18 Dec 2023: PIB Summary for UPSC

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Kakrapar Atomic Power Project
2. National Startup Advisory Council
3. Nationally Determined Contribution
4. India’s first winter scientific expedition to the Arctic

1. Kakrapar Atomic Power Project

Syllabus: GS-3, Energy

Prelims: Kakrapar Atomic Power Project

Context:

Kakrapar Atomic Power Project Unit-4 achieves first criticality, several experiments lined up.

About the Kakrapar Atomic Power Project:

• The Kakrapar Atomic Power Plant located at Kakrapar, near Surat is the first indigenously designed and built Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR) unit of 700MWe capacity.
• The Kakrapar Project has three reactors.
• Unit 4 or KAPP-4 is a 700 MW PHWR. It is the second in a series of 16 indigenous PHWRs of 700 MW being built in the country. 
• KAPPS-3 & 4 (2X700 MW) are located at Kakrapar adjacent to KAPPS-1 & 2 (2X220 MW).
• The reactors are designed, constructed, commissioned and operated by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India.

Read more about nuclear reactors in the linked article.

2. National Startup Advisory Council

Syllabus: GS-3, Economy, growth, development and employment

Prelims: NSAC, Startup India

Mains: Effective interventions by the government to boost the startup ecosystem in the country. 

Context:

National Startup Advisory Council reconstituted.

Details:

• Upon completion of the two-year term of the ‘National Startup Advisory Council’ (NSAC), the Central Government has nominated the non-official members of the National Startup Advisory Council.
• The majority of members of the council have owned and mentored various programs which have been pivotal to the expansion of the Startup India initiative, including NavIC Grand Challenge, Startup India Investor Connect Portal, MAARG Portal, National Incubator Capacity Building Program, Doordarshan’s Startup Champions, amongst others.

About the National Startup Advisory Council:

The Council advises the government on measures needed to build a strong ecosystem for nurturing innovation and startups in the country to drive sustainable economic growth and generate large-scale employment opportunities.

The Council does the following activities:

• Suggest measures to foster a culture of innovation amongst citizens and students in particular.
• Promote innovation in all sectors of the economy across the country, including semi-urban and rural areas.
• Support creative and innovative ideas through incubation and research and development to transform them into valuable products, processes or solutions to improve productivity and efficiency.
• Create an environment of absorption of innovation in the industry.
• Suggest measures to facilitate public organizations to assimilate innovation with a view to improving public service delivery.
• Promote creation, protection and commercialization of intellectual property rights.
• Make it easier to start, operate, grow and exit businesses by reducing regulatory compliances and costs.
• Promote ease of access to capital for startups, incentivize domestic capital for investments into startups, and mobilize global capital for investments in Indian startups.
• Keep control of startups with original promoters.
• Provide access to global markets for Indian startups.

Members of the Council:

• The Council will be chaired by the Minister for Commerce & Industry.
• The Council will consist of non-official members, to be nominated by the Central Government, from various categories like founders of successful startups, veterans who have grown and scaled companies in India, persons capable of representing interests of investors in startups, persons capable of representing interests of incubators and accelerators, representatives of associations of stakeholders of startups and representatives of industry associations. The term of the non-official members of the Council will be for two years.
• The nominees of the concerned Ministries/Departments/Organisations, not below the rank of Joint Secretary to the Government of India, will be ex-officio members of the Council.
• The Joint Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade will be the Convener of the Council.

3. Nationally Determined Contribution

Syllabus: GS-3, Environment & Ecology

Prelims: Nationally Determined Contributions, Paris Agreement, UNFCCC

Mains: Achieving NDCs

Context:

India achieves two targets of Nationally Determined Contribution well ahead of time.

Details:

• The two targets that were submitted in 2015 and have been achieved by India well ahead of time are:
  • To reduce the emissions intensity of its GDP by 33 to 35 percent by 2030 from 2005 level; and 
  • To achieve about 40 percent cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2030.

Also read: Paris Agreement

4. India’s first winter scientific expedition to the Arctic

Syllabus: GS-3, Science & Technology

Prelims: India’s Arctic expeditions

Context:

Union Minister launched India’s maiden Winter Scientific Arctic expedition.

Details:

• Indian scientific expeditions to the Arctic during the winter (November to March) will allow researchers to conduct unique scientific observations during polar nights, where there is no sunlight for nearly 24 hours and sub-zero temperatures (as low as -15 degrees Celsius). 
• This will aid in expanding understanding of the Arctic, especially climate change, space weather, sea-ice and ocean circulation dynamics, ecosystem adaptations, etc., which affect weather and climate in the tropics, including monsoons.     
• Indian scientific expeditions to the Earth’s poles (the Arctic and the Antarctic) are facilitated under the PACER (Polar and Cryosphere) scheme of the MoES, solely through the aegis of the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR), Goa, an autonomous institution of the MoES.

Also read about India’s first permanent Arctic research station, Himadri, in the linked article.

Read previous PIB articles here.