Daily Current Capsules - 13^th August 2019

NITI Aayog
NITI Aayog launches Fourth Edition of Women Transforming India Awards

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about WTI initiative of NITI Aayog) + Mains ( GS III economic development +inclusive growth and issues arising from it + GS I role of women and women organisations

What's the NEWS

• NITI Aayog, the premier think tank of the Government of India, has launched the Fourth Edition of Women Transforming India (WTI) Awards, in collaboration with the United Nations in New Delhi.
• UN Resident Coordinator in India, Ms. Renata Lok-Dessallien, opened the nomination process for WTI Awards 2019, in the presence of CEO NITI Aayog, Mr. Amitabh Kant

Know! more about the WTI Awards

• The WTI Awards, since its inception in 2016, has been recognising and celebrating stories of exemplary women from across India.
• The theme for WTI Awards 2019 is "Women and Entrepreneurship", in continuation with last edition's theme that recognizes women entrepreneurs who are breaking the glass ceiling and challenging stereotypes, through businesses and enterprises and are providing innovative developmental solutions to building a dynamic New India.
• Whatsapp has collaborated with the WEP for the WTI Awards of 2019, and will be providing support equivalent toUS$100,000 to the winners.
• The campaign builds on the success of the WTI Awards for the past three years. WTI Awards 2018 received more than 2,300 nominations.
• Through a highly objective and rigorous selection process, 15 women entrepreneurs doing inspirational work from diverse sectors viz. Renewable Energy, Education, Sanitation, Art and Culture, Social Innovation and Impact, were recognised.
• The first two editions of the WTI Awards felicitated 12 phenomenal stories each of women undertaking phenomenal work to transform societies across India's cities, towns and villages; and empowering themselves and their communities.

Know! more about WEP

• WEP is one of its kind facilitation platform, which enables convergence of multiple stakeholders on a single platform, work in collaboration with these stakeholders to bridge the gap in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, host relevant information about several schemes and partner organizations on WEP website to connect women entrepreneurs with relevant partners.
• WEP, through its partners, in various verticals such as Finance, Marketing and Networking, Entrepreneurship Development, Mentoring, Incubation and Acceleration aims at providing services such as free credit ratings, skill development, local support, corporate partnerships, funding support etc. to women entrepreneurs.
• In the span of past 15 months, WEP has seen several success stories emerging. WEP has more than 5,000 women entrepreneurs registered on the platform, more than 30 partners and has committed funding of more than US$10mn for these startups.

Internal Security
Government of India, Govt. of Tripura and National Liberation Front of Twipra (NLFT- SD) Sign Memorandum of Settlement
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the provisions of UAPA and the recent amendments done inn UAPA) + Mains ( GS III internal security)
What's the NEWS

• A Memorandum of Settlement was signed by the Government of India, Govt. of Tripura and National Liberation Front of Twipra led by Sabir Kumar Debbarma (NLFT-SD).

Know! about NLFT

• NLFT has been banned under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act since 1997 and has been involved in violence, operating from their camps across the international border.
• NLFT has been responsible for violent activities including 317 insurgency incidents in which 28 security forces and 62 civilians lost their lives during the period 2005-2015. Peace talks with NLFT were initiated in 2015 and there has been no violence by NLFT since 2016.
• NLFT (SD) has agreed to abjure the path of violence, join the mainstream and abide by the Constitution of India.

Know! more about Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act

• It is an Indian law aimed at effective prevention of unlawful activities associations in India. Its main objective was to make powers available for dealing with activities directed against the integrity and sovereignty of India.
• The National Integration Council appointed a Committee on National Integration and Regionalisation to look into, the aspect of putting reasonable restrictions in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India.
• Pursuant to the acceptance of recommendations of the Committee, the Constitution (Sixteenth Amendment) Act, 1963 was enacted to impose, by law, reasonable restrictions in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India.

Know! about the recently amended The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act, 2019
The contentious clause

• The amendment has focused on the power of the union government to declare any individual a "terrorist" for the purposes of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), 1967
• The UAPA permits the union government to designate any organisation as a "terrorist organisation," allowing the government to prosecute members and active supporters of such an organisation.

Government's point of view

• The government has said in the Rajya Sabha that terrorist acts are committed not by organisations, but by individuals.
• Not designating individuals as terrorists, would give them an opportunity to circumvent the law and they would simply gather under a different name and keep up their terror activities
• One more reason stated by the government is that the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) now designates individuals as such, and India as a signatory of the United Nations Charter is bound to treat such individuals as terrorists.
• India's most wanted, Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed and Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar, are likely to be the first two individuals to be designated as terrorists under the legislation

Know! the other added provisions in the bill/act

• The amendments give powers to the Director General of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to attach properties acquired from proceeds of terrorism.
• Earlier, the law required that the NIA take prior permission from the respective state police chief to attach the proceeds of terrorism.
• Earlier, officers in the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police and above were empowered to investigate cases under the UAPA as per Section 43. Now, officers in the rank of Inspector are empowered to do so.
• The inspector-rank officers have over time acquired sufficient proficiency to investigate UAPA-related cases and this move would quicken the delivery of justice in such cases, which are reviewed by senior officers at various levels.

e- governance
22^nd National Conference on e-Governance 2019 successfully concludes at Shillong (Shillong declaration)
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the national conference on e- governance and about shillong declaration) + Mains ( GS II important aspects of governance transparency and accountability , e- governance - applications ,success , limitations)
What's the NEWS

• The Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DARPG), in association with Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India and the State Government of Meghalaya organized the 22^nd National Conference on e-Governance (NCeG) 2019 at Shillong, Meghalaya.
• The theme of this Conference was "Digital India: Success to Excellence".

Know! more about NCeG

• The two-day 22^nd edition of the National Conference on e-Governance held in Shillong concluded with a historic ‘Shillong Declaration' outlining the future trajectory the country would take in terms of e-Governance.
• The 10- point declaration is an outcome of a commitment made at the inaugural session the previous day and was framed after two days of intensive deliberations among senior officials, experts and representatives of 28 States and all Union Territories.
• Over the two days, discussions were held on six sub-themes in Plenary sessions - India Enterprise Architecture (INDEA), Digital Infrastructure, Inclusion and capacity building, Emerging Technology for Practitioners, Secretariat Reforms, National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment (NeSDA).

Shillong declaration

• NCeG 2019 provided a platform for the delegates, including senior government officers from across the country, industry stalwarts and researchers, to share best practices, latest technology developments and leveraging them for achieving effective governance and public service delivery.
• The focus of all the sessions was on learning with each other's experiences to ensure effective e-governance for citizen satisfaction and achieve Prime Minister's vision of ‘Minimum Government, Maximum Governance'.

Prelims Factoids
100^th birth anniversary of Vikram Sarabhai

Relevance IN - Prelims ( all about Vikram Sarabhai)
What's the NEWS

• India is celebrating the 100th birth anniversary of award-winning Indian physicist, industrialist, and innovator Vikram Sarabhai. Dr. Vikram Sarabhai is also known as the father of Indian space programme as he established the Indian National Committee for Space Research which was later renamed as ISRO.

Know! about Vikram Sarabhai

• Vikram Sarabhai was born on August 12, 1919, in Ahmadabad. His family was dedicated to the Indian Independence Movement.
• He founded Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmadabad at the age of 28.
• He was much interested in cosmic rays, rockets, and satellites. Dr. Sarabhai believed in using science and technology as levers of development.
• Father of India's nuclear science program, Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha, supported Dr. Sarabhai to establish the first rocket launching station in India.
• As a result, the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station was established in southern India, which had its first successful launch on November 21st, 1963.
• Vikram Sarabhai's dream of an Indian satellite was realized when Aryabhata went into orbit in 1975
• The Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) was launched during July 1975 - July 1976 as a result of Dr. Sarabhai's dialogue with NASA in 1966.
• Vikram Sarabhai always wanted to spread science education in the country and founded a Community Science Centre at Ahmedabad in 1966. This centre is known as Vikram A Sarabhai Community Science Centre today.
  
  

KEEP Learning KEEP Evolving
TEAM CL IAS