November 2024

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Defence

Defence Innovation Hubs (DIHs)

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about DIHs) + Mains ( GS III science and technology, indigenization of technology + investment models)

What's the NEWS

  • The Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) framework of the Government envisages setting up and managing independent Defence Innovation Hubs (DIHs).
  • These DIHs will serve as platforms where innovators can get information about needs and feedback from the Services directly and create solutions for India's major defence platforms.
  • This structure is also geared towards attracting more innovators to work for the defence sector in India.
  • The Defence Innovation Organisation set up under iDEX has announced setting up of two DIHs in Tamil Nadu (Coimbatore) and Maharashtra (Nashik).
  • The Framework to Fund Defence Innovation Hubs under iDEX, approved by the Board of Defence Innovation Organisation (DIO) prescribes the following minimum criterion for setting up Defence Innovation Hubs:
  • Any Central Government recognized Incubator including but not limited to:
  • Department of Science and Technology (DST) recognized Incubators.
  • Atal Innovation Mission, NITIAayog created Atal Incubation Centers (AICs) and Established Incubation Centers (EICs).
  • Ministry of MSME recognized incubators.
  • Any other incubator recognized or funded through any Central government scheme.
  • The incubator located in districts mentioned in the list of SME clusters hosted by the Ministry of MSME in collaboration with UNIDO.
  • Incubator / Hub promoted by local industry associations.

 Defence Innovation Organisation

  • Defence Innovation Organisation is a not for profit company under section 8 of the Companies Act.
  • The Defence Innovation Organisation is funded by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL). The headquarters of the Defence Innovation Organisation is located at Bengaluru.

Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) scheme

  • Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) scheme aims to create an ecosystem to foster innovation and technology development in Defence and Aerospace by engaging Industries including MSMEs, Startups, Individual Innovators, R&D institutes and Academia and provide them grants/funding and other support to carry out R&D which has good potential for future adoption for Indian defence and aerospace needs.
  • The Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) functions as the executive arm of the Defence Innovation Organisation

 

Prelims facts

PM to address CREDAI YouthCon -19

What's the NEWS

  • The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, will address the CREDAI YouthCon -19
  • The event is organized by the Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Association of India (CREDAI).
  • YouthCon is the annual Youth Conclave of CREDAI, held to bring together the future of the real estate Industry in India.
  • Established in 1999, CREDAI is the apex body representingreal-estate developers from over 200 cities in India.

 

Dan David Prize of Israel for the year 2019

What's the NEWS

  • Indian historian Sanjay Subrahmanyam has won prestigious Dan David Prize of Israel for the year 2019 for his work on inter-cultural encounters between Asians, Europeans and people of North and South America during the early modern era.

Dan David Prize

  • The Dan David Prize is a joint international award given by the Dan David Foundation headquartered at Tel Aviv University.
  • The award was instituted by late Dan David, an international businessman and philanthropist who envisioned a project that would extend beyond traditional academic categorisations.

 

Environment, Forest and Climate Change

Various initiatives taken by the government towards combating and adapting to climate change

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about these initiatives ) + Mains ( GS III Environment conservation  )

What's the NEWS

  • Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change released a publication on climate actions in India titled "India - Spearheading Climate Solutions".
  • This publication mentions the key actions India has taken under various sectors towards combating and adapting to climate change.
  • A number of new policies and initiatives in various sectors like e-mobility, green transportation, renewable energy, waste management, afforestation, water, etc. have also been introduced tominimise the impact of climate change.
  • In the recent past the Government of India has taken number of initiatives to combat the challenge of climate change.

Some of the key initiatives of Government of India include

  • The National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC), National Adaptation Fund on Climate Change (NAFCC), Climate Change Action Programme (CCAP) and State Action Plan on Climate Change (SAPCC)
  • The ambitious goal of generating 175 GW of renewable energy by 2022, smart cities, electric vehicles, energy efficiency initiatives, leapfrogging from Bharat Stage -IV to Bharat Stage-VI emission norms by April 2020 etc. have been undertaken proactively tominimise the impact of climate change.
  • The renewable energy capacity stands at more than 74 GW today which includes about 25 GW from solar.
  • India's forest and tree cover has increased by 1 percent as compared to assessment of 2015.
  • Schemes like UJALA for LED distribution has crossed the number of 320 million while UJJWALA for distributing clean cooking stoves to women below poverty line has covered more than 63 million households.
  • India recently submitted its Second Biennial Update Report (BUR) to UNFCCC in December 2018 as per the reporting obligations under the convention.
  • The report brings out the fact that emission intensity of India's GDP came down by 21% between 2005 & 2014 and India's achievement of climate goal for pre-2020 period is on track.

 

Some of the major initiatives included in the publication are:

1.   India's National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) which covers eight major missions on Solar, Enhanced Energy Efficiency, Sustainable Habitat, Water, Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem, Green India, Sustainable Agriculture and Strategic Knowledge on Climate Change

2.   International Solar Alliances (ISA)

3.   State Action Plan on Climate Change (SAPCC)

4.   FAME Scheme - for E-mobility

5.   Atal Mission for Rejuvenation & Urban Transformation (AMRUT) - for Smart Cities

6.   Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana - for access to clean cooking fuel

7.   UJALA scheme - for embracing energy efficient LED bulbs

8.   Swachh Bharat Mission

 

Energy Conservation

Fifth International Dam Safety Conference

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about DRIP  ) + Mains ( GS III Environment conservation  )

What's the NEWS

  • The 5thInternational Dam Safety Conference-2019 is being held during 13 and 14 February 2019 in Bhubaneswar as a joint initiative of the Government of India, Government of Odisha and the World Bank under aegis of the ongoing World Bank assisted Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP) as a part of institutional strengthening.

Know! more about the conference

  • Dam Safety Conferences are being organized as an annual event in different DRIP States in collaboration with the Implementing Agencies and leading academic institutes to provide a common platform for all stakeholders including non-DRIP States.
  • Dam professionals, academicians, scientists, as well as industries both from within the country and from around the world to deliberate on all aspects related to dam safety and the solutions that worked best in addressing dam safety concerns.
  • Globally India ranks third after China and the USA in terms of the number of large dams with 5264 large dams in operation and 437 large dams under construction.
  • About 80% of our large dams are over twenty-five years old. About 209 dams are over 100 years old and were built in an era when design practices and safety considerations were much below the current design and safety norms.

Know! about Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP)

  • In 2012 The Ministry initiated the Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP) with a duration of 6 years and financial outlay of Rs. 2100 crores.
  • Presently, DRIP covers rehabilitation of 198 large dam projects located in seven States namely Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and Uttarakhand.
  • Government has revised the financial outlay to 3466 crores and extended the duration by two years to complete the ongoing Project activities.
  • The overall implementation, supervision, and coordination of DRIP has been entrusted to the Central Water Commission.
  • The objective of DRIP is not to provide budgetary support for regular Operation and Maintenance (O & M), but to bring new initiatives in the dam safety area through technological advancements, novel rehabilitation construction materials, best global dam safety practices

Steps taken so far for strengthening DAMS

  • Emergency Action Plans (EAP) and Operation and Maintenance Manuals are being prepared for all DRIP dams.
  • Seismic Hazard Mapping of the entire country is being done to facilitate the dam safety professionals and dam owners to generate seismic design parameters for preliminary planning and design of water resources structures and seismic review of existing dams.
  • In this context, a web bases Seismic Hazard Information System (SHAIS) is being develop for simplifying the procedures and analysis.
  • Dam Health and Rehabilitation Monitoring Application (DHARMA), a software tool for asset management has been developed to capture authentic data pertaining to all large dams to act as information repository.
  • It covers the monitoring and health information to regularly review the safety aspects of any dam.
  • This tool has the appropriate access to policy makers, project managers, and dam managers to review the information and take appropriate action.
  • Government of India is striving to address the issue of dam safety in a comprehensive way for a quite a long time. In this context, Union Cabinet approved the Dam Safety Bill in June 2018 and this Bill was introduced in Parliament in December 2018.
  • Government of India proposed Phase-II and Phase-III of DRIP with a financial outlay of over 10,221.0 Crores to rehabilitate around 700 dams.
  • The new Project is proposed to be a State Sector Scheme with 10-year duration, with each proposed Phase of six years duration with two years overlapping.

 

NITI Aayog

NITI Aayog signs SOI with MSDF to document Systemic Transformation in Education

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about systemic transformation in education  ) + Main ( GS II issues relating to development and management of sectors like Education and human resource)

What's the NEWS

  • The NITI Aayog and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation (MSDF) signed a Statement of Intent (SOI) to codify, document and share best practices to improve learning outcomes in public school education through systemic reforms, based on their collective experiences of working with various state governments in India.

Role of NITI Ayog

  • The NITI Aayog was established with the core mandate of promoting cooperative and competitive federalism through evidence-based policy reform and knowledge inputs.
  • Since its inception, NITI Aayog has placed learning outcomes as a key focus area for establishing sustainable education systems.

School Education Quality Index (SEQI)

  • As a part of this push, the School Education Quality Index (SEQI) is being developed to rank states/UTs on educational outcomes, with a high weightage to learning outcomes.

SATH-E initiative

  • Further, NITI is implementing the Sustainable Action for Transforming Human Capital in Education (SATH-E) initiative to induce systemic transformation in Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Odisha.

Know! about this partnership

  • Under this latest partnership, the NITI Aayog andthe Michael & Susan Dell Foundation will document the reforms pursued by various state governments that have initiated systemic reforms in education and have begun to see improved learning outcomes over the past few years.
  • Under the agreement, a joint team comprising of state leaders, consultants, research agencies and educators shall work together to develop a ‘theory of change' based on the learnings from the states and will document the impact on ground by commissioning third party studies to evaluate the impact of systemic reforms in education.
  • Improving learning outcomes at scale will require a coordinated and simultaneous effort with both academic and governance reforms.
  • The key findings and takeaways from this exercise will be disseminated to relevant decision-makers and policymakers in other states after a consultative process of validating the same. This will be done through workshops and publications in the coming months.

 

Women and Child Development

4th  meeting of National Council on India's Nutrition Challenges under POSHAN Abhiyan

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about POSHAN abhiyan ) + Mains ( GS II issues relating to development and management of sectors like Health )

What's the NEWS

The Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India held the 4thmeeting of National Council on India's Nutrition Challenges under POSHAN Abhiyaan 

POSHAN Abhiyaan

  • The Government of India has set-up POSHAN Abhiyaan (National Nutrition Mission) which was launched by the Prime Minister on 8thMarch, 2018 from Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan.
  • The programme through use of technology, a targeted approach and convergence strives to reduce the level of Stunting, Under-nutrition, Anemia and Low Birth Weight in Children, as also, focus on Adolescent Girls, Pregnant Women & Lactating Mothers, thus holistically addressing malnutrition.
  • POSHAN Abhiyaan aims to ensure service delivery and interventions by use of technology, behavioural change through convergence and lays-down specific targets to be achieved across different monitoring parameters over the next few years.
  • To ensure a holistic approach, all 36 States/UTs and 718 districts will be covered in a phased manner by the year 2020.

 

Prelims Practise Question

Consider the following statements

1.     Defence Innovation Organisation is an autonomous body that comes under the Ministry of Defence and is funded by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL).

2.     Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) scheme aims to create an ecosystem to foster innovation and technology development in Defence and Aerospace and it  functions as the executive arm of the Defence Innovation Organisation

3.     YouthCon is the annual Youth Conclave of Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Association of India CREDAI) which was stablished in 1999, and it is the apex body representing real-estate developers from over 200 cities in India. 

Find the correct option from the option given below

a.     1 and 3

b.     2 and 3

c.      3 only

d.     2 only

 

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