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

• IDEAthon is a 2-day online ideathon, jointly organised by MHRD Innovation Cell, AICTE, MEITY Startup Hub, InnovatioCuris and other institutions

Know! about IDEAthon

• The objective is to get accessible and affordable technological solutions that can contain the rapid spread of infection, ease the mounting pressure and ensure a quick return to normalcy.

Know! the curated set of problem

• Problem statements of high magnitude soliciting innovative technological solutions like the design of reusable/washable masks, a system that can disinfect currency notes/coins, mobile applications with an ability to provide right, reliable and authentic information to curb infection and the spread of panic, a non-invasive diagnostic kit, alternate solutions for ventilators to treat patients who face chronic breathing problems, Storage Kits to collect test samples from homes and transport them to laboratories, etc. are put forth for student innovators, educators, researchers, professionals and startups to ideate and innovate feasible products.

Know! more about IDEAthon

• During the 2-day IDEAthon, Startups and innovators shall be guided by Domain experts, Healthcare providers and professionals, Innovation experts, etc. from across the country through a virtual platform in their pursuit of ideating and innovating technically feasible and economically viable solutions to the curated set of problems.
• Online webinars, masterclasses and live one-one mentoring sessions are organized to support innovators with a focus to guide in technical design, innovation acceleration and rapid development of their prototypes.

Prelims Factoids
Scientists of ARI, Pune develop biofortified, high protein wheat variety MACS 4028
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about MACS 4028)
What's the NEWS

• Scientists from Agharkar Research Institute (ARI), Pune, an autonomous institute under the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India, have developed a biofortified durum wheat variety MACS 4028, which shows high protein content.

Know! more about MACS 4028

• The wheat variety developed by the ARI scientists group on Wheat improvement, shown high protein content of about 14.7%, better nutritional quality
• The MACS 4028 variety is also included by the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) programme for United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to alleviate malnutrition in a sustainable way and can boost the Vision 2022 "Kuposhan Mukt Bharat", the National Nutrition Strategy.
• Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has also tagged this variety under the Biofortified category during the year 2019.
• Wheat crop in India is grown under six diverse agroclimatic zones. In the peninsular zone of India (Maharashtra and Karnataka states), wheat cultivation is majorly done under rainfed and limited irrigation conditions.
• Under such conditions, the crop experiences moisture stress. Hence, there is a high demand for drought-tolerant varieties.

Know! about Biofortification

• Biofortification is the idea of breeding crops to increase their nutritional value. This can be done either through conventional selective breeding, or through genetic engineering. Biofortification differs from ordinary fortification because it focuses on making plant foods more nutritious as the plants are growing, rather than having nutrients added to the foods when they are being processed

COVID-19
UN Chief launches $2 bn humanitarian response plan to fight COVID-19
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about global humanitarian response plan )
What's the NEWS

• UN chief Antonio Guterres launched a $2 billion global humanitarian response plan for the world's poorest countries.

Know! more about it

• The response fund is coordinated by the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
• The plan includes existing appeals from the World Health Organization and other UN partners, along with new needs for funds.
• The plan also includes additional measures to support host communities opening their homes and towns to refugees and displaced persons.
• The UN plan is designed to function from April to December, hinting that the overall crisis might last through the year.

Prelims Factoids
World Water Development Report
Relevance IN - Prelims (about World Water Development Report and its factual findings)

What's the NEWS

• The United Nation's 2020 edition of the World Water Development Report (WWDR 2020) entitled ‘Water and Climate Change' aims at helping the water community to tackle the challenges of climate change and informing the climate change community about the opportunities that improved water management offers in terms of adaptation and mitigation.

Know! the important takeaways

• Global food production patterns would be fundamentally altered by climate change, causing food insecurity because of small shifts in seasonality and water availability
• Major agricultural systems the world-over - including the semi-arid Indian subcontinent and the Mediterranean region in north Africa - were highly vulnerable to climate impacts.
• Increased rainfall, drought and flooding coupled with higher temperatures were the climate change drivers that the monsoonal Indian subcontinent would witness.
• The climate change drivers include 20 years of increasing flows, followed by substantial reductions in surface water and groundwater recharge, changed seasonality of runoff and peak flows, increased peak flows and flooding, increased salinity and declining productivity.

COVID-19
CII sets up relief pool funds to help MSMEs
Relevance IN - Prelims (about CII COVID-19 CODE and CII COVID - 19 rehabilitation and relief pool fund)
What's the NEWS

• Apex industry body Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) has set up CII COVID-19 CODE and CII COVID - 19 rehabilitation and relief pool fund to help micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) and society from the impact of disruptions caused by coronavirus.

Know! more about it

• CII has developed and advocated a COVID-19 CODE to its members to help its workers and society at large from the impact of disruptions caused by COVID-19
• CII members will dedicate their plant facilities to help scale up manufacture and availability of essential goods and equipment needed to deal with the medical emergency like ventilators, sanitisers, essential drugs, medical services, etc., on a no-profit basis, and build a cadre of volunteers for public service the CII CODE advocates.
• The COVID Rehabilitation Fund is important for the micro and small industry, who will need special hand holding and help to rehabilitate their business.
• The CII COVID Rehabilitation and Relief Fund (CRR) will be an industry led initiative to work with the MSME sector

Other recommendations suggested by CII

• Setting up of a special MSME Factoring Fund to enable MSMEs to discount their bills to approved retailers in 15 days and permit retailers to pay in 120 days would help in faster realisation
• Creating a corpus by the government to help MSMEs tide over the crisis would help them pay wages.
• Extension of non-performing asset norms cases to 150 days from the present 90 days and if required by industry, ad-hoc limits to an extent of 25 per cent of sanctioned limits may be allowed by banks on SOS basis to overcome temporary liquidity crunch
• The Confederation has proposed that the government should draw up contingency plans for three periods - till March 31; for next two months till May 31 and then for next 2 months till July 31.

Government announcements


Know! about CII

• The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) works to create and sustain an environment conducive to the development of India, partnering industry, Government, and civil society, through advisory and consultative processes.
• CII is a non-government, not-for-profit, industry-led and industry-managed organization, playing a proactive role in India's development process.
• Founded in 1895 and celebrating 125 years in 2020, India's premier business association has more than 9100 members, from the private as well as public sectors, including SMEs and MNCs, and an indirect membership of over 300,000 enterprises from 291 national and regional sectoral industry bodies.
  
  

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