29 Dec 2021: PIB Summary & Analysis

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. BILCHAM
2. CORBEVAX
3. ‘Innovation For You’ and the ‘Ingenious Tinkerers’

1. BILCHAM

Topic: GS 2; Social Justice, Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of the vulnerable sections

Prelims: About BILCHAM

Mains: Significance

Context: In order to provide financial assistance to the rural community of the North-East region, the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) funded the Banking Institute & Learning Centre of Excellence for Holistic Aspiration of Mothers (BILCHAM).

Details: 

• BILCHAM was established on 25th October 2006 under the Societies Registration Act.
• It acts as an apex federation at the district level under West Garo Hills Community Resource Management.
• It is funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), DoNER/North Eastern Council (NEC), the Government of India.

Importance:

• BILCHAM is now an effective women independent organization that caters to the livelihood and credit needs of the poorest of the poor.
• It offers services to the West Garo Hills and some parts of East and South Garo Hills through SHG federations that are also members of the board responsible for scrutinizing, sanctioning and recovery of the loans. 
• Over the years BILCHAM has gathered enormous popularity among the rural poor due to easy access to credit and a feeling of ownership resulting in a positive response. 

2. CORBEVAX

Topic: GS 3; Science and Technology, Awareness in the field of Biotechnology

Prelims: Facts about CORBEVAX

Mains: Self-reliance of India in vaccine production

Context: India’s indigenously developed vaccine against COVID-19, CORBEVAX received the DCGI approval for emergency use. 

Important Facts:

• The CORBEVAX vaccine consists of a receptor-binding protein sub-unit and it has been developed by Biological E Limited. 
• The Department of Biotechnology and its public sector undertaking, Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) have supported Biological E’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate during the Phase III clinical studies.
• The vaccine candidates were provided with financial support under the COVID-19 research consortium through the National Biopharma Mission for toxicological studies. 
• The clinical development of CORBEVAX was supported by the Mission COVID Suraksha.

Technical Details:

• It is a double dose vaccine that is administered intramuscularly and can be stored at 2°C to 8°C. 
• The recombinant protein sub-unit has been developed by using the receptor-binding domain of the spike protein on the viral surface. 
• The Phase III clinical trials involved more than 3000 subjects between the age group of 18 and 80 across 33 sites in the country. 
• The vaccine was observed to be safe, well-tolerated and highly immunogenic. 
• The immunogenic data was collected by the Transnational Health Science and Technology Institute of DBT. 

Significance:

• This vaccine will play an exemplary role towards a successful industry-academia collaboration and will sharpen the country’s potential to fight against the pandemic. 
• It serves as a significant boost to the scientists and the manufacturers of the country.
• BIRAC played a pivotal role in scaling up the vaccine to 1.2 billion doses per annum and walked close towards the aspirations of making the vaccine accessible, affordable and available. 

3. ‘Innovation For You’ and the ‘Ingenious Tinkerers’

Topic: GS 3; Science and Technology, Developing New Technology

Mains: Government Initiatives to increase innovation and create new avenues for employment

Context: The Atal Innovation Mission and the NITI Aayog released the second edition of innovations focused on agriculture featuring 70 startups supported by Atal Incubation Centers. The Ingenious Tinkerers is a compendium on the innovations in technology featuring 41 innovations from the Atal Tinkering Labs of India. 

Details:

• The books released reveal the successful stories of young innovators of India. 
• The ‘Innovation and You’ brings up a compilation of successful innovations by the entrepreneurial minds of the country. 
• Innovations made by young students with their problem-solving capabilities have been presented through the ‘Ingenious Tinkerers’. The tinkerers made use of the upcoming technologies of the Atal Tinkering Labs and devised solutions by interacting with their communities and addressing their problems. 
• The Innovation and You exerted emphasis on frontier technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things and ICT to provide feasible solutions to the issues of modern farming. The book compiles about 70 Agritech startups across the country.

Read more about Atal Tinkering Labs in the linked article.

Read previous PIB here.

December 29th, 2021, PIB:- Download PDF Here