Daily Current Capsules - 31st July 2020
NITI Aayog
AIM-iCREST

Relevance IN -Prelims ( about AIM iCREST + other initiatives of NITI Aayog) +Mains ( GS II Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
What's the NEWS

• To encourage and enable holistic progress in the incubator ecosystem across the country, NITI Aayog's Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), has launched AIM iCREST - an Incubator Capabilities enhancement program for a Robust Ecosystem focused on creating high performing Startups.
• This is a first of its kind initiative for advancing innovation at scale in India.

• AIM has joined hands with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Wadhwani Foundation - organizations that can lend credible support and expertise in the entrepreneurship and innovation space.
• AIM iCREST, has been designed to enable the incubation ecosystem and act as a growth hack for AIM's Atal and Established incubators across the country.
• Under the initiative, the AIM's incubators are set to be upscaled and provided requisite support to foster the incubation enterprise economy, that will help them to significantly enhance their performance.
• This will be complemented by providing training to entrepreneurs, through technology driven processes and platforms.
• The effort will focus on supporting start-up entrepreneurs in knowledge creation and dissemination as well as in developing robust and active networks.
• Through this initiative,Atal Innovation Mission and NITI Aayog to nurture an ecosystem that enables development and scale up of innovations to solve problems with far reaching impact.

• The Atal Innovation Mission of Centre's think-tank, NITI Aayog, has launched a free online app development course for school students across the country.
• Under the Atal Tinkering Lab initiative, AIM, NITI Aayog launched the ATL App Development module for India's young minds
• It is the online course intends to make mobile application-developers of school students under Atal Tinkering Lab initiative of AIM.
• The course has been jointly developed by NITI Aayog's AIM and Indian startup, Plezmo.
• This would be one of the largest App learning and development initiatives at a school level in any country.

• In ATLs, students of class 6th to 12th acquire a problem-solving attitude, develop innovative solutions leveraging technologies like 3D printers, robotics, miniaturised electronics, IOT and programming and DIY kits, with support from teachers and mentors.

• AIM is the Government of India's flagship initiative to promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in the country.

• AIM's objective is to develop new programmes and policies for fostering innovation in different sectors of the economy, provide platform and collaboration opportunities for different stakeholders, create awareness and create an umbrella structure to oversee innovation ecosystem of the country.

• Atal Tinkering Labs-Creating problem-solving mindset across schools in India.
• Atal Incubation Centers-Fostering world class start-ups and adding a new dimension to the incubator model.
• Atal New India Challenges-Fostering product innovations and aligning them to the needs of various sectors/ministries.
• Mentor India Campaign- A national Mentor network in collaboration with public sector, corporates and institutions, to support all the initiatives of the mission.
• Atal Community Innovation Centre- To stimulate community centric innovation and ideas in the unserved /underserved regions of the country including Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
• ARISE-To stimulate innovation and research in the MSME industry.

• The Government of India invites nominations for the "Subhash Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskar" for excellence in the field of Disaster Management.
• The online process of application for the Subhash Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskaar is presently open.
• Nominations of Individuals and Institutions can be uploaded at "www.dmawards.ndma.gov.in" up to 31stAug 2020.
• These awards are announced on the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose on 23rd January every year.

• The Government of India has instituted Subhash Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskaar to recognise the excellent work done by the individuals and institutions in the field of disaster management.
• In addition to a certificate, these awards carry a cash award of Rs 51 lakhs for an Institution and Rs 5 lakhs for an Individual.
• An individual can apply for the award as well as nominate other person or institution.
• The nominated individual or institution should have worked in any area of disaster management like Prevention, Mitigation, Preparedness, Rescue, Response, Relief, Rehabilitation, Research, Innovation or early warning in India.

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about UDAN - all versions + about UDAAN )
What's the NEWS

• The first helicopter service by Pawan Hans in Uttarakhand launched under the UDAN-RCS scheme
• This service will enable connectivity between Dehradun, New Tehri, Srinagar and Gauchar.
• Viability Gap Funding (VGF) is provided to both operators and passengers under the UDAN scheme to keep the fares affordable for the common people.
• MoCA awarded the Dehradun- New Tehri - Srinagar - Gauchar route to Pawan Hans Ltd. under the UDAN 2 bidding process.

Know! about UDAN statics

• 274 UDAN routes have been operationalized so far connecting 45 airports and 3 heliports since the launch of the first UDAN flight in April 2017 from Shimla to Delhi,
• Three rounds of UDAN have already been undertaken and so far close to 50 lakh passengers have travelled in UDAN flights covering airports in 19 States and 2 UTs.
• The fourth round of UDAN is under process.

REGIONAL CONNECTIVITY SCHEME - UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik)

• It is a market-based model to develop regional connectivity where interested airline and helicopter operators can start operations on hitherto unconnected routes on selection after a competitive bidding.
• Airports Authority of India (AAI) will connect 22 airports under regional connectivity scheme in the first phase.
• The objective is to connect the country's under-served and unserved airports.
• Under-served airports - Which do not have more than a flight a day Unserved airports - Where there are no operations.
• RCS plans are to connect these underserved airports to key airports through flights that will cost Rs 2,500 for per hour flight.
• 50 per cent seats on each flight will come at Rs 2,500 per seat for one-hour travel.
• The operators will also be extended viability gap funding which will be operational for three years from the date of starting operations in a specific UDAN route.

Salient features of the regional connectivity scheme, which is aimed at making flying affordable for the masses are

• The regional connectivity scheme will be applicable on route length between 200 to 800 km with no lower limit set for hilly, remote, island and security sensitive regions.
• The Central government will provide concessions to the tune of 2 per cent excise on Value Added Tax (VAT).
• A Regional Connectivity Fund (RCF) will be created to fund the scheme via a levy on certain flights. States are expected to contribute 20 per cent to the fund.
• For balanced regional growth, allocations will be spread equitably across 5 regions - North, West, South, East and North East with a cap of 25 percent.
• Market-based reverse bidding mechanism to determine least VGF to select the airline operator with the right to match to the initial proposer.
• VGF will be reduced if passenger load factor remains high and will be discontinued after 3 years when route becomes self sustainable.
• Airlines bid for routes with Viability Gap Funding (VGF) they require to meet the costs and this funding is contributed by the civil aviation ministry and respective state governments.
• Upon technical qualification, the airline with the lowest VGF bid is selected to operate on the route with a three-year exclusivity.

Know! more about UDAN Scheme

• The scheme has two components. The first component is to develop new airports and enhance the existing regional airports to increase the number of operational airports for scheduled civilian flights

UDAN Version II

• It allows the state governments to provide subsidy for international flights to be launched from their states.

UDAN Version III

• 73 proposals were awarded to 11 airlines that will connect a total of 39 airports.
• These include 16 unserved airports, 17 underserved airports and six water aerodromes.

Scheme with similar name - UDAAN

• Udaan is an initiative of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to enable girl students to soar to higher education from schools, and to eventually take various leadership roles in future.
• The aim is also to enrich and enhance teaching and learning of Science and Mathematics at Senior Secondary level by providing free and online resources to everyone, with a focus on special incentives and support to 1000 selected disadvantaged girls per year.

Features and eligibility

• Free of cost support for Girl students of Classes XI and XII
• The program is open to Indian citizens residing in India only.
• All girl students studying in classes XI only from KVs/ NVs/ other Government run Schools affiliated to any Board in India are eligible to apply
• Girl students enrolled in Class XI in PCM stream.
• The annual family income should be less than 6 lakhs per annum

Science & Technology
CSIR, Unnat Bharat Abhiyan-IIT Delhi and Vijnana Bharati sign a tripartite MoU

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about The Unnat Bharat Abhiyan)
What's the NEWS

• The CSIR, Unnat Bharat Abhiyan and the Vijnana Bharati (VIBHA) have signed a tripartite agreement that will provide access to the research body''s rural technologies
• The Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA) is a flagship national programme of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) envisioning the transformational change in rural development processes by leveraging knowledge institutions to help build the architecture of an inclusive India.
• The Vijnana Bharati or VIBHA is an Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-linked science body.
• The MoU (memorandum of understanding) is to provide access to CSIR rural technologies for UBA and is expected to lay the foundation for cooperation and joint action in the area of the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan for rural development of India.

Unnat Bharat Abhiyan

• The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has launched a programme called Unnat Bharat Abhiyan in the year 2014 with an aim to connect institutions of higher education, including Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and Indian Institutes of Science Education & Research (IISERs) etc. with local communities to address the development challenges through appropriate technologies.

The objectives of Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (2014)

• Building institutional capacity in Institutes of higher education in research & training relevant to the needs of rural India.
• Provide rural India with professional resource support from institutes of higher education ,especially those which have acquired academic excellence in the field of Science, Engineering & Technology and Management
• The Scheme link higher education institutions with set of atleast five villages, so that they can contribute to economic and social betterment of these village communities using their knowledge base.
• Under this scheme, higher education institutions will participate in development activities, particularly in rural areas.

Unnat Bharat Abhiyan 2.0

• The second edition (Unnat Bharat Abhiyan 2.0) was launched in April, 2018. Currently 748 institutions are participating under the scheme. In phase II 605 institutions were selected. Out of these 313 are technical Institutions and 292 are Non-Technical Institutions. 143 institutions had taken part in
• In Unnat Bharat Abhiyan 2.0 any recognized Higher Educational Institution already involved in development activities are eligible

Energy
International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER)



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

• The ITER Organization is celebrating the Start of Assembly of the ITER Tokamak with a ceremony at Saint-Paul-Lez-Durance, France.

Know! all about ITER

• Work has begun to assemble giant components to build an experimental nuclear fusion reactor in France that is expected to start up in 2035 and deliver energy in a process inspired by the sun.
• Launched in 2006 and based in southern France, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) had planned to test its first super-heated plasma by 2020 and achieve full fusion by 2023.
• The seven partners of ITER- Europe, United States, China, India, Japan, Russia and South Korea .
• These ITER consortium member states, contribute to the project mainly in kind, by manufacturing components in national factories and laboratories before shipping them to France for assembly.
• Unlike existing fission reactors, which produce energy by splitting atoms, ITER would generate power by combining atoms at a temperature of 150 million degrees Celsius in a process similar to the nuclear fusion that produces the sun's energy.

KEEP Learning KEEP Evolving
TEAM CL IAS