TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Space Sector Reforms 2. Commonwealth Games (CWG), 2022 3. Digital Banks - A proposal for Licensing and Regulatory Regime for India 4. MoU between India and Maldives 5. MoU between India and Namibia 6. Vidya Samiksha Kendra
Syllabus – GS 3, Science & Technology.
Prelims – Communication Satellites.
Context – Union Minister, Dr Jitendra Singh said, Ten in-orbit operational communication satellites have been transferred from GoI to M/s New Space India Ltd. (NSIL), a CPSE under the Department of Space.
Details:
- Communication satellites viz, GSAT-8, G-SAT-10, GSAT-12R (CMS-01), GSAT-14, GSAT-15, GSAT-16, GSAT-17, GSAT-18, GSAT-30 and GSAT-31 have been transferred at a written down value of Rs. 4697.60 cr. against the issue of equity to GoI, with 01-04-2021 as the effective date of transfer.
- The Board of NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) is authorised to price the transponder capacity as per the global trends. NSIL shall carry out the activities related to offering and allocation of capacity, as per the guidelines to be adopted by its board.
- The transfer of operational satellites is part of the Space Sector reforms, aimed at strengthening the role of NSIL in order to enhance the nation’s share in the global space economy.
- The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) has been created as a single window agency to promote, handhold and authorise the activities of NGEs (Non-Government Entities) in the sector, thus providing them with a level playing field.
2. Commonwealth Games (CWG), 2022
Syllabus – Sports.
Prelims – Commonwealth Games.
Details:
- The PM Shri Narendra Modi interacted with the Indian contingent bound for the CWG, 2022 via video conferencing.
- A total of 215 athletes, participating in 141 events across 19 sporting disciplines will represent India.
About CWG, 2022:
- The 2022 CommonWealth Games, officially known as the ⅩⅩⅡ CommonWealth games is an international multi-sport event for members of the commonwealth nations, that is scheduled to be held in Birmingham, England from 28th July to 8th August 2022. England is hosting the CWG for the third time, after London in 1934 and Manchester in 2002. The motto of the CommonWealth Games 2022 is “Games for Everyone”.
- CWG was first held in 1930, with the exception of 1942 and 1946, and has taken place every four years since then.
Know more about the Commonwealth of Nations in the linked article.
3. Digital Banks – A proposal for Licensing and Regulatory Regime for India
Syllabus – GS-3, Economy
Prelims – Digital Banks.
Details:
- Government think tank NITI Aayog has made a case and offered a template and roadmap for a licensing and regulatory regime for digital banks. The report focuses on avoiding any regulatory or policy arbitrage and offers a level playing field to incumbents as well as competitors.
Recommendations:
The report recommends a carefully calibrated approach, comprising the following steps-
- Issue of a restricted digital bank licence (to a given applicant) (the licence would be restricted in terms of volume/value of customer serviced and the like).
- Enlistment (of the Licence) in a regulatory sandbox framework enacted by the Reserve Bank of India.
- Issue of a “full scale” digital bank licence (contingent on satisfactory performance of the licence in the regulatory sandbox, including salient, prudential and technological risk management).
- The methodology for the licensing and regulatory template offered by the report is based on four factors such as entry barriers, competition, business restrictions and technological neutrality.
4. MoU between India and Maldives
Syllabus – International Relations, Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.
Prelims – MoU between India and Maldives
Context – MoU in the field of Judicial Cooperation between India and the Judicial Service Commission of the Republic of Maldives.
Details:
- The Union Cabinet chaired by PM Shri Narendra Modi has approved the signing of an MoU in the field of Judicial Cooperation between India and the Judicial Service Commission of the Republic of Maldives.
- This is the 8th MoU signed between India and other countries in the field of judicial cooperation.
- The MoU will provide a platform to tap the benefits of information technology for court digitisation and can be a potential growth area for the IT companies and start-ups in both the countries.
- Apart from enabling the exchange of knowledge and technology in judicial and other legal areas between the two countries, it will also further the objectives of the “Neighbourhood First Policy”.
5. MoU between India and Namibia
Syllabus – International Relations. Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.
Prelims – MoU between India and Namibia.
Context – MoU between India and Namibia on wildlife conservation and sustainable biodiversity restoration.
Details:
- India and Namibia signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the reintroduction of cheetahs into the historical range in India.
- The cheetahs will be released in Kuno National park, Madhya Pradesh. The current carrying capacity for Kuno National Park is a maximum of 21 cheetahs, once restored the larger landscape can hold about 36 cheetahs.
- The main goal of the cheetah reintroduction project in India is to establish viable cheetah metapopulation in India that allows the cheetah to perform its functional role as a top predator and provides space for the expansion of the cheetah within its historical range thereby contributing to its global conservation efforts.
- As per the directions of the Supreme Court of India in 2020, the cheetah reintroduction in India is being overseen by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF & CC) guided and directed by the committee of experts, designated by the Supreme Court of India.
- Both the countries will also collaborate in areas of climate change, environmental governance, environmental impact assessments, pollution and waste management.
Syllabus – Educational Reforms.
Prelims – Vidya Samiksha Kendra (VSK)
About Vidya Samiksha Kendras:
- It is a surveillance system which tracks enrolment, attendance, learning outcomes, drop-outs, textbook delivery, etc. in schools.
- This state-of-the-art data-driven centre is based on the National Digital Education Architecture (NDEAR) Framework.
- VSK aims at leveraging data and technology to bring a big leap in learning outcomes. This will cover data of more than 15 lakh schools, 96 lakh teachers and 26 crore students and analyse them meaningfully using big data analysis, artificial intelligence and machine learning in order to enhance the overall monitoring of the education system and thereby improve learning outcomes.
Read previous PIB here.
July 20th, 2022, PIB:- Download PDF Here
| Related Links | |||
| SVAMITVA SCHEME | Ken Betwa River Linking | ||
| National Digital Education Architecture | BharatNet Project | ||
| Extended Producers Responsibility | PMFME Scheme | ||
Comments