PIB Summary- 14th January, 2021 | PIB (Press Information Bureau) Summary - UPSC PDF Download

Prarambh: Startup India International Summit

Context: ‘Prarambh: Startup India International Summit’ to be held for two days in January 2021.

About Prarambh

• The Summit is being organized by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
• It is a follow up of the announcement made by the Prime Minister at the fourth BIMSTEC Summit held in Kathmandu in August 2018 wherein India committed to host the BIMSTEC Startup Conclave.
• The Summit marks the fifth anniversary of the Startup India initiative, which was launched in 2015. 
• With participation from over 25 countries and more than 200 global speakers, the Summit will be the largest startup confluence organized by the Government of India since the launch of the Startup India initiative.
• It will witness 24 sessions with focus on enhancing multilateral cooperation and engagement with countries from around the globe to collectively develop and strengthen the startup ecosystems.

RCS – UDAN

Context: The first flight to the newly constructed Hisar airport in Haryana from Chandigarh was flagged off under the Regional Connectivity Scheme – Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik (RCS-UDAN).

Details

• Belonging to the Government of Haryana, Hisar airport is a public licensed airport that is suitable for 18 seat type aircraft. 
• The airline Aviation Connectivity & Infrastructure Developers Pvt Ltd (Air Taxi) was awarded the Hisar – Chandigarh – Hisar route under the UDAN 4 bidding process. 
  • The airline has become the first startup airline of the country to assist the nation with Air Taxi services. 
• These UDAN flights will reduce the journey time between Hisar to Chandigarh from 4.5 hours to a comfortable 45 minutes journey that too at an affordable fare since financial incentives in the form of Viability Gap Funding (VGF) is being provided from the Centre, State governments & airport operators to selected airlines to encourage operations from unserved and underserved airports under the scheme.
• Prelims Fact about Hisar, Haryana: it is India’s largest galvanized iron manufacturing city.

India’s First Indigenously Developed 9mm Machine Pistol

Context: India’s first indigenous 9mm Machine Pistol has been jointly developed by DRDO and Indian Army. The weapon has been named ‘Asmi’.
About Asmi

• Asmi The Asmi machine pistol fires the in-service 9 mm ammunition and has an upper receiver made from aircraft-grade aluminium and lower receiver from carbon fibre. 
• The weapon has huge potential in the Armed forces as personal weapon for heavy weapon detachments, commanders, tank and aircraft crews, drivers/dispatch riders, radio/radar operators, Closed Quarter Battle, counter insurgency and counter terrorism operations, etc. 
• This is also likely to find huge use with the central and state police organizations as well as VIP protection duties and policing. 
• According to the government press release, the Machine Pistol is likely to have production cost under rupees 50000 each and has potential for exports.

Who developed Asmi? 

• Armament Research & Development Establishment (ARDE), which is the Pune-based facility of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Indian Army’s Mhow-based Infantry School have jointly developed Asmi.

What are Machine Pistols? 

• Machine pistols are primarily self-loading versions of pistols which are either fully automatic or can also fire bursts of bullets.

Polio National Immunisation Day

Context: Polio National Immunisation Day rescheduled to 31st January 2021.

Details

• The Health Ministry postponed the polio national immunisation drive round scheduled from January 17 since the COVID vaccination drive is set to start on 16^th
• The National Immunisation Day (NID) or “Polio Ravivar” has been rescheduled to 31 January.
• Over the years, immunisation has proved to be the most vital tool in controlling and eliminating life-threatening infectious diseases. 
• India committed to the resolution passed by the World Health Assembly for Global Polio Eradication in 1988. 
• It was due to an aggressive vaccination campaign against Polio that India was declared free of the disease in March 2014. 
• Another major milestone is the elimination of Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus in 2015.

Background

• On March 16th every year, India observes National Vaccination day, also known as Immunization day. It was on this day in 1995 that the first dose of Oral Polio vaccine was given in India.
• The initiative to eradicate polio from the country came in the form of the Pulse Polio Campaign launched by the government.
  • Under this extensive drive, 2 drops of Oral Polio Vaccine was given to all children younger than 5 years of age. 
  • The last reported case of polio in India was in West Bengal in January. 
• In 2014, India was declared polio-free.

Importance of vaccination

• Vaccination is the most effective method of preventing highly infectious diseases. 
• Extensive immunity due to vaccination is mostly responsible for the world-wide eradication of small pox and the restraint of diseases like Polio, Measles and Tetanus from a large part of the world. 
• According to the World Health Organisation, immunisation is a proven tool for controlling and eliminating life-threatening infectious diseases. 
• It is estimated to avert between 2-3 million deaths every year. 
• The benefits of immunisation are not limited to improvements in health and life expectancy but also have the social and economic impacts at both the community as well as national level.

History of Immunisation in India

• Modern immunisation developed in India in the 19th Century parallel to the Western World. 
• India launched its first vaccine Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) over 50 years ago. 
• BCG used against TB, was launched in 1962 as a part of National Tuberculosis Programme.
• Expanded programme on Immunisation was launched in 1978. 
  • Initially it included BCG, DPT, Typhoid vaccine. 
  • OPV was added in 1979. 
• In 1985, the programme was modified to become the Universal Immunisation Programme. It was implemented in a phased manner.
• By 1989-1990 it was one of the largest health programmes in the world.
• UIP became a part of the Child Survival and Safe Motherhood Programme in 1992. 
• Since 1997, immunisation is an important component of the National Reproductive and Child Health Programme, and the current National Health Mission.

Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP)

• India has one of the biggest Universal Immunisation Programmes (UIP) in the world, in terms of the number of beneficiaries covered, quantities of vaccinations used, geographical spread to the resources used. 
• India’s immunisation programme is the largest public health programme targeting close to 67 crore newborns, 2.9 crore pregnant women annually. 
• Free vaccination is carried out throughout the country including Tribal and remote areas. 
• It is one of the cost-effective public health interventions responsible for the reduction of vaccine preventable under-5 mortality rate, with free of cost vaccination against 12 diseases. 
• Nationally against nine diseases: Diptheria, Pertussis, Tetanus, Polio, Measles, Rubella, Severe form of childhood Tuberculosis, Hepatitis B and Meningitis & Pneumonia caused by Hemophilus Influenza type B. 
• Sub-nationally against three diseases: Rotavirus diarrhoea, Pneumococcal Pneumonia, Japanese Encephalitis. 
• Special immunisation drives like the Mission Indradhanush, Intensified Mission Indradhanush, Gram Swaraj Abhiyan, Extended Gram Swaraj Abhiyan have been conducted to reach left out and hard to reach children living in remote and inaccessible areas. 
• Besides, several other steps are also undertaken to strengthen routine immunisation and ensure a robust supply-chain management system. 
• Some of the vaccines introduced by India over the years include the Inactivated Polio Vaccine, Rota virus vaccine, Measles-rubella vaccine, Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, Tetanus and Adult diphtheria vaccine. 
• Official data on India’s immunisation coverage still stands at 62% as per the National Family Health Survey-4 of 2015-16. However, the Union Health Ministry’s data says it stands at 83% with just 2% unimmunised children (November 2018).

Poliomyelitis (Polio)

• The World Health Organization (WHO) defines polio or poliomyelitis as “a highly infectious viral disease, which mainly affects young children.” 
• The virus is transmitted by person-to-person, spread mainly through the faecal-oral route or, less frequently, by a common vehicle (e.g. contaminated water or food) and multiplies in the intestine, from where it can invade the nervous system and can cause paralysis. 
• Initial symptoms of polio include fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiffness in the neck, and pain in the limbs. 
• In a small proportion of cases, the disease causes paralysis, which is often permanent. 
• There is no cure for polio, it can only be prevented by immunization.

How did India – a Polio endemic country become free of the disease?

• India, once a Polio endemic country has become free of the disease. 
• Acclaimed globally, the Pulse Polio immunisation programme was launched in the year 1994 to provide vaccination to all children below the age of 5. 
• In 1995, there were an estimated 1.5 lakh registered Polio cases in India. 
  • A team of 23 Lakh polio assistants were prepared. 
  • 33 thousand surveillance centres were built. 
  • Door to door campaign was held to give polio drops to children. 
• Since 2011, no case of Polio has been registered in India. 
• The WHO in 2012, removed India from the list of countries with active endemic wild polio virus transmission. 
• Two years later, the South-East Asia Region of the WHO, of which India is a part, was certified as polio-free. 
• India is still at risk, because of the prevalence of the disease in the neighbouring countries. Therefore there is regular surveillance and monitoring being carried out in the country. 
• To prevent the virus from coming to India, the government has since March 2014 made the Oral Polio Vaccination (OPV) mandatory for those travelling between India and polio-affected countries, such as Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Syria and Cameroon. 
• The Polio eradication campaign was one of the longest and largest campaigns against a single disease.

Mission Indhradhanush

• Mission Indradhanush was launched under UIP in December 2014 for better health of mothers and children who are deprived of vaccination. 
• The main aim is to vaccinate children who are not vaccinated or partially vaccinated by 2020. 
• Vaccination is being provided against eight vaccine-preventable diseases.

Intensified Mission Indradhanush 2.0

• IMI was launched with the intention of further intensifying the immunisation programme in 2019. 
• Immunisation activity will be in four rounds over 7 working days. 
• There is an enhanced immunisation session with flexible timings, mobile sessions, and mobilisation by other departments. 
• The focus is on urban underserved population and tribal areas. 
• It aims to immunise children under 2 years of age and pregnant women. 
• The programme aims at achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of ending preventable child deaths by 2030.

CSIR-NIScPR

Context: CSIR-National Institute of Science Communication and Policy Research (CSIR-NIScPR) inaugurated.

What is CSIR-National Institute of Science Communication and Policy Research? 

• The new institute has been formed by merging two prestigious institutes of CSIR namely, CSIR-National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources (CSIR-NISCAIR)and CSIR-National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies (CSIR-NISTADS) which work at the interface of S&T and Society; and Science Communication and Policy Research. 
• The new institute is located at New Delhi. 
• The mission of the institute is to promote STI policy studies and science communication among diverse stakeholders and act as a bridge at the interface of science, technology, industry and society which is essential to a robust S&T ecosystem in the country. 
• About CSIR-NISCAIR 
  • It has been a frontier institute in science communication publishing popular science magazines (Vigyan Pragati and Science Reporter) and Scientific Journals. 
  • It is also managing the largest and oldest National Science Library and also distributes International Standard Serial Number (ISSN). 
  • It has been the custodian of the National Knowledge Resource Consortium (NKRC) which facilitates access to more than 5000 e-journals of all major publishers, patents, standards, citations, and bibliographic database. 
• About CSIR-NISTADS 
  • It has earned its reputation in its long journey in policy research and has a rich research experience in the area of history of science, S & T and society, and S&T and innovation. 
  • It has executed projects from UNESCO and the Commonwealth Science Council, State S&T Councils and international agencies to review their respective S&T promotional schemes. 
  • It has also created a Techno-Socio-Economic platform to enable the development and application of socially acceptable, relevant, scalable and cost-competitive products.

National Innovation Portal

Context: Union Minister dedicates the National Innovation Portal to the nation.

What is the National Innovation Portal? 

• The portal is a database of innovations and traditional knowledge by the people, for the people and of the people. 
• It is currently home to about 1.15 lakh innovations scouted from common people of the country, covering engineering, agriculture, veterinary and human health. 
• In terms of domain areas, currently, the innovations cover energy, mechanical, automobile, electrical, electronics, household, chemical, civil, textiles, farm/cultivation practice, storage practice, plant variety, plant protection, poultry, livestock management, nutraceuticals, etc. 
• The portal has been developed by the National Innovation Foundation (NIF) – India, an autonomous body of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India.

About the National Innovation Foundation (NIF)

• An autonomous body under the DST, the NIF was established in 2000. 
• It is India’s national initiative to strengthen the grassroots technological innovations and outstanding traditional knowledge. 
• Its mission is to help India become a creative and knowledge-based society by expanding policy and institutional space for grassroots technological innovators. 
• NIF scouts, supports and spawns grassroots innovations developed by individuals and local communities in any technological field, helping in human survival without any help from formal sector. 
• NIF helps grassroots innovators and outstanding traditional knowledge holders get due recognition, respect and reward for their innovations. 
• It also tries to ensure that such innovations diffuse widely through commercial and/or non-commercial channels, generating material or non-material incentives for them and others involved in the value chain.

NIF Achievements

• NIF has also set up an augmented Fabrication Laboratory (Fab Lab) for product development and strengthening in-house research. 
• NIF has filed about 1200 patents, including eight filed in the USA and 28 Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications, on behalf of the innovators and outstanding traditional knowledge holders. 
  • Of these, 184 patents have been granted in India and 5 in the USA. 
• NIF has filed 24 Design registrations (of which 20 are granted) for innovations of the grassroots and student innovators. 
• In addition to this, 10 trade mark applications have also been filed, of which 7 have been granted. 
• Micro Venture Innovation Fund (MVIF) at NIF, with support from Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), has provided risk capital to 230 innovation based enterprise projects, some of which are at different stages of incubation.

NIF Mission: To help India become inventive and creative, and to become a global leader in sustainable technologies without social and economic handicaps affecting the evolution and diffusion of green grassroots innovations.

Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana

Context: Third phase of Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY 3.0) to be launched.

Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) Objective
PMKVY is a Skill Certification Scheme that aims to encourage the youth population of the country to take up training which is Industry- Relevant and builds them in Skill Development. The scheme was launched with an intention to provide secure livelihoods for the individuals participating in the training. PMKVY will also certify the previous learning experiences or skills of the individuals under the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL).

Components of PMKVY
Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana has four key components as follows:

Current Updates on PMKVY
The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) has launched Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) 3.0, in a bid to empower India’s youth with employable skills by making over 300 skill courses available to them.
PMKVY 3.0 phase will focus on new-age and COVID-related skills and envisages training of 8 lakh candidates over a scheme period of 2020-2021.
To build a robust pool of skilled professionals, 729 Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras (PMKKs), empaneled non-PMKK training centers and more than 200 ITIs under Skill India will be rolling out PMKVY 3.0 training.
The Ministry has improved the newer version of the scheme on the basis of the learning gained from PMKVY 1.0 and PMKVY 2.0 so as to match the current policy doctrine and energize the skilling ecosystem affected due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

PMKVY Implementation
PMKVY is administered and implemented by the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. 

• Along with this, the training providers affiliated with the State or Central government will also provide training under the PMKVY scheme. 
• The training providers have to register themselves on the Skill Management & Accreditation of Training Centre (SMART) portal to participate and provide training under the scheme. 
• PMKVY training is scrutinized by the Sector Skills Councils and State Governments.

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)
Recognition of Prior Learning commonly known as RPL largely refers to an assessment process used to evaluate a person’s existing skill sets, knowledge and experience gained either by formal, non-formal or informal learning. RPL under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) 2016-20 primarily has threefold objectives. 

• Enhance Employability 
• Reducing inequalities 
• To align the competencies of the un-regulated workforce.

RPL – 5 step process
It is a 5 step process which are:

• Mobilization 
• Counselling and Pre-Screening 
• Orientation 
• Final Assessment 
• Certification, mark sheet and pay-out distribution to candidates