30 May 2020: PIB Summary & Analysis

May 30th, 2020 PIB:- Download PDF Here

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. PM greets people of Goa on their Statehood Day
2. Operation Samudra Setu
3. National AI Portal of India
4. Jal Jeevan Mission
5. e-booklet on DARPG achievements
6. COVID-19 Bio Banks

1. PM greets people of Goa on their Statehood Day

What’s in News?

The Prime Minister of India greeted the people of Goa on the occasion of their Statehood Day.

Details:

• Goa, which was liberated from the Portuguese on December 19, 1961, was until 1987 a union territory.
• Following persistent demands; including a 1976 resolution by the Goa assembly demanding full statehood; Goa finally became a state on 30 May 1987.
• Goa became the 25th State of the Indian Union.

Read more about this topic: This Day in History 30^th May 1987.

2. Operation Samudra Setu

What’s in News?

Indian Navy commences next phase of Operation “Samudra Setu” to repatriate Indian citizens from overseas.

This topic has been covered in 6^th May 2020 Comprehensive News Analysis. Click here to read.

3. National AI Portal of India

What’s in News?

Union Minister for Electronics and IT, Law and Justice and Communications has launched the National AI Portal of India.

• India’s national Artificial Intelligence Portal has been jointly developed by the Ministry of Electronics and IT and the IT Industry.
• National e-Governance Division of the Ministry of Electronics and IT and NASSCOM from the IT industry will jointly run this portal. This portal shall work as a one stop digital platform for AI related developments in India, sharing of resources such as articles, start-ups, investment funds in AI, resources, companies and educational institutions related to AI in India.
• The portal will also share documents, case studies, research reports, etc. It has sections about learning and new job roles related to AI.

“Responsible AI for Youth”

• The IT Minister also launched a National Program for the youth, “Responsible AI for Youth”.
• The aim of this Program is to give the young students of our country a platform and empower them with appropriate new age tech mind-set, relevant AI skill-sets and access to required AI tool-sets to make them digitally ready for the future.
• The Program has been created and launched by the National e-Governance Division, Ministry of Electronics & IT in collaboration with Intel India, with support from the Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSE&L), Ministry of Human Resource Development.
• DoSE&L will help reach out to State Education Departments to nominate teachers as per eligibility criteria.
• “Responsible AI for Youth” will empower the youth to become AI ready and help reduce the skill gap, while enabling youth to create meaningful social impact solutions.
• The Program is designed to reach out to students from Government schools pan India and provide them with an opportunity to become part of the skilled workforce in an inclusive manner.

Also read: Artificial Intelligence Notes

4. Jal Jeevan Mission

What’s in News?

Annual action plan has been approved for Bihar under Jal Jeevan Mission.

Details:

• Bihar State presented its Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) Annual Action Plan before the Ministry of Jal Shakti for consideration and approval, wherein it is planned to have 100% coverage of all households with functional tap water connections by 2020-21.
• Bihar state government has set an ambitious goal of providing all the remaining households with tap connection. It’s a huge target, but the State Government is all set with the roadmap to achieve the target.
• A proper plan is in place for 100% coverage of all 38 districts during 2020-21.
• Bihar Government is also giving special attention to providing 100% of Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTCs) in Aspirational districts, quality-affected habitations and SC/ST villages.
• Because of abundance of ground water and surface water in Bihar, the State is making all efforts in this regard.

Jal Jeevan Mission:

• Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) has been launched in partnership with States, to enable every household in villages to have an FHTC within the premises by 2024.
• It has been envisaged that each household will have potable water supply of prescribed quality on a regular and long-term basis.
• It is the endeavour of the Government to bring improvement in the lives of rural people by making provision of assured services at their doorsteps.
• JJM is to play a significant role in bringing ‘ease of living’ for the rural community, especially women. Women must lead JJM in their villages to meet their needs and aspirations.

Read more about Jal Jeevan Mission.

5. e-booklet on DARPG achievements

What’s in News?

Union Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions has launched the e-booklet on Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances’ (DARPG) achievements for the period May 30, 2019 to May 30, 2020.

Details:

• DARPG had provided immense impetus to e-Governance in India by:
  • Intense pursuit of implementation of e-Office in the Central Secretariat and States and
  • The conduct of the 22^nd and 23^rd National e-Governance Conferences at Shillong and Mumbai in 2019 and 2020 respectively.
• DARPG has undertaken significant reforms in handling Public Grievances by pursuing CPGRAMS reforms in several Ministries and Departments.
• DARPG for brought out 3 important publications – the Good Governance Index (GGI) 2019, the National e-Services Delivery Assessment 2019 and the Central Secretariat Manual of Office Procedure 2019.
  • These publications, rich in their academic content, provided immense inputs for taking good governance forward; for example, enabling the march towards a digital central secretariat.

DARPG has a massive responsibility in meeting new challenges of providing timely grievance redressal by improving its tool kit with feed-back call centres, upgraded software solutions and taking forward the Government’s good governance agenda with focus on e-Governance and e-Services.

Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG)

• The primary role of this department is to plan and implement citizen-centric measures in the domain of public grievances and carry out administrative reforms so that the Government is in a position to deliver quality public services without any obstacles.
• The grievances received will be forwarded to the respective ministries, departments and state governments. The cases will be followed till it is closed.

6. COVID-19 Bio Banks

What’s in News?

• NITI Aayog has recently issued guidelines for the sharing of bio specimens and data for research related to COVID-19.
• As per the directives of the Cabinet Secretary, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has notified 16 bio-repositories for collecting, storing and maintaining clinical samples (oropharyngeal/ nasopharyngeal swabs, broncheoalveolar lavage, sputum, blood, urine and stool) of COVID-19 patients.

Details:

• The samples will be collected and archived for future use to develop validated diagnostics, therapeutics, vaccines, etc.
• These designated facilities will develop uniform Standard Operating Procedures (SoPs) for sample collection, transportation, aliquoting, storage, and sharing.
• The role of bio-banks for COVID-19 samples would be the development of a vaccine and treatments; guidance regarding handling, including nasopharyngeal swabs; and conditions under which the higher Biosafety Level 3 (BSL-3) practices should be followed, for example, when working with cultures of the coronavirus specimens.
• The Department of Biotechnology would be supporting these COVID-19 designated Bio-bank facilities through a well strategized future plan so that novel technological interventions can be developed in due course of time.
• These designated bio repositories will use the clinical samples for R&D purpose in their respective institutes.
• In addition, they are also authorized to share the samples with academia, industry and commercial entities involved in the development of diagnostics, therapeutics, vaccines, etc., after scrutinising the purpose of the request and ensuring benefit to the country.
• Sharing of Bio-specimens both Clinical and Viral is going to be key for new technology and product development by Indian researchers, start-ups and industries.

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