Daily PIB Analysis For UPSC/IAS | 6th Feb 19

Table of Contents

Department of Space

India’s communication satellite GSAT-31 launched successfully from French Guiana India’s latest communication satellite, GSAT-31 was successfully launched from the Spaceport in French Guiana during the early hours today.
The launch vehicle Ariane 5 VA-247 lifted off from Kourou Launch Base, French Guiana at 2:31 am (IST) carrying India’s GSAT-31 and Saudi Geostationary Satellite 1/Hellas Sat 4 satellites, as scheduled.
After a 42-min flight, GSAT-31 separated from the Ariane 5 upper stage in an elliptical Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit with a perigee (nearest point to Earth) of 250 km and an apogee (farthest point to Earth) of 35,850 km, inclined at an angle of 3.0 degree to the equator. With a lift-off mass of 2536 kg, GSAT-31 will augment the Ku-band transponder capacity in Geostationary Orbit. The satellite will provide continuity to operational services on some of the in-orbit satellites. GSAT-31 derives its heritage from ISRO’s earlier INSAT/GSAT satellite series.
“GSAT-31 has a unique configuration of providing flexible frequency segments and flexible coverage. The satellite will provide communication services to Indian mainland and islands” ISRO Chairman Dr K Sivan said.
Dr. Sivan also remarked that “GSAT-31 will provide DTH Television Services, connectivity to VSATs for ATM, Stock-exchange, Digital Satellite News Gathering (DSNG) and e-governance applications. The satellite will also be used for bulk data transfer for a host of emerging telecommunication applications.”
After separation from Ariane-5 upper stage, the two solar arrays of GSAT-31 were automatically deployed in quick succession and ISRO’s Master Control Facility at Hassan in Karnataka took over the command and control of GSAT-31 and found its health parameters normal.
In the days ahead, scientists will undertake phase-wise orbit-raising manoeuvres to place the satellite in Geostationary Orbit (36,000 km above the equator) using its onboard propulsion system.
During the final stages of its orbit raising operations, the antenna reflector of GSAT-31 will be deployed. Following this, the satellite will be put in its final orbital configuration. The satellite will be operational after the successful completion of all inorbit tests.

Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare

Government is committed to providing greater access to rural milk producers by strengthening dairy infrastructure
Under Dairy Processing & Infrastructure Development Fund (DIDF), 22 sub-projects have been approved as on Jan 2019 with total estimated project cost of Rs 3147.22 crore
Speaking on “Milk Processing Infrastructure in Dairy Cooperative Sector” at the Inter-Session Meeting of Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare today he said that the government is making efforts to strengthen infrastructure for production of quality milk, procurement, processing and marketing of milk and milk products through various Dairy Development Schemes namely
National Programme for Dairy Development (NPDD), National Dairy Plan Phase-I (NDP-I) and Dairy Entrepreneurship Development Scheme (DEDS).
Further, Dairy Processing & Infrastructure Development Fund (DIDF) has been set up with a corpus of Rs 8004 crore for setting up of chilling infrastructure & installation of electronic milk adulteration testing equipment at village level and creation/ modernization / expansion of processing infrastructure and manufacturing facilities for Value Added Products.
He informed that new schemes with soft loans from World Bank and Japan International Corporation Agency (JICA) are being finalized for extending the benefits to wider number of farmers.
The Minister informed that the government is also formulating plans for creation of dairy infrastructure besides implementing the ongoing schemes for dairy development.
The National Action Plan (NAP) for Dairy Development envisages increasing milk production to 254.5 Million MT by 2021-22 requiring an annual growth rate of 8.56% which would lead to increase in per capita availability of milk to 515 grams per day by 2021-22 addressing the nutritional requirement of the growing population.
He added that to do this, it has been targeted to increase the organized milk handling from present 21% to 41% by March 2022 while
Increasing cooperative share from present 10% to 20%.

Ministry of Labour & Employment Employment

Opportunities to Youth Under NCS Project
The Ministry has signed strategic Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) with the private partners like job portals, placement organizations and reputed institutions for maximizing the reach of the National Career Service (NCS) project.

Ministry of Labour & Employment

Scheme for Employment Generation in The Country
Employment generation coupled with improving employability is the priority concern of the Government. Government has taken various steps for generating employment in the country like encouraging private sector of economy, fast tracking various projects involving substantial investment and increasing public expenditure on schemes like Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) run by Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA), Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) scheme run by Ministry of Rural Development and Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana- National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM) run by Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs.

Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana

(PMMY) has been initiated by Government for facilitating selfemployment.
Under PMMY collateral free loans upto Rs. 10 lakh, are extended to small/micro business enterprises and to individuals to enable them to setup or expand their business activities.
Till 25th January, 2019, total 15.59 crore loans have been sanctioned under the scheme.

Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Protsahan

Yojana has been initiated by the Ministry of Labour and Employment in the year 2016-17 for incentivizing employers for employment generation.
Under this scheme, Government is paying the entire employer’s contribution (12% or as admissible) towards the EPS and EPF for all sectors w.e.f. 01.04.2018 to all eligible new employees for the next 3 years from the date of registration of the new employee.
Till 28th January, 2019, benefits have been given to 1.29 lakh establishments covering 1.05 crore beneficiaries.

Under Skill India Mission,

Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship is implementing a flagship scheme known as Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) 2016-20 with an objective to provide skilling to one crore people under Short Term Training (STT), Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) and Special Project (SP) across the country for four years i.e. 20162020 with an outlay of Rs. 12,000 crore. Under the scheme, short duration skill development training programme is being imparted to all prospective candidates including candidates belonging to BPL in the country.

Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas

Status of National Gas Grid
The Government has envisaged to develop the National Gas Grid. At present about 16,788 Km natural gas pipeline is operational and about 14,239 Km gas pipelines are being developed to increase the availability of natural gas across the country. These pipelines have been authorized by Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) and are at various stages of execution viz. Pre-Project activities/laying/testing/commissioning etc.
PNGRB has authorized GAIL to develop North East gas pipeline to develop approximately 750 km long Barauni Guwahati pipeline as an integral part of Jagadishpur –Haldia – Bokaro Dhamra Pipeline (JHBDPL) project which will connect North East region with the National Gas Grid. Further, PNGRB has also authorized Indradhanush Gas Grid Limited (IGGL), a joint venture company of five Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) i.e. IOCL, ONGC, GAIL, OIL and NRL for the development of North East Gas Grid to connect eight states of North Eastern India.

The major policy initiatives taken by the Government during the last about four years to enhance production include, finalization of Hydrocarbon Exploration & Licensing Policy (HELP) and Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP), formulation of Discovered Small Field Policy (DSF), survey of un-appraised area of sedimentary basins, setting up of National Data Repository, policy framework for exploration and exploitation of unconventional hydrocarbons, streamlining of production contracts and fiscal incentives, etc.

Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship

Initiatives to improve quality of Skills for better employment opportunities
Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) has launched Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojna (PMKVY), the flagship program of the Ministry was launched in 2015 to mobilize youth to take up skill training with the aim of increasing productivity and aligning the training and certification to the needs of the country. Owing to success of PMKVY 1.0 wherein more than 19 lakh students were trained as against the target of 24 lakh, the scheme was re- launched as PMKVY 2.0 (20162020) with an aim to train 10 million youth by the year 2020.
Based on the learning from first phase of the scheme, changes were made under PMKVY (20162020) to ensure quality and standardization for the benefit of end beneficiaries. The training centres delivering training under PMKVY (20162020) have been inspected by third party inspection agencies, courses have been designed by Sector Skill Councils (SSCs) with industry inputs, and curriculum and candidate handbooks have been standardized for all job roles under PMKVY.