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

• India and the European Union are expected to make a ‘breakthrough' announcement to finally relaunch talks for a comprehensive trade and investment treaty
• The announcement, which will resume talks on the Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) or free trade agreement that have been frozen since 2013, will be made as Prime Minister Narendra Modi takes part in a virtual meeting with 27 European leaders, that is hosted by Portugal on May 8.

• During the summit, the two sides will also announce agreements on enhancing infrastructure and connectivity, climate change and green transition, and on cooperation to deal with the pandemic response and recovery, and a joint mechanism on Artificial Intelligence.
• The leaders to endorse the launch of negotiations on three agreements: trade, investment protection and geographical indications.
• The E.U. is one of India's largest trading partners, largest foreign investors, but there is a huge potential to grow trade and jobs which will be very important for both during the recovery from the pandemic
• The talks are expected to bring together India's separate bilateral trade ties with different European countries, establish an investment protection agreement and would look at how to remove trade irritants like Indian duties on wines and automobiles, and E.U. resistance to the mobility of Indian workers.
• The connectivity partnership announcement will be seen as a counter to China's Belt and Road Initiative(BRI) with a shared approach that the official said was for projects that are "transparent, viable, sustainable, respect international standards, and fair to all companies".
• Negotiations for a broad-based Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) started in 2007 and were suspended in 2013.

The BTIA talks collapsed over certain EU demands such as greater market access for automobiles, wines and spirits, and further opening up of India's financial services sector such as banking, insurance and e-commerce.

• The BTIA broad trade arrangement covers many factors of trade in goods, services, and investment.
• India is one of the EU's important, if not the largest, trading partners due to the fact that India accounted for 13.5% of total trade in 2015-2016. Thus the BTIA is important for both the EU and India.
• Both India and the European Union have been negotiating the Broad-based Trade and Investment Agreement for decades.
• The negotiations include many factors such as tariff reductions, market access and investments. The last rounds of negotiations happened in November 2013 and ever since then, the negotiations have been stonewalled.

Government Initiatives
Nineteen companies filed their applications under the PLI scheme for IT Hardware

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI) for IT Hardware) + Mains ( GS II government policies and interventions)
What's the NEWS

• A total of 19 companies have filed their application under the Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI) for IT Hardware which was notified on 03.03.2021.
• The scheme was open for filing applications till 30.04.2021. Incentives are applicable under the scheme from 01.04.2021.
• 14 companies have filed applications under the category Domestic Companies
• These companies are expected to expand their manufacturing operations in a significant manner and grow into national champion companies in IT Hardware production.

Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI) for IT Hardware

• The PLI Scheme extends an incentive of 4% to 2%/ 1% on net incremental sales (over base year of FY 2019-20) of goods under target segments that are manufactured in India to eligible companies, for a period of four years (FY 2021-22 to FY 2024-25).
• Initiatives like the "Digital India" and "Make in India" programmes, India has witnessed an unprecedented growth in electronics manufacturing in the last five years.
• The National Policy on Electronics 2019 envisions positioning India as a global hub for Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) by focusing on size and scale, promoting exports and enhancing domestic value addition by creating an enabling environment for the industry to compete globally.

Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for IT hardware products.

• After the success of the Production Linked Incentive Scheme in bringing investments in mobile phone (handsets and components) manufacturing, the Union Cabinet has approved the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for IT hardware products.
• The target IT hardware segments under the proposed Scheme include Laptops, Tablets, All-in-One Personal Computers (PCs) and Servers.
• The scheme proposes production linked incentives to boost domestic manufacturing and attract large investments in the value chain of these IT Hardware products.
• Over the next 4 years, the Scheme is expected to lead to total production of about INR 1,60,000 crore.
• Out of the total production, IT Hardware companies have proposed a production of over INR 1,35,000 crore, and Domestic Companies have proposed a production of over INR 25,000 crore.
• The scheme is expected to promote exports significantly. Out of the total production of INR 1,60,000 crore in the next 4 years, more than 37% will be contributed by exports of the order of INR 60,000 crore.
• The scheme will bring additional investment in electronics manufacturing to the tune of INR 2,350 crore.
• The scheme will generate approximately 37,500 direct employment opportunities in next 4 years along with creation of additional indirect employment of nearly 3 times the direct employment.

Prelims Factoids
Biodegradable yoga mat
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Moorhen Yoga Mat + about Deepor Beel)
What's the NEWS

• A biodegradable and compostable yoga mat developed from water hyacinth by six young girls from the fishing community in Assam could turn this water plant from a nuisance to wealth.
• The girls belong to the fishing community living in the fringe of the Deepor Beel, a permanent freshwater lake in south west of Guwahati city, recognised as a Ramsar Site (a wetland of international importance) and a bird wildlife sanctuary.
• The lake has been a source of livelihood for 9 villages of the fishing community who shared this biome for centuries, but over the years suffered from excessive growth and accumulation of water hyacinth.
• The innovation by the girls, whose families are directly dependent on the wetland for survival, could contribute significantly towards the environmental conservation and sustainability of Deepor Beel and also ensure local livelihood.
• The mat called ‘Moorhen Yoga Mat' will soon be introduced to the world market as a unique product.

Moorhen Yoga Mat'

• The intervention was triggered through an initiative by North East Centre for Technology Application and Reach (NECTAR), an autonomous body under Department of Science & Technology (DST), Govt. of India to involve the entire women community associated with a collective called ‘Simang' meaning dream, led by the 6 girls to create wealth from water hyacinth plants.
• Considering all aspects of water hyacinth's properties and the functional requirements of a product like a mat, a hand-woven 100% biodegradable and 100 % compostable mat to be used for doing Yoga was ideated as a means to provide multiple ecological and social benefits.
• The women wove water hyacinth using traditional Assamese loom with the help of different combinations of techniques, materials and tools to develop a high quality, comfortable and thoroughly biodegradable and compostable Yoga Mat.

Deepor Beel

• It is located to the south-west of Guwahati city, in Kamrup Metropolitan district of Assam, India
• It is a permanent freshwater lake, in a former channel of the Brahmaputra River, to the south of the main river.
• It is also called a wetland under the Ramsar Convention which has listed the lake in November 2002, as a Ramsar Site for undertaking conservation measures on the basis of its biological and environmental importance.
• Considered as one of the largest beels in the Brahmaputra valley of Lower Assam, it is categorised as representative of the wetland type under the Burma monsoon forest biogeographic region.
• The Dipor Bil is reported to provide, directly or indirectly, its natural resources for the livelihood of fourteen indigenous villages (1,200 families) located in its precincts.

North East Centre for Technology Application and Reach (NECTAR)

• It is an autonomous society within the Indian Government, set up under the Department of Science & Technology with its headquarters in Shillong, Meghalaya.
• The centre aims to work towards the social and economic development of the Northeastern region in India by harnessing and leveraging niche frontier technologies available through the central scientific departments and institutions.
• To assist the region, NECTAR aims to use technology to develop and fix biodiversity concerns, watershed management, telemedicine, horticulture, infrastructure planning & development, planning and monitoring, and tele-schooling using cutting-edge MESHNET solutions, employment generation, etc. through the utilization of local products/resources and associated skill development.

Prelims Factoids
Van Dhan Yojana

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Van Dhan Yojana)
What's the NEWS

• As a part of TRIFED's "Sankalp se Siddhi" - Village & Digital Connect Drive, teams (comprising officials from TRIFED and State Implementation Agencies/Mentoring Agencies/Partners) have been visiting villages to activate and understand the status of Van Dhan Vikas Kendras.
• The visits are taking place across the country and have helped Team TRIFED to oversee the ground-level implementation of the Van Dhan Vikas Kendras.
• A state where the implementation of the Van Dhan Yojana is gaining quick ground is Odisha.
• With 660 Van Dhan Vikas Kendras, subsumed into 22 Van Dhan Vikas Kendra Clusters, more than 6300 tribals are being positively impacted in the state.
• Over the past few months, training, procurement of machinery required for processing, branding and packaging has been going on in these clusters which are spread across the state

Van Dhan tribal start-ups programme

• Among the many initiatives, TRIFED, Ministry of Tribal Affairs is implementing to generate employment and income generation among the tribal population is the Van Dhan tribal start-ups programme, a component of the ‘Mechanism for Marketing of Minor Forest Produce (MFP) through Minimum Support Price (MSP) & Development of Value Chain for MFP' Scheme.
• The Van Dhan tribal start-ups, also a component of the same scheme, is a programme for value addition, branding & marketing of Minor Forest Produces by establishing Van DhanKendras to facilitate creation of sustainable livelihoods for the forest-based tribes.
• Over the past 18 months, the Van Dhan Vikas Yojana has gained tremendous ground with its quick adoption and robust implementation aided by the state nodal and implementation agencies across India.

The Van Dhan Scheme

• It is an initiative of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and TRIFED.
• It was launched on 14^th April, 2018 and seeks to improve tribal incomes through value addition of tribal products.
• The scheme will be implemented through Ministry of Tribal Affairs as Nodal Department at the Central Level and TRIFED as Nodal Agency at the National Level.
• At State level, the State Nodal Agency for MFPs and the District collectors are envisaged to play a pivot role in scheme implementation at grassroot level.
• Locally the Kendras are proposed to be managed by a Managing Committee (an SHG) consisting of representatives of Van Dhan SHGs in the cluster.

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