19 August 2019: UPSC Exam PIB Summary & Analysis

Read the daily PIB update and stay up-to-date on current affairs for the UPSC exam.

August 19th, 2019 PIB:-Download PDF Here

Draft National Resource Efficiency Policy Released

Context

• Natural resources form the backbone of any economic development. India, as one of the fastest growing economies with GDP at 2.6 trillion USD, has increased its material consumption to six times.
• Enhancing resource efficiency and promoting the use of secondary raw materials has emerged as a strategy for ensuring that the potential trade-off between growth, resource constraints and environmental well-being can be minimized.
• Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change released Draft National Resource Efficiency Policy

About the policy

• The Draft National Resource Efficiency Policy (NREP) envisions a future with environmentally sustainable and equitable economic growth, resource security, healthy environment (air, water and land), and restored ecosystems with rich ecology and biodiversity.
• The Draft National Resource Efficiency Policy is guided by the principles of

1. Reduction in primary resource consumption to ‘sustainable’ levels, in keeping with achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and staying within the planetary boundaries,
2. Creation of higher value with less material through resource efficient and circular approaches
3. Waste minimization
4. Material security, and creation of employment opportunities and business models beneficial to the cause of environment protection and restoration.

India-Maldives MoU

Context

• The India-Maldives MoU on Training and Capacity Building Programme for Maldivian Civil Servants was operationalised.

About the initiative

• The Prime Minister of India in his visit to Maldives in June 2019, had emphasised India’s ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy and assured India’s full support to Maldives and strengthening of democratic and independent institutions of Maldives.
• One of the MoUs signed during the visit was between the National Center for Good Governance, India and the Civil Services Commission of Maldives which envisaged capacity building activities for Civil Servants of Maldives at the National Centre for Good Governance over the next 5 years.
• The Agreement envisaged that the National Center for Good Governance, India will be the nodal institution for designing customised training modules and its implementation taking into account the requirements of the Civil Service Commission of Maldives.
• The subject matter of the training programs include public administration, e-governance and service delivery, public policy and governance, information technology, urban development and planning, ethics in administration and challenges in implementation of SDGs.

State Tourism Ministers’ Conference

Context

• The Union Minister of State for Tourism & Culture (Independent Charge),Shri Prahlad  Singh Patel will inaugurate the  State Tourism Ministers’ Conference

About the conference

• The daylong Conference has been organized by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India and will be attended by state Tourism Ministers, Secretaries of Tourism and senior officials from the States and Union Territories (UTs)
• The Conference will provide a platform for the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India to apprise the States / UTs about new initiatives taken and those in the pipeline, to get valuable feedback from the States / UTs on the same
• The conference will also help to highlight areas where active cooperation of the States / UTs is required and at the same time to learn about the initiatives being taken by the States / UTs for the development of Tourism.

Subjects for discussion

• Developing an all-encompassing One Stop Solution including information on tourism related services through a web based application and a Grievance Redressal Mechanism through Twitter and Tourist-Helpline
• Adoption of Adventure Tourism and Bed & Breakfast / Homestay Scheme Guidelines by States/UTs
• Status of projects sanctioned under the Swadesh Darshan & PRASHAD Schemes and implementation of Public Financial Management System (PFMS).

Meeting on Regional Connectivity Scheme

Context

• Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State(I/C) for Civil Aviation, Housing & Urban Affairs, chaired a meeting via Video Conference on Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS-UDAN).

UDAN Scheme

This scheme is a part of the National Civil Aviation Policy(NCAP) and is funded jointly by the GoI and the state governments. The following are its salient features:

• The scheme duration is for 10 years
• Airlines participating in UDAN are selected through a competitive bidding process
• The Central government will provide the following:
• Subsidy to cover Value Gap funding(VGF) for participating airlines
• Concessional GST on tickets booked using the scheme.
• Code sharing fo flights under the policy
• State Governments will extend the following measures:
• GST reduction to 1% for 10 years
• Coordination with oil companies to facilitate refuelling facilities
• Provide land for airport and ancillary development
• Trained security personnel
• Utilities at subsidised rates
• 20% of VGF
• Airport operators such as AAI will provide the following concessions:
• No parking, landing and storage charges at participating airports
• Nil TNLC (Terminal Navigation Landing Charges)
• Allow ground handling by the airline selected through the bidding process
• RNCF (Route Navigation and Facilitation Charges) will be discounted to 42.4% of normal rates by the Airports Authority of India.

Related Links:

August 19th, 2019 PIB:-Download PDF Here

Read previous ‘Best of PIB’ here.