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

Linking of OTPRMS certificates with DigiLocker

Context: Union Education Minister announces linking of OTPRMS certificates with DigiLocker with a complete waiver of registration fees.

Details

• The Ministry of Education has decided to link the Online Teacher Pupil Registration Management System (OTPRMS) Certificates with DigiLocker to ensure hassle-free access.
• The issued certificates will automatically be transferred to DigiLocker and the same may be traced at the website of the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE).
• The registration fee of Rs. 200/- payable for obtaining OTPRMS Certificates, issued by NCTE has been waived off.
• This will enable all stakeholders across India to be digitally empowered facilitating ease of doing busines.

About Digital Locker

• DigiLocker is a key initiative under Digital India, the Indian Government’s flagship program aimed at transforming India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.
• Digital Locker is a system to provide citizens with real-time access to dematerialised documents issued by various Government and Private Agencies.
• The Digital Locker shall provide citizens with a shareable private space on a public cloud and make all documents/certificates available on this cloud itself. 
• This digital space can be utilized for storing personal documents such as university certificates, PAN cards, voter IDs, the URIs of the e-documents issued by various departments.
• The objective of the service is to decrease the use of physical documents and also to offer authenticity to e-documents.
• It shall also provide secure access to documents issued by the government.
• It also aims to deflate the expenses on the administrative front of the various governmental departments.

Digital Locker is one of the major initiatives under the Digital India Campaign of the Government of India and was released by the Electronics and Information Technology Department of the Indian Government.

Objectives of Digital Locker

Given below are the key objectives with which the Digital Locker was introduced by the Government of India:

• To Enable digital empowerment among the citizens of the country
• To minimize the physical usage of documents and enable the feature of e-signing by making documents available electronically
• Digital Locker will increase the authenticity of documents by online upload and reduce the existence of fake documents
• Web portals and mobile applications shall be made available for easy access
• Reduce the administrative overhead of Government departments and agencies
• With the availability of documents online on the cloud, residents can easily access the documents anytime and anywhere
• Make sharing of documents easy
• Ensure privacy and authorized access to residents’ data

Digital Locker Ecosystem

The main components of the Digital Locker Ecosystem are:

• Citizens – An individual who uses the Digital Locker service based on the Aadhaar number.
• Issuers – Any public or private sector entity/organisation/department issuing digitally signed e-documents to individuals/entities and making them available within a repository for access through a digital locker of their choice. The issuer is also responsible to revoke/invalidate their own documents.
• Requestors – An entity/organisation/department requesting secure access with user consent to specific e-documents stored across the ecosystem to provide paperless service to end users.

Components of Digital Locker

• Dedicated 10 MB free personal storage space, linked to each resident’s Aadhaar, to securely store e-documents and to store URI links of e-documents for accessing them directly from the repositories
• This 10 MB space shall be extended to 1 GB in the coming years
• There are three main technology components of the Digital Locker:
  • Repository – It is a Collection of e-Documents that are uploaded by issuers in a standard format
  • Access Gateway – It provides a secure online mechanism for requesters to access e-documents from various repositories in real-time using e-Document URI (Uniform Resource Indicator)
  • DigiLocker Portal – It is a dedicated cloud-based personal storage space, linked to each resident’s Aadhaar for storing e-documents, or URIs of e-documents.
• An online portal has been launched by the Government where the residents can login in and register themselves.

New scheme announced for tourist vehicle operators

Context: The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has announced a new scheme, under which any tourist vehicle operator may apply for an “All India Tourist Authorization/Permit” through online mode.

Details of the scheme

• The permit will be issued, after relevant documents are submitted and fees deposited, within 30 days of submission of such applications.
• The new rules are known as ‘All India Tourist Vehicles Authorization and Permit Rules, 2021’ and they will be applicable from April 2021.
• Significance:
  • The new rules for permits are expected to go a long way in promoting tourism across the states in our country, while simultaneously, growing the revenue of state governments.
  • The scheme allows flexibility in the form of authorization/permit being granted, for a period of three months or its multiples thereof, not exceeding three years at a time.
  • This provision has been incorporated keeping in mind those areas of our country where there is a limited season of tourism and also for those operators who have limited financial capacity.
• The scheme will also consolidate a central database and fees of all such authorization/permits, which might give a sense of tourist movements, scope for improvement and promotion of tourism.

Prelims Facts

Geopolymers

• Geopolymers are inorganic polymers with 3D framework structures having superior mechanical and physical properties.
• This new generation of cementitious materials has potential applications in fire-resistant fibre composites, concretes for infrastructure applications, sealants and ceramics.
• They are environmentally friendly substitutes for Portland cement.
• Geopolymers in many applications not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions but also consume large volumes of industrial wastes such as fly ash, mine tailings and metallurgical slag.
• Commercially produced geopolymers may be used for fire- and heat-resistant coatings and adhesives, medicinal applications, high-temperature ceramics, new binders for fire-resistant fibre composites, toxic and radioactive waste encapsulation and new types of cement for concrete.

CSIR-AMPRI

• Advanced Materials and Processes Research Institute (AMPRI), Bhopal was instituted in May 1981 as “Regional Research Laboratory” (RRL).
• It is the premier research and development institute in India for advanced materials and processes and is a CSIR
• The current activities of AMPRI are broadly categorised under:
  • Lightweight Materials
  • Nanostructured Materials
  • Smart and Functional materials
  • Waste to Wealth
  • CSIR-800
• The overall objective of AMPRI is to achieve world-class status in the area of engineering materials, component and process development.