Prelims Factoids
EXERCISE VARUNA - 2022

What's the NEWS

• The 20^th edition of the Bilateral Naval Exercise between Indian and French Navies - ‘VARUNA' is being conducted in the Arabian Sea from 30 Mar - 03 Apr 22.
• The Bilateral Naval Exercises between the two Navies were initiated in 1993.
• The exercise was christened as ‘VARUNA' in 2001 and has become a vital part of India - France strategic bilateral relationship.
• Various units including ships, submarines, maritime patrol aircraft, fighter aircraft and helicopters of the two navies are participating in the exercise.
• These units will endeavour to enhance and hone their operational skills in maritime theatre, augment inter-operability to undertake maritime security operations
• VARUNA series of exercises continue to provide both the navies opportunities to learn from each other's best practices.

• To take forward the idea of citizen engagement and achieve the goal of ‘Good Governance' in India's first Union Territory, MyGov Jammu & Kashmir has been launched by Shri Manoj Sinha, Lieutenant Governor, Jammu & Kashmir.

• MyGov was launched by Prime Minister on 26th July 2014, with the idea of bringing the Government closer to the common man by creating an interface for a healthy exchange of ideas and views towards the social and economic transformation of India.
• Today, MyGov has more than 2.29 Crore registered users - MyGov Saathis - who actively engage with MyGov and share their ideas and suggestions on various policy issues, and also take part in Pledges, Quizzes and contests.
• MyGov has been able to promote positive use of social media, and identifies change-makers and unsung heroes from across the country who are silently contributing to society.
• Taking forward the idea of participative governance, MyGov initiated the implementation of MyGov State Instances and has successfully implemented Instances for 15 states
• MyGov Jammu and Kashmir launched is the 16th MyGov Instance and 1st ever MyGov for any Union Territory in 7+ years journey of MyGov.

• Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced that the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) will be removed from several districts across Assam, Nagaland and Manipur after decades.
• AFSPA is being removed from 15 police station areas in seven districts of Nagaland; 15 police station areas in six districts of Manipur; and 23 districts entirely and one district partially in Assam.
• The notification of "disturbed areas" under AFSPA has been in force in Assam since 1990, in Nagaland since 1995, and in Manipur, except the Imphal Municipality area, since 2004.
• Starting 2015, the Government removed AFSPA entirely from Tripura and Meghalaya, and partially from Arunachal Pradesh, which currently has three districts and two police station areas in a fourth district under the Act.

• Disturbed Area Notification is in force in whole of Assam since 1990.
• AFSPA is being removed with effect from 01.04.2022 completely from 23 districts and partially from 1 district of Assam.
• In Assam the Act will remain in force across the Upper Assam and hill districts.
• In Upper Assam, ULFA-I is still active and we have also noticed the movement of other militant groups in that area.
• In the hill districts of Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao, the government has signed a peace treaty with Karbi groups, but dialogue with the Dimasa militant organisation (Dimasa National Liberation Army) is in an advanced stage.

• The Disturbed Area Notification is in force in the whole of Nagaland from 1995.
• The Central Government has accepted the recommendation of a committee constituted in this context for withdrawal of AFSPA in a phased manner.
• The Disturbed Area Notification is being withdrawn from 15 police stations in 7 districts in Nagaland with effect from 01.04.2022.
• However, Mon district (Nagaland) remains a "disturbed area since this is a border district, and has a strong presence of NSCN-K (YA)

• The Disturbed Area Declaration is in force in entire Manipur (except Imphal Municipality area) since 2004.
• 15 police station areas of 6 districts of Manipur will be excluded from the Disturbed Area Notification with effect from 01.04.2022.
• The Act remains in force in the hills districts.

• In 2015, AFSPA was in force in 3 districts of Arunachal Pradesh, 20 kms. belt of Arunachal Pradesh along the Assam border and in 16 police station areas in 9 other districts of the State.
• This has been gradually reduced and the Disturbed Areas Notification, is currently applicable in only 3 districts and in 2 police station areas in 1 other district of Arunachal Pradesh.

• The Disturbed Area Notification under AFSPA was completely removed from Tripura in 2015 and Meghalaya in 2018.

• The Government of India in the last three years, has signed several agreements to end insurgencies and bring lasting peace to the North Eastern States.
• For example, the Bodo Accord of January, 2020 which resolved the five decades long Bodo problem of Assam and the Karbi-Anglong Agreement of September 4, 2021 which resolved the long standing dispute over the Karbi region of Assam.
• Similarly, the NLFT (SD) agreement was signed in August 2019 to bring militants into the mainstream of society in Tripura.
• After that a historic agreement was signed on January 16, 2020 to resolve the 23 year-old Bru-Reang refugee crisis, under which 37,000 internally displaced persons are being resettled in Tripura.
• On March 29, 2022, another important agreement was signed regarding the boundaries of Assam and Meghalaya.
• This resolved six out of 12 areas of dispute along their border, resulting in about 70 per cent of the border between the two states becoming dispute-free.

• In 2004, the UPA government set up a five-member committee under a former Supreme Court Judge.
• The Justice Jeevan Reddy Commission submitted its report in 2005, saying AFSPA had become a symbol of oppression and recommending its repeal.
• The Second Administrative Reforms Commission, headed by Veeerapa Moily, endorsed these recommendations.
• However, the NDA government rejected the Reddy Committee's recommendations and dissolved the Cabinet sub-committee.

• The Act in its original form was promulgated by the British in response to the Quit India movement in 1942.
• After Independence, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru decided to retain the Act, which was first brought in as an ordnance and then notified as an Act in 1958.
• AFSPA has been imposed on the Northeast states, Jammu & Kashmir, and Punjab during the militancy years.
• Punjab was the first state from where it was repealed, followed by Tripura and Meghalaya.
• AFSPA provides for special powers for the armed forces that can be imposed by the Centre or the Governor of a state, on the state or parts of it, after it is declared "disturbed'' under Section 3.
• The Act defines these as areas that are "disturbed or dangerous condition that the use of armed forces in aid of the civil power is necessary''.
• AFSPA has been used in areas where militancy has been prevalent.
• The Act, which has been called draconian, gives sweeping powers to the armed forces.
• It allows them to open fire', even causing death, against any person in contravention to the law or carrying arms and ammunition.
• It gives them powers to arrest individuals without warrants, on the basis of "reasonable suspicion", and also search premises without warrants.
• The Act further provides blanket impunity to security personnel involved in such operations
• There can be no prosecution or legal proceedings against them without the prior approval of the Centre.

• The Rajya Sabha approved the Constitution (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2022 to remove the Bhogta caste from the list of Scheduled Castes (SCs).
• The Bhogta caste will be included instead as a Scheduled Tribe in the State.
• The Bill also amends the schedule to the Scheduled Tribes order to include the Deshwari, Ganjhu, Dautalbandi (Dwalbandi), Patbandi, Raut, Maajhia, Khairi (Kheri), Tamaria (Tamadia) and Puran communities on the ST list.

Government Schemes/GSII
Raising and Accelerating MSME Performance

What's the NEWS

• The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister approved Rs 6,062.45 crore, World Bank assisted programme on "Raising and Accelerating MSME Performance" (RAMP).
• RAMP is a new scheme and would commence in FY 2022-23.
• The total outlay for the scheme is Rs.6,062.45 crore out of which Rs.3750 crore would be a loan from the World Bank and the remaining Rs.2312.45 crore would be funded by the Government of India (GoI).

• It is a World Bank assisted Central Sector Scheme, supporting various Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID) Resilience and Recovery Interventions of the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MoMSME).
• The programme aims at improving access to market and credit, strengthening institutions and governance at the Centre and State, improving Centre-State linkages and partnerships, addressing issues of delayed payments and greening of MSMEs.
• RAMP programme will address the generic and COVID related challenges in the MSME sector by way of impact enhancement of existing MSME schemes, especially, on the competitiveness front.
• RAMP programme, through enhanced collaboration with States, will be a job-enabler, market promoter, finance facilitator, and will support vulnerable sections and greening initiatives.

• ‘'Policy Provider'' through the enhanced capacity for evidence-based policy and program design, to enable the delivery of more effective and cost-efficient MSME interventions to improve competitiveness and business sustainability.
• "Knowledge Provider" through bench-marking, sharing and demonstrating best practices/success stories by leveraging international experiences, and
• "Technology Provider" providing access to high-end technology resulting in the digital and technological transformation of MSMEs through state of art Artificial Intelligence, Data Analytics, Internet of things (IoT), Machine Learning etc.

• Funds would flow through RAMP into the Ministry's budget against Disbursement Linked Indicators (DLIs) to support ongoing MoMSME programmes, focusing on improving market access and competitiveness.

• Implementing the National MSME Reform Agenda
• Accelerating MSME Sector Centre-State collaboration
• Enhancing effectiveness of Technology Upgradation Scheme (CLCS-TUS)
• Strengthening Receivable Financing Market for MSMEs
• Enhancing Effectiveness of Credit Guarantee Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) and "Greening and Gender" delivery
• Reducing the incidence of delayed payments

• RAMP was formulated and proposed by the Government of India, for strengthening MSMEs in line with the recommendations made by U K Sinha Committee, KV Kamath Committee and Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (PMEAC).
• The Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) in the 97th Screening Committee meeting approved the preliminary proposal on RAMP.
• This was followed by Missions, extensive consultations with States and other stakeholders, technical and fiduciary assessments conducted by the World Bank.
• Thereafter, an Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) Note was prepared and circulated to concerned line Ministries/Departments for obtaining their comments.
• The EFC discussed the Note in its meeting held on 18th March 2021 and recommended the proposal for consideration by the Cabinet.

• For the first time in the country, academic users in India will be able to access the MATLAB software suite at no cost through the Indian Science Technology and Engineering facilities Map (I-STEM) portal.
• I-STEM (www.istem.gov.in) is an initiative of Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India (PSA, GoI) under the aegis of Prime Minister Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC).
• The software suite is hosted on the cloud server of I-STEM to provide user friendly access from anywhere in India.
• The arrangement is expected to assist many students and researchers in the country, especially those in the more remote and less-endowed institutions, thereby enhancing learning outcomes and promoting R&D efforts across India.

• During Indian Science Congress of 2020, I-STEM portal was launched by the Prime Minister as the national web portal for sharing R&D facilities.
• The I-STEM aims to strengthen the R&D ecosystem by connecting researchers with resources, in part by promoting technologies and scientific equipment development indigenously.
• I-STEM enables access to existing R&D facilities by providing necessary supplies and support to researchers through a comprehensive national web portal.
• The portal hosts the database of facilities across India so that a researcher desirous of using any of them can search for the same and make a booking online for using it.
• The portal also features a Digital Catalogue of indigenously developed technologies and products.
• To enhance R&D collaboration and skill development across the country, I-STEM also hosts the various City Knowledge and Innovation Clusters (https://www.psa.gov.in/st-clusters) - another initiative supported by the Office PSA, GoI on the recommendation of the PM-STIAC.

• It is a proprietary multi-paradigm programming language and numeric computing environment developed by the MathWorks.
• MATLAB, used by more than 4 million users globally, allows matrix manipulations, plotting of functions and data, implementation of algorithms, creation of user interfaces, and interfacing with programs written in other languages.

• In November 1999, Cabinet Secretariat established the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India.
• The PSA's office aims to provide pragmatic and objective advice to the Prime Minister and cabinet on matters related to science, technology and innovation with a focus on application of science and technology in critical infrastructure, economic and social sectors in partnership with Government departments, institutions and industry
• The Prime Minister's Science, Technology, and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC) is an overarching council that expedite the PSA's Office to appraise the status in specific science and technology domains, comprehend challenges, formulate interventions, develop a futuristic roadmap and advise the Prime Minister accordingly

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