Government Schemes/GSII/Economy/GSIII
Chips to Startup (C2S) Programme

What's the NEWS

• The Ministry of Electronics and Information (MeitY) has sought applications from 100 academia, R&D organisations, start-ups and MSMEs under its Chips to Startup (C2S) Programme.

• The Chips to Startup (C2S) Programme aims to train 85,000 number of high-quality and qualified engineers in the area of Very large-scale integration (VLSI) and Embedded System Design as well as result in development of 175 ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits), Working Prototypes of 20 System on Chips (SoC) and IP Core repository over a period of 5 years.
• This will be a step towards leapfrogging in the Electronics System Design & Manufacturing (ESDM) space by way of inculcating the culture of SoC/ System Level Design at Bachelors, Masters and Research level and act as a catalyst for growth of Start-ups involved in fabless design.
• The programme would be implemented at about 100 academic institutions/R&D organisations across the Country (including IITs, NITs, IIITs, Government/Private Colleges and R&D Organisations).
• Startups and MSMEs can also participate in the programme by submitting their proposals under Academia- Industry Collaborative Project, Grand Challenge/ /Hackathons/RFP for development of System/SoC/IP Core(s).
• The C2S Programme addresses each entity of the value chain in electronics viz. quality manpower training, research and development, hardware IPs design, System design, application-oriented R&D, Prototype design and deployment with the help of academia, industry, start-ups and R&D establishments.
• C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing), a scientific society operating under MeitY, will serve as the nodal agency for the programme.

• Union Minister of Science & Technology said that "Purple Revolution" is Jammu & Kashmir's contribution to "Start-ups India", an initiative that was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2016 and today we are observing the first National Start-up Day.

• The Aroma Mission launched by the Union Ministry of Science & Technology through the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), which has led to the well-known "Purple Revolution" in India
• CSIR had, to begin with introduced high-value essential oil bearing lavender crop through its Jammu based laboratory, Indian Institute of Integrative Medicines (IIIM) for cultivation
• In a brief span of time, aroma/lavender cultivation has become a popular option in farming for agricultural Start-up
• IIIM Jammu has been helping the Start-ups in aroma and lavender farming to sell their produce.
• CSIR has launched Phase-II of Aroma Mission after the completion of Phase-I. In addition to IIIM, CSIR-IHBT, CSIR-CIMAP, CSIR-NBRI and CSIR-NEIST are also now participating in the Aroma Mission,
• Aroma Mission is attracting Start-ups and agriculturists from across the country, and during Phase-I CSIR helped cultivation on 6000 hectares of land and covered 46 Aspirational districts across the country.
• More than 44,000 persons have been trained and several crores of farmers' revenue generated.
• In the second Phase of Aroma Mission, it is proposed to engage over 45,000 skilled human resources with the aim of benefitting more than 75,000 farming families across the country.

• Interacting with over 150 startups on Saturday as part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has declared that January 16 will be celebrated as 'National Start-up Day'

• The Mahotsav which is scheduled from January 10-16, marks the 6th anniversary of India's start-up initiative.
• The event showcases start-up's across various sectors including Health, Agriculture, Space, Industry 4.0, Science and more.
• More than 150 startups have been divided into six working groups based on themes including Growing from Roots; Nudging the DNA; From Local to Global; Technology of Future; Building Champions in Manufacturing; and Sustainable Development
• During the meeting, the Prime Minister outlined the measures taken by the government to support startups in the country, including programmes like Startup India, removing problems of ‘angel tax', simplification of tax procedure, arranging for government funding, allowing self-certification of nine labour and three environment laws and removal of more than 25 thousand compliances.
• In 2013-14, 4,000, patents were approved, while in the last one year alone, more than 28,000 patents were granted.
• In the year 2013-14, about 7,0000 trademarks were registered, in 2020-21 more than 2.5 lakh trademarks were registered
• 42 startups turned unicorns last year
• Currently, India has around 82 unicorns.

• The High Commission of India in London said that it is happy to announce the recovery and repatriation of a very special 10^th century stone idol that had been illegally removed from a temple in Lokhari, Banda, Uttar Pradesh in sometimes the 1980s.

• The sculpture is of a goat headed Yogini that originally belonged to a group of stone deities in sandstone and installed in Lokhari temple.
• India Pride project Singapore and Art Recovery International, London swiftly assisted High Commission of India, London in the identification and recovery of the Statue while the High Commission of India processed the requisite documentation with local and Indian authorities.
• Interestingly, a similar sculpture of the buffalo-headed Vrishanana Yogini, apparently stolen from the same temple at Lokhari village had been recovered and repatriated by Embassy of India, Paris in 2013.
• Thee Vrishanana Yogini was installed in the National Museum, New Delhi in September 2013.
• Lokhari is a small village situated in the Mau sub-division in Banda district of Bundelkhand, Uttar Pradesh.
• Yoginis are a group of powerful females divinities associated with the Tantrik mode of worship. They are worshipped as a group, often 64 and are believed to possess infinite powers.

Infrastructure Development: Energy/GSIII/Government Initiatives/GSII
Revised Consolidated Guidelines & Standards for Charging Infrastructure for Electric Vehicles (EV) Promulgated) Promulgated by Ministry of Power

What's the NEWS

• The Union Ministry of Power has promulgated the revised consolidated Guidelines & Standards for Charging Infrastructure for Electric Vehicles (EV) on 14th January,2022.
• The objective is to enable a faster adoption of electric vehicles in India by ensuring safe, reliable, accessible and affordable Charging Infrastructure and eco-system.
• This would also promote energy security and reduction of emission intensity of the country by promotion of entire EV ecosystem.

• These guidelines are exhaustive and include provisions for a) individual owners of Electric Vehicles: b) for Public Charging Stations (PCS).
• Any individual/entity is free to set up public charging stations without the requirement of a license
• An exhaustive list of compliance requirements for Public Charging Station (PCS) have also been outlined.
• In order to address the challenge of making a charging station financially viable in the period of growth of Electric Vehicles, a revenue sharing model has been put in place for land used for the same.
• A Model Revenue Sharing agreement has also been included under the guidelines. Such revenue sharing agreement may be initially entered by parties for a period of 10 years.
• The Revenue Sharing Model may also be adopted by the public Land-owning agency for providing the land to a private entity for installation of Public Charging Stations on bidding basis with floor price of Rs.1 / kWh.
• Any Public Charging Station/ Chain of Charging Stations may obtain electricity from any generation company through open access.
• Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) shall create and maintain a national online database of all the Public Charging Stations in consultation with State Nodal Agencies (SNAs).
• Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) shall be the Central Nodal Agency for rollout of EV Public Charging Infrastructure
• Every State Government shall nominate a Nodal Agency for that State for setting up charging infrastructure.
• The State DISCOM shall generally be the Nodal Agency for such purposes. However, State Government shall be free to select a Central/State Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) including Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), Urban/Area Development Authorities etc. as its Nodal Agency.

• As part of the endeavor of Government of India for E-Mobility transition, Ministry of Power along with Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Ministry of Heavy Industries and NITI Aayog has launched a nationwide "Go Electric" Campaign to educate the general public on the benefits of e-mobility, inform the potential EV owners about the Government incentives for EV adoption, generate curiosity and transform the same into demand, discredit misinformation against Electric Vehicles and bring together multiple stakeholders under single platform.

• The US and Japan have advised people on their Pacific coastlines to get away from the shore as a precaution against tsunami waves caused by a volcano eruption in the South Pacific.
• The huge underwater volcanic eruption caused waves of more than a metre to crash into Tonga.
• Many parts of Tonga, whose capital is just 65km (40 miles) south of the eruption, are covered in ash and are experiencing a near-total blackout of power, phone lines and internet services.
• The Pacific country of Tonga experienced a large volcanic eruption followed by a tsunami that flooded parts of the capital, Nuku'alofa, which is lies just 65km north of the volcano.
• The eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga HaÊ»apai volcano sent shockwaves across the South Pacific.
• Hunga Tonga-Hunga HaÊ»apai is a volcanic island in Tonga, located about 30 km south of the submarine volcano of FonuafoÊ»ou and 65 km north of Tongatapu, the country's main island.
• The volcano is part of the highly active Tonga-Kermadec Islands volcanic arc, a subduction zone extending from New Zealand north-northeast to Fiji.
• The island arc is formed at the convergent boundary where the Pacific Plate subducts under the Indo-Australian Plate.

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