Defence
INDIAN NAVY EXERCISES WITH ROYAL NAVY CARRIER STRIKE GROUP

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about PASSEX exercise)
What's the NEWS

• Indian Navy participated in a two-day bilateral Passage Exercise (PASSEX) with Royal Navy Carrier Strike Group (CSG)-21 led by HMS Queen Elizabeth in the Bay of Bengal from 21 to 22 Jul 21.
• The bilateral Maritime Exercise was designed to hone the ability of the two navies to operate together in the maritime domain.
• The maiden exercise between Indian Navy and the Royal Navy's latest Aircraft Carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth included participation of CSG-21 comprising Type 23 Frigates and an Astute-class submarine in addition to the other surface combatants.
• Indian Navy was represented by IN Ships Satpura, Ranvir, Jyoti,Kavaratti, Kulish and a submarine.
• Anti-Submarine Warfare capable Long Range Maritime Reconnaissance Aircraft P8I also participated in the exercise.

Passage Exercise (PASSEX)

• The exercise is aimed at enhancing interoperability, improving understanding and imbibing best practices between both the friendly navies, and would involve advanced surface and anti-submarine warfare exercises, weapon firings, seamanship exercises and helicopter operations.
• PASSEXs are conducted regularly by IN with units of friendly foreign navies, whilst visiting each other's ports or during a rendezvous at sea.
• This exercise, being conducted in the Eastern Indian Ocean Region, reflects the strong long-term strategic relationship between the two countries and particularly, defence cooperation in the maritime domain.
• Earlier, the Indian Navy had also conducted similar PASSEXs with the Japanese Navy ,the French Navy, US Navy , Russian Federation Navy and Indonesian Navies

NITI Aayog
Atal Innovation Mission reveals Top 300 Teams of the ATL Marathon 2020

Relevance IN - Prelims (about AIM and about ATL Marathon) + Mains ( GS II Education + government policies and interventions)
What's the NEWS

• The Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), NITI Aayog declared the results of its flagship national annual innovation challenge ‘ATL Marathon 2020'
• The Marathon witnessed over 1000 Atal Tinkering Labs participating from across the country from which 300 top innovators were selected and top 10 teams from each state that participated in the Marathon of ATL Marathon 2020
• ATL Marathon 2020 witnessed over 7200 innovations from 32 states and 324 districts. This Marathon also had a heartening participation of over 57% from girl students.

ATL Marathon

• It is a flagship competition for AIM where Atal Innovation Mission brings in a new theme every year for innovators under which students with the help of their ATL in-charges and mentors carefully research, ideate, innovate and implement their innovations over a period of 6 months.
• The top students then get a chance to undergo the Student Internship Program (SIP) with AIM's corporate partners and incubation centres to further enhance and hone their skills and prototypes.
• With an ambitious resolve to "Research, Ideate, Innovate, implement - Mindful Innovation for the greater good", this year's Marathon theme was aligned with Atmanirbhar Bharat.

Flagship schemes/initiatives of NITI Aayog
Atal Tinkering Lab

• In ATLs, students of class 6th to 12th acquire a problem-solving attitude, develop innovative solutions leveraging technologies like 3D printers, robotics, miniaturised electronics, IOT and programming and DIY kits, with support from teachers and mentors.

Atal Innovative Mission

• AIM is the Government of India's flagship initiative to promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in the country.
• AIM's objective is to develop new programmes and policies for fostering innovation in different sectors of the economy, provide platform and collaboration opportunities for different stakeholders, create awareness and create an umbrella structure to oversee innovation ecosystem of the country.

Six major initiatives of AIM:

• Atal Tinkering Labs-Creating problem-solving mindset across schools in India.
• Atal Incubation Centers-Fostering world class start-ups and adding a new dimension to the incubator model.
• Atal New India Challenges-Fostering product innovations and aligning them to the needs of various sectors/ministries.
• Mentor India Campaign- A national Mentor network in collaboration with public sector, corporates and institutions, to support all the initiatives of the mission.
• Atal Community Innovation Centre- To stimulate community centric innovation and ideas in the unserved /underserved regions of the country including Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
• ARISE-To stimulate innovation and research in the MSME industry.

Government Schemes
One District One Focus Product Scheme
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about ODOFP and about ODOP scheme) + Mains ( GS III Farmer's welfare + GS II government policies and interventions)
What's the NEWS

• The One District One Focus Product (ODOFP) programme cover products of agriculture and allied sectors for 728 districts of the country.

Know! about ODOFP Scheme

• The Government has decided to converge resources from ongoing centrally sponsored schemes such as Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH), National Food Security Mission (NFSM), Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY), Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY), schemes of Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying for ODOFP.
• The Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) provides financial support under Centrally Sponsored Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises Scheme (PM FME Scheme) for One District One Focus Product.
• PM FME provides financial, technical and business support for upgradation of existing micro food processing enterprises etc.
• The scheme adopts One District One Product (ODOP) approach to reap the benefits of scale in terms of procurement of inputs, availing common services and marketing of products.
• PM FME scheme envisages strengthening backward and forward linkages, provision of common facilities, incubation centres, training, research and development (R&D), marketing and branding.
• This scheme is being implemented for a period of five years from 2020-21 to 2024-25.

Know! also about One District One Product (ODOP)

• It is an initiative which is seen as a transformational step forward towards realizing the true potential of a district, fuel economic growth and generate employment and rural entrepreneurship, taking us to the goal of AtmaNirbhar Bharat.
• One District One Product (ODOP) initiative is operationally merged with ‘Districts as Export Hub' initiative being implemented by DGFT, Department of Commerce, with Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) as a major stakeholder.
• The Department of Commerce through DGFT is engaging with State and Central government agencies to promote the initiative of One District One Product.
• The objective is to convert each District of the country into an Export Hub by identifying products with export potential in the District, addressing bottlenecks for exporting these products, supporting local exporters/manufacturers to scale up manufacturing, and find potential buyers outside India with the aim of promoting exports, promoting manufacturing & services industry in the District and generate employment in the District.
• Uttar Pradesh government was the first state of India to launch the concept of One District One Product in 2018.

Social Justice
Government has formulated a scheme covering comprehensive measures for welfare of beggars

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about SMILE Scheme) + Mains ( GS II Social issues and Social Justice)
What's the NEWS

• The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has formulated a scheme "SMILE - Support for Marginalized Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise", which includes subscheme - ‘Central Sector Scheme for Comprehensive Rehabilitation of persons engaged in the act of Begging'.
• This scheme covers several comprehensive measures including welfare measures for persons who are engaged in the act of begging.

Know! all about SMILE

• The focus of the scheme is extensively on rehabilitation, provision of medical facilities, counselling, basic documentation, education, skill development, economic linkages and so on.
• The scheme would be implemented with the support of State/UT Governments/Local Urban Bodies, Voluntary Organizations, Community Based Organizations (CBOs) , institutions and others.
• Scheme provides for the use of the existing shelter homes available with the State/UT Governments and Urban local bodies for rehabilitation of the persons engaged in the act of Begging.
• In case of non-availability of existing shelter homes, new dedicated shelter homes are to be set up by the implementing agencies. Under this Scheme, funds allocated for the next five years, are given below:
• Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has also initiated pilot projects on Comprehensive Rehabilitation of Persons engaged in the act of Begging in ten cities namely Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Indore, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, Patna and Ahmadabad.
• These pilots are being implemented in these cities by State Governments/UTs/Local Urban Bodies and Voluntary Organizations.

Cabinet Decisions
Cabinet approves Extension of term of the Commission constituted under Article 340 of the Constitution to examine the issue of Sub-categorization within Other Backward Classes in the Central List

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Sub-categorization within Other Backward Classes (OBCs)+ Mains ( GS II Social Issues)

• The Union Cabinet has approved the Eleventh Extension of the term of the Commission constituted under Article 340 of the Constitution to examine the issue of Sub-categorization within Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the Central List by 6 months beyond 31st July 2021 and upto 31st January 2022.

Know! about the commission

• The Commission has been set up to examine the possibility of creating categories within OBCs for the reservation to ensure "equitable distribution" of representation among all OBC communities (at present, there is no sub-categorisation and 27% reservation is a monolithic entity.)
• National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) proposed the sub-categorisation of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) back in 2015.
• In October 2017, President of India in exercise of the powers conferred by Article 340 of the Constitution, appointed a commission to examine the issue of sub-categorisation of OBCs, chaired by retired Justice G. Rohini

Know! about the constitutional Provisions
Article 340

• It lays down conditions for the appointment of a Commission to investigate the conditions of the backward classes.
• The President may by order appoint a Commission consisting of such persons as he thinks fit to investigate the conditions of socially and educationally backward classes within the territory of India.

Fundamental rights

• Article 14 of the Constitution guarantees equality before the law. That means un-equals cannot be treated equally. Measures are required to be taken for the upliftment of un-equals to bring them on par with the advanced classes.
• Article 16 (4) provides that the State can make any provision for the reservation of appointments or posts in favour of any backward class of citizens who, in the opinion of the state, are not adequately represented in the services under the State.

Governance
9^th Integrated Ratings of State Power Distribution utilities and Rankings

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Integrated Ratings for State Power Distribution Utilities and about PFC)
What's the NEWS

• Union Minister of Power, released 9th Integrated Ratings for State Power Distribution Utilities on the occasion of on the occasion of 36th Foundation Day of Power Finance Corporation (PFC).

Know! about the Integrated Rating exercise

• The Ninth Annual Integrated Rating exercise covered 41 State Power Distribution Utilities for the rating period FY 2019-20
• The Integrated Rating exercise is carried out on an annual basis since 2012 as per the methodology approved by Ministry of Power.
• The exercise presently covers 41 States distribution utilities spread across 22 States.
• ICRA and CARE are the designated credit rating agencies.
• The Ninth Integrated Ratings have been carried out by ICRA Analytics Limited (IAL) & CARE Advisory Research & Training Limited (CART), the consulting arms of ICRA ratings and CARE respectively.
• Power Ministry has mandated Power Finance Corporation (PFC) to co-ordinate with the utilities, rating agencies & MoP during the rating exercise.
• The Ninth Integrated Rating reports of all the 41 utilities have been submitted to MoP

Benefits

• It is an important step of improving Ease of Living and Ease of Doing Business in India.
• Government of India is also supporting States in strengthening Distribution system in order to provide 24×7 power supply across all households with the help of schemes like Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana and Integrated Power Development Scheme.

Power Finance Corporation Ltd.

• Power Finance Corporation Ltd. is an Indian financial institution under the ownership of Ministry of Power, Government of India
• Established in 1986, it is the financial backbone of Indian Power Sector.
• It is the 8th highest profit making CPSE and India's largest NBFC.
• It is also India's largest infrastructure finance company.

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