24 May 2023: PIB Summary for UPSC

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. India - Australia Relations
2. Pharmacopoeia Commission for Indian Medicine & Homoeopathy (PCIM&H)
3. UDAN 5.1 (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik)
4. India will soon acquire its fastest Supercomputer
5. AI Supercomputer ‘AIRAWAT’
6. 76th World Health Assembly
7. INSV Tarini’s historic voyage

1. India – Australia Relations

Syllabus – GS2, Bilateral agreements involving India and/or affecting  India’s interests.

Prelims – India – Australia Relations

Context – The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi’s visit to Australia.

Details –

• Shri Narendra Modi held a bilateral meeting with H.E Mr Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister of Australia at Admiralty House, Sydney, Australia.
• The discussions between the leaders focussed on cooperation in defence and security, new and renewable energy, green hydrogen, trade and investment, education, critical minerals, migration and mobility and people-to-people ties. Both leaders reaffirmed their commitment to further strengthen the multi-faceted India-Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. The India-Australia  ECTA came into effect in December 2022.
• The new migration agreement, India – Australia Migration and Mobility Partnership Arrangement (MMPA) will promote the two-way mobility of students, graduates, academic researchers and business people. It will include a new skilled pathway named MATES (Mobility Arrangement for Talented Early Professionals Scheme), specifically created for India.
• The leaders also agreed on the terms of reference for a bilateral Green Hydrogen Task Force that will promote cooperation on producing the gas without the use of fossil fuels. They also made announcements of two new diplomatic posts, one in India’s Bengaluru and another in Brisbane, Australia.
• The India-Australia relationship is also important to ensure a peaceful, prosperous and inclusive Indo-Pacific region. Prime Minister Albanese also expressed Australia’s support for India’s G20 Presidency and initiatives.

Also read – India Australia Relations.

2. Pharmacopoeia Commission for Indian Medicine & Homoeopathy (PCIM&H)

Syllabus  – GS2, Health: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health.

Prelims – PCIM&H

Context – Inauguration of the e-Office portal of PCIM&H and ‘Online portal’.

Details –

• The Union Minister of Ayush, Shri Sarbananda Sonowal inaugurated the e-Office portal of PCIM&H and the Online portal at the Pharmacopoeia Commission for Indian Medicine and Homoeopathy (PCIM&H). The online portal is for selling soft copies of pharmacopoeial monographs. The online portal will promote the hassle-free reach of pharmacopoeia monographs among stakeholders across the world.
• PCIM&H under the Ministry of Ayush is actively engaged in the standardisation and quality control of Ayurveda, Sidha, Unani and Homoeopathic (ASU&H) drugs and is publishing the standards in the form of Pharmacopoeias.
  • Pharmacopoeia is an officially recognized book of standards as per the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 and Rules 1945 thereunder.

3. UDAN 5.1 (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik)

Syllabus – GS3, Infrastructure, Growth & Development.

Prelims – RCS (Regional Connectivity Scheme) – UDAN 5.1- specifically designed for helicopter routes.

Context – The Ministry of Civil Aviation launched UDAN 5.1 to further enhance connectivity to remote areas of the country.

Details –

• The UDAN scheme was launched in October 2016 with the objective of fulfilling the aspirations of the common citizen, with an enhanced aviation infrastructure and air connectivity in tier II and tier III cities.
• After the four successful rounds of RCS-UDAN and with the fifth version underway, the Ministry of Aviation launched UDAN 5.1 to achieve last-mile connectivity through helicopters. The aim is to provide last-mile connectivity and also to give the helicopter segment of the Indian civil aviation industry a much-needed boost.
• At present, there are 46 helicopter routes that are operational under previous rounds of the scheme and with UDAN 5.1 more helicopter routes will be covered. Greater helicopter penetration through such efforts will help boost tourism, hospitality and local economies. The new phase is expected to promote chopper usage and grow the existing number of helicopters in India.
• The main features of UDAN 5.1 include –
  • An increase in the scope of operations for operators wherein the scheme will now allow routes where one of the origin or destination locations is in a priority area. Earlier both points had to be in priority areas.
  • Airfare caps have been reduced by as much as 25 per cent to make flying in helicopters more affordable for passengers.
  • Viability Gap Funding (VGF) caps (subsidy) for the operators have been increased “substantially” for both single and twin-engine helicopters to enhance financial viability for operating the awarded routes.

4. India will soon acquire its fastest Supercomputer

Syllabus – GS3, Science and Technology- developments and their applications.

Prelims – Supercomputers.

Context –  Supercomputer – 18 petaFlop system to be acquired by India.

Details –

• The Union Minister of Earth Sciences, Shri Kiren Rijiju visited the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF), Noida and informed that the country is set to dramatically scale up its supercomputing prowess and install an 18 – petaflop system (1 petaflop = 1000 trillion flops) over the course of this year. With the acquisition of the supercomputer, India will have a weather monitoring mechanism with the highest resolution of probabilistic forecasts.
• India’s fastest supercomputer at present is the Cray XC-40 supercomputer – ‘Mihir’ with a performance of 6.8 peta Flops (floating point operations per Second).
• The fastest high-performance computing system in the world is currently the Frontier-Cray system at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, United States. This has a peak speed of 1 exa-flop (or about 1,000 petaflops). 

Also read – National Supercomputing Mission.

5. AI Supercomputer ‘AIRAWAT’

Syllabus – GS3, Science & Technology- developments and their applications.

Prelims – AI Supercomputer ‘AIRWAT’

Context– The AI Supercomputer, installed in C-DAC Pune has been ranked 75th in the world at the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC 2023), Germany.

Details –

• In a significant achievement for India’s technological prowess, the country’s AI supercomputer ‘AIRAWAT’ has secured the 75th position in the prestigious Top 500 Global Supercomputing List. This was announced during the 61st edition of the International Supercomputing Conference held in Germany.
• The installation of AIRAWAT at C-DAC, Pune is part of the National Program on AI initiated by the GoI.
• The AIRAWAT PoC (Proof of Concept) of 200 AI Petaflops integrated with PARAM Siddhi – AI of 210 AI Petaflops gives a total peak compute of 410 AI Petaflops Mixed Precision and sustained compute capacity of 8.5 Petaflops (Rmax) Double Precision. The peak compute capacity (Double Precision, Rpeak) is 13 Petaflops. 
• The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has envisioned a roadmap for scaling AIRAWAT to 1,000 AI Petaflops Mixed Precision compute capacity to cater to the current AI computational needs.

Also read – Artificial Intelligence.

6. 76th World Health Assembly

Syllabus – GS2, Health

Prelims – 76th World Health Assembly (Geneva)

Context – The Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Dr Mansukh Mandaviya addressed the 76th session of the World Health Assembly.

Details –

• The Union Minister, Dr Mansukh Mandaviya addressed the World Health Assembly centred on the theme ‘Health for All’. The minister proposed the ‘Global Medical Countermeasures Platform’ to ensure equitable access to safe, high-quality, cost-effective medical countermeasures to all countries.
• The Global Initiative on Digital Health will act as an institutional framework and provide agile and fit-for-purpose digital solutions with the use of cutting-edge technologies. It will facilitate building consensus on the promotion of digital public goods for customisation and democratisation of digital tools for the world and particularly for low- and middle-income countries (LMIC).
• The Union Minister also delivered the keynote address at a side event session on ‘Heal in India and Heal by India’ at the 76th World Health Assembly. The ‘Heal by India’ initiative is designed with the intent to increase health workforce mobility from India to different parts of the world to serve the world as per the Indian Philosophy of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ (The World is One Family), while the ‘Heal in India’ initiative seeks to provide “integrated and holistic treatment” to the world in India and enhance patient mobility for access to world-class, affordable and quality healthcare services.

About World Health Assembly –

• The 76th World Health Assembly is being held in Geneva, Switzerland (21–30 May 2023). The theme of this year’s Health Assembly is: WHO at 75: Saving lives, driving health for all.
• The World Health Assembly is the decision-making body of WHO. It is attended by delegations from all WHO Member States and focuses on a specific health agenda prepared by the Executive Board. The main functions of the World Health Assembly are to determine the policies of the organization, appoint the Director-General, supervise financial policies, and review and approve the proposed programme budget. 
• The Health Assembly is held annually in Geneva, Switzerland.

7. INSV Tarini’s historic voyage

Syllabus – GS3, Various Security forces and agencies and their mandate. 

Prelims – Intercontinental voyage of INSV Tarini.

Context – INSV Tarini’s historic voyage from Goa to Rio de Janeiro via Cape Town and back in 188 days.

Details –

• INSV (Indian Naval Ship Vessel) Tarini, with its six-member crew including two women, sailed the seas from Goa to Rio de Janeiro via Cape Town and back to Indian shores in 188 days, successfully navigating through adverse weather conditions. INSV Tarini completed a 17000 nm trans-ocean intercontinental voyage in 188 days. 
• The crew of INSV Tarini was received at Goa harbour by Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and the Union Minister for Women and Child Development, Smriti Irani.

Read the previous PIB articles here.

May 24th, 2023, PIB:- Download PDF Here