PIB Analysis : 17th & 18th November

PIB Analysis for UPSC CSE

Topics Covered

1. ADMM-Plus
2. National Mission on Cultural Mapping (NMCM)
3. Bilateral Maritime Exercise Za’ir-Al-Bahr (Roar of the Sea) 
4. President’s Colour
5. National Career Service
6. World’s Customs Organization
7. National Policy on Biofuels
8. National Gas Grid
9. Bharatiya Poshan Krishi Kosh
10. Facts for Prelims : Wintergrade diesel

1 . ADMM – Plus

Context : Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh is in Thailand’s capital Bangkok to attend the 6^thASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus).

About ADMM-Plus

• ADMM-Plus is a platform for ASEAN and its eight Dialogue Partners to strengthen security and defence cooperation for peace, stability, and development in the region.
• The ADMM-Plus countries include ten ASEAN Member States, namely, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam, and eight Plus countries, namely Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, ROK, Russian Federation, and the United States.

Objectives

• To benefit ASEAN member countries in building capacity to address shared security challenges, while cognisant of the differing capacities of various ASEAN countries;
• To promote mutual trust and confidence between defence establishments through greater dialogue and transparency;
• To enhance regional peace and stability through cooperation in defence and security, in view of the transnational security challenges the region faces;
• To contribute to the realisation of an ASEAN Security Community which, as stipulated in the Bali Concord II, embodies ASEAN’s aspiration to achieve peace, stability, democracy and prosperity in the region where ASEAN member countries live at peace with one another and with the world at large;
• To facilitate the implementation of the Vientiane Action Programme, which calls for ASEAN to build a peaceful,secure and prosperous ASEAN, and to adopt greateroutward-looking external relation strategies with our friends and Dialogue Partners.

2 . National Mission on Cultural Mapping (NMCM)

About NMCM

• National Mission on Cultural Mapping (NMCM) has been set up by the Ministry of Culture in 2017. 
• Mission will compile data of artists, art forms & geo location with inputs from Central Ministries, State Governments & art/culture bodies.
• Mission encompasses data mapping, demography building formalising the processes and bringing all the cultural activities under one web based umbrella for better results.
• The Mission also seeks to open a direct channel of communication of artists with the Government and peer to peer communication among artists for talent honing and handholding of each other.
• Specially designed data capture form with technical collaboration of National E-Governance Division (NEGD)/Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) has been formulated for data collection.
• Data from art & culture Akademies of the Ministry of Culture has been collected and will be entered into database after due correction.

3 . Bilateral Maritime Exercise Za’ir-Al-Bahr (Roar of the Sea) 

About Maritime Exercise Zair – Al-Bashr

• Bilateral Maritime Exercise Za’ir-Al-Bahr (Roar of the Sea) is the maritime exercise between the Indian Navy and Qatari Emiri Naval Forces.
• Za’ir-Al-Bahr 2019 would strengthen cooperation and enhance interoperability between the two navies.
• The Exercise will include a three-day Harbour Phase and Two days Sea Phase.
• The activities during the harbour phase will include a seminar, professional interaction, official visits, sports fixtures along with social and cultural events.
• The Sea Phase will include a Tactical Maritime Exercise involving the domains of Surface Action, Air Defence, Maritime Surveillance and Interdiction Operation and anti-terrorism.

4 . President’s Colour

Context : The Hon’ble President of India and the Supreme Commander of Indian Armed Forces, Shri Ram Nath Kovind will award the President’s Colour to Indian Naval Academy 

About President’s Colour

• The President’s Colors is the highest honor bestowed upon a Regiment of the Armed forces in recognition of their invaluable contribution to the security of the nation during peace and hostilities.
• Before India became a Republic, the Military Custom was to parade the King’s Colours – a regimental flag, on special ceremonial occasions.
• On 27 February 1951, the Commander in Chief of the Indian Navy, Vice Admiral Sir Edward Parry wrote to the Defence Minister that “It would be a privilege of which the service would be extremely proud, if the President would honour the Indian Navy by presenting it, a special flag which would be paraded on important occasions in a ceremonial parade”.
• Following this, Indian Navy became the first amongst the three services to be presented with the President’s Colour on 27 May 1951 by Dr. Rajendra Prasad, President of India.
• The Indian Navy was the first of the three Services to be awarded the President’s Colour on May 27, 1951.
• The President’s Colour has thus far in the Indian Navy been awarded to Southern Naval Command, Eastern Naval Command, Western Naval Command, Western Fleet, Eastern Fleet and the Submarine Arm.

5 . National Career Service

About National Career Service

• ​​​​​​​​National Career Service is a Five Year Mission Mode Project launched by the Hon’ble Prime Minister on 20th July, 2015.
• The project is being implemented by the Directorate General of Employment, Ministry of Labour & Employment.
• National Career Service (NCS) is a one-stop solution that provides a wide array of employment and career related services to the citizens of India.
• It works towards bridging the gap between jobseekers and employers, candidates seeking training and career guidance, agencies providing training and career counselling.

Pillars

• The NCS project reaches out to the people of this country through its three essential pillars i.e. a well designed ICT based portal which is NCS portal, Country wide set up of Model Career Centers and Interlinkage with all the states through employment exchanges.
• The digital centralized portal provides a wide range of career related services including job search, job matching, rich career content, career counselling, information on Job Fairs, services of local service providers like drivers, plumbers, etc. for households and various other services.
• This portal facilitates registration of Job Seekers, Employers, Skill Providers, Career Counsellors, Local Service Providers (LSP’s), Career Centers, Placement Organisations, Households (for availing the services of the LSP’s) and Government Departments.

6 . World’s Customs Organization

Context : The 29^th Regional Contact Points (RCP) meeting of Asia Pacific (A/P) region of the World Customs Organization (WCO) is being organised by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) at Puducherry. As a mandate of the Vice Chair office, India is organising the current RCP meeting

About World Customs Organization

• The World Customs Organization (WCO), established in 1952 as the Customs Co-operation Council (CCC) is an independent intergovernmental body whose mission is to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of Customs administrations.
• Its situated in Brussels Belgium
• The World Customs Organization (WCO) is the only international intergovernmental organization that deals with Customs procedures governing trade between countries.
• Its work aims to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of Customs administrations across the globe, and to help them fulfil their dual role of facilitating trade whilst ensuring its security.
• WCO represents 183 Customs administrations across the globe that collectively process approximately 98% of world trade.
• As a forum for dialogue and exchange of experiences between national Customs delegates, the WCO offers its Members a range of Conventions and other international instruments, as well as technical assistance and training services provided either directly by the Secretariat, or with its participation. The Secretariat also actively supports its Members in their endeavours to modernize and build capacity within their national Customs administrations.

Key Activities

• Developing and promoting harmonized and simplified Customs procedures aimed at facilitating trade.
• Security and enforcement
• Partnerships and cooperation
• Modernization and capacity Building

7 . National Policy on Biofuels

Salient features of the Policy

• Categorization of biofuels as “Basic Biofuels” and “Advanced Biofuels”,
• Incentives, off-take assurance and viability gap funding for advanced biofuels,
• Allowing B-molasses, sugarcane juice, damaged food grains and surplus food grains for ethanol production,
• Setting up of supply chain mechanisms for biodiesel production from non-edible oilseeds, Used Cooking Oil, short gestation crops, and
• Synergy of efforts by defining roles and responsibilities of all the concerned Ministries/Departments with respect to biofuels.

Other Schemes Formulated by Govt

• In line with National Policy on Biofuels, Government has approved “Pradhan Mantri JI-VAN (Jaiv Indhan- Vatavaran Anukool FasalAwashesh Nivaran) Yojana” for providing financial support to Integrated Bio-Ethanol Projects using lignocellulosic biomass & other renewable feedstock
• Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) scheme envisages establishing 5000 Compressed Bio Gas (CBG) plants across the country by 2023. Under this scheme, Oil Public Sector Undertakings have invited Expression of Interest (EoI) for procuring CBG from potential entrepreneurs and has offered an assured price for off take of CBG.
• The Government through Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) is implementing the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) programme under which, OMCs sell ethanol blended petrol with percentage of ethanol upto 10% subject to its availability. OMCs procure ethanol for blending in petrol. In the current Ethanol Supply Year 2018-19, 180.80 crore litre of ethanol has been procured by OMCs upto 11.11.2019.
• To encourage procurement of biodiesel produced from Used Cooking Oil (UCO), OMCs have floated Expression of Interest (EoI) for setting up of biodiesel plants from UCO processing plants on 10.08.2019 across India for 100 locations.  It was further extended to 200 locations on 10.10.2019.

8 . National Gas Grid

Aims and Objectives of National Gas Grid

• To remove regional imbalance within the country with regard to access of natural gas and provide clean and green fuel throughout the country. 
• To connect gas sources to major demand centres and ensure availability of gas to consumers in various sectors. 
• Development of City Gas Distribution Networks in various cities for supply of CNG and PNG. 

Status of the Project

• The Government has envisaged to develop the National Gas Grid. At present about 16,788 Km natural gas pipeline is operational and about 14,239 Km gas pipelines are being developed to increase the availability of natural gas across the country

PNGRB

• Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) is the authority to grant authorization to the entities for the development of City Gas Distribution (CGD) network in Geographical Areas (GAs) as per PNGRB Act, 2006.
• PNGRB identifies GAs for authorizing the development of CGD network in synchronization with the development of natural gas pipeline connectivity/ natural gas availability

City Gas Distribution Network

• Government of India has put thrust to promote the usage of environment friendly clean fuel i.e. natural gas as a fuel/feedstock across the country to move towards a gas based economy.
• Accordingly, development of CGD networks has been focused to increase the availability of cleaner cooking fuel (i.e. PNG) and transportation fuel (i.e. CNG) to the citizens of the country.
• The expansion of CGD network will also benefit to industrial and commercial units by ensuring the uninterrupted supply of natural gas.

Why Natural Gas

• Natural gas is a superior fuel as compared with coal and other liquid fuels being an environment friendly, safer and cheaper fuel. Natural Gas is supplied through pipelines just like one gets water from the tap. There is no need to store cylinders in the kitchen and thus saves space.
• As per WHO database released in May 2018, India has 14 out of 15 world’s most polluted cities in terms of PM 2.5 concentration. Large number of industries also consume polluting fuels like pet coke and furnace oil which emit polluting CO2. Some of the courts recently ordered for banning use of pet coke in states within their jurisdiction.
• Natural Gas (as CNG) is cheaper by 60% as compared with petrol and 45 % w.r.t. Diesel. Similarly, Natural Gas (as PNG) is cheaper by 40 % as compared with market price LPG and price of PNG almost matches with that of subsidised LPG (based on prices in Delhi). Thus, even on cost front as well, natural gas is preferable to petrol, diesel and LPG.

9 . Bharatiya Poshan Krishi Kosh

Context : Union Minister of Women and Child Development (WCD) and Textiles, Smriti Zubin Irani, along with Bill Gates, co-chair of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched the Bharatiya Poshan Krishi Kosh (BPKK) in New Delhi.

About Bharatiya Poshan Krishi Kosh

• The BPKK will be a repository of diverse crops across 128 agro-climatic zones in India for better nutritional outcomes.
• On this occasion, eminent agricultural scientist, Dr. M. S. Swaminathan, in his address, said that to make India nutrition secure a five-point action programme has to be implemented:
  • Ensure calorie rich diet for women, expectant mothers and children
  • Ensure intake of proteins in the form of pulses to eradicate protein hunger in women and children
  • Eradicate hidden hunger due to deficiency of micro nutrients like vitamin A, vitamin B, Iron and Zinc
  • Ensure clean drinking water supply
  • Spreading nutrition literacy in every village particularly in mothers with children less than 100 days’ old

10 . Health Systems for a New India: Building Blocks—Potential Pathways to Reforms

Details of the Report

• NITI Aayog released the report on ‘Health Systems for a New India: Building Blocks—Potential Pathways to Reforms.
• The report identified 5 focus areas of future health system,
  • Deliver on unfinished Public health agenda
  • Change health financing away from out of pocket so spend into large insurers,
  • Integrate service delivery vertically and horizontally
  • Empower citizens to become better buyers of health
  • Harness the power of digital health.
• Highlighting the need to build India’s opportunities, the vision for health over the next fifteen years is to transform the delivery of health services in a way that they improve at a much greater pace, without financially burdening its citizens.
• The report consolidates global findings on key health system themes of financing and provisioning, with a focus on risk pooling, strategic purchasing, health-service provisioning and digital health.
• With insights to transform the Indian health system in the twenty-first century, the report presents a preliminary menu of strategic choices available before India to reform its healthcare system.

11 . Facts for Prelims

Target Olympic Podium Scheme & Scheme of Assistance to NSFs

• Target Olympic Podium (TOP) Scheme was formulated in July 2014 under overall ambit of National Sports Development Fund (NSDF) with the aim to identify, groom and prepare potential medal prospects for Olympic and Paralympic Games.
• About 54.40 % of total expenditure of National Sports Development Fund (NSDF) has been incurred on TOP Scheme.
• High priority category has been created to put focus on and incentivize those sports disciplines played in the Olympics in which India has won medals in the last conducted Asian Games as well as Commonwealth Games or in which India has good chance of winning medals in Olympics. Presently, nine sports disciplines viz., (i) Athletics, (ii) Badminton (iii) Hockey (iv) Shooting (v) Tennis (vi) Weightlifting (vii) Wrestling, (viii) Archery and (ix) Boxing have been categorised as ‘High Priority’.
• Under the Scheme of Assistance to National Sports Federations (NSFs), assistance is also provided to sports disciplines other than High Priority Sports disciplines. Assistance is given for participation in international sporting events, conduct of international events in India, conduct of National Championships and coaching camps.

Wintergrade diesel

• Motorists in high-altitude sectors like Ladakh, Kargil, Kaza and Keylong face the problem of freezing of diesel in their vehicles when winter temperatures drop to as low as -30^o Celsius.
• Indian Oil has come up with an innovative solution to this problem by introducing a special winter-grade diesel with a low pour-point of -33^o Celsius, which does not lose its fluidity function even in extreme winter conditions.