Daily Current Capsules 29^th June 2021

Defence
DRDO successfully flight tests New Generation Agni P Ballistic Missile

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

• Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully flight tested a New Generation Nuclear Capable Ballistic Missile Agni P from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam island off the coast of Odisha, Balasore
• Various telemetry and radar stations positioned along the eastern coast tracked and monitored the missile.
• The missile followed text book trajectory, meeting all mission objectives with high level of accuracy.

Know! about Agni P

• Agni P is the first of the new class of Agni missile to be launched by DRDO. The ballistic missile weighs 50% less than Agni 3 and has new guidance and a new generation of propulsion.
• Since the missile is canisterised, it can be launched from rail and road and stored for a longer period and transported all across the country as per operational requirements.
• The missile, which has a range between 1000km to 2000km, can be used to target enemy armadas in the Indo-Pacific.

Enhanced Pinaka rockets

• Last week, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully test-fired an extended range version of indigenously-developed Pinaka rocket at Integrated Test Range (ITR) in Chandipur off the coast of Odisha.
• 25 Enhanced Pinaka rockets, which can destroy targets at distances up to 45 kilometres, were test-fired in quick succession against targets at different ranges
• The 122 mm Caliber rockets were also launched from a Multi-Barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL).

Know! about Agni Missiles

• Agni (means fire) is a family of medium to intercontinental range ballistic missiles .
• Agni Missile established the re-entry technology and precise guidance to reach the specific target.
• Agni II nuclear capable missile was tested last year on Dr. Abdul Kalam Island in the Bay of Bengal off the coast of the Indian state of Odisha

Know! about Agni Class Missiles
Operational

• Agni I - Medium Range BM
• Agni II - Medium Range BM
• Agni III - Intermediate RBM

Testing

• Agni IV -Intermediate RBM
• Agni V - Intercontinental BM

Under Development

• Agni VI - Intercontinental BM

Prelims Factoids
Burmese grapes Leteku
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Burmese grapes + red rice + kaji nemu)
What's the NEWS

• In a major boost to harness the export potential of agricultural and processed food products from north-eastern states, a shipment of fresh Burmese grapes referred as ‘Leteku' in Assamese language has been exported to Dubai from Guwahati by air route.

Burmese grapes

• A consignment of Leteku, which contains vitamin C and Iron, was sourced and packed at a collection centre in Darang district of Assam.
• Consignment was exported by APEDA registered Kiega EXIM Pvt Ltd from Guwahati airport to Dubai via Delhi.
• APEDA has been carrying out promotional activities to bring the North-Eastern states on the agricultural and processed food products export map of India.

Red rice

• Recently, APEDA facilitated exports of the first consignment of ‘red rice' to the USA from Assam.
• Iron rich ‘red rice' is grown in Brahmaputra valley of Assam, without the use of any chemical fertilizer.
• The rice variety is referred to as ‘Bao-dhaan', which is an integral part of Assamese food.

Kaji Nemu

• APEDA assisted in exports of Geographical Indications (GI) certified Kaji Nemu (Assam lemon) to London. So far around 40 metric tonnes of Assam Lemon has been exported.
• Jackfruits sourced from the Tripura based Krishi SanyogaAgro Producer Company Ltd was exported to London.

Know! the role of APEDA

• APEDA has provided financial assistance to the private sector to set up a pack house at Guwahati which has fulfilled the mandatory requirement or infrastructure for export of fresh fruits and vegetables to Europe.
• APEDA undertakes market promotion activities for evolving structured marketing strategies for export of food products, market intelligence for taking informed decisions, international exposure, skill development, capacity building and high-quality packaging.
• APEDA would continue to focus on the north eastern region both in terms of capacity building, quality upgradation, and infrastructure development. Linking buyers to farmers, strengthening the entire supply chain of agricultural produce from the north-eastern region would bring in dividends.

Science & Technology
Indian Chest Society describes CSIR-CMERI Oxygen Enrichment Technology as ‘Made in India, Made for India'

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Indian Chest Society )
What's the NEWS

• A Webinar on ‘The Element of Hope in the COVID Era: Oxygen' was organised by the Indian Chest Society in association with CSIR-CMERI on 27^th June 2021.
• The Human Body rejects a substantial portion of Oxygen during the process of Exhaling.
• During High Flow Oxygen Therapy, the Exhaled Oxygen can be trapped which in turn will decrease the Oxygen Load to a great extent.
• The CSIR-CMERI Oxygen Enrichment Unit (OEU) encompasses the functionality and goes beyond that of an Oxygen Concentrator.
• Since, the MSMEs are the pillar of the Indian Economy, CSIR-CMERI has organised a series of Virtual Awareness Exercises to bring them into the fold.
• As part of this initiative the technology has already been handed over to a number of MSMEs across India, who in turn will help in diffusion of the Technology.
• The Licensees has also very innovatively upgraded the aesthetics and ergonomics of the Technology.
• CSIR-CMERI is working upon an Advanced Oxygen Mask technology which will provide protection against this Transmission of Viral Load.
• It has separate Supply and Exhaled Air passage. The Exhaled Air Passage/Channel is equipped with CO2 Scrubber and BV Filter.
• These innovative applications are a step towards the possibility of Recycling Oxygen from the Exhaled Air.
• Such Technologies are also ideal for Isolation Wards/Quarantine Zones, where there is an Air Recirculation Environment.

The Indian Chest Society (ICS)

• It is a not for profit registered society with the Society of Registrars (Registration No. 192-1980, dated 18th July 1980), for Respiratory/Pulmonary Physicians and other Physicians with interest in the specialty of Respiratory Medicine.
• A committee of eminent Chest Physicians, who were also the founding members took up the task to prepare the constitution of the society.
• The first General Body Meeting was held on 11th September 1981 at Hotel President, Mumbai, and the Constitution was adopted.
• The primary goal of the Society is to foster Educational & Research activities aimed at reducing the suffering and deaths of patients with Respiratory diseases.
• ICS aims to set up a platform to foster growth and progress through democratic methods, facilitating freedom of expression, and focusing on the nurture and support of trainees and young specialists in the speciality.
• The society endeavors to elevate the status of the speciality to a position of preeminence and is keen to play an advocacy role relating to Respiratory diseases, with the Government and non-Governmental organisations.

Economic Development
Relief package of Rs 6,28,993 crore announced to support Indian economy in fight against COVID-19 pandemic

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the relief package announced - highlights) + Mains ( GS III Economic development + financial inclusion + GS II government policies and interventions)
What's the NEWS

• Union Finance & Corporate Affairs Minister announced a slew of measures to provide relief to diverse sectors affected by the 2nd wave of COVID-19 pandemic.
• The measures announced also aim to prepare the health systems for emergency response and provide impetus for growth and employment.

Measures announced

• A total of 17 measures amounting to Rs. 6,28,993 crore were announced. These included two measures announced earlier, i.e. the additional Subsidy for DAP & P&K fertilizers, and extension of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) from May to November, 2021.

The measures announced today can be clubbed into 3 broad categories:-

1. Economic Relief from Pandemic
2. Strengthening Public Health
3. Impetus for Growth & Employment

1. Economic relief from Pandemic

• Eight out of 17 schemes announced here today aim at providing economic relief to people and businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Special focus is on health and reviving travel, tourism sectors.

i. 1.10 lakh crore Loan Guarantee Scheme for COVID Affected sectors

• Under this new scheme, additional credit of Rs 1.1 lakh crore will flow to the businesses. This includes Rs 50,000 crore for health sector and Rs 60,000 crore for other sectors, including tourism.

ii. Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS)

• The government has decided to expand the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS), launched as part of Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Package in May, 2020, by Rs 1.5 lakh crore.
• ECLGS has got a very warm response with Rs 2.73 lakh crore being sanctioned and Rs 2.10 lakh crore already disbursed under the scheme.
• Under the expanded scheme, limit of admissible guarantee and loan amount is proposed to be increased above existing level of 20% of outstanding on each loan.

iii. Credit Guarantee Scheme for Micro Finance Institutions

• This is a completely new scheme announced today which aims to benefit the smallest of the borrowers who are served by the network of Micro Finance Institutions. Guarantee will be provided to Scheduled Commercial Banks for loans to new or existing NBFC-MFIs or MFIs for on lending upto Rs 1.25 lakh to approximately 25 lakh small borrowers.
• Loans from banks to be capped at MCLR plus 2%. Maximum loan tenure will be 3 years, and 80% of assistance to be used by MFI for incremental lending. Interest rates will be at least 2% below maximum rate prescribed by RBI.
• The scheme focuses on new lending, and not on repayment of old loans.
• MFIs will lend to the borrowers in line with extant RBI guidelines such as number of lenders, borrower to be member of JLG, ceiling on household income & debt.
• Another feature of the scheme is that all borrowers (including defaulters upto 89 days) will be eligible. Guarantee cover will be available for funding provided by MLIs to MFIs/NBFC-MFIs till March 31, 2022 or till guarantees for an amount of Rs. 7,500 crore are issued, whichever is earlier.
• Guarantee will be provided upto 75% of default amount for upto 3 years through National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company (NCGTC)
• No guarantee fee to be charged by NCGTC under the scheme.

iv. Scheme for Tourists guides/ stakeholders

• Another new scheme announced today aims at providing relief to people working in tourism sector.
• Under new Loan Guarantee Scheme for COVID-affected sectors, working capital/personal loans will be provided to people in tourism sector to discharge liabilities and restart businesses impacted due to COVID-19 pandemic.
• The scheme will cover 10,700 Regional Level Tourist Guides recognised by Ministry of Tourism and Tourist Guides recognised by the State Governments; and about 1,000 Travel and Tourism Stakeholders (TTS) recognized by Ministry of Tourism. TTS's will be eligible to get a loan upto Rs. 10 lakh each while tourist guides can avail loan upto Rs 1 lakh each.
• There will be no processing charges, waiver of foreclosure/prepayment charges and no requirement of additional collateral. Scheme to be administered by the Ministry of Tourism through NCGTC.

v. Free one month tourist visa to 5 lakh tourists

• This is another scheme aimed at boosting the tourism sector. It envisages that once Visa issuance is restarted, the first 5 lakh Tourists Visas will be issued visa free of charge to visit India.
• However, the benefit will be available only once per tourist. The facility will be applicable till 31st March, 2022 or till 5 lakh visas are issued, whichever is earlier.
• Total financial implications of the scheme to the government will be Rs 100 crore.

vi. Extension of Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana (ANBRY)

• Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana was launched on 1st Oct, 2020. It incentivises employers for creation of new employment, restoration of loss of employment through EPFO.
• Under the scheme, subsidy is provided for two years from registration for new employees drawing monthly wages less than Rs. 15,000 for both Employer's and Employee's share of contribution (total 24% of wages) for establishment strength upto 1,000 employees; and only employee's share (12% of wages) in case of establishment strength of more than 1,000.

vii. Additional Subsidy for DAP & P&K fertilizers

• Additional subsidy to farmers for DAP and P&K fertilizers was announced recently.

viii. Free food grains under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) from May to November, 2021

• In the last Financial Year, the government has spent Rs. 133,972 crore under PMGKY to ameliorate the hardships faced by the poor due to economic disruption caused by COVID-19 Pandemic.
• The scheme was launched initially for the period from April to June 2020. However, keeping in view the need for continuous support to the poor and the needy, the scheme was extended till November 2020.
• In the wake of the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic, the scheme was relaunched in May 2021 to ensure food security of poor/vulnerable.
• Five kg of food grains will be provided free of cost to NFSA beneficiaries from May to November 2021.

II. Strengthening Public Health

Rs. 23,220 crore more for public health with emphasis on children and paediatric care/paediatric beds

• Besides supporting the health sector through credit guarantee scheme, a new scheme for strengthening public health infrastructure and human resources with outlay of Rs. 23,220 crore was also announced.
• The new scheme will focus on short term emergency preparedness with special emphasis on children and paediatric care/paediatric beds.
• Under the scheme funds will be available for short-term HR augmentation through medical students (interns, residents, final year) and nursing students; increasing availability of ICU beds, oxygen supply at central, district and sub-district level; availability of equipment, medicines; access to tele-consultation; strengthening ambulance services; and enhancing testing capacity and supportive diagnostics, strengthen capacity for surveillance and genome sequencing.

III. Special attention has been paid by the Government to provide impetus for growth and employment.

For this the following eight schemes were announced: -

i. Release of Climate Resilient Special Traits Varieties

• Earlier focus on developing higher yield crop varieties lacked attention towards nutrition, climate resilience and other traits.
• In these varieties, concentration of important nutrients was far below required level, and they were susceptible to biotic and abiotic stresses.
• ICAR has developed bio-fortified crop varieties having high nutrients like protein, iron, zinc, vitamin-A.
• These varieties are tolerant to diseases, insects, pests, drought, salinity, and flooding, early maturing and amenable to mechanical harvesting also developed.
• 21 such varieties of rice, peas, millet, maize, soyabean, quinoa, buckwheat, winged bean, pigeon pea & sorghum will be dedicated to the nation.

ii. Revival of North Eastern Regional Agricultural Marketing Corporation (NERAMAC)

• North Eastern Regional Agricultural Marketing Corporation (NERAMAC) was established in 1982 to support farmers of North-East in getting remunerative prices of agri-horticulture produces. It aims to enhance agricultural, procurement, processing and marketing infrastructure in North-East.
• 75 Farmer Producer Organisations/Farmer Producer Companies are registered with NERAMAC.
• It has facilitated registration of 13 Geographical Indicator (GI) crops of North-East.

iii. Rs. 33,000 crore Boost for Project Exports through National Export Insurance Account (NEIA)

• National Export Insurance Account (NEIA) Trust promotes Medium and Long Term (MLT) project exports by extending risk covers.
• It provides covers to buyer's credit, given by EXIM Bank, to less credit-worthy borrowers and supporting project exporters.
• NEIA Trust has supported 211 projects of Rs 52,860 crore in 52 countries by 63 different Indian Project Exporters till March 31, 2021.
• It has been decided to provide additional corpus to NEIA over 5 years. This will enable it to underwrite additional Rs. 33,000 crore of project exports.

iv. Rs. 88,000 crore boost to Export Insurance Cover

• Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (ECGC) promotes exports by providing credit insurance services. Its products support around 30% of India's merchandise exports. It has been decided to infuse equity in ECGC over 5 years to boost export insurance cover by Rs. 88,000 crore.

v. Digital India: Rs. 19,041 crore for Broadband to each Village through BharatNet PPP Model

• Out of 2,50,000 Gram Panchayats, 1,56,223 Gram Panchayats have been made service ready by 31st May, 2021.
• It is proposed to implement BharatNet in PPP model in 16 States (bundled into 9 packages) on viability gap funding basis. For this, an additional Rs. 19,041 crore will be provided.
• Thus, total outlay under BharatNet will be enhanced to Rs. 61,109 crore. This will enable expansion and upgradation of BharatNet to cover all Gram Panchayats and inhabited villages.

vi. Extension of Tenure of PLI Scheme for Large Scale Electronics Manufacturing

• PLI scheme provides incentive of 6% to 4% on incremental sales of goods under target segments that are manufactured in India, for a period of five years.
• It has been decided to extend the tenure of the scheme launched in 2020-21 by one year i.e. till 2025-26.
• Participating companies will get option of choosing any five years for meeting their production targets under the scheme. Investments made in 2020-21 will continue to be counted as eligible investments.

vii. Rs 3.03 lakh crore for Reform-Based Result-Linked Power Distribution Scheme

• Revamped Reforms-Based, Result-Linked power distribution scheme of financial assistance to DISCOMS for infrastructure creation, up-gradation of system, capacity building and process improvement was announced in the Union Budget of 2021-22.
• It aims at state specific intervention in place of "one size fits all".
• Participation in the scheme is contingent to pre-qualification criteria like publication of audited financial reports, upfront liquidation of State Government's dues/subsidy to DISCOMS and non-creation of additional regulatory assets.
• Under the scheme, it is aimed to provide assistance for installation of 25 crore smart meters, 10,000 feeders, 4 lakh km of LT overhead lines.
• Ongoing works of IPDS, DDUGJY and SAUBHAGYA will also be merged in the scheme.

viii. New streamlined process for PPP Projects and Asset Monetization

• Current process for approval of Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects is long and involves multiple levels of approval.
• A new policy will be formulated for appraisal and approval of PPP proposals and monetization of core infrastructure assets, including through InvITs.
• The policy will aim to ensure speedy clearance of projects to facilitate private sector's efficiencies in financing construction and management of infrastructure.

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