02 Sep 2020: PIB Summary & Analysis

September 2nd, 2020 PIB:- Download PDF Here

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Mission Karmayogi
2. US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF)
3. MoU between India and Finland
4. Global Innovation Index (GII)
5. Sree Narayana Guru
6. National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations (NIDHI)

1. Mission Karmayogi

Context:

The Union Cabinet approved Mission Karmayogi for civil servants across India to help them meet the challenges of society.

Mission Karmayogi:

• Mission Karmayogi – National Program for Civil Services Capacity Building is a new capacity-building scheme for civil servants aimed at upgrading the post-recruitment training mechanism of the officers and employees at all levels.
• Mission Karmayogi is expected to radically enhance the quality of human resource management practices across the country.
• It will use scale & state of the art infrastructure to augment the capacity of civil servants.
• Under the mission, officers will get an opportunity to improve their performance.
• The mission also aims to prepare Indian civil servants for the future by making them more creative, constructive, imaginative, innovative, proactive, professional, progressive, energetic, enabling, transparent and technology-enabled.

How will the mission be implemented?

The implementation will be based on the framework for the mission which consists of the following:

1. Prime Minister’s Human Resource Council
2. Cabinet Secretary Coordination Unit
3. Capacity Building Commission
4. Special Purpose Vehicle

Details of implementation:

• The mission will be delivered through a digital platform, that will be set up, called ‘iGOTKarmayogi’.
• The platform will act as a launchpad for the National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building (NPCSCB), which will enable a comprehensive reform of the capacity building apparatus at the individual, institutional and process levels.
• NPCSCB will be governed by the Prime Minister’s Human Resource Council.
  • NPCSCB will include state Chief Ministers, Union Cabinet Ministers and experts.
  • This council will approve and review civil service capacity building programmes.
• There will also be a Cabinet Secretary Coordination Unit comprising of select secretaries and cadre controlling authorities.
• Also, there will be a Capacity Building Commission, which will include experts in related fields and global professionals.
  • This commission will prepare and monitor annual capacity building plans and audit human resources available in the government.
• Lastly, there will also be a wholly-owned Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), which will govern the iGOT-Karmayogi platform. It will be set up under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013.
  • The SPV will be a “not-for-profit” company and will own and manage the iGOT-Karmayogi platform.
  • it will create and operationalise the content, market place and manage key business services of the platform, relating to content validation, independent proctored assessments and telemetry data availability.
  • The SPV will own all Intellectual Property Rights on behalf of the Government of India.
• An appropriate monitoring and evaluation framework will also be put in place for performance evaluation of all users of the iGOT-Karmayogi platform so as to generate a dashboard view of Key Performance Indicators.
• Funding for the mission: In order to cover about 46 lakh central employees, Rs 510.86 crore will be spent over 5 years from 2020-21 to 2024-25. The expenditure is partly funded by multilateral assistance to the tune of $50 million.

2. US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF)

Context:

3^rd Annual Leadership Summit of the USISPF.

Details:

• The US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) is a non-profit organization that works for the partnership between India and the U.S.
• The theme of the 5-day Summit is “US-India Navigating New Challenges”.
• Subjects covered under the Summit are India’s potential in becoming a Global Manufacturing Hub, Opportunities in India’s Gas Market, Ease of Doing Business to attract FDI in India, Common Opportunities & Challenges in Tech Space, Indo-Pacific Economic issues, Innovation in Public Health and others.

3. MoU between India and Finland

Context:

Cabinet approves MoU between India and Finland for cooperation in the field of Geology and Mineral Resources.

Details:

• The MoU was signed between the Geological Survey of India, Ministry of Mines, GOI and the Geological Survey of Finland (Geologiantutkimuskeskus), Ministry of Employment and the Economy, the Government of Finland.
• This MoU aims to:
  • Provide with a framework and a platform to promote and foster cooperation in the fields of geology, and mineral resources between the participants for mutual economic, social and environmental benefit.
  • Share experiences on geological data management and information dissemination to promote exploration and mining, in the areas of geology and mineral resources.

Know more about the Geological Survey of India in PIB dated Jan 21, 2020.

4. Global Innovation Index (GII)

Context:

India ranked among the top 50 nations in the Global Innovation Index.

Details:

• India has climbed 4 spots and has been ranked 48^th by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in the Global Innovation Index 2020 rankings.
• India was at the 52^nd position in 2019 and was ranked 81^st in the year 2015.
• The WIPO had also accepted India as one of the leading innovation achievers of 2019 in the central and southern Asian region because of its consistent improvement in the last five years in the innovation ranking.

5. Sree Narayana Guru

Context:

Sree Narayana Guru Jayanthi fell on 2^nd September in 2020.

Details:

• Sree Narayana Guru Jayanthi marks the birth anniversary of prominent social and religious reformer from Kerala, Sree Narayana Guru.

Read more about Sree Narayana Guru here.

6. National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations (NIDHI)

Context:

NIDHI-EIR Brochure featuring Entrepreneurs in Residence launched.

Details:

• A brochure featuring Entrepreneurs in Residence (EIR) under the National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations (NIDHI) programme was launched by DST.

About the Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EIR) Programme:

• The EIR Programme under NIDHI supports aspiring or budding entrepreneur of considerable potential for pursuing a promising technology business idea over a period up to 18 months with a subsistence grant up to Rs 30000 per month with a maximum cap for total support of Rs 3.6 lakh to each EIR over a maximum of 18 months.
• The programme aims to provide guidance to these aspiring entrepreneurs from experienced, innovative and highly successful entrepreneurs on the business concept strategy.
• It also aims to offer insights on specific industries and inspire talented people to become entrepreneurs.
• This would help in minimising risks in pursuing start-ups.
• The NIDHI-EIR programme provides tremendous opportunities for innovative entrepreneurs to expand their networks and get critical feedback on their ventures in order to promote their entrepreneurial career goals and aspirations.
• This program is important in that it creates a pipeline of start-ups with a focus on young budding entrepreneurs.

Know more about NIDHI in the linked article.

Read previous PIB here.

September 2nd, 2020, PIB:- Download PDF Here