19 Sep 2020: PIB Summary & Analysis

September 19th, 2020 PIB:- Download PDF Here

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT)
2. Women officers in Indian Army
3. Tata CRISPR
4. Sankalp Parva
5. Bhartiya Sanskriti Portal
6. Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay National Welfare Fund for Sportspersons

1. National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT)

Context:

e-filing has been started in 9 benches of the NCLT and it will be extended to the remaining benches also.

To know all about the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), click on the linked article.

2. Women officers in Indian Army

Context:

Selection Board for grant of Permanent Commission to Women Officers in Indian Army commences proceedings.

Details:

• The Special No 5 Selection Board constituted to screen Women Officers for grant of Permanent Commission (PC) in Indian Army has commenced its proceedings at Army HQ in September 2020.
• The board is headed by a Senior General Officer and includes a woman officer of the rank of Brigadier.
• Women officers have been permitted to witness the proceedings as observers in order to add transparency to the process.
• Women Officers who qualify in the screening process will be granted Permanent Commission subject to being in minimum acceptable medical category.

Check CNA dated Sep 3, 2020 for a more detailed analysis on the issue of granting PC to women officers.

3. Tata CRISPR

Context:

India’s first CRISPR Covid-19 test, developed by the Tata Group and CSIR-IGIB, approved for use in India.

Details:

• The Tata CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) test, powered by CSIR-IGIB (Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology), received regulatory approvals from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for commercial launch, as per ICMR guidelines.
• The test meets high quality benchmarks with 96% sensitivity and 98% specificity for detecting the novel coronavirus.
• This, India’s first CRISPR technology test for COVID-19, has been named FELUDA.

About FELUDA:

• The test uses an indigenously-developed, cutting-edge CRISPR technology for the detection of the genomic sequence of SARS-CoV-2 virus.
• CRISPR is a genome editing technology to diagnose diseases.
• It is the world’s first diagnostic test to deploy a specially adapted Cas9 protein to successfully detect the virus causing COVID-19.
• It is a simple strip test which can tell if a person has COVID-19 in minutes.
• The particular test has been named ‘FELUDA’.
  • It has been so named because technically it is an acronym and stands for FNCAS9 Editor Linked Uniform Detection Assay.
  • Also, the scientist who developed the test with his team, named it after the famous fictional Bengali sleuth created by Satyajit Ray, Feluda.
• Advantages:
  • The test can achieve accuracy levels of traditional RT-PCR tests, with quicker turnaround time, less expensive equipment, and better ease of use.
  • It is a futuristic technology that can also be configured for the detection of multiple other pathogens in the future.
  • While the RT-PCR test’s price is capped at Rs.4500 in private labs, the FELUDA test could cost just about Rs.500.
  • It is very easy to use, like the strip pregnancy tests which are available over the counter widely.
  • The test is also highly accurate.

4. Sankalp Parva

Context:

The Ministry of Culture celebrated ‘Sankalp Parva’ in July 2020.

About Sankalp Parva:

• The chief objective of the Sankalp Parva drive was to create a clean/healthy environment in the country.
• The Ministry recommended to plant saplings of five trees viz (i) Bargad (ii) Awla (iii) Peepal (iv) Ashok (v) Bel which were identified as herbal heritage of the country.
• During this drive, more than 11000 saplings were planted.

5. Bhartiya Sanskriti Portal

Context:

Ministry of Culture’s Bhartiya Sanskriti Portal.

About the Portal:

• The culture portal was launched in December 2019.
• The content available on the Indian Culture Portal is collected from the various cultural organizations under the Ministry, to provide a wide public access at local, national and global levels to all the available knowledge resources through open source platform in multilingual environment.
• The various content items are provided to the people in the form of rare books, e-books, paintings, images, audio-clips, video-clips, etc.
• They are categories under various headings such as manuscripts, museum archives, photo archives, stories, paintings, research papers, food and culture, etc.
• The portal showcases both the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of India.
• Currently, it is available in English and Hindi.
• The culture of every region of the country from the Indus Valley Period to the present is available.

6. Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay National Welfare Fund for Sportspersons

Context:

The Sports Ministry is implementing the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay National Welfare Fund for Sportspersons (PDUNWFS).

About PDUNWFS:

• The major objective of the scheme is to provide suitable financial assistance to the former and present national level sportspersons.
• The Scheme provides assistance to sportspersons living in indigent conditions, for treatment of injury sustained during training and competitions, welfare of the sportspersons, procurement of sports equipment and participation in events, etc.
• The scheme was set up in 1982 and revised in 2017 to provide for lump sum ex-gratia assistance to outstanding sportspersons of yesteryears.
• The provision of pension has been done away with as there is already a Scheme of Pension for Meritorious Sportspersons. Now, lump sum ex-gratia assistance is given to the sportspersons or their families for medical treatment, etc.

Scheme of Pension for Meritorious Sportspersons:

• Under this scheme, additional financial security is given to sportspersons, post retirement from active sports career in the form of life-time pension ranging from Rs 12,000 to Rs 20,000 per month for winning medals in Olympic Games, World Cup in Olympics and Asian Games Disciplines, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and Para-Olympic Games.

Read previous PIB here.

September 19th, 2020, PIB:- Download PDF Here