide location-targeted, actionable flood warnings
2. High priority research project utilizing Google Earth Engine to help visualize and improve flood management
3. A cultural project to build online exhibitions on the Rivers of India
4. Help crisis management agencies to deal extreme hydrological events in a better manner.

Release of National Strategy for Standardization

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

India’s quest for providing best quality begins with identifying standards, and unless products are standardised it becomes difficult to market them. Standardisation boosts both exports as well as domestic economic growth by enabling realisation of value of product and services and consumers will be the biggest beneficiary.

Indian National Strategy for Standardization (INSS)

• Result of the combined efforts of Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Ministry of Consumer Affairs and industry stakeholders
• Provides a vision for the country to achieve the highest quality standards in production and distribution of goods and services in an attempt to reclaim Brand India.
• The INSS report addresses four broad pillars of Quality Ecosystem:

1. Standards Development
2. Conformity Assessment and Accreditation
3. Technical Regulations and SPS Measures
4. Awareness and Education

Launch of National Health Resource Repository (NHRR)

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

Country’s first ever national healthcare facility registry of authentic, standardized and updated geo-spatial data of all public and private healthcare establishments.

Vision: To strengthen evidence-based decision making and develop a platform for citizen and provider-centric services by creating a robust, standardized and secured IT-enabled repository of India’s healthcare resources.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is the project technology partner adhering to paramount Data Security.

Key outcomes and Benefits:

• Provide comprehensive data on all health resources including private doctors, health facilities, chemists, and diagnostics labs, establish a National Health Resource Repository for evidence based decision making – aligned with Digital India mission
• Enhance the coordination between central and state government for optimization of health resources, making ‘live’ and realistic state Project Implementation Plans (PIPs) and improving accessibility of data at all levels, including State Head of Departments, thus, decentralize the decision making at district and state level.
• Create a reliable, unified registry of Country’s healthcare resources showing the distribution pattern of health facilities and services between cities and rural areas
• Generate real-world intelligence to identify gaps in health and service ratios, and ensure judicious health resource allocation and management
• Identify key areas of improvement by upgrading existing health facilities or establishing new health facilities keeping in view the population density, geographic nature, health condition, distance, etc.

Please Note

Chabahar Port: Iran; India Trying to Make Chabahar Port in Iran Operational by 2019

Best Performing Social Sector Ministry SKOCH Award: Ministry of Women & Child Development

Centre of Excellence in Maritime & Shipbuilding (CEMS) Sets up Labs in Mumbai and Vizag: Start-up in skill development for maritime and shipbuilding sector

This is First-of-Its­-Kind Infrastructure in Asia Pacific Region

• CEMS aims to build competency in the field of maritime & shipbuilding sector through skill development in the latest manufacturing technologies for shipbuilding/ repair and ancillary sectors.
• CEMS will deploy an industry-relevant skill development program and equip students with employable engineering and technical skills in the areas of Ship Hull Design, Ship Detailed Design, Shipbuilding &Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul (MRO), Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), and advanced digital manufacturing-factory concepts.

Discovery of a Sub-Saturn like Planet around a Sun-like star: A Team of scientists and engineers led by Prof. Abhijit Chakraborty of Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad, discovered a sub-Saturn or super-neputune size planet (mass of about 27 Earth Mass and size of 6 Earth Radii) around a Sun-like star. The planet will be known as EPIC 211945201b or K2-236b.

Campaign to promote energy efficiency in the area of air-conditioning:

Every one degree increase in the air-conditioner temperature setting results in saving of 6 per cent of electricity consumed

• Normal human body temperature is approximately 36-37 degree Celsius, but large number of commercial establishments, hotels and offices maintain temperature around 18-21 degree Celsius. This is not only uncomfortable but is actually unhealthy.
• Under the guidance of Ministry of Power, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) has carried out a study and has recommended that the default setting in the air-conditioning should be at 24 degree Celsius. The new campaign will result in substantial energy savings and also reduce greenhouse gas emission.

National targets for off-shore wind power: Medium term target of 5 GW by 2022 and long term target of 30 GW by 2030

Note:

• India’s on-shore wind target is of 60 GW and its achievement is of 34 GW
• Solar target is of 100 GW by 2022

MMR: India has registered a record 22% reduction in MMR since 2013, which is the highest percentage decline so far when compared to all the previous reductions in MMR as per the earlier rounds of SRS. Maternal Mortality Ratio of India has declined from 167 in 2011-2013 to 130 in 2014-2016.

Expediting online cybercrime reporting portal:

• Reduce the clearance time by making use of online systems in coordination with administrative Ministries for processing the proposals. This would further improve efficiency and monitoring.
• Enable affected people in States/Union Territories to lodge complaints which will be investigated by the respective law enforcement agencies and action taken for removal of such content.
• Greater vigilance against evolving cyber threats and regular cyber auditing of IT infrastructure of all organisations under MHA
• Upgradation and updation of National Information Security Policy and Guidelines (NISPG) for the government sector
• Increasing public awareness and strengthening of institutional framework for checking Financial frauds being committed on gullible public by phone call fraudsters and stressed on.

European Union (EU):

• The EU, which consists of 28 countries, has the world’s largest economy and its third largest population, after China and India.
• Though richly diverse, the countries that make up the EU (its ‘Member States’) are all committed to the same basic values: peace, democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights.
• They have set up common institutions so that decisions on matters of joint interest can be made democratically at European level.
• By creating a frontier-free single market and a single currency (the euro) which has been adopted by 19 Member States, the EU has given a significant boost to trade and employment.
• It is also at the forefront of policies on sustainability.

Updates: Conference on International Decade for Action: Water for Sustainable Development 2018-28

In the field of resource assessment

• India is in the process of upgrading its water resources information and management system for scientific development, conservation, and conjoint use of our ground and surface water resources.  
• The National Water Information Centre (NWIC) is a modern platform for assessment of surface water and ground water, flood forecasting, reservoir monitoring, coastal information management system and river basin management.
• India has launched an ambitious national project on aquifer management (NAQUIM) to completely map 2 million sq. km. of the map-able area of the country. The mapping is followed by proper aquifer management plan.

In the field of river rejuvenation

• Namami Gange is our flagship programme to rejuvenate and make river Ganga pollution free.  We are also taking similar steps to rejuvenate other rivers to bring them to their pristine form.
• To increase our food grain production, India is committed to bring more areas under assured irrigation – Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojna-PMKSY (Prime Ministers Irrigation Project) whereby we will complete 99 large irrigation projects and thereby create additional irrigation potential of 7.62 million hectares.
• The other important objective of this programme is “Har Khet ko Pani” or provide water to every field by extending command area development & undertaking water management works.
• The other objective of PMKSY is to ensure ‘More Crop per Drop’, through promotion of micro and drip irrigation and ensuring better water efficiency. We are also settling outstanding issues on the international rivers with our neighbouring countries and within the country, on the inter-state rivers.

In the field of drinking water

• Government is undertaking National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) with the objective of providing adequate safe water for drinking, cooking and other domestic basic needs on sustainable basis through creation of infrastructure.
• The Government of India plans to achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all by 2030.
• Another flagship programme of my Government is Swachh Bharat Mission, which is being executed in both urban and rural areas of India, with focus on safe sanitation and aim to achieve universal sanitation coverage. This program in rural areas shall improve the level of cleanliness, solid and liquid waste management activities and make villages open defecation free (ODF), clean and sanitized.
• In the urban areas, Swachh Bharat Mission targets construction of 6.6 million individual house hold toilets, 0.25 million community toilets and 0.26 million public toilets.  Besides, the programme aims to achieve 100% door to door collection and scientific management of municipal waste.

Under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, water conservation and water harvesting works are being undertaken by digging wells, ponds and repairing of traditional water bodies, reservoirs and canals.  India is spending about USD 5 billion on water conservation across the country in around 100,000 villages.

Must Read: Ayushman Bharat- National Health Protection Mission (AB-NHPM)

Quotes

The Vice President and Chairman of Rajya Sabha, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu

On Media

• MEDIA should effectively function as Means of Empowerment for Development through Informed Actions of people
• Media, as the fourth pillar of democracy has an important role in facilitating such a positive discourse. It needs to highlight the problems, deficiencies in policy and governance at various levels and present different perspectives so that people can make informed decisions. Media can be and in fact needs to be critical without, however, being motivated.

On Local Governance

• Local bodies should always place citizens at the centre of civic governance, adding that people’s participation in formulating and planning projects and services will improve execution and delivery of the services.
• Local bodies need to be provided with the three 3 Fs – Funds, Functions and Functionaries – for effective governance.

On Agriculture

• Making agriculture sustainable and profitable should top the agenda of both central and state governments as food security is the key foundation of national security.
• We have become self-sufficient in food grains. However, this has not translated into higher incomes for the farmers. Unless agriculture is made profitable, we cannot attract more people, especially youth, to take up farming.
• Krishi Vigyan Kendras must act as a bridge between scientists and farmers in providing knowledge and latest farming techniques to farmers. KVKs across the country to play an active role in making agriculture remunerative by training farmers in allied sectors like sericulture, diary, poultry, fisheries, seed processing and others.

On Widows

• We as a society need to reflect on the social attitudes towards widows and how the stigma, humiliation and isolation attached to widowhood can be overcome.
• A powerful social movement is required to change the mindset of people towards widows
• Indigent widows need to be empowered financially by providing loans to be self-employed. Preference should be given to widows while extending Mudra loans
• There is a need to create livelihood opportunities through vocational training programmes in various areas, including tailoring, garment making and packaging for widows. 
• The concept of New India encompasses economically emancipated women and if that vision is realized, many of the social ills like atrocities on women and neglect of widows can become a thing of the past.