12 Jan 2021: PIB Summary & Analysis

January 12th, 2021, PIB:- Download PDF Here

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. National Youth Parliament Festival
2. Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY)
3. New Foreign Trade Policy 2021-26
4. 13th India-Vietnam Defence Security Dialogue
5. Central Board of Direct Taxes
6. Urban local bodies reforms
7. Red Ribbon Club Quiz Competition
8. Kayakalp Award Scheme
9. Spintronics

1. National Youth Parliament Festival

Context:

Prime Minister lauds the winners and final panelists of the second National Youth Parliament Festival.

Know more about the National Youth Parliament Festival in PIB dated Jan 10, 2021.

2. Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY)

Context:

PMFBY completes five years of operation.

Details:

The Scheme benefits farmers who face crop losses due to various reasons. Read more about the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana in the linked article.

3. New Foreign Trade Policy 2021-26

Context:

New Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) 2021-2026 to be rolled out from April 2021.

Details:

• The Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry said that India’s new Foreign Trade Policy 2021-2026, under formulation, will come into effect from April 1, 2021.
• India’s FTP has conventionally been formulated for five years at a time. The FTP 2015-20 came into effect in April 2015 and the same was extended by one year till 31 March 2021, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
• The FTP will strive to make India a leader in the area of international trade and channelize the synergies gained through merchandise and services exports for growth and employment with a goal to make India a USD 5 Trillion economy.
• Improvements in the operations of the domestic manufacturing and services sector in combination with efficient infrastructure support by the government would result in correcting the imbalances within India and feed into the trade policy.
• The District Export Hubs initiative will form an important component of the new FTP.
  • The Department of Commerce through the Regional Authorities of the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has engaged with State/UT Governments to take forward this initiative in the districts and enable its implementation in a phased manner.
  • The objective is to mobilize the potential of each district of the country to achieve its potential as an export hub.

4. 13th India-Vietnam Defence Security Dialogue

Context:

The 13^th India-Vietnam Defence Security Dialogue was held between India’s Defence Secretary and the Deputy Defence Minister of Vietnam.

Details:

• During the interaction, the Defence Secretary and the Deputy Defence Minister exchanged views on the plan of action that has emanated from the virtual summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in December 2020.
• New areas of defence cooperation were also discussed.
• Both the sides reviewed the progress on various bilateral defence cooperation initiatives and expressed commitment to further elevate engagements between the Armed Forces under the framework of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

Read more on India – Vietnam relations in the linked article.

5. Central Board of Direct Taxes

Context:

CBDT launches e-portal for filing complaints regarding tax evasion/Benami Properties/Foreign Undisclosed Assets.

Details:

• CBDT has launched an automated dedicated e-portal on the e-filing website of the Department to receive and process complaints of tax evasion, foreign undisclosed assets as well as complaints regarding benami properties.
• The facility allows for filing of complaints by persons who are existing PAN/Aadhaar holders as well as for persons having no PAN/Aadhaar.
• Upon successful filing of the complaint, the Department will allot a unique number to each complaint and the complainant would be able to view the status of the complaint on the Department’s website.
• The CBDT is taking this step towards e-governance and to encourage the participation of citizens as stakeholders in curbing tax evasion.

6. Urban local bodies reforms

Context:

Manipur becomes the 4^th state to complete urban local bodies reforms.

Details:

• Manipur has become the 4^th state in the country to successfully undertake “Urban Local Bodies (ULB)” reform stipulated by the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance.
• Thus, the State has become eligible to mobilise additional financial resources of Rs.75 crore through Open Market Borrowings.
• Manipur has now joined three other states namely, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, who have completed this reform.
• On completion of Urban Local Bodies reform, these four States have been granted additional borrowing permission of Rs.7,481 crore.

Objectives/Need for reforms:

• Reforms in the Urban Local Bodies and the urban utilities reforms are aimed at financial strengthening of ULBs in the states and to enable them to provide better public health and sanitation services. Economically rejuvenated ULBs will also be able to create good civic infrastructure.

The reforms stipulated by the Department of Expenditure to achieve these objectives are:

1. The State will notify –
   1. Floor rates of property tax in ULBs which are in consonance with the prevailing circle rates (i.e. guideline rates for property transactions)
   2. Floor rates of user charges in respect of the provision of water-supply, drainage and sewerage which reflect current costs/past inflation.
2. The state will put in place a system of periodic increase in floor rates of property tax/user charges in line with price increases.

Background:

• To meet the challenges posed by the pandemic, GOI had enhanced the borrowing limit of the states by 2 percent of their GSDP.
• Half of this special dispensation was linked to undertaking citizen centric reforms by the states.
• The four citizen centric areas for reforms identified were:
• Implementation of One Nation One Ration Card System (done by 10 states)
• Ease of doing business reform (done by 7 states)
• Urban Local body/utility reforms (done by 3 states)
• Power sector reforms

7. Red Ribbon Club Quiz Competition

Context:

Union Health Minister inaugurates the grand finale of the first-ever Red Ribbon Quiz Competition.

Details:

• The Red Ribbon Quiz Competition is held by the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
• The objective of the programme is to actively engage members of the Red Ribbon Clubs in disseminating information related to HIV/AIDS, adolescent health, mental health and any other public threat, etc. and make them discuss these things through the mode of quiz.
• Red Ribbon Clubs (RRCs):
  • NACO has established 12,500 Red Ribbon Clubs (RRCs) to reach out to the college going youth.
  • This programme is a comprehensive promotional and preventive intervention to harness the potential, specifically to mainstream HIV prevention, care & support and treatment, impact mitigation, stigma reduction and enhance Voluntary Blood Donation.

Read more about NACO in PIB dated Sep 20, 2020.

8. Kayakalp Award Scheme

What is the Kayakalp Award Scheme?

• The award scheme was launched in 2015 to appreciate and recognise the efforts of public health facilities to create a healthy environment.
• The parameters for judging are hospital/facility upkeep, sanitation and hygiene, waste management, infection control, support services and hygiene promotion.

Objectives of Kayakalp:

• To promote cleanliness, hygiene and Infection Control Practices in public Health Care Facilities.
• To incentivize and recognize such public healthcare facilities that show exemplary performance in adhering to standard protocols of cleanliness and infection control.
• To inculcate a culture of ongoing assessment and peer review of performance related to hygiene, cleanliness and sanitation.
• To create and share sustainable practices related to improved cleanliness in public health facilities linked to positive health outcomes.

Categories of the award:

• Best two District Hospitals in each state (Best District hospital in small states) – cash award of Rs.50 lakh and Rs.20 lakh for first and second respectively.
• Best two Community Health Centres/Sub District Hospitals (limited to one in small states) – cash award of Rs.15 lakh and Rs.10 lakh for first and second respectively.
• One Primary Health Centre in every district – case award of Rs.2 lakh.

9. Spintronics

What is spintronics?

• Spintronic, also known as spin electronics, is the study of the intrinsic spin of the electron and its associated magnetic moment, in addition to its fundamental electronic charge, in solid-state devices.
• Spintronics fundamentally differs from traditional electronics in that, in addition to charge state, electron spins are exploited as a further degree of freedom, with implications in the efficiency of data storage and transfer.
• The field of spintronics emerged because of the need for attaining new functionalities in modern electronic devices which has led to the manipulation of the property of an electron called spin degree of freedom along with its charge.
• A phenomenon called the ‘Rashba effect’, which consists of splitting of spin-bands in an electronic system, might play a key role in spintronic devices.

What’s in News?

• Scientists at the Institute of Nano Science and Technology (INST), Mohali (Punjab), an autonomous institution of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, have produced an ultra-high mobility 2d-electron gas (2DEG) at the interface of two insulating oxide layers.
• Benefits:
  • Due to the high mobility of the electron gas, electrons do not collide inside the medium for a long distance and hence do not lose the memory and information.
  • Hence, such a system can easily remember and transfer its memory for a long time and distance.
  • In addition, since they collide less during their flow, their resistance is very low, and hence they don’t dissipate energy as heat.
  • So, such devices do not heat up easily and need less input energy to operate.
• The realization of large Rashba-effect at such oxide interfaces containing highly mobile electron gas may open up a new field of device physics, especially in the field of quantum technology applicable for next-generation data storage media and quantum computers.

Rashba Effect:

• The Rashba effect, or Rashba-Dresselhaus effect, is a momentum-dependent splitting of spin bands in two-dimensional condensed matter systems.
• Discovered in 1959, the phenomenon continues to supply fertile ground for fundamental research and applications.
• It provided the basis for the proposal of the spin transistor by Datta and Das in 1990, which has largely inspired the broad and dynamic field of spintronics.
• More recent developments include new materials for the Rashba effect such as metal surfaces, interfaces and bulk materials.

Read previous PIB here.

January 12th, 2021, PIB:- Download PDF Here