1. VanDhan CHRONICLE
TRIFED Vandhan Chronicle was launched by Arjun Munda, Minister for Tribal Affairs on December 23, 2021.
About:
- TRIFED VanDhan Chronicle is an in-depth resource on the Van Dhan Yojana and TRIFED’s activities in this important scheme.
- The chronicle gives an in-depth illustration of the activities undertaken by TRIFED which has impacted the life of almost 16 lakh tribals; including the introduction of Minimum Support Price (MSP) for select forest produces.
- Over the past two years, The ‘Mechanism for Marketing of Minor Forest Produce (MFP) through Minimum Support Price (MSP) & Development of Value Chain for MFP’ has impacted the tribal ecosystem in a major way.
- The Van Dhan tribal start-ups, a component of the same scheme, has emerged as a source of employment generation for tribal gatherers and forest dwellers and the home-bound tribal artisans. In less than two years, 52,976 Van Dhan Self Help Groups (VDSHGs), subsumed into 3110 Van Dhan Vikas Kendra Clusters (VDVKCs) of 300 forest dwellers each, have been sanctioned by TRIFED.
Source: PIB
2. INS KHUKRI
INS Khukri, the first of the indigenously built Missile Corvettes, was decommissioned after 32 years of glorious service on 23 Dec 2021. The ship solemn ceremony was held at Visakhapatnam.
About:
- The corvette was built by the Mazagaon Dock Shipbuilders on 23 August 1989 and had the distinction of being part of both the Western and Eastern Fleets.
- During her service, the ship was commanded by 28 Commanding Officers and traversed a distance of over 6,44,897 nautical miles, which is equivalent to navigating around the world 30 times or 3 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon.
- The ship was affiliated with the Gorkha Brigade of the Indian Army.
Source: PIB
3. 150th BIRTH ANNIVERSARY OF SRI AUROBINDO
The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi today chaired the first meeting of the High Level Committee (HLC) which has been constituted to commemorate 150th Birth Anniversary of Sri Aurobindo in a befitting manner.
About:
- The notification of HLC was issued on 20th December, 2021. The Committee comprises 53 members from various walks of life.
- The Prime Minister said that the two aspects of Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy of ‘Revolution’ and ‘Evolution’, are of key importance and should be emphasized as part of the commemoration.
- The youth should be encouraged towards the concept of greatness as embodied in the philosophy of Nar to Narayan to create a MahaManav as propounded by Sri Aurobindo.
- The Prime Minister proposed to launch the commemoration celebrations of Sri Aurobindo from Puducherry coinciding with the celebration of National Youth Day.
- This will encourage the youth to visit Puducherry and learn about his life and teachings, where Sri Aurobindo spent his life from 1910 to 1950.
Important Info :
Sri Aurobindo
- Sri Aurobindo (born Aurobindo Ghose; 15 August 1872 – 5 December 1950) was an Indian philosopher, yoga guru, maharishi, poet, and Indian nationalist.
- He was also a journalist, editing newspapers such as Bande Mataram.
- He joined the Indian movement for independence from British colonial rule, until 1910 and then became a spiritual reformer.
- At Pondicherry, Sri Aurobindo developed a spiritual practice he called Integral Yoga.
Source: PIB
4. SOYA MEAL
In a bid to cool down the domestic prices of Soya Meal, Government has notified an Order under the Essential Commodities Act to declare ‘Soya Meal’ as an Essential Commodities up to 30th June, 2022 by amending the Schedule of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955.
About:
- Government of India has issued a landmark Order where it has mentioned that in the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, in the Schedule, after serial No. (8), the following item shall be added, “(9) Soya Meal”.
- The decision would empower the Union Government and all States/UTs to regulate production, distribution etc. of Soya Meal and to smoothen the sale and availability of this item in the market.
- It will stop unfair market practices and enhance the availability for consumers like Poultry farm and Cattle feed manufacturers.
Source: PIB
5. STARTUPS
The Minister of Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal called for greater focus on nurturing entrepreneurship in the Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities of India. He was delivering the Keynote Address at the 3rd Meeting of National Startup Advisory Council.
About:
- It may be noted that 45% startups in India are from Tier 2 and 3 cities and 623 districts have at least 1 recognized startup.
- From 2018-21, almost 5.9L Jobs have been created by startups. In 2021 alone, almost 1.9L jobs have been created.
- Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) had constituted the National Startup Advisory Council to advise the Government on measures needed to build a strong ecosystem for nurturing innovation and startups in the country.
- Besides the ex-officio members, the council has several non-official members, representing various stakeholders such as founders of successful startups, veterans who have grown and scaled companies in India, representatives of associations of stakeholders of startups etc.
Source: PIB
6. GIS-BASED ‘AUTOMATIC WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM'
The GIS-based ‘Automatic Water Supply System’ for citizens of Cantonment Boards, 1st of its kind in the country was recently launched by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on the occasion of Defence Estates Day 2021.
About:
- The module of GIS based Water Supply system for Cantonment Boards has been developed by Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geo informatics under the guidance of Defence Secretary and Director General of Defence Estates, Delhi.
- It is completely automated which provides facility to its citizen to identify the location of water supply connection. It automatically determines nearest water pipeline.
- This GIS system is first of its kind in the country. It is based on 'minimum government and maximum governance' concept as there is no manual intervention for clearance or sanction of the water connection.
Source: All India Radio
7. TOKENISATION
The Reserve Bank of India has extended the implementation date of card-on-file (CoF) tokenisation norms by six months to June 30, 2022.
About:
- In September 2021, the RBI prohibited merchants from storing customer card details on their servers with effect from January 01, 2022, and mandated the adoption of card-on-file (CoF) tokenisation as an alternative to card storage. It applies to domestic, online purchases.
- Tokenisation refers to replacement of actual credit and debit card details with an alternate code called the “token”, which will be unique for a combination of card, token requestor and device.
- A tokenised card transaction is considered safer as the actual card details are not shared with the merchant during transaction processing.
Source: Indian Express
8. NMCG-TERI’S CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE (COE) ON WATER REUSE
The Director General of National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) and the Director General of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) launched the NMCG-TERI’s Centre of Excellence (CoE) on Water Reuse at the TERI Headquarters in New Delhi.
About:
- The CoE on Water Reuse is the first of its kind to be established in the country through a collaboration between NMCG and TERI.
- The Centre is a quadripartite alliance between NMCG, TERI, industry partners and industry representative bodies, to come up at the TERI campus in Gwal Pahari, Gurugram.
- It will be meeting the objectives of the Ganga Knowledge Centre (GKC) to design and foster research and innovation for low-cost, effective and integrated treatment technologies, which could bridge the current treatment gaps, augment capacities and provide safe treated water for reuse.
- Hence this CoE is also the first of its kind that will match the activities envisaged under GKC.
Source: PIB
9. GARBAGE FREE CITIES
Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Government of India launched the ‘Azadi@75 Star Rating Protocol of Garbage Free Cities- Toolkit 2022', the most important governance tool of waste management – the Star Rating Protocol for Garbage Free Cities.
About:
- On 1st October 2021, the Hon’ble Prime Minister launched Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban 2.0, with the overall vision of creating “Garbage Free Cities” (GFC).
- For achieving this vision, a key objective under SBM-U 2.0 is to make every urban local body at least 3-star Garbage Free as per the Star Rating protocol.
Important Info :
Key revisions in the protocol are:
- the earlier 25 components/ indicators have now been reduced to 24, of which only 16 indicators are mandatory for 1-star and 3-star levels. The remaining 8 indicators are aspirational in nature, and will be relevant for 5-star and 7-star aspirants;
- the multi-step calculation of the previous GFC protocol has now been changed to a single step marking, which will help ULB to easily self-assess themselves for applying;
- the revised protocol is aligned with SBM-U 2.0 priorities, with higher weightages (50%) allotted to Door-to-Door Collection, Source Segregation, Waste processing & Dumpsite remediation;
Source: PIB
10. DEFENCE INSTITUTE OF BIO-ENERGY RESEARCH (DIBER) LABORATORY
Raksha Rajya Mantri Shri Ajay Bhatt, visited DRDO’s Defence Institute of Bio-Energy Research (DIBER) laboratory, Haldwani and its Field station Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand.
About:
- The efforts of DIBER to generate energy from Pine Forest waste, are directed towards finding solutions for space heating and electricity generation in remote areas where grid supply is frequently interrupted due to adverse climatic conditions.
- The Biodiesel prepared by DIBER, is matching IS 15607 standards. It has been rigorously tested, found suitable and recommended in Army vehicles and Gen Sets at a blend of 20% in Petro - diesel.
- Another mission mode activity of DIBER is to transfer advanced technologies for cultivation of native and exotic vegetables to farmers located in remote border villages of Uttarakhand.
- The technology to grow Ophiocordyceps, an endangered high value medicinal mushroom, by tissue culture, has far-reaching implications in providing nutritional benefits to larger population and also in improving the economy.
- The Raksha Rajya Mantri also inaugurated Container-based BSL-III facility at Haldwani. This is the first container-based BSL-III facility of Uttarakhand.
Source : PIB