Insights Daily Current Events, 19 November 2015

Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, partners ICRC for Enable Makeathon

The union ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has partnered with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for Enable Makeathon.

What is Enable Makethon?

The Enable Makeathon is a project initiated by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and its partners to help create new assistive devices for persons with disabilities living in rural areas across the world.
It is motivated by the spirit of broad collaboration with the government, the private sector, the academia as well as other interested individuals.
It is a 60-day programme by the end of which participants – including technology and design experts, persons with disabilities and mentors – would have developed solutions and products for persons with disabilities in the form of prototypes.

sources: pib.

Paper 2 Topic: Appointment to various Constitutional posts.

President Appoints Justice T. S. Thakur as the new Chief Justice of India

In exercise of the powers conferred under article 124 of the Constitution of India, the President has appointed Justice Tirath Singh Thakur as the Chief Justice of India.

Justice Thakur is the 43rd Chief Justice of India. He would be in office till January 4, 2017.

Appointment of CJI:

According to the convention, the present Chief Justice recommends the name of his successor to the government. After the Law Ministry clears his name, the file will go to the Prime Minister’s Office and finally reaches the President, after whose approval the Warrant of Appointment will be issued.

sources: pib.

Paper 2 Topic: Schemes, Mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of vulnerable sections.

2,28,000 houses for urban poor cleared under Housing for All Mission

Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation has approved construction of 2,28,204 houses for urban poor in five states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Rajasthan for which the central government will provide an assistance of Rs.3,231 cr.

These housing projects were approved after detailed presentations by respective states.
Of the houses approved, 2,17,748 are for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) under Affordable Housing in Partnership (AHP) and Beneficiary led Construction components of the Prime Minister’s Awas Yojana (PMAY). The rest are for Low Income Groups.

Housing for All:

It is scheme which proposes to build 2 crore houses across the nation by 2022.

The components of the scheme are as follows:

Slum rehabilitation of Slum Dwellers with participation of private developers using land as a resource.
Promotion of affordable housing for weaker section through credit linked subsidy.
Affordable housing in partnership with Public & Private sectors.
Subsidy for beneficiary-led individual house construction or enhancement.

Details of the scheme:

The scheme will be implemented as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme except the credit linked subsidy component, which will be implemented as a Central Sector Scheme.
The scheme prescribes certain mandatory reforms for easing up the urban land market for housing, to make adequate urban land available for affordable housing.
Houses constructed under the mission would be allotted in the name of the female head of the households or in the joint name of the male head of the household and his wife.
A Technology Sub-mission under the Mission would be set up to facilitate adoption of modern, innovative and green technologies and building material for faster and quality construction of houses. The Technology Sub-Mission will also facilitate preparation and adoption of layout designs and building plans suitable for various geo-climatic zones. It will also assist States/Cities in deploying disaster resistant and environment friendly technologies.
The Technology Sub-Mission will coordinate with various regulatory and administrative bodies for mainstreaming and up scaling deployment of modern construction technologies and material in place of conventional construction. The Technology Sub-Mission will also coordinate with other agencies working in green and energy efficient technologies, climate change etc.
In the spirit of cooperative federalism, the Mission will provide flexibility to States for choosing best options to meet the demand of housing in their states.

sources: pib.

Paper 3 Topic: Awareness in the fields of IT.

Extension of Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems Project

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has given its approval to the proposal of the Ministry of Home Affairs for a major revamp of the Crime and Criminals Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) Project and has decided to implement Integrated Criminal Justice System (ICJS) by integrating CCTNS with E-Courts.

This will ensure quick data transfer among different pillars of criminal justice system, which will not only enhance transparency but also reduce processing time.
Police-Citizen interface will undergo a major shift with the implementation of this project, as a number of services will be enabled through citizen portal.
The Government has decided to fast track the implementation and complete the implementation of the CCTNS project by March 2017 including implementation of ICJS.

About CCTNS project:

Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) is a project initiated in June 2009 which aims at creating a comprehensive and integrated system for enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of policing at the Police Station level.
This will be done through adoption of principles of e-Governance, and creation of a nationwide networked infrastructure for evolution of IT-enabled state-of-the-art tracking system around “investigation of crime and detection of criminals”.
CCTNS is a Mission Mode Project (MMP) under the National e-Governance Plan of Govt. of India.
It will not only automate Police functions at Police station and higher levels but will also create facilities and mechanism to provide public services like registration of online complaints, ascertaining the status of case registered at the police station, verification of persons etc.
The Project will interconnect about 15000 Police Stations and additional 5000 offices of supervisory police officers across the country and digitize data related to FIR registration, investigation and charge sheets in all Police Stations.
This would lead to development of a national database of crimes and criminals.
The Full implementation of the Project with all the new components would lead to a Central citizen portal having linkages with State level citizen portals that will provide a number of citizen friendly services like Police Verification for various purposes including passport verification, reporting a crime including cyber-crime and online tracking of the case progress etc.
The project will enable National level crime analytics to be published at increased frequency, which will help the policy makers as well as lawmakers in taking appropriate and timely action, it will also enable Pan-India criminal/accused name search in the regional language for improved inter-state tracking of criminal movement.

sources: pib.

Paper 2 Topic: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

National Resource Facility for Bio-medical Research (NARF)

The Union Cabinet has approved the proposal of the Department of Health Research in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for setting up of a National Resource Facility for Bio-medical Research (NARF) at Genome Valley in Hyderabad by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR).

The estimated project cost is Rs. 338.58 crores and the resource center is expected to be functional by 2018-19.
The institution will be the first of its kind for quality laboratory animals for basic and applied biomedical research in the country.
It will be developed as a world-class facility for breeding and housing of animals such as primates, cabines and other specialized models such as transgenic and knockout rodents required for testing of various R&D products.
The facility will create, develop and provide access to a range of laboratory animals and related technological resources for advancement of biomedical research in the country, mainly to facilitate research in medical colleges, research and academic institutions, universities and Biotech/Bio-pharma companies.
The facility will also provide training facilities for personnel in the specialized areas in the field of biomedical research.

sources: pib.

Paper 2 Topic: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.

Tripartite Agreement among India, Brazil and South Africa

The Union Cabinet has approved the signing of the Tripartite Agreement among India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA), on the IBSA Fund for the Alleviation of Poverty and Hunger.

This decision will help in strengthening the IBSA Fund which is a unique vehicle in the context of South-South cooperation.

About the Fund:

The IBSA Fund for the Alleviation of Poverty and Hunger was set up in 2004 as one of the three pillars of cooperation under the IBSA Dialogue Forum. The other two pillars are consultation and coordination on global political issues and trilateral collaboration in concrete areas and projects.

The IBSA countries contribute US$ 1 million each annually to the Fund.
India on its part has contributed US$ 9.1 million so far to the Fund.
The IBSA Fund undertakes development projects in third countries.
The first project to be financed by the IBSA Fund was in support of agriculture and livestock development.
The Fund was also conferred the South-South Partnership Award at the 2006 UN Day event held in New York in December 2006. This indicates the importance and recognition of the IBSA Fund in the context of South-South development cooperation.

The IBSA Dialogue Forum launched in June 2003, was conceived as a forum for cooperation among three vibrant democracies of the South that are recognized as having global relevance and impact. All three are developing nations with pluralistic, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and multi-religious societies.

sources: pib.

Insights Daily Current Events, 19 November 2015