Daily PIB Analysis For UPSC/IAS | 14th & 15th November 2018 -

Table of Contents

Its cool

Disruption that shakes up industries is good for the world.

Mobile banking in Africa has bypassedØ traditional banks and given millions access to financial services.
Low-cost, distributed renewables areØ accelerating the death of coal fired power generation.
Cloud computing is helping thousandsØ of MSMEs to compete with small capital.
Elon Musk’s Tesla has pushed everyØ major carmaker to plan for an EV.

- Room air conditioners (RACs)
- Discovered some 100 years ago.
- It is based on a technology that has not fundamentally changed since its invention.
- Handful of companies are in this business and are spending more on adverts rather than R&D.
- International Energy Agency (IEA): $100 billion market today
- IEA says that this will grow 4 times by 2050.
- In developing world RACs are picking up.

It will add 0.5°C of global warming by the end of the century.
Demand for RACs is going to explode as the world warms, and hundreds of millions of people enter the consuming class in places like India and Indonesia.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that worldwide, by 2030, extreme heat could lead to a $2 trillion loss in labour productivity.
India’s economy alone stands to lose $450 billion — not to mention the 200 million Indians exposed to dangerous heat conditions each year.
The RAC market has seen some technology enhancements, but mainly incremental ones when it comes to energy efficiency.
Commercial LED (lightemitting diode) lighting has achieved nearly 70% of maximum theoretical efficiency.
Solar panels have reached 40%.
The best available RACs have only achieved 14%.
But its not insurmountable.
Governments should aggressively raise energy efficiency standards and phase out the most damaging refrigerants.
Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program, a collaborative commitment of $52 million to help developing countries move to energy-efficient, climatefriendly and affordable cooling solutions, is admirably working on
South Korea and Japan’s regulators forced a doubling of AC efficiency over the last several years, and manufacturers still found a way to make prices fall.
Global Cooling Innovation Summit in New Delhi: ‘to develop a cooling technology that requires radically less energy to operate, utilises refrigerants with no ozone depletion potential and with low global warming potential, and has the potential to be cost-effective at scale’.
It aims to shine a spotlight on potential breakthrough cooling solutions, with the support of the Indian government, the prize offers $3 million in total prize money.

Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers

Union Minister of Statistics & Programme Implementation, Shri D. V. Sadananda Gowda, has assumed charge of the Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers, in addition to his existing portfolio, today.
Dignitaries present on the occasion included Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways, Shipping and Chemicals & Fertilizers, Shri Mansukh L. Mandaviya, along with other senior officers of the Ministry.

Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation

A regional review meeting of the North Eastern States was held in Guwahati, Assam
The workshop comprised discussions on sustaining Open Defecation Free (ODF) status, Solid and Liquid Waste Management (SLWM), and rural water supply.
Teams from Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim joined the review
Shri Parameswaran Iyer, Secretary, Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation emphasized the importance of the joint effort being made by the Central and State SBM teams towards sustaining gains made under the program so far.
Sikkim highlighted the solid and liquid waste management initiatives being undertaken in the first ODF State of the country.
Assam shared highlights of “Mission Sambhav”, under which more than one lakh pit digging activities were initiated on a single day during the Swachhata Hi Seva fortnight.

Ministry of Earth Science

The Cyclonic storm ‘GAJA’ over Southwest and adjoining southeast & west central Bay of Bengal moved west-southwestwards with a speed of 10 kmph during past 06 hours and lay centred at 1130 hrs IST of 14th November, 2018 over Southwest and adjoining southeast & west central Bay of Bengal near latitude 12.8°N and longitude 84.8°E, about 490 km east of Chennai (Tamil Nadu) and 580 km eastnortheast of Nagapattinam (Tamil Nadu). It is very likely to move west-southwestwards and intensify further into a Severe Cyclonic Storm during next 12 hours.

Ministry of Home Affairs

India has a robust visa regime to facilitate smooth entry, stay and movement of foreigners in India for legitimate purposes while ensuring the security of the country.
The Electronic Visa Facility now covers practically all the countries of the world.
Foreign nationals of 166 countries can now enjoy this facility at 26 airports and 05 seaports.
The foreigner does not have to interact with any Indian official till his arrival at the immigration counter.
The Bureau of Immigration (BoI) generally decides within 24-48 hours whether or not to grant an e-visa to a foreigner.
The popularity of e-visa is sky rocketing.
The number of foreigners who visited India on evisa has gone up from 4.47 lakhs in 2015 to 17.00 lakhs in 2017. The figure for 2018 is 18.78 lakhs upto 30th October, 2018.
Two new categories of e-visa i.e. eConference & e-Medical Attendant visa have been introduced recently.
E-visa is now available for five categories i.e. (i) Tourist, (ii) Business (iii) Medical (iv) Conference and (v) medical attendant.
The local FRRO has been empowered now to extend duration of electronic visas beyond 60 days upto 90 days.
Moreover, these e-visas can now be availed three times in one year against twice in a year earlier.
For foreigners who are already in India and who require any consular/visa services like extension of visa, conversion of visa, exit permission or any of the total 27 visa-related services, an online e-FRRO facility has now been launched throughout the country.

Prime Minister’s Office

- The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has congratulated ISRO scientists on the successful launch of GSLV MK III-D2 carrying GSAT-29 satellite.

“My heartiest congratulations to our scientists on the successful launch of GSLV MK III-D2 carrying GSAT-29 satellite. The double success sets a new record of putting the heaviest satellite in orbit by an Indian launch vehicle.
The satellite will provide communication and internet services to the remotest corners of our country”, the Prime Minister said.

Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs

Hardeep Singh Puri has said that in this new era of RERA, we are witnessing positive transformative changes in the industry.
As we are in the 2nd year of the implementation of RERA, I am happy to note all the States/UTs have notified Rules under RERA except for 6 North Eastern States and the state of West Bengal.
Stating that it was a proud moment for all of us that India has climbed another 23 points in the World Bank’s “Ease of Doing Business Index” to 77th place, becoming the top ranked country in South Asia for the first time, Shri Puri pointed out that “the biggest gain was in construction permit, where India climbed from 181st ranks to 52nd place on the back of targeted government effort to remove hurdles.”
Shri Puri pointed out that till the year 2016, there was no regulator for real estate and construction sector, which is the largest employer after agriculture and housing.

Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution

Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) organised a seminar on “International Standards and the Fourth Industrial Revolution” in New Delhi to celebrate the World Standards Day 2018.
World Standards Day, is an international day of observance recognized world over since 1970.
This annual event is celebrated across the globe jointly with the International Electrotechnical (IEC), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
This occasion provides a perfect opportunity to reflect how Standards work in the real world, and the benefits they bring to business, society and the environment.

INS Arihant

INS Arihant is a 6,000-tonne SSBN (ship submersible ballistic, nuclear (SSBN) submarine)
It can carry ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads.
SSBNs are equipped with better stealth features and are larger compared to SSNs, which are nuclear-powered attack submarines.
The SSBNs are the best bet when it comes to a retaliatory strike to a nuclear attack.
INS Arihant is propelled by an 83 MW pressurised lightwater reactor at its core which was developed following extensive help by the Russians.
India’s quest for its indigenous nuclear submarine began in late 1990s under top secret project called Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV).
The plan was to build three such submarines. In 2009, Arihant was launched into the water at the ship-building centre in Visakhapatnam.

In 2013, the nuclear reactor of the submarine went ‘critical’.
Arihant is integrated with “K” (named after former president APJ Abdul Kalam) series of missiles.
Monday, 5 November 2018, was indeed a red letter and historic day in the history of India’s security paradigm when a visibly proud Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared the completion of a maiden ‘deterrent patrol’ by INS Arihant, India’s first indigenously built nuclear ballistic missile submarine.
This has added maritime strike capability to the land and air-based delivery platforms of nuclear weapons, thus completing the nuclear triad.
Security challenge of India is unique: We have to neighbors who are nuclear powers.
Furthermore in the Indian Ocean, Chinese submarines are constantly prowling round the year.
It is believed that they have deployed seven to eight submarines, alternating between nuclear and conventional, under the guise of anti-piracy patrols since 2013.
A nuclear submarine provides to India the capability to hide its ballistic missiles at sea for long periods and provide an assured Second Strike capability to hit back at the enemy, should the land and air delivery systems be neutralised.
The biggest advantage of the Submersible Ballistic Nuclear Submarine is that the sea is an opaque medium which makes the SSBN the most survivable leg of the triad.
Regular and unhindered communication from the National Command Authority (NCA) to the SSBN is critical for assuring the success of Second Strike capability especially when we have a No First Use nuclear doctrine.
Various layers of communication have been developed indigenously which provide redundancy and enhance survivability. They have proved their battle worthiness.
Miniaturisation of nuclear power plant has been achieved by the Department of Atomic Energy and calls for deep appreciation of the herculean effort on the part of the Indian navy and the scientific community.