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August 24th Current Affairs
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1. TEZU AIRPORT.
IN NEWS:
The first commercial flight landed on the easternmost tip of the Indian landmass, Tezu in the Lohit district of Arunachal Pradesh, on Thursday, scripting history in the country’s aviation sector.
KEY POINTS:
- Tezu’s inclusion on the country’s aviation map is projected to enhance tourism in the Arunachal Pradesh.
- CM Pema Khandu said that Tezu is the seventh domestic destination in the North East under UDAN, giving a boost to regional connectivity as envisioned by PM Narendra Modi.
- With Guwahati – Tezu route, flybig has provided air connectivity in 10 out of 16 routes in the region under the UDAN-RCS scheme. Flybig will operate on this route with a frequency of four flights each week.
Important Information :
About UDAN scheme
- The opening of the Guwahati-Tezu route is a success story for RCS–UDAN route in the northeast.
- In October 2016, the Ministry launched the ‘Ude Deshka Aam Naagrik’ (UDAN) Regional Connectivity Scheme to make air travel more accessible to residents in regional cities.
SOURCE:TH
2. Ubharte Sitaare Alternative Investment Fund.
IN NEWS:
Recently, the Ministry of Finance has launched ‘Ubharte Sitaare’ Alternative Investment Fund to facilitate debt and equity funding to export-oriented MSMEs (Micro Small and medium Enterprises).
KEY POINTS:
About the scheme
- Under the scheme, an identified company is supported even if it is currently underperforming or may be unable to tap its latent potential to grow.
- The scheme diagnoses such challenges and provides support through a mix of structured support covering equity, debt and technical assistance.
- It will also have a Greenshoe Option of Rs 250 crore.
- A greenshoe option is an over-allotment option, which is a term that is commonly used to describe a special arrangement in a share offering for example an IPO
- The fund has been set up jointly by Exim Bank and SIDBI (Small Industries Development Bank of India) which will invest in the fund by way of equity and equity-like products in export-oriented units, in both manufacturing and services sectors.
Criteria for Selecting Companies:
- Companies will be selected for support based on their unique value proposition in technology, products or processes that match global requirements.
- Fundamentally strong companies with acceptable financials with an annual turnover of up to approx. Rs 500 crore.
- Companies with a good business model, strong management capabilities, and focus on product quality.
Objectives:
- To enhance India’s competitiveness in select sectors through finance and extensive handholding support.
- Identify and nurture companies having differentiated technology, products or processes, and enhance their export business;
- Assist units with export potential, which are unable to scale up their operations for want of finance.
- Identify and mitigate challenges faced by successful companies which hinder their exports.
- Assist existing exporters in widening their basket of products and target new markets through a strategic and structured export market development initiative.
SOURCE:TH
3. Yuktdhara.
IN NEWS:
New portal under Bhuvan “Yuktdhara” has been released that will facilitate planning of new MGNREGA assets using Remote Sensing and GIS based information.
KEY POINTS:
About
- The “Yuktdhara” is a new Geospatial Planning Portal that will serve as a repository of assets (Geotags) created under various national rural development programmes, i.e., MGNREGA, Integrated Watershed Management Programme, Per Drop More Crop and Rastriya Krishi Vikas Yojana etc., along with field photographs using remote sensing and geographic information system-based data.
- The name given is very apt as word ‘Yukt’ is derived from Yojanam, the planning and ‘Dhara’ indicates the flow.
- It is a culmination of untiring joint efforts of ISRO and Ministry of Rural development made towards realizing a G2G service for rural planning in support of decentralized decision making.
- This portal integrates wide variety of thematic layers, multi-temporal high resolution earth observation data with analysis tools.
- Planners will analyse previous assets under various schemes and facilitates identification of new works using online tools.
- Plans prepared will be evaluated by appropriate authorities under State Departments. Thus, Yuktdhara based plans will be prepared by grassroot functionary and verified by appropriate authorities for relevance and resource allocation.
- This would ensure quality of plan and enable a long-term monitoring of the assets created over the years.
SOURCE:PIB
4.Sree Narayana Guru.
IN NEWS:
The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has paid tributes to Sree Narayana Guru on his Jayanti.
KEY POINTS:
About Sree Narayana Guru
- Sree Narayana Guru was a catalyst and leader from Kerala who reformed the oppressivecaste system that prevailed in society at the time whose philosophy always advocated social equality, education for all, and spiritual enlightenment.
- Born in the Ezhava caste, Narayan Guru had experienced discrimination from the upper caste of society.
- One of his famous sayings in Malayalam was ‘One caste, one religion, one god for all.’
- Narayana Guru consecrated the first temple of Lord Shiva in 1888 where an idol was ordinated by a non-brahmin in Aruvippuram village of Kerala sparking off the anti-caste revolution against the upper-caste Brahmin communities.
- Later, in 1903, he established the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP) organization as the founder and president that continues to mark its strong presence to this day.
- The famous ‘Vaikom Satyagraha’ protest movement against caste discrimination and untouchability abolished untouchability and inequality. Hence, this day is quite important in Kerala and is observed as a public holiday.
- The Sivagiri pilgrimage was established in 1924 to promote the virtues of cleanliness, education, devotion, agriculture, handicrafts, and trade.
- His philosophy and teachings are a way of life for the people of Kerala.
- He passed away on September 20, 1928.
SOURCE:PIB
5. ‘National Monetisation Pipeline’.
IN NEWS:
Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, unveiled a four-year National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) scheme on August 23, 2021.
KEY POINTS:
About NMP scheme
- Scheme was launched with a Rs 6 lakh crore unlock value in brownfield projects.
- It also engages the private sector. They will have the rights but not the ownership in projects.
- Scheme will be using the funds for infrastructure creation across India.
- Under the scheme, roads, railways and power sector assets would be comprising of more than 66 per cent of the total estimated value of the assets to be monetised.
- Rest of the estimated value will come from sector like mining, telecom, ports, aviation, natural gas, warehouses & stadiums and petroleum product pipelines.
- Real estate investment trusts (REITs) and infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs) are some of structures that will be used to monetise assets in roads and power sectors.
- Significance of the monetisation
- According to Finance Minister, monetisation will help in creating further value for infrastructure creation India and exploring innovative ways of private participation without transferring the government ownership.
Key challenges of the scheme
- Major key challenges in the NMP roadmap include:
- Lack of identifiable revenue streams across various assets,
- Level of capacity utilisation across gas and petroleum pipeline networks,
- Dispute resolution mechanism,
- Regulated tariffs in power sector assets, and
- Low interest among investors for national highways below four lanes.
Assets on the NMP list include-
- 26700 km of roads, railway stations, train operations & tracks
- 28608 CKT km of power transmission lines
- 6 GW of hydroelectric & solar power assets
- 86 lakh km fibre assets & 14,917 towers in the telecom sector
- 8154 km of natural gas pipelines and
- 3930 km of petroleum product pipelines.
SOURCE:ET