June 23rd, 2020 PIB:- Download PDF Here

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Ashadhi Bij
2. Government e-Marketplace (GeM)
3. INS Airavat
4. Turant Customs
5. YUKTI 2.0
6. Seaplane operation projects
7. International Comparison Program (ICP)

1. Ashadhi Bij

Context:

PM greets people on Ashadhi Bij, the Kutchi New Year.

About Ashadhi Bij:

• Ashadhi Bij/Beej is the 2^nd day of Shukla paksha of Ashadha month of the Hindu calendar (June – July).
• The Kutchi people of Gujarat celebrate their Kutchi New Year on this day.
• This day is associated with the beginning of rains in Kutch, Gujarat.
• On this festival, the people check the moisture in the atmosphere to help predict which crop would do best in the coming monsoon.
• Moisture in the air makes the seed and soil gain weight. If the pre-monsoon air has a lot of moisture in it, that is a fairly good indication that the season will be well.
• Kutch is largely a desert area, therefore people living there value rain very much.
• Ashadhi Beej is celebrated mainly at two places in India – Vishwanath temple in Varanasi, UP and Mulesh Mahadev in Umreth, Gujarat.

2. Government e-Marketplace (GeM)

Context:

Information about Country of Origin by the sellers made mandatory on GeM to promote ‘Make in India’ and ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’.

Details:

• Government e-Marketplace (GeM), a Special Purpose Vehicle under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, has made it mandatory for sellers to enter the Country of Origin while registering all new products on GeM.
• Further, sellers, who had already uploaded their products before the introduction of this new feature on GeM, are being reminded regularly to update the Country of Origin, with a warning that their products shall be removed from GeM if they fail to update the same.
• GeM has taken this significant step to promote ‘Make in India’ and ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’.
• GeM has also enabled a provision for indication of the percentage of local content in products.
• More importantly, the ‘Make in India’ filter has now been enabled on the portal. Buyers can choose to buy only those products that meet the minimum 50% local content criteria.
• In case of bids, buyers can now reserve any bid for Class I Local suppliers (Local Content > 50%). For those bids below INR 200 crore, only Class I and Class II Local Suppliers (Local content > 50% and > 20% respectively) are eligible to bid, with Class I suppliers getting purchase preference.

To know more about Government e-Marketplace, click on the linked article.

3. INS Airavat

Context:

Indian Navy’s INS Airavat brings back 198 Indian citizens from Maldives under operation Samudra Setu.

About INS Airavat:

• INS Airavat, commissioned in the Indian Navy in 2010, is one of the biggest and heaviest naval ships of the Indian Navy.
• It is capable of carrying 10 battle tanks, more than 500 troops, and 11 combat trucks.
• INS Airavat provides a comfortable platform to Sea King and Dhruv helicopters.
• It is also equipped with two indigenous rocket launchers to provide support in amphibious operations.
• The Indian Navy in January 2020 conducted “Operation Vanilla”, with INS Airavat delivering relief material such as food, clothing, medicines, and water to Madagascar devastated by a cyclone and the subsequent rainfall and landslide.

Operation Samudra Setu is part of the GOI’s initiative to repatriate Indians stranded in foreign countries due to the coronavirus pandemic.

4. Turant Customs

Context:

CBIC enables end-to-end paperless exports under Turant Customs.

Turant Customs:

• Turant Customs, launched by CBIC, is a mega reform for the ease of doing business.
• The programme has been launched at Bengaluru and Chennai to take a leap forward to take advantage of the technology for faster customs clearance of imported goods.
• With the initiation of the programme at Bengaluru and Chennai, it marks the first phase of the All India roll out which would get completed by 31^st December 2020.
• Under the programme, importers will avail benefits with the elimination of routine interface with the customs officers, which will provide uniformity in assessment across the country.
• The customs officers located outside the port of import will clear the goods from customs after doing faceless assessment remotely.
• Under this programme, the goods imported at Chennai may be assessed by the customs officers located at Bengaluru and vice versa, as assigned by the customs’ automated system.

To know more about CBIC, check PIB dated Nov 7, 2019 under the headline, ‘DIN System of CBIC’.

5. YUKTI 2.0

Context:

Union HRD Minister virtually launches ‘YUKTI 2.0’ platform for Higher Education Institutes in New Delhi.

About YUKTI 2.0:

• YUKTI 2.0 is an extension of the earlier launched YUKTI.

To know more about YUKTI, check PIB dated 12 April, 2020.

6. Seaplane operation projects

Context:

Minister of State for Shipping reviewed the seaplane projects on Indian water bodies.

About Seaplane operation project:

• Seaplane projects will provide faster and hassle free travel option for the long, treacherous and hilly regions of the country.
• Till now, 16 seaplane routes have been identified under Regional Connectivity Routes under UDAN scheme.
• Benefits of seaplanes:
  • Given the large and small waterbodies that dot the country, India provides an ideal opportunity for seaplane operations.
  • Unlike a conventional aircraft, a seaplane can land both on a waterbody and on land, thereby opening up more opportunities for business and tourism.

7. International Comparison Program (ICP)

Context:

Results from the 2017 International Comparison Program.

Details:

• The World Bank has released new Purchasing Power Parities (PPPs) for reference year 2017, under the International Comparison Program (ICP), that adjust for differences in the cost of living across economies of the world.
• Globally, 176 economies participated in the 2017 cycle of ICP.

About ICP:

• The ICP is the largest worldwide data-collection initiative, under the guidance of UN Statistical Commission (UNSC), with the goal of producing Purchasing Power Parities (PPPs) which are vital for converting measures of economic activities to be comparable across economies.
• Along with the PPPs, the ICP also produces Price Level Indices (PLI) and other regionally comparable aggregates of GDP expenditure.
• India has participated in almost all ICP rounds since its inception in 1970.
• The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation is the National Implementing Agency (NIA) for India, which has the responsibility of planning, coordinating and implementing national ICP activities.
• India was also a co-chair of the ICP Governing Board along with Statistics Austria for the ICP 2017 cycle.

Results:

• The PPP of Indian Rupee per US$ at GDP level is now 20.65 in 2017 from 15.55 in 2011.
• The Exchange Rate of US Dollar to Indian Rupee is now 65.12 from 46.67 during the same period.
• The Price Level Index (PLI), used to compare the price levels of economies, of India is 47.55 in 2017 from 42.99 in 2011.
  • PLI is the ratio of a PPP to its corresponding market exchange rate.
• In 2017, India retained and consolidated its global position, as the third largest economy, accounting for 6.7 percent of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in terms of PPPs as against China (16.4%) and United States (16.3%), respectively.
• India is also third largest economy in terms of its PPP-based share in global Actual Individual Consumption and Global Gross Capital Formation.
• In the Asia-Pacific region, India in 2017 retained its regional position as the second largest economy accounting for 20.83% of regional GDP in terms of PPPs where China was first and Indonesia was in third position.
• India is also second largest economy in terms of its PPP-based share in regional Actual Individual Consumption and regional Gross Capital Formation – in the Asia-Pacific region.

What is Purchasing Power Parity (PPP)?

Purchasing power parity (PPP) is a metric used by macroeconomic analysts that compares different countries’ currencies through a “basket of goods” approach. PPP allows for economists to compare economic productivity and standards of living between countries.

June 23rd, 2020 PIB:- Download PDF Here

Read more PIB articles here.