PIB Summary- 16th July, 2021 | PIB (Press Information Bureau) Summary - UPSC PDF Download

Bye Election to the Council of States from West Bengal

Bye-election to the Rajya Sabha

• Rajya Sabha is a permanent House and is not subject to dissolution. However, one-third Members of Rajya Sabha retire after every second year.
• A member who is elected for a full term serves for a period of six years.
• The election held to fill a vacancy arising otherwise than by retirement of a member on the expiration of his term of office is called ‘Bye-election’.
• A member elected in a bye-election remains member for the remainder of the term of the member who had resigned or died or disqualified to be member of the House under the Tenth Schedule.

Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR)

Details

• Amidst the threat of COVID-19 spread, the Rabi crops are approaching maturity.
• Harvesting and handling of the produce including its movement to the market are inevitable as the agricultural operations are time-bound.
• The ICAR has asked the farmers to follow precautions and safety measures to prevent the disease spread.
• Simple measures include social distancing, maintaining personal hygiene by washing hands with soap, wearing a face mask, protective clothing, and cleaning implements and machinery.
• Workers to follow safety measures and social distancing at each and every step in the entire process of field operations.

About ICAR

• The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is an autonomous organisation under the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Government of India.
• It was established in 1929 as the Imperial Council of Agricultural Research.
• Headquartered in New Delhi, it is the apex body for coordinating, guiding and managing research and education in agriculture including horticulture, fisheries and animal sciences in the entire country.
• With 101 ICAR institutes and 71 agricultural universities spread across the country, this is one of the largest national agricultural systems in the world.
• The ICAR has played a pioneering role in ushering the Green Revolution and subsequent developments in agriculture in India through its research and technology development that has enabled the country to increase the production of food grains by 5.4 times, horticultural crops by 10.1 times, fish by 15.2 times, milk 9.7 times and eggs 48.1 times since 1951 to 2017, thus making a visible impact on the national food and nutritional security.
• It has played a major role in promoting excellence in higher education in agriculture.
• It is engaged in cutting edge areas of science and technology development and its scientists are internationally acknowledged in their fields.
• ICAR Functions:
  • Plan, undertake, coordinate and promote research and technology development for sustainable agriculture.
  • Aid, impart and coordinate agricultural education to enable quality human resource development.
  • Frontline extension for technology application, adoption, knowledge management and capacity development for agri-based rural development.
  • Policy, cooperation, and consultancy in agricultural research, education & extension.

School Innovation Ambassador Training Program

About SIATP

• The programme aims at nurturing lakhs of students with innovation capabilities, develop a culture of innovation and lay the foundation of a new and vibrant India.
• It was launched jointly by the ministries of Education and Tribal Affairs.
• The program launched is a collaborative effort by the Ministry of Education’s Innovation Cell, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, CBSE and AICTE.
• The initiative will benefit a large number of schools for tribal children across the country by giving wings to the creativity of the children and provide a platform so that they can give something new to the world with their ideas.
• The program is aimed at 50000 schoolteachers.

UMANG App

Details

• MeitY has enabled map services in “UMANG App” through an MOU with MapmyIndia (a private firm).
• As a result of the integration of UMANG with MapmyIndia Maps, citizens will be able to find government facilities nearest to their location, such as mandis, blood banks and more, at the click of a button.
• They will also be able to see these on the most detailed and interactive street and village level maps of India, built by MapmyIndia.
• Citizens will also be able to view the driving distance, get directions and turn by turn voice and visual guidance to locations, including traffic and road safety alerts during navigation.
• UMANG app has already started to provide map functionality through MapmyIndia in the following services:
  • Mera Ration – Through UMANG, users can identify and navigate to the ‘Nearest Fair Price Shops’ as shops are visible in the form of pointers on MapmyIndia integrated map.
  • eNAM – Through UMANG, ‘Mandi Near Me’ service will help users to identify and navigate to the nearby mandis pointed on the map.
  • Damini – ‘Damini Lightning Alerts’ service is to provide lightning alerts to users by giving a visual of nearby areas where lightning has struck in the last few minutes. This alert mechanism provides the possibility of lightning strikes on map view.
• To further increase usefulness to citizens, the map functionality will be shortly enabled in many more services such as:
  • ESIC – Users can view ESIC centres such as hospitals/dispensaries on map view and navigate to them.
  • Indian Oil – Service is to locate nearby retail and distributors of gas stations as well as fuel filling stations.
  • NHAI: Users can view the toll plazas and toll rates information while travelling.
  • National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) provides information corresponding to nearby police stations on the map.
  • Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (Meri Sadak) will help users to raise complaints of damaged roads (under PMGSY) by selecting the road on MapmyIndia platform.

Kisan Sarathi

About Kisan Sarathi

• It is a digital platform to facilitate farmers to get ‘right information at right time’ in their desired language.
• It is available in Hindi and other regional languages through which farmers can interact and avail personalised advisories on agriculture and allied areas directly from the respective scientists of Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVKs), the nodal centres that ensure growers benefit from research and technology.

U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC)

About USIBC

• The U.S.-India Business Council was formed in 1975 as a business advocacy organization to enlighten and encourage the private sectors of both India and the United States to enhance investment flows.
• The Council helps in making business between the United States and India easier, more efficient, and more profitable.
• It connects the two largest democracies in the world and inspires sustainable solutions to business challenges – both local and global.

Bio-toilets in Railways

• Bio-toilet is a dry toilet that treats human waste by a biological process called composting.
• It decomposes human excretory waste in a digester tank using specific high graded bacteria (aerobic or anaerobic), further converting it into methane gas, carbon dioxide gas and water.
• It treats human waste at the source. A collection of anaerobic bacteria that have been adapted to work at temperatures as low as -5 degree C and as high as 50 degree C as inocula (seed material) to the bio-digesters convert the organic human waste into water, methane and carbon dioxide gases.
• The anaerobic process inactivates the pathogens responsible for water-borne diseases and treats the excreta without the use of an external energy source.
• However, sometimes, bio-toilets are choked as passengers dump cigarette butts, gutka pouches, plastic water bottles, plastic covers, liquor bottles, and food waste into it.