ETEN Enlightens-Daily Current Capsules (Prelims Prep. Prominence) 13th June 2018

Science & Technology

Indian Space Research Organisation offering its production

technology(battery technology) to Indian industry

Transfer of lithium ion know-how to help electric vehicle start-ups

The drive for indigenously made lithium ion batteries on a large scale has

got a push with the Indian Space Research Organisation offering its

production technology to Indian industry.

An RFQ (request for quotation) issued invites multiple qualified

companies or start-ups to use its power storage technology to produce a

range of Li ion cells for many purposes, mainly EVs or electric vehicles.

ISRO’s rocket sciences node Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre will

transfer its in-house technology non-exclusively to each qualified

production agency for a one-time fee of ₹1 crore

Enlighten about the Li ion cell

The Li ion cell production initiative is part of the government’s plan to

achieve 100% EVs in the country by 2030.

Li ion battery is much in demand for use in handy consumer electronics

goods too.

Currently the batteries are imported mostly from China, South Korea and

Taiwan.

To drive the Indian EV dream of the coming decades, national think tank

NITI Aayog has also earlier called for setting up local production.

National

Kashmir Super 50

An initiative by Indian Army

Project Kashmir Super 50, a joint initiative by Indian Army, Center for

Social Responsibility and Leadership (CSRL) and PETRONET LNG

Limited (PLL) was launched on 22 March 2013

Objective - to transform the educational status of children from

economically weaker sections in the Kashmir region.

Enlighten about it

As part of the 11-month program, selected students are provided with

complete free residential coaching for IIT-JEE, JKCET and other premier

Engineering Institutes.

The outgoing batch is the fifth batch of Kashmir Super 50 which had 45

boys based in Srinagar and five girl students based in Noida.

Out of which this year, 32 students (30 boys and 02 girls) have cleared

IIT-JEE Mains and seven students have cleared IIT-JEE Advance.

Enlighten about Kashmir Super 50

It has been one of the most successful projects undertaken by the Indian

Army in the valley and has directly impacted the lives of number of

youths in J&K by providing them the right guidance and opportunity to

make a career for themselves.

On similar lines of Kashmir Super 50 for engineering aspirants, Indian

Army has recently signed a MoU for medical aspirants with Hindustan

Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) & National Integrity Educational

Development Organisation (NIEDO), under which selected students will

be provided with complete free residential coaching for National

Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET).

Atal Tinkering Labs

ATLs under NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission to reach every

district of the country soon

What’s the NEWS

NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) has selected 3,000

additional schools for the establishment of Atal Tinkering Labs (ATLs),

bringing the total number of ATL schools to 5,441.

The selected schools shall receive a grant of Rs 20 lakh spread over the

next five years to establish Atal Tinkering Labs for nurturing

innovation and entrepreneurial spirit among secondary school children

across India.

ATLs will soon be established in every district of India, seeking to

enable an innovation ecosystem, which will facilitate transformational

change in technological innovation and pedagogy.

ATLs will function as innovation hubs for these student innovators to

explore solutions to unique local problems which they come across in

their everyday lives.

ATL initiative, where students, teachers, mentors and industry partners

work to facilitate innovation, foster scientific temper and an

entrepreneurial spirit in the children

Enlighten About Atal Innovation Mission of NITI Aayog

The Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) is the Government of India’s flagship

initiative to promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in the

country.

AIM is mandated to create an umbrella structure to oversee innovation

ecosystem of the country and revolutionizing the innovation eco-system -

touching upon the entire innovation life cycle through various programs.

The Atal Tinkering Laboratories (ATLs) create innovators, Atal

Incubation Centres and support to Established Incubation Centreensure

that innovations are taken to the market and help create enterprises

around these innovations.

International organisations First BIMSTEC Exercise to be hosted by India

Enlighten about the exercise

The main aim of this military exercise is to promote strategic alignment

among the member-states and to share best practices in the area of

counterterrorism.

Enlighten about BIMSTEC

BIMSTEC is the sub-regional group of seven countries in South Asia

and South East Asia lying in littoral and adjacent areas of Bay of Bengal

constituting contiguous regional unity.

It was established on 6 June 1997 through Bangkok Declaration.

It is headquartered in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Member countries: India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka from

South Asia and Myanmar, Thailand from South East Asia

BIMESTC’s prime objectives: Technological and economic cooperation

among south Asian and south East Asian countries along the coast of the

Bay of Bengal.

BIMSTEC is sector-driven cooperative organization, starting with six

sector including trade, technology, energy, transport, tourism and

fisheries. In 2008, it was expanded to embrace eight more sectors

including agriculture, public health, poverty alleviation, counter-

terrorism,

Ministry of Railways

Menu on Rails – a new App Launched

Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of Railways & Coal launched a new App

‘Menu on Rails’,

a Mobile Application developed by IRCTC for creating awareness to the

Railway Passengers for the items served to them on their Rail Journey.

Delivery of Railway tickets through Common Service Centres (CSCs)

The Common Service Centres (CSCs) Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) has

signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Indian Railway

Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) for delivery of railway

services through CSC centres.

CSCs to work as IRCTC agents for train ticket bookings.

Enlighten about the MoU

CSCs will now be able to book general tickets.

Under the agreement, all 2.9 lakh CSCs spread across the country will be

able to book both reserved and unreserved train tickets.

All CSCs will be connected with technology for railway ticket booking.

Government is also planning to empower CSCs to act as banking

correspondents and to sell insurance too in the future.

It is also pushing private sector participation in providing digital services

through these platforms.

These centres apart from providing digital literacy will provide services

like Aadhaar payments, pension, banking, and insurance.

Enlighten about Common Service Centres (CSC)

CSC is an initiative of Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY).

It is pan-India network catering to regional, geographic, linguistic and

cultural diversity of country, thus enabling Government’s mandate of a

socially, financially and digitally inclusive society.

There are as many as 2.91 lakh CSCs operate in the country today.

They are mostly ICT enabled front end service delivery points at village

level for delivery of government and private services.

These CSCs serve as access points for delivery of essential public utility

services, social welfare schemes, financial, healthcare, education and

agriculture services, apart from host of B2C services to citizens in rural

and remote areas of the country. They also serve as change agents by

promoting rural entrepreneurship and building rural capacities and

livelihood

Women Empowerment Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY)

PM’s maternity scheme benefits 23.6 lakh

After initial hiccups in implementing the maternity benefit programme

Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY), the government has

finally made some headway and provided cash incentives to nearly 23.6

lakh beneficiaries out of an estimated 51.6 lakh a year.

Enlighten about the scheme

The scheme was approved by the Union Cabinet in May 2017 and was

expected to be rolled out in September that year.

Under the scheme, pregnant women and lactating mothers are offered a

cash incentive of ₹6,000 on the birth of their first child as partial

compensation for wage loss, to reduce maternal mortality and

malnutrition levels among children.

The scheme is being implemented on a 60:40 cost-sharing basis with the

State governments.

Many States like Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Odisha and West Bengal have

not yet come on board to implement the scheme.

An amount of ₹673 crore has been transferred to the accounts of the

beneficiaries out of the total budget of ₹2,594 crore set aside for the

scheme last year, and another ₹2,400 crore allocated for the current fiscal.

While States like Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Odisha and West Bengal have

their own maternity benefit schemes and have been reluctant to

implement the PMMVY but the states were bound to comply because the

scheme was a by-product of the National Food Security Act.

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Economy/ Business

Tighten norms for working capital loan by RBI

Proposes at least 40% loan component in credit of ₹150 cr. and above

from Oct. 1

The RBI’s new guidelines will ensure that there is a repayment

schedule for working capital loans

What

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has proposed a minimum 40% loan

component for working capital funding of ₹150 crore and above to bring

in greater credit discipline and improve monetary transmission.

Enlighten about the guidelines

The RBI has proposed that the loan component of 40% will come into

effect from October 1 and will be increased to 60% from April 1, 2019.

The loan’s tenure will be minimum seven days.

Effective from April 1, 2019, the undrawn portion of cash credit/overdraft

limits sanctioned to the large borrowers, irrespective of whether

unconditionally cancellable or not, shall attract a credit conversion factor

of 20%,”

This means banks have to set aside capital for undrawn portion of cash

credit limits.

Repayment schedule

Currently, working capital is mostly in the form of cash credit for which

interest rate is reset once a year. Also, cash credit does not have a tight

repayment schedule.

The proposed new norm will address the following issues.

First, if there is a loan component then there will be a repayment schedule

which will put pressure on borrowers to manage their liquidity.

Secondly, since the loan component will have a fixed tenure, the reset

clause can be invoked at the end of each tenure period.

What are the challenges

While cash credit has its benefits, it also poses several regulatory

challenges such as perpetual roll-overs, transmission of liquidity

management from the borrowers to banks/RBI, hampering of smooth

transmission of monetary policy, etc.

Enlighten about Working Capital Loan

Working Capital Loan can be defined as a loan availed by the rms for

covering their daily operational expenses.

These loans are the excellent way for the businesses to become more

focused on their growth and generate capital.

The working capital loans in India have become popular among the

business owners for tackling with their financial needs.

These loans are not used for buying long-term assets and generally used

for covering wages, accounts payable and other similar operations.

This loan is applicable for the small & medium enterprises for

augmenting their working capital needs and meeting the daily

operational expenditure.

The majority of the working capital loans is unsecured, however the

loans with high risks need some guarantee.

Sources – PIB, LiveMint, The Hindu

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