Daily Current Capsules 11 and 12^th May 2022
Mission Amrit Sarovar
What's the NEWS

• With a view to conserve water for the future, the Prime Minister launched a new Mission on Amrit Sarovar on 24th April 2022.

Know! all about the mission

• The Mission is aimed at developing and rejuvenating 75 water bodies in each district of the country as a part of celebration of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav.
• In total, it would lead to creation of 50,000 water bodies of a size of about an Acre or more.
• This Mission has been launched with a whole of Government Approach in which 6 Ministries/Department namely Dept of Rural Development , Department of land resources, Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Department of Water resources, Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Ministry of Forest, Environment and Climate changes.
• Also Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Application and Geo-informatics(BISAG-N)has been engaged as Technical partner for the Mission.
• The Mission works through the States and Districts, through refocusing of various schemes such as Mahatma Gandhi NREGS, XV Finance Commission Grants, PMKSY sub schemes such as Watershed Development Component, Har Khet Ko Pani besides States' own schemes.
• The Mission Amrit Sarovar is to be completed by 15th August 2023.
• Around 50,000 such Amrit Sarovar may be constructed in the country.
• Each of these Amrit Sarovar will have approx. area of 1 acre with a water holding capacity of 10,000 cubic meter.
• People's participation in the Mission is the focal point.
• Local freedom fighter, their family members, Martyr's family members, Padma Awardee and citizens of the local area wherein an Amrit Sarovar is to be constructed, will be engaged at all stages.

Utkarsh Samaroh
What's the NEWS

• Prime Minister will address ‘Utkarsh Samaroh' in Bharuch, Gujarat on 12th May, 2022

Know! about the programme

• The programme will mark the celebration of 100% saturation of four key schemes of the state government in the district, which will help provide timely financial assistance to those in need.
• The district administration of Bharuch carried out ‘Utkarsh Initiative' drive from 1st January to 31st March this year, with the aim to ensure complete coverage of schemes providing assistance to widows, elderly and destitute citizens.
• A total of 12,854 beneficiaries were identified across the four schemes viz. Ganga Swaroopa Aarthik Sahay Yojana, Indira Gandhi Vrudh Sahay Yojana, Niradhar Vrudh Aarthik Sahay Yojana and Rashtriy Kutumb Sahay Yojana.
• Utkarsh camps were organized in all villages and wards of municipality areas of the district, wherein applicants who provided necessary documents were given on the spot approval.

India elected as Chair of the Association of Asian Election Authorities (AAEA) for 2022-24
What's the NEWS

• India has been unanimously elected as the new Chair of the Association of Asian Election Authorities (AAEA) for 2022-2024 at the recently held meeting of the Executive board and General Assembly at Manila, Philippines on May 7, 2022.
• Commission on Elections, Manila was the current chair of AAEA.
• The new member in the Executive Board now includes Russia, Uzbekistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Taiwan and Philippines.
• The Election Commission of India 3-member delegation attended the Executive Board meeting at Manila and presented the work plan for 2022-23 as also futuristic activities for 2023-24 to the Executive Board.
• The mission of the Association of Asian Election Authorities is to provide a non-partisan forum in the Asian region for sharing experiences and best practices among election authorities to discuss and act upon ways to promote open and transparent elections with the objective of supporting good governance and democracy.
• Officials from many AAEA member countries have been regularly attending International Training Programmes conducted by India International Institute for Democracy and Election Management (IIIDEM) from time to time.
• IIIDEM also conducts customised capacity development training programs for specific AAEA member countries.
• Delegates from AAEA have also been regularly participating in the International Election Visitors Programme organised by Election Commission of India.
• AAEA is also an Associate Member of the 118 member Association of World Election Bodies (A-WEB).
• Establishment and Membership of AAEA
• In pursuance of the resolution passed by participants of the Symposium on Asian Elections in the Twenty First Century held from January 26-29, 1997 in Manila, Philippines, the Association of Asian Election Authorities (AAEA) was established in 1998.
• Currently 20 Asian EMBs are members of AAEA.
• ECI is a founder member EMB of the AAEA and also served on the Executive Board of the AAEA as the Vice Chair during 2011-13 and Chair during 2014-16.

Know! about IIDEM

• In June 2011, the Election Commission of India (ECI), established the India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIIDEM) to advance its professional competence in election management, promote peoples participation, contribute to developing stronger democratic institutions and support the efforts of ECI in carrying out its mandate and functions.

National Technology Day
What's the NEWS

• The Prime Minister, has expressed gratitude to our brilliant scientists and their efforts that led to the successful Pokhran tests in 1998.
• National Technology Day is celebrated on 11 May in India, to celebrate the achievements made by the scientists, engineers, teachers and researchers across the nation.
• National Technology Day - May 11
• National Technology day was declared by Atal Bihari Vajpayee to celebrate the science and achievements made by the people of our country.
• On that day in 1999, for the first time, National Technology Day was officially celebrated in India, aiming to commemorate the scientific and technological accomplishments of the Indians.
• The day is celebrated to mark the successful nuclear tests conducted at Pokhran in May 1998.
• India conducted series of nuclear tests Pokhran test range in Rajasthan.
• National Technology Day is celebrated every year as a reminder of the anniversary of Pokhran -- II tests.

Tripartite-cum-Escrow Agreement
What's the NEWS

• The Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) - Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) have entered into a long-term purchase agreement (LTPA) for upcoming dedicated ethanol plants across India.

TPA Highlights

• The first set of Tripartite-cum-Escrow Agreement (TPA) was signed among OMCs, project proponents and Banks of the respective ethanol plant projects
• State Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank and Indian Bank are three banks who are involved in this tripartite agreement with OMCs and project proponents.
• The agreement is designed to ensure that payment received by Ethanol plants is utilized for servicing the finance extended by these Banks.
• As per the agreement, ethanol produced by these dedicated ethanol plants shall be sold to OMCs for blending with Petrol as per Govt of India's Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Program.
• Ethanol blending
• In Ethanol Supply Year 2021-22, India achieved 9.90% ethanol blending, consuming 186 Cr. Ltr of ethanol, saving over 9000 Crores of foreign exchange.
• However, the Government has advanced the target of achieving 20% blended ethanol by 2025, which is commonly known as E20 target.
• The major challenge is the deficit of ethanol to achieve this target.
• As per E20 scenario, the country requires 1,016 crore litre of ethanol to achieve the target in 2025-26.
• But, there is a deficit of approx. 650 crore of ethanol as per the current availability.
• These five projects are likely to contribute to around 23 crore litres of ethanol per annum.
• Ethanol blended petrol not only give us cleaner environment as it produces 38 % lesser carbon dioxide emission, as well as, support rural economy with investment in rural areas and employment generation.

AIM-PRIME Playbook
What's the NEWS

• The AIM-PRIME Playbook was launched by the Vice-Chair, NITI Aayog

Know! about AIM-PRIME program

• The nationwide AIM-PRIME program, an initiative of Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog, that is being implemented by Venture Center, Pune and is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Office of Principal Scientific Advisor.
• The AIM PRIME (Program for Researchers in Innovation, Market Readiness and Entrepreneurship) program was aimed at promoting early-stage science-based, deep technology ideas to market through training and guidance over a period of 12 months using a blended learning curriculum.
• Other program benefits include the PRIME Playbook, a guide for science-based entrepreneurs and ventures, the PRIME Library, a curated resource shared by the faculty and expert mentors associated with the program, and the PRIME Videos, an open-access video collection of the lectures delivered as part of the PRIME Classroom.
• Programs like AIM PRIME can nurture vehicles that can attract capital into high risk-reward pursuits - something that can be important for achieving higher growth rates in the country."

First year of AIM PRIME

• The AIM-PRIME program was focused on promoting science-based deep-tech entrepreneurship, which is a knowledge intensive pursuit.
• The first year of AIM PRIME was also aimed at exploring and demonstrating methods and content for accelerating such startups that are India-appropriate, and making it available to all innovators and entrepreneurs.
• The first year of this program has been able to train a group of trainers who can scale the program in multiple locations.
• Further, it has also led to creation of a Playbook and course videos that are available to everyone freely under an open access model.
• These are all valuable contributions of a quality comparable to any top innovation ecosystem of the world."
• The first cohort of the AIM PRIME program consisted of science-based startups, faculty entrepreneurs and incubator managers, where they worked on progressing their idea by teaming up with an incubator.

Know! about Atal Innovation Mission

• Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) is Government of India's flagship initiative to create and promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship across the length and breadth of our country.
• AIM's objective is to develop new programmes and policies for fostering innovation in different sectors of the economy, provide platforms and collaboration opportunities for different stakeholders, and create an umbrella structure to oversee the innovation & entrepreneurship ecosystem of the country.

Know! about Venture Center

• The Venture Center in Pune is India's leading science-based business and inventive enterprises incubator.
• It is a non-profit incubator hosted by the CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, Pune and part of the Pune Knowledge Cluster.
• The Venture Center has won National Awards for incubation and building the startup ecosystem in 2015 and 2019.
• It also received the Asian (AABI) Incubator of the Year Award for 2018.
• It is a partner incubator of the Department of Science and Technology, BIRAC and IDEX.
• It has nurtured more than 600+ startups in the last 15 years including several first-in-India products and prominent startups contributing during COVID19.

Know! about Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

• The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is a non-profit organisation that works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives.
• In developing countries, it focuses on improving people's health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty.
• Based in Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by CEO Mark Suzman, under the direction of co-chairs Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates and the board of trustees.

Know! about the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser

• The Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India advises the government in science and technology policies and interventions that are of strategic socio-economic importance to the country.
• This is done in collaboration with various ministries, institutions, academia and industry.

Pandit Shivkumar Sharma
What's the NEWS

• The Prime Minister has expressed deep grief over the demise of noted Santoor maestro, Pandit Shivkumar Sharma.

Know! about Pandit Shivkumar Sharma

• Pandit Shivkumar Sharma (1938 - 2022) was an Indian classical musician and santoor player who is credited with adapting the santoor for Indian classical music.
• As a music composer he collaborated with Indian flutist Hariprasad Chaurasia under the name Shiv-Hari and composed music for many Indian films.
• Sharma was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1986, the Padma Shri in 1991 and the Padma Bhushan in 2001.

Pulitzer Prize

What's the NEWS

• A team of four Indian photographers from Reuters news agency - slain photojournalist Danish Siddiqui, Adnan Abidi, Sanna Irshad Mattoo and Amit Dave - have won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography for their coverage of the Covid-19 crisis in India.

Know! about Pulitzer

• It is the most coveted award for journalists from across the world
• It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer.
• Prizes are awarded yearly in twenty-one categories.
• Pulitzer is announced by America's Columbia University and bestowed on the recommendation of the Pulitzer Prize Board.
• The Pulitzer Prize is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature and musical composition within the United States.

 

Pulitzer Prize won by Indians

• A member of the Ghadar Party in America, Indian-American journalist Gobind Behari Lal, was the first from India to win the Pulitzer Prize for journalism in 1937. He won the award for reporting with four others, for their coverage of science at the tercentenary of Harvard University.
• In 2000, London-born Indian-American writer Jhumpa Lahiri won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for her debut short story collection Interpreter of Maladies.
• In 2011, Siddhartha Mukherjee (Indian-American physician, biologist and author) won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction for his demystification of cancer in The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer.

 

MARTAND SUN TEMPLE

What's the NEWS

• After prayers were held at the ruins of the eighth-century Martand Sun Temple in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag last week, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has expressed its concern to the district administration while refraining from lodging a formal complaint.
• Martand Sun Temple - ASI-protected site
• No religious rituals can be conducted at non-living monuments where there has been no continuity of worship when it became an ASI-protected site.
• Prayers are allowed at its protected sites only if they were "functioning places of worship" at the time it took charge of them
• The ASI, which functions under the Ministry of Culture, is the custodian of the protected monument.
• The Martand Sun Temple was once a thriving place of worship, commissioned by Lalitaditya Muktapida in the eighth century, it was destroyed by Sikandar Shah Miri in the 14th century.

 

Himachal Pradesh - First Smoke-Free State In India

What's the NEWS

• Himachal Pradesh is the first ‘smoke-free state' in India.

Know! about it

• This milestone has been achieved due to the effective implementation of Central Governments' Pradhan Mantri ‘Ujjwala Yojana'(PMUY) and ‘Himachal Grihini Suvidha Scheme' of the Himachal Pradesh government.
• Now, 100% of households in Himachal Pradesh have LPG connections in their houses.
• Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY)
• It was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 1, 2016 from Ballia district in Uttar Pradesh to provide clean cooking fuel to poor households and the target to provide Eight crore deposit free LPG connections was achieved in September, 2019.
• With the implementation of PMUY, approx. 1 lakh people have got employment through the LPG distribution system all over India as of February 23, 2022.

 

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