TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. G - 20 Seminar 2. SAMPANN Project 3. Constituent Assembly 4. Black Spots 5. The RATS SCO Practical Seminar on Securing Cyberspace
Related to Economy, GS III
Mains: Global Economic Recovery, Inclusive growth, Accessibility to healthcare
Context: On behalf of the Government of India, the Union Minister for Finance virtually attended the G- 20 international seminar hosted in Bali by the Presidency of Indonesia.
Theme of the Seminar: Recover together, Recover Stronger
Aim: The seminar intended to discuss ways to recover the global economy and to find the areas of collaboration at the multilateral level.
Approach to recover the global economy:
- There needs to be a strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive recovery of the global economy and it should be well equipped to deal with future challenges that arise due to pandemic-like situations.
- Such a recovery would require collective action along with multilateralism.
- The importance of inclusion, investment, innovation and institutions was highlighted.
- Accessibility and affordability of vaccines and other therapeutics will be essential to have an equitable distribution of healthcare services. In this regard, India has administered over 1.25 billion doses of vaccines and supplied more than 72 million vaccine doses to over 90 countries. This indicates India’s commitment to coordinated global action.
- Enhancement of infrastructure investments will also enable a faster and stable recovery.
- Green Finance, Green Climate Fund, emphasizes promoting green technologies that aim to mitigate climate change and can be made available to developing countries to incentivize their efforts towards a sustainable future.
Also read about Economic Recovery post-pandemic in the linked article
Related to Governance, GS II
Prelims: Important facts
Mains: Government intervention to settle issues related to pension
Context: Over 1 lakh people have received pensions directly in their bank accounts through the SAMPANN project.
About the SAMPANN (System for Accounting and Management of Pension) Project:
- This is an ambitious project of the Government of India and implemented by the Ministry of Communications (Controller General of Communication Accounts, Department of Telecommunications) introduced in the year 2018.
- It is an online pension processing system and payment system for pensioners.
- The direct credit of pension into the bank accounts of the beneficiaries is ensured.
- This also assisted the department to resolve pension cases and enabled ease of accounting.
Benefits of SAMPANN:
- SAMPANN provides e-Pension payment orders which make the payment process easier and hassle-free.
- Timely settlement of pension cases.
- Every pensioner gets access to key information like payment history along with a login option.
Related to the Indian Constitution, GS II
Prelims: Important facts related to Constituent Assembly
Mains: Salient features of the Constitution and its evolution with time
Context: The Prime Minister paid tribute to the members of the Constituent Assembly to commemorate 75 years of the historic first sitting of the assembly.
About:
- The Constituent Assembly met for the first time on the 9th of December in 1946.
- The visionary members of the constituent assembly continue to reflect their eminence and protect the rights of every citizen through the living document of our faith and aspirations, the Constitution of India.
Read more about the Constituent Assembly in the linked article.
4. Black Spots
Related to Infrastructure, GS III
Prelims: About Black Spots, Important provisions of the Motor Vehicles Amendment Act, 2019
Mains: Measures taken to ensure road safety and prevent accidents
Context: The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has stepped ahead to take safety measures in order to prevent road accidents.
What are Black Spots?
- The areas on the National Highways that are highly prone to accidents and fatalities are demarcated as black spots.
- The Ministry felt an urgent need to identify and rectify such areas on the highways that invite accidents.
- These black spot identification exercises determine the importance of road safety which is an integral part of road design and safety.
Measures Taken:
- Guidelines for pedestrian facilities on National Highways have been issued and the state and union territories are notified.
- The standards of safety in automobiles have been upgraded with the provisions of airbags, anti-braking system, crash test and whole vehicle safety compliance followed during production.
- The Road Safety and Motor Vehicles Amendment Bill which was passed in 2019 ensures strict use of technology and imposes penalties on breach of traffic rules. Under this act guidelines for Good Samaritans and draft rules have been issued.
- The Motor Vehicles Amendment Act also provides for cashless treatment of victims of road accidents along with the facility of ambulances at all toll plazas of the National Highways.
- A multi-pronged strategy has been adopted to mitigate road accidents.
Read more about Road Safety in Perspective, Sansad TV.
5. The RATS SCO Practical Seminar on Securing Cyberspace
Related to IR, GS II; and Security, GS III
Prelims: About SCO, RATS
Mains: Cyber-security challenges
Context: The National Security Council Secretariat (the Government of India) and the Data Security Council of India indulged in a knowledge partnership and organized a seminar on “Securing Cyberspace in the Contemporary Threat Environment” for the delegates of SCO member states.
About the Event:
- India is presently holding the chairmanship of the Council of Regional Anti-terrorist Structure of SCO. Since its chairmanship, India is hosting such a seminar on cybersecurity for the first time.
- The event aims at addressing the key area of policies, strategies to deal with cyberattacks, cyber terrorism, ransomware and digital forensics.
Participants:
- The seminar was attended by representatives from the Executive Committee of RATS SCO and all SCO member countries.
Significance:
- This initiative can be perceived as an effective attempt by India to expand the collaboration among RATS SCO member states in the area of cybercrime and prevent the misuse of the internet by terrorists, separatists and extremists.
Read previous PIB here.
December 9th, 2021, PIB:- Download PDF Here
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