Daily Current Capsules
20th July 2022

Information provided by Minister in Lok Sabha (Parliament Monsoon session highlights)

GOAL Programme (GOAL 2.0)

Know! about GOAL 2.0

• GOAL (Going Online as Leaders) is a joint initiative of Ministry of Tribal Affairs and Meta (formerly Facebook), which aims at digital empowerment of tribal youth and women through concept of mentor and mentee.
• The first phase of the GOAL programme was launched as a pilot project in May 2020 and it was completed by Dec 2021.
• The mentees in the first-phase were provided with 40+ hours of training across three course pillars: (1) Communication & Life Skills; (2) Enabling Digital Presence, and (3) Leadership & Entrepreneurship.
• The programme is fully funded by Meta (Facebook India).
• As part of the phase 1 of GOAL program, 176 tribal youth from 23 States across India were selected through an online application process.
• The mentees were also given a smart phone and Internet Connectivity by Facebook.
• The second phase of the GOAL Programme (GOAL 2.0) was launched on 28thJune, 2022 with an aim to digitally upskill tribal youth by promoting entrepreneurship and opening up opportunities for them using digital technology.
• Goal 2 program will be open to all people from tribal communities.
• The program aims to upskill and digitally enable tribal youth via Facebook live sessions and Meta Business Coach, a digital learning tool.
• There will be special focus on more than 10 lakh members of 50000 Vandhan Self Help Groups.
• The programme is fully funded by Meta (Facebook India) and Ministry of Tribal Affairs has not incurred any expenditure or provided any funds for implementation of the program.
• Ministry of Tribal Affairs in coordination with Ministry of IT and Electronics, will be providing 6 digital classes in each of the 175 EMRS schools selected under the program.
• The project is being implemented by ERNET, which is an autonomous organization under MeiTY through STC funds available with MeITY and 10% funding is being done by NESTS.

• Under Skill India Mission, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) is implementing its flagship scheme Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY).
• Under PMKVY 3.0, focus has also been given for skilling on digital technology and Industry 4.0 skills like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT).

• Further, National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) under the aegis of the MSDE has initiated online skilling through eSkill India portal.
• The platform offers learning opportunities on emerging technologies like cybersecurity, blockchain, artificial intelligence and machine learning
• There is no separate fund allotment for training of Digital Skills under the PMKVY scheme.
• Under Centrally Sponsored State Managed (CSSM) component of PMKVY scheme, there is a provision of State/UT-wise allocation of funds.

• Further, Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education is implementing the initiative of Vocationalisation of School Education under the umbrella of the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of ‘Samagra Shiksha'.
• Under Vocational Education component of ‘Samagra Shiksha', NSQF compliant vocational courses are offered to the school students including tribal Students from class 9th to 12th in the schools covered under the scheme.
• It consists of Communication Skills, Self-Management Skills, Information and Communication Technology Skills, Entrepreneurship Skills and Green Skills.

What's the NEWS

• The Prime Minister has paid tributes to freedom fighter, Mangal Pandey on his birth anniversary.
• The 160th birthday of Mangal Pandey, the leader of the legendary Revolt of 1857

• Mangal Pandey was born on July 19, 1837, in the Ballia district of Uttar Pradesh.
• A brave sepoy and a revolutionary soldier, Pandey played a crucial role in India's first rebellion against British rule in 1857.
• He is considered a hero of the first war of Independence, also known as the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, that sprouted a dream of Independence among Indians.
• He was a sepoy in the 34th Bengal Native Infantry (BNI) regiment of the East India Company.
• He is known for his revolutionary movements against the British Empire.
• During the 1850s, the British administration introduced cartridges allegedly laced with pig and cow fat which is considered offensive to Muslim and Hindu religious groups.
• The Britishers, upon asking, denied the claim of using animal fat in the cartridges, but Pandey's observation and doubts started becoming stronger, which led to the mutiny.
• The revolutionary freedom fighter instigated his fellow sepoy mates against the British administration for their atrocities.
• On March 29, 1857, he attached two British officers in the Barrackpore district of Kolkata, after which he was imprisoned.
• On April 8, 1857, he was sentenced to death by hanging in the province of Bengal.
• The revolt he started soon reached many parts of the country, and Indians started coming forward against the British government.
• The great freedom fighter also started the Sepoy Mutiny from Barrackpore to Merut, Delhi, Cawnpore (now Kanpur) and Lucknow.
• Barrackpore, where he attacked the British officers and was subsequently sentenced to death by hanging, still remembers him through various tributes.
• A park called Shaheed Mangal Pandey Maha Udyan has been set up to recognise his contribution to the Indian freedom struggle.

Science and Technology
LabVIEW Platform

What's the NEWS

• For the first time in the country, academic users in India will have free access to the Laboratory Virtual Instrument Engineering Workbench (LabVIEW) software suite - a system-design platform and development environment for a visual programming language.
• The Indian Science Technology and Engineering facilities Map (I-STEM), the national web portal for sharing research equipment/facilities, and National Instruments Inc., headquartered in Austin, TX, USA, entered into a collaborative arrangement to enable this free access to the platform.
• I-STEM (www.istem.gov.in) is an initiative by the Scientists of the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore supported by the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Govt. of India under the PM-STIAC mission.

• The availability of such software platforms to academics and deep-tech start-ups in the country would lead to collaborative research and increasing innovation.
• LabVIEW uses a graphic interface that enables different elements to be joined together to provide the required flow and runs on Windows, OS X (Apple), and Linux Operating systems, making it suitable for most computing systems.
• The software suite is hosted on the cloud server established by the I-STEM to provide user-friendly access from anywhere in India.
• I-STEM platform is to strengthen the R&D ecosystem by connecting researchers with resources.

• It is a system-design platform and development environment for a visual programming language from National Instruments.

Factoids

DIGI YATRA project

What's the NEWS

• The Consultative Committee meeting of Ministry of Civil Aviation was held recently. The topic for discussion was ‘DIGI YATRA'.

• It is a project conceived to achieve contactless, seamless processing of passengers at Airports, based on Facial Recognition Technology (FRT).
• The project basically envisages that any traveller may pass through various check points at the airport through a paperless and contactless processing, using facial features to establish the identity which would be linked to the boarding pass.
• The privacy issues have been taken care of in the system.
• It provides for decentralized mobile wallet-based identity management platform which is cost effective and addresses privacy/data protection issues in implementation of Digi Yatra.
• Digi Yatra Foundation (DYF) has been set up as a joint venture (JV) company in 2019 under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013 whose shareholders are AAI (26% shares) and BIAL, DIAL, GHIAL, MIAL and CIAL.
• These 5 shareholders equally hold the remaining 74% of the shares.
• The Foundation was formed, with the objective of creating the Digi Yatra Central Ecosystem (DYCE).
• Digi Yatra Foundation will be a pan-India entity and the custodian of the Passenger ID validation process.
• It will also develop consensus amongst the Aviation Stakeholders in India.
• It would also define the criteria for compliance and guidelines for the local airport systems.

• Finance Ministry has issued a simplified regulatory framework for e-commerce exports of jewellery through courier mode.

• The framework keeps in view the need for uniformity of action by Customs that brings certainty for the trade.
• It also addresses a unique requirement of the e-commerce Eco-system for re-import of rejects in certain cases to the prescribed extent.
• The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs has issued the simplified regulatory framework in the form of a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).
• The SOP details the handling, movement, and procedural aspects of exports, based on electronic declarations, through International Courier Terminals.
• A period of one month has been provided for transition.
• The first phase begins with exports through Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai locations.

• The Department of Consumer Affairs has launched "Jagriti", a mascot for empowering consumers and generating awareness towards their rights.

• Jagriti will be projected as an empowered consumer who is spreading awareness about consumer rights and addressing solutions to the problems faced by the consumers.
• The "Jagriti" mascot will be used to generate consumer awareness about various themes of the Department.
• The Themes include provisions of Consumer Protection Act 2019, Hallmarking, National Consumer Helpline toll-free number 1915, provisions of weights and measures Act, decisions of the Central Consumer Protection Authority and testimonials by consumers on grievance redressal.
• Jagriti mascot shall be shown along with tagline "Jago Grahak Jago" in all its media campaigns.

Governance
National E-Governance Service Delivery Assessment
What's the NEWS

• The website of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has been ranked first under the Central Ministries Portal in National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment.

• Digital Police portal of National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) placed at two in the assessment under the Central Ministries Services Portal.
• All Government portals that were evaluated were divided into two main categories, states and Union Territories and Central Ministry service portals.
• There were four main parameters of assessment, Accessibility, Content Availability, Ease of Use and Information Security and Privacy for Central Ministry Portals.
• An additional three parameters were also used for the Central Ministry Services Portals - End Service Delivery, Integrated Service Delivery and Status and Request Tracking.