June 23rd Current Affairs

1. India and Fiji sign MoU for cooperation in the field of agriculture and allied sectors.

IN NEWS:

Union Minister for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar and Fiji’s Minister of Agriculture, Waterways & Environment, Dr. Mahendra Reddy signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for cooperation in the field of Agriculture and allied sectors between India and Fiji in a virtual meeting.

KEY POINTS:

• The MoU provides for cooperation in the fields of Dairy Industry Development, Rice Industry Development, Root crop diversification, Water Resources Management, Coconut Industry Development, Food Processing Industry Development, Agriculture Mechanization, Horticulture Industry Development, Agricultural Research, Animal Husbandry, Pest and Disease, Cultivation, Value Addition and Marketing, Post-Harvest and Milling, Breeding and Agronomy.
• The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Government of India and the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of the Republic of Fiji shall be the Executing Agencies from respective sides.
• Under the MoU, a Joint Working Group will be established to set down procedures and plan and recommend programs of cooperation towards achieving its aims. The Working Group will hold its meetings alternatively in India and Fiji once in every two years.
• The MoU will remain valid for a period of five years from the date of its signing and any variation to its duration will be approved in writing by both Parties.

SOURCE:PIB

2. Pollution Control Vessels (PCVs)

IN NEWS:

Ministry of Defence signed a contract with Goa Shipyard Ltd (GSL) for construction of two Pollution Control Vessels (PCVs) for Indian Coast Guard (ICG) at a cost of about Rs 583 crore, on June 22, 2021.

KEY POINTS:

• These Special Role ships will be indigenously designed, developed and built by GSL.
• The acquisition is under ‘Buy Indian – Indigenously Designed Developed & Manufactured (Buy Indian-IDDM)’, the highest priority category for defence capital procurements.
• The acquisition will significantly augment the capability of ICG to respond to Oil spill disasters at sea and also enhance Pollution Response (PR) efficiency.
• These two vessels are scheduled for delivery by November 2024 and May 2025 respectively.
• At present, ICG has three PCVs in its fleet at Mumbai, Visakhapatnam and Porbander to carry out dedicated Pollution Surveillance, Oil spill monitoring/Response operations in Indian EEZ and around islands.
• The new PCVs planned are for pollution response requirements in Eastern and the ecologically sensitive Andaman & Nicobar Regions.
• The vessels, with capability of operating helicopter onboard, will have many advanced features with modern PR equipment of niche technology for containing, recovering and dispersing of marine oil spill.
• While meeting the objectives of AatmaNirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, the contract would further boost the indigenous shipbuilding capability and increase employment opportunities in the shipbuilding sector that involves around 200 MSME vendors.

SOURCE:PIB

3. Integrated Power Development Scheme

IN NEWS:

• A 50 kWp Solar rooftop in Solan, Himachal Pradesh was inaugurated under Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS) of the MInistry of Power.
• The project further reinforces the ‘Go Green’ Initiative of the government envisaged in the Urban Distribution scheme.

KEY POINTS:

About IPDS:

• Launch:December 2014.
• Nodal Agency:Power Finance Corporation Ltd. (PFC), a Navratna Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE) under the administrative control of the Ministry of Power.

Components:

• Strengthening of sub-transmission and distribution networks in the urban areas.
• Metering of distribution transformers / feeders / consumers in the urban areas.
• Schemes for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and IT enablement of the distribution sector.
• ERP helps in integrating the important parts of a business.
• Underground cabling to include additional demand of States and smart metering solution for performing UDAY States and Solar panels on Govt. buildings with net-metering are also permissible under the scheme.

Objectives

• 24×7 Power supplies for consumers.
• Reduction of AT&C (aggregate technical and commercial) losses.
• Providing access to power to all households.

Eligibility:

• All Power Distribution Companies (Discoms) are eligible for financial assistance under the scheme.

Funding Pattern:

• GoI (Government of India) Grant: 60% (85% for special category States).
• Additional Grant: 15% (5% for special category States) – linked to achievement of milestones.

SOURCE:IE

4. Electronic Weighing Machines at Fair Price Shops

IN NEWS:

• The Central Government has asked the States Governments to buy electronic weighing machines for ration shops from electronic Point of Sale devices (ePoS) savings.
• For this, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs has amended the Food Security (Assistance To State Government Rules) 2015 to encourage the states to generate savings through judicious use of e-PoS devices.

KEY POINTS:

• The integration of ePoS devices with electronic weighing scales will ensure the right quantity to beneficiaries being covered under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013.
• It will ensure greater transparency in the Public distribution system (PDS) regime.
• It will reduce food grain leakages.
• Subsidised food grains provided to the rightful beneficiary through biometric authentication.
• About National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013
• Objective: To provide for food and nutritional security in the human life cycle approach, by ensuring access to adequate quantities of quality food at affordable prices to people to live a life with dignity.
• Coverage: 75% of the rural population and upto 50% of the urban population for receiving subsidized foodgrains under Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS).
• Eligibility:Priority Households to be covered under TPDS, according to guidelines by the State government.
• Households covered under existing Antyodaya Anna Yojana.

Provisions:

• 5 Kgs of foodgrains per person per month at Rs. 3/2/1 per Kg for rice/wheat/coarse grains.
• The existing AAY household will continue to receive 35 Kgs of foodgrains per household per month.
• Meal and maternity benefit of not less than Rs. 6,000 to pregnant women and lactating mothers during pregnancy and six months after the child birth.
• Meals to children upto 14 years of age.
• Food security allowance to beneficiaries in case of non-supply of entitled foodgrains or meals.
• Setting up of grievance redressal mechanisms at the district and state level.

SOURCE:TH

5.Delimitation in Jammu and Kashmir started

IN NEWS

• Recently, the delimitation exercise has started in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).
• The completion of the delimitation exercise will mark the political process in the Union Territory (UT) that has been under Centre’s rule since June 2018.

KEY POINTS:

• After the abrogation of its special status under Article 370, on 5th August, 2019, a special delimitation commission was constituted in March, 2020 to carve out Assembly and Parliament seats in the UT.

What is Delimitation?

• It is the act of fixing or redrawing the boundaries of territorial constituencies in a country or a province having a legislative body, as per the Election Commission.
• The delimitation exercise is carried out by an independent high-powered panel known as the Delimitation Commission whose orders have the force of law and cannot be questioned by any court.

Aim:To have equal representation to equal segments of the population in order to ensure a fair division of geographical areas.

Constitutional Basis for Delimitation

• Article 82: The Parliament enacts a Delimitation Act after every Census.
• Article 170: States also get divided into territorial constituencies as per Delimitation Act after every Census.

Delimitation Commission:

• The Delimitation Commission is appointed by the President of India.
• It works in collaboration with the Election Commission of India.
• Composition:
• Retired Supreme Court judge
• Chief Election Commissioner
• Respective State Election Commissioners.

SOURCE:IE