14 Jan 2021: PIB Summary & Analysis

January 14th, 2021, PIB:- Download PDF Here

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Prarambh: Startup India International Summit
2. RCS – UDAN
3. India’s First Indigenously Developed 9 mm Machine Pistol
4. Polio National Immunization Day
5. CSIR-NIScPR
6. National Innovation Portal
7. Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana

1. Prarambh: Startup India International Summit

Context:

‘Prarambh: Startup India International Summit’ to be held for two days in January 2021.

About Prarambh:

• The Summit is being organized by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
• It is a follow up of the announcement made by the Prime Minister at the fourth BIMSTEC Summit held in Kathmandu in August 2018 wherein India committed to host the BIMSTEC Startup Conclave.
• The Summit marks the fifth anniversary of the Startup India initiative, which was launched in 2015. Read more about Startup India in the linked article.
• With participation from over 25 countries and more than 200 global speakers, the Summit will be the largest startup confluence organized by the Government of India since the launch of the Startup India initiative.
• It will witness 24 sessions with focus on enhancing multilateral cooperation and engagement with countries from around the globe to collectively develop and strengthen the startup ecosystems.

2. RCS – UDAN

Context:

The first flight to the newly constructed Hisar airport in Haryana from Chandigarh was flagged off under the Regional Connectivity Scheme – Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik (RCS-UDAN).

Details:

• Belonging to the Government of Haryana, Hisar airport is a public licensed airport that is suitable for 18 seat type aircraft.
• The airline Aviation Connectivity & Infrastructure Developers Pvt Ltd (Air Taxi) was awarded the Hisar – Chandigarh – Hisar route under the UDAN 4 bidding process.
  • The airline has become the first startup airline of the country to assist the nation with Air Taxi services.
• These UDAN flights will reduce the journey time between Hisar to Chandigarh from 4.5 hours to a comfortable 45 minutes journey that too at an affordable fare since financial incentives in the form of Viability Gap Funding (VGF) is being provided from the Centre, State governments & airport operators to selected airlines to encourage operations from unserved and underserved airports under the scheme.
  • Read more about the Viability Gap Funding scheme in PIB dated Nov 11, 2020.
• Prelims Fact about Hisar, Haryana: it is India’s largest galvanized iron manufacturing city.

3. India’s First Indigenously Developed 9mm Machine Pistol

Context:

India’s first indigenous 9mm Machine Pistol has been jointly developed by DRDO and Indian Army. The weapon has been named ‘Asmi’.

About Asmi:

• The Asmi machine pistol fires the in-service 9 mm ammunition and has an upper receiver made from aircraft-grade aluminium and lower receiver from carbon fibre.
• The weapon has huge potential in the Armed forces as personal weapon for heavy weapon detachments, commanders, tank and aircraft crews, drivers/dispatch riders, radio/radar operators, Closed Quarter Battle, counter insurgency and counter terrorism operations, etc.
• This is also likely to find huge use with the central and state police organizations as well as VIP protection duties and policing.
• According to the government press release, the Machine Pistol is likely to have production cost under rupees 50000 each and has potential for exports.

Who developed Asmi?

• Armament Research & Development Establishment (ARDE), which is the Pune-based facility of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Indian Army’s Mhow-based Infantry School have jointly developed Asmi.

What are Machine Pistols?

• Machine pistols are primarily self-loading versions of pistols which are either fully automatic or can also fire bursts of bullets.

4. Polio National Immunisation Day

Context:

Polio National Immunisation Day rescheduled to 31^st January 2021.

Details:

• The Health Ministry postponed the polio national immunisation drive round scheduled from January 17 since the COVID vaccination drive is set to start on 16^th
• The National Immunisation Day (NID) or “Polio Ravivar” has been rescheduled to 31 January.

Read more about the National Immunization Day in RSTV: In Depth

5. CSIR-NIScPR

Context:

CSIR-National Institute of Science Communication and Policy Research (CSIR-NIScPR) inaugurated.

What is CSIR-National Institute of Science Communication and Policy Research?

• The new institute has been formed by merging two prestigious institutes of CSIR namely, CSIR-National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources (CSIR-NISCAIR)and CSIR-National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies (CSIR-NISTADS) which work at the interface of S&T and Society; and Science Communication and Policy Research.
• The new institute is located at New Delhi.
• The mission of the institute is to promote STI policy studies and science communication among diverse stakeholders and act as a bridge at the interface of science, technology, industry and society which is essential to a robust S&T ecosystem in the country.
• About CSIR-NISCAIR
  • It has been a frontier institute in science communication publishing popular science magazines (Vigyan Pragati and Science Reporter) and Scientific Journals.
  • It is also managing the largest and oldest National Science Library and also distributes International Standard Serial Number (ISSN).
  • It has been the custodian of the National Knowledge Resource Consortium (NKRC) which facilitates access to more than 5000 e-journals of all major publishers, patents, standards, citations, and bibliographic database.
• About CSIR-NISTADS
  • It has earned its reputation in its long journey in policy research and has a rich research experience in the area of history of science, S & T and society, and S&T and innovation.
  • It has executed projects from UNESCO and the Commonwealth Science Council, State S&T Councils and international agencies to review their respective S&T promotional schemes.
  • It has also created a Techno-Socio-Economic platform to enable the development and application of socially acceptable, relevant, scalable and cost-competitive products.

6. National Innovation Portal

Context:

Union Minister dedicates the National Innovation Portal to the nation.

What is the National Innovation Portal?

• The portal is a database of innovations and traditional knowledge by the people, for the people and of the people.
• It is currently home to about 1.15 lakh innovations scouted from common people of the country, covering engineering, agriculture, veterinary and human health.
• In terms of domain areas, currently, the innovations cover energy, mechanical, automobile, electrical, electronics, household, chemical, civil, textiles, farm/cultivation practice, storage practice, plant variety, plant protection, poultry, livestock management, nutraceuticals, etc.
• The portal has been developed by the National Innovation Foundation (NIF) – India, an autonomous body of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India.

About the National Innovation Foundation (NIF):

• An autonomous body under the DST, the NIF was established in 2000.
• It is India’s national initiative to strengthen the grassroots technological innovations and outstanding traditional knowledge.
• Its mission is to help India become a creative and knowledge-based society by expanding policy and institutional space for grassroots technological innovators.
• NIF scouts, supports and spawns grassroots innovations developed by individuals and local communities in any technological field, helping in human survival without any help from formal sector.
• NIF helps grassroots innovators and outstanding traditional knowledge holders get due recognition, respect and reward for their innovations.
• It also tries to ensure that such innovations diffuse widely through commercial and/or non-commercial channels, generating material or non-material incentives for them and others involved in the value chain.

NIF Achievements:

• NIF has also set up an augmented Fabrication Laboratory (Fab Lab) for product development and strengthening in-house research.
• NIF has filed about 1200 patents, including eight filed in the USA and 28 Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications, on behalf of the innovators and outstanding traditional knowledge holders.
  • Of these, 184 patents have been granted in India and 5 in the USA.
• NIF has filed 24 Design registrations (of which 20 are granted) for innovations of the grassroots and student innovators.
• In addition to this, 10 trade mark applications have also been filed, of which 7 have been granted.
• Micro Venture Innovation Fund (MVIF) at NIF, with support from Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), has provided risk capital to 230 innovation based enterprise projects, some of which are at different stages of incubation.

NIF Mission: To help India become inventive and creative, and to become a global leader in sustainable technologies without social and economic handicaps affecting the evolution and diffusion of green grassroots innovations.

7. Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana

Context:

Third phase of Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY 3.0) to be launched.

Read all about Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana in the linked article.

Read previous PIB here.

January 14th, 2021, PIB:- Download PDF Here