04 Oct 2023: PIB Summary for UPSC

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme (NMMSS)
2. India-Japan Fund (IJF)
3. World Animal Day 2023
4. North Koel Reservoir Project
5. National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC)

1. National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme (NMMSS)

Syllabus: GS-2, Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population

Prelims: National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme (NMMSS)

Context:

Online submission/registration of fresh applications and renewal for the National Scholarship Portal (NSP) for the National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme (NMMSS) for the project year 2023-24.

National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme (NMMSS):

• The objective of the scheme is to offer scholarships to meritorious students of economically weaker sections to reduce the dropout rate from schools encouraging them to continue their studies at the secondary level. 
• To take the scheme further, one lakh fresh scholarships will be provided to the students of class IX every year and their continuation in classes X to XII. 
• It covers government-aided and local body schools apart from the schools under the state government. 
• The students are selected through an examination conducted by the state and union territories. The scheme is available on the National Scholarship Portal.
• The scholarships are transferred to the bank accounts of the selected students through the Public Financial Management System (PFMS).
• As this is a central sector scheme, 100% of funds are provided by the central government.
• Eligibility criteria: 
  • Students whose parental income from all sources is not more than ₹3,50,000 per annum are eligible to avail of the scholarships. 
  • The students must have a minimum of 55% marks or equivalent grade in the Class VII examination to appear in the selection test for the award of scholarship (relaxable by 5% for SC/ST students).

2. India-Japan Fund (IJF)

Syllabus: GS-3, Infrastructure

Prelims: India-Japan Fund (IJF), NIIF

Context:

National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) launched a $600 million India-Japan Fund (IJF) with the Government of India and Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) as anchor investors.

Details:

• The announcement marks NIIF’s first bilateral fund, with the GoI contributing 49% of the target corpus and the remaining 51% contributed by JBIC. 
• The Fund will be managed by NIIF Limited (NIIFL) and JBIC IG (a subsidiary of JBIC) will support NIIFL in promoting Japanese investments in India.
• The India Japan Fund will focus on investing in environmental sustainability and low carbon emission strategies and aims to play the role of being a ‘partner of choice’ to further enhance Japanese investments into India.

Read more about the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) in the linked article.

3. World Animal Day 2023

Syllabus: GS-3, Environment & Ecology, Conservation

Prelims: World Animal Day 2023

Context:

World Animal Day is celebrated globally on 4 October every year.

The theme for World Animal Day 2023 is “Great or Small, Love Them All”.

Know more about World Animal Day or World Animal Welfare Day in the link.

4. North Koel Reservoir Project

Syllabus: GS-3, Infrastructure, Economy

Prelims: North Koel Reservoir Project 

Context:

Cabinet approves revised cost of completion of balance works of North Koel Reservoir Project in Bihar & Jharkhand.

North Koel Reservoir Project:

• North Koel Reservoir Project is an interstate major irrigation project with a command area lying in the two states of Bihar and Jharkhand. 
• The project comprises a dam on the North Koel River near Kutku village (District Latehar, Jharkhand), a barrage 96 km downstream of the dam (at Mohammadganj, District Palamu, Jharkhand), Right Main Canal (RMC) and Left Main Canal (LMC) taking off from the barrage. 
• The construction of the dam started in 1972 and continued till 1993 when it was stopped by the Bihar State Forest Dept citing apprehension that water accumulated in the dam would threaten the Betla National Park and Palamu Tiger Reserve.
• The project subsequent to the stoppage of work was providing annual irrigation to 71,720 hectares.
• After Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar in 2000, the dam, the barrage and the LMC from Mohammadganj barrage lie in Jharkhand while of the RMC, the first 31.40 km lies in Jharkhand and the remaining 79.04 km lies in Bihar.
• GOI, in 2016, decided to provide assistance for the completion of balance works of the North Koel Reservoir Project in order to operationalise the project to realise the envisaged benefits. 
• It was decided to reduce the reservoir level so as to save the core area of Palamu Tiger Reserve. 
• The proposal to complete the balance works of the Project at an estimated expenditure of Rs.1622.27 crore was approved by the Union Cabinet in August 2017.

5. National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC)

• The NCMC is a committee set up by the Government of India in the wake of a natural calamity for effective coordination and implementation of relief measures and operations.
• It is headed by the Cabinet Secretary.
• In India, the NCMC and the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) are the two major committees involved in top-level decision-making with respect to Disaster Management (DM).
• Key functions of the NCMC:
  • Overseeing the command, control and coordination of the disaster response.
  • Giving directions to the crisis management group as necessary.
  • The committee is chaired by the Cabinet Secretary and has the secretaries of various ministries or departments with disaster management responsibilities as members.

Context: NCMC reviews the situation in Sikkim.

Read the previous PIB articles here.