GS Analyst
Daily Current Affairs

The Ministry of Tribal Affairs is planning to collaborate with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to deploy V-SAT stations on a pilot basis for around 80 tribal villages in Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and Maharashtra to bring Internet services there.

1: Dimension-e-Governance in India’s remote regions

• In the remotest villages of India, the implementation of e-governance initiatives has emerged as a crucial necessity to bridge the gap between rural communities and government services.
• The collaboration with ISRO will see the government set up V-SAT (very small apperture terminal) stations for these 80 villages that are geographically remote and have difficult terrain, challenges that have kept them out of reach of connectivity for the longest time.
• This pilot project would be monitored so that it could be scaled up to other similar tribal villages in other States as well, adding the goal is also to help with e-governance in these remote areas.

2: Dimension-e-Governance empowering remote villages

• Challenges: With limited access to traditional administrative facilities, such as government offices and banks, remote villages often face challenges in accessing essential services and information.
• Objective: E-governance initiatives aim to address these challenges by leveraging digital technologies to provide efficient and accessible government services directly to the doorsteps of rural citizens.
• Through the establishment of digital infrastructure, including internet connectivity and digital service centers, villagers can now access a range of services such as applying for government schemes, obtaining certificates, and accessing information on entitlements and benefits.
• This transformation has had a significant impact on rural communities, empowering them with greater access to government services, enhancing transparency and accountability in governance, and fostering socio-economic development in the remotest corners of the country.

India is set to start manufacturing the common antibiotic Penicillin G later this year, three decades after the country’s last plant shut down. This revival is one of the successes of the Production Linked Incentive scheme launched during the pandemic to promote domestic manufacturing — the scheme gives incentives to companies on incremental sales.

1: Dimension-The issue of market flooding

• Penicillin G is the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) used in manufacturing several common
• Penicillin G, just like many other APIs that India manufactured, was phased out of production because of subsidy-driven cheaper Chinese products flooding the market.

2: Dimension- Role of PLI Scheme for the economy

• Production Linked Incentive scheme (PLI) has become a crucial part of the vision of making India a $ 5 trillion economy. In the post-pandemic scenario, PLI is proving to be a huge catalyst in creating ‘AatmaNirbhar Bharat’.
• The scheme currently targets 14 sectors of strategic and economic importance for India’s economic growth.
• The 14 sectors are: (i) Mobile Manufacturing and Specified Electronic Components, (ii) Critical Key Starting Materials/Drug Intermediaries & Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients, (iii) Manufacturing of Medical Devices (iv) Automobiles and Auto Components, (v) Pharmaceuticals Drugs, (vi) Specialty Steel, (vii) Telecom & Networking Products, (viii) Electronic/Technology Products, (ix) White Goods (ACs and LEDs), (x) Food Products, (xi) Textile Products: MMF segment and technical textiles, (xii) High efficiency solar PV modules, (xiii) Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) Battery, and (xiv) Drones and Drone Components.
• The purpose of the PLI Schemes is to
  • attract investments in key sectors and cutting-edge technology
  • ensure efficiency and bring economies of size and scale in the manufacturing sector
  • make Indian companies and manufacturers globally competitive
• These schemes have the potential of significantly boosting production, employment and economic growth over the next five years or so.

In the wake of recurring incidents of loss of lives in human settlements due to elephant attacks, Kerala has come up with long, short-term measures to prevent man-animal conflict. Also, the Kerala cabinet declared instances of man-animal conflict as a state-specific disaster. Declaration of the man-animal conflict as a state specific disaster will give more power to the district collectors to address the menace.

1: Dimension-The pressing issue of human-animal conflict

• In contemporary Kerala, particularly in the district of Wayanad, human-animal conflict is a pressing issue shaped by the intricate interplay of agrarian transformation and forest conservation efforts.
• As capitalist settler agriculture expands into forested areas, encroaching upon wildlife habitats, conflicts between humans and animals intensify.
• This conflict reflects a historical narrative of ecological modernity, where state-led and globalizing conservation initiatives intersect with agrarian changes, creating complex dynamics of coexistence and competition between human livelihoods and wildlife survival.

2: Dimension- States attempt to prevent the menace Measures

• Long-term Measures:
  • Smart elephant fence: A smart elephant fence to prevent marauding wild elephants from reaching human habitations and reduce the instances of man-animal conflict in Wayanad.
  • Improvement of wildlife habitats: Eradication of invasive plants such as senna, eco-restoration activities by removing eucalyptus and acacia plantations, supporting the regeneration of natural vegetation, improvement of wildlife habitats, and charging fees for entry of private vehicles into the forest area will also be explored.
• Short-term Measures
  • Coordination: The meetings of the inter-State coordination committee, the setting up of a Command Control Centre in Wayanad, and steps for strengthening the early warning system to alert people about the possible presence of wild animals in human habitations.
  • Deployment of drones for surveillance, clearing compensation to victims of wild animal attacks, setting up of a new forest station, and closure of ecotourism destinations in the forest till the issue of man-animal conflict is reduced are also being implemented, the State informed the court.

2: Dimension-Impact

• The measures reflects the state's proactive approach to addressing this pressing issue. Through these initiatives, the state aims to improve early warning systems and response mechanisms.
• These efforts demonstrate a holistic approach to managing conflict and ensuring the safety of both communities and wildlife.

India is negotiating with the ten-member ASEAN for greater market access for its goods, more flexibility in determining origin of products through product-specific rules and redressal of non-tariff barriers. This comes as part of the India-ASEAN FTA review initiated by New Delhi to address its growing trade deficit with the bloc.

1: Dimension- Objective behind India’s demand

• India had been urging the ASEAN for a review of the FTA as its trade deficit with the region ballooned since the trade pact was implemented in January 2010.
• The India-ASEAN FTA, formally known as the ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITGA), has resulted in disproportionate gains for the ASEAN countries.

2: Dimension- India’s solutions

• Seeking product-specific rules (PSRs) in the rules of origin (ROO) determination is one solution being pursued by India for greater exports.
• ROO are the criteria to determine the origin of a product and establish if it qualifies for duty cuts under a FTA.
• PSRs can be introduced in the ROO chapter for relaxing rules for certain items where meeting the prescribed ROO is difficult.
• India is also looking for tariff cuts in items such as chemicals, metals and alloys, machinery, plastic and rubber, textiles, leather and gems and jewellery.

3: ASEAN’s demands

• ASEAN too wants its own set of PSRs for items such as electronics, chemicals and textiles.
• Moreover, the ASEAN (especially Thailand) is unhappy with the Customs (Administration of Rules of Origin under Trade Agreements) Rules, 2020 (CAROTAR, 2020) rules introduced in India which aims to supplement the operational certification procedures related to implementing the ROO as prescribed under the respective trade agreement.

The Cabinet approved the India AI Mission with an outlay of Rs 10,372 crore for five years to encourage AI development in the country.

About the Mission

• The approved corpus will be used to build a high-end scalable AI ecosystem in public-private partnership mode.
• The mission will be implemented through the IndiaAI Independent Business Division (IBD) under Digital India Corporation (DIC).
• Supercomputing capacity, comprising over 10,000 GPUs (graphics processing unit), will be made available to various stakeholders for creating an AI ecosystem.
• An India AI Innovation Centre (IAIC) will be set up under the mission. The IAIC will be a leading academic institution, ensuring streamlined implementation and retention of top research talent.
• A National Data Management Office will be set up under the mission that will coordinate with various government departments and ministries to improve the quality of data and make them available for AI development and deployment.

The Centre announced the extension of Rs 300 per LPG cylinder subsidy to poor women under the Ujjwala Yojana for the next fiscal starting April 1. 

About the Scheme

• Launched in: 2016
• To make Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG), a clean cooking fuel, available to rural and deprived poor households, the government launched Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) to provide deposit-free LPG connections to adult women of poor households.
• While the connection was provided for free, the beneficiaries had to purchase LPG refills at market price.
• Beneficiaries: Adult women of poor households.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Bank Indonesia (BI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for establishing a framework to promote the use of local currencies — the Indian Rupee (INR) and the Indonesian Rupiah (IDR) — for cross-border transactions.

• This framework would enable exporters and importers to invoice and pay in their respective domestic currencies, which in turn would enable the development of an INR-IDR foreign exchange market.
• Use of local currencies would optimise costs and settlement time for transactions.
• The MoU covers all current account transactions, permissible capital account transactions, and any other economic and financial transactions as agreed upon by both countries.

The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) has cleared the project to design and develop India's fifth-generation fighter jet Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA).

Key-takeaways of the proposal

• The approval is for development and production of five prototypes in the next five years.
• The project involves designing and developing twin-engine aircraft prototypes.
• Under the plan, five prototypes of the AMCA will jointly be built by the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) and state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) with support from private industries.
• The AMCA aims to elevate India into an exclusive category of nations that have successfully developed fifth-generation fighters.

About fifth-generation aircraft

• Fifth generation fighters are the most technologically advanced jets ever built. 
• Such platforms typically include stealth, low-probability-of-intercept radar, agile airframes with super cruise performance, advanced avionics features, and highly integrated computer systems capable of networking with other elements within the battlespace for situational awareness and C3 (command, control and communications) capabilities.

Indian Navy warship INS Kolkata rescued 21 crew members, from the Barbados-flagged cargo vessel which was reportedly hit by a missile in the Gulf of Aden.

• The fresh incident comes amidst growing global concerns regarding attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea, particularly by Houthi militants.
• The Red Sea is an inlet of the Indian Oceanbetween Africa and Asia.
• The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb sound and the Gulf of Aden. In the north are the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez (leading to the Suez Canal).