PIB Summary- 8th June, 2022 | PIB (Press Information Bureau) Summary - UPSC PDF Download

World Summit of Information Society 2022

Why in News?
The Minister of Communications recently attended the opening ceremony of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) 2022 in Geneva, Switzerland, where India demonstrated its telecom prowess in multilateral and bilateral engagements.

Details:

• India’s participation coincides with its re-election to the ITU (International Telecommunication Union) Council for the period 2023-2026.
• Since 1869, India has been a member of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and has been actively participating in the Union’s operations and activities.

International Telecommunication Union

• It is the specialised agency of the United Nations for information and communication technologies (ICTs).
• It is the oldest of the UN’s 15 specialised organisations.
• It allocates global radio spectrum and satellite orbits, develops technical standards that ensure networks and technologies seamlessly interconnect, and works to improve access to ICTs for underserved communities around the world.
• It was founded in 1865 to facilitate international connectivity in communications networks. It is a member of the United Nations Development Group and has 12 regional and area offices across the world. It is based in Geneva, Switzerland.
• Since its foundation, the ITU has been an intergovernmental public-private cooperation organisation.
• It has 193 members, including over 800 public and private sector organisations, academic institutes, and international and regional telecommunications corporations.

What is WSIS?

• The World Summit on the Information Society Forum 2022 is the world’s largest annual gathering of the “ICT for development” community, providing structured opportunities to network, learn, and participate in multi-stakeholder discussions and consultations on WSIS implementation.
• In addition, the WSIS Forum in 2022 will give an opportunity to track the progress of WSIS Action Lines in conjunction with UN Agencies, as well as provide information and analyses on WSIS Action Lines implementation since 2005.

Highlights of the Minister’s Address

• India has created the Low Mobility Large Coverage Standard, also known as 5Gi, which uses a novel waveform to allow 5G towers to cover larger areas in rural and isolated places.
• These were among the first 5G specifications to be accepted by the ITU, and they are now included in the globally standardised 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) Release 17 standards. These will be extremely beneficial to countries with comparable geographic distributions.
• Optical Fibre cable is connecting over 600 villages, with approximately 175,000 currently connected; communities without 4G access are covered by the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF).
•  India is focusing on technologies that can help expedite development and close the gap, such as E band wireless carriers, LEO (Low Earth Orbit) and MEO (Middle Earth Orbit) satellite communication, and so on.
• India has issued the country’s first service licence for LEO or MEO connectivity, with the goal of using the technology to provide digital inclusion to rural areas.
• Initiatives to minimise costs, promote faster 5G spread in rural regions, and eliminate dependent on certain vendors include developing a 5G test bed, indigenous 4G and 5G stack, development of Indian 5G standards, and the establishment of a 6G innovation forum.

What is the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF)?

• The Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) was established with the primary objective of providing access to ‘Basic’ telecom services to people in the remote and rural areas at reasonable and affordable prices.
• Universal Service stands for universal, interdependent and intercommunicating, affording the opportunity for any subscriber to any exchange to communicate with any other subscriber of any other exchange.
• It was created under the Department of Telecommunications in 2002.
• It is a non-lapsable fund, i.e., the unspent amount under a targeted financial year does not lapse and is accrued for next years’ spending.
• The USOF proposes to meet its social, economic, political and constitutional objectives which are as follows:
  (i) To extend the telecommunication network.
  (ii) To stimulate the uptake of Internet and Communication Technologies (ICT) services.
  (iii) To bring the underserved and unserved areas of the country into the telecom spectrum and narrow down the access gap.
  (iv) To use the pooled USO levy for an equitable distribution through target subsidies.
• Subsequently, the scope was widened to provide subsidy support for enabling access to all types of telegraph services including mobile services, broadband connectivity, and creation of infrastructure like Optical Fiber Cable (OFC) in rural and remote areas.
• With access to affordable telecom services in remote and rural areas, the USOF is the right step towards stemming urban migration. This would ensure to generate employment opportunities in the rural areas which would help generate more income.

Who are the partners of USOF?

• Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited
• Tata Tele Services Limited
• Reliance Communications Limited
• Vodafone
• Bharti Airtel Limited, etc.

National Air Sport Policy 2022

Why in News?
The Minister of Civil Aviation launched National Air Sport Policy 2022 (NASP 2022).

About NASP 2022:

• Air sports, as the names suggests, encompasses various sports activities involving the medium of air. 
• These include sports like air-racing, aerobatics, aero modeling, hang gliding, paragliding, para motoring and skydiving etc.
• India has the potential to be among the leading nations in the world of air sports. 
• It has a large geographical expanse, diverse topography, and fair-weather conditions. 
• It has a large population, especially the youth.  It has a growing culture for adventure sports and aviation.
• The NASP 2022, is a step in this direction. It has been drafted based on the inputs received from policy makers, air sports practitioners and public at large and will ensure establishment of good quality of infrastructure, equipment, instructors and services.

The policy will cover the following air sports in India:

• Aerobatics 
• Aero modeling and model rocketry
• Amateur-built and experimental aircraft
• Ballooning
• Drones
• Gliding and powered gliding
• Hang gliding and powered hang gliding
• Parachuting (including skydiving, BASE  jumping and wing suits etc.)
• Paragliding and para motoring (including powered parachute trikes etc.)
• Powered aircraft (including ultra light, micro light and light sports aircraft etc.)
• Rotorcraft (including autogyro)

Under the new policy, there will be four-tier governance structure for air sports in India namely

• Air Sports Federation of India (ASFI) as the apex governing body
• National associations for individual air sports or a set of air sports, as appropriate
• Regional (e.g. West/ South/ North East etc.) or State and Union Territory level units of the national air sports associations, as appropriate; and
• District-level air sports associations, as appropriate.

Key Objectives of NASP 2022

• Promote an air sports culture in the country
• Enable adoption of international good practices in safety including but not limited to, air sports infrastructure, equipment, operations, maintenance and training
• Develop a simple, stakeholder-friendly and effective governance structure
• Enhance participation and success of Indian sportspersons in global air sports events; and
• Promote design, development and manufacturing of air sports equipment in India in line with the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.

PM Gati Shakti

Why in News?
Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution and Textiles said that the world will emulate the example of PM Gati Shakti in the coming years.

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 GatiShakti 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 GatiShakti 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 GatiShakti 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.