194 Start-ups are currently registered with Start-up India operating in the Aeronautics, Aerospace & Defence sector
Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) framework was launched with the aim to achieve self-reliance and to foster innovation and technology development in Defence and Aerospace Sector by engaging Industries including MSMEs, start-ups, individual innovators, R&D institutes and academia. 44 iDEX winners have so far been identified for 14 problem statements. 3 new problem statements have been launched recently to expand the network.
Apart from the above, DRDO has launched a program termed as Technology Development Fund (TDF) for meeting the requirements of Tri-Services, Defence Production and DRDO. The scheme has been established to promote self-reliance in Defence Technology as part of the ‘Make in India’ initiative by encouraging participation of public/private industries especially MSMEs.
Further, ‘Make-II’ procedure has been simplified to encourage wider participation of Indian industry, with impetus for MSME/start-ups sector and timely induction of equipment into Indian Armed forces. The ‘Start-ups’ recognized by Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) from time to time, are eligible to participate under ‘Make-II’ procedure. In addition, the frame work for implementation of ‘Make-II’ at OFB and DPSU level has also been notified.
Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) has evolved a new industry friendly ToT policy for transfer of DRDO developed technologies to industries. DRDO has also promulgated new patent policy to facilitate Indian industries to get free access to use DRDO patents.
Following policy initiatives have been undertaken by the Government to promote Defence Exports:- Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the export of munitions list items has been simplified to reduce the processing time for export authorizations. A completely end-to-end online portal for receiving and processing authorization permission has been developed. The applications submitted on this portal are digitally signed and the digitally signed authorization are issued.
The Government has notified the Open General Export License (OGEL) – a one time export license, which permits the industry to export specified items to specified destinations, enumerated in the OGEL, without seeking export authorisation on case to case basis during the validity of the OGEL.
Scheme for Promotion of Defence Exports has been notified to provide an opportunity to the prospective exporters an option to get their product certified by the Government and provides access to the testing infrastructure of Ministry of Defence for initial validation of the product and its subsequent field trials. The certificate can be produced by the prospective exporter for marketing their products suitably in the global market.
A separate Cell has been formed in the Department of Defence Production to co-ordinate and follow up on export related action including enquiries received from various countries and facilitate private sector and public sector companies for export promotion.
Defence attachesare tasked to take up actions for promoting exports of Indian made defence products both of public and private sector in the countries to which they are attached.
DRDO provides all necessary support to the industries for export of DRDO designed & developed product(s). DRDO has evolved a compendium of “DRDO Developed Product with Potential for Export”, which provides the necessary and handy information about the products ready for export.
India’s youth power will infuse life into Fit India Campaign: Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ Shri Kiren Rijiju congratulates Kendriya Vidyalayas for promoting sports alongwith education Posted On: 04 DEC 2019 6:46PM by PIB Delhi
Union HRD Minister Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ and Minister of State for Youth Affairs & Sports Shri Kiren Rijiju jointly inaugurated the newly constructed Cricket Stadium at KV No. 1, Delhi Cantt in Delhi today. They also launched the Fit India School Rating System. Member of Parliament Smt Meenakshi Lekhi graced the occasion along with other dignitaries.
Union HRD Minister in his address said that healthy India is the cornerstone in making New India. He said that the Fit India program is an innovative initiative launched by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to increase the awareness among the masses and to encourage people to adopthealthy lifestyle.He said that health does not only mean absence of disease in body, but also implies how happy and full of energy we are. The Minister was delighted to know that there is already a program going on in the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan called 'Healthy Children Healthy India', this Fit India program will give it a new dimension.
Shri Pokhriyal said that the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) and Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) are playing an important role in every field related with School education. We have more than 16 lakh Schools and over one thousand Universities catering education to over 33 crores students. This is a huge Youth Power which will infuse life into Fit India Campaign,he said. Shri Nishank complimented the efforts of KVS in Fit India Campaign and admired KV students as Brand Ambassador of the campaign.
Speaking on the occasion Shri Rijiju said that Fit India school rating system as per certain parameters will enhance the image of the schools. He also complimented the Kendriya Vidyalayas for their active participation in Fit India Movement. He said KVs are ahead of other schools in promoting culture and sports along with education. He called upon all the students to do physical exercise daily in order to remain fit. Because only fit people can make the nation fit, he added. He also complimented CBSE for joining hands with Sports Ministry in making Fit India Movement a success through active participation of schools.
Selected areas are being identified on case to case basis after due consideration of operational, security and administrative aspects. The number of tourists to be permitted will be considered on case to case basis.
The movement of the civilians to the region will be controlled in a manner, so as to safeguard the ecology and local flora & fauna.
The projects of Capital procurement of defence equipment are undertaken based on threat perception, operational challenges & technological changes and to keep the Armed Forces in a state of readiness to meet the entire spectrum of security challenges.
The existing Defence Production Policy aims at achieving substantive self-reliance in the design, development and production of equipment, weapon systems, platforms required for defence in as early a time frame as possible, creating conditions conducive for private industry to play an active role in this endeavour; enhancing potential of SMEs in indigenisation and broadening the defence R&D base of the country.
A number of measures have been taken to promote ‘Make in India’ in defence manufacturing by harnessing the capabilities of the public & private sector such as introduction of new category of procurement ‘Buy {Indian-IDDM (Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured)} and ‘Strategic Partnership Model’ in Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP); according preference to ‘Buy (Indian-IDDM)’, ‘Buy (Indian)’, ‘Buy and Make (Indian)’ & ‘Make’ categories of capital acquisition over ‘Buy (Global)’ & ‘Buy & Make (Global)’ categories; simplification of Make-II procedure, etc.
As a result of the aforesaid initiatives undertaken, the Government in the last three years i.e. from 2016-17 to 2018-19 and current year till September, 2019, has accorded Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) to 130 proposals, worth Rs. 2,63,704 Crore approximately, under those categories of Capital Procurement which promote domestic manufacturing as per DPP-2016.
Funding support to the tune of up to 60% (90% for North Eastern States) for such projects is provided by the Government of India.
About Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana: It is a sub component of the Deendayal Antodaya Yojana-NRLM (DAY-NRLM). It seeks to improve the present status of women in Agriculture, and to enhance the opportunities available to empower her.
MKSP recognizes the identity of “Mahila” as “Kisan” and strives to build the capacity of women in the domain of agro-ecologically sustainable practices.
Objectives and significance: The focus of MKSP is on capacitating smallholders to adopt sustainable climate resilient agro-ecology and eventually create a pool of skilled community professionals.
Its objective is to strengthen smallholder agriculture through promotion of sustainable agriculture practices such as Community Managed Sustainable Agriculture (CMSA), Non Pesticide Management (NPM), Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF), Pashu-Sakhi model for doorstep animal care services, Sustainable regeneration and harvesting of Non-Timber Forest Produce.
Need for feminization of agriculture: Rural women form the most productive work force in the economy of majority of the developing nations including India.
More than 80% of rural women are engaged in agriculture activities for their livelihoods. About 20 per cent of farm livelihoods are female headed due to widowhood, desertion, or male emigration.
Agriculture support system in India strengthens the exclusion of women from their entitlements as agriculture workers and cultivators. Most of the women-headed households are not able to access extension services, farmers support institutions and production assets like seed, water, credit, subsidy etc. As agricultural workers, women are paid lower wage than men.
The vaccine has been designed and developed by Bharat Biotech. About Rotavirus: It is a genus of double-stranded RNA virus in the Reoviridae family.
Rotavirus is a leading cause of severe diarrhoea and death among children less than five years of age. It is responsible for around 10% of total child mortality every year.
Rotavirus-Signs and Symptoms: Kids with a rotavirus infection have fever, nausea, and vomiting, often followed by abdominal cramps and frequent, watery diarrhea. Kids may also have a cough and runny nose.
Sometimes the diarrhea that accompanies a rotavirus infection is so severe that it can quickly lead to dehydration. As with all viruses, though, some rotavirus infections cause few or no symptoms, especially in adults.
Transmission: Rotavirus is transmitted by the faecal-oral route, via contact with contaminated hands, surfaces and objects, and possibly by the respiratory route. Viral diarrhea is highly contagious.
Background: Out of all the causes of diarrhoea, rotavirus is a leading cause of diarrhoea in children less than 5 years of age. Rotavirus diarrhoea presents in similar manner like any other diarrhoea but can mainly be prevented through rotavirus vaccination. Other diarrhoea can be prevented through general measures like good hygiene, frequent hand washing, safe water and safe food consumption, exclusive breastfeeding and vitamin A supplementation.
What is Independent directors databank? Developed and maintained by the Indian Institute for Corporate Affairs (IICA) under Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
Applications: Provides for a wide array of e-learning courses on various topics including the Companies Act, Securities laws, basic accountancy, board practices, board ethics and board effectiveness.
Provides an easy to access navigation platform for the registration of existing Independent Directors as well as individuals aspiring to become independent directors.
Companies can register themselves with the databank to search, select and connect with individuals aspiring to be Independent Directors.
Who is an independent director? An Independent Director is a director on a board of directors representing minority shareholders and who does not have a pecuniary relationship with the company or related persons, except for sitting fees.
Their role is to take a stand unambiguously and independently to have a check and balance on the exuberance of majority shareholders that may expose the company to unwarranted risks. The Companies Act, 2013 has mandated all listed public companies to have at least one-third of the total Directors to be independent.
Need for strengthening their role: They must not assume a passive role. Their Strict accountability and eligibility will curb promoters placing their own ineligible candidates and family members on the listed company boards.
Punjab to create land banks in rural areas Implications: The amendment will facilitate gram panchayats to promote development of villages by unlocking the value of ‘Shamlat’ or village common land.
The new rule would pave the way for transfer of ‘Shamlat’ land for industrial projects to the industry department and state-owned Punjab Small Industries & Export Corporation (PSIEC).
Role of panchayats: The amendments ensure that the Panchayats get their dues, with all decisions to be taken on a case to case basis keeping their interests in view.
With this amendment, a gram panchayat could, with the prior approval of the state government, transfer the ‘Shamlat land’ vested in it by way of sale on deferred payment terms to industries department or PSIEC for their industrial infrastructure projects.
What is Shamlat land? It is one that does not come under habitation and cultivation and is considered as consolidated land holdings for common use.
Background: The USFDA inspected the NMR facility during August 21-22 and found the facility in an acceptable state of compliance with regard to Current Good Manufacturing Practice (CGMP). Accordingly, it classified the facility as “no action initiated (NAI)”.
What is NMR? The NMR spectroscopy is an important technique for structural characterization of pharmaceutical and other chemical molecules. The technique is used in quality control and reserach for determining the content and purity of a sample as well as its molecular structure.
How it works? The sample is placed in a magnetic field and the NMR signal is produced by excitation of the nuclei sample with radio waves into nuclear magnetic resonance, which is detected with sensitive radio receivers.
The intramolecular magnetic fieldaround an atom in a molecule changes the resonance frequency, thus giving access to details of the electronic structure of a molecule and its individual functional groups.
As the fields are unique or highly characteristic to individual compounds, in modern organic chemistry practice, NMR spectroscopy is the definitive method to identify monomolecular organic compounds.
What is torrefaction? It is a thermal process used to produce high-grade solid biofuels from various streams of woody biomass or agro residues.
The end product is a stable, homogeneous, high quality solid biofuel with far greater energy density and calorific value than the original feedstock, providing significant benefits in logistics, handling and storage, as well as opening up a wide range of potential uses.
How it works? Biomass torrefaction involves heating the biomass to temperatures between 250 and 300 degrees Celsius in a low-oxygen atmosphere. When biomass is heated at such temperatures, the moisture evaporates and various low-calorific components (volatiles) contained in the biomass are driven out.
During this process the hemi-cellulose in the biomass decomposes, which transforms the biomass from a fibrous low quality fuel into a product with excellent fuel characteristics.
Released by Euromonitor International, a UK-based global market research company.
The Euromonitor report highlights top 100 cities based on 2018 international arrivals. Arrivals encompasses all purposes of visit such as business, leisure and visiting friends and relatives.
Key findings: India has emerged as the strongest emerging destination with seven cities in the top 100 popular cities this year. Delhi is forecast to be hold the 8th place in 2019.
Despite political unrest and protests in the last few months, Hong Kong remained No.1 destination this year. However, the number of vistors arriving to Hong Kong declined in 2019.
Asia posted fastest growth in the number of international arrivals globally. Developed infrastructure, government’s focus on tourism and digitisation of travel facilities like e-visa are some of the reasons behind Asian countries’ popularity among global tourists.
It is a surface-to-surface tactical missile with a strike range of 350 km. It is developed by DRDO under Integrated Guided Missile Development Program (IGMDP).
It is capable of carrying 500 to 1,000 kg of warheads, both conventional as well as nuclear.
The state-of-the-art missile is powered by liquid propulsion twin engines. It uses an advanced inertial guidance system with maneuvering orbit to hit its target.
It was inducted into armour of the defence forces in 2003.
Context: It is observed every year on December 3 to promote the rights and well-being of persons with disabilities in all spheres of society and development.
Key facts: It was instituted by United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in 1992. It aims to promote an understanding of disability issues and mobilize support for the dignity, rights and well-being of persons with disabilities.
It also seeks to increase awareness of situation of persons with disabilities in every aspect of political, social, economic and cultural life.
2019 Theme: Promoting the participation of persons with disabilities and their leadership: taking action on the 2030 Development Agenda.