UPSC Current Affairs Daily

2021-08-16 12:11:07 Government e-Marketplace (GeM) organizes 5th edition of National Public Procurement Conclave

The 5th edition of the National Public Procurement Conclave (NPPC) was organized by Government e-Marketplace (GeM) in association with the Confederation of Indian Industry [CII] on August 9th&10th, 2021
theme “Technology enabled Government Procurement – Towards Efficiency, Transparency, and Inclusiveness”.
GeM is a state-of-the-art national public procurement platform of Ministry of Commerce and Industries, that has used technology to remove entry barriers for bonafide sellers and has created a vibrant e-marketplace with a wide range of goods and services.
GeM aims to enhance transparency, efficiency and speed in public procurement.
GeM facilities:
Listing of products for individual, prescribed categories of Goods/ Services of common use.
Look, estimate, compare and buying facility on dynamic pricing basis.
Market place buying of majority of common User Items.
Buying Goods and Services online, as and when required.
Transparency and ease of buying.
Useful for low value buying and also for bulk buying at competitive price using Reverse Auction/ e-bidding.
Continuous vendor rating system.
Return policy.
Benefits of GeM:
Enhances transparency.
Increased efficiency.
Secure and safe.
Savings to the government.


SOURCE: PIB Open / Comment

2021-08-16 12:11:07 A unique initiative by Tribal Affairs Ministry in Aurangabad;

Unique initiative Ministry of Tribal Affairs in partnership with The Art of Living Foundation, Aurangabad, Maharashtralaunched Vrushka Bandhan Project
1100 tribal women are creating Rakhis for Raksha Bandhan with seeds of indigenous trees, which is a unique contribution to increasing forest cover & combating climate change.
Initiative was part of project sanctioned by Ministry of Tribal Affairs to the Art of Living in October 2020 under which 10000 tribal farmers of 10 tribal villages in Aurangabad are being trained on sustainable natural farming based on Go-Adharith farming techniques. 
The 1100 members of the MahilaKissanManch germinated the idea of creating Rakhis with indigenous seeds.
The Rakhis are made of indigenous seeds stuck on naturally dyed, soft indigenous, non-toxic, biodegradable cotton.
Once used, the seeds can be sown in soil, thereby benefiting the environment. 
It is expected that thousands of trees would be planted under this project and project will provide employment to tribal women associated with the project.

SOURCE: PIB
  Open / Comment

2021-08-16 12:11:07 Quality of Life for Elderly Index assesses well-being of India’s ageing population”

The Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) released the Quality of Life for Elderly Index.
EAC-PM is a non-constitutional, non-statutory, independent body constituted to give advice on economic and related issues to the Government of India, specifically to the Prime Minister.
The Index has been created by the Institute for Competitiveness at the request of EAC-PM and it sheds light on an issue often not mentioned- problems faced by the elderly.
Institute for Competitiveness, India is an international initiative centered in India, dedicated to enlarging and purposeful disseminating of the body of research and knowledge on competition and strategy.
It identifies the regional patterns of ageing across Indian States and assesses the overall ageing situation in India. 
National Elderly Policy defines people in the 60+ age group as elderly.
It will  promote healthy competition among States through fair rankings and highlights the pillars and indicators they can improve.
Four Pillars of the index:
Financial Well-being,
Social Well-being,
Health System and
Income Security.
Eight Sub-Pillars of the Index: 
Economic Empowerment,
Educational Attainment & Employment,
Social Status,
Physical Security,
Basic Health,
Psychological Well being,
Social Security and
Enabling Environment.
State-wise Rankings:
Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh are top-scoring regions in Aged and Relatively Aged States, respectively. 
The Aged States refer to States with an elderly population of more than 5 million, whereas Relatively Aged States refer to States with an Elderly population of less than 5 million.
Chandigarh and Mizoram are top-scoring regions in Union Territory and North-East States category. 
Pillar-wise Performance:
The Health System pillar observes the highest national average, 66.97 at an all-India level, followed by 62.34 in Social Well-being.
Financial Well-being observes a score of 44.7, which is lowered by the low performance of 21 States across the Education Attainment & Employment pillar, which showcases scope for improvement.
States have performed particularly worse in the Income Security pillar because over half of the States have a score below the national average in Income Security, which is the lowest across all pillars.

SOURCE: PIB Open / Comment

2021-08-16 12:11:07 CEC inaugurates 11th Annual Meeting of  the Forum of the Election Management Bodies of South  Asia (FEMBoSA) for 2021

Hosted By: Election Commission of Bhutan.
Chairmanship: The Election Commission of India handed over the chairmanship of FEMBoSA role to the Election Commission of Bhutan for 2021-22.
Thimphu Resolution: A resolution was unanimously adopted by the FEMBoSA members to extend the tenure of chairmanship to two years during the current pandemic situation.Before this, the tenure of the chairmanship was one year.
Theme of Meeting: ‘Use of Technology in Elections’.
Digitization of Election: The technology is extensively used to make elections more participative, accessible and transparent.
It has become more important during the Covid 19 situation as it is helping in minimizing person-to-person contact.

About FEMBoSA
Establishment:
The forum was established at the 3rd Conference of Heads of Election Management Bodies (EMBs) of SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) Countries in 2012.
SAARC comprises eight member States: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Aim:To increase mutual cooperation in respect to the common interests of the SAARC’s EMBs.
Significance:
FEMBoSA represents a very large part of the democratic world and it is an active regional cooperation association of EMBs.
Its logo with golden pearls stands for the eternal values of transparency, impartiality, democracy and cooperation


SOURCE: PIB Open / Comment

2021-08-16 10:00:03 Q.)With the reference to 'Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana
(PMFBY), consider the following statements.
1. The PMFBY was launched after scraping down the earlier insurance schemes, Modified National Agricultural Insurance Scheme, Weather-based Crop Insurance scheme, and National Agriculture Insurance Scheme.

2. There will be a uniform premium of only 2% to be paid by farmers for all Rabi crops & 1.5% for all Kharif crops Open / Comment

2021-08-14 17:02:35 Environment is One Of The Subject Which Has High Weightage, Especially In The Prelims Over The Years.

This Channel Helps in Providing Short Notes For ENVIRONMENT For Both Prelims And Mains.
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Click Here To Join Open / Comment

2021-08-14 14:32:22 More than 1.17 lakh loans of Rs. 26,391 crore sanctioned to SC/ST and woman borrowers under Stand Up India Scheme (SUPI)

SUPI created employment for more than 6 lakh people
About the Scheme
The Stand up India scheme aims at promoting entrepreneurship among women and scheduled castes and tribes.
The scheme is anchored by Department of Financial Services (DFS), Ministry of Finance, Government of India.
Stand-Up India Scheme facilitates bank loans between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 Crore to at least one Scheduled Caste (SC) or Scheduled Tribe (ST) borrower and at least one woman borrower per bank branch for setting up a greenfield enterprise.
This enterprise may be in manufacturing, services or the trading sector.
In case of non-individual enterprises at least 51% of the shareholding and controlling stake should be held by either an SC/ST or woman entrepreneur.
Scheme is monitored and its performance is reviewed periodically at various levels such as District Level Consultative Committee (DLCC), State Level Implementation Committee (SLIC), State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC), through video conference with banks, etc.
Scheme has helped nurture entrepreneurship amongst marginalised sections of the population such as Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and women facing significant hurdles due to lack of advice/mentorship as well as inadequate and delayed credit for setting up greenfield enterprises.

SOURCE: PIB Open / Comment

2021-08-14 14:32:22 NATIONAL DAIRY PLAN

National Dairy Plan Phase I (NDP I) is a Central Sector Scheme.
Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying is implementing World Bank assisted NDP I
Funding will be through a line of credit from the International Development Association (IDA), which along with the share of the Government of India will flow from DADF to NDDB and in turn to eligible End Implementing Agencies (EIAs).
NDP I will focus on 18 major milk producing states namely Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Telangana, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh which together account for over 90% of the country’s milk production.
Objectives:
To help increase productivity of milch animals and thereby increase milk production to meet the rapidly growing demand for milk.
To help provide rural milk producers with greater access to the organised milk-processing sector.
NDP I had the following major components:
Productivity Enhancement: aiming at increasing bovine productivity following a scientific approach in animal breeding and nutrition.
Village based milk procurement systems for weighing, testing quality of milk received and making payment to milk producers: aiming at increasing the number of milk producers organised into milk producer institutions.
Project Management and Learning: aiming at effective coordination of project activities among various EIAs and a comprehensive and functional Management Information System (MIS) for the Project.
achievement of the NDP I:
NDP I was able to make available more than 2,456 High Genetic Merit Bulls to A & B graded semen stations across the country which propelled the production of quality disease-free semen. 
The project also contributed towards lowering the cost of feeding per kg of milk resulting in increase of net daily income of milk producers by Rs 25.52. 
Market access was provided to more than 16.8 lakh additionally enrolled milk producers of which 7.65 lakh are women members. 
The project covered around 59 lakh beneficiaries across 97,000 villages. 

SOURCE: PIB Open / Comment