PIB Analysis : 4th 5th & 6th January

PIB Analysis for UPSC CSE

Topics Covered

1. World Braille Day
2. UJALA & Street Lighting National Programme
3. Farmer Connect Portal
4. Farmer’s Science Congress
5. Facts for Prelims

1 . World Braille Day

Context : January 4 is celebrated as World Braille Day

About World Braille Day

• World Braille Day, celebrated since 2019, is observed to raise awareness of the importance of Braille as a means of communication in the full realization of the human rights for blind and partially sighted people.

What is Braille?

• Braille is a tactile representation of alphabetic and numerical symbols using six dots to represent each letter and number, and even musical, mathematical and scientific symbols.
• Braille (named after its inventor in 19th century France, Louis Braille) is used by blind and partially sighted people to read the same books and periodicals as those printed in a visual font. 
• Braille is essential in the context of education, freedom of expression and opinion, as well as social inclusion, as reflected in article 2 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

2 . UJALA & Street Lighting National Programme

Context : Government of India’s zero subsidy Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA) and LED Street Lighting National Programme (SLNP), marked its fifth anniversary today.

About Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA)

• An ordinary bulb is an extremely energy inefficient form of lighting with just 5% of the electricity input converted to light.  Efficient light bulbs like Light-emitting Diode (LEDs) consumes only one-tenth of energy used by ordinary bulb to provide the same or better light output. However, high cost of LEDs has been a barrier in adoption of such efficient lighting systems. The DELP on-bill financing scheme proposes to overcome this cost barrier. The scheme is being named “UJALA” – an acronym for Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All.
• Under the scheme, 20W LED tube lights and BEE 5-star rated energy efficient fans are also distributed to the consumers. The 20W LED tube lights are 50% more energy efficient than conventional 40W tube lights and are available for Rs. 220/- per tube, as against the market price of Rs. 400-600.
• The energy efficient fans under the UJALA scheme come with a BEE 5 Star rating. These ceiling fans are rated 30% more energy efficient than conventional fans and are priced at Rs. 1200/- per fan.

About Street Lighting National Programme

• Street Light National Programme is an initiative of the Government to promote energy efficiency in the country. Government aims to replace 3.5 crore conventional street lights with energy efficient LED lights. This would result in annual energy saving of 900 crore units and the total cost savings of municipalities every year will be Rs 5,500 crore.
• Energy Efficiency Services Limited, a Public Energy Services Company under the administration of Ministry of Power, Government of India (GoI) is the implementing agency for SLNP.
• The National Programme has been launched on 5th January 2015 to convert conventional street and domestic lights with energy efficient LED lights.
• Objectives
  • Mitigate climate change by implementing energy efficient LED based street lighting
  • Reduce energy consumption in lighting which helps DISCOMs to manage peak demand
  • Provide a sustainable service model that obviates the need for upfront capital investment as well as additional revenue expenditure to pay for procurement of LED lights
  • Enhance municipal services at no upfront capital cost of municipalities

3 . Farmer Connect Portal

About Farmer Connect Portal

• Farmer Connect portal provides a platform for farmers and exporters to interact.
• Farmer Connect portal helps in conversion of underperforming farms into high yielding farms of quality products in demand, by leveraging ICT enabled services.
• The main objective of Farmer connect portal is to facilitate and integrate the activities of Farmer and aggregators in the form of Farmer producer Organization (FPO) with Exporters through the assistance of ICT platform and a field coordinator who shall assist the farmer/FPO to make better use of the opportunities provided by the exporters and the ICT platform.

4 . Farmers Science Congress

Context : The Farmer’s Science Congress was inaugurated for the first time in the 107 years of history of the Indian Science Congress, highlighting the importance of farmer’s innovations and their scientific validity.

About Farmers Science Congress

• Farmers Science Congress was organized as a part of the ongoing 107^th Indian Science Congress at University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru.
• Around 120 innovative farmers from across the country are participating in Farmers Science Congress and showcase their products.
• Experts from the different agriculture sector discussed on three themes; Farmers innovation on integrated agriculture and entrepreneurship for doubling farmers income; Climate change, bio-diversity, conservation, ecosystem services & farmers empowerment and Agrarian distress, rural bio-entrepreneurship, policy issues in a day event.

5 . Facts for Prelims

New Energy Performance Standards for Air Conditioners

• The Central Government in consultation with the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) has notified new energy performance standards for Room Air Conditioner (RACs) on 30^th October 2019.
• The 24⁰C default setting has been made mandatory from Jan 1, 2020 for all room air conditioners covered under the ambit of BEE star-labelling program vide this notification.
• Indian Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio (ISEER) as per the new standards will range from (3.30 – 5.00) for split and (2.70 – 3.50) for window air conditioners, which will be applicable from 1^st January 2021 onwards.
• All brands and types of star labelled room air conditioners, namely, Multi-Stage Capacity Air Conditioners, Unitary Air Conditioners and Split Air Conditioners which are rated from one star to five star, based on their relative energy efficiencies up to a rated cooling capacity of 10,465 Watts (9,000 kcal/hour) and manufactured, commercially purchased or sold in India, shall ensure default setting of temperature in the room air conditioners at twenty-four degrees Celsius with effect from the 1st January 2020.”
• BEE launched the voluntary star labelling program for fixed-speed room air conditioners (RACs) in 2006, and this program became mandatory on 12^th January 2009. Thereafter, in 2015, voluntary star labelling program for inverter room air conditioners was launched and which was made mandatory with effect from 1^st January 2018. 
• The BEE star labelling program for Room Air Conditioners now covers both fixed and inverter RAC up to a cooling capacity of 10,465 watts (2.97 TR)
• ISEER (Indian Seasonal Energy efficiency ratio) is the energy performance index used for Room Air Conditioners (RACs) and its assessment is based on the bin hours defined in ISO 16358.