11 Aug 2020: PIB Summary & Analysis

August 11th, 2020 PIB:- Download PDF Here

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Krishi Megh
2. Report of the Committee on Business Responsibility Reporting (BRR)
3. Swachh Bharat Mission Academy
4. Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC)
5. Tribal freedom fighters of India
6. Student Entrepreneurship Programme (SEP) 2.0

1. Krishi Megh

Context:

Union Agriculture Minister launches Krishi Megh.

About Krishi Megh (National Agricultural Research & Education System – Cloud Infrastructure and Services):

• Krishi Megh is the data recovery centre of ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research).
• The data recovery centre has been set up at National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM), Hyderabad.
• Krishi Megh has been set up under the National Agricultural Higher Education Project (NAHEP), funded by both the government and the World Bank.
• The data recovery centre at NAARM is synchronised with the data centre at IASRI.
  • IASRI – ICAR-Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute (IASRI) is an institute located in New Delhi engaged in teaching and training in Agricultural Statistics, Computer Application and Bioinformatics.
• Benefits of Krishi Megh:
  • It has been built to mitigate the risk, enhance the quality, availability and accessibility of e-governance, research, extension and education in the field of agriculture in India.
  • Krishi Megh is said to be a step forward towards digital agriculture of the ‘New India’.
  • Krishi Megh is equipped with the latest artificial intelligence and deep learning software for building and deploying of deep learning-based applications through image analysis, disease identification in livestock, etc.
  • It enables the farmers, researchers, students and policymakers to be more equipped with the updated and latest information regarding agriculture and research.

2. Report of the Committee on Business Responsibility Reporting (BRR)

Context:

Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) releases the Report of the Committee on Business Responsibility Reporting.

Background:

• The MCA has been taking various initiatives for ensuring responsible business conduct by companies.
• As a first step, the ‘Voluntary Guidelines on Corporate Social Responsibility’ were issued in 2009.
• These guidelines were revised in 2011 as the ‘National Voluntary Guidelines on Social, Environmental and Economic Responsibilities of Business’ (NVGs).
• SEBI issued the ‘Listing Regulations’ in 2012 which made it mandatory for the top 100 listed companies (by market capitalisation) to file Business Responsibility Reports (BRRs) from an environmental, social and governance perspective.
• Taking into account national and international developments in the domain of business and human rights, the NVGs were revised in 2019 as NGRBC (National Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct).
• NGRBC is aligned with UNGPs, UNSDGs, Paris Agreement on Climate Change, etc.

What is BRR?

Business Responsibility Report is a disclosure of the adoption of responsible business practices by a listed company to all its stakeholders.

Highlights of the Report (BRR):

• A new reporting framework called the ‘Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report (BRSR)’ has been recommended to better reflect the intent and scope of reporting on non-financial parameters.
• Another recommendation is that the BRSR be integrated with the MCA 21 portal.
• As a long-term measure, the report envisions that the information captured through BRSR filings be used to develop a Business Responsibility-Sustainability Index for companies.
• The top 1000 listed companies are to undertake this reporting mandatorily.
• The reporting requirement may be extended by MCA to unlisted companies above specified thresholds of turnover and/or paid-up capital.
• Further, the Committee recommended that smaller unlisted companies below this threshold may, to begin with, adopt a light version of the format, on a voluntary basis.

3. Swachh Bharat Mission Academy

Context:

Union Jal Shakti Minister launches the Swachh Bharat Mission Academy.

About the Swachh Bharat Mission Academy:

• It is an IVR based mobile online learning course.
• The phone-based academy will provide access to on-demand, anytime, anywhere training courses with high quality and standardized content over basic mobile phones free of charge.
• The IVR-based training course contains a 60-minute module spanning various topics under ODF-S (Open Defecation Free – Sustainability) as well as SLWM (Solid and Liquid Waste Management).
• This is part of the Gandagi Mukt Bharat programme. Read more about this programme on PIB dated 8 August 2020.

4. Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC)

About the AEPC:

• AEPC is the official body of apparel exporters in India that provides assistance to Indian exporters as well as importers/international buyers who choose India as their preferred sourcing destination for garments.
• It was incorporated in 1978 and is headquartered in Gurgaon.
• It engages in the promotion and facilitation of garment manufacturing and their exports.
• Indian exporters get information, technical guidance, market intelligence, etc. from the council.
• It also engages in training the workforce in the garment manufacturing industry.
• It functions under the Ministry of Textiles, GOI.

Context:

Union MSME Minister calls upon the AEPC to target increasing exports by two times.

5. Tribal freedom fighters of India

Context:

The Ministry of Tribal Affairs is developing “Tribal Freedom Fighters’ Museums” dedicated to the contributions of the tribal people in India to the freedom struggle.

Details:

• These museums will trace the history along with the trails, along which the tribal people in hills and forests fought for their right to live and will, therefore, combine ex-situ display with in situ conservation, regeneration initiatives.
• These will be museums, objects as well as ideas.
• These will demonstrate the way tribal struggles for protecting their custodial concerns for the biological and cultural diversity of the country have helped in nation-building.
• Nine museums in different states have been sanctioned so far. They are Rajpipla (Gujarat), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Lambasingi (Andhra Pradesh), Raipur (Chhattisgarh), Kozhikode (Kerala), Chhindwara (Madhya Pradesh), Hyderabad (Telangana), Senapati (Manipur), Mualngo, Kelsih (Mizoram).

Also read: Tribal Uprisings in the 18^th and 19^th Centuries.

6. Student Entrepreneurship Programme (SEP) 2.0

Context:

Atal Innovation Mission and Dell Technologies Launch Student Entrepreneurship Programme 2.0.

About SEP 2.0:

• SEP 1.0 was launched in January 2019 where the top six teams of ATL Marathon got a chance to transform their innovative prototypes into fully functioning products, which are now available in the market.
• In the second version of the programme, students and innovators of the Atal Tinkering Labs will work with Dell volunteers.
• They will receive mentor support; prototyping and testing support; end-user feedback; intellectual property registration and patenting of ideas, processes, and products; manufacturing support; as well as the launch support of the product in the market.
• In SEP 2.0, the top 8 teams from the Marathon will convert their prototypes to products.

Read previous PIB here.

August 11th, 2020 PIB:- Download PDF Here