Defence
Passage Exercise (PASSEX) between Russian Federation Navy and Indian Navy in Eastern Indian Ocean Region

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

• The Indian Navy (IN) is undertaking a Passage Exercise (PASSEX) with Russian Federation Navy (RuFN) in the Eastern Indian Ocean Region (IOR) from 4 to 5 December 2020.

Know! more about the exercise

• The exercise involves participation of RuFN guided missile cruiser Varyag, large anti-submarine ship AdmiralPanteleyev and medium ocean tanker Pechenga.
• IN is being represented by indigenously constructed guided missile frigate Shivalik and anti-submarine corvette Kadmatt along with integral helicopters.
• The exercise is aimed at enhancing interoperability, improving understanding and imbibing best practices between both the friendly navies
• PASSEXs are conducted regularly by IN with units of friendly foreign navies, whilst visiting each other's ports or during a rendezvous at sea.
• This exercise is being conducted on the occasion of ‘Navy Day' of the IN on 4th December, which emphasizes the strong bonds of friendship shared between the two friendly militaries.
• The two navies have built a robust relationship through regular exercises such as INDRA Navy conducted biennially, with the last edition held in the Northern Indian Ocean Region from 4 to 5 September 2020.

Government Schemes
Implementation of Component-C of PM-KUSUM
Relevance IN - Prelims (about PM-KUSUM Scheme and its three components) + Mains (GS II government policies and interventions + GS III Infrastructure development - energy)
What's the NEWS

• Ministry of New and Renewable (MNRE), after consultation with state governments, has decided to issue Guidelines for Implementation of Feeder Level Solarisation under Component-C of PM-KUSUM Scheme.
• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had approved PM-KUSUM scheme in its meeting held on 19.2.2019.

The Scheme consists of three components.

• The Component-A includes installation of Decentralized Ground Mounted Grid Connected Renewable Power Plants
• Component-B includes installation of standalone Solar Powered Agriculture Pumps and
• Component-C includes Solarisation of Grid-connected Agriculture Pumps.

Guidelines for implementation of Component-C

• Ministry had issued detailed Guidelines for implementation of Component-C of PM-KUSUM Scheme on 8 November 2019.
• As per provisions of the PM-KUSUM Scheme, the grid connected agriculture pumps can be solarised with central and state subsidy of 30% each and farmer's contribution of 40%.
• The solar capacity allowed is upto two times of the pump capacity in kW and surplus power will be purchased by DISCOM.
• Based on discussions held with states it has been decided to also include feeder level solarisation under Component-C of PM-KUSUM Scheme.
• The Distribution Company (DISCOM)/Power Department will be the implementing agency for feeder level solarisation in their respective areas.

Implementation under CAPEX Model:

• For installation of feeder level solar power plant CFA of 30% (50% in case of NE States, hilly states/UTs and Island UTs) will be provided by central Government and balance will be met through loan from NABARD/PFC/REC.

Implementation under RESCO Model:

• For installation of feeder level solar power plants through RESCO model, the developers will be selected on the basis of lowest tariff offered for supply of required solar power for a period of 25 years.

Water saving and enhancing farmers' income:

• The objective of Component-C of PM-KUSUM Scheme is to provide reliable day-time power to farmers, enhancing their income by purchasing surplus solar power and thus incentivising them for saving water.
• In case of feeder level solarisation, farmers will get daytime reliable solar power for irrigation, but there is no provision of selling surplus solar power. Therefore, farmers can be incentivised for saving water and enhancing their income.

Benchmark consumption.

• The DISCOMs shall assess the average power requirement by farmers of an area depending upon various factors. This power requirement will be treated as their benchmark consumption.
• The DISCOMs shall incentivise farmers for consuming power less than benchmark consumption.
• Such saving of power shall be treated as surplus power injected by farmers and they will be paid by DISCOMs against this saved power at pre-determined tariff. This will be an important measure for conserving groundwater level.

Allocation of capacity and Service Charges:

• Under Component-C of PM-KUSUM Scheme solarisation of total 4 lakh grid connected pumps are targeted for sanction by 2020-21 and 50% of these are to be solarised through feeder level solarisation and balance 50% through individual pump solarisation.

Monitoring:

• It will be mandatory for DISCOMs to monitor solar power generation and performance of the solar power plant through online system.
• The online data will be integrated with central monitoring portal which will extract data from the State portals for monitoring of the scheme.

Miscellaneous
Fourth South Asia Forum on SDGs

Relevance IN - Prelims (about 4^th South Asian Forum of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), UNESCAP) + Mains (GS II international organisations)
What's the NEWS

• In the backdrop of the 4th South Asian Forum of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), UNESCAP South Asia and Pacific virtually organised a special dialogue on disaster and climate resilience in South Asia
• The key objectives of the High Level meeting were to identify the opportunities and imperatives to overcome the challenges in implementing the systemic approach to disaster and public health risk management.
• In addition, other objectives were to formulate the strategies for capitalizing on existing regional and sub-regional cooperation mechanism including the South Asian Forum on SDG to scale up multi-hazard and multi-sectoral preparedness systems for future cascading disasters.

Steps taken by India

• The Prime Minister of India took the initiative for the coalition for resilient infrastructure and announced the global Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), at the UN Climate Action Summit 2019.
• India is also hosting SAARC Disaster Management Centre, it works closely with Universities of SAARC and BIMSTEC member States.

Know! about UNESCAP

• The Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) serves as the United Nations' regional hub promoting cooperation among countries to achieve inclusive and sustainable development.
• The largest regional intergovernmental platform with 53 Member States and 9 associate members, ESCAP has emerged as a strong regional think-tank offering countries sound analytical products that shed insight into the evolving economic, social and environmental dynamics of the region.
• The Commission's strategic focus is to deliver on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which is reinforced and deepened by promoting regional cooperation and integration to advance responses to shared vulnerabilities, connectivity, financial cooperation and market integration.
• The overall objective of ESCAP is to promote inclusive and sustainable economic and social development in the Asia-Pacific region, with priority accorded to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Science & Technology/Health
2^nd Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) 2020 Conference

Relevance IN - Prelims (about TCGA and ICGA) + Mains (GS II Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources
What's the NEWS

• The Minister of Science and Technology virtually inaugurated the 2ndTCGA 2020 conference
• Oncologists, Researchers, Scientists, and Academicians from India, USA, UK and Bangladesh are participating in international conference
• The Union Minister acknowledged the efforts of the consortium comprising of scientists and clinicians from across the world, who have come together to build an Indian Cancer Genomics Atlas (ICGA).
• Several large-scale mission mode projects taken by the Government such as Genome India, IndiGene Nutrition Mission etc. All these aimed at improving clinical outcomes in the cancer and other chronic diseases

Know! about TCGA and ICGA

• TCGA is a landmark cancer genomics program that molecularly characterized over 20,000 primary cancer and matched normal samples spanning 33 cancer types.
• This joint effort between the US- National Cancer Institute and the National Human Genome Research Institute began in 2006, bringing together researchers from diverse disciplines and multiple institutions.
• Over the years, TCGA generated over 2.5 petabytes of genomic, epigenomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic data.
• The data, which has already led to improvements in the ability to diagnose, treat, and prevent cancer, will remain publicly available for anyone in the research community to use.
• On similar lines, the establishment of an ‘Indian Cancer Genomics Atlas (ICGA)' has been initiated by a consortium of key stakeholders in India led by CSIR, Government of India in which several government agencies, cancer hospitals, academic institutions and private sector partners.

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