Relevance IN - Prelims ( about ICAT + ASPIRE + NATRIP ) + Mains ( GS III Achievements of Indians in science & technology; indigenization of technology and developing new technology. Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology, bio-technology and issues relating to intellectual property rights
What's the NEWS

• Department of Heavy Industry (DHI), Govt of India, has embarked on a mission to promote innovation, R&D and product development in India for various sectors.
• To achieve this the Ministry has created a technology platform e-portals where such technology development, information exchange and innovation can be facilitated.

• There are five portals being developed for specific sectors by different organizations viz, BHEL for power sector equipment, HMT for machine tools, CMFTI for manufacturing technology, ICAT and ARAI for automotive sector.
• The objective of these portals is to create an ecosystem which will bring solution seekers and problem solvers together.
• These include, industry, academia, research institutes, start-ups, professionals and experts.
• ICAT is developing technology platform for automotive industry called ASPIRE - Automotive Solutions Portal for Industry, Research and Education.
• The key objective of this portal is to facilitate the Indian Automotive Industry to become self reliant by assisting in innovation and adoption of global technological advancements by bringing together the stakeholders from various associated avenues.
• The e-portal will act as a one stop solution providing a technology platform which will help to bring together the various stakeholders from the Indian auto industry, providing the necessary impetus for ushering the industry into future with combined efforts.

• The International Centre for Automotive Technology (ICAT) was established in 2006 at Manesar, Haryana, India.
• It is a division of NATRIP (National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project) Implementation Society (NATIS) under Department of Heavy Industries, Government of India.
• ICAT is providing quality services to the industry in all the domains of automotive and non automotive development, such as Powertrain, Noise Vibration and Harshness, Component, Fatigue, Photometry, Tyre & Wheel, Passive Safety, EMC and CAD & CAE.
• It also includes a powertrain laboratory, engine dynamometers, emission laboratory with Euro-V capability, a fatigue laboratory, passive safety laboratory, and vehicle test tracks.
• iCAT is also being developed as a Centre of Excellence (CoE) for component development and NVH.
• ICAT has hosted the world class event NuGen Mobility Summit-2019 in November 2019 which was inaugurated by the Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways and Micro,Small and Medium Enterprises, Government of India.
• NuGen Mobility Summit 2021 is scheduled to be held on 27-29 October 2021.

• NATRiP is a fully Government of India funded project with a total project cost of Rs. 3727.30 crore.
• This is the largest and one of the most significant initiatives in Automotive sector so far.
• The project aims at creating core global competencies in automotive sector in India by facilitating seamless integration of Indian Automotive industry with the world, through setting up state-of-the-art, four green field automotive testing, homologation and R&D infrastructure facilities and up-gradation of two existing facilities with new technology and equipment.
• Ministry of Heavy Industry & Public Enterprises (MoHI&PE) is the nodal Ministry of the Government for automotive industry in India and is in charge of framing and administering Auto Policy of the Government of India.
• MoHI&PE is the focal Ministry for implementation of NATRIP. Secretary, MoHI&PE chairs the NATRIP Implementation Society (NATIS) Governing Council.

• International Center For Automotive Technology (iCAT) at Manesar (Haryana) in northern India.
• Global Automotive Research Center (GARC) at Oragadam near Chennai (Tamil Nadu) in southern India.
• National Automotive Test Tracks (NATRAX) at Pithampur near Indore (Madhya Pradesh) in central India.
• National Institute Of Automotive Inspection, Maintenance & Training (NIAIMT) at Silchar (Assam) in northeast India.

• ASPIRE is an acronym for Automobile Solutions Portal for Industry, Research & Education, and it aims to aid and advance the development of newer technologies and address the challenges in the field of automotive technology.
• This is one of several platforms being created for various technology sectors with the help of organizations under the aegis of DHI.

• The objective of ASPIRE is to bring together everybody and those, who wish to avail of a certain technology, process or sometimes even troubleshooting, field problems, quality issues, or even a technical requirement and need of the industry, which they are not able to fulfil by themselves in the country and have to seek help of foreign countries, that should be enabled to be done in India through this platform.

Additional Info
Know! about another ASPIRE

• The Minister for School Education launch portal ‘Aspire' at Mantralya
• The Portal has been prepared with the help of the UNICEF for the students of class 9^th to 12^th of the government schools.
• The ‘Aspire' is in fact a future opportunity portal. Information pertaining to college fee, subjects, admission procedure etc. of all the colleges of national and state level can be obtained from this portal.
• Students by self login on this portal can gather information as regard to subjects of their own interest.

Governance
Mobile App of PM SVANidhi launched

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about PM SVANidhi Mobile App) + Mains ( GS II Social issues -welfare scheme by the government + e-governance, transparency, accountability)
What's the NEWS

• The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs launched the Mobile Application of PM Street Vendor's AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi)

Know! all about PM SVANidhi Mobile App

• This App aims to provide user friendly digital interface for Lending Institutions (LIs) and their field functionaries for sourcing and processing loan applications of street vendors under the Scheme.
• PM SVANidhi Mobile App is a step towards boosting the use of digital technology and will enable field functionaries of LIs like Banking Correspondents (BCs) and Agents of Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs)/ Micro-Finance Institutions (MFIs), who have proximity with the street vendors, to ensure maximum coverage of the Scheme.
• The launch of Mobile App will give impetus to the implementation strategy of the Scheme besides promoting paper-less digital accessing of micro-credit facilities by the Street Vendors.
• Ministry has already launched the Web Portal. This App has all the features similar to the Web Portal of PM SVANidhi added with the feature of easy portability.

Know! about PM SVANidhi

• PM SVANidhi was launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, on June 01, 2020, for providing affordable Working Capital loan to street vendors to resume their livelihoods that have been adversely affected due to Covid-19 lockdown.
• This scheme targets to benefit over 50 lakh Street Vendors who had been vending on or before 24 March, 2020, in urban areas including those from surrounding peri-urban/ rural areas.
• Under the Scheme, the vendors can avail a working capital loan of up to Rs. 10,000, which is repayable in monthly instalments in the tenure of one year.
• On timely/ early repayment of the loan, an interest subsidy @ 7% per annum will be credited to the bank accounts of beneficiaries through Direct Benefit Transfer on quarterly basis.
• There will be no penalty on early repayment of loan. The scheme promotes digital transactions through cash back incentives up to an amount of Rs. 100 per month.

Prelims Factoids
Prime Minister's Awards for Excellence for Public Administration Scheme.
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about The Prime Minister's Awards for Excellence in Public Administration)
What's the NEWS

• In the meeting of the National Ganga Council held on 14th December, 2019 at Kanpur under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister, it was decided to create a "Good Performance for Ganga Rejuvenation" award for the Ganga districts under the Prime Minister's Awards for Excellence for Public Administration Scheme.

Know! about the Prime Minister's Awards for Excellence in Public Administration

• The Government of India instituted "The Prime Minister's Awards for Excellence in Public Administration" in the year 2006 to acknowledge, recognize and reward the extraordinary and innovative work done by Districts/ Organizations of the Central and State Governments.
• The Scheme was restructured in 2014 for recognizing the performance of District Collectors in Priority Programmes, Innovations and Aspirational Districts and was further restructured in 2020 to recognize the performance of District Collectors towards economic development of the District.
• For the year 2020, the scope of the awards has been expanded to identify areas of overall outcome-oriented performance in the districts across sectors.
• This year, for the very first time, the PM's Awards for Excellence in Public Administration seeks to recognize the efforts of District level officials involved in the Namami Gange Programme.
• Under this award category, one award shall be given to a district out of the 57 notified District Ganga Committees under the Namami Gange Programme.

District Ganga Committees (DGCs)

• The District Ganga Committee (DGC) is the most unique feature of the notification of authorities under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 by the Government of India dated 7th October, 2016, which creates a mechanism at the District Level for addressing the problem of pollution abatement of the River Ganga.

Prelims Factoids
Air bubbles only way forward for international travel during pandemic
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Air bubbles)
What's the NEWS

• Civil aviation minister underlined that bilateral air bubbles will be the way to resume international travel amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
• India had established individual bilateral bubbles with France and the US that would allow airlines of these countries to operate flights.

Know! all about Air Bubble

• An air bubble is a bilateral agreement comprising a set of regulations and restrictions the airlines of the two countries have to abide by to operate international flights.
• Under this arrangement airlines from the concerned countries will be able to operate flights from and to India along with Indian carriers.
• Air bubbles established with the US, France, Germany and talk of an air bubble in an advanced stage with the UK.
• From India, Air India will be operating flights to France, Germany, and the US under these bubbles.
• The concept of air bridges is based on reciprocity with the said countries allowing Indian citizens to fly into their borders and India allowing their citizens to fly into its borders.
• Several countries that have already put in place these air bridges or travel bubbles have done so on the basis of their perception of the ability of the destination country to handle the Covid19 pandemic.
• For example, New Zealand, which was completely able to contain the disease was establishing a trans-Tasmanian air bubble with other countries that had managed the virus spread. The three Baltic nations of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia had also established an air bubble among themselves

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