Weekly PIB Analysis | PIB News Analysis 6th to 12th June' 2022

Table of Contents

Ex Khaan Quest 2022

Context: An Indian Army contingent is participating in the exercise “Ex Khaan Quest 2022”.

Details:

This is a Multinational Peacekeeping exercise.
This edition is being hosted by Mongolia.
This exercise is seeing participation from military contingents of 16 countries including India.
The exercise is aimed at enhancing interoperability, building military to military relationships, and developing peace support operations and military readiness among participating nations.
The military exercise will enhance the level of defence cooperation between the Indian Army and participating countries, especially with the Mongolian Armed Forces which will enhance bilateral relations between the two countries.

India’s marine exports

Context: Statement by the Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Shri Piyush Goyal at the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA), Kochi.

Details:

The Minister highlighted India’s aims to double the marine product exports to Rs. One lakh crore from the present above Rs. 50,000 crore within the next five years.
Another major aspect would be the emphasis on sustainable fishing, ensuring quality and variety, promotion of coastal shipping and aquaculture, and supporting the entire fisheries ecosystem. In this respect, it becomes extremely important to educate, assist and encourage fishermen to follow sustainable measures in fishing and also to preserve the quality of the catch so that it will fetch better returns.
The Minister highlighted the government’s efforts to finalize more Free Trade Agreements with countries such as the UK, the EU and Canada. India has already finalized FTAs with UAE and Australia. This would provide the necessary market access and new opportunities for the country’s exporters including fishermen.
Efforts are also on to transform India into a seafood processing hub in the near future through supportive policies.

National Tribal Research Institute

Context: The National Tribal Research Institute has been inaugurated and will act as the premier institute for the promotion and preservation of tribal heritage and culture.

National Tribal Research Institute (NTRI):

This institute has been established in New Delhi and will function as the nerve centre of tribal research issues and matters in academic, executive and legislative fields.
Currently, there are 26 Tribal Research Institutes supported by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs. This National Institute will act as the link to connecting diverse tribal societies.

Objectives of NTRI:

The institute intends to work in the areas of tribal development, offering solutions to the tribes inhabiting areas hit by Left Wing Extremism.
The NTRI will monitor projects of Tribal Research Institutes, Centres of Excellence and research scholars, ensuring the improvement of the quality of research and training.
It will collaborate with a network of reputed research institutes, universities and organisations.
Policy inputs would be provided to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs as well as the State Welfare Departments by NTRI.
Other activities include:
- Structure studies and programmes to improve the socio-economic scenario of the tribal communities
- Provide guidelines in setting and running Tribal Museums
- Promoting rich tribal culture under one umbrella

RBI hikes repo rate

Context: The Monetary Policy Committee of the Reserve Bank of India decided to increase the repo rate by 50 basis points to 4.90%.

Points of the essence:

The Monetary Policy Committee of the RBI asserted some key changes in the policy to revive the economy from the ongoing crises due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the pandemic.
The GDP forecast remains at 7.2% with inflation projected at 6.7% for the period of 2022-23.
Credit cards, beginning with the RuPay card can be linked with UPI to increase the ease of digital payments.
e-Mandate transaction limit has increased to Rs 15,000.
The MPC, in its measure to benefit the cooperative banks, has taken into consideration the increase in housing prices and decided to increase the existing limits on individual housing loans by the Cooperative banks.
The Urban Cooperative banks can now extend their doorstep banking services to customers to enable banks to better meet their demands.
Rural Cooperative banks can now extend finance to commercial real estate (loans to residential housing projects) within the existing aggregate housing finance limit of 5% of total assets.

CiSS Application

Context: The National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has launched an application under the Bal Swaraj portal to help protect the children exposed to street situations. This application is named CiSS (Children in Street Situations).

About the CiSS Application:

This application will facilitate the rehabilitation process of children from the streets.
It will operate under the Bal Swaraj portal which was launched by NCPCR for online tracking and digital real-time monitoring of children in need of care and protection.
The portal has two functions such as COVID care and CiSS.
The Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for Care and Protection of Children in Street Situation 2.0 categorises any child under CiSS if:
- The child is living on the streets alone
- Living on the streets during the day
- Living on the streets with family
This is a unique application developed by NCPCR and an initiative that was taken under the direction of the Supreme Court of India.
This programme embodies Fundamental Duties enshrined in the Constitution by providing a platform for the public and organisations to work for the welfare of the children and protect their interests.

Offshore Wind Energy in India

Context: The Ministry of Power and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy engaged in a discussion on the transmission planning for offshore wind energy projects in India.

What is offshore wind energy?

It refers to the clean and renewable energy obtained by taking advantage of the force of the wind that is produced on the high seas.
The wind reaches a higher speed with consistency near the seas than on the land where it faces barriers.
Wind energy projects are seated on the seabed and are equipped with technical innovations.
There are more wind resources offshore than onshore.
Offshore wind farms can be installed in shallow waters about 60 metres deep away from the coast, marine traffic routes, strategic naval installations and zones of ecological interest.

Presidential Election

Context: India is about to witness the 16th Presidential Election.

Presidential Election:

Article 62 of the Indian Constitution states that there shall be an election to fill the vacancy caused by the expiration of the term of office of the outgoing President and the election shall be conducted before the expiry of the term.
Article 324 of the Constitution read with the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Act, 1952, and the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Rules, 1974 vests the superintendence, direction and control of the conduct of election to the office of the President in the Election Commission of India.

NFRA

Context: The National Financial Reporting Authority has organised a seminar on “High Quality Financial Reporting Framework through Effective Independent Oversight”. This seminar has been a part of the celebration of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

About the event:

The iconic event of NFRA will witness participation of experts in regulation of audit and accounting standards from India and other countries.
There will be a session by an expert from the Certified Public Accountants and Auditing Oversight Board, Japan to discuss global experiences about review of audit quality and financial reporting.

NFRA

The National Financial Reporting Authority was established in 2018 by the Government of India under sub-section (1) of section 132 of the Companies Act, 2013.
The NFRA rules envisages the creation of an authority to protect public interest and the interests of investors, creditors and others associated with the companies or bodies corporate.
NFRA is entrusted with the tasks of maintaining high quality standards of accounting and auditing and providing recommendations for better management of audits.

Alluri Sitarama Raju

Context:

Union Minister of Culture, Shri G Kishan Reddy would be visiting Andhra Pradesh to review the preparations being made for commemoration of the yearlong 125th birth anniversary celebrations of the revolutionary freedom fighter, Sri Alluri Sitarama Raju.
He was born on 4th July 1897.
Along with the 125th birth anniversary, the Government of India will also be commemorating the 100th year of the popular Rampa freedom struggle

Details:

Sri Alluri Sitarama Raju is an Indian revolutionary actively involved in the Indian Freedom Struggle. He is also referred to as “Manyam Veerudu” or the “Hero of Jungle”.
Alluri Sitaram Raju led the Rampa Rebellion in 1922 opposing the British Raj for enacting the 1882 Madras Forest Act, which heavily limited the tribal group’s freedom of movement within their own woodlands.
Between August 1922 and May 1924, for close to 2 years, Sitarama Raju led one of the most intense uprisings against the British.

25^th meeting of the Western Zonal Council

Context: Union Home and Cooperation Minister Shri Amit Shah recently presided over the 25th meeting of Western Zonal Council in Diu.

Background

The Zonal Councils were established under the States Reorganisation Act in 1956 and hence are statutory bodies.
The present composition of each of the Zonal Councils is as under:
The Northern Zonal Council, comprising the States of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, National Capital Territory of Delhi and Union Territory of Chandigarh;
The Central Zonal Council, comprising the States of Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh;
The Eastern Zonal Council, comprising the States of Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Sikkim and West Bengal;
The Western Zonal Council, comprising the States of Goa, Gujarat, Maharashtra and the Union Territories of Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli; and
The Southern Zonal Council, comprising the States of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry.
The North Eastern States i.e. (i) Assam (ii) Arunachal Pradesh (iii) Manipur (iv) Tripura (v) Mizoram (vi) Meghalaya and (vii) Nagaland are not included in the Zonal Councils and their special problems are looked after by the North Eastern Council, set up under the North Eastern Council Act, 1972.
The Union Home Minister is the Chairman of each of these Councils.
The Chief Ministers of the States included in each zone act as Vice-Chairman of the Zonal Council for that zone by rotation, each holding office for a period of one year at a time.
The Zonal Councils provide the platform to foster collaboration through a structured mechanism for dialogue and discussion on a continuous basis on the issues affecting one or more States or between the Centre and the States.
The Zonal Councils are advisory in character.

National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment 2021 Report

Context: Union Minister Science and Technology will release the second edition of the National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment 2021.

National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment (NeSDA)

The Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DARPG), Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions constituted the National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment (NeSDA) in 2019.
It was constituted as part of its mandate to boost the e-government endeavours and drive digital government excellence.
NeSDA is a biennial study (once in two years).
NeSDA assesses States, Union Territories (UTs), and focuses on Central Ministries on the effectiveness of e-Governance service delivery.
NeSDA helps the respective governments to improve their delivery of citizen centric services and shares best practices across the country for all States, UTs and Central Ministries to emulate.
The second edition of the NeSDA study was started in January 2021.
NeSDA 2021 covers services across seven sectors namely Finance, Labour & Employment, Education, Local Governance & Utility Services, Social Welfare, Environment and Tourism sectors.

Key takeaways from NeSDA 2021

NeSDA 2021 has highlighted clear progress in the e-Governance services across the country.
Increase in e-Service Delivery
Increase in the use of integrated or centralized Portals for delivery of e-Services
Improvement across assessment parameter scores
In NeSDA 2021, 1400 services across all States and UTs were assessed as compared to 872 in 2019.
74% of respondents of the county-wide citizen survey undertaken during the study, stated that they are satisfied with the e-Services provided by the States and UTs.
The e-Services of Finance and Local Governance & Utility Services sectors were the most widNeSDA 2021 findings ely used
The reflect the journey of e-Services towards citizen centricity and benchmarking governance.

National Monuments Authority

Context: A team from National Monuments Authority (NMA) to visit Arunachal Pradesh to identify new additions to the list of Centrally Protected Monuments from the state.

National Monuments Authority (NMA)

National Monuments Authority (NMA) is set up under the Ministry of Culture
It has been established based on the provisions of Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains AMASR (Amendment and Validation) Act, 2010
Objective: protection and preservation of monuments and sites through management of the prohibited and regulated area around the centrally protected monuments
Functions:
- Recommend the Central Government on the grading and classification of protected monuments and protected areas declared as of national importance
- Monitor and assess working of the competent authorities
- Suggest measures for the implementation of the provisions of the Act
- Undertake impact assessment of large-scale development projects such as public projects in the regulated areas
- To recommend actions to the competent authority for grant of permission
NMA has been mandated to categorize all the protected monuments and protected areas declared as of National importance as per provision of Section 20 I of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (Amendment and Validation) Act, 2010.