Daily Current Capsules - 13^th June 2020

Agriculture & Farmers Welfare
Sahakar Mitra Scheme

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Sahakar Mitra: Scheme on Internship Programme + about NCDC +Main ( GS III farmer's welfare)
What's the NEWS

• Sahakar Mitra: Scheme on Internship Programme (SIP) was launched by the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers' Welfare

Know! about SIP and the role of NCDC

• NCDC has been proactive in delivering innovative solutions for the cooperative sector.
• Sahakar Mitra: Scheme on Internship Programme (SIP) will provide the young professionals an opportunity of practical exposure and learning from the working of NCDC and cooperatives as a paid intern.
• NCDC has also introduced a complementary scheme to promote start-up cooperative ventures.
• Sahakar Mitra would also provide an opportunity to professionals from academic institutions to develop leadership and entrepreneurial roles through cooperatives as Farmers Producers Organizations (FPO).
• Sahakar Mitra scheme is expected to assist cooperative institutions access new and innovative ideas of young professionals while the interns gain experience of working in the field giving confidence to be self-reliant.

Eligibility

• Under the scheme, professional graduates in disciplines such as Agriculture and allied areas, IT etc. will be eligible for internship.
• Professionals who are pursuing or have completed their MBA degrees in Agri-business, Cooperation, Finance, International Trade, Forestry, Rural Development, Project Management etc. will also be eligible.
• NCDC has earmarked funds for Sahakar Mitra paid internship program under which each intern will get financial support over a 4 months internship period.

National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC)

• It is a statutory Corporation set up under an Act of Indian Parliament on 13 March 1963.
• The objectives of NCDC are planning and promoting programmes for production, processing, marketing, storage, export and import of agricultural produce, foodstuffs, industrial goods, livestock and certain other notified commodities and services on cooperative principles
• The unique cooperative sector development finance organization, National Cooperative Development Corporation, NCDC has embarked upon a series of initiatives in the cooperative sector entrepreneurship development ecosystem through capacity development, paid internship to youth and assured project loans on liberalized terms to young cooperators on start-up mode.

Miscellaneous
Quality Council of India

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

• The Minister of Commerce and Industry has been reviewing the performance of the Quality Council of India(QCI)

Know! about QCI

• Quality Council of India is a non-profit autonomous society, under the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), with the mandate to establish an accreditation structure in the country and to spread quality movement in India by undertaking a National Quality Campaign.
• The Mission of QCI is to lead nationwide quality movement in India by involving all stakeholders for emphasis on adherence to quality standards in all spheres of activities primarily for promoting and protecting interests of the nation and its citizens.

Additional info
Read daily current notes of (11 June) to get more facts about QCI

• Quality Council of India (QCI) was set up in 1997 jointly by the Government of India (Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion) and the Indian Industry represented by the three premier industry associations i.e.

1. Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM)
2. Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and
3. Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI)

• to establish and operate national accreditation structure and promote quality through National Quality Campaign.

Infrastructure Development
NHAI becomes first construction sector organisation to go ‘Fully Digital'

Relevance IN - Prelims ( factual info about the fully digital NHAI) + Mains ( GS II Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability, e-governance- applications)
What' the NEWS

• The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) under Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has gone ‘Fully Digital', with the launch of unique cloud based and Artificial Intelligence powered Big Data Analytics platform - Data Lake and Project Management Software.

Data Lake and Project Management Software.

• The entire project management work flow of NHAI is transformed from manual to online portal based, wherein the complete project execution operations including ‘workflow with time lines' and ‘alert mechanism' have been configured.
• All project documentation, contractual decisions and approvals are now being done through portal only.

Data Lake software

• The Data Lake will bring revolutionary changes to NHAI with benefits like No delays, Quick decision making, No question of missing records, Work from anywhere/anytime.
• It will enhance transparency, as all officers and stakeholders, connected with the project can see what is going on real time basis which will amount to concurrent performance audit by the seniors.
• With advance analytics, the Data Lake software will forecast the delays, likely disputes and will give advance alerts.

Science & Technology
BIN-19
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the functioning of BIN-19 and role of IoT) + Mains ( GS III awareness in the field of science and technology)
What's the NEWS

• VST Mobility Solutions, a Startup headquartered at Cochin, has launched an automated mask disposal machine as part of efforts to develop products helping to combat the Covid-19.

Know! about BIN-19

• The Chitra UV based face mask disposal bin technology, named BIN-19 has been developed by SCTIMST
• The IoT-based BIN-19 (Internet of Things) is used for collecting and disinfecting Used Face-Mask.
• The device has been subjected to a series of successful microbiological tests by Sree Chitra Lab.
• Sree Chitra is one of the testing agency for UV based devices in the country as per the guidelines of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

Functioning of BIN-19

• The used masks dropped inside a container of the bin will be first disinfected by a process.
• The disinfected masks will be transferred to another container inside the Bin.
• The person dropping the mask can sanitize her hands with the help of the automatic sanitizer dispenser attached to the Bin-19.
•  The IoT Features of BIN-19 are Auto Sanitizer Dispenser ( remotely alerts if it's empty), Mobile Application to navigate/find Bin-19, Web Portal for Status Alerts, Power ON/OFF alerts, Box open alerts.

UV SPOT

• VSL Mobility Solutions has also launched, UV SPOT, a UV light-based multipurpose disinfector
• It is a multipurpose disinfector device with ultraviolet disinfection lamps.
• With internal reflective surfaces and UVC Lamp, the device disinfects a board range of microorganisms.
• The device is mainly used for disposing of the contaminated or used face-mask and for reusing the UVC stable metallic products.

Know! about SCTIMST

• Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST), Trivandrum an institute of national importance under Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India

Prelims Factoids
Operation Desert Chase
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about operation Desert chase)
What's the NEWS

• The special branch of Rajasthan Police arrested two civil defence employees on espionage charges.
• The arrests were made based on the inputs provided by Military Intelligence (MI).
• Both were arrested under relevant sections of Official Secrets Act, 1923. Further investigation is on
• The operation was code named ‘Desert Chase'.
  
  

KEEP Learning KEEP Evolving
TEAM CL IAS