PIB Summary- 24th September, 2021 | PIB (Press Information Bureau) Summary - UPSC PDF Download

National Service Scheme Awards

• The President presented the National Service Scheme Awards 2019-20 in a virtual ceremony.
• The President of India presented the National Service Scheme Awards at New Delhi on 24th September.

About the National Service Scheme

• The National Service Scheme (NSS) is a Central Sector Scheme of the Government of India, under the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports.
• It gives opportunities to school students of classes XI and XII, and university/college students to take part in various government led community service activities and programmes.
• The chief objective of the NSS is to offer students and young people a first-hand experience in delivering service to the community.
• It was started in the year 1969.
• Currently, there are 3.8 million student volunteers in this scheme.
• Motto of NSS: “Not Me But You”
• All volunteers wear the NSS badge which is a symbol of pride and honour for them. The badge signifies that they are ready for service round the clock.
• The benefits that students get from being a part of this scheme are:
  • They can get skills to become accomplished social leaders in the future
  • They get experience which will help them become efficient administrators
  • It will help them understand human nature better
  • It will also help them understand the rich cultural diversity of India
  • It will help them have national pride through a better knowledge of the country
• NSS organises camps, parades, youth festivals, etc. as part of its activities.

Scheme for “Promotion of Medical Device Parks”

About the scheme

• The Department of Pharmaceuticals has notified the Scheme for “Promotion of Medical Device Parks” with the following objectives:
  • Easy access to standard testing and infrastructure facilities through creation of world class common infrastructure facilities for increased competitiveness which will result into significant reduction of the cost of production of medical devices leading to better availability and affordability of medical devices in the domestic market.
  • Reaping the benefits arising due to optimization of resources and economies of scale.
• The Medical Devices Parks to be developed under the scheme will provide common infrastructure facilities at one place thereby creating a robust ecosystem for medical device manufacturing in the country and also reducing the manufacturing cost significantly.
• The total financial outlay of the scheme is Rs. 400 crore and the tenure of the scheme is from FY 2020-2021 to FY 2024-2025.
• Financial assistance under the scheme:
  • The financial assistance to a selected Medical Device Park would be 70% of the project cost of common infrastructure facilities.
  • In case of North Eastern States and Hilly States, financial assistance would be 90% of the project cost.
  • Maximum assistance under the scheme for one Medical Device Park would be limited to Rs. 100 crores.

Blue Planet Prize for Sikkim Power Station

Details

• The IHA Blue Planet Prize is awarded to hydropower projects that demonstrate excellence in sustainable development.
• The Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol (HSAP) is the leading international tool for measuring the sustainability of hydropower projects.
  • It offers a way to benchmark the performance of a hydropower project against a comprehensive range of environmental, social, technical and governance criteria. Assessments are based on objective evidence and the results are presented in a standardized report.
• The Teesta power station has been built, owned and being operated by NHPC (a government-owned hydropower company).
• The award had been conferred to Teesta-V Power Station based on its sustainability assessment undertaken by a team of accredited lead assessors of IHA in 2019 using the Operation Stage tool of the Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol (HSAP) of IHA

PLI Scheme for Auto Industry

Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for Auto Industry and Drone Industry

Context: Government has approved Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for Auto Industry and Drone Industry.

About the PLI Scheme for Auto and Drone Industry

• This is part of the overall announcement of PLI Schemes for 13 sectors made earlier during the Union Budget 2021-22, with an outlay of ₹ 1.97 lakh crore.
• The PLI scheme for auto and drone industry has been approved with an outlay of ₹ 26,058 crore.

PLI Scheme for Auto Industry

• The PLI scheme for the auto sector will incentivize high value Advanced Automotive Technology vehicles and products.
• It envisages overcoming the cost disabilities to the industry for the manufacture of Advanced Automotive Technology products in India.
• The incentive structure will encourage industry to make fresh investments for indigenous global supply chain of Advanced Automotive Technology products.
• It is expected to bring in fresh investments to the tune of ₹42,500 crore, and lead to an incremental production of over ₹2.3 lakh crore.
• It is also estimated that it will create employment opportunities of over 7.5 lakh jobs.
• India’s share in the global automotive trade will get a push with this scheme.
• The scheme is open to existing automotive companies as well as new investors who are currently not in automobile or auto component manufacturing business.
• Two components of the scheme:
  • Champion OEM Incentive Scheme: It is a ‘sales value linked’ scheme, applicable on Battery Electric Vehicles and Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles of all segments.
  • Component Champion Incentive Scheme: It is a ‘sales value linked’ scheme, applicable on Advanced Automotive Technology components of vehicles, Completely Knocked Down (CKD)/Semi Knocked Down (SKD) kits, Vehicle aggregates of 2-Wheelers, 3-Wheelers, passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles and tractors, etc.
• This scheme, along with the PLI scheme for Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) and the Faster Adaption of Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME) scheme will help India push towards the faster adoption of environmentally cleaner, sustainable, advanced and more efficient Electric Vehicles (EV) based system.

PLI Scheme for Drone Industry

• This scheme addresses the strategic, tactical and operational uses of drone technology.
• It is expected to help build capacity in this sector and make it the key driver of India’s growth strategy.
• It will lead to investments worth ₹ 5,000 Crore, increase in eligible sales of ₹ 1500 crore and create additional employment of about 10,000 jobs.
• The PLI scheme comes as a follow-through of the liberalised Drone Rules, 2021 released by the Central Government.
• The total outlay for the scheme is INR 120 crore spread over three financial years.
• The incentive for a manufacturer of drones and drone components shall be as high as 20% of the value addition made by the manufacturer.
• This PLI rate of 20% has been kept constant for the next three years only for the drone industry as an exceptional treatment.
• In other PLI schemes, the PLI rate reduces every year.
• The minimum value addition norm is at 40% of net sales instead of 50%, another exceptional treatment given to the drone industry.
• Eligibility norms
  • The eligibility norm for MSME and startups in terms of annual sales turnover is at a nominal level – INR 2 cr (for drones) and INR 50 lakhs (for drone components).
  • For non-MSME, it is at INR 4 crore (for drones) and INR 1 crore (for drone components).
• The incentive payable to a manufacturer of drones and drone components shall be simply one-fifth of the value addition.
• The scheme covers a wide variety of drone components.