Education
Gyan Circle Ventures

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Gyan Circle Ventures) + Mains ( GS II government policies and interventions + GS III awareness in the field of IT)
What's the NEWS

• Union Minister for Education virtually inaugurated the Gyan Circle Ventures, a MeitY funded Technology Business Incubator (TBI) of Indian Institute of Information Technology, Sri City (Chittoor), Andhra Pradesh

Gyan Circle Ventures

• TBI- Gyan Circle Ventures supported by MeitY will provide support for innovators and startups, in various phases via investments, infrastructure and support.
• It will also serve as a channel for commercializing the innovations of faculty and students.
• Gyan Circle Ventures would function as a Technology Incubation and Development of Entrepreneurs (TIDE 2.0) incubation center as approved by the Ministry of Information Technology (MeitY)
• The incubator would leverage the institutions' entrepreneurial spirit via utilizing its intellectual capital and engage in using emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Block-chain, Cyber Physical Systems (CPS), Cyber Security, Internet of Things (IoT), Robotics, etc.
• Gyan Circle Ventures will serve as a hub for innovation and startups
• The TBI would have an Advisory Committee comprising leading Industrialists, entrepreneurs and technical experts.
• It would enable incubatees to leverage these expert mentors and networks from both academia and the industry.

Science & Technology
DBT-BIRAC Clean Tech Demo Park

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Clean Tech Demo Park + steps taken by DBT + about BIRAC) + 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

• Minister for Science & Technology, inaugurated the "DBT-BIRAC Clean Tech Demo Park"

Clean Tech Demo Park

• This Clean Tech Demo Park would be a good attraction not only for Innovators/ Investors but also for students and common public for awareness and popularization of clean technological solution for waste management
• The novel indigenous technologies developed for the treatment of sewage and industrial waste waters should be promoted and given wide publicity to ensure their commercialization and adoption for achieving Swachh Bharat and Atmanirbhar Bharat goals
• The DBT-BIRAC Clean Tech Demo Park will be used to demonstrate innovative Waste-to-Value technologies with support from Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India, and Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), a DBT PSU.
• This park will be managed by the Clean Energy International Incubation Centre (CEIIC), a public-private-partnership incubator set up jointly by DBT, BIRAC and Tata Power.

DBT has undertaken several initiatives under Swachh Bharat Mission
DBT innovative clean waste-to-value technologies like

• biomethanation
• constructed wetlands
• algal treatment and water membrane filtration.
• The DBT-DESMI project in collaboration with Denmark for cleaning of floating debris from Barapullah nallah, and the LOTUS-HR project in collaboration with Netherlands are already successfully demonstrated at the Barapullah site.

Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC)

• It is a not-for-profit Public Sector Enterprise, set up by Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India as an Interface Agency to strengthen and empower the emerging Biotech enterprise to undertake strategic research and innovation, addressing nationally relevant product development needs.
• BIRAC is a industry-academia interface and implements its mandate through a wide range of impact initiatives, be it providing access to risk capital through targeted funding, technology transfer, IP management and handholding schemes that help bring innovation excellence to the biotech firms and make them globally competitive.

Miscellaneous
India gets its first ever Brand & Logo for its Cotton on 2nd World Cotton Day

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Indian cotton and the role of CCI)
What's the NEWS

• The Union Minister of Textiles launched the 1st ever Brand & Logo for Indian Cotton on 2nd World Cotton Day on 7th October, 2020
• Now India's premium Cotton would be known as ‘Kasturi Cotton' in the world cotton Trade.
• The Kasturi Cotton brand will represent Whiteness, Brightness, Softness, Purity, Luster, Uniqueness and Indianness.

Cotton Corporation of India (CCI)

• The Cotton Corporation of India Limited or CCI is a Government of India agency, engaged in diverse activities related to trade, procurement, and export of cotton.
• CCI is a public sector agency responsible for equitable distribution of cotton among the different constituents of the industry and aid imports of cotton.
• It was incorporated on 31 July 1970 under the Companies Act 1956.
• CCI is governed by Textile Policy 1985 issued by the Ministry of Textiles, Government of India.

Prelims Facts
• a mobile app, "Cott-Ally" has been developed by CCI for providing latest news regarding weather condition, Crop situation and best farm practices.
Know! about Cotton

• Cotton is one of the principal commercial crops of India and it provides livelihood to about 6.00 million cotton farmers.
• India is the 2nd largest cotton producer and the largest consumer of cotton in the world.
• India produces about 6.00 Million tons of cotton every year which is about 23% of the world cotton.

Organic cotton

• India produces about 51% of the total organic cotton production of the world, which demonstrates India's effort towards sustainability.
• Ministry of Textiles through APEDA under Ministry of Commerce and Industry has prescribed a certification system for organic Cotton which will be introduced in phases in the entire textile value chain.

World Cotton Day

• The World Cotton day is celebrated on 7 October as a global celebration of cotton and its stakeholders, from field to fabric and beyond.
• At the initiative of the Cotton-4 (Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali), the World Trade Organisation made the launch of World Cotton Day on 7 October 2019.
• The event is organised in collaboration with the Secretariats of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the International Trade Centre (ITC) and the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC).

NITI Aayog
India PV Edge-2020

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about India PV Edge-2020) + Mains ( GS III Infrastructure development- energy sector )
What's the NEWS

• NITI Aayog, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), and Invest India organized a symposium on solar PV manufacturing, "India PV Edge-2020", to inform the global PV industry of opportunities in India.
• Around 60 prominent Indian and global CEOs attended the event, along with a number of global PV manufacturers, developers, investors, think tanks and top policymakers.
• The event discussed the potential of making India a global hub for solar PV manufacturing with breakthrough technologies and providing an ecosystem for setting up giga-scale factories by local and global firms.

Solar photovoltaic (PV)

• Solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing is one of the strategic sectors announced by the government and India has the opportunity to be the global hub for this
• Solar PV manufacturing is one of the strategic sectors announced by the government as part of the post-Covid-19 Aatmanirbhar Bharat recovery initiative.
• India PV Edge 2020 has served as a small step towards that ambition and will go a long way in making India the giga-scale manufacturing destination for breakthrough PV technologies.

Know! the working mechanism of Photovoltaic (PV) devices

• Photovoltaics gets its name from the process of converting light (photons) to electricity (voltage), which is called the photovoltaic effect.
• Photovoltaic (PV) devices generate electricity directly from sunlight via an electronic process that occurs naturally in certain types of material, called semiconductors.
• Electrons in these materials are freed by solar energy and can be induced to travel through an electrical circuit, powering electrical devices or sending electricity to the grid.

Solar Energy (achievements)

• India now has the third-largest solar installed capacity in the world.
• It is one of the few countries on track to meet its three key NDC targets - achieve 40% non-fossil-fuel-based installed power capacity, reduce 33%-35% emissions, and create a carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tons of carbon dioxide - by 2030. India is likely to achieve these goals much earlier.

Know! about Invest India

• Invest India is the National Investment Promotion and Facilitation Agency of India, set up as a non-profit venture under the aegis of Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India.
• It facilitates and empowers all investors under the ‘Make in India' initiative to establish, operate and expand their businesses in India.
• Invest India is envisaged as a one stop shop specially created to attract and retain high quality investments into India.
• It provides sector-and state-specific inputs, and hand-holding support to investors through the entire investment cycle, from pre-investment, decision-making to after-care.
• It provides comprehensive facilitation to investors interested in India, including strategic business advisory, policy guidance, location assessment, issue redressal and expansion support.

Miscellaneous
The Advanced Manufacturing HUB or AMHUB
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about advanced manufacturing hub (AMHUB)+ Mains ( GS III awareness in the field of science and technology)
What's the NEWS

• Guidance, nodal investment promotion and facilitation agency of the state of Tamil Nadu has partnered with the World Economic Forum (WEF) to establish India's first advanced manufacturing hub (AMHUB) in Tamil Nadu.

Know! all about AMHUB

• The Advanced Manufacturing HUB or AMHUB is one of the 19 platforms designed by the WEF.
• This will help the State harness opportunities in the sectors of electronics, electric mobility, solar energy and textiles through collaboration with AMHUB
• AMHUB will help the production ecosystem in Tamil Nadu by identifying and addressing regional opportunities brought by the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), highlighting and amplifying regional success stories globally and engaging directly with other AMHUBs through WEF's network of AMHUBs to share best practices globally
• The State will benefit from partnerships and pilot projects to scale new technologies, advance uses of Advanced Manufacturing and 4IR and address regional opportunities and challenges posed by 4IR.
• In the area of Workforce Upskilling/Reskilling, it will help us identify skill gaps and bridge them from global experience.
• As an important contributor to the manufacturing sector in India, Tamil Nadu will utilise the AMHUB to adopt IoT and other emerging technologies for advanced manufacturing to sustain and create new avenues of manufacturing growth
• Advanced manufacturing will boost end-to-end manufacturing of high-tech and high-value products in Tamil Nadu and will shape the future of advanced manufacturing and production

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