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CURRENT AFFAIRS / CURRENT EVENTS

Insights Daily Current Affairs, 13 September 2017

BY INSIGHTSIAS SEPTEMBER 13, 2017

Insights Daily Current Affairs, 13 September 2017

Paper 1:

Topic: Role of women and womens organization, population and associated issues, poverty and
developmental issues, urbanization, their problems and their remedies.

Bengaluru Named Among Worlds Top 25 High-Tech Cities

Bengaluru has emerged among the top 25 high-tech cities of the world, according to research firm
2thinknow that specializes in analyzing innovative cities. Bengaluru stands at number 19,
climbing rapidly from the 49th spot it was at last year.

Background:
Research firm 2thinknow ranked 85 cities keeping 10 factors in mind: number of patents filed per
capita, startups, tech venture capitalists, ranking in other innovation datasets, and level of
smartphone use.

Performance of cities:
Bengalurus rise in ranks has been due to the influx of IT companies and the citys growing
population of digital natives.
San Francisco, the Silicon Valley, is at No. 1 spot. New York comes behind the Silicon
Valley.
Beijing and Shanghai rank higher than Bengaluru this year, occupying 16th and 17th spots,
respectively.
London, a city with more startups and programmers than any city in the world, is listed at No.
3. Los Angeles is at No. 4. Ranked number 5 is the city of future, Seoul.
 Taipei in Taiwan, Boston in Massachusetts, Singapore, Toronto and Chicago make the top 10.

Sources: et.

Paper 2:

Topic: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising
out of their design and implementation.

Cabinet approves introduction of the Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill, 2017 in the
Parliament

The Union Cabinet has given its approval for introduction of the Payment of Gratuity
(Amendment) Bill, 2017 in the Parliament.

Key facts:
 The move aims at providing social security to workmen after retirement, whether it is because
of rules of superannuation, or physical disablement or impairment of vital parts of the body.
The Amendment will increase the maximum limit of gratuity of employees, in the private
sector and in Public Sector Undertakings/ Autonomous Organizations under Government who
are not covered under CCS (Pension) Rules, at par with Central Government employees.

Background:
The present upper ceiling on gratuity amount under the Act is Rs. 10 Lakh. The provisions for
Central Government employees under Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1972 with regard to
gratuity are also similar. Before implementation of 7th Central Pay Commission, the ceiling under
CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972 was Rs. 10 Lakh. However, with implementation of 7th Central Pay
Commission, in case of Government servants, the ceiling now is Rs. 20 Lakhs effective from
1.1.2016.
Therefore, considering the inflation and wage increase even in case of employees engaged in
private sector, the Government is of the view that the entitlement of gratuity should be revised for
employees who are covered under the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972. Accordingly, the
Government initiated the process for amendment to Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972.

The Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972:

The Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 applies to establishments employing 10 or more persons.
The main purpose for enacting this Act is to provide social security to workmen after
retirement, whether retirement is a result of the rules of superannuation, or physical disablement or
impairment of vital part of the body. Therefore, the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 is an important
social security legislation to wage earning population in industries, factories and establishments.

Sources: pib.

Topic: India and its neighbourhood- relations.

Chennai-Vladivostok sea route to make it near East

Aiming to put in place a key maritime route connecting India with Northeast Asia and Western
Pacific region Delhi is contemplating to put in place a major connectivity initiative direct
shipping link between Chennai and Vladivostok amid Chinas ambitious Maritime Silk Route
(MSR) connecting Asia with Africa.

Key facts:
This proposed maritime route which could be transformed into a corridor could juxtapose with
Indo-Japan Pacific to Indian Ocean Corridor amid Beijings OBOR of which MSR is a part
virtually connecting entire SE Asia through road, shipping and rail links.
This shipping link would enable to transfer cargo between Chennai and Vladivostok in 24 days
in comparison to over 40 days currently taken to transport goods from India to Far East Russia
via Europe, according to experts on the subject.

Background:
India was the first country to establish a resident Consulate in Vladivostok in 1992. Current
engagement of India with the region is limited to isolated pockets such as the Irkut Corporation in
Irkutsk where the Mig and Sukhoi aircraft are built and over USD 6 billion worth of investments by
ONGC Videsh Limited in the Sakhalin 1 project.
The region has a wealth of natural resources such as land, timber, mineral and other resources
like tin, gold, diamonds and oil and natural gas. The Russian government has announced
several initiatives to attract investments in the region, including an agricultural SEZ, the
Vladivostok Free Port Project and also invites participation in the timber industry , mining of
the huge mineral resources (coal & diamonds) and precious metal deposits (gold, platinum, tin
and tungsten).
 Opportunities for collaboration for Indian companies include in such sectors as agriculture,
mining, port development and infrastructure, diamond processing, agro-processing.

Sources: et.

Paper 3:

Topic: Food processing and related industries in India- scope and significance, location, upstream
and downstream requirements, supply chain management.

Dairy Processing & Infrastructure Development Fund

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved a Dairy Processing & Infrastructure
Development Fund (DIDF) with an outlay of Rs 10,881 crore during the period from 2017-18 to
2028-29.

The major activities of DIDF:

The project will focus on building an efficient milk procurement system by setting up of chilling
infrastructure & installation of electronic milk adulteration testing equipment,
creation/modernization/expansion of processing infrastructure and manufacturing faculties for
Value Added Products for the Milk Unions/ Milk Producer Companies.

Management of DIDF:
The project will be implemented by National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) and National
Dairy Development Cooperation (NCDC) directly through the End Borrowers such as Milk
Unions, State Dairy Federations, Multi-state Milk Cooperatives, Milk Producer Companies and
NDDB subsidiaries meeting the eligibility criteria under the project.
An Implementation and Monitoring Cell (IMC) located at NDDB, Anand, will manage the
implementation and monitoring of day-to-day project activities.
 The end borrowers will get the loan @ 6.5% per annum. The period of repayment will be 10
years with initial two years moratorium.
The respective State Government will be the guarantor of loan repayment. Also for the project
sanctioned if the end user is not able to contribute its share; State Government will contribute
the same.

Benefits from DIDF:

With this investment, 95,00,000 farmers in about 50,000 villages would be benefitted. Additional
Milk processing capacity of 126 lakh litre per day, milk drying capacity of 210 MT per day, milk
chilling capacity of 140 lakh litre per day, installation of 28000 Bulk Milk Coolers (BMCs) along
with electronic milk adulteration testing equipment and value added products manufacturing
capacity of 59.78 lakh litre per day of milk equivalent shall be created.

Employment Generation Potential:

The implementation of DIDF scheme will generate direct and indirect employment opportunities
for skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled manpower.
Direct employment opportunities for about 40,000 people will be created under the scheme
through project activities like expansion & modernisation of existing milk processing facilities,
setting up of new processing plants, establishment of manufacturing facilities for value added
products and setting up of Bulk Milk Coolers (BMCs) at village level.
About 2 lakh indirect employment opportunities will be created on account of expansion of
milk and milk product marketing operations from existing Tier I, II & III to Tier IV, V & VI
cities/towns etc. This will lead to deployment of more marketing staff by Milk Cooperatives,
appointment of distributors and opening of additional milk booths/retail outlets in urban/rural
locations.
With the increase in milk procurement operations of the Milk Cooperatives, there would be
generation of additional manpower employment for supervision of increased milk
procurement operations, transportation of milk from villages to processing units, and
increased input delivery services like Artificial Insemination (AI) services, Veterinary
Services, etc.

Sources: pib.
Topic: Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.

Cabinet approves survey of Un-appraised Areas of Sedimentary Basins of India

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has given its approval for a significant project to
acquire 48,243 Line Kilometer (LKM) 2D seismic data for appraisal of Indian sedimentary basins
where limited data is available. The project will help in increasing the investments in domestic
production of oil and gas.

Key facts:
The project will be implemented by NOCs, i.e. Oil India Limited (OIL) and Oil and Natural
Gas Corporation (ONGC). OIL will conduct survey in North Eastern States while remaining
area will be covered by ONGC. Survey work will be carried out in 24 States.
Total estimated cost of the entire project is Rs. 2932.99 crore spread over five years. Initially
National Oil Companies (NOCs) are meeting the fund requirement from their own sources,
which will be reimbursed by the Government.
Entire project is likely to be completed by 2019-20. Directorate General of Hydrocarbons is
monitoring the project and reviewing the progress on monthly basis.
Project involves engagement of large number of workers at local level where work is to be
executed. This is likely to generate direct as well as indirect employment for about 11,000
people in the form of skilled and unskilled workers and suppliers for support services.

Background:
India has 26 sedimentary basins covering an area of 3.14 Million Sq Km spread over onland,
shallow water and deep water. An area of about 1.502 Million Sq. Km i.e. 48% of total sedimentary
basin area does not have adequate geo-scientific data. As a base to launch future Exploration and
Production (E&P) activities, appraisal of all unappraised areas has been considered an important
task. The preparatory work started in 2015-16 and actual survey work started in 2016-17 and more
than 9100 LKM 2D seismic data has been acquired till July, 2017.
Data acquisition is important as it helps in giving the initial insight into the basins and helps in
planning the future E&P activities. It will be useful in deciding the focus areas of the exploration
activities in the country and on the basis of this primary data, E&P companies would take up
further exploration activities in the acreages allocated to them.
Sources: pib.

Topic: Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.

Hiving off mobile tower assets of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited into a separate company, fully
owned by BSNL

The Union Cabinet has given its approval for hiving off mobile tower assets of Bharat Sanchar
Nigam Limited (BSNL) into a separate company, fully owned by BSNL.

Key facts:
This approval authorizes BSNL to monetize its telecom tower infrastructure with the formation
of a separate subsidiary company.
 An independent, dedicated tower company of BSNL with a focused approach will lead to
increasing of external tenancies and consequentially higher revenue for the new company.
There are around 4,42,000 mobile towers in the country out of which more than 66,000 mobile
tower are of BSNL.

Different business models in the telecom industry:

Besides the captive model in BSNL and MTNL where the service provider owns their passive
infrastructure also, there are three different business models within the telecom tower industry:-
companies created by hiving off the tower assets portfolios of service providers into subsidiaries,
companies established as independent joint venture entities by service providers jointly and
companies promoted by specific service providers but established as independent entities with the
promoter being the anchor tenant for the tower company.

Background:
The telecom tower industry has emerged as an independent business to harness the potential for
sharing of infrastructure. The business model arose from the need to achieve economies of scale
and to reduce capital investment costs for providing mobile services. The Department of
Telecommunications (DoT) policy allows sharing of passive infrastructure i.e. the tower structure,
Diesel Generator sets, battery units, power interface unit, air-conditioning etc., which has facilitated
the growth of the telecom infrastructure industry.
A tower infrastructure company essentially owns the passive infrastructure asset and leases it to
telecom service providers enabling them to minimize duplication of investments and economize on
costs of Operation and Maintenance (O&M), thereby improving profitability.

Sources: pib.

Topic: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.

Wood is Good Campaign

The government has launched Wood is Good Campaign under the Partnership for Land Use
Science (Forest-Plus), a partnership between USAID and Indias environment ministry.
The idea is to promote wood as a climate-friendly resource and a substitute to materials
like plastic and steel because it is carbon neutral unlike the others while leave a carbon
footprint in their production.

Forest plus:
The Partnership for Land Use Science (Forest-Plus) is a joint programme by the United States
Agency for International Development (USAID) and Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate
Change (MoEF&CC) to strengthen capacity for REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation
and Forest Degradation) implementation in India. The programme brings together experts from
India and the United States to develop technologies, tools and methods of forest management to
meet the technical challenges of managing forests for the health of ecosystem, carbon stocks,
biodiversity and livelihood.

Sources: pib.

Topic: Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology, bio-technology
and issues relating to intellectual property rights.

NASAs Cassini completes last flyby of Saturns moon Titan

NASAs Cassini has completed a final, distant flyby of Saturnss giant moon Titan. This distant
encounter is referred to informally as the goodbye kiss by mission engineers, because it provides
a gravitational nudge that sends the spacecraft toward its dramatic ending in Saturns upper
atmosphere.
With this, the spacecrafts mission is all set to when it enters the planets atmosphere and
disintegrates. In its final hours, Cassini will relay as much data as it can back to Earth before it
dies. NASA hopes the data collected from the final descent will allow scientists to understand
more about the planets atmosphere and interior.
Background:
Launched in 1997, the Cassini mission a cooperation between NASA, the European Space
Agency and the Italian Space Agency has sent back thousands of stunning images and made
numerous discoveries about the ringed planet and its moons.

About Cassini Mission:

CassiniHuygens is an unmanned spacecraft sent to the planet Saturn. Cassini is the fourth space
probe to visit Saturn and the first to enter orbit. Its design includes a Saturn orbiter and a lander for
the moon Titan. The lander, called Huygens, landed on Titan in 2005. The spacecraft was launched
on October 15, 1997. This was the first landing ever accomplished in the outer Solar System.

Objectives:
Determine the three-dimensional structure and dynamic behavior of the rings of Saturn.
Determine the composition of the satellite surfaces and the geological history of each object.
Determine the nature and origin of the dark material on Iapetuss leading hemisphere.
Measure the three-dimensional structure and dynamic behavior of the magnetosphere.
Study the dynamic behavior of Saturns atmosphere at cloud level.
Study the time variability of Titans clouds and hazes.
Characterize Titans surface on a regional scale.

What has it discovered?

The probe has been crucial to findings that Saturns moons are among the most hospitable places in
the Solar System for potentially supporting life. Recently, Nasa also announced that Cassini had
detected chemical reactions happening below the icy surface of Enceladus, suggesting life is
possible there. The mission also found that the moon Titan contains many earth-like features such
as wind, rain and seas.

Sources: et.
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