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December 17th, 2019 PIB:- Download PDF Here
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Exports Summit 2019 2. GeM Samvaad 3. National Broadband Mission 4. BrahMos missiles 5. Annular Eclipse of the Sun 6. MoU between CSIR and the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), France
Exports Summit 2019
Context:
The Union Minister for Commerce and Industry addressed the inaugural session of the Exports Summit 2019 organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in New Delhi.
About the Exports Summit 2019:
- The Summit organised by the CII focused on export financing, improving trade facilitation for boosting exports, services export, standards and certification, market access and related items.
- The theme of the summit was “Driving Exports: Driving Growth”.
- The minister, in his address, emphasized that the Indian industry must be enabled and empowered to take advantage of global value chains.
- He stressed on the importance of government and industry working together.
- He also said that the government is working to bring more predictability to export finance, exports scheme and productivity.
- He highlighted the NIRVIK scheme, also known as the Export Credit Insurance Scheme (ECIS). Read more on NIRVIK in PIB dated 16thSep 2019 under the headline ‘Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (ECGC) introduces Nirvik’.
GeM Samvaad
Context:
Government e-Marketplace (GEM/GeM) launches National Outreach Programme – GEM Samvaad.
About GeM Samvaad:
- A national outreach programme was launched by the Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry called the ‘GeM Samvaad’.
- The outreach programme will take place with stakeholders across the country and with local sellers in order to facilitate on-boarding of local sellers on the marketplace while catering to specific requirements and procurement needs of buyers.
- GeM Samvaad is essentially a dialogue between buyers and sellers. Sellers and buyers can look for new opportunities also in this outreach programme.
- The outreach programme will take place from December 2019 to February 2020 and will cover all the States and UTs of the country.
About GeM:
- It is the national public procurement portal offering end to end solutions for all procurement needs of Central and State Government Departments, PSUs, autonomous institutions and local bodies.
- Since its launch in 2016, it has transformed public procurement in the country by leveraging technology and making procurement contactless, paperless, and cashless.
- GeM has more than 15 lakh products and around 20,000 services, more than 3 lakh registered sellers and service providers and more than 40,000 government buyer organizations.
- State Departments and organisations, and public sector enterprises (PSEs) have been using GeM for their buying needs. Sellers from the States are also benefiting through access to the national public procurement market using the portal.
- GeM’s vision is “to affect an evolution in public procurement promoting a transparent, efficient and inclusive marketplace.”
National Broadband Mission
Context:
The Union Minister for Communications, Law & Justice and Electronics and Information Technology launched the National Broadband Mission.
About the National Broadband Mission (NBM):
- The vision of the NBM is to fast-track growth of digital communications infrastructure, bridge the digital divide, facilitate digital empowerment and inclusion and provide affordable and universal access to broadband for all.
- A key objective of the Mission is to provide broadband to all villages by 2022.
- Some of the other objectives are:
- Facilitate universal and equitable access to broadband services across the country and especially in rural and remote areas.
- Laying of incremental 30 lakhs route km of Optical Fiber Cable (OFC) and increase in tower density from 0.42 to 1.0 tower per thousand of population by 2024.
- Significantly improve quality of services for mobile and internet.
- Develop innovative implementation models for Right of Way (RoW) and to work with States/UTs for having consistent policies pertaining to expansion of digital infrastructure including for RoW approvals required for laying of OFC.
- Develop a Broadband Readiness Index (BRI) to measure the availability of digital communications infrastructure and conducive policy ecosystem within a State/UT.
- Creation of a digital fiber map of the digital communications network and infrastructure, including Optical Fiber Cables and towers across the country.
- Investment from stakeholders of USD 100 billion (Rs 7 Lakh Crore) including Rs 70,000 crore from Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF).
- Address policy and regulatory changes required to accelerate the expansion and creation of digital infrastructure and services.
- Work with all stakeholders including the concerned ministries/departments/agencies and the Ministry of Finance for enabling investments for the Mission.
The telecom scene in India:
- The government has introduced this new broadband mission to meet the ever-growing needs for the internet.
- Right now, in India, an average person is consuming 9.77GB data per month which is up by a staggering 1120% compared to 2014.
- Telecom subscribers are also growing at a rapid pace in the country.
- India had just 251.59 million internet subscribers back in 2014, however, the number saw an increase of 165% and reached 665.31 in 2019.
- Mobile subscribers were just 907.42 in 2014 and it has been increased to 1173.75 in 2019.
BrahMos missiles
Context:
The Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO), the Indian Air Force (IAF) and BrahMos jointly successfully conducted two BrahMos supersonic cruise missile tests today, one each from land and air platforms.
Details:
- The first missile launch was from a land-based mobile launcher, where most of the components were indigenous, including the missile airframe, fuel management system and DRDO designed seeker.
- The second launch of the missile was carried out by Indian Air force (IAF) from SU-30MKI platform against a sea target.
Read more on BrahMos Missiles here.
Annular Eclipse of the Sun
Context:
An annular eclipse of the Sun will occur on December 26, 2019.
Details:
- From India, the annular phase will be visible in the morning after sunrise from some places within a narrow corridor of the southern part of the country (parts of Karnataka, Kerala & Tamil Nadu) and it will be seen as partial solar eclipse from the rest part of the country.
- In India, the obscuration of the Sun by the Moon at the time of the greatest phase of the annular eclipse will be nearly 93%. As one moves towards the north and south of the country from the annular path, the duration of the partial eclipse decreases.
- The next solar eclipse will be visible from India on June 21, 2020. It will be an annular solar eclipse.
Solar eclipse:
- A solar eclipse occurs on a new moon day when the Moon comes in between the Earth and the Sun and when all the three celestial bodies are aligned.
- An annular solar eclipse will occur when the angular diameter of the Moon falls short of that of the Sun so that it cannot cover up the latter completely. As a result, a ring of the Sun’s disk remains visible around the Moon.
- The eclipsed Sun should not be viewed with the naked eye, even for a very short time. It will cause permanent damage to the eyes leading to blindness even when the moon covers most portions of the Sun.
- The safe technique to observe the solar eclipse is either by using a proper filter like aluminized Mylar, black polymer, welding glass of shade number 14 or by making a projection of Sun’s image on a whiteboard by telescope.
MoU between CSIR and the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), France
Context:
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), India and the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), France to establish a framework for cooperation between the two towards promotion and support of scientific and technological research.
Details:
- In view of the potentially beneficial and synergistic cooperation possibilities for translating science into technology CSIR and CNRS may explore strengthening their cooperation to foster joint innovation and transfer of technologies applicable to India or/and France and to other nations.
- This cooperation could include sharing good practices, promoting technology transfer and enhancing industry-academia cooperation.
- The broad research areas of mutual interest include biotechnology including plant and marine biotechnology; health research; environment and climate change studies; engineering science and technology; material science and technology; energy science and technology and water research.
About the CSIR:
- Set up in 1942 as an autonomous body, CSIR is now the largest publically funded multi-disciplinary industrial R&D organisation in India under the administrative supervision of the Ministry of Science and Technology.
- It conducts research in a wide spectrum of science and technology domains ranging from aerospace, instrumentation, environmental engineering, mining, minerals & materials, housing and structures to oceanography, chemicals, drugs, and biotechnology.
- CSIR provides technological intervention in many areas with regard to societal efforts including environment, health, drinking water, food, housing, energy, and farm and non-farm sectors.
- CSIR India caters to the technological needs of Indian as well as foreign industries based in India and abroad.
About the CNRS:
- Founded in 1939, CNRS is the largest fundamental research organisation in Europe.
- CNRS is an interdisciplinary public research organisation under the administrative supervision of the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research.
- CNRS ranks among the leading global research institutions for its excellent research and innovation achievements and has 22 Nobel Laureates and 12 Field medal recipients.
December 17th, 2019 PIB:- Download PDF Here
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