Daily Current Capsules

20th November 2020

Bilateral Relations
Launch of RuPay card Phase-II in Bhutan

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

• A Virtual Ceremony for the joint launch of RuPay card Phase-II by Prime Minister of India and Prime Minister of Bhutan held on 20 November 2020.
• The Prime Ministers of India and Bhutan had jointly launched Phase-I of the project during the State Visit of Prime Minister to Bhutan in August 2019.
• The implementation of Phase-I of RuPay cards in Bhutan has enabled visitors from India to access ATMs and Point of Sale (PoS) terminals across Bhutan.
• Phase-II will now allow Bhutanese card holders to access RuPay network in India.
• India and Bhutan share a special partnership, anchored in mutual understanding and respect, reinforced by a shared cultural heritage and strong people to people links.
• The RuPAY card has already been launched by India in five countries- UAE, Bahrain, Singapore, Saudi Arabia and Bhutan.

Know! about RuPay card

• RuPay is a domestic card payment service conceived and launched by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)
• The RuPay card is the first-of-its-kind Indian domestic debit and credit card payment network. It is accepted at ATMs, POS devices as well as the various e-commerce websites.

• The NPCI created the card as an alternative to Mastercard and Visa cards (as the Indian banks have to bear the high cost of affiliation with international card association schemes like Visa and Mastercard)
• It was created to fulfil the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) vision of establishing a domestic, open and multilateral system of payments.
• RuPay facilitates electronic payment at all Indian banks and financial institutions.
  

• Presently, RuPay cards are issued by more than 1,100 banks which includes Public Sector Banks, Private Sector Banks, Regional Rural and Co-Operative Banks.

• It's 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 and HSBC.

Bengaluru Tech Summit

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about BTS 2020) + Mains ( GS II government policies and interventions + GS III Information technology)

What's the NEWS

• Prime Minister inaugurated Tech Summit in Bengaluru today via video conference.
  

• The summit is organised by the Government of Karnataka along with Karnataka Innovation and Technology Society (KITS), Karnataka government's Vision Group on Information Technology, Biotechnology & StartUp, Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) and MM Activ Sci-Tech Communications.

Know! about Bengaluru Tech Summit ( BTS 2020)

• India's flagship event now going Digital between 19th and 21st November with the theme 'NEXT IS NOW'.
• BTS 2020 will witness some world's best minds streaming their vision, leaders forecasting the future, technocrats unravelling new products, startups presenting cutting edge ideas.
• The Bangalore IT.com established in 1998 and Bangalore BIO in 2000 are the two events of Government of Karnataka that has positioned Bengaluru as one of the most dynamic cities in the world.
• In the year 2017, these two leading events were brought together under one umbrella event Bengaluru Tech Summit
• Since then BTS has become the place of convergence for the leading cross-sector tech companies to startups, technocrats to young innovators, policymakers to investors, researchers to academia, facilitating dialogue and collaborations.

Additional info

Karnataka Innovation and Technology Society (KITS)

• Karnataka Innovation and Technology Society (KITS) helps the Department of Information Technology and Biotechnology in facilitating and promoting the Information Technology and Biotech sectors in the state.
• KITS acts as a synergic liaison between Industry and Government
• It is the nodal agency for implementing the decisions of the Vision Group on IT and the Vision Group on BT.

Software Technology Parks of India (STPI)

• STPI has played a seminal role in accomplishing India as an Information Technology superpower.
• Software Technology Parks of India, is an autonomous body under Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) Govt. of India.

• It is conceived with the distinct objective of encouraging, promoting and boosting software exports from India, and maintains internal engineering resources to provide consulting, training and implementation services.

Vision Group on (Information Technology, Biotechnology & StartUp)

• The three independent Vision Groups constituted by Government of Karnataka on Information Technology, Biotechnology and Start-Up consist of industry captains, research heads, and academia.
• These Vision Groups act as a think tank of Government of Karnataka and help government in formulating various policies and initiatives to foster the technology ecosystem in the state.
• The Vision Groups have also been instrumental in connecting the state globally with leading companies, research & academic institutes and innovation hotspots for collaborations.

Defence
Capacity Building of BDA with Assistance by BRO

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the training + about the role of BRO) + Mains ( GS II bilateral relations)
What's the NEWS

• Bangladesh Army Approached BRO to provide the necessary assistance in development of their National project on construction of roads along the border in Chittagong Hill Tracts.

Know! about the training programme

• A delegation of 06 personnel has arrived at Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport, Guwahati, Assam for 15 days training cum tour programme
• The delegates will participate in the training where various issues pertaining to planning, designing and construction of hill roads will be discussed

• Site visit to demonstrate various aspects of tunnel construction and use of new material/ technology in hill road construction is also planned.

Know! about BRO

• The Border Roads Organisation (BRO)(Indian army corps of engineers) develops and maintains road networks in India's border areas and friendly neighboring countries.
• BRO maintains operations in 19 states & three UTs (Andaman and Nicobar Islands, J&K and Laddakh), and neighboring countries
• The BRO operates and maintains over 32,885 kilometers of roads and about 12,200 meters of permanent bridges in the country.
  The Border Roads Organisation has been entirely brought under the Ministry of Defence.
• The BRO operates in 18 Projects namely: Arunank, Beacon, Brahmank, Chetak, Deepak, Dantak, Himank, Hirak, Pushpak, Sampark, Setuk, Sewak, Shivalik, Swastik, Udayak, Vartak, Vijayak and sela tunnel.
  The Border Roads Organisation has acquired a leading role in the arena of infrastructure development in hilly terrain traversing from high altitude snow peaks in Leh Ladhak to low mountains in the state of Tripura, Mizoram and Nagaland.
• The Organisation has been an ambassador of peace and prosperity through developmental works in several neighbouring countries like Afghanistan, Tazakistan, Myanmar and Bhutan.

Education
Vatayan Lifetime Achievement Award

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Vatayan International Awards)
What's the NEWS

• Union Education Minister Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank' will be conferred with the Vatayan Lifetime Achievement Award
• This award will be another in the list of many other national and international awards and honours conferred to the Minister for writing, poetry and other literary works.

Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank' (achievements)

• The German version ‘nureinWunsch" of Shri Nishank's story collection ‘Just a Desire', is published in Afro Asian Institute, Hamburg.
• His 'Sparsh Ganga' initiative was included in Mauritius school curriculum.

• He is actively associated with various Social activities such as unique drive of `Swaran Ganga. He has penned more than 75 books on wide ranging issues, which have also been translated into many national and foreign languages.

Vatayan International Awards

• Vatayan International Awards given by the Vatayan-UK organization in London, honours poets, writers and artists for their exemplary work in their respective fields.
• Earlier many eminent personalities like Prasoon Joshi, Javed Akhtar have been awarded the Vatayan Awards for their literary contribution.
• Vatayan-UK Samman willbe held virtually on 21 November at 8.30 pm IST.

Social Issues
Safaimitra Suraksha Challenge across 243 Cities launched

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Safaimitra Suraksha Challenge + about NSKFDC + about DICCI + NIUA) + Mains ( GS II Social issues - schemes for the vulnerable population of society + government policies and interventions + GS III infrastructure development)

What's the NEWS

• The Ministry of Housing and Urban launched the Safaimitra Suraksha Challenge
• It aims to ensure that no life of any sewer or septic tank cleaner is ever lost again owing to the issue of ‘hazardous cleaning.
• The Challenge, aptly launched on the occasion of World Toilet Day, is aimed at preventing ‘hazardous cleaning' of sewers and septic tanks and promote their mechanized cleaning.
• The virtual event saw State/ Union Territory and city officials coming together to take a pledge on behalf of 243 cities to mechanize all sewer and septic tank cleaning operations by 30th April 2021, and gave their commitment to work towards preventing any deaths from hazardous entry.

Know! about the challenge

• The Challenge will focus extensively on creating citizen awareness on this critical issue along with infrastructure creation for mechanized cleaning and capacity building of workforce.
• A dedicated helpline number has been set up to register complaints and provide real-time solutions on desludging or sewer overflow.

• The actual on-ground assessment of participating cities will be conducted in May 2021 by an independent agency and results of the same will be declared on 15 August 2021.
• Cities will be awarded in three sub-categories - with population of more than 10 lakhs, 3-10 lakhs and upto 3 lakhs, with a total prize money of Rs 52 crores to be given to winning cities across all categories.

• The event saw the launch of a series of advisories prepared by Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organisation (CPHEEO), MoHUA.

Manual Scavengers

• The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act (2013) and various judgements of Hon'ble Supreme Court expressly prohibit hazardous cleaning, i.e. manual entry into a septic tank or sewer without protective gear and observing operating procedures.
• Despite this, recurring episodes of human fatalities among those engaged in cleaning of septic tanks and sewers, typically belonging to the economically disadvantaged and marginalized communities of society, continue to be an issue of concern.

Additional relevant info

National Safai Karmacharis Finance and Development Corporation (NSKFDC)

• It was set up in January 1997 as a non profit company under Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India to empower the Manual Scavengers, Safai Karamcharis and their dependents to break away their traditional occupation, depressed social condition and poverty and leverage them to work their own way up the social and economic ladder with dignity and pride

Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DICCI)

• The Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DICCI) is an Indian association that promotes business enterprises for Dalits.
• It was founded in 2005 by Milind Kamble.
• DICCI has 29 state chapters and 7 international chapters. Members of DICCI come from diverse range of manufacturing, services and construction sectors.
• It organizes trade fairs and training camps among other things, and carries out promotional activities for the Dalit MSMEs.
• The organization is headquartered in Pune.
• In 2013, DICCI announced to float ₹500 crore venture capital fund to promote SC/ST entrepreneurs.
• SIDBI became first investor in the fund by announcing Rs 10 crore.

National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA)

• It is an institute for research, training and information dissemination in urban development and management in New Delhi, India.
• It was established in 1976 as an autonomous body under the Societies Registration Act.
• The Institute is supported by the Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India, State Governments, urban and regional development authorities and other agencies concerned with urban issues
• The Institute's policies and directions are determined by the Governing Council consisting of a President, who is appointed by the Government of India, two Vice-Presidents, three members of the Government of India in their ex officio capacity
• National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) was tasked to bridge the gap between research and practice on issues related to urbanization and suggest ways and mechanisms to address urban challenges in the country.
• It has utilized its competencies in research, knowledge management, policy advocacy and capacity building to address urban challenges and continuously striving to develop sustainable, inclusive, and productive urban ecosystems in the country.
• It has emerged as a thought leader and knowledge hub for urban development in India and is sought out by both Indian and International organizations for collaborations and partnerships in India's urban transforming journey.

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