Relevance IN - Prelims ( about ARPIT and about LEAP) + Mains ( GS II issues relating to development and management of social sector/services relating to health, education )
What's the NEWS

• Union Human Resource Development Minister Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank' launched Leadership for Academicians Programme (LEAP) - 2019 and Annual Refresher Programme in Teaching (ARPIT) - 2019 under Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya National Mission on Teachers and Teaching (PMMMNMTT)

Leadership for Academicians Programme (LEAP)-

• To build higher managerial capabilities of existing higher education leaders and administrators and to draw fresh talent into the management of higher education systems, a National Initiative "Leadership for Academicians Programme (LEAP)" was launched to design and deliver a structured scheme of leadership development for HEIs.
• LEAP is a three weeks leadership development training programme (2 weeks domestic and one week foreign training) for second level academic functionaries in public funded higher education institutions.
• The main objective is to prepare second tier academic heads that are potentially likely to assume leadership roles in the future.
• A maximum of Rs. 10 Lakhs per participant (including foreign training) is approved and each training institution signs MoUs with its foreign counterpart.
• LEAP training institution prepares information brochures with relevant information, such as structure of the programme, Curriculum, Resource Persons, Pedagogical aspects, Assessment and evaluation and scheduled dates for Indian & foreign training. Each training module will have a batch of 30 trainees.

Annual Refresher Programme in Teaching (ARPIT)

• Ministry of Human Resource Development launched Annual Refresher Programme in Teaching (ARPIT) in November, 2018.
• ARPIT is a major and unique initiative of online professional development of 1.5 million higher education faculty using the MOOCs platform SWAYAM.
• For implementing ARPIT, discipline-specific National Resource Centers (NRCs) are identified which are tasked to prepare online training material with focus on latest developments in the discipline, new & emerging trends, pedagogical improvements and methodologies for transacting revised curriculum.
• For ARPIT 2019, 51 discipline specific NRCs have been notified covering 46 disciplines, such as, Agriculture, Law, Architecture, Social Sciences, Sciences, Engineering and
• Through ARPIT all in-service teachers, irrespective of their subject and seniority have been given an enabling opportunity to keep abreast of the latest developments in their disciplines through the technology based online refresher courses.
• Faculty can benefit from this initiative as it is highly flexible and can be done at one's own pace and time.
• The NRCs will revolutionize professional development of faculty by catering to massive numbers by leveraging ICT and online technology platform of SWAYAM.
• The First round of ARPIT 2018 stands completed in which there were 51000+ enrolments, 6411 faculty registered for examination. A total of 3807 faculty qualified.

Defence
Maiden IN-RSN-RTN Trilateral Exercise Commences

Relevance IN - Prelims (about the Maiden IN - RSN -RTN trilateral exercise)
What's the NEWS

• A maiden trilateral exercise, involving Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN), Royal Thailand Navy (RTN) and Indian Navy (IN) has commenced at Port Blair on 16 Sep 19.

Know! more about the trilateral exercise

• The five-day-long exercise is aimed at bolstering the maritime inter-relationships amongst Singapore Thailand and India, and contribute significantly to enhancing the overall maritime security in the region.
• This would also strengthen the mutual confidence amongst three navies in terms of interoperability and development of a common understanding of procedures.
• During the harbour phase scheduled at Port Blair, professional exchanges, sports fixtures and cross deck familiarisation visits would be organised.
• The sea phase scheduled from 18 Sep to 20 Sep 19, a host of surface and air operations involving Gunnery, Force Protection Measures and Communication drills would be conducted providing experience gaining and learning from each other's best practices.
• Besides fostering co-operation, the maiden IN-RSN-RTN Trilateral exercise would provide an opportunity to participating navies to come together in a spirit of collaboration to nurture stronger ties.

Environment, Forest and Climate Change
On World Ozone Day, India's Cooling Action Plan gets UN applaud

Relevance IN - Prelims (about India's comprehensive cooling action plan + about world ozone day) + Mains (GS III Environment conservation)
What's the NEWS

• India became one of the first countries in the world to launch a comprehensive Cooling Action plan in March, 2019,

Know! more about the Indian cooling action plan

• It has a long term vision to address the cooling requirement across sectors such as residential and commercial buildings, cold-chain, refrigeration, transport and industries.
• The India Cooling Action Plan (ICAP) lists out actions which can help reduce the cooling demand, which will also help in reducing both direct and indirect emissions.
• The ICAP has been appreciated internationally as an important policy initiative which has the potential to provide socio-economic and environmental benefits related to reduced refrigerant use, climate change mitigation and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
• Many countries are now involved in development of cooling action plans keeping in view the significant environmental benefits and the fulfillment of Sustainable Development Goals.

The India Cooling Action seeks to

• Reduce cooling demand across sectors by 20% to 25% by 2037-38
• Reduce refrigerant demand by 25% to 30% by 2037-38,
• Reduce cooling energy requirements by 25% to 40% by 2037-38
• Recognize "cooling and related areas" as a thrust area of research under national S&T Programme
• Training and certification of 100,000 servicing sector technicians by 2022-23, synergizing with Skill India Mission.

As per the Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) phase out programme, India has proactively taken the challenge of complete phase out of HCFC 141 b, which is a chemical used by foam manufacturing enterprises by 1.1.2020.
25^th World Ozone Day celebrations

• "32 years and healing" is the theme of 25^th World Ozone Day celebrations. The theme signifies over three decades of remarkable international cooperation to protect the ozone layer and also the climate system under the Montreal Protocol.
• The abundance of Ozone Depleting Substances (ODSs) in the atmosphere is declining and a recent study has indicated that the ozone hole is recovering.

Defence
Opening Ceremony Indo-Thailand joint military Exercise MAITREE - 2019

Relevance IN -Prelims (about Exercise MAITREE)
What's the NEWS

• Exercise MAITREE, the annual bilateral joint exercise between Indian Army (IA) and Royal Thailand Army (RTA) commenced at the Foreign Training Node (FTN), Umroi, Meghalaya.

Know! more about it

• The aim of exercise is joint training of troops in counter terrorism operations in both jungle terrain and urban scenario.
• Exercise MAITREE-2019 has been the face of long standing bilateral ties between India and Thailand since 2006.
• The 14 days exercise will be conducted under the framework of United Nations mandate. Both contingents will share their valuable experiences in the conduct of counter terrorism operations in form of lectures, drills, demonstrations and skill-at-arms with an aim to refine tactics, techniques and procedures.
• The exercise will culminate with a 48 hours joint exercise which will showcase the planning and execution of joint skills of soldiers while conducting any counter terrorism operation.

Science & Technology
National Centre for Clean Coal Research & Development inaugurated at Bengaluru

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about National Centre for Clean Coal Research + Interdisciplinary Centre for Energy Research(ICER) What's the NEWS) + Mains ( GS III environment conservation + Science and technology)
What's the NEWS

• Union Minister of Science & Technology, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, inaugurated the National Centre for Clean Coal Research and Development at Indian Institute of Science (IISc)-Bengaluru.
• Government of India through Department of Science & Technology, has set up the National Centre for Clean Coal Research and Development (NCCCR&D) as a national level consortium on clean coal R&D, led by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc)-Bengaluru.

Know! more about the centre for clean coal research and development

• The breakthrough research being pursued at IISc in clean coal domain could potentially be game changer for meeting the energy needs of the country in terms of higher efficiency and capacity at lower operating costs and size.
• This would result in research, development and demonstration of state-of-art tools, products and processes which are of critical importance for our energy security

Interdisciplinary Centre for Energy Research(ICER)

• Dr. Harsh Vardhan also dedicated an Interdisciplinary Centre for Energy Research(ICER) to the Nation which is India's first of its kind centre equipped with state-of-art facilities for conducting wide spectrum of energy research by knowledge network of elite researchers.
• Interdisciplinary Centre for Energy Research (ICER) is one of the youngest centres at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc).
• It was conceived to take up socially relevant research in line with national-level missions of the Government of India, which will directly benefit the people of the nation and the world.
• ICER has so focused on research breakthroughs and developing sustainable technologies for renewable energy, combustion, concentrated solar power (CSP), next-generation solar photovoltaic (PV), novel energy storage technologies, hydrogen, biofuels and bio-mass.

Know! more about NCCCR&D

• National Centre for Clean Coal Research and Development (NCCCR&D) is a national level consortium on clean coal R&D, led by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc)-Bengaluru.
• The primary goal is to address several critical R&D challenges towards the development of clean coal technologies, in tandem with developing supercritical power plant technologies, both at the materials and system level.

Steps taken to mitigate the menace of climate change

• In order to achieve international targets on climate change by minimizing anthropogenic emissions and also to address the ever-growing energy demand of India, development of clean coal technologies to reduce carbon emissions from coal-based power plants has become a prime necessity for India.
• The pathways identified for lowering the carbon footprint of coal-based thermal power plants is by shifting towards high efficiency advanced ultra-supercritical (AUSC) steam power plants as well as supercritical carbon dioxide (s-CO2) based Brayton cycle power plants, along with exploration of new combustion and gasification technologies.

Defence
Wargaming software handed over to Indian Navy

Relevance IN - Prelims (about Wargaming Software) + Mains (GS III security challenges and their management in border areas)
What's the NEWS

• Institute for Systems Studies and Analysis (ISSA) Delhi, a premier DRDO laboratory, has designed and developed a new generation Wargaming Software in collaboration with Maritime Warfare Centre, Visakhapatnam to meet the contemporary operational and tactical level wargaming requirement for the Indian Navy.

Know! more about the new generation Wargaming Software

• The key focus has been to create a wargaming environment which enables Maritime Warfare Centres (MWCs) to train using the latest technological and computing tools.
• The software has versatile and user-friendly features which enable globally playable wargaming scenarios between multiple forces.
• It enables exercises to be conducted between geographically dispersed locations over Wide Area Network.
• The architecture is forward compatible and new functional and equipment modules can be developed and easily plugged in.

Economic Development
Resident Indians remitted out more money than ever in July under LRS
Relevance IN - Prelims (about liberalised remittance scheme (LRS) + Mains ( GS III economic development)

What's the NEWS

• The outflow of funds by resident Indians under LRS over the last five years has almost negated the inflow of funds by FPIs in the same period.
• Amid the government's efforts to attract foreign direct investors as well as foreign portfolio investors (FPIs), the country witnessed its highest ever monthly outflow of $1.69 billion under the liberalised remittance scheme (LRS) by resident Indians in the month of July.
• With this, the outflow of money under the LRS scheme has hit $5.8 billion in the first four months of FY20 and aggregated to over $45 billion (Rs 3.15 lakh crore at exchange rate of 70 to a dollar) since the Narendra Modi-led NDA first came to power in May 2014.
  
  

Know! about RBI's LRS

• Under the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) LRS, resident individuals are allowed to remit up to $250,000 in a financial year under various heads including current account transactions such as going overseas on employment, studies overseas, emigration, maintenance of close relatives, medical treatment among others.
• The residents can also transfer money for capital account transactions under LRS including opening of foreign currency account overseas with a bank, purchase of property and making investments in units of mutual funds, venture capital funds among others.
• RBI data shows that over the last five years, while outward remittance under LRS on account of travel amounted to over $14 billion, almost $10.5 billion was on account of maintenance of close relatives and $10 billion was sent for studies. Another $4.8 billion was remitted under the head of gifts and $1.9 billion for overseas investment in equity and debt.

Update

• RBI has narrowed the definition of relatives under the ‘maintenance of close relative' category of Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) to check outflow of funds and prevent misuse of facility.
• Now funds under this category can be sent only to immediate relatives such as parents, spouses, children and their spouses.
• RBI had also made PAN mandatory for anyone using LRS for remitting money outside the country. Earlier PAN was not insisted upon for putting current account transactions of up to $25,000.

Know! more about LRS

• At present, LRS limit for all resident individuals, including minors, is US $2,50,000 per financial year. Under LRS, individuals can make remittances for overseas education, travel, medical treatment, maintenance to relatives living abroad, gifting and donations.
• The remittances under LRS cannot be used for trading on foreign exchange markets, purchase of Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds issued abroad by Indian companies and margin or margin calls to overseas exchanges and counterparties.
  
  

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