NITI Aayog
India's first Indigenously Designed High Ash Coal Gasification Based Methanol Production Plant

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the Coal Gasification Based Methanol Production Plant + Fluidized bed gasifier + coal based hydrogen production) + Mains ( GS III Infrastructure development - energy security + awareness in the field of science and technology - indigenisation of technology)
What's the NEWS

• BHEL R&D centre at Hyderabad began working on Indian high ash coal gasification in 2016 with support from the NITI Aayog to produce 0.25 ton per day methanol.
• The project was supported by the Department of Science and Technology with a Rs 10 crore grant.
• BHEL successfully demonstrated a facility to create 0.25 TPD Methanol from high ash Indian coal using a 1.2 TPD Fluidized bed gasifier.
• It is India's first demonstration plant of its kind, designed entirely in-house to work on high-ash Indian coal.
• This in-house capability will assist India's Coal Gasification Mission and Coal to Hydrogen Production for Hydrogen Mission."

Know! about Methanol and the process of deriving it

• Methanol is utilized as a motor fuel, to power ship engines, and to generate clean power all over the world.
• Methanol is also used to generate di-methyl ether (DME), a liquid fuel that is very similar to diesel - existing diesel engines simply need to be minimally changed to use DME instead of diesel.
• The majority of worldwide methanol production is derived from natural gas, which is a relatively easy process.
• Since India doesn't have much of the natural gas reserves, producing methanol from imported natural gas lead to outflow of foreign exchange
• The next best option is to utilise India's abundant coal. However, due to the high ash percentage of Indian coal, most internationally accessible technology will not be adequate for our demands.

Other applications of Coal

Know! about Coal gasification

• It is the process of producing syngas, a mixture consisting carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen (H2), carbon dioxide (CO2), natural gas (CH4), and water vapour (H2O).
• During gasification, coal is blown with oxygen and steam while also being heated under high pressure.
• During the reaction, oxygen and water molecules oxidize the coal and produce syngas.

Know! about Coal liquefaction

• It is an alternative route to produce diesel and gasoline and makes economic sense only in a world of high crude oil prices.
• The process involves gasification of coal, which in turn will produce synthetic gas (a mix of CO+H2).
• The synthetic gas can be liquefied to its fuel equivalent in presence of cobalt/iron-based catalysts at higher pressure and temperature.
• However, liquefied coal emits twice as much CO2 as burning oil. It also emits a large volume of SO2.
• The CO2 emissions are more readily and cheaply captured from CTL plants than from conventional coal-fired power stations.
•  The captured CO2 can be transported and injected into underground storage reservoirs (a procedure known as "carbon capture and storage"-CCS-or "geosequestration").

Government constitutes task force, expert committee on coal-based hydrogen production

• The Centre has constituted a task force and expert committee to prepare a road map for coal-based hydrogen production.
• The task force has been constituted under the chairmanship of Coal Additional Secretary Vinod Kumar Tiwari.
• Its broad terms of reference include monitoring of activities towards achieving coal-based hydrogen production and usage and coordination with Coal Gasification Mission and NITI Aayog.
• The broad terms of reference of the expert committee include identifying experts in India and co-opting as members, desk-based review of progress in hydrogen technology and also reviewing ongoing research projects in hydrogen technology.
• It will also identify activities for implementation of coal-based hydrogen production and usage and assist the task force in implementation of the same.
• The expert committee is expected to submit its report in three months.
• In his Independence Day speech, the Prime Minister had announced a National Hydrogen Mission.
• Coal is an important source of hydrogen making (brown hydrogen) apart from natural gas (grey hydrogen) and renewable energy (green hydrogen) through electrolysis.
• In case of renewable energy (green hydrogen) surplus solar power is used to electrolyze water into hydrogen and oxygen.
• The global emphasis is on substituting liquid fuels with hydrogen (as fuel in vehicles), storage of surplus renewable power as hydrogen (as power cannot be stored at a cost effective price), and cutting down emission.
• Coal has not been encouraged elsewhere because of the fear that while extracting hydrogen via coal (from the moisture embedded in coal) there may be carbon emission.Almost 100 per cent of hydrogen produced in India is through natural gas.
• Cost of Hydrogen produced from coal can be cheaper and less sensitive to imports when compared with hydrogen production through electrolysis and Natural Gas respectively.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) or geosequestration).

• Production of hydrogen from coal will have challenges in terms of high emissions and CCUS will play an important role.
• However, when the carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide formed during coal to hydrogen process are trapped and stored in an environmentally sustainable manner (CCS and CCUS), then, Indian coal reserves could become a great source of hydrogen.

Economy
Account Aggregator Network- a financial data-sharing system

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Account Aggregator (AA) network) + Mains ( GS III Economic development)
What's the NEWS

• India unveiled the Account Aggregator (AA) network, a financial data-sharing system that could revolutionize investing and credit, giving millions of consumers greater access and control over their financial records and expanding the potential pool of customers for lenders and fintech companies.

Know! all about Account Aggregator

• An Account Aggregator (AA) is a type of RBI regulated entity (with an NBFC-AA license) that helps an individual securely and digitally access and share information from one financial institution they have an account with to any other regulated financial institution in the AA network.
• Data cannot be shared without the consent of the individual.
• Account Aggregator empowers the individual with control over their personal financial data, which otherwise remains in silos.
• This is first step towards bringing open banking in India and empowering millions of customers to digitally access and share their financial data across institutions in a secure and efficient manner.
• The Account Aggregator system in banking has been started off with eight of the India's largest banks.

• The individual's bank just needs to join the Account Aggregator network.
• Eight banks already have -- four are already sharing data based on consent (Axis, ICICI, HDFC, and IndusInd Banks) and four are going to be able to shortly (State Bank of India, Kotak Mahindra Bank, IDFC First Bank, and Federal Bank).

Know! the working mechanism of AA framework

• The Account Aggregator network allows sharing of transaction data or bank statements from savings/deposit/current accounts.
• Gradually the AA framework will make all financial data available for sharing, including tax data, pensions data, securities data (mutual funds and brokerage), and insurance data will be available to consumers.
• It will also expand beyond the financial sector to allow healthcare and telecom data to be accessible to the individual via AA.
• Account Aggregators cannot see the data; they merely take it from one financial institution to another based on an individual's direction and consent.
• Contrary to the name, they cannot 'aggregate' your data. AAs are not like technology companies which aggregate your data and create detailed profiles of you.
• The data AAs share is encrypted by the sender and can be decrypted only by the recipient.
• The end to end encryption and use of technology like the ‘digital signature' makes the process much more secure than sharing paper documents.
• Registering with an AA is fully voluntary for consumers.
• Today, four apps are available for download (Finvu, OneMoney, CAMS Finserv, and NADL) with operational licenses to be AAs.
• Three more have received in principle approval from RBI (PhonePe, Yodlee, and Perfios) and may be launching apps soon.
• A customer can register with any AA to access data from any bank on the network.

Benefits

• The two key services that will be improved for an individual is access to loans and access to money management
• Through Account Aggregator, a company can access tamper-proof secure data quickly and cheaply, and fast track the loan evaluation process so that a customer can get a loan.
• Also, a customer may be able to access a loan without physical collateral, by sharing trusted information on a future invoice or cash flow directly from a government system like GST or GeM.
• The Account Aggregator system can make lending and wealth management a lot faster and cheaper.
• Account Aggregator replaces the long terms and conditions form of ‘blank cheque' acceptance with a granular, step by step permission and control for each use of your data.

Defence
DRDO hands over air defence missile (MRSAM) System to Indian Air Force

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Medium Range Surface to Air Missile (MRSAM) System
What's the NEWS

• In a significant boost to India's defence capabilities, the first deliverable Firing Unit (FU) of Medium Range Surface to Air Missile (MRSAM) System was handed over to Indian Air Force (IAF)

Medium Range Surface to Air Missile (MRSAM) System

• The MRSAM (IAF) is an advanced network centric combat Air Defence System developed jointly by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) in collaboration with the Indian industry comprising of private and public sectors including MSMEs.
• The MRSAM system provides point and area air defence for ground assets against a wide range of threats including fighter aircraft, UAVs, helicopters, guided and unguided munitions, sub-sonic & supersonic cruise missiles etc.
• It is capable of engaging multiple targets at ranges up to 70 kms in severe saturation scenarios.
• The missile is powered by indigenously developed rocket motor and control system for achieving high manoeuvrability during the terminal phase.
• The firing unit comprises of Missiles, Combat Management System (CMS), Mobile Launcher Systems (MLS), Advanced Long Range Radar, Mobile Power System (MPS), Radar Power System (RPS), Reloader Vehicle (RV) and Field Service Vehicle (FSV).

Defence
OPENING CEREMONY EXERCISE ZAPAD 2021

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Exercise ZAPAD 2021 )
What's the NEWS

• The Exercise ZAPAD 2021 commenced on 04th September 2021 at Nizhniy in Russia with an aim to train troops to undertake joint operations in conventional battlefield scenario.

Know! about Exercise ZAPAD 2021

• The exercise aims at strengthening long standing strategic partnership between India and Russia and also enhance better understanding, cooperation with all other participating Nations.
• The exercise will culminate on 16th September 2021 with a Fire Power Demonstration by the Russian Armed Forces.

Exercise ZAPAD 2021 (Prelims Pointers)

• 200 personnel strong contingent of the Indian Army, primarily from the Naga Regiment will take part as an all ‘Arms Combined Task Force' for the exercise, which is one of the theatre level exercises of the Russian armed forces.
• More than dozen countries from Eurasia and South Asia will also participate in the same exercise.
• ZAPAD 2021 is a multi-nation military exercise being held at Nizhniy, Russia from 3rd to 16th September 2021.

Education
Union Education Minister releases India Rankings 2021

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about India Rankings 2021 -highlights) + Mains ( GS II Education)
What's the NEWS

• Union Education Minister released the India Rankings 2021 instituted by the National Institutional Ranking Framework
• This is the sixth consecutive edition of India Rankings of HEIs in India.

India Rankings 2021 -highlights

• During its maiden year in 2016, rankings were announced for University category as well as for three domain-specific rankings, namely Engineering, Management and Pharmacy institutions.
• Over the period of six years, three new categories and five new subject domains were added to bring the total tally to 4 four categories, namely Overall, University, College and Research Institutions and 7 subjects, namely Engineering, Management, Pharmacy, Architecture, Medical, Law and Dental in 2021.
• Research institutions have been ranked for the first time in India Rankings 2021.
• The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), launched in November 2015 by the Ministry of Education, was used for this edition as well as for the past five editions of India Rankings released for the years 2016 to 2021.

Five Broad Categories of Parameters and Weightage

• Each of these five parameters have 2 to 5 sub-parameters.
• A total number of 16 - 18 sub-parameters are used for ranking of HEIs in different categories and subject domains.
• Ranks are assigned based on total sum of marks assigned for each of these five broad groups of parameters.

In addition to parameters used for Overall category, the following two additional sub-parameters were included in methodology developed afresh for ranking institutions under "Research Institutions"

• Research Papers published in journals covered in the First Quartile of Journal Citation Report (JCRQ1)
• H Index.

Key Highlights of India Rankings 2021:

• Indian Institute of Technology Madras retains 1st Position in Overall Category as well as in Engineering for the third consecutive year.
• Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru tops the University as well as Research Institution category introduced for the first time in India Rankings 2021.
• IIM Ahmedabad tops in Management subject and All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi occupies the top slot in Medical for the fourth consecutive year.
• Jamia Hamdard tops the list in Pharmacy subject for the third consecutive year.
• Miranda College retains 1st position amongst colleges for the fifth consecutive year.
• IIT Roorkee takes the top slot for the first time in Architecture subject displacing IIT Kharagpur.
• National Law School of India University, Bangalore retains its first position for in Law for the fourth consecutive years.
• Colleges in Delhi dominate ranking of colleges with five colleges out of first 10 colleges from Delhi.
• Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Manipal, secure 1st position in "Dental" category.

H Index.

• The h index is a metric for evaluating the cumulative impact of an author's scholarly output and performance; measures quantity with quality by comparing publications to citations.
• The h index corrects for the disproportionate weight of highly cited publications or publications that have not yet been cited.

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