09 Sep 2021: PIB Summary & Analysis

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Exercise ZAPAD 2021
2. Medium Range Surface to Air Missile (MRSAM) System
3. India Rankings 2021
4. 'Main Bhi Digital 3.0'
5. Himalaya Diwas
6. Swachh Survekshan Grameen (SSG) 2021
7. U.S.-India Strategic Clean Energy Partnership (SCEP)

1. Exercise ZAPAD 2021

Context:

India is participating in the multinational military exercise, ZAPAD 2021, hosted by Russia.

Know more about Exercise ZAPAD in the linked article.

2. Medium Range Surface to Air Missile (MRSAM) System

Context:

DRDO handed over air defence missile (MRSAM) System to the Indian Air Force.

About MRSAM System:

• The MRSAM (IAF) is an advanced network centric combat Air Defence System developed jointly by DRDO and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) in collaboration with the Indian industry comprising of private and public sectors including MSMEs.
• The MRSAM system provides point and area air defence for ground assets against a wide range of threats including fighter aircraft, UAVs, helicopters, guided and unguided munitions, sub-sonic & supersonic cruise missiles, etc.
• It is capable of engaging multiple targets at ranges up to 70 kms in severe saturation scenarios.
• The missile is powered by an indigenously developed rocket motor and control system for achieving high manoeuvrability during the terminal phase.
• The firing unit comprises Missiles, Combat Management System (CMS), Mobile Launcher Systems (MLS), Advanced Long Range Radar, Mobile Power System (MPS), Radar Power System (RPS), Reloader Vehicle (RV) and Field Service Vehicle (FSV).

3. India Rankings 2021

Context:

Education Minister released the India Rankings 2021 instituted by the National Institutional Ranking Framework.

Details:

• This is the sixth consecutive edition of India Rankings of HEIs in India.
• In the first edition in 2016, rankings were announced for University category as well as for three domain-specific rankings, namely Engineering, Management and Pharmacy institutions.
• Over the years, three new categories and five new subject domains were added to bring the total tally to 4 four categories and 7 subjects.
• Four categories are:
  • Overall
  • University
  • College
  • Research Institutions
• Seven subjects are:
  • Engineering
  • Management
  • Pharmacy
  • Architecture
  • Medical
  • Law
  • Dental
• Research institutions have been ranked for the first time in India Rankings 2021.

Key Highlights of India Rankings 2021:

• Indian Institute of Technology Madras retains the first position in the Overall Category as well as in the Engineering Category for the third consecutive year.
• Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru tops the University as well as Research Institution category (this category was introduced for the first time in 2021).
• IIM Ahmedabad tops in Management subject.
• All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi occupies the top slot in Medical subject.
• Jamia Hamdard tops the list in Pharmacy subject.
• Miranda College retains the first position amongst colleges for the fifth consecutive year.
• IIT Roorkee takes the top slot for the first time in Architecture subject displacing IIT Kharagpur.
• National Law School of India University, Bangalore retains its first position in Law.
• Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Manipal, secures the first position in “Dental” category.

4. ‘Main Bhi Digital 3.0’

Context:

‘Main Bhi Digital 3.0’ – A special Campaign for Digital Onboarding and Training for street vendors launched.

About ‘Main Bhi Digital 3.0’:

• The campaign has been launched by the Ministry of Housing Affairs in collaboration with the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology across 223 cities in the country.
• The drive is a part of the PM SVANidhi scheme.
• The BharatPe, Mswipe, PhonePe, Paytm, Aceware are participating in this drive to issue UPI IDs, QR code and provide digital training.
• Digital Payment Aggregators will handhold the street vendors to bring about enhanced adoption of digital transactions and behaviour change.
• To promote digital transactions, instruction has been issued to the Lending Institutions (LIs) to handover a durable QR Code and train the beneficiaries for conducting digital receipt and payment transactions within a week of disbursement.
• Benefits:
  • Digital footprints including digital payment transactions and loan repayment data under the scheme would help in credit profiling of street vendors.
  • This will enable the inclusion of street vendors in the formal credit ecosystem, and help in driving financial inclusion of the unorganized sector.

5. Himalaya Diwas

Context:

Himalaya Diwas/Day is observed on 9 September every year in Uttarakhand.

About Himalaya Diwas:

• The Day is celebrated with the aim to conserve the Himalayan ecosystem and region.
• 9 September was officially declared as Himalaya Day in 2015 by the then Chief Minister.
• Himalayan hill towns face several challenges because of poor building planning & designs, poor infrastructure (roads, sewage, water supply, etc.) and unprecedented cutting of trees. This causes serious ecological issues.
• There is an urgent need to develop eco-sensitive hill town plans and designs. There cannot be similar master plans for cities in the plains and the hills considering the ecological differences between these regions.

Related topic: Why are hydropower projects in the Himalayas risky? (CNA 29 Aug 2021)

6. Swachh Survekshan Grameen (SSG) 2021

Context:

Swachh Survekshan Grameen 2021 launched.

About Swachh Survekshan Grameen 2021:

• The Swachh Survekshan Grameen 2021 was launched under the Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) Phase II.
• The Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DDWS) will undertake the Survekshan (survey) countrywide to support the acceleration of ODF Plus interventions and increase momentum for improving ODF Sustainability as well as Solid and Liquid Waste Management (SLWM) activities across villages.
• More than 17000 villages in 698 districts will be covered this time.
• Schools, anganwadis, public health centres, haats/bazaars, religious places, etc. will be visited as part of the survey.
• Around 1,74,750 households will be interviewed for their feedback on SBM issues.
• Also, citizens will be mobilized to provide feedback on sanitation related issues online using an application developed for the purpose.
• In the SSG 2021, many new elements including Assessment of Solid, Liquid, Plastic Waste & faecal Sludge Management Arrangements, Awareness on Menstrual Hygiene and Management & Disposal Arrangements for Menstrual Waste have been included.

Salient features:

• SSG is primarily aimed not just at ranking the places but also as an important vehicle for creating a Jan Andolan and ensuring prompt action for achieving the goals of the Swachh Bharat Mission.
• It also fosters a healthy competition among the villages to improve their service delivery to citizens, towards creating cleaner villages.

7. U.S.-India Strategic Clean Energy Partnership (SCEP)

Context:

Ministerial meeting of the U.S.-India Strategic Clean Energy Partnership (SCEP).

About the SCEP:

• The SCEP has been launched in accordance with the U.S.-India Climate and Clean Energy Agenda 2030 Partnership announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joe Biden at the Leaders’ Summit on Climate held in April 2021.
• The SCEP organizes inter-governmental engagement across five pillars of cooperation:
  • Power and energy efficiency
  • Responsible oil and gas
  • Renewable energy
  • Sustainable growth
  • Emerging fuels
• The revamped clean energy partnership will intensify efforts from both sides to take advantage of the complementarities that exist between US and India – advanced US technologies and rapidly growing India’s energy market, for a win-win situation through a cleaner energy route with low carbon pathways.
• Both sides will strengthen the electric grid in India to support large scale integration of renewables, including through smart grids, energy storage, flexible resources, and distributed energy resources, and ensure reliable and resilient grid operations, as well as promoting energy efficiency and conservation measures.
• During the occasion, the Gas Task Force was renamed to the India-US Low Emissions Gas Task Force.
  • This task force enables collaborations between Indian and American companies on innovative projects to support India’s vision of gas-based economy.
• The meeting also reviewed the progress on the India-US Civil Nuclear Energy cooperation.

Also read: India – US relations

Read previous PIB here.

September 9th, 2021, PIB:- Download PDF Here