27 Jan 2021: PIB Summary & Analysis

January 27th, 2021, PIB:- Download PDF Here

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Pro Active Governance and Timely Implementation (PRAGATI)
2. Davos Dialogue
3. National Informatics Centre Services Incorporated (NICSI)
4. Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC)
5. Future Investment Initiative Forum
6. India signs Strategic Partnership Agreement with International Energy Agency (IEA)
7. Textiles Committee
8. Prelims Facts

1. Pro Active Governance and Timely Implementation (PRAGATI)

Context:

PM chairs 35^th PRAGATI interaction.

Read all about PRAGATI in the linked article.

2. Davos Dialogue

Context:

PM to address WEF’s Davos Dialogue.

About the World Economic Forum (WEF):

• The WEF is an international NGO founded in 1971 and based in Cologny, Switzerland.
• Earlier known as the European Management Forum, it changed its name to its current one in 1987.
• The WEF states its mission as “committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic, and other leaders of society to shape global, regional, and industry agendas”.
• The WEF hosts an annual meeting at the end of January in Davos, Switzerland. The meeting brings together some 3,000 business leaders, international political leaders, economists, celebrities and journalists for up to five days to discuss global issues, across 500 sessions.
• The Davos Dialogues agenda marks the launch of the World Economic Forum’s Great Reset Initiative in the post COVID world.

3. National Informatics Centre Services Incorporated (NICSI)

Context:

NICSI to celebrate its Silver Jubilee.

About NICSI:

• NICSI is a public sector enterprise under the National Informatics Centre (NIC), Ministry of Electronics & Technology, GOI.
• NICSI was founded in 1996, and provides end-to-end IT solutions for e-governance projects for Central and State Governments and other PSUs across India.
• It also provides ICT services at the international level.
• The core services of NICSI include IT Consultancy, Centre of Excellence for Data Analytics, Productization & International Promotion, Cloud Services, ICT product installations, Human Resource/Roll out/Training.
• Some of its key offerings extends to eOffice, eTransport, eHospital, ePrisons, eCourts and so.
• NICSI is headquartered in New Delhi.

Read more about the National Informatics Centre in PIB dated Nov 6, 2020.

4. Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC)

Context:

CBIC celebrates International Customs Day, 2021.

About the International Customs Day:

• Annually held on January 26, International Customs Day (ICD) recognizes the role of customs officials and agencies in maintaining border security.
• It focuses on the working conditions and challenges that customs officers face in their jobs.
• It was instituted by the World Customs Organization (WCO).
• January 26th commemorates the day in 1952 when the inaugural session of the Customs Cooperation Council (CCC) was held in Brussels, Belgium.
• In 1994 the CCC was renamed World Customs Organization (WCO) and today customs organizations from 183 countries are WCO members. The WCO is headquartered in Brussels.
• The theme for the 2021 commemoration was, “Customs bolstering Recovery, Renewal and Resilience for a sustainable supply chain”.

For more on the CBIC, check PIB dated 7^th Nov 2019 under the heading ‘DIN System of CBIC’.

5. Future Investment Initiative Forum

Context:

Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare addressed the 4^th edition of the Future Investment Initiative Forum.

Future Investment Initiative (FII):

• The Future Investment Initiative (FII) is an annual investment forum held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to discuss trends in the world economy and investment environment.
• It is hosted by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia(PIF). The first event was in October 2017.
  • The PIF is Saudi Arabia’s main sovereign wealth fund.

6. India signs Strategic Partnership Agreement with International Energy Agency (IEA)

What’s in News?

The Framework for Strategic Partnership between the International Energy Agency (IEA) members and the Government of India was signed in January 2021 to strengthen mutual trust and cooperation & enhance global energy security, stability and sustainability.

Details:

• This partnership is expected to lead to an extensive exchange of knowledge and would be a stepping stone towards India becoming a full member of the IEA.
• The contents of the Strategic Partnership will be jointly decided by the IEA Members and India.
  • This includes a phased increase in benefits and responsibilities for India as an IEA Strategic Partner;
  • Building on existing areas of work within Association and the Clean Energy Transitions Programme (CETP), such as energy security, clean & sustainable energy, energy efficiency, enhancing petroleum storage capacity in India, expansion of gas-based economy in India, etc.

Read all about the International Energy Agency (IEA) in the link.

7. Textiles Committee

Context:

Textiles Committee, Ministry of Textiles signs MoU with M/s Nissenken Quality Evaluation Centre, Japan.

Details of the MoU:

• The aim of the MoU is to boost the export of Indian textiles and apparel to the Japanese market.
• The main objective of the MoU is to provide the required support to the textiles trade and industry for ensuring quality as per the requirement of Japanese buyers through Testing, Inspection & Conformity Assessment, Training & Capacity Building, Research & Development (R&D) and Consultancy.
• It is expected that the MoU will strengthen the bilateral trade by enhancing India’s export of Textile and Apparels (T&A) to Japan, which is the third-largest export destination of the world.

Background:

• India and Japan had signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in 2011 which inter-alia facilitates the import of garments from India to Japan at zero duty.
• Despite CEPA, the growth in trade in Textiles and Apparel (T&A) between the two countries has been moderate.
• Japan is the third-largest importer of T&A in the world and India is the 6^th largest exporter and there is huge untapped potential for trade.

About Textiles Committee:

• The Textiles Committee was established in 1963 by an Act of Parliament and is a statutory body under the Ministry of Textiles.
• One of its mandates is to ensure the quality of all textiles and textile products for domestic and export markets.
• The Textiles Committee is the only body providing for all the quality-related needs of the entire Textiles Value Chain (TVC) in an integrated format on a pan-India basis through its network of 28 offices across the country including 19 state-of-the-art laboratories accredited under relevant national and international standards.

8. Prelims Facts

Govind Ballabh Pant

• G B Pant was a freedom fighter and the first Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh post-independence.
• He was the Premier of the United Provinces from 1937 to 1939.
• He was also the Union Home Minister from 1955 to 1961.
• G B Pant received the Bharat Ratna in 1957.

Read previous PIB here.

January 27th, 2021, PIB:- Download PDF Here