Weekly PIB Analysis | PIB News Analysis 1st Week August 2022

Table of Contents

BILATERAL AIR SERVICE AGREEMENT (ASA)

Details –
A bilateral air service agreement is an agreement between 2 countries to allow international commercial air transport services between the signatories. It is usually founded on the principle of reciprocity with airlines from both countries enjoying equal opportunities in terms of flight operations.
Any designated foreign airline can operate to/from a point in India if it is designated as a point of call in the bilateral Air Services Agreement (ASA) signed between India and the country which has designated the airline. India has signed ASAs with 116 foreign countries.

Tiranga Utsav

Content:
The Ministry of Culture organised “TirangaUtsav” to celebrate the contribution of Pingali Venkayya to the nation on the occasion of his 146th birth anniversary.
Details:
As part of the celebrations, the Home Minister urged people to change their social media profile DPs to the national flag of India.
About Pingali Venkayya:
Pingali Venkayya was a freedom fighter and the chief person behind the design of the tricolour.
His birth anniversary falls on 2nd August
Context:
Over 77 crore portable transactions recorded in the One Nation One Ration Card Scheme (ONORC).
Details:
ONORC is a technology-driven scheme which is being implemented by the Central Government for the nationwide portability of ration cards under the National Food Security Act (NFSA).
This system allows all NFSA beneficiaries, particularly the migrant beneficiaries, to claim either full or part of their entitled food grains from any Fair Price Shop (FPS) in the country through an existing ration card with biometric/Aadhaar authentication in a seamless manner.
The system also allows their family members back home, if any, to claim the balance foodgrains on the same ration card.
The scheme was launched in 2019 and is currently implemented in all 36 states/UTs of the country.

E-Governance

Context – Digital India – Transforming India.
Details –
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India launched the ‘Digital India’ programme with the vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge-based economy by ensuring digital access, digital inclusion, digital empowerment and bridging the digital divide.
Digital India is an umbrella programme that covers multiple projects of various Central Ministries/Departments and States/UTs. Some of the major initiatives related to public service delivery are as follows:
Common Services Centres – CSCs are offering government and business services in digital mode in rural areas through Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs).
Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance (UMANG) – for providing government services to citizens through mobile.
e-District Mission Mode Project (MMP): e-District project has been implemented at district and sub-district levels of all States/UTs, benefitting all citizens by delivering various e-Services such as Certificates (Birth, Caste, Death, etc), Pension (Old Age, Disability and Widow), Electoral, Consumer Court, Revenue Court, Land Record and services of various departments such as Commercial Tax, Agriculture, Labour, Employment Training & Skill Development, etc.
DigiLocker: It facilitates paperless availability of public documents.
Unified Payment Interface (UPI) is the leading digital payment platform. It is integrated with 330 banks.
CO-WIN – It is an open platform for the management of registration, appointment scheduling & managing vaccination certificates for Covid-19.
Direct Benefit Transfers – 315 Schemes across 53 Ministries are offering Aadhaar enabled direct benefit transfers to citizens.
Diksha – Diksha is a national-level educational platform that helps students and teachers to participate, contribute and leverage a common platform to achieve learning goals at scale for the country.
Some of the major digital initiatives taken by the Government for the welfare of farmers are as follows:
National Agriculture Market (e-NAM): Its objective is to create an online transparent competitive bidding system to facilitate farmers with remunerative prices for their produce.
M-KISAN – mKisan Portal (www.mkisan.gov.in) for sending advisories on various crop-related matters to the registered farmers through SMSs.
One Stop Window-Farmers Portal (www.farmer.gov.in) for dissemination of information on various agricultural-related matters including, seeds variety, pests, plant diseases, mandi details etc.
Mobile-based advisory system for agriculture & Horticulture (M4 AGRI) – It is a mobile based advisory system for agriculture and horticulture. It has been implemented in the North-East States namely Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur, Meghalaya, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh.
Soil Health Card – It provides soil-related information to facilitate farmers in farming activities.
The Government has taken the following steps in direction of data governance for socio-economic development in the country. The brief details are as follows:
Open Government Data – To facilitate data sharing and promote innovation over non-personal data, an Open Government Data platform has been developed.
API Setu – To facilitate data exchange among the system, API Setu has been developed as a platform. The platform has more than 2100 APIs, and 1000+ user organisations.

ODOP – One District One Product

Context – ODOP initiative, helping to achieve the goal of Aatmanirbhar Bharat.
Details –
The Central Government has initiated the One District One Product (ODOP) in different States/UTs of the country. ODOP initiative is operationally merged with the ‘Districts as Export Hub (DEH)’ initiative of the DGFT, Department of Commerce, with the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) as a major stakeholder.
The objective is to convert each District of the country into a manufacturing and Export Hub by identifying products with export potential in the District. It aims at boosting balanced regional development across all districts of the country.
State Export Promotion Committees (SEPCs) and District Export Promotion Committees (DEPCs) have been constituted in 36 States/UTs to provide support for export promotion and address the bottlenecks for export growth in the districts.
Products have been identified under ODOP and DEH across each district in the country. The range of the chosen products covers multiple sectors
ODOP/DEH initiatives contribute to the goal of AtmaNirbhar Bharat, Vocal for local and Make in India.

Updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) on Climate Change

Context- Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved India’s Updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to be communicated to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Details –
India at the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held in Glasgow, United Kingdom, expressed to intensify its climate action by presenting to the world five nectar elements (Panchamrit) of India’s climate action. This update to India’s existing NDC translates the ‘Panchamrit’ announced at COP 26 into enhanced climate targets. The update is also a step towards achieving India’s long-term goal of reaching net-zero by 2070.
As per the updated NDC, India now stands committed to reducing the Emissions Intensity of its GDP by 45 percent by 2030, from the 2005 level and achieving about 50 percent cumulative electric power INS installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2030.
The Prime Minister of India, at COP 26, proposed a ‘One-Word Movement’, to the global community. This one word is LIFE i.e. Lifestyle For Environment. The vision of LIFE is to live a lifestyle that is in tune with our planet and does not harm it. India’s updated NDC also captures this citizen-centric approach to combat climate change.
As per the updated NDC, India now stands committed to reducing the Emissions Intensity of its GDP by 45 percent by 2030, from the 2005 level and achieving about 50 percent cumulative electric power INS installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2030.
The Prime Minister of India, at COP 26, proposed a ‘One-Word Movement’, to the global community. This one word is LIFE i.e. Lifestyle For Environment. The vision of LIFE is to live a lifestyle that is in tune with our planet and does not harm it. India’s updated NDC also captures this citizen-centric approach to combat climate change.
Updated NDC also reaffirms India’s commitment to work towards a low carbon emission pathway, while simultaneously endeavouring to achieve sustainable development goals.
India’s updated NDC will be implemented over the period 2021-2030 through programs and schemes of relevant Ministries /departments and with due support from States and Union Territories.
The Net Zero target by 2030 by Indian Railways alone will lead to a reduction of emissions by 60 million tonnes annually.

Financial assistance to develop Regional Agricultural Produces

Context: The Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) incentivises the setting of food processing industries
Details:
The Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) incentivises the setting of food processing industries through the following:
The Pradhan Mantri Kisan SAMPADA Yojana (PMKSY) is a central sector umbrella scheme.
A component scheme of PMKSY is the Creation of infrastructure for agro-processing clusters, which is aimed at:
- - Development of modern-day infrastructure and common facilities to encourage entrepreneurs in setting up food processing units based on a cluster approach.
  - Creation of infrastructure for food processing near the production areas.
  - To provide integrated infrastructure facilities beginning from the farm gate to the ultimate consumer.
Production Linked Incentive Scheme for Food Processing Industry (PLISFPI).
PM Formalization of Micro Food Processing Enterprises (PMFME), centrally sponsored scheme:
- Under it, One District One Product (ODOP) approach is popularized
  - ODOP is run in partnership with the States.
  - It provides financial, technical and business support for upgradation of existing micro food processing enterprises.
  - ODOP approach is adopted to reap the benefit of scale in terms of procurement of inputs, availing common services and marketing of products.
Moreover, initiatives taken for food processing under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare are:
- 55 clusters of selected high-value horticulture crops were identified and 12 clusters launched, under the Horticulture Cluster Development Programme (HCDP).

Medical Device Parks

Context: Final approval for setting up of medical device parks has been given to the States of Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh.
Details:
Provisions of “Promotion of Medical Devices Parks”:
- Total financial outlay of Rs. 400 crore.
- The maximum assistance of Rs. 100 crore would be provided for one Medical Device Park.
- Tenure of the scheme is five years, till 2025.
- The project will be implemented by a State Implementing Agency (SIA).
Various measures taken by the Government to boost the pharmaceutical sector and reduce import dependence are:
- Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for promotion of domestic manufacturing of critical Key Starting Materials (KSMs)/ Drug Intermediates (DIs) and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs), providing financial incentives for 41 identified products.
- The Production Linked Incentive Scheme for Pharmaceuticals, ensuring financial incentives to 55 selected applicants for manufacturing of identified products.
- The Scheme for Promotion of Bulk Drug Parks for establishing Bulk Drug Park in three states.
- Scheme of Strengthening of Pharmaceutical Industry (SPI), to facilitate infrastructure support for pharma MSMEs and for technology upgradation of individual pharma MSMEs.
- The sub-scheme “Assistance to Medical Device Industry for Common Facility Centre” for establishment of Common Facility in Superconducting magnetic coil testing and research facility in Andhra Pradesh.
- The Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for Promoting Domestic Manufacturing of Medical Devices.
Other measures taken by Government:
- To attract investments in this sector, the Government has allowed:
  - 100% foreign direct investments (FDI) in the medical devices sector.
  - 100% FDI in greenfield projects under the automatic route.
  - For the brownfield projects, up to 74% FDI investments under automatic route and beyond that under government approval route.
- Setting up of Standing Forum of Medical Devices Associations, to deliberate on various domains with all the stakeholders.

Prevention of human trafficking in railways

Context: This article talks about the steps taken against Human Trafficking in Railways.
Details:
Operation ‘Nanhe Farishte’ launched by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) for rescue of children in need of care and protection, who can be prospective victims of Human Trafficking.
Around 750 Anti Human Trafficking Units (AHTUs) have been setup by RPF to strengthen action against Human Trafficking.
RPF has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Association of Voluntary Action (AVA) also known as Bachpan Bachao Andolan (an NGO), for assistance in training and capacity building and in implementation of sensitization and awareness campaigns.
Operation AAHT is an all-India drive by RPF to take effective action against Human Trafficking through railways.
Staff deployed in areas of mass contact have been sensitized and trained for identification of potential victims of trafficking.
Cyber cells of RPF have been instructed for cyber patrolling in social media platforms to look for digital footprints/traces of human trafficking and to use the clues in action against the crime.
The subject of “Human Trafficking” have been included in course curriculum of all training programmes.
CCTV cameras surveillance in 5882 coaches and 861 Railway Stations for enhanced security of passengers.

‘Badhe Chalo’ Movement under Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav begins

Context: The Ministry of Culture launched the ‘Badhe Chalo Movement’.
Details:
The objective of the movement is a youth-centric activation for greater outreach of ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’.
- ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ is an initiative of the Government to celebrate 75 years of progressive India and the glorious history of its people, culture and achievements.
It aims to connect with the nation’s youth and instill a deeper sense of patriotism among them.
It is designed in such a way that the young generation of the country is encouraged to come forward and imbibe the true spirit of our democracy while celebrating 75 years of India’s independence.
‘Badhe Chalo’ will feature Flash Dances, where dancers will perform on a specially crafted ‘Youth Anthem’ in special locations in 75 cities.
It will be held across 10 cities every day from 5th August to 11th August 2022.
Through this movement, the Ministry of Culture also intends to amplify and support the ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’ movement.
- ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’ movement calls upon every Indian to hoist a Tiranga in their homes between August 13th to 15th, 2022.

Village Engineers programme to be rolled out in Gujarat soon

Context: Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) held a meeting for rolling out the Village Engineers Program in Gujarat.
Details:
The programme was first launched from Madhya Pradesh.
The aim is to ensure inclusive development for all communities.
It trains the tribal youth by providing them a basket of skills and confers recognition in the form of certification.
Ensuring targeted skilling opportunities for the tribal youth in their local areas can reduce the pull for migration.
This will result in the participation of local residents in the economic activities of their region.
The close collaboration of the central and state government is needed to efficiently implement the programme.
The programme is in line with the vision of Self-Reliance or AtmaNirbharta

NITI Aayog – 7th meeting of the Governing Council

Details –
This was the first physical meeting of the Governing Council since the onset of the pandemic, with the 2021 meeting held via video conferencing. The meeting was attended by 23 Chief Ministers, 3 Lieutenant Governors and 2 Administrators and Union Ministers. The meeting was moderated by Defence Minister Shri Rajnath Singh.
Addressing the seventh meeting of the Governing Council (GC) of NITI Aayog, the Prime Minister said, “Every State played a crucial role according to its strength and contributed to India’s fight against Covid. This led to India emerging as an example for the developing nations to look up to as a global leader.”
The Governing Council discussed four key agenda items:
- crop diversification and achieving self-sufficiency in pulses, oilseeds and other agri-commodities;
- implementation of National Education Policy (NEP) in school education;
- implementation of National Education Policy in higher education; and
- urban governance.

Akasa Air

Details –
Minister of Civil Aviation Shri Jyotiraditya M. Scindia and Minister of State for Civil Aviation Gen (Retd) V.K Singh inaugurated the First Flight of Akasa Air (QP1101) from Mumbai to Ahmedabad virtually.
The Civil Aviation Minister said that it is because of the vision of the country’s Prime Minister, that a great transformation is seen in terms of accessibility, availability, affordability, and inclusion in the aviation sector.
About Akasa Air –
Akasa Air is the 7th schedule airline with the brand name of SNV Aviation having Corporate Headquarters in Mumbai with Boeing Max – 8 aircraft.
Akasa Air plans to be a low-cost carrier with a single fleet and all economy seats.
Akasa Air is planning to expand its activities to 72 aircrafts in the next five years which will significantly enhance the domestic aviation services in India.