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

VivaTech

Context
PM delivered the keynote address at the 5th edition of VivaTech.

Details:

• VivaTech is one of the largest digital and startup events in Europe, held in Paris every year since 2016.
• It is jointly organised by Publicis Groupe – a prominent advertising and marketing conglomerate and Les Echos – a leading French media group.
• The event brings together stakeholders in technology innovation and the startup ecosystem and includes exhibitions, awards, panel discussions and startup contests.

Indo-Israel Agricultural Project (IIAP)

Context:
3 Centres of Excellence (COE) established in Karnataka under Indo-Israel Agriculture project.

Details:

• The three COEs are:
  • COE Kolar for Mango
  • COE Bagalkote for Pomegranate
  • COE Dharwad for Vegetables
• Indo-Israel Agricultural Project Centres of Excellence:
  • The Agriculture Ministry, GOI and Mashav (Israel’s agency for International Development Cooperation) are leading Israel’s largest G2G cooperation, with 29 operational Centres of Excellence (COEs) across India in 12 States.
  • They are implementing Advanced-Intensive agriculture farms with Israeli Agro-Technology tailored to local conditions.
  • The Centres of Excellence generate knowledge, demonstrate best practices and train farmers.

Smart Enforcement App for Trucks

Context:
Smart Enforcement App for Trucks developed by the Logistics Division of the Commerce Department.

Background:

• On average, a truck in India covers 50,000-60,000 km a year which is way less than advanced economies like the US where a truck covers 300,000 km per year.
• One of the key reasons is delays due to random stoppages for physical checking of vehicles and verification of documents, etc.
• While GST has helped improve the situation, there is a long way to go to reach the advanced country levels.
• There are over 60 different instances of potential violations of various rules and compliances that enforcement agencies need to watch out for.
• The responsibility for this enforcement lies with state government departments, namely commercial tax, transport, police and other agencies.

What’s in News?

• As a strategy to reduce logistics costs on road transportation, the Logistics Division of the Dept of Commerce, GOI has developed a risk-based approach on the implementation of smart enforcement of rules and regulations related to road-based violations by trucks.
• It has also developed an IT-based solution named the ‘Smart Enforcement App’ to make enforcement mechanism technology driven.

The key features of the integrated smart solution are:

• An IT application that would fetch data related to goods being carried on the truck from the existing Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) database, and the information related to the vehicle from the VAHAN database.
• Make this data available to enforcement officers on the road in advance for approaching trucks.
• Based on a risk matrix that uses historical patterns, the app assigns a risk profile to the truck helping the officers decide whether to stop it for further scrutiny.
• It requires the officer to issue all fines, penalties, or any other punitive measure through the app, ensuring transparency.
• The app includes features that keep records and help reduce ad-hoc implementation of these rules and regulations.
• The application would have the ability to integrate with all the sensors, Weigh in Motion, and cameras available with the state government or National Highway Authority to allow remote enforcement.
• This would significantly reduce the need to deploy officers on the ground since the app would be able to alert officers whenever a vehicle is in violation.

Potential benefits of the App:

• Decreased number of physical checks of commercial vehicles by enforcement officers.
• Reduction in the number of cash challans because of issuing e-challans.
• Reduction in the deployment of personnel on the road causing better manpower utilisation by the authorities.
• Higher revenue collection due to reduced human intervention.
• Improved targeting of offenders.
• Reduction in the logistics costs, which currently stands at 13% of the GDP.

GeM SAHAY Platform

• What is GeM SAHAY?
  The GeM-SAHAY portal can be utilised to provide frictionless financing for MSMEs on Government eMarketplace where they can get a loan at the point of acceptance of an order on the GeM platform.
• The country’s leading lenders are associated with the SAHAY platform.
• With the portal, loan disbursement will be instantaneous, instead of the conventional in-principle approval of loan that may very often not culminate in an actual disbursal.
• The GeM SAHAY platform is ‘lender agnostic’, allowing for any lender, duly regulated by the Reserve Bank of India, to participate and provide capital and smart collection accounts to the sellers on GeM.
• Sellers applying for the loan facility will experience a seamless end to end digital experience with a mobile application.
• SAHAY project is being implemented by GeM in collaboration with the Indian Software Product Industry Round Table (iSPIRT), a non-profit tech think tank’s volunteer team.

What is Government e-Marketplace?

The Government e-Marketplace (GeM) is a dedicated online platform where goods and services can be procured by various organizations and departments under the Government of India, and by the PSUs also.

• GeM is aimed at enhancing the efficiency, speed and transparency in public procurement of goods and services. It also serves the objective of eliminating corruption.
• It is administered by the Ministry of Commerce and Industries under the Directorate General of Supplies and Disposals (DGS&D).
• It is a completely paperless, cashless and system-driven e-marketplace that enables the procurement of common use goods and services with a minimal human interface.
• It is an online marketplace for government officers and others for procurement.

GeM 4.0

GeM 4.0 is the latest version of the e-marketplace. It adds on to the features that were already in place in the third edition of GeM. Some of the new features include the following:

1. Sellers will get timely payment.
2. Natural Language Processing (NLP) based advanced search engine.
3. Demand aggregation wherein buyers can collate several orders of the same product for different consignees across many organisations within one ministry.
4. The user interface has been revamped and made more user-friendly.
5. Staggered or flexible delivery is allowed.
6. The bidding module has been redesigned and now consignee-wise and item-wise bidding is permitted.
7. Advanced analytics, machine learning, deep learning and AI are integrated into the portal.
8. The grievance redressal mechanism has been improved.
9. Cataloguing has been made simpler for sellers by introducing price variance.
10. Ease of Payment options with integration with many banks and ERPs.
11. Seller rating is now introduced making it easier for buyers to make their decisions, and also incentivising sellers to upgrade.
12. Many new services and categories have been included.
13. Now, sellers and buyers can interact with each other thus offering scope for improvement and a better understanding of the market.
14. This version has dedicated pages for CPSUs (central PSUs).

GeM 3.0

The third version of the marketplace, GeM 3.0 has been envisaged as the National Procurement Portal of India by the Government. In August 2016, the earlier version of GeM 3.0, GeM 2.0 was launched as a pilot project.

• GeM 3.0 offers advanced Management Information System (MIS), user rating, e-Performance Bank Guarantee (e-PBG), e-Earnest Money Deposit (e-EMD), demand aggregation, template-based bidding and RA creation, powerful search engine and standardized and enriched catalogue management, analytics and more. 
• It has a powerful search engine and price comparison tool using third party sites which are real-time and multisource. 
• Online vendor assessment and Performance-based User Rating are also available. It has market based-bundling and bunching of products and services. 
• It offers more services, RA Facility & with a bid, and at the same time has Multi-Cart Functionality.

Benefits of GeM 3.0  

GeM 3.0 offers many benefits like the following:

• Providing transparent transactions for all ranges.
• Market-based generic requirements across all government agencies.
• Open and dynamic marketplace.
• Rating based on the performance of users on the website.
• Generic standards are established through universal service levels.
• Cost comparison enabled.
• Standardisation of specifications of both products and services enabling empirical price comparability.

The Government e-Marketplace (GeM) has signed an MoU with Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) to benefit MSMEs, women entrepreneurs, Self Help Groups (SHGs), Women Self Help Groups and various loan beneficiaries under MUDRA and Stand-up India scheme.

Details:

• This will enable the promotion of special initiatives of GeM like Womaniya and Start-up Runway with SIDBI stakeholders.
• Both parties will take steps to ensure payments within a guaranteed timeframe to sellers, enhance working capital availability through bill discounting and control NPAs through control of end-use.

Start-up Runway

This scheme was launched in February 2019.

• It was initiated by GeM to promote entrepreneurship through innovation.
• It is an opportunity for agile and lean Startups to reach out to the universe of Government Buyers by offering products and services that are unique in concept, design, process and functionality through the StartUp Runway corner.
• This scheme will help startups to:
  • Introduce their unique innovations to government and PSU buyers.
  • Assess utility and market acceptability of startup products/services.
  • Spur hyper-local job-creation and wealth generation to achieve inclusive growth by way of helping startups.

Womaniya

It is an initiative to enable women entrepreneurs and women self-help groups (WSHGs) to sell handicrafts and handloom, accessories, jute and coir products, home décor and office furnishings, directly to various Government ministries, departments and institutions.

• The initiative seeks to develop women entrepreneurship on the margins of society to achieve gender-inclusive economic growth.

Jalgaon Banana

Context:
GI certified Jalgaon banana exported to Dubai.

Jalgaon Banana:

• This is a fibre and mineral rich variety of banana that grows in Jalgaon district of Maharashtra, a banana cluster identified under Agri Export Policy.
• Jalgaon Banana got the GI certification in 2016.
• India is the world’s leading producer of bananas with a share of around 25% in total output. Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh contribute more than 70% of the country’s banana production.

National Maritime Heritage Complex (NMHC) at Lothal

Context:
MoU signed between the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways for cooperation to develop a National Maritime Heritage Complex (NMHC) at Lothal, Gujarat.

Details:

• The NMHC will showcase the rich and diverse maritime glory of India.
• It will be a world-class facility in the vicinity of the Archaeological Survey of India site of Lothal.
• NMHC would be developed as an international tourist destination, where the maritime heritage of India from ancient to modern times would be showcased and an edutainment approach using the latest technology would be adopted to spread awareness about India’s maritime heritage.
• It would be developed in an area of about 400 acres with various unique structures such as National Maritime Heritage Museum, Light House Museum, Heritage Theme Park, Museum Themed Hotels & Maritime themed eco-resorts, Maritime Institute, etc. which would be developed in a phased manner.
• The unique feature of NMHC is the recreation of the ancient Lothal city, which is one of the prominent cities of the ancient Indus Valley Civilization dating to 2400 BC.

13th BRICS Summit

Context:
IIT Bombay hosted the Conference of BRICS Network Universities as part of 13th BRICS Summit.

Details:

• This conference is part of the engagements that India is hosting under the education stream during its Chairship of the 13th BRICS Summit this year.
• BRICS Network University is a union of higher education institutions of the five BRICS member countries, formed with the objective of enhancing educational cooperation in general, and especially in the realm of research and innovation .
• IIT Bombay is the lead institution of India for the BRICS Network University.

Adi Prashikshan Portal

Context:
Tribal Affairs Minister launched the Adi Prashikshan Portal.

About the Adi Prashikshan Portal:

• The portal would act as a Central Repository of all training programs conducted by Tribal Research Institutes (TRIs), different divisions of the Tribal Affairs Ministry, the National Society for Education of Tribal Students (NESTS), Centre of Excellences funded by the Ministry and the National Tribal Research Institute.
• It was developed by the Tribal Affairs Ministry, GOI.

Study on the cold desert of Ladakh

Context:
The study conducted by the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun found that the cold desert Ladakh was actively flooding during the post-glacial warming.

Details:

• The study has shown that the region once experienced large floods that rose much above the present-day river level.
• It implies that in the scenario of global warming, when the higher Himalaya regions are expected to respond dramatically, flood frequency in Ladakh may increase, which may call for serious urban and rural planning.
• Large floods that naturally occur in major rivers of India fed by melting snow and glaciers and a continental scale precipitation regime of Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) and Westerlies and East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM) significantly modify the landscape and impact lives and economy of all that encroached into its geomorphic domain.
• These floods are of various kinds and origin (Glacial/landslide lake outbursts, cloud bursts, excessively strong monsoon) and have different forcing factors and frequencies and therefore add large uncertainty in flood prediction models.
• The researchers travelled through the tough terrains of Zanskar and Indus drained Himalaya and looked minutely into geological signatures of past floods in the Ladakh region that date between 15-3 thousand years before present.
• Flood leaves a stack of fine sand and silts at places along its channel where the flood energy drastically reduces, for example, wider segments of river valleys, confluences, behind rock embayments which is called Slack Water Deposits (SWDs).
  • The SWDs were located at several locations along the Zanskar and Indus rivers, counted vertically for the number of floods, and were dated using technology called Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) and Accelerator Mass Spectrometry of 14C.
  • The flood deposits were also analysed for their source.
• This analysis showed that the cold desert once experienced a large flood that rose to more than 30 m above the present-day river level.
• The active flood plains nearer to river were also utilized by Humans, possibly as camping sites and cooking as indicated by presence of hearths at several locations and levels of flood deposits.
• A detailed genomic and isotopic-based study of these anthropogenic relics may further help understand the geographical antiquity of migrating humans and the kind of food and vegetation they were living on.