25 Aug 2022: PIB Summary for UPSC

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Smart India Hackathon (SIH), 2022 (5th Edition)
2. Gati Shakti Vision for Telecom Infrastructure - 5G Roll-out

1. Smart India Hackathon (SIH), 2022 (5th Edition)

Syllabus – GS 3, Achievements of Indians in science & technology; indigenization of technology and developing new technology.

Prelims – Smart India Hackathon, 2022.

Context – Address by the Prime Minister on the Grand Finale of Smart India Hackathon, 2022.

Details –

• Hon’ble PM, Shri Narendra Modi addressed the Grand Finale of Smart India Hackathon, 2022 via video conferencing and held interactions with the participants. While applauding and encouraging the participants, PM said that innovators are the ambassadors of the slogan “Jai Anusandhan” and the innovative bent of mind will take India to the top in the next 25 years.
• He further asserted that India is progressing rapidly through innovative revolutions – Digital Revolution, Technology Revolution, Health Revolution, Information Revolution and Talent Revolution.
• He laid emphasis on expanding the culture of innovation in India through institutional and social support.
• The problems tackled by the students include – Optical Character Recognition (OCR) of Temple inscriptions and translations in Devanagari Scripts, IoT-enabled risk monitoring system in Cold Supply Chain for perishable food items, High-resolution 3D model of terrain, infrastructure and roads conditions in disaster struck areas, etc.
• Smart India Hackathon, Junior has also been introduced for school students this year.

About Smart India Hackathon –

• Smart India Hackathon was started in the year 2017 and since then, the number of teams registered has grown fourfold. 
• Smart India Hackathon, SIH is a nationwide initiative to provide students with a platform to solve the problems we face in our daily lives. It is to inculcate a culture of product innovation and a mindset of problem-solving. 
• The previous editions of SIH were held in 2017 (First Edition), SIH (2018), SIH (2019) and SIH (2020).

2. Gati Shakti Vision for Telecom Infrastructure – 5G Roll-out

Syllabus – GS-3, Infrastructure: Telecommunication

Prelims – Amendment of RoW rules, 2016 to expedite the launch of 5G; About Gati Shakti Master Plan

Context – Amendment of RoW rules 2016, to enable faster and easier deployment of Telecom Infrastructure and launch of a new 5G RoW application form on Gati Shakti Portal.

Details –

• The amendment in the Indian Telegraph Right of Way (RoW) Rules, 2016 was released by the Union Minister of Communications and IT at an event organised by the Deptt. Of Telecommunications (DoT). 
• The event also marked the launch of a new 5G RoW application form on the Gati Shakti Sanchar Portal to enable a faster 5G roll-out in India.
• There are four main elements for ensuring faster roll-out of 5G services – allocation of spectrum, reforms in the processing of RoW permission, co-operative federalism and rollout of services.
• Gati Shakti Sanchar Portal was launched by DoT in May 2022 for the development of infrastructure services in an integrated manner. The IT systems of all the states/ UTs and railways and highways (major infrastructure) have been integrated with the portal to enable the 5G launch. 
• In the amendment of RoW rules – charges of RoW permission have been lowered and a ceiling of RoW charges for installation of 5G small cells and optical fibre cable on street furniture have been fixed. Such amendments will make deployment of 5G Small cells easy on existing street infrastructure.
• India is all set for the launch of 5G services by October 2022.

Read more about Gati Shakti –Gati Shakti Master Plan.

Read previous PIB here.

August 25th, 2022, PIB:- Download PDF Here