PIB Analysis : 18th and 19 th

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PIB Analysis for UPSC CSE

Topics Covered

  1. Ban on E-Cigarettes
  2. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
  3. Waste Management Accelerator for Aspiring Women Entrepreneurs Summit 2019
  4. Margadarshan and Margadarshak
  5. Train-the-Trainer program in Artificial Intelligence
  6. Khanderi
  7. National Educational Alliance for Technology (NEAT)
  8. District Mineral Foundation (DMF), National Mineral Exploration Trust (NMET) & Pradhan Mantri Khanij Kshetra Kalyan Yojana
  9. Handbook on Fisheries Statistics- 2018
  10. Facts for Prelims : Lump Sum Turn Key contract, Joint Economic Commission between India and Belgium – Luxembourg Economic Union (India-BLEU), National Geoscience Awards

1 . Ban on E-Cigarettes

Context : In a major health and wellness initiative for the country, the Union Cabinet has approved the Promulgation of the Prohibition of Electronic Cigarettes (production, manufacture, import, export, transport, sale, distribution, storage and advertisement) Ordinance, 2019.

About the Ordinance

  • Electronic-cigarettes are battery-operated devices that produce aerosol by heating a solution containing nicotine, which is the addictive substance in combustible cigarettes. These include all forms of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems, Heat Not Burn Products, e-Hookah and the like devices.
  • These novel products come with attractive appearances and multiple flavours and their use has increased exponentially and has acquired epidemic proportions in developed countries, especially among youth and children.

Note : E-Cigarettes issue comprehensively covered under 1st June Daily Current Affairs

Impact

  • The decision to prohibit e-cigarettes will help protect population, especially the youth and children, from the risk of addiction through E-cigarettes.  
  • Enforcement of the Ordinance will complement government’s efforts for tobacco control and will help in reduction of tobacco use and reduction in associated economic and disease burden.

Reasons

  • Considering the highly addictive nature of nicotine; safety concern of flavours in combination with nicotine
  • Risk of use of other psychoactive substances through these devices; initiation of nicotine or psychoactive substances by non-smokers, especially adolescents and youth
  • Dual use of e-cigarettes and conventional cigarettes
  • Scant scientific evidence for use of e-cigarettes as effective tobacco cessation aids
  • Threat to country’s tobacco control efforts
  • Hindrance in achieving the targets envisaged under Sustainable Development Goals, National Monitoring Framework for Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases and National Health Policy, 2017
  • Overall interest of public health as envisaged under Article 47 of the Constitution of India

2 . International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

Context: The 63rd General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is presently going on at Vienna 

About IAEA

  • The IAEA was created in 1957 in response to the deep fears and expectations generated by the discoveries and diverse uses of nuclear technology. The Agency’s genesis was U.S. President Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” address to the General Assembly of the United Nations on 8 December 1953.
  • The IAEA is an independent international organization that reports annually to the UN General Assembly.
  • The International Atomic Energy Agency is the world’s central intergovernmental forum for scientific and technical co-operation in the nuclear field.
  • It works for the safe, secure and peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology, contributing to international peace and security and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
  • When necessary, the IAEA will report to the UN Security Council in regards to instances of members’ noncompliance of safeguard and security obligations
  • In carrying out its functions, the Agency conducts its activities in accordance with the purposes and principles of the UN Charter to promote peace and international cooperation, and in conformity with policies of the United Nations for furthering the establishment of worldwide disarmament through safeguards.
  • The IAEA Secretariat is headquartered in Vienna, Austria.

Functions

  • Encourage and assist research, development and practical application of atomic energy for peaceful uses throughout the world
  • Establish and administer safeguards designed to ensure that such activity assisted by the Agency is not used to further any military purpose
  • Apply safeguards to relevant activities at the request of Member States
  • Apply, under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and other international treaties, mandatory comprehensive safeguards in non-nuclear weapon States (NNWS) Parties to such treaties.

3 . Waste Management Accelerator for Aspiring Women Entrepreneurs Summit 2019 (WAWE)

About WAWE Summit

  • The summit will be the largest gathering of young women students who will promote entrepreneurship in waste management and provide alternatives to single-use plastic carry bags.
  • The summit is jointly organized by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and Institute of Waste Management(IIWM) at Jaipur.
  • The theme of the summit is: “Make your own bag – empowering women to take up income generation activity and entrepreneurship in waste management, through making a business out of this record-creating concept.”

4 . Margadarshan and Margadarshak

Context : Margadarshan and Margadarshak is an initiative in which the topmost institutions will mentor other institutions, so that they can improve their rankings and follow best practices of the mentor institute.

Margadarshan

  •  Under this scheme, institutions having good accreditation record / highly performing institutions are supposed to mentor relatively newer 10 – 12 potential institutions. Best practices in teaching learning process followed in mentor institute are diffused to mentee institutions.
  • These institutions are also provided funding uptoRs. 50 lakhs (Rupees Fifty Lakhs Only) per institution over a period of three years in instalments for carrying out various activities like trainings, workshops, conferences and travel.

Margdarshak

  • Under this scheme, mentor teachers or Margdarshaks who are either serving or superannuated but willing and motivated with good knowledge of accreditation and who can devote adequate time to make required visits to these Institutions are identified.
  • These Margdarshaks will regularly visit to the mentee institutions, stay on their campus and guide them for their improvement in quality so that institutions are able to get accreditation by NBA.

5 . Train-the-Trainer program in Artificial Intelligence

Context : The Directorate General of Training (DGT) division of the Ministry of Skill Development has signed an agreement with Global IT major IBM for nationwide Train-the-Trainer program in Artificial Intelligence.

About the Programme

  • As part of the program, ITI trainers will be trained on basic Artificial Intelligence (AI) skills towards using the technology in their day-to-day training activities.
  • This program aims at enabling the trainers with basic approach, workflow and application of artificial intelligence that they can apply in their training modules.
  • IBM aims at training 10,000 faculty members from ITIs across the country and the program will be executed over a period of one year with 14 trainers across 7 locations with over 200 workshops.

6 . Khanderi

Context : Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) called ‘Ship Builder to the Nation’, is one of India’s leading Defence public sector undertaking shipyards under the Ministry of Defence continuing their service to the nation with ‘’Make in India’’ programme. They delivered the second Scorpene submarine ‘KHANDERI’ to the Indian Navy at an event held in Mumbai today.

About Khanderi

  • Khanderi is the second of the six submarines being built at Mazagon Dock Limited in collaboration with M/s DCNS of France, as part of Project 75 of Indian Navy.
  • It is the second Scorpene class submarine (First one Kalvari) that has superior stealth and the ability to launch a crippling attack with torpedoes as well as tube-launched anti-ship missiles whilst underwater or on surface
  • The third in the Scorpene series Karanj which was launched in January last year is in advanced stage of trials and could be ready for induction by year end.
  • The last two submarines Vagir and Vagsheer are in advanced stages of manufacturing on the assembly line. The fifth submarine is in the final stages of being booted together. The ‘Boot Together’ is where the five separate sections are welded together to form the submarine.
  • The submarine ‘KHANDERI’ is named after the wide snouted Saw fish, a deadly sea predator of the great Indian Ocean. 

Scorpene class of Submarine

  • The state-of-the-art features of the Scorpene-class submarine include superior stealth and ability to launch a crippling attack on the enemy using precision guided weapon.
  • The stealth features will give it an invulnerability, unmatched by many submarines.
  • The submarine is designed to operate in all theatres, including the tropics. All means and communications are provided to ensure interoperability with other components of a naval task force.
  • It can undertake multifarious types of missions typically undertaken by any modern submarine, i.e anti-surface warfare, anti-submarine warfare, intelligence gathering, mine laying and area surveillance.

About Project 75

  • The P75I project is part of a 30-year submarine building plan that ends in 2030.
  • As part of this plan, India was to build 24 submarines — 18 conventional submarines and six nuclear-powered submarines (SSNs) — as an effective deterrent against China and Pakistan.

7 . National Educational Alliance for Technology (NEAT)

Context : Ministry of Human Resource Development has announced a new PPP Scheme, National Educational Alliance for Technology (NEAT) for using technology for better learning outcomes in Higher Education.

About the Scheme

  • The objective is to use Artificial Intelligence to make learning more personalised and customised as per the requirements of the learner. This requires development of technologies in Adaptive Learning to address the diversity of learners.
  • There are a number of start-up companies developing this and MHRD would like to recognise such efforts and bring them under a common platform so that learners can access it easily.
  • Educating the youth is a National effort and MHRD proposes to create a National Alliance with such technology developing EdTech Companies through a PPP model.
  • MHRD would act as a facilitator to ensure that the solutions are freely available to a large number of economically backward students.
  • MHRD would create and maintain a National NEAT platform that would provide one-stop access to these technological solutions.
  • EdTech companies would be responsible for developing solutions and manage registration of learners through the NEAT portal. They would be free to charge fees as per their policy. As their contribution towards the National cause, they would have to offer free coupons to the extent of 25% of the total registrations for their solution through NEAT portal.
  • MHRD would distribute the free coupons for learning to the most socially/economically backward students.
  • AICTE would be the implementing agency for NEAT programme.
  • The scheme shall be administered under the guidance of an Apex Committee constituted by MHRD. Independent Expert Committees would be constituted for evaluating and selecting the EdTech solutions.

8 . District Mineral Foundation (DMF), National Mineral Exploration Trust (NMET) & Pradhan Mantri Khanij Kshetra Kalyan Yojana

About District Mineral Foundation

  • District Mineral Foundation (DMF) is a trust set up as a non-profit body, in those districts affected by the mining works, to work for the interest and benefit of persons and areas affected by mining related operations.
  • It is funded through the contributions from miners.
  • Its manner of operation comes under the jurisdiction of the relevant State Government.
  • In case of all mining leases executed before 12th January, 2015 (the date on which MMDR Amendment Act came into force) miners will have to contribute an amount equal to 30% of the royalty payable by them to the DMFs.  Where mining leases are granted after 12.01.2015, the rate of contribution would be 10% of the royalty payable 
  • Thus, every holder of a mining lease or a prospecting licence-cum-mining lease shall, in addition to the royalty, pay to the District Mineral Foundation of the district in which their mining operations are carried on. If the mining area is spread across several districts, the fund is shared on a pro-rata basis by these districts.
  • DMF funds are treated as extra-budgetary resources for the State Plan. Efforts are made to achieve convergence with the State and the District Plans so that the activities taken up by the DMF can supplement the development and welfare activities already being carried out.

National Mineral Exploration Trust

  • The National Mineral Exploration Trust (NMET) was established by the Government of India in pursuance of subsection(1) of Section 9C of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, with the objective to expedite mineral exploration in the country.
  • Main vision of the trust is to use the funds accrued to the Trust for carrying out regional and detailed exploration for augmentation of mineral resource of the country.
  • Organisational Structure of the Trust consists of Governing Body, Executive Committee & Technical cum Cost Committee
    • Governing body consists of various ministers of the union govt and six Ministers of State Governments, holding charge of Mines & Geology, nominated by the Chairperson. Union Minister In-Charge of Ministry of Mines acts as the chairperson

Pradhan Mantri Khanij Kshetra Kalyan Yojana

  • Pradhan Mantri Khanij Kshetra Kalyan Yojana (PMKKKY) is a programme to provide for the welfare of areas and people affected by mining related operations.
  • PMKKKY is implemented by the District Mineral Foundations (DMFs) of the respective districts using the funds accruing to the DMF from miners. (Khanij means Mineral and Kshetra means area or field in Hindi. Kalyan stands for welfare and Yojana stands for a Plan or project)

Objectives of PMKKY 

  • to implement various developmental and welfare projects/programs in mining affected areas. These projects/ programs will be complementing the existing ongoing schemes/projects of State and Central Government;
  • to minimize/mitigate the adverse impacts, during and after mining, on the environment, health and socio-economics of people in mining districts; and
  • to ensure long-term sustainable livelihoods for the affected people in mining areas.

Coverage of PMKKY 

  • Directly affected areas are those areas where direct mining related operations such as excavation, mining, blasting, beneficiation and waste disposal take place.
  • Indirectly affected areas are those where negative impacts of mining in the form of deterioration of water, soil and air quality, reduction in stream flows and depletion of ground water, congestion and pollution etc. happen due to mining operations.

9 . Handbook on Fisheries Statistics- 2018

Context : The Handbook on Fisheries Statistics – 2018 has been published by the Department of Fisheries of Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Government of India.

About: 

  • It is the 13th edition which presents useful statistical information for various aspects of Fisheries sector. The last (12th edition of) Handbook was published in 2014.
  • The latest edition provides information on year wise fish production (Marine & Inland) from 1990-91 to 2017-18, trend of fisheries exports, fisheries resources, fishing craft, pattern of per capita fish consumption in different States/UTs, Grass Value Addition (GVA) from fisheries sector and its contribution to total GVA of the Country, fisheries institutes, fishermen population and various schemes implemented for sustained and responsible development of fisheries sector.

Key Findings

  • The Fisheries sector is major source of livelihood for over 1.60 Crore people along with double the number in down and upstream.
  • Development of fisheries can ensure nutritional security, food security of India and also provide employment in these regions that are predominately inhabited by rural populace.
  • The total fish production of 12.59 million metric tonnes was registered during 2017-18 with a contribution of 8.90 million metric tonnes from inland sector and 3.69 million metric tonnes from marine sector.
  • The average growth in fish production during 2017-18 stands at 10.14% when compared to 2016-17 (11.43 million metric tonnes). This is mainly due to 14.05% growth in Inland fisheries when compared to 2016-17 (7.80 million metric tonnes).
  • India is currently world’s second largest producers of fish. It is also world number two in aquaculture production as well as in inland capture fisheries.
  • Andhra Pradesh has recorded the highest production of inland fish (34.50 lakh tones) where as Gujarat is the leading state in Marine fish (7.01 Lakh tonnes) in the country.
  • There has been steady growth in the export of fish and fish products over the period. Efforts are being made to boost the export potential through diversification of products for export.

9 . Facts for Prelims

Lump Sum Turn Key (LSTK)

  • This is a contractual agreement in which a fixed price is agreed for the execution of a project or part of a project. Once the final development is completed a finished functioning asset is handed over to the client, hence the term “Turn Key” which effectively means ready to operate.

Joint Economic Commission between India and Belgium – Luxembourg Economic Union (India-BLEU)

  • Joint Economic Commission between India and Belgium – Luxembourg Economic Union (India-BLEU) was established in 1997 and is the main vehicle for discussing bilateral economic and commercial issues.
  • The focus of bilateral relations has been on trade and investment. India is Belgium’s second largest export destination and fourth largest trade partner outside the European Union with a significant contribution from the Indian diaspora.
  • The leading exports from Belgium to India are in the sectors of gem and jewellery (rough diamonds) chemical and chemical products and machinery and mechanical products. The major exports from India to Belgium are in the sectors of gem and jewellery (finished products), base metals and articles and chemicals and chemical products.

National Geoscience Awards

  • The National Geoscience Awards for the year 2018 for outstanding contributions in the field of geosciences, mining and allied areas were presented to twenty-two scientists from across the country.
  • The National Geoscience Awards were given in ten disciplines covering Mineral exploration, Groundwater exploration, Mining technology, Mineral beneficiation, Sustainable mineral development, Basic and applied geosciences, Geo-environmental studies and Natural hazards investigation. 

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