PIB Analysis : 23rd and 24th October

PIB Analysis for UPSC CSE

Topics Covered

1. Gram Manchitra
2. Group of Intellectuals and Academicians
3. Odisha Integrated Irrigation Project for Climate Resilient Agriculture 
4. Kartarpur Sahib Corridor Agreement
5. Nanopharmaceuticals
6. Ease of Doing Business
7. Facts for Prelims : ENCORE

1 . Gram Manchitra

About Gram Manachitra

• Gram Manchitra’ which is a Geo Spatial based decision support system for the panchayats.
• The panchayats can utilize this App to plan, develop and monitor developmental activities on re3al time basis.

2 . Group of Intellectuals and Academicians

Context : GIA delegation presents ‘Report from Ground Zero’ on Jammu, Kashmir & Ladakh post-Article 370 scrapping

About GIA

• GIA is a group of empowered Indian women, intellectuals & academicians working together to elevate the position of women in our society, committed to work in the service of the nation.
• These women of impact include national leaders, President Awardees, distinguished Supreme Court lawyers, industrialists, professors of prestigious institutions, principals of colleges, directors of institutes, internationally renowned artists/dancers, sportswomen, writers, poets, IT professionals and many others from various fields.

3 . Odisha Integrated Irrigation Project for Climate Resilient Agriculture 

Context : The Government of India, Government of Odisha and the World Bank today signed a US$165 million loan agreement to support smallholder farmers strengthen the resilience of their production systems as well as diversify and improve the marketing of their produce, for increased income.

About the Project

• The Odisha Integrated Irrigation Project for Climate Resilient Agriculture will be implemented in rural areas vulnerable to droughts and largely dependent on rainfed agriculture.
• It will benefit about 125,000 smallholder farmer households from 15 districts of Odisha managing 128,000 ha of agricultural land.
• The project will strengthen the resilience of smallholder farmers against adverse climate by improving access to resilient seed varieties and production technologies, diversifying towards more climate-resilient crops, and improving access to better water management and irrigation services.
• The project will support the rehabilitation of 532 water tanks – expected to irrigate 91,435 ha; promote productivity improvements at the farm level; support farmers to reduce the current emphasis on food grains (especially paddy and wheat) and increase the share of high-value and more nutritious products like fruits and vegetables; and provide marketing support to farmers who are able to generate a marketable surplus.
• The project will also support aquaculture in rehabilitated tanks, help farmers access affordable and quality fingerlings, and disseminate improved aquaculture practices and post-harvest management.
• The $165 million loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), has a 6-year grace period, and a maturity of 24 years.

Background

• In recent years, climate variability has seriously affected agriculture in Odisha, where farming is largely dominated by farmers with landholdings of less than two hectares.
• More and more agricultural areas are coming under the ambit of extreme weather events.
• Since 2009, the frequency of droughts in the state has increased from 1 in 5 years to 1 in 2 years. 
• About 70 percent of total cultivated area is prone to droughts compared to 40 percent in the 1970s. In fact, since 2013, floods are now devastating areas beyond the traditional flood zone. Drier areas are projected to become drier, while wetter areas will become wetter.
• Agriculture is also a major source of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions in Odisha, responsible for about 25 percent of the GHG emissions in the state.
• The project is intended to be a game-changer for the State; creating a more resilient agricultural sector, enhancing food security, increasing farmers’ incomes and reducing the GHG footprint of the sector,

4 . Kartarpur Sahib Corridor Agreement

Context : India has signed the Agreement with Pakistan today on the modalities for operationalisation of the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor at Zero Point, International Boundary, Dera Baba Nanak

The highlights of the Agreement are: –

• Indian pilgrims of all faiths and persons of Indian origin can use the corridor;
• The travel will be Visa Free;
• Pilgrims need to carry only a valid passport;
• Persons of Indian Origin need to carry OCI card along with the passport of their country;
• The Corridor is open from dawn to dusk. Pilgrims travelling in the morning will have to return on the same day;
• The Corridor will be operational throughout the year, except on notified days, to be informed in advance;
• Pilgrims will have a choice to visit as individuals or in groups, and also to travel on foot;
• India will send the list of pilgrims to Pakistan 10 days ahead of travel date. Confirmation will be sent to pilgrims 4 days before the travel date;
• The Pakistan side has assured India to make sufficient provision for ‘Langar’ and distribution of ‘Prasad’;

Registration of Pilgrims

• For registration of pilgrims, online portal (prakashpurb550.mha.gov.in) has gone live today. The pilgrims may have to necessarily register themselves online on this portal and exercise their choice to travel on any day. Pilgrims will be informed by SMS and email of the confirmation of registration  3 to 4 days in advance of the date of travel.  An Electronic Travel Authorization will also be generated. The pilgrims need to carry Electronic Travel Authorization, along with their passport, when they arrive at the Passenger Terminal Building.

5 . Nanopharmaceuticals

Context : The Union Minister for Science & Technology, Earth Sciences and Health & Family Welfare released “Guidelines for Evaluation of Nanopharmaceuticals in India

About Nanopharmaceuticals

• A nanopharmaceutical is defined as a pharmaceutical preparation containing nanomaterials intended for internal use or external application on human for the purpose of therapeutics, diagnostics and health benefits.
• The nanomaterial is generally defined as material having particle size in the range of 1 to 100 nm in at least one dimension. However, if a material exhibits physical, chemical or biological phenomenon or activity which are attributable to its dimension beyond nanoscale range up to 1000 nm, the material should also be considered as nanomaterial. Therefore, any pharmaceutical containing such material should also be considered as nanopharmaceutical
• Particle size distribution of the nanopharmaceutical: The nano-size range should be declared in the product specification. Further, the particles should be within the claimed nano-size range in all given testing conditions during the claimed stability period and final product

Benefits

• Nanopharmaceuticals offer the ability to detect diseases at much earlier stages and the diagnostic applications could build upon conventional procedures using nanoparticles.
• Nanopharmaceuticals represent an emerging field where the sizes of the drug particle or a therapeutic delivery system work at the nanoscale.
• In the pharmaceutical industry, a long standing issue is the difficulty of delivering the appropriate dose of a particular active agent to specific disease site. Nanopharmaceuticals have enormous potential in addressing this failure of traditional therapeutics which offers site-specific targeting of active agents.
• Such precision targeting via nanopharmaceuticals reduces toxic systemic side effects, resulting in better patient compliance
• Pharmaceutical companies are applying nanotechnology to enhance or supplement drug target discovery and drug delivery.
• Nanopharmaceutical reduces the cost of drug discovery, design & development and enhances the drug delivery process. This results in the improved Research & Development success rate which enables faster introduction of new, cost-effective products to the marketplace. 

About the Guidelines

• The guidelines apply to the nanopharmaceuticals in the form of finished formulation as well as Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) of a new molecule or an already approved molecule with altered nanoscale dimensions, properties or phenomenon associated with the application of nanotechnology intended to be used for treatment, in vivo diagnosis, mitigation, cure or prevention of diseases and disorders in humans
• The guidelines would facilitate translational research in line with the regulatory requirements. Guidelines will also facilitate the decision making by regulator during clearances to newer products based on nanotechnology and similarly to researchers to get clearance for their products to launch in market. End users will also be benefited by the quality assured anticipated products in the market in accordance to the guidelines.
• It will give impetus to initiate activities for developing safety guidelines for other domains like agri-inputs and agri-products, cosmetics, implantable devices, through interventions of nanotechnology.
• The guidelines will pave the way for significant benefits through such cutting edge technology and contribute to the mission on “Affordable Health Care for All”.

6 . Ease of Doing Business

Context : The World Bank released its latest Doing Business Report(DBR, 2020) todayon24^th October 2019. 

About the Rankings

• India has recorded a jump of 14 positions against its rank of 77 in 2019 to be placed now at 63^rdrank among 190 countries assessed by the World Bank.
• India’s leap of 14 ranks in the Ease of Doing Business ranking is significant considering that there has been continuous improvement since 2015 and for the third consecutive year India is amongst the top 10 improvers.
• As a result of continued efforts by the Government, India has improved its rank by 79 positions in last five years
• This year, India’s DTF score improved to 71.0 from 67.23 in the previous year. India has improved its rank in 7 out of 10 indicators and has moved closer to international best practices (Distance to Frontier score).Significant improvements have been registered in ‘Resolving Insolvency’, ‘Dealing with Construction Permits’, ‘Registering Property’, ‘Trading across Boards’ and ‘Paying Taxes’ indicators.

About the Report

•  The Doing Business assessment provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement across 190 economies on ten parameters affecting a business through its life cycle.
• The DBR ranks countries on the basis of Distance to Frontier (DTF), a score that shows the gap of an economy to the global best practice.

The important features of India’s performance this year are:

• The World Bank has recognized India as one of the top 10 improvers for the third consecutive year.
• Recovery rate under resolving insolvency has improved significantly from 26.5% to 71.6%.
• The time taken for resolving insolvency has also come down significantly from 4.3 years to 1.6 years.
• India continues to maintain its first position among South Asian countries. It was 6th in 2014.

7 . Facts for Prelims

ENCORE

• In a first, the Election Commission of India has deployed an integrated ICT counting application which gives freedom to Returning Officers spread across the country to directly compute and enter the result data on the ECI new counting application.
• This application allows the Returning Officers to enter table-wise data in the software, thereby considerably reducing the time and makes the results & trends data error-free.
• The counting software developed by the IT team of ECI called ENCORE (Enabling Communications on Real-time Environment) allows generation of various types of statutory reports during counting process which are mandatory for Returning Officers such as Form 20 Preparation/ Compilation of Final Result Sheet, 21C/D for Formal Declaration of Result and Form 21 E for Certificate of Return of Elections.
• The Returning Officer can download these system-generated reports after the counting is over and complete the statutory requirements in a hassle-free environment.