Daily Current Capsules 28^th January 2021

Defence
Integrated Weapon System Design Centre

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Integrated Weapon System Design Centre)
What's the NEWS

• The Vice President of India, visited DRDO's Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Missile Complex in Hyderabad and inaugurated the Integrated Weapon System Design Centre in the complex.

Integrated Weapon System Design facility

• The Integrated Weapon System Design facility will enhance the capability in design and development of command & control systems for surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems and ballistic missile defence (BMD) systems.
• The centre will give thrust to the overall system design and evaluation methodology for state-of-the-art missile systems and will help in improving the performance of missiles.
• This will play a major role in the realization of highly complex futuristic aerospace & defence systems.

Education
Agri-Food Techathon

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Agri-Food Techathon ) + Mains ( GS II government policies and interventions + GS III farmers welfare)
What's the NEWS

• Union Education inaugurated the Agri-Food Techathon
• He also laid the foundation for Agri-Business Incubation Centre (ABIC), which will incubate innovative ideas in the agriculture and food technology domain for creating ‘Agri-preneures.'

Agri-Food Techathon 2021

• Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, in collaboration with NABARD, organised the ‘Agri-Food Techathon 2021' (AFT 2021), a first-of-its-kind event to promote the participation of India's youth in innovation and entrepreneurship in different domains of the Agri-Food sector.
• The vision of incubating startups to create an ecosystem under the Agri-Food Techathon 2021 will bring together science and technology, and agriculture to support the farmers of our country.
• Such initiatives will help take the 'Vocal for Local and Local for Global' initiative to each corner of our country.
• This Techathon will lay the foundation of an Atmanirbhar Bharat and help India emerge as a Vishwaguru.

Miscellaneous
National Baseline Geoscience Data Generation Programmes (2020-2024)

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about NGPM ,NGCM , NAGMP) + Mains ( GS II government policies and interventions )
What's the NEWS

• To expedite exploration activities in the country, Geological Survey of India (GSI), has embarked upon an ambitious scheme to complete some major National level surveys by 2024:

1. National Geochemical Mapping (NGCM),
2. National Geophysical Mapping (NGPM),
3. National Aero Geophysical Mapping Program (NAGMP).

• GSI is also going to adopt sophisticated deep penetration geophysical techniques such as Magneto-Telluric Surveys and Deep Seismic Reflection Surveys (DSRS) in order to define the crustal architecture for deep seated mineral targeting.

National Geoscience Data Repository (NGDR)

• GSI has also initiated its flagship initiative of National Geoscience Data Repository (NGDR) for collation of all the geoscience data of the country involving GSI, other national organizations with geoscience as a focused activities, all the state directorate of mines and geology, the academia engaged in research and development in the domain, the CPSEs engaged in exploration and geoscientific pursuits, and private sector agencies working in the domain.
• It aims at integrating the collected data by GSI and the similar organizations to build a repository on the digital medium entailing multiple user access.
• It is planned that all the stakeholders from India and across the globe who are willing to participate in the current auction regime for allocation of mineral acreages will be able to use the NGDR.
• The planned Baseline Geoscience Data Collection campaign would also lead to a huge database, which will be the primary inputs for future exploration programs.
• GSI is in consultation with BISAG-N, a national institute under Ministry of Information & Technology for development of NGDR.

National Geochemical Mapping (NGCM)

• GSI envisages completion of NGCM programme by 2024
• It is an all India programme to cover the entire surface area of the country by geochemical sampling.
• The NGCM work will generate distribution pattern of 62 elements (samples collected at 1km x 1km grid) for use in managing and developing natural resources; for application in environmental, agricultural, human health, other social concerns and to search for hidden mineral deposits.

National Geophysical Mapping (NGPM)

• The Program have been systematically generating basic and derived maps of Bouguer (Gravity) Anomaly and IGRF corrected magnetic total field maps of the country by conducting ground gravity and magnetic surveys in 1: 50,000 scale with an approximate observation density of one station in 2.5 sq. Km., to cover the entire country with preference to Obvious Geological Province (OGP) areas.
• The anomaly maps derived from the processed gravity and magnetic data provides all stakeholders a framework to design exploration strategies.

National Aero Geophysical Mapping Program (NAGMP).

• First of its kind project in the country, its objectives are to delineate concealed, deep seated structure/ litho-units capable of hosting mineralization, delineate extension of the existing mineralized zone and understating of shallow crustal architecture in the context of mineral occurrence.
• The first phase of work involved collection of data over selected areas (12 Blocks) of Obvious Geological Potential (OGP).
• It is for the first time that the multi-sensor aero-geophysical surveys (magnetic gradiometry and spectrometric) are being carried out by adopting such large regional scale survey parameters of 300 m traverse line spacing with aircraft flown at 80 m above ground level.

Significance of these Programmes:

• The collation, assimilation and integration of the data generated from the above projects and further interpretation will lead to identification of more areas for mineral exploration in the country.
• The increased investment in mineral exploration will build a robust pipeline of prospective mineral blocks for auction.
• This will ensure long-term viability and continuity of mining in the country taking India towards the cherished goal of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat'.
• The data generated through this mapping activity has helped to build up the knowledge database for National Geo-scientific information, which helps in boosting mineral exploration activities, and other earth science related socio-economic activities and programmes.

Prelims Factoids
4^th edition of Future Investment Initiative Forum

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Future Investment Initiative Forum)
What's the NEWS

• The Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare addressed the 4th edition of the Future Investment Initiative Forum,
• The purpose of the forum being hosted in Riyadh was to find solutions on how business and government can expand access to healthcare, train healthcare workers, remove regulatory barriers and encourage investment in advanced health technologies.

Future Investment Initiative (FII)

• The Future Investment Initiative (FII) is an international platform for expert-led debate between global leaders, investors and innovators with the power to shape the future of global investment.
• It is focused on utilizing investment to drive growth opportunities, enable innovation and disruptive technologies, and address global challenges.
• The Future Investment Initiative Institute hosting the Fourth Edition of FII, a multi-hub conference held under the theme of "The Neo-Renaissance" that will link leaders, investors and policymakers as they reimagine the global economy amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
• FII is an annual investment forum held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to discuss trends in the world economy and investment environment.
• It is hosted by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF).
• The first event was in October 2017 and featured the announcements of the launch of NEOM, a proposed $500bn independent economic zone in the northwest of Saudi Arabia.

National
69^th meeting of the North East Council (NEC)
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about North East Council (NEC)
What's the NEWS

• The Union Home Minister chaired the 69^th meeting of the North East Council (NEC) in Meghalaya capital, Shillong

Know! all about North East Council (NEC)

• The eight States of Northeast India viz. Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim, are members of the council, with their respective Chief Ministers and Governors representing them. Sikkim was added to the council in the year 2002.
• The headquarters of the council is situated in Shillong and functions under the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DONER) of the Government of India
• The North Eastern Council was constituted in 1971 by an Act of Parliament.
• The constitution of the Council has marked the beginning of a new chapter of concerted and planned endeavour for the rapid development of the Region.
• Over the last thirty five years, NEC has been instrumental in setting in motion a new economic endeavour aimed at removing the basic handicaps that stood in the way of normal development of the region and has ushered in an era of new hope in this backward area full of great potentialities.
• The Council was initially set up as an advisory body but now sanctioned as a Regional planning body since 2002.
• They now discuss any matter in which the North Eastern States have a common interest and decide the action to be taken on any such matter.
• This was done so as to take care of the economic and social planning of these states, as well as to provide mediation in the event of inter-State disputes.

Governance
PM chairs 35^th PRAGATI interaction

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Pragati platform) + Mains ( GS II good governance)
What's the NEWS

• Prime Minister chaired the meeting of 35th edition of PRAGATI, the ICT based multi-modal platform for Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation, involving Central and State governments.
• In the meeting, ten agenda items were taken for review including nine projects and one program.
• Among the nine projects, three projects were from the Ministry of Railways, three from MORTH, and one project each from DPIIT, Power Ministry and Ministry of External Affairs.
• Up to the 34th edition of PRAGATI meetings, 283 projects having a total cost of 13.14 lakh crore have been reviewed.

PRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance And Timely Implementation),

• It is aimed at starting a culture of Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation.
• It is also a robust system for bringing e-transparency and e-accountability with real-time presence and exchange among the key stakeholders.
• The platform was launched on March 25, 2015.
• It is a multi-purpose and multi-modal platform that is aimed at addressing common man's grievances, and simultaneously monitoring and reviewing important programmes and projects of the Government of India as well as projects flagged by State Governments.
• The PRAGATI platform uniquely bundles three latest technologies: Digital data management, video-conferencing and geo-spatial technology.
• It also offers a unique combination in the direction of cooperative federalism since it brings on one stage the Secretaries of Government of India and the Chief Secretaries of the States.
• With this, the Prime Minister is able to discuss the issues with the concerned Central and State officials with full information and latest visuals of the ground level situation.
• It is a three-tier system (PMO, Union Government Secretaries, and Chief Secretaries of the States)
• Prime Minister will hold a monthly programme where he will interact with the Government of India Secretaries, and Chief Secretaries through Video-conferencing enabled by data and geo-informatics visuals;
• Issues to be flagged before the PM are picked up from the available database regarding Public Grievances, on-going Programmes and pending Projects.
• The system will ride on, strengthen and re-engineer the data bases of the CPGRAMS for grievances, Project Monitoring Group (PMG) and the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. PRAGATI provides an interface and platform for all these three aspects.
• It will take into consideration various correspondences to PM's office by the common people or from high dignitaries of States and/or developers of public projects.

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