PIB Summary- 16th February, 2022 | PIB (Press Information Bureau) Summary - UPSC PDF Download

Guru Ravidas

Why in News?

The President of India has greeted fellow citizens on the birthday of Guru Ravidas.

About Guru Ravidas:

• Guru Ravidas was a 14th century saint and reformer of the Bhakti movement in North India.
• He gained prominence due to his belief in one God and his unbiased religious poems.
• He was born in Varanasi in a cobbler’s family.
• His devotional songs were included in ‘Guru Granth Sahib’, the religious text of the Sikhs.
• He was against caste system and openly despised the notion of a Brahminical society.

Bhakti Movement

• Bhakti movement took place in Tamil Nadu between the seventh and ninth centuries.
• Bhakti saints looked upon religion as love between the worshipped and worshipper.
• Bhakti was reflected in the emotional poems of the Nayanars (devotees of Shiva) and Alvars (devotees of Vishnu).
• A more effective method for spreading the Bhakti ideology was the use of local languages. The Bhakti saints composed their verses in local languages.
• They also translated Sanskrit works to make them understandable to a wider audience.
• Examples include Kabir, Surdas , Tulsidas, Shankaradeva, Chaitanya Mirabai.

G20

Why in News?

The Union Cabinet, chaired by approved the setting up of a G20 Secretariat and its reporting structures, which will be responsible for implementation of overall policy decisions and arrangements needed for steering India’s forthcoming G20 Presidency.

About G20

• The G20 is an informal group of 19 countries and the European Union, with representatives of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
• The G20 membership comprises a mix of the world’s largest advanced and emerging economies, representing about two-thirds of the world’s population, 85% of global gross domestic product, 80% of global investment, over 75% of global trade and roughly half the world’s land area.
• The members of the G20 are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union.
• Spain as a permanent, non-member invitee, also attends leader summits.
• India will hold the Presidency of the G20 from 1 December 2022 to 30 November 2023, culminating with the G20 Summit in India in 2023.

Structure and functioning of G20

• The G20 Presidency rotates annually according to a system that ensures a regional balance over time.
• For the selection of presidency, the 19 countries are divided into 5 groups, each having no more than 4 countries. The presidency rotates between each group.
• Every year the G20 selects a country from another group to be president.
• India is in Group 2 which also has Russia, South Africa and Turkey.
• The G20 does not have a permanent secretariat or Headquarters.
• The work of G20 is divided into two tracks:
  (i) The Finance track comprises all meetings with G20 finance ministers and central bank governors and their deputies. Meeting several times throughout the year they focus on monetary and fiscal issues, financial regulations, etc.
  (ii) The Sherpa track focuses on broader issues such as political engagement, anti-corruption, development, energy, etc.
• Since 2008, the group convenes at least once a year, with the summits involving each member’s head of government.

PM Gati Shakti

Why in News?

As part of the PM Gati Shakti NMP, the Ministry plans to develop 22 Greenfield Expressways, 23 other key infrastructure projects & other highway projects and 35 Multi-Modal Logistics Parks (MMLPs), as part of the Bharatmala Pariyojana and other schemes of the Ministry.

About PM Gati Shakti:

• It will incorporate the infrastructure schemes of various Ministries and State Governments like Bharatmala, Sagarmala, inland waterways, dry/land ports, UDAN etc.
• Economic Zones like textile clusters, pharmaceutical clusters, defence corridors, electronic parks, industrial corridors, fishing clusters, agri zones will be covered to improve connectivity & make Indian businesses more competitive.
• It will also leverage technology extensively including spatial planning tools with ISRO imagery developed by BiSAG-N (Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geoinformatics).
• The multi-modal connectivity will provide integrated and seamless connectivity for movement of people, goods and services from one mode of transport to another.
• It will facilitate the last mile connectivity of infrastructure and also reduce travel time for people.
• PM Gati Shakti will provide the public and business community information regarding the upcoming connectivity projects, other business hubs, industrial areas and surrounding environment.
• This will enable the investors to plan their businesses at suitable locations leading to enhanced synergies.
• It will create multiple employment opportunities and give a boost to the economy.
• It will improve the global competitiveness of local products by cutting down the logistics costs and improving the supply chains, and also ensure proper linkages for local industry & consumers.

PM Gati Shakti is based on six pillars:

• Comprehensiveness: It will include all the existing and planned initiatives of various Ministries and Departments with one centralized portal. Each and every Department will now have visibility of each other’s activities providing critical data while planning & execution of projects in a comprehensive manner.
• Prioritization: Through this, different Departments will be able to prioritize their projects through cross–sectoral interactions.
• Optimization: The National Master Plan will assist different ministries in planning for projects after identification of critical gaps. For the transportation of the goods from one place to another, the plan will help in selecting the most optimum route in terms of time and cost.
• Synchronization: Individual Ministries and Departments often work in silos. There is lack of coordination in planning and implementation of the project resulting in delays. PM Gati Shakti will help in synchronizing the activities of each department, as well as of different layers of governance, in a holistic manner by ensuring coordination of work between them.
• Analytical: The plan will provide the entire data at one place with GIS based spatial planning and analytical tools having 200+ layers, enabling better visibility to the executing agency.
• Dynamic: All Ministries and Departments will now be able to visualize, review and monitor the progress of cross-sectoral projects, through the GIS platform, as the satellite imagery will give on-ground progress periodically and progress of the projects will be updated on a regular basis on the portal. It will help in identifying the vital interventions for enhancing and updating the master plan.