Current Affairs Dec 24

Merger of Five Film Media Units

Why in News?

• With more than 3000 films produced in a year, India is the largest film producer in the world with an industry led by the private sector.
• To fulfill the commitment to support the films sector, the Cabinet approved the merger of four government-run film and media units — the Films Division, the Directorate of Film Festivals, the National Film Archives of India and the autonomous body Children’s Film Society, with the National Film Development Corporation.

Benefits

• The merger of Film Media Units under one corporation will lead to convergence of activities and resources and better coordination, thereby ensuring synergy and efficiency in achieving the mandate of each media unit.
• This will lead to reduction in duplication of activities and direct savings to the exchequer.

About

• The Films Division, which was established in 1948 and is the oldest of the four units, was created primarily to produce documentaries and news magazines as publicity for government programmes and to keep a cinematic record of Indian history.
• The National Film Archives of India was established in 1964 with the primary objective of acquiring and preserving Indian cinematic heritage.
• The Directorate of Film Festivals was set up in 1973 to promote Indian films and cultural exchange.
• The merger also brings into the fold an autonomous organisation, the Children’s Film Society, which was founded in 1955 with the specific objective of providing children and young people value-based entertainment through the medium of films.

PIB

Scheduled Castes Post-matric Scholarship Plan

Why in News?

• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved changes to the post-matric scholarship scheme for students from the Scheduled Castes, including a new funding pattern of 60-40 for the Centre and States.
• The changes were aimed at enabling four crore students to access higher education over the next five years.
• Switching from the existing “committed liability” formula, the new funding pattern would increase the Centre’s involvement in the scheme.
• An investment of ₹59,048 crore, of which ₹35,534 crore would be the Centre’s share, was approved for the next five years.

The focus of the scheme would be on enrolling the poorest students, timely payments, comprehensive accountability, continuous monitoring and total transparency.

• An estimated 1.36 crore students who would otherwise drop out after Class 10 would be brought into the higher education system under the scheme in five years.
• States would be asked to carry out verification of the students’ eligibility and caste status and collect their Aadhaar and bank account details.
• Transfer of financial assistance to the students under the scheme shall be on DBT [direct benefit transfer] mode, and preferably using the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System. Starting from 2021-22, the Central share [60%] in the scheme would be released on DBT mode directly into the bank accounts of the students as per fixed time schedule, after ensuring that the State government concerned has released its share.
• Monitoring mechanism will be further strengthened through conduct of social audits, annual third party evaluation, and half-yearly self-audited reports from each institution.
• The Central assistance, which was around ₹1,100 crore annually during 2017-18 to 2019-20, would be increased more than five times to be around ₹6,000 core annually during 2020-21 to 2025-26.

PIB

Direct to Home (DTH) Services in India

Why in News?

• The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister, has approved the proposal for revision of the guidelines for obtaining license for providing Direct-To-Home (DTH) broadcasting service in India. The salient features of the decision are:

1. License for the DTH will be issued for a period of 20 years in place of present 10 years. Further the period of License may be renewed by 10 years at a time.
2. License fee has been revised from 10% of GR to 8% of Adjusted Gross Revenue, AGR. AGR will be calculated by deduction of GST from GR.
3. License Fee will be collected on quarterly basis in lieu of presently annual basis.
4. DTH operators shall be permitted to operate to a maximum of 5% of its total channel carrying capacity as permitted platform channels. A one-time non-refundable registration fee of Rs.10,000 per PS channel shall be charged from a DTH operator.
5. Sharing of Infrastructure between DTH operators. DTH operators, willing to share DTH platform and transport stream of TV channels, on voluntary basis, will be allowed. Distributors of TV channels will be permitted to share the common hardware for their Subscriber Management System (SMS) and Conditional Access System (CAS) applications.
6. The cap of 49% FDl in the existing DTH guidelines will be aligned with the extant Government (DPIIT’s) policy on FDl as amended from time to time.
7. The decision will come into effect as per revised DTH guidelines are issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

• • • Sharing of infrastructure by the DTH operators may bring in more efficient use of scarce satellite resources and reduce the costs borne by the consumers.
    • Adoption of the extant FDI policy will bring in more foreign investment into the country.
    • The DTH is operable on pan-India basis. DTH sector is a highly employment intensive sector.
    • The amended DTH guidelines, with longer license period and clarity on renewals, relaxed FDI limits, etc., will ensure fair degree of stability and new investments in the DTH sector along with employment opportunities.

PIB

Air Services Agreement between India and Philippines

Why in News?

• The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister has given its approval for signing the revised Air Services Agreement between India and Philippines.
• It will provide enabling environment for enhanced and seamless connectivity while providing commercial opportunities to the carriers of both sides ensuring greater safety and security.
• It has the potential to spur greater trade, investment, tourism and cultural exchanges between the two countries.

PIB

Medium Range Surface to Air Missile (MRSAM)

Why in News?

• India successfully test fired a medium range surface-to-air missile (MRSAM) from Odisha coast.
• The missile was fired from a ground mobile launcher at launch pad of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) and it hit the target with accuracy.
• An unmanned air vehicle (UAV), ‘Banshee’, was first flown into the air, which was hit by the MRSAM.
• The DRDO has jointly developed the missile in collaboration with Israel Aerospace Industries.
• The MRSAM has been manufactured by Bharat Dynamics Ltd.

TOI

CoWIN Grand Challenge

Why in News?

• The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) along with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has announced the launching of “CoWIN”, a grand challenge for strengthening the Covid Vaccine Intelligence Network (CoWIN) system.
• This will be a digitalised platform to be used to effectively roll out and scale up the mechanism for Covid Vaccine Distribution System, nationally.

Award

• The top five applicants will be provided the CoWIN Application Programming Interface (APIs) to prove the efficacy of their solutions for possible integration with the platform.
• Each shortlisted applicant at this stage stands a chance to win ₹2 lakh covering their logistical requirements.
• Top two contestants from the challenge will be rewarded with ₹40 lakh and ₹20 lakh respectively post successful migrations of the developed solutions on the cloud on which the CoWIN is hosted, apart from their integration with CoWIN.

Launch

• To be launched on the MeitY Startup Hub (MSH) portal, a collaborative platform developed under the aegis of MeitY towards building meaningful synergies in the Indian tech startup space, the challenge invites participation from talented and innovative startups and emerging technology specialists to augment and scale the CoWIN platform.
• MoHFW has identified seven focus areas of technology development to holistically address the likely limitations associated with complete and effective vaccine distribution system and its seamless administration across India.

BusinessLine

Urban Local Bodies reforms

Why in News?

• Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have taken the lead in undertaking the Urban Local Bodies (ULB) reforms.
• The two States have successfully completed the set of reforms in functioning of ULBs, as specified by the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance.
• To motivate the States to undertake reforms in various citizen centric sectors, the Ministry of Finance has linked a part of additional borrowing permission granted to the States to completion of reforms.

About Scheme

• In view of the resource requirement to meet the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government of India had on 17th May, 2020 enhanced the borrowing limit of the States by 2 percent of their Gross States Domestic Product (GSDP).
• Half of this special dispensation was linked to undertaking citizen centric reforms by the States.
• The States get permission to raise additional funds equivalent to 0.25 percent of GSDP on completion of reforms in each sector.
• The four citizen centric areas identified for reforms were

(a) Implementation of One Nation One Ration Card System,

(b) Ease of doing business reform,

(c) Urban Local body/ utility reforms and

(d) Power Sector reforms.

• Reforms in the urban local bodies and the urban utilities reforms are aimed at financial strenghtening of ULBs in the State and to enable them to provide better public health and sanitation services.
• Economically rejuvenated ULBs will also be able to create good civic infrastructure.

The reforms stipulated to achieve these objectives are:

1. The State will notify (a) floor rates of property tax in ULBs which are in consonance with the prevailing circle rates (i.e. guideline rates for property transactions) and (b) floor rates of user charges in respect of the provision of water-supply, drainage and sewerage which reflect current costs/ past inflation.
2. The State will put in place a system of periodic increase in floor rates of property tax/ user charges in line with price increases.

• Besides additional borrowing permissions, the States completing three out of the four reforms are entitled to get additional financial assistance under the “Scheme for Financial Assistance to States for Capital Expenditure”.
• The Scheme was announced by the Finance Minister on 12th October, 2020 as part of Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Package.
• It is aimed at boosting capital expenditure by the State Governments who are facing difficult financial environment this year due to the shortfall in tax revenue arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the scheme, an amount of Rs.2,000 crore is earmarked to reward the States who undertake the prescribed citizen centric reforms.

PIB

 CII-ITC Sustainability Awards 2020

Why in News?

• Country’s largest power producer, NTPC ltd has been conferred “Excellence” in the prestigious CII-ITC Sustainability Awards 2020 in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Domain. NTPC has been honoured in the Corporate Excellence Category, Commendation for Significant Achievement.
• This is the highest award conferred by CII-ITC in CSR domain.
• NTPC is the only PSU to receive the award in the Corporate Excellence category.
• NTPC wins the prestigious CII-ITC Sustainability Awards in Corporate Excellence category second time in a row i.e. in the year 2019 and 2020.

PIB

Haryana Enterprises and Employment Policy 2020

Why in News?

• The Haryana Cabinet approved the Haryana Enterprises and Employment Policy 2020.

Purpose

• To establish the State as a competitive investment destination, achieve regional development and provide livelihood opportunities to its people through economic development.

Objective

• To attract investment over ₹1 lakh crore and generate 5 lakh jobs in the State.

Focus

• Building a resilient economy on the back of robust industrial growth.
• The Policy envisages leveraging opportunities arising out of changes in global economic order and align industrial growth in the State with national initiatives such as ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ mission.
• The Policy takes cognisance of emerging trends in supply chain, electric mobility, agri-tech, green manufacturing and climate change and healthcare and pharma and other new avenues for growth.

Other Approvals by Haryana Cabinet

• Approved the implementation of Delhi-Panipat Corridor of Regional Rapid Transport System (RRTS).
• The cabinet also decided to levy ‘Panchayat Tax’ on the consumption of electricity at the rate of 2% of the electricity bill for electricity consumed by any consumer apart from the government of India; or for construction, maintenance or operation of any railway by government of India; or by agriculture consumers, within the limits of gram panchayats in the State.

THE HINDU

GST Registration

Why in News?

• The government has introduced mandatory physical verification of business premises for the purposes of obtaining GST registration.
• The move, aimed at controlling the menace of GST fake invoice frauds, was recommended by the Council’s law committee.
• The GST Council’s law committee had mooted controlling new registrations taken by applicants without business purpose and the measures notified to tighten the process will impact the menace of mushrooming fake firms and input tax credit (ITC) fraud by fly-by-night operators.
• A new rule has been introduced by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs that mandates businesses with monthly turnover of over ₹50 lakh to pay at least 1% of their GST liability in cash instead of using input tax credits to discharge their entire liability.
• The validity of e-way bills has also been tweaked, doubling the distance to be covered for each day of validity, effective January 1.
• Till now, an e-way bill for transporting goods under GST allowed transporters to cover 100 km in one day. Now, that distance for each day of validity has been increased to 200 km.

THE HINDU

Ice Age Wolf Pup Mummy Discovered In Canadian Permafrost

Why in News

• An ancient wolf pup, perfectly preserved in permafrost, has been discovered in Yukon.
• The creature dates from the Ice Age and its remains were discovered by a gold miner in 2016 near to Dawson City in Yukon.
• It has been given the name Zhùr which means wolf in the local indigenous Han language.
• It appears that the animal, confirmed as female, died suddenly when the den she was in collapsed.
• They also constitute the oldest ever recorded wolf and may help to shed light on the evolution of the animal.
• In order for the animal to be mummified it would have needed to have been buried very quickly. The animal has to die in a permafrost location, where the ground is frozen all the time, and they have to get buried very quickly, like any other fossilisation process.
• One thing that surprised that she was eating aquatic resources, particularly salmon.
• Genome revealed that she descended from ancient wolves from Russia, Siberia, and Alaska.

Independent

Bee Brains

• If the queen bee in a colony dies and the workers fail to rear a replacement queen, some worker bees activate their ovaries and begin to lay eggs.
• This is an example of ‘behavioral plasticity,’ the ability to change behavior in response to the environment.
• The team studied the activity of genes in the brain to understand what regulates these behavioral differences and identified 15 transcription factors.
• This can help understand how social behaviour evolved in different species.

THE HINDU

Co2 to Jet Fuel

Why in News?

• Today, airplanes pump a lot of climate-warming carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
• But someday, carbon dioxide sucked from the atmosphere could be used to power airplanes.
• A new iron-based catalyst converts carbon dioxide into jet fuel.
• The chemical reaction takes CO2 out of the air, and converts it into jet fuel, which is then emitted by the plane in flight.

About

• The Fe-Mn-K (Iron- Manganese- Potassium) catalyst by a method called Organic Combustion was able to convert carbon dioxide to hydrocarbons used in aviation jet fuel.
• The conversion reaction also produced other raw materials used in the petrochemical industry such as light olefins ethylene, propylene, and butenes.
• As there is no need to extract oil from the ground, the process is carbon neutral.
• The issue for aviation is that its fuel breaks down and spews out CO2 and water, and both of these products are emitted into the atmosphere.
• However, the new technique would capture the gas already in the atmosphere and create fuel, negating the need to fill up with new fuel extracted from the ground.
• CO2 is highly stable, but the researchers managed to convert it back into fuel by using a chemical reaction powered by an iron-based catalyst – at low temperatures – and adding hydrogen.

DAILY MAIL

New Type of Atomic Clock

Why in News?

• If left to run for some 14 billion years — roughly the current age of the universe — a new type of atomic clock could keep accurate time to within a tenth of a second.
• The design by US experts makes use of a bizarre phenomenon called quantum entanglements, in which particles become inextricably linked.
• This entanglement helps reduce the uncertainty involved in measuring the oscillation of atoms used by atomic clocks to keep time.
• The clock could be used to help reveal the elusive ‘dark matter’ thought to make up more than three-quarters of the universe — and to study gravity’s effect on time.
• Atomic clocks use lasers to measure the regular oscillations of clouds of atoms — the most stable periodic events that scientists can presently observe.

How It Works

• Atomic clocks work by measuring the periodic oscillation of atoms with lasers.
• However, they are subject to quantum uncertainties that limit their precision.
• The new design reduces this uncertainty by ‘entangling’ the measured atoms.
• This causes their individual oscillations to tighten around a common frequency.

DAILY MAIL

“Shaheen-IX” or Eagle-IX Exercise

Why in News?

• China recently asked India to “objectively” view the on-going month-long military exercises taking place between the Chinese and Pakistani air forces, amid increasing tensions with India.
• “Shaheen-IX” or Eagle-IX exercise, the ninth held between the Pakistan Air Force and the People’s Liberation Army Air Force since 2011.
• As all-weather strategic cooperative partners, China and Pakistan have friendly exchange and cooperation in political, economic, military, security and a broad range of areas.
• China and Pakistan on December 1 signed a new military memorandum of understanding to boost their already close defence relationship.

THE HINDU

Plant-based Mock Egg

Why in News?

• The innovation of plant-based mock egg by Prof Kavya Dashora, Centre for Rural Development and Technology, IIT Delhi has secured first prize at Innovate4SDG contest by ‘UNDP (United Nation Development Program) Accelerator Lab India’.
• The award includes a sum of $5000.
• According to the UNDP, the mock egg innovation will help in accelerating progress towards the SDGs.
• The development of the mock egg meets the protein needs of the diet-specific, health conscious, vegan and vegetarian people.
• This innovation addresses SDG 2 and 3 (zero hunger and good health and well-being).
• The mock egg has been developed from very simple farm-based crop proteins, which not only looks and tastes like egg but also very close in nutritional profile to a poultry egg.
• Apart from the egg, the IIT Delhi scientist has also developed the meat analogues for chicken and fish from plant sources using fruits and vegetables.
• The products were tested on various parameters including appearance, taste, bite-size, texture, aroma, flavor, shelf life, nutritional profile and customer preference.

IE

Kilauea Volcano

Why in News?

• Kilauea volcano in Hawaii’s Big Island erupted recently which was followed by an earthquake of magnitude 4.4.
• The crater is located within Hawaii’s Volcanoes National Park and was home to a longstanding lava lake that was present for years before a 2018 eruption caused it to drain.

About

• Kilauea, also called Mount Kilauea, the world’s most active volcanic mass, located on the southeastern part of the island of Hawaii, Hawaii state, U.S.
• The central feature of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Kilauea (“Much Spreading” in Hawaiian), is an elongated dome built of lava eruptions from a central crater and from lines of craters extending along east and southwest rifts, or fissures.
• The volcano’s 4,090-foot (1,250-metre) summit has collapsed to form a caldera, a broad shallow depression. Kilauea’s slopes merge with those of the nearby volcano Mauna Loa on the west and north.

IE