Defence
C-295MW transport aircraft

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about C-295MW aircraft)
What's the NEWS

• Cabinet Committee on Security approved the procurement of fifty six C-295MW transport aircraft from M/s Airbus Defence and Space S.A., Spain for the Indian Air Force.

C-295MW aircraft

• It is a transport aircraft of 5-10 Tonne capacity with contemporary technology that will replace the ageing Avro aircraft of IAF.
• The aircraft has a rear ramp door for quick reaction and para dropping of troops and cargo.
• Sixteen aircraft will be delivered in flyaway condition from Spain within 48 months of signing of the contract and forty aircraft will be manufactured in India by TATA Consortium within ten years of signing of the contract.
• This is the first project of its kind in which a military aircraft will be manufactured in India by a private company.
• All fifty six aircraft will be installed with indigenous Electronic Warfare Suite.
• The project will give a boost to aerospace ecosystem in India wherein several MSMEs spread over the country will be involved in manufacturing of parts of the aircraft.
• A large number of detail parts, sub-assemblies and major component assemblies of aero structure are scheduled to be manufactured in India.
• The programme will act as a catalyst in employment generation in the aerospace ecosystem of the country

Governance/Information Technology
FOSS4Gov Innovation Challenge

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about FOSS4Gov Innovation Challenge) + Mains ( GS II Governance + government polices and interventions + GS III awareness in the field of IT)
What's the NEWS

• To promote FOSS4Gov Innovation Challenge further, the last date of participation and submission have been extended till 15 September, 2021.

FOSS4Gov Innovation Challenge

• A virtual roundtable discussion ‘Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in Government' was organized by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to increase awareness about the usage of FOSS in governance and government functioning, and adoption of FOSS, MeitY on April 22, 2021.
• On the occasion of 7-year anniversary of MyGov, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) launched #FOSS4Gov Innovation Challenge to accelerate adoption of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in Government and build Indian FOSS Ecosystem on July 26, 2021.
• Through this challenge, various innovators, start-ups, working professionals, academics and students in India are invited to showcase their existing FOSS based innovations with possible applications for Govtech in Health, Education, Agriculture, Urban Governance etc.
• The winners of the Challenge will receive cash rewards and incubation support to scale their products for listing on Government e Market (GeM).

FOSS4Gov Innovation Challenge (inception)

• Announced by - The Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY)
• Aim - to accelerate adoption of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in Government.
• Clients - It will harness the innovation potential of the FOSS community and start-ups to solve critical issues in Government Technologies (GovTech).
• Process - It calls upon FOSS innovators to submit implementable open source product innovations in CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and ERP with possible applications for Govtech in Health, Education, and Agriculture etc.
• Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) - software and systems used to plan and manage all the core supply chain, manufacturing, services, financial and other processes of an organization.
• It is a key component of GovTech 3.0, which is about building secure and inclusive Open Digital Ecosystems (ODEs).
• The participants are eligible for incubation support, prize money, mentorship by domain experts, institutional support from eminent organizations for incubation of ideas and listing of solutions on Government e Marketplace (GeM).

Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)

• India is well positioned to become a vibrant hub for Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) innovations, due to the large number of 4G data subscribers in India.
• 96% of the subscribers access the digital world via open-source based mobile operating systems (primarily Android).
• India's largest-government projects (including Aadhaar) and many technology start-ups have also been built using FOSS.
• Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) doesn't mean software is free of cost, it indicates that the software does not have constraints on copyrights.
• It means that source code of the software is open for all and anyone is free to use, study and modify the code.
• It allows other people also to contribute to the development and improvement of the software like a community.
• The government has also made the android version of the Aarogya Setu app open source.

GovTech 3.0

• GovTech1.0 was the era of "computerisation" of manual processes such as putting income tax forms online.
• GovTech 2.0 was about building systems which digitised end-to-end processes, for example, the government's "e-office" file management system.
• GovTech 3.0 is focussed on Open Digital Ecosystems (ODEs)
• It envisages the government becoming a facilitator by creating digital infrastructure on which innovators can collaboratively build solutions for the public good.

Government Schemes
Swachh Survekshan Grameen
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Swachh Survekshan Grameen, 2021) + Mains ( GS II government initiatives)
What's the NEWS

• Swachh Survekshan Grameen, 2021 launched under the Swachh Bharat Mission Phase- 2 on 9th September, 2021.
• As part of the ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav', Swachh Survekshan Grameen aims to support acceleration of ODF plus interventions and results in the country.
• An expert agency has been hired to conduct the Survekshan 2021.
• As part of the Survekshan, Villages, Districts and States would be ranked using key parameters.

• As part of Swachh Survekshan Grameen, 17,475 villages in 698 Districts across the country will be covered.
• 87,250 public places namely schools, anganwadis, public health centres, haat/bazaars/religious places in these villages will be visited for survey.
• Around 1,74,750 Households will be interviewed for their feedback on SBM related issues.
• Also, citizens will be mobilised to provide feedback on sanitation related issues online using an application developed for the purpose.
• The Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DDWS) had commissioned "Swachh SurvekshanGramin (SSG)- earlier in 2018 and 2019.
• A detailed protocol has been developed to guide the ranking of Districts based on their performance on key quality and quantitative parameters.

The weights to different elements of the SSG 2021 are as below:

• Direct Observation of sanitation at public places -30%
• Citizen's Feedback, including feedback from common citizens, key influencers at the village level and from citizensonline using a mobile App -35%
• Service Level Progress on sanitation related parameters -35%

Prelims Factoids
Emergency Landing Facility

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about ELF - location) + Mains ( GS III can be used to substantiate security related questions)
What's the NEWS

• Defence Minister and Minister for Road Transport and Highways will Inaugurate Emergency Landing Field (ELF) and also witness aircraft operations on Emergency Landing Field (ELF) on NH-925 0n 09/09/2021 at Gandhav Bhakasar Section (NH-925) South of Barmer (Rajasthan).

Know! about ELF

• This is the first time that National Highway will be used for emergency landing of aircrafts of IAF.
• NHAI had developed a 3.0 Km section of Satta-Gandhav stretch of NH-925A from Km.as an Emergency Landing Facility (ELF) for Indian Air Force
• Apart from this Emergency Landing Strip, 3 helipads have been constructed in Kundanpura, Singhania & Bakhasar villages in this project according to the requirements of the Air Force/Indian Army, which will be the basis for strengthening the Indian Army and security network on the western international border of the country.
• This Landing Strip will be able to facilitate landing of all types of Aircrafts of Indian Airforce.

Government Schemes
Production linked incentive (PIL) scheme for the textile sector.

Relevance IN - Prelims ( all about PLI) + Mains ( GS II government policies and interventions)
What's the NEWS

• Union Cabinet approves production linked incentive scheme for textile sector
• Under PLI Scheme a package of Rs. 10,683 crores will be allocated for the 10 different segments of the textiles sector over the period of 5 years.
• The scheme is for man-made fibre (MMF) apparel, MMF fabrics and 10 segments/products of technical textiles.

Types of investments

• The scheme envisages two types of investment with different set of incentive structure.
• In type one, any person, (which includes firm/company) willing to invest minimum Rs.300 crore in plant, machinery, and civil works (excluding land and administrative building cost) to produce the notified products will be able to participate in the scheme.
• In the second type, anyone willing to invest minimum Rs.100 crore will be eligible to participate.

Objective

• The Production Linked Scheme for the textile sector aims at boosting the manufacturing activities and the jobs, apart from scaling up the exports.
• The PLI scheme for the textile sector will focus on technical textiles and man-made fibers
• PLI scheme for Textiles will promote production of high value MMF Fabric, Garments and Technical Textiles in country.
• The incentive structure has been so formulated that industry will be encouraged to invest in fresh capacities in these segments.
• The Technical Textiles segment is a new age textile, whose application in several sectors of economy, including infrastructure, water, health and hygiene, defense, security, automobiles, aviation, etc. will improve the efficiencies in those sectors of economy.
• Government has also launched a National Technical Textiles Mission in the past for promoting R&D efforts in that sector. PLI will help further, in attracting investment in this segment.

Highlights

• The scheme is part of the announcement of Public Linked Incentive schemes for 13 sectors that were made during Budget 2021-22, with an outlay of Rs. 1.97 lakh crore.
• Under the scheme, the factories based around the aspirational districts or the Tier-3 and Tier-4 cities will be given the top priority under the scheme.
• The scheme will benefit States such as Gujarat, U.P., Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Odisha.
• The scheme will help in producing some global champions.
• The focus will be on the cotton textile. However, the two-thirds share of the international textile market is of man-made and technical textile, through this scheme, India will be able to contribute to the production of man-made fibers.
• India has also been planning to sign free-trade agreements in textile sectors with the countries such as the UK.

Benefits

• Expand the manufacturing capabilities of textile sector
• Promote industrial development in the backward regions of the country.
• Expected investment of more than Rs. 19,000 crores, with a cumulative turnover of Rs. 3 lakh crores
• Employment of more than 7.5 lakh jobs and several lakhs more for assistance work.
• The textile industry in India predominantly employs women, therefore, it will empower them and will increase their participation in the formal economy.

Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) - approved sectors for PLI (till now)

• Medical devices
• Mobile phones
• Specified active pharmaceutical ingredients
• Food processing
• Telecom
• Electronics
• Textiles
• Specialty steel
• Automobiles
• Auto components
• Solar photo-voltaic modules
• White goods such as air conditioners
•  LEDs.

Know! about PLI Scheme:

• It aims to give companies incentives on incremental sales from products manufactured in domestic units.
• The prime objective of the scheme is to make manufacturing in India globally-competitive by removing sectoral disabilities, creating economies of scale and ensuring efficiencies.
• It is designed to create a complete component ecosystem in India and make India an integral part of the global supply chains
• The scheme invites foreign companies to set units in India, however, it also aims to encourage local companies to set up or expand existing manufacturing units.

• The sectors had been identified on the basis of their potential to create jobs and make India self-reliant.
• The PLI scheme for these thirteen sectors will be operational for five years
• The PLI scheme will be implemented by the concerned ministries/departments.

Technical textiles

• It is defined as textile materials and products used primarily for their technical performance and functional properties rather than their aesthetic or decorative characteristics.
• They are functional fabrics that have applications across various industries including automobiles, civil engineering and construction, agriculture, healthcare, industrial safety, personal protection etc.

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