PIB Summary- 10th June, 2021 | PIB (Press Information Bureau) Summary - UPSC PDF Download

Commercial coal mining

Details:

• The 1st Stakeholders’ Consultation on 2nd Tranche of Auction of Coal Mines for Commercial Mining was held jointly by the Ministry of Coal with FICCI as the industry partner.
• During the second tranche of the auction for commercial coal mining, 67 mines are being offered with a total resource of almost 36 billion and explored mines PRCs of about 150 million tonnes (MT).
• The commercial coal mining auction process was initiated in June 2020.
• The commercialisation of coal mining was announced in tranche 4 of the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.
• The government had announced that it would remove the government monopoly on coal mining by introducing commercial mining on a revenue sharing basis.
• The private sector would be allowed to bid for 50 coal blocks. Private players would also be allowed to undertake exploration activities.
• The commercial coal mining auctions are completely different from the earlier regime of restricted sectors, use and price. Now there are no such restrictions at all.
• The proposed auctions have terms and conditions which are very liberal allowing new companies to participate in the bidding process, reduced upfront amount, adjustment of upfront amount against royalty, liberal efficiency parameters to encourage flexibility to operationalize the coal mines, transparent bidding process, 100% FDI through automatic route allowed and reasonable financial terms and revenue sharing model based on National Coal Index.
  • The Coal Ministry is developing a National Coal Index to fix the price of coal for commercial mining, which would include a weighted combination of monthly prices of coal in various channels of transaction.
• The successful bidders also will have flexibility in coal production unlike in the past and have provision for incentives for early production and coal gasification.

Agriculture Exports during 2020-21

Details:

• The export of agriculture and allied products (including marine and plantation products) during 2020-21 jumped to USD 41.25 billion, indicating an increase of 17.34% from the previous year.
• Despite COVID-19, balance of trade in agriculture has improved by 42.16% from USD 14.51 billion to USD 20.58 billion.
• For agriculture products (excluding marine and plantation products), the growth is 28.36% with exports of USD 29.81 billion in 2020-21 as compared to USD 23.23 billion in 2019-20.
• Export of the following products reported increase by a huge margin: non-basmati rice, wheat, other cereals like millets, maize, etc., oil meals, sugar, raw cotton, fresh vegetables, vegetable oils, etc.
• Largest markets for India’s agriculture products are USA, China, Bangladesh, UAE, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Nepal, Iran and Malaysia.
• Export of spices like ginger, pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, turmeric, saffron, etc. have also grown substantially.
• Organic exports including oil cake/meals, oil seeds, cereals and millets, spices and condiments, tea, medicinal plant products, dry fruits, sugar, pulses, coffee, etc. also showed a huge increase.
• Exports have also taken place from several clusters for the first time directly benefitting several farmers of the respective areas.
  • Some of the clusters that saw huge success are: Varanasi cluster (fresh vegetables), Ananthpur cluster (banana), Nagpur cluster (orange), Lucknow cluster (mango), Theni cluster (banana), Pomegranate cluster (Solapur, Maharashtra), Mango Cluster (Andhra Pradesh), Mango cluster (Telangana), Red onion cluster (Karnataka), banana cluster (Gujarat, Maharashtra), Onion cluster (Maharashtra), Grapes cluster (Maharashtra).
• Pesticide residue problems have affected Basmati rice exports to EU due to stringent norms imposed by EU for chemicals like Tricyclazole and Buprofezin, which are extensively used in rice cultivation in India. EIC testing has been made mandatory for Basmati exports to EU, which led to a decrease in the number of alerts.

I-STEM portal

Details:

• Academic users in India will be able to access the COMSOL Multiphysics software suite at no cost for the first time.
• COMSOL will be accessible through the I-STEM portal.
• Benefits: The suite is hosted on the cloud server to provide user friendly access from anywhere in India. The arrangement is expected to assist many students and researchers in the country, especially those in the more remote and less-endowed institutions, thereby enhancing learning outcomes and promoting R&D efforts across India.

COMSOL Multiphysics software suite:

• It is used worldwide as an indispensable tool for a variety of computer simulations for R&D as well as for learning and instruction.
• It is a general-purpose simulation software package for modelling designs, devices, and processes in all fields of engineering, manufacturing, and scientific research.
• In addition to using Multiphysics modelling for one’s own R&D projects, one can also turn the resulting models into applications for instruction, especially in classes for undergraduates and graduate students.
• It is developed by the COMSOL Group (a Swedish company founded in 1986).

I-STEM:

• I-STEM is an initiative of the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Govt. of India under the PM-STIAC mission.
• The goal is to strengthen the R&D ecosystem by connecting researchers with resources, in part by promoting technologies and scientific equipment development indigenously and providing necessary supplies and supports to researchers and enable them to access existing R&D facilities through the I-STEM web portal.
• It began in 2020 as an initiative to “Link Researchers and Resources” by creating a database of R&D resources in various institutions across the country.
• The portal hosts an inventory of more than 20,000 equipment in some 850 institutions in various parts of the country.
• These can be utilized by researchers through reservations made in consultation with the host institution and paid for through a secure payment gateway.

Report of All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) 2019-20

Details:

• This Report provides key performance indicators on the current status of higher education in the country.
• It has been compiled by the Ministry of Education based on voluntary uploading of data by institutions of Higher Education listed in aishe.gov.in portal in specially designed formats of data collection.
• This is the tenth such report in the series of All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) annually released by the Education Department.

Highlights of the Report:

• In the last five years from 2015-16 to 2019-20, there has been a growth of 11.4% in student enrolment.
• The rise in female enrolment in higher education during the period is 18.2%.
• Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER), the percentage of students belonging to the eligible age group enrolled in Higher Education, in 2019-20 is 27.1%.
• Gender Parity Index (GPI) in Higher Education in 2019-20 is 1.01 against 1.00 in 2018-19 indicating an improvement in the relative access to higher education for females of eligible age group compared to males.
• Pupil Teacher Ratio in Higher Education in 2019-20 is 26.