20 December 2018: UPSC Exam PIB Summary & Analysis

Read the daily PIB update and stay up-to-date on current affairs for the UPSC exam

Commemorative coin and postage stamp in memory of Paika Rebellion

Context: Prime Minister to release the commemorative coin and postage stamp in memory of Paika Rebellion and also inaugurate the Lalitgiri Archaeological Museum

About Paika Rebellion:

• Paika Rebellion of 1817 is an armed revolt against the British by the Paiks of Khurda in Odisha. The rebellion took form and shape under the leadership of Baxi Jagandhu Bidyadhara.
• It took place when the British East India company wrested the rent-free land that had been given to the Paiks for their military service to the Kingdom of Khurda.

Government Launches Asiatic Lion Conservation Project

Context: The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India has launched the “Asiatic Lion Conservation Project” with an aim to protect and conserve the world’s last ranging free population of Asiatic Lion and its associated ecosystem.

About:

• “The Asiatic Lion Conservation Project” will strengthen the ongoing measures for conservation and recovery of Asiatic Lion with the help of state-of-the –art techniques/ instruments, regular scientific research studies, disease management, Modern surveillance/ patrolling techniques.
• Asiatic lions that once ranged from Persia (Iran) to Palamau in Eastern India were almost driven to extinction by indiscriminate hunting and habitat loss.
• The conservation of Asiatic Lions has always been a priority of Government of India. The Ministry in the past has supported Asiatic Lion in Gujarat by including it in list of 21 critically endangered species for recovery programme and financial assistance under the species recovery component of CSS-DWH.

SVEP

Context: Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP), the sub-scheme under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) has the objective of helping rural households including women to set-up enterprises.

About:

• Skill building support is provided to all the entrepreneurs supported under Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme through Community Resource Persons for Enterprise Promotion (CRP-EP).
• SVEP process mandates the preparation of a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for each block. The DPR provides estimates of the potential of enterprises in various sectors in the block. The entrepreneurs have the freedom to identify the sectors in which they want to start businesses based on assessment of market potential.

States’ Startup Ranking 2018 Announced

Context: The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) announced results of the first-ever States’ Start-up Ranking 2018.

• Gujarat is Ranked Best Performer whereas Karnataka, Kerala, Odisha, And Rajasthan are Top Performer.
• States have been identified as leaders across various categories such as Start-up policy leaders, incubation hubs, seeding innovation, scaling innovation, regulatory change champions, procurement leaders, communication champions, North-Eastern leader, and hill state leader.
•  The key objective of the exercise was to encourage States and Union Territories to take proactive steps towards strengthening the Start-up ecosystems in their states.
• The entire exercise was conducted for capacity development and to further the spirit of cooperative federalism.

ICAT CertificationLaunched with High Security Features

Context: International Centre for Automotive Technology (ICAT) launched the Certification with high security features in order to prevent use of forged certificates.

• This is a first of its kind initiative taken by any automotive certification agency in India for enhancing the security of the CMVR certificates which includes Type Approval Certificates (TAC) and Conformity of Production (COP) Certificates for vehicles, engines and components.
• The new ICAT certificate format consists of nine new and unique security features incorporated in the certificate. Which are –
  • High security paper
  • Printing using the ultraviolet ink
  • Troymark
  • Microprint
  • Pantograph
  • Reverse Pantograph
  • Secure code
  • Print code
  • Digitally printed stamp and seal of ICAT

With the new high security features it will become difficult to forge or counterfeit the ICAT certificate.

ICAT is the premier certification agency authorized by Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) for providing testing and certification services to the vehicle and component manufacturers situated within India and abroad.

International Training Centre for Operational Oceanography Hyderabad

Context: Union Minister for Science & Technology, Earth Sciences, Environment and Forests & Climate Change will inaugurate the newly constructed International Training Centre for Operational Oceanography (ITCOocean) Complex in the INCOIS campus at Hyderabad.

The UNESCO Category 2 Centre established as a training facility at INCOIS will give an opportunity to the South Asian and African states bordering the Indian Ocean and the small island nations in the Pacific to benefit from the expertise and experience of INCOIS in the areas of ocean science and management.

To scale up the activities of International Training Centre for Operational Oceanography (ITCOocean), a full-fledged facility consisting of an Academic Building and International Guest House has been constructed on the INCOIS campus.

The mission of the Centre is to assist the Member States of IOC/UNESCO in developing oceanographic scientific base, related technology and information systems and to create a pool of trained ocean scientists, technologists and managers to cater the growing demands of operational oceanographic services and better management of oceans.

Strategy for New India @ 75 by Niti Aayog

Context:

• The NITI Aayog unveiled its comprehensive national Strategy for New India, which defines clear objectives for 2022-23.
• It is a detailed exposition across forty-one crucial areas, that recognizes the progress already made, identifies binding constraints, and suggests the way forward for achieving the clearly stated objectives.

Details

• It is an attempt by Niti Aayog to bring innovation, technology, enterprise and efficient management together, at the core of policy formulation and implementation.
• It will encourage discussion and debate, and invite feedback for further refining our policy approach. We believe that economic transformation cannot happen without public participation. Development must become a Jan Andolan.
• The forty-one chapters in the document have been disaggregated under four sections: Drivers, Infrastructure, Inclusion and Governance.

Drivers

The first section on Drivers focuses on the engines of economic performance with chapters on growth and employment, doubling of farmers’ incomes; upgrading the science, technology and innovation eco-system; and promoting sunrise sectors like fintech and tourism.

• Steadily accelerate the economy to achieve a GDP growth rate of about 8% on average during 2018-23. This will raisethe economy’s size in real terms from USD 2.7trillion in 2017-18 to nearly USD 4 trillion by2022-23. Increase the investment rate as measured by gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) from the present 29% to 36% of GDP by 2022.
• In agriculture, shift the emphasis to converting farmers to ‘agripreneurs’ by further expanding e-National Agriculture Markets and replacing the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee Act with the Agricultural Produce and Livestock Marketing Act.
• Give a strong push to ‘Zero Budget Natural Farming’ techniques that reduce costs, improve land quality and increase farmers’ incomes. This has emerged as a tested method for putting environment carbon back into the land.
• To ensure maximum employment creation, complete codification of labor laws and a massiveeffort must be made to upscale and expand apprenticeships.
• Launch a mission “Explore in India” by revamping minerals exploration and licensing policy.

Infrastructure

• Expedite the establishment of the Rail Development Authority (RDA), which is already approved. RDA will advise or make informed decisions on an integrated, transparent and dynamic pricing mechanism for the railways.
• Double the share of freight transported by coastal shipping and inland waterways. Initially, viability gap funding will be provided until the infrastructure is fully developed.
• Develop an IT-enabled platform for integrating different modes of transport and promoting multi-modal and digitized mobility.
• With the completion of the Bharat Net programme in 2019, all 2.5 lakh gram panchayats will be digitally connected. Aim to deliver all government services at the state, district, and gram panchayat level digitally by2022-23.

Inclusion

The three themes in this section revolve around the dimensions of health, education and mainstreaming of traditionally marginalized sections of the population.

• Successfully implementing the Ayushman Bharat programme including the establishment of 150,000 health and wellness centres across the country, and rolling out the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Abhiyaan (PM-JAY).
• Create a focal point for public health at the central level with state counterparts. Promote integrative medicine curriculum.
• Upgrade the quality of the school education system and skills, including the creation of a new innovation ecosystem at the ground level by establishing at least 10,000 Atal Tinkering Labs by 2020.
• Conceptualize an electronic national educational registry for tracking each child’s learning outcomes.
• As already done in rural areas, give a huge push to affordable housing in urban areas to improve workers’ living conditions and ensure equity while providing a strong impetus to economic growth.

Governance

• Implement the recommendations of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission as a prelude to appointing a successor for designing reforms in the changing context of emerging technologies and growing complexity of the economy.
• Set up a new autonomous body, viz., the Arbitration Council of India to grade arbitral institutions and accredit arbitrators to make the arbitration process cost effective and speedy, and to preempt the need for court intervention.
• Address the backlog of pending cases – shift part of workload out of regular court system.
• Expand the scope of Swachh Bharat Mission to cover initiatives for landfills, plastic waste and municipal waste and generating wealth from waste.

How did Niti Aayog prepare the document?

• NITI Aayog followed an extremely participative approach in preparing the strategy.
• Each area vertical in NITI Aayog had in-depth consultations with all three groups of stakeholders, viz., business persons, academics including scientists, and government officials.
• This was followed by consultations at the level of the Vice Chairman with a diverse group of eminent persons from seven sets of stakeholders that included scientists and innovators, farmers, civil society organizations, think-tanks, labor representatives and trade unions, and industry representatives.
• Central Ministries were brought on board for inputs, suggestions and comments, with each draft of individual chapters being circulated for consultations.
• The draft document was also circulated to all the States and Union Territories from whom valuable suggestions were received and incorporated.

To ace UPSC current affairs section, read more PIB articles here.

Also see: