26 November 2019: PIB Summary & Analysis

Read the daily PIB update and stay up-to-date on current affairs for the UPSC exam.

November 26th, 2019 PIB:- Download PDF Here

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Global Exhibition on Services 2019
2. DEFCOM India 2019
3. Automotive Mission Plan
4. Smart Accreditation
5. National Milk Day

Global Exhibition on Services 2019

Context:

Global Exhibition on Services (GES) 2019 is being held in Bengaluru.

About GES 2019:

• The GES is an exhibition every year to engage industry and governments across the world and to promote greater exchange of trade in services between India and the rest of the world.
• The first edition was held in 2015 in New Delhi and this is the fifth edition being held in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
• The exhibition is emerging as a regular global platform for the promotion of services cooperation in the world.
• It plays an important role in increasing trade in services, enhancing strategic cooperation and strengthening multilateral relationships between stakeholders from India and overseas.
• As a dynamic player in the global services sector, India has the potential to build its own brand for services exports where it can be a dominant player.
• GES helps in this direction in the following ways:
  • Showcases India’s prowess across services sectors before a global audience.
  • Positions India globally in more services sub-sectors.
  • Generates concrete business outcomes.
  • Creates employment through leveraging services exports.
• Who organises GES?
  • The Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India in partnership with state governments and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
• In GES 2019, there would be over 500 participants from more than 100 countries.
• Participants include industry experts, government representatives, media, academia, etc. and there would be knowledge sessions, state pavilions, release of industry reports, studio talks, B2B, B2G, G2G meetings, cultural display, etc.

Highlights of GES 2019:

• In GES 2019, the Services Export Promotion Council (SEPC) is also looking to promote eSports. The eSports industry is expected to grow rapidly and in 2017 worldwide revenue generated in eSports market amounted to USD 655 million. The market is expected to generate close to USD 1.8 billion in revenue by 2022.
  • SEPC is organizing Nations Cup (International eSports Championship) in association with Electronic Sports Federation of India (ESFI) during GES 2019.
  • The Nations Cup will be one of the key highlights during GES and will open up multiple avenues for the services industry particularly in eSports, gaming and animation.
• An International Moot Court competition is also being organized during GES 2019 for young lawyers, who along with their seniors, will argue cases related to intellectual property rights.
• India is also aspiring to promote niche tourism like the Buddhist circuit, adventure and camping tourism. Uttar Pradesh is the partnering state mainly to promote the tourism sector and will have a separate state pavilion in GES 2019.
• Key sectors showcased in GES 2019 are:
  • Environment
  • Accounting and finance
  • Communications
  • Legal
  • Construction and related engineering
  • Medical value travel
  • Tourism and hospitality
  • Transport and logistics
  • Education
  • Financial
  • Audio-visual
  • IT/ITES

Importance of the Services Sector in the Indian Economy

• According to the Revised Estimates (2018-19) released by CSO, the services sector with a share of 61.3 per cent in India’s gross value added continued to be the key driver of India’s economic growth in 2017-18.
• Dubbed as the ‘sector of the current millennium’, services sector drives the Indian economy in an inclusive and equitable manner.
• In a challenging global environment, services trade is increasingly viewed as an instrument to create jobs, drive national growth and foster exchange of ideas, knowledge and technology.
• The services sector also contributes significantly to trade in goods through supply chains and e-commerce.
• The services sector is not only the dominant sector in India’s GDP, but has also attracted significant foreign investment flows, contributed significantly to exports as well as provided large-scale employment.
• As of 2018, 34.49 per cent of India’s employed population was working in the services sector.
• Additionally, this sector is also the largest recipient of FDI in India with inflows of US$ 70.91 billion between April 2000 and December 2018.

What govt. is doing?

• In order to attract more players in the services sector, India has liberalized its e-visa regime in three categories: e-tourist, e-medical and e-business to promote these sectors.
• Multiple entry tourist and business visas for a period of five years are now available to nationals of all countries for the benefit of medical tourists.

About the SEPC:

• SEPC is an export promotion council set up by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India in 2006 as an apex trade body to facilitate service exporters of India.
• SEPC actively contributes to the formulation of policies of the Government of India and acts as an interface between the services industry and the Government.
• It has a membership base of 4800 members from the 14 service sectors.

DEFCOM India 2019

Context:

The two-day DEFCOM INDIA 2019 seminar commenced at New Delhi.

About DEFCOM 2019:

• DEFCOM is India’s international conference & exposition on military communication.
• It is the flagship event in the area of military communication.
• The event brings together major national and international IT and communication industry and the key stakeholders from the Indian Armed Forces.
• It is jointly being organized by Corps of Signals, Indian Army and Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers (SIDM) /Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
• DEFCOM provides an excellent opportunity for the industry to understand the requirements of the Armed Forces.
• The DEFCOM exhibition showcased cutting edge communication solutions from the industry and gave officers from the three services an opportunity to gain insights on technology and industry capabilities.

Automotive Mission Plan

About the Automotive Mission Plan (AMP):

• The AMP is the collective vision of the Government of India and the Indian automotive industry on where the vehicles, auto-components, and tractor industries should reach over the next ten years in terms of size, contribution to India’s development, global footprint, technological maturity, competitiveness, and institutional structure and capabilities.
• The AMP 2006 – 16 has been largely successful in its endeavor to lay down the roadmap for development of the industry, the Minister informed.
• India has attracted significant quantum of investments from global and local original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) as well as component manufacturers, exceeding the target of Rs. 1,57,500 crore.
• The industry has also achieved the target of incremental employment creation of 25 million jobs over the period.
• The AMP 2016 – 26 has also been finalised by the government and industry.
• AMP 2016 seeks to define the trajectory of evolution of the automotive ecosystem in India including the glide path of specific regulations and policies that govern research, design, technology, testing, manufacturing, import/export, sale, use, repair, and recycling of automotive vehicles, components and services.

Objectives of AMP 2016 – 26:

• To propel the Indian automotive industry to be the engine of the ‘Make in India’
• To make the Indian automotive industry a significant contributor to the ‘Skill India’ programme.
• To enhance universal mobility (safe and comfortable for every person keeping in mind environmental protection).
• To increase the net exports of the Indian automotive industry several-fold.
• To enable a comprehensive and stable policy dispensation.

Context:

The Union Minister of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises provided information about the Automotive Mission Plan in the Rajya Sabha.

Smart Accreditation

Context:

The Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM) organised a one-day national workshop on accreditation of training centres on Skill Management & Accreditation of Training Centre (SMART) portal.

Details:

• Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM) is one of the flagship schemes of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs that works towards alleviating urban poverty through strong community institutions, skill training, access to affordable credit for self-employment, support for street vendors and provision of shelters for the urban homeless.
• It was stressed in the workshop that from the next financial year, allocation of targets to training partners would be subject to their SMART accreditation.
• The states were advised to start the process of accreditation immediately, if not already done so.
• The workshop was aimed at providing handholding support to the states for streamlining the accreditation process on SMART and addressing any other specific query, especially in respect to Employment through Skill Training & Placement (EST&P) component of DAY-NULM.

What is SMART?

• Skill Management & Accreditation of Training Centre (SMART) provides a single-window IT application that focuses on accreditation, grading, affiliation and continuous monitoring of the training centres in the skill ecosystem.
• It intends to address the issues like quality benchmarks, fostering excellence in training centres, enabling trainees to make informed choices with regard to centres, etc.
• SMART aims at convergence of all stakeholders in the skill ecosystem in providing standardised infrastructure, accreditation and affiliation.
• SMART covers various central and state government schemes, private initiatives, CSR, etc. thus making it a scheme agnostic platform.
• The training provider can register on the SMART website and follow the prescribed process to get an accreditation.
• The centres will be graded on a rating scale of 1 star to 5 star depending on their scores.

Also read: Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – NRLM (DAY-NRLM)

National Milk Day

Context:

The Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying addressed entrepreneurs, milk producer farmers, academia and media on the occasion of National Milk Day-2019.

Details about India’s Milk Production:

• Milk production has increased significantly from 137.7 million tonnes in 2013-14 to 187.75 million tonnes in 2018-19, thereby indicating an increase by 36.35%.
• The per capita availability of milk increased from 307 grams in 2013-14 to 394 grams in 2018-19.
• The annual growth rate of milk production during the period 2009-14 was 4.2%, which has increased to 6.4% during 2014-19.
• Since the last 20 years, India continues to be the largest producer of milk in the world.
• About 70 million rural households are engaged in dairying in India with 80% of total cow population.

About the National Milk Day:

• 26^th November is celebrated as the National Milk Day in India.
• It is the birth anniversary of Dr. Verghese Kurien, the father of the White Revolution in India.
• India was transformed from a milk-deficient country to a self-sufficient milk-producing country, chiefly due to his efforts and initiatives.
• He institutionalised a cooperative model of farming and dairying where the farmers were cooperative owners of the organisation while being led and managed by professionals.
• Kurien also pioneered the use of buffalo milk to produce skim milk powder which was considered impossible by dairy experts around the globe. In India, buffalo milk was available aplenty compared to cow milk.
• He successfully implemented ‘Operation Flood’ which led to India becoming the leading milk producer of the world surpassing the USA in 1998. India is a leading name worldwide in cooperative dairying because of Amul’s stupendous success.
• Read more about the life and contributions of Dr. Kurien here.

November 26th, 2019 PIB:- Download PDF Here

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