December 18th, 2020, PIB:- Download PDF Here

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Goa’s Liberation Day
2. DRDO systems handed over to Armed Forces Chiefs
3. Minorities Day
4. Draft National Rail Plan
5. Adoption of E20 fuel
6. Mission Purvodaya
7. Skill India

1. Goa’s Liberation Day

Context:

Goa Liberation Day is observed on December 19 every year in India and it marks the day the Indian armed forces freed Goa in 1961 following 450 years of Portuguese rule.

For more on the liberation of Goa, check the linked article.

2. DRDO systems handed over to Armed Forces Chiefs

Context:

Defence Minister handed over three indigenously developed Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) systems to Army, Navy and Air Force.

Systems handed over include:

1. Indian Maritime Situational Awareness System (IMSAS) – Navy
2. ASTRA Mk-I Missile – Air Force
3. Border Surveillance System (BOSS) – Army

Indian Maritime Situational Awareness System (IMSAS)

• The IMSAS is state-of-the-art, fully indigenous, high performance intelligent software system that provides Global Maritime Situational Picture, marine planning tools and analytical capabilities to the Indian Navy.
• The system provides Maritime Operational Picture from Naval HQ to each individual ship in sea to enable Naval Command and control (C2).
• The system was conceptualised by the Centre for Artificial Intelligence & Robotics (CAIR), Bengaluru and the Navy.
• It was developed by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), Bengaluru.

ASTRA Mk-I

• It is the indigenously developed first Beyond Visual Range (BVR) Missile, which can be launched from Sukhoi-30, Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), Mig-29 and Mig-29K.
• The weapon system is developed by the Defence Research & Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad and produced by Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL), Hyderabad.

Border Surveillance System (BOSS)

• It is an all-weather electronic surveillance system.
• The system has been deployed at Ladakh border area for day and night surveillance.
• The system facilitates monitoring and surveillance by automatically detecting the intrusions in harsh high-altitude sub-zero temperature areas with remote operation capability.
• Designed and developed by Instruments Research & Development Establishment (IRDE), Dehradun.
• It is being produced by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), Machilipatnam.

3. Minorities Day

Context:

December 18 is observed as Minorities Day or Minority Rights Day in India.

About Minorities Day:

• The day is observed to safeguard the Constitutionally-guaranteed rights of religious minorities in the country.
• In 1992, the United Nations adopted the Statement on the Individual’s Rights belonging to religious, linguistic or ethnic minorities and the same year the National Commission for Minorities was set up by the Government of India.
• In 2006, the Ministry of Minority Affairs was carved out of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
• Note:- In India, five religious communities have been notified as minorities. These include Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists and Zoroastrians or Parsis. After 2014, Jains have also been notified as a minority community.

4. Draft National Rail Plan

Context:

Indian Railways issues draft National Rail Plan.

Details:

• The Indian Railways has come up with the Draft National Rail Plan in an effort to address the inadequacies of capacity constraints and improve its modal share in the total freight ecosystem of the country.
• It is a long-term strategic plan that will be a common platform for all future infrastructural, business and financial planning of the Railways.
• The plan will be finalised by January 2021.
• As part of the National Rail Plan, Vision 2024 has been launched for accelerated implementation of certain critical projects by 2024
• The objectives of the plan are:
  • To create capacity ahead of demand by 2030, which in turn would cater to growth in demand right up to 2050 and also increase the modal share of Railways from 27% currently to 45% in freight by 2030 as part of a national commitment to reduce carbon emission and to continue to sustain it. Net zero carbon emission by 2030.
  • To assess the actual demand in freight and passenger sectors, a year-long survey was conducted over hundred representative locations by survey teams spread all over the country.
  • Forecast growth of traffic in both freight and passenger year on year up to 2030 and on a decadal basis up to 2050.
  • Formulate strategies based on both operational capacities and commercial policy initiatives to increase modal share of the Railways in freight to 45% by 2030.
  • Reduce transit time of freight substantially by increasing average speed of freight trains from the present 22 kmph to 50 kmph.
  • Reduce overall cost of rail transportation by nearly 30% and pass on the benefits to the customers.
  • Map the growth in demand on the Indian Railway route map and simulate the capacity behaviour of the network in future.
  • Based on the above simulation, identify infrastructural bottlenecks that would arise in future with growth in demand.
  • Select projects along with appropriate technology in both track work, signalling and rolling stock to mitigate these bottlenecks well in advance.
• As part of the National Rail Plan, Vision 2024 has been launched for accelerated implementation of certain critical projects by 2024 such as 100% electrification, multitracking of congested routes, upgradation of speed in certain routes, and elimination of all Level Crossings on all Golden Quadrilateral-Golden Diagonal (GQ/GD) route.
• Post 2030 , the revenue surplus generated would be adequate to finance future capital investment and also take the burden of debt service ratio of the capital already invested. Exchequer funding of rail projects would not be required

5. Adoption of E20 fuel

Context:

Transport Ministry invites public comments for introducing the adoption of E20 fuel.

What is E20 Fuel?

• E20 fuel is a blend of 20% of ethanol with gasoline.
• E20 is being proposed as an automobile fuel in order to reduce vehicular emissions as well as the country’s oil import bill.
• Ethanol is a biofuel and a common by-product of biomass left by agricultural feedstock such as corn, sugarcane, hemp, potato, etc.
• The current permissible level of blending is 10% of ethanol though India reached only 5.6% of blending in 2019.

Read more about the ethanol blended programme in PIB dated Nov 20, 2020

6. Mission Purvodaya

Read more about Mission Purvodaya in the linked article.

Context:

Steel Minister emphasizes role of SAIL steel plants in Mission Purvodaya to drive development of eastern India.

7. Skill India

Context:
Skill India establishes First Centre of Excellence for Skill Development in Power Sector.

Details:

• This Centre of Excellence (CoE) has been established in Gwal Pahari, Gurugram (Haryana).
• It is the result of an MoU signed earlier between India’s Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), Ministry of Education-France and Schneider Electric.
• There are two labs set up by Schneider Electric in the CoE.
  • Advance Electrician Lab: Equipped with specially designed instruments for training in home and building, and industry installation and automation.
  • Solar Lab: To provide hands on practical training on the latest technology in the solar area.

Read more on Skill India in the linked article.

Read previous PIB here.

December 18th, 2020, PIB:- Download PDF Here