Agriculture
World's second-largest refurbished gene bank at the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources launched

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Gene Bank + about National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources)
What's the NEWS

• Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, inaugurated the world's second-largest refurbished state-of-the-art National Gene Bank at the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), Pusa, New Delhi.

Know! about the Gene Bank

• The National Gene Bank established in the year 1996 to preserve the seeds of Plant Genetic Resources (PGR) for future generations, has the capacity to preserve about one million germplasm in the form of seeds.
• Presently it is protecting 4.52 lakh accessions, of which 2.7 lakh are Indian germplasm and the rest have been imported from other countries.
• National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources is meeting the need of in-situ and ex-situ germplasm conservation through Delhi Headquarters and 10 regional stations in the country.

National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources

• The ‘Division of Plant Introduction' was upgraded to an independent institute ‘National Bureau of Plant Introduction' in August 1976 which was rechristened as ‘National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources' (NBPGR) in January 1977.
• It was in accordance with the international developments in the form of establishment of the International Board for Plant Genetic Resources (IBPGR), Rome, in 1974 (now renamed as International Plant Genetic Resources Institute).
• The NBPGR played a pivotal role in the improvement of various crop plants and diversification and development of agriculture in India through germplasm introduction from various institutes/organizations located in foreign countries and germplasm collection from within the country and abroad and conservation thereof.
• The Bureau draws guidelines from the Crop Science Division of ICAR, Institute Management Committee, Research Advisory Committee, Institute Research Council and Germplasm Advisory Committees.
• It is one of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Institutes.
• ICAR is an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers' Welfare.
• It is a nodal organisation in India for management of Plant Genetic Resources (PGR).
• Germplasm is a live information source for all the genes present in the respective plant, which can be conserved for long periods and regenerated whenever it is required in the future.
• The NBPGR has linkage with National Active Germplasm Sites (NAGS) for the management of active germplasm of field and horticultural crops.
• NAGS are located at NBPGR regional stations, other crop-based ICAR institutes or State Agricultural Universities.
• It is headquartered in New Delhi and has 10 regional stations.

Defence
Defence Testing Infrastructure Scheme

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

• In order to boost domestic defence and aerospace manufacturing, Ministry of Defence (MoD) has launched Defence Testing Infrastructure Scheme (DTIS) with an outlay of Rs 400 crore for creating state-of-the-art testing infrastructure in partnership with the private industry.

Know! about the scheme

• The scheme would run for the duration of five years and envisages setting up of 6-8 Greenfield Defence Testing Infrastructure facilities that are required for defence and aerospace related production.
• The projects under the scheme will be provided with up to 75 per cent Government funding in the form of ‘Grant-in-Aid'.
• The remaining 25 per cent of the project cost will have to be borne by the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) constituents of which will be the Indian private entities and state governments.
• In this regard, Department of Defence Production/Directorate General of Quality Assurance (DDP/DGQA) has published eight Expression of Interest (EOIs) catering to setting up of defence test facilities in selected domains.

Environment
Government notifies the Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021, prohibiting identified single use plastic items by 2022.

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021 - highlights) + Mains ( GS III Environment conservation)
What's the NEWS

• The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India, has notified the Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021, which prohibits identified single use plastic items which have low utility and high littering potential by 2022.

The manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of following single-use plastic, including polystyrene and expanded polystyrene, commodities shall be prohibited with effect from the 1st July, 2022:-

• ear buds with plastic sticks, plastic sticks for balloons, plastic flags, candy sticks, ice-cream sticks, polystyrene [Thermocol] for decoration;
• plates, cups, glasses, cutlery such as forks, spoons, knives, straw, trays, wrapping or packing films around sweet boxes, invitation cards, and cigarette packets, plastic or PVC banners less than 100 micron, stirrers.

Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021 -highlights

• In order to stop littering due to light weight plastic carry bags, with effect from 30th September, 2021, the thickness of plastic carry bags has been increased from fifty microns to seventy five microns and to one hundred and twenty microns with effect from the 31st December, 2022.
• The plastic packaging waste, which is not covered under the phase out of identified single use plastic items, shall be collected and managed in an environmentally sustainable way through the Extended Producer Responsibility of the Producer, importer and Brand owner (PIBO), as per Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016.
• For effective implementation of Extended Producer Responsibility the Guidelines for Extended Producer Responsibility being brought out have been given legal force through Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021.
• The waste management infrastructure in the States/UTs is being strengthened through the Swachh Bharat Mission.

The following steps have also been taken to strengthen implementation of Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016 and also to reduce the use of identified single use plastic items:

(i) the States/UTs have been requested to constitute a Special Task Force for elimination of single use plastics and effective implementation of Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016.
(ii) A National Level Taskforce has also been constituted by the Ministry for taking coordinated efforts to eliminate identified single use plastic items and effective implementation of Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016.
(iii) The State /UT Governments and concerned Central Ministries/Departments have also been requested to develop a comprehensive action plan for elimination of single use plastics and effective implementation of Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016, and its implementation in a time bound manner.
(iv) Directions under Section 5 of Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, have been issued to all States/Union Territories inter alia for setting up for institutional mechanism for strengthening enforcement of Plastic Waste Management (PWM) Rules, 2016.

Other Highlights

• The Government has also been taking measures for awareness generation towards elimination of single use plastics and effective implementation of Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016.
• To encourage innovation in development of alternatives to identified single use plastic items and digital solutions to plastic waste management, the India Plastic Challenge - Hackathon 2021, has been organized for students of Higher Educational Institutions and startups recognized under Startup India Initiative.
• In the 4^th United Nations Environment Assembly held in 2019, India had piloted a resolution on addressing single-use plastic products pollution, recognizing the urgent need for the global community to focus on this very important issue.

Prelims Factoids
MoHUA launches one brand -‘SonChiraiya' - for Urban SHG products
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Son Chiraiya)
What's the NEWS

• Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, ShriDurga Shanker Mishra, today launched ‘SonChiraiya' - (A brand and logo)- for marketing of urban Self-Help Group (SHG) products.

Steps takn by MoHUA for the Welfare of SHG

• DAY-NULM, under the aegis of MoHUA, has focussed on equipping the urban poor women with adequate skills and opportunities, and to enable them to promote sustainable micro enterprises.
• It mobilises women from urban poor households into SHGs and their federations to create a support system for these women.
• Over 5.7 lakh SHGs have been formed across various States/ UTs with almost 60 lakh members.
• Many of these SHGs are engaged in livelihood activities, producing goods such as handicrafts, textiles, toys, eatables and so on.
• These were being sold primarily in local neighbourhood markets and often faced barriers in achieving visibility and wide market access.
• To overcome these challenges, Ministry entered into Memorundum of Understandings (MoUs) with leading e-Commerce Portals viz. Amazon and Flipkart, with an underlying narrative of women empowerment.
• This initiative will certainly prove as a step towards increased visibility and global access for the products made by urban SHG women.

International Organisations
India organises the IBSA (India, Brazil and South Africa) Tourism Ministers' virtual meet

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

• India organized the IBSA (India, Brazil and South Africa) Tourism Ministers' virtual meeting.
• The Minister of Tourism of India;the Minister of Tourism of the Federative Republic of Brazil, and the Deputy Minister of Tourism of the Republic of South Africa met through videoconferencing under India's IBSA Chairship
• India organized the IBSA Tourism Ministers' Meeting to promote tourism cooperation among the member states and reviewed the intra IBSA Tourism cooperation.

Know! about IBSA

• IBSA is a trilateral, developmental initiative between the Government of India, The Government of Federative Republic of Brazil and The Government of the Republic of South Africa to promote South-South cooperation and exchange.
• The aim of the IBSA Tripartite Agreement is for strengthening relations between the member countries for economic development and for promoting cooperation in the field of tourism and expansion of tourism relations with a view to understand and appreciate each other's history, culture and way of life.

Infrastructure Development
India achieves 100 GW Milestone of Installed Renewable Energy Capacity

What's the NEWS

• The total installed renewable energy capacity in India, excluding large hydro, has crossed the mile-stone of 100 GW.

Renewable Energy installed capacity - highlights

• Today India stands at 4th position in the world in terms of installed RE capacity, 5th in solar and 4th in wind in terms of installed capacity.
• India has set ambitious targets for itself in the area of Renewable Energy, which the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is committed to achieve.
• While 100 GW has been installed, 50 GW is under installation and 27 GW is under tendering.
• India has also enhanced its ambition to install 450 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030.If large hydro is included the installed RE capacity increases to 146 GW.
• The achievement of installed RE capacity of 100 GW is an important milestone in India's journey towards its target of 450 GW by 2030.

NITI Aayog
NITI Aayog Releases Handbook to Guide EV Charging Infrastructure in India

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the handbook highlights) + Mains ( GS III infrastructure development )
What's the NEWS

• NITI Aayog released a handbook to guide state governments and local bodies to frame policies and norms towards setting up charging networks for electric vehicles (EV).
• The objective is to enhance charging infrastructure and facilitate a rapid transition to electric mobility in the country.

Handbook for Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Implementation - highlights

• The Handbook for Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Implementation has been jointly developed by NITI Aayog, Ministry of Power (MoP), Department of Science and Technology (DST), Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), and World Resources Institute (WRI) India.
• The Handbook provides a systematic and a holistic approach for adoptions by implementing authorities and other stakeholders involved in planning, authorisation and execution of EV charging infrastructure.
• It presents an overview of the technological and regulatory frameworks and governance structures needed to facilitate EV charging.
• It focuses on the present needs of charging infrastructure development while considering the evolving nature of the sector.
• The transition to electric mobility is a global strategy in the fight against climate change, on which India has expressed ambitious aspirations.
• The handbook addresses the common challenges being faced by different local authorities in implementing EV charging networks.
• It serves as a starting point for the peer-to-peer exchange of best practices between states and local bodies

EV ecosystem in India

• It is evolving rapidly and there are several players entering the charging infrastructure market.
• This handbook provides holistic governance for public and private stakeholders to work together in establishing robust and accessible EV charging networks
• EV charging is a new type of power demand for discoms, which play a pivotal role in providing seamless power supply connections for charging facilities
• The Ministry of Power and it's Central Nodal Agency for the establishment of Charging Infrastructure for EVs in India i.e. the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), are working closely with DISCOMs and State agencies in overcoming barriers to charging infrastructure implementation, for which this handbook will be greatly helpful.

Prelims Factoids
Subhadra Kumari Chauhan
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Subhadra Kumari Chauhan)
What's the NEWS

• Google commemorated the 117^th birth anniversary of freedom fighter and poet Subhadra Kumari Chauhan with a striking doodle on its homepage.

Know! about Subhadra Kumari Chauhan

• Ms. Chauhan was born on this day in 1904 in Nihalpur village in Uttar Pradesh's Allahabad, now Prayagraj.
• She was known to write constantly, even in the horse cart on the way to school, and her first poem was published at just nine years old.
• As a participant in the Indian Nationalist Movement, she used her poetry to call others to fight for their nation's sovereignty
• Her poetry and prose primarily focused on hardships that the Indian women overcame "such as gender and caste discrimination".
• In 1923, Ms. Chauhan's unyielding activism led her to become the first woman satyagrahi, a member of the Indian collective of nonviolent anti-colonialists, to be arrested in the struggle for national liberation
• As part of her contribution to the freedom struggle, Ms. Chauhan continued to make revolutionary statements on and off the page and she published a total of 88 poems and 46 short stories.

Prelims Factoids
Mount Merapi
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Mount Merapi - location)
What's the NEWS

• Indonesia's most active volcano erupted on August 16, with its biggest lava flow in months, sending a river of lava and searing gas clouds flowing 3.5 kilometers down its slopes on the densely populated island of Java.

Know! about Mount Merapi

• The 2,968-meter (9,737-foot) peak is near Yogyakarta, an ancient city of several hundred thousand people embedded in a large metro area on the island of Java.
• The city is a center of Javanese culture and a seat of royal dynasties going back centuries.
• Mount Merapi is the most active of more than 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia and has repeatedly erupted with lava and gas clouds recently.
• Indonesia, an archipelago of 270 million people, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity because it sits along the Pacific "Ring of Fire," a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic fault lines around the ocean.

Prelims Factoids
Prime Minister's Shram Awards (PMSA)
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about PMSA)
What's the NEWS

• Government of India announced to confer Prime Minister's Shram Awards (PMSA) for the year 2018 to 69 executives for their innovation at work.

Know! about PMSA awards

• These awards will be awarded to 69 workers employed in Departmental Undertakings & Public Sector Undertakings of Central and State Governments as well as Private Sector Units that are employing 500 or more workers.
• Awards will be conferred to recognise their innovation abilities, distinguished performance and outstanding contribution in the field of productivity as well as exhibition of exceptional courage.
• This award was instituted in 1985. This award was instituted with the objective of recognizing outstanding contributions made by workmen in accordance with Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.
• It selects workers from public as well as private sector.

Three categories of PMSA

• Shram Bhushan Awards- It carry a cash prize of Rs.1,00,000 each,
• Shram Vir or Shram Veerangana Awards- It carry a cash prize of Rs. 60,000 each and
• Shram Shree or Shram Devi Awards- It carry a cash prize of Rs.40,000 each.

Infrastructure Development
National Hydrogen Mission

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about National Hydrogen Mission and steps taken to increase electric mobility and reduce the dependence on oil import) + Mains ( GS II government policies and interventions + GS III Infrastructure development)
What's the NEWS

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi formally announced the launch of a National Hydrogen Mission to accelerate plans to generate the carbon-free fuel from renewables as he set a target of 2047 for India to achieve self-reliance in energy.

Independence Day address (highlights)

• The target is to make India a global hub for production as well as export of green hydrogen.
• India can achieve self-reliance in energy through a mix of a gas-based economy, doping sugarcane extracted ethanol in petrol and electric mobility.
• India spends over Rs. 12 lakh crore on energy imports every year.
• While India is 85 per cent dependent on imports for meeting its oil needs, overseas supplies make up for roughly half of the local requirement for natural gas.
• India has to take a pledge that it will be energy independent by the year we celebrate 100th year of Independence.
• The roadmap for that is to increase usage of natural gas in the economy, setting up a network for supply of CNG and piped natural gas across the country, blending 20 per cent ethanol in petrol and electric mobility
• Out of the target of setting up 450 gigawatts of electricity generation capacity from renewable sources by 2030, India has already achieved 100 GW ahead of schedule
• The National Hydrogen Mission was first announced in the Union Budget for 2021-22 in February this year.
• Hydrogen is produced predominantly through Steam Methane Reforming, or SMR, which utilises fossils fuels, such as natural gas or coal, and through Proton Exchange Membrane Electrolysis, which splits water into hydrogen and oxygen using a current of electricity.
• Currently, all hydrogen consumed in India comes from fossil fuels.
• By 2050, three-fourth of all hydrogen is projected to be green -- produced by renewable electricity and electrolysis.

To cut India's oil import dependence

• The government is now looking at substituting some oil by one that is produced from sugarcane and other bio-materials.
• It is looking to supply petrol mixed with 20 per cent ethanol by 2023-24, up from the current 8 per cent.
• The government is looking at raising the share of natural gas in the economy to 15 per cent by 2030 from the current 6.2 per cent.

Electric mobility

• India has also moved towards electric mobility
• While electric vehicles gain currency, Indian Railways is also moving towards 100 per cent electrification.
  
  

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