GS Analyst: Daily Current Affairs

December 27 marked the 110^th anniversary of the first time Jana Gana Mana, India’s national anthem was sung publicly at the Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress in 1911.

Important facts about Jana Gana Mana

• India's National Anthem, 'Jana Gana Mana', is an adoption from the writings of the poet and playwright, Rabindranath Tagore.
• The lines of India's National Anthem are taken from Rabindranath Tagore's song, 'Bharoto Bhagyo Bidhata'. The first stanza of it, Jana Gana Mana, is now our national anthem.
• The original was written in Bengali and the full song has 5 stanzas. The text was first published in 1905, in an issue of Tatwabodhini Patrika.
• In 1911, the session held by Indian National Congress, in Calcutta, on 27th December, became the first location where the song was sung publicly – and Tagore sang it himself. 
• On 24 January 1950 (before India's first Republic Day on 26th), the first stanza of Tagore's "Bharoto Bhagyo Bidhata" was officially declared as the National Anthem of India by the Constituent Assembly of India. 

Some Important Congress Sessions

• Calcutta Session, 1911: Presided by B.N. Dhar, the session is known for first recital of Jana-Gana-Mana in a congress session
• Nagpur Session, 1920: Presided by C.Vijayraghavachair, a new constitution of Congress was framed in this session. Congress working committees were allowed to be reconstituted on Linguistic basis
• Belgaum Session, 1924: It is the only session presided over by Mahatma Gandhi.
• Karachi Session (March, 1931): Presided by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the session endorsed the Gandhi Irwin Pact and passed a resolution on Fundamental Rights and a National Economic Programme.

Recently, Technology Development Board (TDB) approved financial support to Hyderabad based Manjeera Digital Systems Private Limited (MDS).

Technology Development Board

• The Government of India constituted the Technology Development Board (TDB) in September 1996, under the Technology Development Board Act, 1995, as a statutory body, to promote development and commercialization of indigenous technology and adaptation of imported technology for wider application. The board consists of 11 Board members.
• The TDB is the first organization of its kind within the government framework with the sole objective of commercializing the fruit of indigenous research.
• The Board plays a pro-active role by encouraging enterprises to take up technology oriented products.
• It provides equity capital or loans to industrial concerns and financial assistance to research and development institutions. The loan carries a simple interest rate of 5% per annum.
• Its other functions are:
  • Facilitates interaction between industry, scientists, technocrats and specialists
  • Fosters and innovation culture through the contract and cooperative research between industry and institutions
  • Provides an interface with financial institutions and commercial banks for leveraging funds.

As per Directorate General of Trade Remedies’ (DGTR) recommendations, India has recently imposed Anti-Dumping Duties on five Chinese products, including certain aluminium goods and some chemicals, for five years.

• The DGTR has concluded that these products have been exported at a price below normal value in Indian markets, which has resulted in dumping, causing injury to domestic markets.

About Directorate General of Trade Remedies’ (DGTR)

• The Directorate General of Trade Remedies (earlier known as Directorate General of Anti-dumping and Allied Duties) was named in May 2018 as an integrated single window agency for providing comprehensive and swift trade defence mechanism in India.
• Earlier, the Directorate General of Anti-dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD) dealt with anti-dumping and CVD cases, Directorate General of Safeguards (DGS) dealt with safeguard measures and DGFT dealt with quantitative restriction (QR) safeguards.
• The DGTR brings DGAD, DGS and Safeguards (QR) functions of DGFT into its fold by merging them into one single national entity.
• DGTR now deals with Anti-dumping, CVD and Safeguard measures.
• It also provides trade defence support to our domestic industry and exporters in dealing with increasing instances of trade remedy investigations instituted against them by other countries.
• DGTR provides a level playing field to the domestic industry against the adverse impact of the unfair trade practices like dumping and actionable subsidies from any exporting country, by using Trade Remedial methods under relevant framework of WTO arrangements, Customs Tariff Act & Rules and other relevant laws and International agreements, in a transparent and time bound manner.
• DGTR functions as an attached office of Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

The Ministry for Ports, Shipping & Waterways recently announced the new Tariff Guidelines, 2021 for the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects in Major Ports.

• The new guidelines allow the concessionaires at major ports to set tariffs as per market dynamics.

• Major Ports in India

  • India has a significant size of maritime sector with 12 Major and 205 non-major ports along its 7,500 Km long coastline.
  • Six major ports each are located on the western and eastern coasts respectively.
  • JNPT and Mundra are two ports that are listed amongst the top 40 global container ports.
  • Over 54% of the total cargo is being handled at the 12 Major Ports of India.
  • The Vadhavan port is being planned by the JNPT as India’s 13^th major port.
  • It will be an ‘All Weather, All Cargo’ satellite port to enhance capabilities in handling deep draft ships and larger vessels.

  Port	State	Features
  Chennai	Tamil Nadu	Second Busiest Artificial Port
  Tuticorin	Tamil Nadu
  Ennore	Tamil Nadu	First corporatized port in India
  Kochi	Kerala	Located in Vembanad Lake
  Kolkata	West Bengal	Only major riverine port
  Kandla	Gujarat	A tidal port that handles the largest volume of cargo
  Mangalore	Karnataka	-
  Mormugao	Goa	-
  Mumbai Port Trust	Maharashtra	Largest natural port
  Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT)	Maharashtra	Largest artificial port and largest container port in India
  Paradip	Odisha	Natural harbor
  Vishakhapatnam	Andhra Pradesh	Deepest port of India

Telangana stood first in the implementation of the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Rurban Mission (SPMRM). Tamil Nadu and Gujarat took the second and third positions respectively.

Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Rurban Mission (SPMRM)

• It was launched in the year 2016 in mission mode to develop 300 clusters in the country holistically by provisioning economic, social and physical infrastructure facilities.
• It is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme undertaken by the Union Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD).
• The State Government identifies the clusters in accordance with the Framework for Implementation prepared by the MoRD.
• It follows the vision of "Development of a cluster of villages that preserve and nurture the essence of rural community life with focus on equity and inclusiveness without compromising with the facilities perceived to be essentially urban in nature, thus creating a cluster of "Rurban Villages".
• Its objective is to stimulate local economic development, enhance basic services, and create well planned Rurban clusters.
• There are 2 categories of clusters: Non-Tribal and Tribal.
  • Rurban clusters are identified across the country’s rural areas showing increasing signs of urbanization - i.e. increase in population density, high levels of non-farm employment, presence of growing economic activities and other socioeconomic parameters.
  • A Rurban cluster would be a cluster of geographically contiguous villages with a population of about 25000 to 50000 in plain and coastal areas and a population of 5000 to 15000 in desert, hilly or tribal areas.
• As far as practicable, clusters of the village would follow administrative convergence units of Gram Panchayats and shall be within a single block/tehsil for administrative convenience.