15 Dec 2020: PIB Summary & Analysis

December 15th, 2020, PIB:- Download PDF Here

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Quality Council of India (QCI)
2. Department of Posts
3. Swarnim Vijay Varsh
4. TROPMET-2020

1. Quality Council of India (QCI)

Context:

QCI Launches Recognition Scheme for Hygiene Rating Audit Agencies.

Details:

• QCI has come up with a scheme for the approval of Hygiene Rating Audit Agencies to scale up Hygiene Rating by increasing the number of recognised Hygiene Rating Audit Agencies in the country.
• The scheme aims to allow consumers to make informed choices/decisions pertaining to the food outlets where they eat by encouraging food businesses to improve their hygiene and safety standards.
• Currently, this scheme is applicable for food service establishments (such as hotels, restaurants, cafeteria, dhabhas, etc.), sweet shops, bakeries and meat retail stores.
• The recognised Hygiene Rating Audit Agency will verify the compliance with food hygiene and safety procedures laid by FSSAI.

Background:

• FSSAI’s initiative of ‘Food Hygiene Rating Scheme’ is a certification system for food businesses supplying food directly to consumers, either on or off premise.
• The food establishments are rated based on food hygiene and safety conditions observed at the time of audit.
• The hygiene rating will be in the form of smileys (1 up to 5) and the certificate should be displayed prominently in the consumer facing area.
• The recognised Hygiene Rating Audit Agencies will be responsible for verifying the compliance with food hygiene and safety procedures laid by FSSAI and get Hygiene Rating.

Read more about Quality Council of India in PIB dated Feb 5, 2020.

1. Quality Council of India (QCI)

Meghdoot Awards:

• Postal Department confers Meghdoot awards to Postal Employees for their achievements in 2019-20.
• The Meghdoot Awards were instituted in 1984 to recognise outstanding performance of employees at the national level.
• The award includes a cash prize of Rs.21000, a gold medallion and a citation.
• They are given in eight categories.

DakPay:

Context:

DakPay logo was launched by India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) of India Post as part of its ongoing efforts to provide digital financial inclusion at the last mile.

What is DakPay?

• DakPay is a suite of digital financial and assisted banking services provided by India Post & IPPB through the postal network of the country to cater to the financial needs of the society all over India.
• Services include sending money to someone, making payments for services digitally/virtually & UPI, enabling cashless ecosystem through biometrics, providing interoperable banking services to the customers of ANY BANK (AePS) and Utility Bill Payment services.

3. Swarnim Vijay Varsh

Context:

• From 16 December 2020, India will be celebrating 50 Years of Indo-Pak War, also called ‘Swarnim Vijay Varsh’. Various commemorative events are planned across the nation.
• The inaugural event will be held at the National War Memorial (NWM) in New Delhi.

Read more about the Indo-Pak War of 1971 in This Day in History dated 16 Dec.

4. TROPMET-2020

Context:

The Indian Meteorological Society (IMS) and the North Eastern Space Applications Centre organise a 4-day Virtual Symposium on Tropical Meteorology called TROPMET-2020.

Details:

• The theme of the event is “Weather and Climate Services over Mountainous Regions”.
• There would be several talks and lectures by eminent scientists during the course of the symposium including a special talk by the Deputy Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organisation.

About Indian Meteorological Society:

• It is a non-profit organisation that works for the advancement of meteorological and allied sciences.
• It works for the dissemination of knowledge in this field and also in the application of meteorology and allied sciences to various constructive human activities, such as, agriculture and land uses, irrigation and power development, navigation of sea and air, engineering and technology, medicine and public health, etc.
• It organises lectures, symposia, etc. and publishes books, journals, etc. on meteorology.

About North Eastern Space Applications Centre (NESAC):

• North Eastern Space Applications Centre (NESAC) was established as a joint initiative of the Department of Space (DOS, GOI) and the North Eastern Council (NEC) and came into being in 2000.
• The Centre helps in augmenting the developmental process in the region by providing advanced space technology support.
• It provides services to the NE states of India using space and technology.
• It is located in Shillong, Meghalaya.
• Objectives of NESAC:
  • To provide an operational remote sensing and geographic information system aided natural resource information base to support activities on development/management of natural resources and infrastructure planning in the region.
  • To provide operational satellite communication applications services in the region in education, health care, disaster management support, and developmental communication.
  • To take up research in space and atmospheric science area and establish an instrumentation hub and networking with various academic institutions of NER.
  • To enable single window delivery of all possible space based support for disaster management.
  • To set up a regional level infrastructure for capacity building in the field of geospatial technology.

Read previous PIB here.

December 15th, 2020, PIB:- Download PDF Here