1. LOVLINA BORGOHAIN
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi has congratulated Lovlina Borgohain for winning the Bronze Medal in Boxing at Tokyo Olympics 2020.
About:
- Lovlina Borgohain (born 1997) is an Indian boxer and an Olympic medal winner from the Golaghat district of Assam.
- She won a bronze medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics (Tokyo) in the Women's welterweight event.
- In 2020, she became the sixth person from Assam to receive Arjuna Award.
Source : LiveMint
2. IAC VIKRANT
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the Indian Navy and Cochin Shipyard Limited for the maiden sea trial of India’s first indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC) Vikrant.
About:
- With a planned induction of Vikrant in less than a year, India is set to join a select group of countries having the capability to indigenously design and build an aircraft carrier.
- Vikrant is named after the Majestic-class aircraft carrier which was operated by the Indian Navy from 1961 to 1997.
- IAC-1 has been designed by the Indian Navy’s Directorate of Naval Design (DND), and is being built at Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL), a public sector shipyard under the Ministry of Shipping.
- This is the first aircraft carrier designed and built in India. An aircraft carrier is one of the most potent marine assets for a nation, which enhances a Navy’s capability to travel far from its home shores to carry out air domination operations.
Important Info :
Background
- India’s earlier aircraft carriers were either built by the British or the Russians.
- The INS Vikramaditya, currently the Navy’s only aircraft carrier that was commissioned in 2013, started out as the Soviet-Russian Admiral Gorshkov.
- The country’s two earlier carriers, INS Vikrant and INS Viraat, were originally the British-built HMS Hercules and HMS Hermes before being commissioned into the Navy in 1961 and 1987 respectively.
Source : Indian Express
3. AIRPORTS ECONOMIC REGULATORY AUTHORITY OF INDIA (AMENDMENT) BILL, 2021
With the passage in Rajya Sabha, Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India (Amendment) Bill, 2021 got approval of both houses of Parliament. Earlier, on July 29, the Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha.
About:
- It seeks to amend the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India Act, 2008. The 2008 Act established the Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA).
- AERA regulates tariffs and other charges (such as airport development fees) for aeronautical services rendered at major airports in India.
- Major airports: The 2008 Act designates an airport as a major airport if it has an annual passenger traffic of at least 35 lakh. The central government may also designate any airport as a major airport by a notification. The Bill adds that the central government may group airports and notify the group as a major airport.
Source : Indian Express
4. INTERNATIONAL SOLAR ALLIANCE
Germany became the 5th country to sign International Solar Alliance Framework Agreement after amendments to it entered into force on 8th January 2021, opening its Membership to all Member States of the United Nations.
About:
- Membership to the ISA was earlier limited to 121 countries, which were partially or entirely located within the tropics. This didn’t allow major solar energy economies such as Germany to join the alliance that is being increasingly seen as a foreign policy tool.
- The initiative was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the India Africa Summit, and a meeting of member countries ahead of the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris in November 2015. The framework agreement of the International Solar Alliance opened for signatures in Marrakech, Morocco in November 2016.
- The ISA is headquartered in Gurugram, Haryana.
Source : All India Radio
5. INDIAN INSTITUTE OF SPACE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (IIST)
The Union Cabinet has approved the MoU between Indian Institute of Space science and Technology (IIST) and The Delft University of Technology (TU Delft).
About:
- It has been signed for carrying out the Academic programmes and Research activities involving students and faculty members in each institution signed on April 09, 2021 and May 17, 2021 at respective institutes and exchanged by email.
- Cooperation with the EWI, TU Delft, The Netherlands an oldest and largest Dutch public Technological University through this Agreement would lead to develop a joint activity in research in the area of Science and Technology.
Important Info :
Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST)
- Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST), situated at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala is a Deemed to be University under Section 3 of the UGC Act 1956.
- IIST functions as an autonomous body under the Department of Space, Government of India.
- IIST was formally inaugurated on 14 September 2007 by Dr. G. Madhavan Nair, the then Chairman, ISRO.
- Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the renowned technocrat and former President of India was its first Chancellor.
Source : PIB
6. FAST TRACK SPECIAL COURTS
The Union Cabinet has approved the continuation of 1023 Fast Track Special Court (FTSCs) including 389 exclusive POCSO Courts as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) from 01.04.2021 to 31.03.2023 with an outlay of Rs. 1572.86 crore (Rs.971.70 crore as Central Share and Rs.601.16 crore as State share)
About:
- Central Share is to be funded from Nirbhaya Fund.
- The Scheme was launched on 02.10.2019.
- To bring more stringent provisions and expeditious trial and disposal of such cases, the Central Government enacted "The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2018" and made provision of stringent punishment including death penalty for perpetrators of rape. This led to the establishment of the Fast Track Special Courts (FTSCs).
- Fast Track Special Courts are dedicated courts expected to ensure swift dispensation of justice. They have a better clearance rate as compared to the regular courts and hold speedy trials.
- Besides providing quick justice to the hapless victims, it strengthens the deterrence framework for sexual offenders.
Source : Business Standard
7. NUCLEAR POWER
Union Minister for Science & Technology informed Lok Sabha that the share of nuclear power in the total electricity generation in the country is about 3.1% in the year 2020-21.
About:
- More nuclear power plants are also planned in future and the nuclear power capacity is expected to reach 22480 MW by the year 2031 from the current 6780 MW.
- There are presently 22 reactors with a total capacity of 6780 MW in operation and one reactor, KAPP-3 (700 MW) has been connected to the grid on January 10, 2021.
- Ten (10) nuclear power reactors with 8000 MW capacity (including 500 MW PFBR being implemented by Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Limited {BHAVINI}) are under construction.
- Additionally, the Government has accorded administrative approval and financial sanction of ten (10) indigenous Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) of 700 MW each to be set up in fleet mode.
Source : All India Radio
8. LIMITED LIABILITY PARTNERSHIP (AMENDMENT) BILL, 2021
The Limited Liability Partnership (Amendment) Bill, 2021 was passed by Rajya Sabha.
About:
The Bill seeks to amend the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008 and provides for the following:
- To introduce the concept of “small limited liability partnership” in line with the concept of “small company” under the Companies Act, 2013;
- To amend certain sections of the Act so as to convert offences into civil defaults and to convert the nature of punishment provided in the said sections from fines to monetary penalties;
- To insert a new section 34A so as to empower the Central Government to prescribe the “Accounting Standards” or “Auditing Standards” for a class or classes of limited liability partnerships;
- To amend section 39 of the Act relating to “compounding of offences” so as to authorise the Regional Director to compound any offence under this Act which is punishable with fine only;
- To insert a new section 67A empowering the Central Government to establish or designate as many “Special Courts” as may be necessary for the purpose of providing speedy trial of offences under the Act;
- To amend section 72 of the Act so as to provide more clarity in the provisions when any person aggrieved by an order of “Tribunal” prefers an appeal to the “Appellate Tribunal”;
- To insert a new section 76A so as to provide that the Central Government may appoint as many officers as Adjudicating Officers as it thinks necessary for the purpose of adjudicating penalties under the Act.
Source : The Hindu
9. MPLADS
Virtually half of the belated ₹2,200 crore allotted for completing the ongoing MPLADS projects in 2020-21 simply lapsed, as the Finance Ministry granted “barely a week” to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) to release the funds.
About:
- Spending under the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) had already halved before the government suspended the scheme for two years in April last year and diverted the funds for managing the COVID-19 pandemic.
- From ₹5,012 crore spent during 2018-19, an expenditure of just ₹2,491.45 crore was taken up under the scheme in 2019-20.
- Each MP is granted ₹5 crore under the scheme, adding up to ₹3,950 crore a year for 790 MPs, to undertake development projects in their respective constituencies.
- After the scheme’s suspension, several MPs and parliamentary committees, including the Standing Committee on Finance (SCF), had asked the government to release MPLADS funds due from previous years for projects already sanctioned.
- The Finance Ministry also asked the Statistics Ministry to further tighten the scheme’s guidelines by September this year, so that “if a work sanctioned by an MP is not used for five years, it will automatically lapse even if there is a committed liability for the work to be completed”.
- Currently, funds released to district authorities under MPLADS is not lapsable, while funds not released by the government in a particular year are carried forward.
Source : The Hindu
10. SAMAGRA SHIKSHA
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved continuation of the revised Samagra Shiksha Scheme for a period of five years i.e., from 2021-22 to 2025-26 with a total financial outlay of Rs.2,94,283.04 crore which includes Central share of Rs.1,85,398.32 crore.
About:
- The Centre plans to pay students their Right to Education (RTE) entitlements in the form of cash transfers as part of a revamp.
- The Samagra Shiksha scheme is an integrated scheme for school education covering the entire gamut from pre-school to class XII. The scheme covers 11.6 lakh government and aided schools with over 15 crore students and 57 lakh teachers.
- It involves a 60:40 split in funding between the Centre and most States.
- The major interventions proposed under the scheme are: (i) Universal Access including Infrastructure Development and Retention; (ii) Foundational Literacy and Numeracy, (iii) Digital initiatives; (iv) Vocational Education; (v) Sports and Physical Education; (vi) Strengthening of Teacher Education and Training etc.
- The Scheme is implemented as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme through a single State Implementation Society (SIS) at the State level.
- At the National level, there is a Governing Council/Body headed by the Minister of Education and a Project Approval Board (PAB) headed by Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy.
Source : The Hindu