03 July 2018: UPSC Exam PIB Summary & Analysis

Indian Army Motorcycle Expedition to Commemorate Kargil Vijay Diwas

• A motorcycle expedition comprising of ‘SHWET ASHW’ the elite Motorcycle Display Team of the Corps of Military Police, was flagged off’ on 02 July 2018 to commemorate the victory of Indian Army in Operation Vijay 1999.
• The expedition will traverse a distance of more than 3250 Kms from Bangalore to Dras, Jammu and Kashmir over a period of 24 days across eight states of the country, reaching Kargil War Memorial, Dras on 26 July 2018. 
• The expedition will be flagged in on 26 July 2018 at Kargil War Memorial, Dras as a part of the ‘Kargil Vijay Diwas’ celebrations.

Aim of Expedition:

• To strengthen the brotherhood, pay homage to the supreme sacrifices made by our martyrs during the Kargil War and motivate the youth to join Indian Army.

Background:

• The war took place between May and July of 1999 in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kargil district.
  The conflict is believed to have been orchestrated by the then Pakistan army chief General Pervez Musharraf without the knowledge of the then Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
  It began with the infiltration of both Pakistani troops and terrorists into Indian territory.
  The infiltrators positioned themselves in key locations that gave them a strategic advantage during the start of the conflict.
• Based on information from local shepherds, the Indian Army was able to ascertain the points of incursion and launch “Operation Vijay”.
• Thus, Operation Vijay (1999) was the Indian operation to push back infiltrators in the Kargil War.

National Workshop on Skill Development for Persons with Disabilities

• A “National Workshop on Skill Development for Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan)” was organized by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) under Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
• DEPwD implements an umbrella scheme namely Scheme for Implementation of Right of Persons with Disabilities Act (SIPDA) which has a component for Skill Development of PwDs.
• Under NAP, 75640 PwDs have been trained since 2016-17 and this year the target is to impart skill training to 90,000 PwDs. 
• The Skill Development programme for PwDs is implemented through the training Partners empanelled with this department and also through its National Institutes, their Composite Regional Centres and also through National Handicapped Finance & Development Corporation (NHFDC).
• During the last 4 years about 1.4 lakh PwDs have been imparted skill training under the Skill Development /Vocation Training program of the Department.
• The Workshop dwelt upon all the issues involved in the skill development for Persons with disabilities and come out with workable solution in identifying core areas for skill development in the context of PwDs, mechanism for appropriate mapping of categories of Disabilities viz. a viz. industrial requirement and also promoting positive attitude in the private sector to consider PwDs as one of their valuable workforce.
• According to census 2011, there are 26.8 million Persons with Disabilities in India, which constitutes 2.21% of our population. These include Persons with Hearing Disability, Locomotor Disability, Visual Disability, Speech Disability, Intellectual Disability, Mental Illness, Multiple Disabilities and other unspecified categories of Disabilities.
• India is a signatory to the UNCRPD which came into the effect from May 2018. The Government of India has enacted the RPwD act which came into force from 19.04.2017 and is aligned with the spirit of the UNCRPD.

Election Commission of India launches Mobile App “cVIGIL”

• The Chief Election Commissioner Shri. O.P. Rawat, along with the Election Commissioners Shri Sunil Arora and Shri Ashok  Lavasa launched a mobile app, called ‘Cvigil,’ for citizens to report any violation of the model code of conduct during elections.
• “cVIGIL” is a user-friendly and easy to operate Android application. It will be operational only where elections are announced.
• Upon successful completion of the trial that is underway, the application will be made available for general use by all, right from the forthcoming Assembly elections in the States of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram and Rajasthan.
• The practical use of the app during the four-state Assembly polls will also serve as a pilot initiative before it is put to extensive use during the next Lok Sabha General Elections.
• “cVIGIL” will allow anyone in the election-bound state to report violations of Model Code of Conduct (MCC) that comes into effect from the date of announcement of elections and goes on till a day after the polls.
• By using this app, citizens can immediately report on incidents of misconduct within minutes of having witnessed them and without having to rush to the office of the returning officer to lodge a complaint.
• The app has inbuilt features to prevent its misuse. It will receive complaints only about Model Code of Conduct violations. The user will get 5 minutes to report an incident after having clicked a picture or a video. To prevent any misuse, the app will not allow uploading of the pre-recorded or old images and videos.
• The app will not facilitate saving of the photos or videos recorded using the ‘cVIGIL’ app into the phone gallery either. Further, the application will be active only in States where elections have been announced. The moment a citizen exits an election-bound State, the app will become inactive.