Science and Technology/GSIII/Governance/GSII
Open Data Week

What's the NEWS

• Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) announced the initiation of the Open Data Week to encourage adoption of open data and promote innovation across India's urban ecosystem.

• Leading up to the ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav - Smart Cities: Smart Urbanization' conference scheduled to be held in Surat, during February 2022, the Open Data Week is part of a series of pre-event initiatives being undertaken by MoHUA to promote awareness and use of open data.
• It will be conducted during the third week of January, i.e., from 17th January 2022 to 21stJanuary 2022.
• The Event will see participation from all 100 Smart Cities that will be publishing high quality datasets and data blogs on the Smart Cities Open Data Portal.
• The Event aims to show the benefits of open data such as increased efficiency, transparency, a spur in innovation, and economic growth.
• It is divided into two segments - first, uploading of datasets, visualizations, APIs and data blogs on the Smart Cities Open Data Portal from 17^th January 2022 to 20^th January 2022 and second, celebration of a Data Day by all smart cities on 21^st January 2022.
• The Data Day will take place nationally across all smart cities and will include talks, seminars, hackathons, demonstrations, and trainings on different data tracks identified by the cities.
• The Day will see engagement of people from different backgrounds including government agencies, private sector enterprises, scientific and academic institutions, businesses, start-ups, civil society etc.
• The idea is to provide a platform that offers ample opportunities on how to continue creating and promoting the use of data that addresses complex urban issues, such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
• The Event has been designed to promote the use of and spread awareness about data.
• All 100 smart cities are geared up for the event, making it a collaborative effort towards making Indian cities ‘Data Smart'.

• With an overall vision to create a vibrant ecosystem for semiconductor chip design in the country, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is seeking applications from 100 domestic companies, start-ups and MSMEs under its Design Linked Incentive (DLI) Scheme.

• Under the DLI Scheme, which was announced by MeitY in December, financial incentives and design infrastructure support will be extended to domestic companies, startups and MSMEs across various stages of development and deployment of semiconductor design for Integrated Circuits (ICs), Chipsets, System on Chips (SoCs), Systems and IP Cores and semiconductor linked design for over a period of five years.
• The scheme aims to nurture at least 20 domestic companies involved in semiconductor design and facilitate them to achieve turnover of more than Rs 1500 crore in the next five years.
• Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), a scientific society operating under MeitY, will serve as the nodal agency for implementation of the DLI scheme
• The scheme has three components - Chip Design infrastructure support, Product Design Linked Incentive and Deployment Linked Incentive.
• Under the Chip Design infrastructure support, C-DAC will set up the India Chip Centre to host the state-of-the-art design infrastructure (viz. EDA Tools, IP Cores and support for MPW (Multi Project Wafer fabrication) and post-silicon validation) and facilitate its access to supported companies.
• Under the Product Design Linked Incentive component, reimbursement of up to 50 per cent of the eligible expenditure subject to a ceiling of Rs 15 crore per application will be provided as fiscal support to the approved applicants who are engaged in semiconductor design.
• Under the Deployment Linked Incentive component, an incentive of 6 per cent to 4 per cent of net sales turnover over five years subject to a ceiling of Rs 30 Crore per application will be provided to approved applicants whose semiconductor design for Integrated Circuits (ICs), Chipsets, System on Chips (SoCs), Systems and IP Cores and semiconductor linked design are deployed in electronic products.

• The Philippines has approved BrahMos Aerospace's proposal worth $374 million for the sale of shore-based anti-ship missile system to the island nation's Navy.
• Negotiated with the Government of India, it includes the delivery of three batteries, training for operators and maintainers as well as the necessary Integrated Logistics Support (ILS) package.
• Conceptualised as early as 2017, the Office of the President approved its inclusion in the Horizon 2 Priority Projects in 2020.
• The coastal defence regiment of the Philippine Marines will be the primary employer of this modern strategic defence capability of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

BrahMos Aerospace

• It is an India-Russian joint venture, produces the supersonic cruise missile 'BrahMos' that can be launched from submarines, ships, aircraft, or from land platforms.
• The BrahMos order is the first major military export by India.
• Last year, India and the Philippines signed a defence arrangement that would enable export of defence equipment to Manila.
• Other countries in Southeast Asia, including Vietnam and Indonesia, have also expressed their interest in buying BrahMos from India, to which end discussions are ongoing.

International Organisations/GSII
Mission LIFE

World Economic Forum's online Davos Agenda 2022 summit - Highlights

• Prime Minister appealed to the world leaders to make Mission LIFE (lifestyle for environment) - call given by India at UN climate conference (COP26) in Glasgow last year - a "global mass movement", and pitched for 'Pro Planet People' (P-3) approach for a sustainable future.
• Prime Minister virtually addressed the World Economic Forum's online Davos Agenda 2022
• He also emphasized on the need for the world to fast move towards a "circular economy" for sustainable growth.
• In his address to the world leaders who joined the Forum virtually, Modi at the same time underlined India's ongoing efforts to deal with the problem and reiterated the country's commitment to go for 'net zero' (emission) by 2070 - the promise which he had made while addressing COP26 in Glasgow, UK in November last year. India is well on track to meet all its pledges.
• The country has reached one of its Paris Agreement goals of having 40% of electricity from non-fossil fuel (renewable energy and nuclear) sources nine years before its deadline of 2030.

World Economic Forum (WEF)

• The World Economic Forum is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation.
• The Forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.
• It was established in 1971 as a not-for-profit foundation and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
• It is independent, impartial and not tied to any special interests.
• The Forum strives in all its efforts to demonstrate entrepreneurship in the global public interest while upholding the highest standards of governance.
• The institution carefully blends and balances the best of many kinds of organizations, from both the public and private sectors, international organizations and academic institutions.
• The WEF is mostly known for its annual meeting at the end of January in Davos, a mountain resort in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland.
• The meeting brings together some 3,000 paying members and selected participants - among which are investors, business leaders, political leaders, economists, celebrities and journalists - for up to five days to discuss global issues across 500 sessions.

• London-based global citizenship and residence advisory firm Henley & Partners has released the Henley Passport Index for the year 2022, based on exclusive data provided by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

• Japan and Singapore top the list of being the most powerful passport in the world for the year 2022.
• Afghanistan (rank 111) and Iraq (rank 110) continue to be in the 'worst passports to hold' category having a visa-free score of 26 and 28 respectively.
• According to the report, Japanese citizens can travel to as many as 192 countries visa-free or visa-on-arrival access destinations around the world.
• Singapore is tied in the first place (with a score of 192) and South Korea ties with Germany in second place (with a score of 190).
• Countries like Finland, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain are tied at the third position with regard to the most powerful passports in the world with a visa-free score of 189.
• India has improved it ranks and is currently placed at 83^rd position from the earlier 90^th position in the most powerful passport report with a visa-free score of 60.
• USA and the United Kingdom have risen one ranking to be placed at sixth position.

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