Education
Prasar Bharati signs MoU with Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geo-Informatics

Relevance IN - Prelims ( MoU - highlights + about Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geo-Informatics)
What's the NEWS

• India's public broadcaster Prasar Bharati entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geo-Informatics, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology today.

Know! about the MoU -highlights

• Under the ambit of this MoU, 51 DTH education TV channels comprising of Swaymprabha (22 channels) (M/o Education), e-Vidya for classes 1 to 12 (12 channels) of NCERT, Vande Gujarat (Govt. of Gujarat) (16 channels) and DigiShala under M/o Electronics and IT (1 channel) shall be available as DD co-branded channels to all DD FreeDish viewers.
• This move aims to bring quality educational programmes to every household, including those in rural and remote areas.
• The services will be available free of cost for all the viewers 24x7, in line with Government's commitment towards skill development and providing quality education to the last person in the country.
• This Government initiative will go a long way in achieving Government's goal of providing education to all.

Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics{BISAG}

• It is an Autonomous Scientific Society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 under the MeitY, Government of India to undertake technology development & management, research & development, facilitate National & International cooperation, capacity building and support technology transfer & entrepreneurship development in area of geo-spatial technology.
• BISAG has three main domain areas: Satellite Communication, Geo-informatics and Geo-spatial technology.
• Government has established State-of-the-art infrastructure at BISAG for distance education.
• At present, this infrastructure is being used to telecast 51 educational DTH TV channels which includes 16 channels under ‘VANDE Gujarat' banner Government of Gujarat, 34 channels under ‘SWAYAM Prabha' by Ministry of Human Resource Development and‘DigiShala' by MeitY on 24x7 basis.
• BISAG has implemented GIS and geo-spatial technologies for major Ministries and almost all States.
• BISAG ensures the usage of authenticated and relevant datasets for implementation of GIS based decision support system(s).
• BISAG is to support MeitY in reviewing and studying the existing practices in GIS domain across the Government and related sectors.
• It helps the Government to come out with suitable policy on GIS technology for Government usage.
• BISAG helps Ministries/Departments of the Central as well as State Governments to apply geo-spatial technologies in an innovative manner, to improve the effective roll out of e-governance services for the common citizens.

Know! about Geospatial Technology

• It iss an emerging field of study that includes Geographic Information System (GIS), Remote Sensing (RS) and Global Positioning System (GPS).
• Geospatial technology enables us to acquire data that is referenced to the earth and use it for analysis, modeling, simulations and visualization.
• Geospatial technology allows us to make informed decisions based on the importance and priority of resources most of which are limited in nature.
• Geospatial technology has become an essential part of everyday life. It's used to track everything from personal fitness to transportation to changes on the surface of the earth.

Prelims Factoids
Ro-Pax ferry service
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the Ro-Pax ferry service - location)
What's the NEWS

• Prime Minister will inaugurate the Ro-Pax terminal at Hazira and flag off Ro-Pax service between Hazira and Ghogha in Gujarat

Know! about Ro-Pax Ferry Vessel ‘Voyage

• The Ro-Pax Terminal being inaugurated at Hazira is of 100 meters length and 40 meters width, with cost implications of approx. Rs. 25 crores.
• The terminal has wide ranging facilities including administrative office building, parking area, substation and water tower etc.
• The Ro-Pax Ferry Vessel ‘Voyage Symphony' is a three decks vessel.It has a load capacity of 30 trucks (of 50 MT each) on the main deck, 100 passengers cars on the upper deck and 500 passengers plus 34 crew & hospitality staff on the passenger deck.

Benefits of the Hazira-Ghogha Ro-Pax ferry service.

• It will work as a Gateway to South Gujarat and Saurashtra region. It will reduce the distance between Ghogha and Hazira from 370 Km to 90 Km.
• The reduced cargo travel time from 10 to 12 hours to about 4 hours will result in huge savings of fuel (approx 9000 litres per day) and lower the maintenance cost of vehicles drastically.
• It will also lead to reduction in CO2 emission by approximately 24 MT per day and net saving of approximately 8653 MT per annum.

Bilateral Relations
India-Italy Virtual Summit

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the summit highlights) + Mains ( GS II bilateral relations)
What's the NEWS

• A Virtual Bilateral Summit between Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and Prime Minister of Italy Prof. Giuseppe Conte was held on 6th November, 2020.

Know! about the summit highlights

• The Summit provided an opportunity to the two leaders to comprehensively review the broad framework of the bilateral relationship.
• The two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to strengthen cooperation against common global challenges, including the Covid-19 pandemic.
• On regional and international issues, both sides agreed to coordinate closely at multilateral fora especially G-20. Italy will assume the Presidency of G-20 in December 2021 followed by India in 2022.
• Together, India and Italy will be part of the G20 Troika from December, 2020. India welcomed Italy's decision to join ISA as soon as the ratification process is completed.
• 15 MoUs/Agreements in various sectors such as energy, fisheries, ship building, design etc. were signed coinciding with the Summit.

Economy
WhatsApp Pay goes official after NPCI approval
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about WhatsApp pay + about NPCI) +Mains ( GS III Economic development)
What's the NEWS

• The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) gave approval to WhatsApp to go live on the United Payments Interface (UPI) in a graded manner.

Know! all about it

• The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) allowed Facebook-owned messaging platform WhatsApp to start its payments service in the country in a "graded" manner.
• The announcement by NPCI came minutes after it limited a single third party like WhatsApp or its rivals like Google Pay or Walmart's PhonePe to handle only 30 percent of overall UPI transaction volumes by putting a cap.
• NPCI runs the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) used for real-time payments between peers or at merchants' end while making purchases.
• WhatsApp has 400 million users in India while other Third Party App Providers (TPAPs) - Google Pay had 75 million and PhonePe had 60 million
• WhatsApp has been running a pilot service for the last two years but was not given a formal go-ahead because of data localisation requirements.
• NPCI has given approval for WhatsApp to ''Go Live'' on UPI in the multi-bank model.
• WhatsApp can expand its UPI user base in a graded manner starting with a maximum registered user base of twenty (20) million in UPI.
• A "cap of 30 percent of total volume of transactions processed in UPI" will be applicable on all TPAPs from 1 January 2021
• The cap of 30 percent will be calculated on the basis of the total volume of transactions processed in UPI during the preceding three months on a rolling basis
• Having a cap on the transaction volume will help in de-risking the entire set-up and is essential as UPI, which surpassed two billion transactions a month mark in October

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)

• It an umbrella organisation for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India, is an initiative of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Indian Banks' Association (IBA) under the provisions of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, for creating a robust Payment & Settlement Infrastructure in India.
• It has been incorporated as a "Not for Profit" Company under the provisions of Section 25 of Companies Act 1956 (now Section 8 of Companies Act 2013), with an intention to provide infrastructure to the entire Banking system in India for physical as well as electronic payment and settlement systems.
• The ten core promoter banks are State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, Bank of India, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Citibank N. A. and HSBC.
• In 2016 the shareholding was broad-based to 56 member banks to include more banks representing all sectors.

International Organisations
4^th High-Level Meeting of the OPEC-India Dialogue

Relevance in - Prelims ( about OPEC-India Dialogue highlights + about OPEC) + Mains ( GS II international organisations +GS III Energy security)
What's the NEWS

• The OPEC Secretariat hosted the 4th High-Level Meeting of the OPEC-India Dialogue on 05 November 2020 via videoconference.
• The Meeting was co-chaired by HE Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo, Secretary General of OPEC and HE the Honourable Dharmendra Pradhan, India's Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Minister of Steel.

OPEC-India Dialogue highlights

• The meeting focused on the implications of COVID-19, discussing the repercussions of the pandemic and its significant impact on both the world economy and energy markets, including oil. Participants also deliberated on medium-term energy and oil prospects and challenges.
• India importing around 80% of its oil from OPEC Member Countries,
• OPEC is critical for India's energy requirements as it caters to 78% of India's crude oil demand, 59% of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) demand, and nearly 38% of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) demand.
• In terms of value, India imported US$92.8 billion worth of hydrocarbons from OPEC Member Countries during FY 2019-20.
• Both sides drew attention to the close cooperation and engagement in many projects and investments between OPEC Member Countries and India, and other topical issues were addressed, including the Asian Premium and term contracts.
• India was invited to join the Charter of Cooperation as a producer and major oil consumer, to benefit from exchanges on pertinent issues affecting the oil market.

Know! about OPEC

• The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is a permanent, intergovernmental Organization, created at the Baghdad Conference on September 10-14, 1960, by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.
• The five Founding Members were later joined by: Qatar (1961) - terminated its membership in January 2019; Indonesia (1962) - suspended its membership in January 2009, reactivated it in January 2016, but decided to suspend it again in November 2016; Libya (1962); United Arab Emirates (1967); Algeria (1969); Nigeria (1971); Ecuador (1973) - suspended its membership in December 1992, reactivated it in October 2007, but decided to withdraw its membership effective 1 January 2020; Angola (2007); Gabon (1975) - terminated its membership in January 1995 but rejoined in July 2016; Equatorial Guinea (2017); and Congo (2018).
• OPEC had its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, in the first five years of its existence. This was moved to Vienna, Austria, on September 1, 1965.
• OPEC's objective is to co-ordinate and unify petroleum policies among Member Countries, in order to secure fair and stable prices for petroleum producers; an efficient, economic and regular supply of petroleum to consuming nations; and a fair return on capital to those investing in the industry.

Other energy related facts

• India has filled strategic petroleum reserves (SPRs) to a capacity of 5.33 MMT under Phase I of its SPR Programme. India will initiate the process of establishing another 6.5 MMT of commercial-cum-strategic petroleum storage at two locations under a PPP model.

Space Awareness
China successfully launches 13 satellites into orbit with a single rocket

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about china's recent launch) + Mains ( GS III awareness in the field of space)
What's the NEWS

• China successfully sent 13 satellites, including 10 from Argentina, into the orbit in what was stated to be the biggest launch of foreign satellites by the country

Know! all about the launch

• China successfully sent 13 satellites, including 10 from Argentina, into the orbit in what was stated to be the biggest launch of foreign satellites by the country that could fetch hundreds of millions of dollars to the communist nation.
• The satellites, including 10 commercial remote sensing satellites developed by Argentinian company Satellogic, blasted off atop a Long March-6 carrier rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in north China's Shanxi Province, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
• China has been using its space rockets to put satellites of several countries, including close ally, Pakistan.
• It is also the first time that China will launch such a large number of satellites for a foreign client and it will continue to promote the Long March 6 in the international market.

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