PIB Summary- 17th February, 2021 | PIB (Press Information Bureau) Summary - UPSC PDF Download

NASSCOM Technology and Leadership Forum (NTLF)

About the Forum

• Organised by NASSCOM, the forum is a platform where the technology industry is celebrated for serving as a as a backbone to boost businesses during the current crisis, draw a roadmap for the way ahead towards building a better future and bringing out the importance of trust and responsible tech in this hyper virtual world.
• This is the 29th NTLF event and in 2021, the theme is ‘Shaping the future towards a better normal’.

About NASSCOM

• NASSCOM is a non-profit industry association and is the apex body for the 180 billion dollar Indian IT BPM industry.
• It is the premier trade body and chamber of commerce of the tech industry in India and comprises over 2800 member companies including both Indian and multinational organisations that have a presence in India.
• NASSCOM focuses on accelerating the pace of transformation of the industry to emerge as the preferred enablers for global digital transformation.
• Established in 1988, NASSCOM’s stated mission is to help the technology products and services industry in India to be trustworthy and innovative across the globe.

India – Mauritius

Context: Cabinet approves Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement (CECPA) between India and Mauritius.

Details

• The Agreement is a limited agreement, which will cover Trade in Goods, Rules of Origin, Trade in Services, Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures, Dispute Settlement, Movement of Natural Persons, Telecom, Financial services, Customs Procedures and Cooperation in other Areas.

Significance

• The India-Mauritius CECPA will be the first trade agreement to be signed by India with a country in Africa.

Benefits of the Agreement

• CECPA provides for an institutional mechanism to encourage and improve trade between the two countries.
• It covers more than 310 export items for India.
• Mauritius will benefit from preferential market access into India for its 615 products.
• In services, Indian service providers will have access to around 115 sub-sectors from the 11 broad service sectors such as professional services, computer related services, research & development, other business services, telecommunication, construction, distribution, education, environmental, financial, tourism & travel related, recreational, yoga, audio-visual services, and transport services.

Background

• India and Mauritius enjoy excellent bilateral relations, sustained by historic cultural affinities, frequent high-level political interactions, development cooperation, defence and maritime partnership, and people to people linkages.
• Mauritius is an important development partner of India.
• India had extended a ‘Special Economic Package’ of USD 353 million to Mauritius in 2016.
• Under this package, among other projects, the New Supreme Court building project is being carried out for Mauritius.
• Since 2005, India has been among the largest trading partners of Mauritius, and has been one of the largest exporters of goods and services to Mauritius.

PLI Scheme for Telecom and Networking Products

Context: The Union Cabinet has approved the PLI Scheme for Telecom and Networking Products.

Details

• This scheme is part of the umbrella scheme approved by the cabinet in November 2020 for implementation of Production Linked-Incentives (PLI) under various ministries/departments.
• This is in continuation with the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ strategies for enhancing India’s manufacturing capabilities and exports.
• Support under the Scheme will be provided to companies/entities engaged in the manufacturing of specified telecom and networking products in India.
• Eligibility will be further subject to achievement of a minimum threshold of cumulative incremental investment over a period of four years and incremental sales of manufactured goods net of taxes (as distinct from traded goods) over the Base Year 2019-2020.
  • The cumulative investment can be made at one go, subject to annual cumulative threshold as prescribed for four years being met.
• There will be a minimum investment threshold of Rs.10 crore for MSME with incentives from 7% to 4 % and Rs. 100 crore for others with incentives from 6% to 4% over 5 year above Base Year.

Benefits

• With this scheme, India will be well positioned as a global hub for manufacturing of Telecom and Networking Products.
• Incremental production of around Rs. 2 Lakh crore is expected to be achieved over 5 years.
• India will improve its competitiveness in manufacturing with increased value addition.
• It is expected that the scheme will bring more than Rs. 3,000 crore investment and generate huge direct and indirect employments.
• By incentivizing large scale manufacturing in India, domestic value addition will increase gradually.
• Provision of higher incentive to MSME will encourage domestic telecom manufacturers to become part of the global supply chain.

CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute

Context: 70th annual day celebrations of CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute.

About CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute

• Located in Lucknow, CSIR – Central Drug Research Institute is one of the premier research institutes of India.
• Established in 1951, CDRI is a constituent institute of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
• It engages in fundamental chemical and biomedical research driving new drug discovery and development.
• It also works in the field of understanding disease biology.
• This drug research institute has transferred more than 130 indigenous technologies to the pharmaceutical companies, which has contributed to the growth and development of the Indian pharmaceutical sector.

Sub Mission on Plant Protection and Plant Quarantine (SMPPQ)

What is SMPPQ?

• Sub Mission on Plant Protection and Plant Quarantine (SMPPQ) is one of the schemes under the Green Revolution (Krishonnati Yojana) through which regulatory, monitoring, surveillance and capacity building functions are performed.
• The aim of the scheme is minimizing loss to quality and yield of agricultural crops from the ravages of insect pests, diseases, weeds, nematodes, rodents, etc. and to shield our bio-security from the incursion and spread of alien species.
• It involves integrated pest control management and locust control and research.