Governance/Government Schemes/GSII
National Air Sports Policy

What's the NEWS

• Ministry of Civil Aviation has released draft National Air Sports Policy (NASP) for public feedback.
• The Government of India plans to promote the country's air sports sector, by way of making it safe, affordable, accessible, enjoyable and sustainable.
• The draft National Air Sports Policy (NASP 2022) is a step in this direction.

1. NASP 2022 covers sports like aerobatics, aeromodelling, amateur-built and experimental aircraft, ballooning, drones, gliding, hang gliding and paragliding; microlighting and paramotoring; skydiving and vintage aircraft.
2. The vision is to make India one of the top air sports nations by 2030.
3. NASP 2022 seeks to leverage India's huge potential for air sports given its large geographical expanse, diverse topography and fair weather conditions.
4. An Air Sports Federation of India (ASFI) will be established as the apex governing body. Associations for each air sport will handle day to day activities e.g. Paragliding Association of India or Skydiving Association of India etc.
5. The air sports associations shall be accountable to ASFI with respect to the regulatory oversight and for providing safe, affordable, accessible, enjoyable and sustainable conduct of their respective air sport.
6. ASFI shall represent India at FAI and other global platforms related to air sports.
7. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland is the world governing body for air sports. All competitions in India will be conducted as per the guidelines laid down by FAI.
8. Air sports by their very nature involve a higher level of risk than flying a regular aircraft. NASP 2022 places strong focus on ensuring international best practices in safety.
9. All persons and entities providing air sports services shall be required to register as members of the respective air sports associations
10. An airspace map of India has been published on DGCA's DigitalSky Platform (https://digitalsky.dgca.gov.in). The map segregates the entire airspace of India into red zone, yellow zone and green zone. Air sports practitioners may rely on this easily accessible map for guidance. Operation in red and yellow zones requires permission from Central Government and the concerned Air Traffic Control authority respectively. Operation in green zones for aircraft with all-up weight up to 500 kg does not require any permission.
11. For air sports centred around a fixed location - for instance, Bir-Billing in Himachal Pradesh, Gangtok in Sikkim, Hadapsar in Maharashtra or Vagamon in Kerala - the said location can be declared as a ‘Control zone' for air sports with necessary permissions from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Ministry of Defence (MoD), State Government and the local Air Traffic Control authority.
12. The Government will consider allowing import of air sports equipment without any import duty for a particular number of years.
13. Long term funding for development of air sports in India shall come from corporate investors, sponsors, membership fees, events and media rights. ASFI may seek financial support from Government of India for promotion of air sports, especially in the initial years.
14. To make air sports affordable to the common public, the Government will request the GST Council to consider rationalising the GST rate on air sports equipment to 5% or less.

• Union Education Minister launched a 100 days reading campaign 'Padhe Bharat'
• The launch of 100 Days Reading Campaign is in alignment with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 which emphasises on promotion of joyful reading culture for children by ensuring availability of age appropriate reading books for children in local/mother tongue/regional/tribal Language.

• Padhe Bharat campaign will focus on children studying in Balvatika to Grade 8.
• The reading campaign will be organised for 100 days (14 weeks) starting from 1^st January 2022 to 10^th April 2022.
• The reading campaign aims to have participation of all stakeholders at national and state level including children, teachers, parents, community, educational administrators etc.
• One activity per week per group has been designed with the focus on making reading enjoyable and build lifelong association with the joy of reading.
• This campaign has also been aligned with the vision and goals of foundational Literacy and Numeracy mission.
• The 100 days reading campaign will also focus on Indian languages including mother tongue/local/regional languages.
• It is in this regard, 21^st February which is celebrated as International Mother Tongue Day, has also been integrated with this campaign.
• This day will be celebrated with the activity of KahaniPadhoApniBhasa Main (Reading story in own language) across the country by encouraging children to read in their mother tongue/local language. This will help in promoting local language and culture of our society.
• 100 days Reading Campaign is envisaged to support and encourage students, along with their schools, teachers, parents, and communities, in every possible way and encourage children to read for joyful learning experience.

What's the NEWS

• Contract for construction of 50Ton Bollard Pull Tugs was concluded with M/s Hindustan Shipyard Ltd, Visakhapatnam on 14 Feb 19 at a cost of Rs. 260.70 Crores.
• Third tug in the series, "Balraj" has been delivered to Naval Dockyard, Visakhapatnam on 31 Dec 21.

• These tugs have been designed and built under the classification rules of Indian Register for Shipping (IRS) with a service life of 20 years and are capable of assisting large naval ships, including Aircraft Carrier and Submarines in berthing, un-berthing, turning and manoeuvering in confined waters and in harbour.
• They also provide afloat firefighting cover/assistance to ships alongside/anchorage and have limited capability for Search and Rescue operations.
• Induction of 50Ton Bollard Pull Tugs has significantly augmented the auxiliary support services and enhanced the capability to meet high operational requirements of Fleet assets of Indian Navy.
• Tugs "Veeran" and "Balram" have been inducted on 22 Oct 21 and 30 Oct 21 at Naval Dockyard, Visakhapatnam and Naval Dockyard, Mumbai respectively.

• As part of ‘Azaadi ka Amrit Mahotsav' (AKAM) celebrations, Smart Cities Mission of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) is launching two unique national level challenges between 1^st to 26^th January 2022, viz. "Freedom 2 Walk & Cycle Challenge for City Leaders", and "Inter-City Freedom 2 Walk & Cycle Challenge for Citizens".

• The challenges aim to build on the successful nationwide campaign titled "Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav- Freedom 2 Walk & Cycle" that was held between October 1-3, 2021.
• During this event, 100 Smart Cities had actively hosted over 220+ events, to promote walking and cycling.
• The events ranged from activities to empower women & children to walk, run and cycle, to bring more pedestrians and cyclists to the streets, testing temporary interventions and more.

• Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) announced the opening of Urban Geospatial Data Stories Challenge to foster adoption of geospatial technologies & to promote innovation in India's urban ecosystem.

• The challenge has been organized with select Smart Cities that will be publishing high quality GIS datasets.
• More than 1000 geospatial datasets have been made available to the registered participants from national geospatial agencies, private sector enterprises, scientific and academic institutions, businesses, consumer services & start-ups to analyse this data and create insightful data stories.
• The challenge will commence for the registered participants on 1^st January, 2022 and conclude by end of January 2022.
• The Challenge has been designed to promote Geospatial Policy and to make India a Geospatial enabled nation.

• Sharing and integration of wide range of data will empower citizens and enterprises to create, assess, and use geospatial data and information for empowering people and making urban services and applications more effective.
• Built on the concept of ‘open innovation' & ‘open data sharing', the hackathon is likely to benefit stakeholders across all cities in India.
• Assimilation of innovative ideas & solutions from a wide array of geo spatial experts covering academia, private sector, emerging technologies, and government would help in solving some of the most common problems faced by the citizens of any city

• Geospatial data is information that describes objects, events or other features with a location on or near the surface of the earth. ... Geospatial analytics is used to add timing and location to traditional types of data and to build data visualizations.

• India and Pakistan exchanged a list of their nuclear installations under a 31-year-old bilateral pact that prohibits the two sides from attacking each other's atomic facilities.
• The two countries exchanged the list of nuclear installations and facilities covered under the agreement on the prohibition of attack against nuclear installations between India and Pakistan.
• This was done simultaneously through diplomatic channels in New Delhi and Islamabad.

• The Agreement provides that India and Pakistan inform each other of the nuclear installations and facilities to be covered under the Agreement on the first of January of every calendar year.
• This is the 31st consecutive exchange of such lists between the two countries. The first one took place on January 01, 1992.

Lists of Civilian Prisoners, Fishermen in their Custody

• India and Pakistan exchanged the lists of civilian prisoners and fishermen in their custody.
• This is in keeping with the provisions of the 2008 Agreement under which such lists are exchanged every year on 1^st January and 1^st July.
• India handed over lists of 282 Pakistan civilian prisoners and 73 fishermen in India's custody to Pakistan.
• Pakistan has shared lists of 51 civilian prisoners and 577 fishermen in its custody who are Indians or are believed to be Indians.

Prelims Factoids
Sahitya Akademi Awards 2021
What's the NEWS

• Sahitya Akademi announced its prestigious Sahitya Akademi Awards, Yuva Puraskar and Bal Sahitya Puraskar 2021 in various languages
• The Sahitya Akademi Award 2021 was given in 20 Indian languages
• Seven books of poetry, two novels, five short stories, two plays, one biography, one autobiography, one critique and one Epic Poetry have won the Sahitya Akademi Awards 2021.
• Assamese writers Anuradha Sarma Pujari and Namita Gokhale have won the award in the novel category.

• Every year since its inception in 1954, the Sahitya Akademi Award prizes to the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the major Indian languages recognised by the Akademi.
• The award amount is now Rs.1,00,000. The first Awards were given in 1955.

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