Thursday, August 13, 2020

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VisionIAS 16:06

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VisionIAS 15:58

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Daily Current Affairs, 13th August 2020

vision ias current affairs

VisionIAS 15:44

1) Jal Shakti Minister launches Swachh Bharat Mission Academy

•The Swachh Bharat Mission Academy has been launched by the Union Minister for Jal Shakti, Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. The SBM academy was launched during the current week-long behaviour change campaign ‘GandagiMukt Bharat’. The launch of SBM academy is a crucial part of the phase 2 of Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen). It will ensure behaviour change and promote the capacity building of the key stakeholders such as Swachhagrahis, PRIs members, community-based organizations, NGOs, SHGs etc.

2) Atal Innovation Mission & Dell Technologies launches “SEP 2.0”

•The second edition of Student Entrepreneurship Programme (SEP 2.0) has been rolled out by the Niti Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) in collaboration with Dell Technologies. The Student Entrepreneurship Programme has been launched for the young innovators of Atal Tinkering Labs (ATLs) as it will enable them to work closely with Dell volunteers.

•The young innovators who are part of SEP 2.0 will get mentor support, prototyping and testing support, end-user feedback, intellectual property registration along with patenting of ideas, processes, and products.

3) Reliance Foundation launches “W-GDP Women Connect Challenge”

•Reliance Foundation has launched the “W-GDP Women Connect Challenge” across India in association with US Agency for International Development (USAID) and Women’s Global Development and Prosperity (W-GDP). The “W-GDP Women Connect Challenge” has been launched to bridge the gender divide as well as the digital divide in India.

•The recently launched W-GDP Women’s Connect Challenge (WCC) will assist the private sector-led approaches that close the gender digital divide and expands business opportunities, as well as empowering women. W-GDP will create an India-specific expression of the WCC in association with the Reliance Foundation. With this, it will incorporate the lessons of previous W-GDP WCC Rounds.

4) LIC starts ‘Special Revival Campaign’ to revive lapsed policies

•Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has announced a special scheme to revive lapsed policies named ‘Special Revival Campaign’. This campaign is open from 10 August to 9 October during which customers can revive their individual lapsed policies.

Under this scheme:

•The policies of specific eligible plans can be revived within five years from the date of the first unpaid premium subject to certain terms and conditions.

•Though it is not offering any concessions in medical requirements, some concessions may be allowed in late fee under plans other than term assurance and other high-risk plans.

•Those policies that have lapsed during the premium- paying term and not completed policy term as on the date of revival, are eligible to be revived during the campaign.

•The campaign is launched to benefit those policyholders who were not able to pay the premium due to unavoidable circumstances and their policy lapsed. It always makes better sense to revive an old policy to restore cover.

5) Dr V K Paul chairs Expert Committee meet on Vaccine Administration

•Dr V K Paul, Member Niti Aayog has chaired the meeting of National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19. The committee held a meeting to deliberate on measures to ensure availability of vaccines as well as its delivery mechanism. It also discussed the mechanisms for the establishment of a digital infrastructure for inventory management.

•The V K Paul led committee also deliberated on delivery mechanism of the vaccine including tracking of vaccination process while focusing particularly on last mile delivery. Broad parameters guiding the selection of COVID-19 vaccine candidates, was also a key subject of discussion during the meet. Other key subjects were procurement mechanisms for COVID-19 vaccine, guiding principles for prioritization of population groups for vaccination, financial resources required for procurement of COVID-19 vaccine and various options of financing the vaccine.

6) PESB selects Soma Mondal as next chairman of SAIL

•Soma Mondal has been selected by the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) as the next chairman of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL). She will be taking charge when the present Chairman Anil Chaudhary.

•Mondal had taken over as Director (Commercial) of SAIL in September 2018. Prior to this, she was Director (Commercial), NALCO, Bhubaneswar which was history in making as was NALCO’s first-ever female director.

7) Pramod Bhasin becomes new Chairman of ICRIER

•Pramod Bhasin has been appointed as a new Chairman of Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER). He is currently the vice-chair of the board of governors at ICRIER. He will replace Isher Judge Ahluwalia, who has stepped down due to health reasons. Isher had been in this position for 15 years. She will continue as chairperson emeritus, a position specially created to honour her exceptional contributions to the Council.

8) CII organised “India@75 Summit – Mission 2022”

•Union Minister for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises(MSME), Nitin Gadkari has addressed the “India@75 Summit – Mission 2022” organised by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) via video-conferencing. The summit was focused on ‘reinventing technology in India’. The MSME Ministry and Industries should be made import substitutes, cost-effective, pollution-free and indigenous.

9) RBI announces ‘positive pay’ feature to help avert cheque frauds

•The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced to introduce a mechanism of ‘Positive Pay’ feature for all cheques of value Rs 50,000 and above. This feature helps to avert cheque frauds. The limit of Rs 50,000 will cover approximately 20 per cent of transactions by volume and 80 per cent by value.

10) CCI approves formation of joint venture between HAMCL & HL

•The proposed combination filed by Keihin Corporation, Nissin Kogyo Co., Ltd., Showa Corporation and Hitachi Automotive Systems, Ltd has received the approval from the Competition Commission of India (CCI). The two companies have filed for the formation of a Joint Venture between Honda Motor Co. Limited (HAMCL) and Hitachi Limited (HL).

•Honda Motor Co. Limited (HAMCL) is a limited liability, joint stock corporation incorporated in Japan. It is engaged in developing, manufacturing and marketing motorcycles, scooters, automobiles and power products globally. Keihin Corporation (KC), which is engaged in developing as well as manufacturing automobile components and systems globally, is incorporated in Japan. Nissin Kogyo Co., Ltd. (NKCL) makes vehicle brake parts and is incorporated in Japan.

•The Showa Aircraft Precision Works, Ltd. is segmented into motorcycle and hydraulic components, automotive components, drivetrain components, and steering systems components. Hitachi Automotive Systems, Ltd. (HIAMS) develops, manufactures, sells and service the powertrain systems, chassis systems and advanced driver assistance systems, etc.

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VisionIAS 15:22

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The HINDU Notes – 13th August 2020

the hindu notes

VisionIAS 12:12

📰 A self-reliant foreign policy

In a multipolar world order, this means having variable combinations with like-minded partners

•Self-reliance is the theme of India’s 74th Independence Day. This concept is commonly associated with the economy and production of key goods and services within the country in light of the global ‘supply shock’ caused by the pandemic. But it also has a parallel dimension in the domain of foreign policy. If the domestic goal is to reduce dependence on imports for critical commodities, the foreign policy corollary is to recalibrate the time-tested axiom of ‘strategic autonomy’.

•India has historically prided itself as an independent developing country which does not take orders from or succumb to pressure from great powers. Whether the world order was bipolar (1947 to 1991), unipolar (1991 to 2008, when the U.S. entered a long cycle of economic crises and China caught up with it in overall power), or multipolar (present times), the need for autonomy in making foreign policy choices has remained constant.

Showing flexibility

•Yet, strategic autonomy has often been adjusted in India’s history as per the changing milieu. In moments of crisis, India has reinterpreted freedom and shown flexibility for survival. During the 1962 war with China, the high priest of non-alignment, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, had to appeal to the U.S. for emergency military aid to stave off the Chinese from “taking over the whole of Eastern India.” In the build-up to the 1971 war with Pakistan, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had to enter a Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation with the Soviet Union to ward off both China and the U.S. And in Kargil in 1999, India welcomed a direct intervention by the U.S. to force Pakistan to back down. In all the above examples, India did not become any less autonomous when geopolitical circumstances compelled it to enter into de facto alliance-like cooperation with major powers. Rather, India secured its freedom, sovereignty and territorial integrity by manoeuvering the great power equations and playing the realpolitik game.

•Today, although there is no prospect of an outright war with China in the wake of its incursions across the Line of Actual Control, India is at an inflection point with regard to strategic autonomy. Non-alignment 2.0 with China and the U.S., as they slide into a new Cold War, makes little sense when India’s security and sovereignty are being challenged primarily by the former rather than the latter. Fears in some quarters that proximity to the U.S. will lead to loss of India’s strategic autonomy are overblown because independent India has never been subordinated to a foreign hegemon.

The essence of self-reliance

•In the threat environment marked by a pushy China, which the U.S. is now beginning to confront frontally, India should aim to have the proverbial cake of American support and also eat the cake i.e., stay as an independent power centre by means of intensified cooperation with middle powers in Asia and around the world.

•For India, which values freedom, placing all its eggs in the U.S. basket to counterbalance China would be an error, as that can constrict India’s options in other theatres of national interest such as its ties with Iran and Russia and efforts to speed up indigenous defence modernisation.

•Diversification is the essence of self-reliance. A wide basket of strategic partners, including the U.S., with a sharper focus on constraining China, is the only viable diplomatic way forward in the current emerging multipolar world order.

•It is no longer a question of picking one out of two titans or oscillating between them. In an era of dense networks, India must reconfigure autonomy to mean what the American scholar Joseph Nye calls ‘power with others’ to accomplish joint goals.

•We are free and self-reliant not through isolation or alliance with one great power, but only in variable combinations with several like-minded partners. India is familiar with the phrase ‘multi-vector’ foreign policy. It is time to maximise its potential.