Social Issues
PM-DAKSH' Portal and ‘PM-DAKSH' Mobile App

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about PM-DAKSH - App/portal/scheme) + Mains ( GS II Social issues - schemes for vulnerable section of population)
What's the NEWS

• Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment launched ‘PM-DAKSH' Portal and ‘PM-DAKSH' Mobile App

Know! about the app/portal and about PM-DAKSH

• The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, in collaboration with NeGD, has developed this portal and app to make the skill development schemes accessible to the target groups of Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes and Safai Karamcharis.
• By the virtue of this initiative the youth of the target groups will now be able to avail the benefits of skill development training programmes more easily.
• The Pradhan Mantri Dakshta Aur Kushalta Sampann Hitgrahi (PM-DAKSH) Yojana is being implemented by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment from the year 2020-21.
• Under this Yojana, eligible target group are being provided skill development training programmes on (i) Up-skilling/Re-skilling (ii) Short Term Training Programme (iii) Long Term Training Programme and (iv) Entrepreneurship Development Program (EDP).

Information given by Union Ministers in Lok Sabha ( Parliament Proceedings)
Schemes for Women Farmers

Government is taking various measures to increase the participation of women farmers in agriculture sector.

• The Department of Rural Development, Ministry of Rural Development launched a scheme namely ‘Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana (MKSP)', as a sub component of DAY-NRLM (Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana - National Rural Livelihoods Mission).
• This scheme is being implemented since 2011 with the objective to empower women by making systematic investments to enhance their participation and productivity, as also create sustainable livelihoods for rural women.
• The program is implemented in project mode through State Rural Livelihoods Mission (SRLM) as Project Implementing Agencies.
• In order to familiarize women with the latest techniques in agriculture and allied sectors, trainings are being imparted to women farmers under schemes of DA&FW and DAY-NRLM.
• These include Support to State Extension Programmes for Extension Reforms (ATMA) under Sub-Mission on Agriculture Extension (SMAE).
• Skill training courses in agriculture and allied areas (of minimum 200 hours duration) are also being conducted for farmers including women farmers through National Training Institutes, State Agricultural Management & Extension Training (SAMETIs), Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) and State Agricultural Universities (SAUs), across the country.
• Under DAY-NRLM, the trainings on the agro-ecological practices are being provided through the community resource persons.
• KVKs established by Indian Council Agricultural Research (ICAR) impart training to farmers including women farmers on various aspects of agriculture and allied sectors.

Know all about e-RUPI, the new digital payment instrument

What is e-RUPI and how it works ?

• e-RUPI is basically a digital voucher which a beneficiary gets on his phone in the form of an SMS or QR code.
• It is a pre-paid voucher, which he/she can go and redeem it at any centre that accepts its.
• Thus e-RUPI is a one time contactless, cashless voucher-based mode of payment that helps users redeem the voucher without a card, digital payments app, or internet banking access.

• e-RUPI should not be confused with Digital Currency which the Reserve Bank of India is contemplating.
• Instead e-RUPI is a person specific, even purpose specific digital voucher.

How is e-RUPI advantageous to the Consumer ?

• e-RUPI does not require the beneficiary to have a bank account
• It ensures an easy, contactless two-step redemption process that does not require sharing of personal details either.
• e-RUPI is operable on basic phones also

What are the benefits of e-RUPI for the sponsors.

• e-RUPI is expected to play a major role in strengthening Direct-Benefit Transfer and making it more transparent.

• Being a prepaid voucher, e-RUPI would assure real time payments to the service provider.
  
  

Who has developed the e-RUPI ?

• The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which oversees the digital payments ecosystem in India, has launched e-RUPI, a voucher-based payments system to promote cashless transactions.
• It has been developed in collaboration with the Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and National Health Authority.

Which Banks issue e-RUPI ?

• NPCI has partnered with 11 banks for e-RUPI transactions. They are Axis Bank, Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Indian Bank, IndusInd Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India and Union Bank of India.
• The acquiring Apps are Bharat Pe, BHIM Baroda Merchant Pay, Pine Labs, PNB Merchant Pay and YoNo SBI Merchant Pay.

Know! also about
National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)

• An umbrella organisation for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India, is an initiative of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Indian Banks' Association (IBA) under the provisions of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, for creating a robust Payment & Settlement Infrastructure in India.
• It has been incorporated as a "Not for Profit" Company under the provisions of Section 25 of Companies Act 1956 (now Section 8 of Companies Act 2013), with an intention to provide infrastructure to the entire Banking system in India for physical as well as electronic payment and settlement systems.
• The ten core promoter banks are State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, Bank of India, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Citibank N. A. and HSBC.
• In 2016 the shareholding was broad-based to 56 member banks to include more banks representing all sectors.

RuPay

• RuPay is an Indigenously developed Payment System - designed to meet the expectation and needs of the Indian consumer, banks and merchant eco-system.
• RuPay supports the issuance of debit, credit and prepaid cards by banks in India and thereby supporting the growth of retail electronic payments in India.
• All RuPay Cards will now have the functionality of NCMC which can enable low value contactless payments (like transit, toll, parking, retail) using Offline technology.
• The alliances with international network partners (Discover Financial Services, Japan Credit Bureau and China Union Pay) provides valuable access to global acceptance footprint and offer world class payment solutions to RuPay cardholders.

IMPS

• With Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), India has become the leading country in the world in real time payments in retail sector.

NACH

• National Automated Clearing House (NACH), an offline web based system for bulk push and pull transactions.
• NACH provides electronic mandate platform to register mandates facilitating paper less collection process for the corporates and banks.
• It provides for both account based and Aadhaar based transactions.

ABPS

• Aadhaar Payment Bridge (APB) System is helping the Government and Government agencies in making the Direct Benefit Transfers for various Central as well as State sponsored schemes.

AePS

• To access these funds at door step & drive the financial inclusion in India, Aadhaar enabled Payment System (AePS) has been introduced.
• Since inception it has become instrumental to increase accessibility of basic banking services in underserved areas.
• To extend the convenience of biometric to merchant payments,

NFS

• National Financial Switch (NFS) is the largest network of shared Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) in India facilitating interoperable cash withdrawal, card to card funds transfer and interoperable cash deposit transactions among other value added services in the country.

UPI

• Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has been termed as the revolutionary product in the payment system.

Bharat Bill Payment System

• Bharat Bill Payment System is offering one-stop bill payment solution for all recurring payments with 200+ Billers in the categories Viz. Electricity, Gas, Water, Telecom, DTH, Loan Repayments, Insurance, FASTag Recharge, Cable etc. across India.

NETC

• National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has developed the National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) program to meet the electronic tolling requirements of the Indian market.
• It provides an electronic payment facility to customer to make the payments at national, state and city toll plazas by identifying the vehicle uniquely through a FASTag.
• FASTag are Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) stickers which are affixed on the vehicle windshield and enable the driver to make toll payments electronically while the vehicle is in motion without stopping at the Toll plazas by saving Fuel and Time.

Implementation of SVAMITVA and e-panchayat programmes

• SVAMITVA Scheme aims to provide the ‘Record of Rights' to village household owners possessing houses in inhabited areas in villages with issuance of legal ownership rights (Property cards/Title deeds).
• The pilot phase of the Scheme was launched on 24th April 2020 for implementation during 2020-21 in 6 states namely Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
• During 2021-2025, the Scheme is to be implemented across the country in phased manner and would eventually cover all the villages of the country.
• States/Union Territories need to sign Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Survey of India (SoI) for implementation of the scheme.
• The Scheme also envisages the establishment of a network of 567 Continuously Operating Referencing System (CORS) stations across the country for determining accurate locations.
• Out of this, 210 CORS stations are being established in the States of Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan as part of the Pilot phase.
• With the aim to transform functioning of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs), Ministry is implementing e-Panchayat Mission Mode Project (MMP) under Digital India Programme.
• This is expected to make them more transparent, accountable and effective organs of local self-governing institutions.
• Further, eGramSwaraj (egramswaraj.gov.in), a Simplified Work Based Accounting Application for Panchayati Raj has been developed amalgamating functionalities of planning, monitoring, accounting and online payments.
• The Panchayats have been encouraged to adopt the e-GramSwaraj-PFMS (Public Finance Management System) interface to make payments to vendors through PFMS and not through cheques.

India's first bio-bank for heart failure

• The first National Heart Failure Biobank (NHFB) in the country that would collect blood, biopsies, and clinical data as a guide to future therapies was inaugurated at the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST).
• The biobank will provide insights into heart diseases and heart failure among Indian children and adults, which are very different from that seen in the West.
• The NHFB would prove very helpful in understanding molecular pathways and would improve the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of Heart Failure.
• It will open a new era in research in Heart Failure in India and will change the persona of diagnosis and treatment of heart failure patients
• The biosamples include the blood, serum, tissue samples obtained during open-heart surgery and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and genomic DNA collected from heart failure patients.
• The biobank activity is supervised by a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) with a member from ICMR.

Advanced Wound Dressing Material Based on Seaweed Agar can Treat Diabetic Wounds

• An Indian scientist has developed an advanced wound dressing based on agarose, a natural polymer derived from seaweed agar, for the treatment of infected diabetic wounds and patients suffering from chronic wounds.
• This indigenous dressing will allow cost-effective dressings for chronic wound patients and will also pave the way for business incubation.
• The biodegradable, non-immunogenic wound dressing was developed from sustainable source intervention has been developed by Dr. Vivek Verma from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur by adding several additive molecules like iodine and citric acid.
• It was supported by the Advanced Manufacturing Technologies programme of the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India

Rail Madad

• A number of helplines that earlier existed on the Railways for various purposes have been merged into one helpline i.e. 139 which can be used for all enquiry needs and for complaint making.
• 139 helpline facility is available round the clock in 12 languages.
• Indian Railway has launched RailMadad, the integrated & innovative one-stop solution for customer grievance, enquiry, suggestion and assistance, providing passengers the choice to access RailMadad through multiple channels, namely, Web, App, SMS, Social Media and Helpline number (139) during the journey for expeditious resolution of their complaints.

Defence
Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Craft (ASWSWC) and Survey Vessel Large (SVL)
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about ASWSWC and SVL)
What's the NEWS

• Keels of the first warship of the Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Craft (ASWSWC) project and the third warship of Survey Vessel Large (SVL) project for the Indian Navy were laid virtually on 06 Aug 2021

Know! about ASWSWC and SVL

• The ships are being built by GRSE as part of the indigenous shipbuilding program for construction of eight ASWSWC and four SVL for the Indian Navy.
• The ships are partly being built under a unique Public Private Partnership model by GRSE at L&T Shipyard, Kattupalli.
• The Keel Laying is a major milestone activity in the shipbuilding process and indicates the amalgamation of various blocks towards construction of a ship.
• The ASW Shallow Water Craft equipped with state-of-the-art underwater sensors and weapons will boost the Navy's ASW capability.
• The SVL ships capable of full-scale coastal survey, deep-water Hydrographic survey and determination of Navigational channels/ routes will also be fitted with state of art equipment.

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