16 October 2019: PIB Summary & Analysis

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

October 16th, 2019 PIB:-Download PDF Here

India Intellectual Property (IP) Guide

Context:

The Services Export Promotion Council (SEPC), set up by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, has brought out the India Intellectual Property (IP) Guide at Cannes in MIPCOM 2019 for the Media and Entertainment (M&E) industry.

About the India Intellectual Property (IP) Guide:

• The guide features a catalogue of over 60 Indian IPs, popular in over 160 countries.
• It tries to comprehensively break the narrative of only low-end work being done in India.
• IP is the most important asset for its creators in the media and entertainment sector.
• Intellectual Property (IP) is vital to a large number of SEPC’s stakeholders. Creation, protection and expansion of IP products alone will bring huge benefits to the sector.
• SEPC will also be setting up a committee to help small and medium entertainment companies to navigate critical aspects of IP creation.
• The aim is to assist companies and content creators to maximise the value that IPs can provide.

About MIPCOM:

• MIPCOM stands for Marché International des Programmes de Communication (French). In English, it can be translated as the International Market of Communications Programmes.
• It is a trade show held annually primarily geared towards the television/entertainment industry. It is held in Cannes, France.
• It is the world’s largest exhibition of studios and distributors, and also the top showcase for content across all platforms and genres.
• Many important personalities from the global entertainment industry participate in the 4-day event.
• It also serves as a global premier for highly anticipated programmes.
• A spinoff event called the MIPJunior also takes place prior to MIPCOM, which is targeted towards the children’s television industry.
• MIPCOM 2019 is being attended by some of the top renowned Indian media and entertainment companies.
• The Indian exhibitors and visiting companies are participating to buy, sell, serve and partner with companies present at MIPCOM from over 111 countries across the world.
• The India Pavilion is the one-stop place to meet content creators, audiovisual service providers in animation, VFX, AR/VR, gaming, new media services, film production services and much more.
• Many of the Indian companies are at Cannes with their completed IPs or pitch for their in-production properties.

About the Services Export Promotion Council (SEPC):

• SEPC is an Export Promotion Council set up by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India, in 2006.
• It is an apex trade body which facilitates service exporters of India.
• As an advisory body, it actively contributes to the formulation of policies of the Government and acts as an interface between the Services Industry and the Government.
• SEPC has been instrumental in promoting the efforts of the Indian service exporting community, and in projecting India’s image abroad as a reliable supplier of high-quality services.
• It organizes a large number of promotional activities such as buyer-seller meets (BSM) – both in India and abroad, overseas trade fairs/exhibitions, and India pavilion/information booths in selected overseas exhibitions to demonstrate the capabilities of the Indian Services Industry.
• It currently has a membership base of over 3000 companies from 14 service sectors including accounting/auditing/bookkeeping, advertising, architectural, consultancy, distribution, educational, entertainment, environmental, healthcare, hotel and tourism, legal, maritime, market research/management, printing and publishing services.

Controller General of Accounts

Context:

Shri J.P.S. Chawla assumes charge as new the Controller General of Accounts.

About the Controller General of Accounts (CGA):

• The CGA is the Principal Accounting Adviser to the Government of India and is responsible for establishing and maintaining a technically sound Management Accounting System.
• The CGA is in the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance.
• The Office of CGA prepares monthly and annual analysis of expenditure, revenues, borrowings and various fiscal indicators for the Union Government.

For more on the CGA, please click here.

Food Safety Mitra (FSM) Scheme

Context:

The Union Health Minister launched the Food Safety Mitra (FSM) scheme for strengthening and scaling up the ‘Eat Right India’ movement.

He also launched the ‘Eat Right Jacket’ and ‘Eat Right Jhola’ on World Food Day 2019 (16^th October).

About the Food Safety Mitra (FSM) scheme:

• The ‘Food Safety Mitra (FSM)’ scheme will support small and medium scale food businesses to comply with food safety laws and facilitate licensing and registration, hygiene ratings and training.
• Apart from strengthening food safety, this scheme would also create new employment opportunities for youth, particularly with food and nutrition background.
• An FSM is an individual professional certified by FSSAI who assists in compliances related to FSS Act, Rules & Regulations with three avatars – Digital Mitra, Trainer Mitra and Hygiene Mitra depending upon their respective roles and responsibilities.
• The FSMs would undergo training and certification by FSSAI to do their work and get paid by food businesses for their services.

About the ‘Eat Right Jacket’ scheme:

• These jackets will be given to the FSSAI field staff to ensure transparent inspection.
• They are embedded with RFID tags and QR codes. It is linked to software to capture entry of inspection staff into premise for monitoring.

About the ‘Eat Right Jhola’ scheme:

• The ‘Eat Right Jhola’ is a reusable, washable and bio-degradable bag.
• These shall replace plastic bags for grocery shopping in various retail chains. Since on repeated use, bags are often contaminated with microorganisms and bacteria, proper and regular washing of cloth bags is essential to ensure safety and hygiene.
• These cloth bags are being provided on a rental basis through a private textile rental service company.

About the ‘Eat Right India’ Movement:

• The campaign was launched in 2018.
• The campaign is led by FSSAI.
• It is a Pan-India cycle movement aimed to create consumer awareness about eating safe and nutritious food.
• It aims to engage, excite and enable citizens to improve their health and wellbeing.
• ‘Eat Right India’, is built on two broad pillars of ‘Eat Healthy’ and ‘Eat Safe’.
• It is a collective effort to make both the demand and supply-side interventions through the engagement of key stakeholders.

About World Food Day:

• It is celebrated on 16^th October every year to mark the foundation of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on this day in 1945.
• The day was established in 1979. It has been celebrated every year since 1981.
• This day generates awareness internationally for those who suffer from hunger and to ensure the need for food security and nutritious diets for all. The day emphasises that food is a basic and fundamental human right.
• Theme for 2019: “Our Actions Are Our Future. Healthy Diets for A #ZeroHunger World”

Apprenticeship Pakhwada

Context:

The closing ceremony of the 15-day Apprenticeship Pakhwada was held at New Delhi.

About the Apprenticeship Pakhwada:

• In 2016, the Government had introduced comprehensive reforms to the Apprenticeship Act, 1961, a move that saw about 7.5 lakh apprentices engaged in a span of two-and-a-half years.
• In the 15 days of the Pakhwada, the industry has committed to engage 4.5 lakh more apprentices with States committing another 2.5 lakh apprentices.
• The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) pledged Rs. 560 crore to State Governments to promote demand-driven and industry-linked skill development and signed 22 MoUs with various states through Third Party Aggregators (TPAs).
• 8 PSUs committed to training about 35,000 apprentices.

Check more on the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS) at the Gist of Yojana January 2019.

Van Dhan Internship Programme

Context:

The Union Minister of Tribal Affairs launched the “Van Dhan Internship Programme” organised by TRIFED under the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

About the Van Dhan Internship Programme:

• 18 interns (to be called Minister’s interns) from some of the reputed Institutes of Rural Management/Management Institutions/Institutes of Social Work/Social Services of the country are participating in the “Van Dhan Internship Programme”.
• These interns have been selected to go and work on Van Dhan programme in the field. These interns have an inclination towards involving in matters related to tribal livelihood.
• After their selection through the walk-in-interview, these interns are undergoing a one-week training programme. The period of internship is 6 months (extendable developing upon the need of the organisation and mutual sustainability).
• These interns will work with the team of TRIFED in various states and districts in tribal areas in development of tribal welfare and inclusive growth (a dissertation has to be submitted on the conclusion of the internship).
• They will support the TRIFED activities on livelihood promotion, value addition of NTFTs, marketing and credit linkages.
• They will develop tools and techniques on institutional development including mechanism for determination of a just price or producer price of Minor Forest Products.

About TRIFED:

• TRIFED stands for Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India Limited.
• It was formed in 1987 is a national-level apex organization functioning under the administrative control of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, GOI.
• The ultimate objective of the cooperative is socio-economic development of tribal people in India by way of marketing and development of the tribal products on which the lives of tribals depend heavily on.

GOAL (Going Online As Leaders) Programme

Context:

The Union Minister of Tribal Affairs announced the second phase of GOAL (Going Online as Leaders).

About GOAL:

• It is a Facebook program aimed at inspiring, guiding and encouraging tribal girls from across India to become village-level digital young leaders for their communities.
• It was launched in March 2019.
• It connects underprivileged young tribal women with senior expert mentors in the areas of business, fashion and arts to learn digital and life skills.
• In the second phase of the program, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and Facebook together will digitally mentor 5000 young women in India’s tribal-dominated districts.
• The program will include weekly one-to-one mentoring sessions, focused on a range of skills such as digital literacy, entrepreneurship and online safety.
• In total, more than 200,000 hours of guidance will be provided using Facebook family of apps including WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.
• Following the program, the participants will graduate to the GOAL alumni and will continue to receive support and guidance from the Ministry and Facebook.
• The Ministry will also work with district administration and other government agencies to help secure qualified participants with a fellowship, so they can put their newly learned skills to work.

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October 16th, 2019 PIB:-Download PDF Here

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