Current Affairs

 

TOPICS

 

1. DIGITAL SERVICES, INFRA & EMPOWERMENT
2. TRACKING SCHEMES THROUGH GIS
3. LEVERAGING TECHNOLOGY FOR EDUCATION
4. NATIONAL POLICY ON SOFTWARE PRODUCTS
5. E-SERVICES FOR DIFFERENTLY ABLED
6. DEVELOPMENT OF METRO RAILS IN INDIA
7. TOWARDS A NATIONAL DIGITAL HEALTH ECOSYSTEM

 

MAJOR INITIATIVES: DIGITAL-LED DEVELOPMENT

1. Digital India Programme (2015)
2. Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme
– Saved > 80k Cr; Implemented > 400 schemes
3. Government e-Marketplace
4. Financial Inclusion via JAM trinity
5. GST Network
6. Unified Payment Interface & BHIM App
7. Others: PRAGATI, SWAYAM, UMANG

DIGITAL DELIVERY OF SERVICES | PHYSICAL INFRA

• Common Service Centres
  – 3 Lakh CSCs across 2 Lakh GPs delivering 300+ services
  – Created jobs for 12 Lakh people
  – Promoted rural entrepreneurship (esp. for women)
•  ~60k Active Women Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs)
  – Implement Stree Swabhiman Initiative for menstrual health
  – Micro BPO units are being set up in CSCs (5 to 10 jobs)
  – PMGDISHA to e-literate 6 Cr rural households

DIGITAL DELIVERY OF SERVICES | DIGITAL INFRA

•  Bharat Net
  – Aim: to provide high speed internet in rural areas
  – How: by building optical fiber network connecting 2.5 L GPs
•  National Knowledge Network
  – Network to promote knowledge collaboration/exchange
  – E.g. Virtual classrooms, NPTEL, various Grids, etc.
•  National Cloud: Meghraj
•  Geospatial Technology: Bharat Maps
•  Email Services: X400

DIGITAL DELIVERY OF SERVICES | BACKBONE

STORY IN NUMBERS

• BHIM-UPI => > 2000 Cr worth transactions in 2017-18
• UMANG => multilingual app offers > 350 govt. services
• PMGDISHA => benefitted 2.2 Cr persons
• JAM-DBT => > 7 L Cr disbursed as of Mar 2019

MCQ #1

National Programme on AI is led by:
A. NITI Aayog
B. Ministry of S&T
C. Prime Minister’s Office
D. Prime Minister’s S&T Advisory Council

INTRODUCTION

• Location based information is vital to plan and monitor the developmental programs
• The use of GIS is a critical component of e-Kranti pillar under DIP
• To leverage GIS under DIP, MEITY launched National Centre of Geo-Informatics (NCoG) in Dec 2015

ABOUT NCOG

• NCOG platform is a single source GIS platform for sharing, collaboration, location-based analytics and decision support system, catering to government.
• Currently, more than 200 web applications and 30 mobile applications are at various stages of operationalisation under NCoG platform.

WAY FORWARD

• Government is working on integrating emerging technologies such as Blockchain, AI-ML, IoT and Big Data Analytics with GIS to give further boost to developmental planning and good governance.

MCQ #2

The word API is very commonly used in our digitallyconnected world. What does P in API stand for?

1. Provider
2. Protocol
3. Programming
4. None of the above

ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY IN TRANSFORMING EDUCATION

1. Providing Access & bridging the divide
2. Capacity building of teachers
3. Need to adapt to varying needs

•  Providing Access & bridging the divide
  – Portable devices & internet augmented scale of connectivity
  – Availability of MOOCs (e.g. NPTEL) to one and all
  – Technology for translating into multiple languages
  – Collaboration b/w different institutions at all levels
•  Capacity building of teachers
  – Release from Techno phobia
  – Equip teachers with ICT devices + knowledge
  – Collaboration & sharing of best practices
  – Train through Common Service Centres
  – New & innovative ways of delivering lectures/materials
•  Need to adapt to varying needs
  – Technology can break one-size fits all model
  – Personalized learning models adjusted to different skill sets
  – Mapping skill sets with employability

MCQ #3

Neuralink, recently unveiled by Elon Musk, is a:
A. Medicine for treatment of Brain cancer
B. Device to connect humans and computers
C. High speed vacuum-based transportation system
D. None of the above

NATIONAL POLICY ON SOFTWARE PRODUCTS

•  Aim:
  – To develop India as the global software product hub:
•  Driven by innovation, improved commercialisation, sustainable Intellectual
  Property (IP), promoting technology startups and specialized skill sets.
  – To align with other Government initiatives
•  Such as Start-up India, Make in India and Digital India, Skill India etc.
  – To create Indian Software products Industry of USD ~70-80 billion:
•  With direct & indirect employment of ~3.5 million by 2025.

EXPENDITURE ON THE POLICY

•  For the next 7 years an outlay of Rs 1500 crore has been envisaged.
•  This fund would be divided in two categories:
  – Software Product Development Fund (SPDF)
  – Research & Innovation fund

MISSIONS UNDER THE POLICY

1. Sustainable Indian software product industry
– This would be driven by intellectual property (IP)
– This would lead to a ten-fold increase in India’s share of the Global Software product market by 2025.
2. Nurturing startups:
  – To nurture 10,000 technology startups in software product industry.
  – This would include 1000 such technology startups in Tier-II and Tier-III towns.
  – This would generate direct and in-direct employment for 3.5 million people by 2025.

MISSIONS UNDER THE POLICY

3. Creating a talent pool:
– Up-skilling of 1,000,000 IT professionals
– Motivating 100,000 school and college students
– Generating 10,000 specialized professionals that can provide leadership.
4. Building a cluster-based innovation driven ecosystem:
– Development of 20 sectoral and strategically located software product development clusters.
5. National Software Products Mission
– This would be set up with participation from Government, Academia and Industry.
– It would monitor the implementation of the programme and work for its evolution.

LIMITATIONS

•  There is no roadmap for the schemes, initiatives and projects to be formulated under this policy.
• Roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders, under the policy, is not defined.
• National Software Products Mission:
  – Eligibility of different members is not mentioned in the policy.
• No concrete measure to address skill gap in the workforce:
  – Sharda Prasad Committee (2017) has highlighted major shortcomings in the PMKVY and has recommended for structural reforms in NSDC.
  – Thus this policy should have provided concrete way to ensure skill development rather than relying on skill India mission.

MCQ #4

Vikings are associated with which region of the world:
A. Australia
B. Scandinavia
C. Africa
D. Caribbean

E-SERVICES FOR THE DIFFERENTLY-ABLED

•  Government initiatives:
  – Accessible India Campaign
•  To create universal accessibility for PwDs
  – Assistance to Disabled Persons (ADIP)
•  E.g. Cochlear Implant Programme
  – Deendayal Disabled Rehabilitation Scheme
•  Financial assistance to NGOs running rehabilitation schemes
  – Smart City Mission – ICT be digitally accessible
  – Section 42 of PWD Act 2016
•  Requires all content in audio, print and electronic format to be accessible and that there is access to electronic media by providing audio descriptions, sign language and close captioning.

E-SERVICES FOR THE DIFFERENTLY-ABLED

•  Some private sector initiatives:
  – Avaz – generates speech from limited muscle movements
  – Non-visual display access – screen reading software in multiple languages
  – Kabi – assists speech impaired for quick communication by selecting pictograph image on their hand held device
  – Blee watch – smart watch for hearing impaired ; sounds generate vibrations
  – Apps for finding life partners ; book taxi, etc.

MCQ #5

Which of the following cities is also called as the Equator City?
A. Quito in Ecuador
B. Libreville in Gabon
C. Kampala in Uganda
D. Pontianak in Indonesia

CHALLENGES

• Urban population – 40% by 2031 & 50% by 2051
• Vehicle CAGR – 11% since 1951

NUTP 2006

• To address:
  – NUTP 2006 – people occupy centre stage and that focus should be on moving people and not vehicles
  – MRTS is being implemented, amongst other solutions in pursuance to above policy

CHALLENGES OF EXISTING METRO SYSTEMS

•  It is capital intensive systems so requires huge money
• Technology available is not standardized yet resulting higher costs of construction and operations
• Lack of last mile connectivity
•  Parking lots and roads leading to many stations remain poorly lit. Security issues.
•  Non availability of demand forecasts for metro projects.

ADDRESSING THE CHALLENGES

• Metro Rail Policy 2017 – lays down financial models
• Value Capture Financing Policy Framework 2017
  – Betterment levy, vacant land tax, etc.
•  Standardization of Metro Components
•  National Transit Oriented Development Policy 2017
  – To integrate land use and transport planning within 500-800 m
•  National Common Mobility Card
•  Setting up Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority
•  Multi modal integration e.g. Gurgaon Rapid Metro, feeder bus

WAY FORWARD

• 18 (1L+) cities have operating metro systems while in 9, it is at various stages of development.
• Metro Rail Bill (Construction, Operation & Maintenance) is under way

MCQ #6

Raga Bhairavi is best listened to at what time of the day?
A. Morning
B. Afternoon
C. Evening
D. Night

•  Committee, constituted to create an implementation framework for the National Health Stack (NHS) proposed by NITI Aayog, has come up with the National Digital Health Blueprint.
• ‘Think Big, Start Small, Scale Fast’

OBJECTIVES OF NDHB

• Establishing and managing the core digital health data and the infrastructure required for its seamless exchange;
• Promoting the adoption of open standards by all the actors in the National Digital Health Eco-system;
• Creating a system of Personal Health Records, based on international standards, and easily accessible to the citizens and to the service providers, based on citizen-consent;
• Following the best principles of cooperative federalism while working with the States and Union Territories for the realization of the Vision;

OBJECTIVES OF NDHB

• Promoting Health Data Analytics and Medical Research;
• Enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of Governance at all levels;
• Ensuring Quality of Healthcare.
• Leveraging the Information Systems already existing in the health sector

NDHB PRINCIPLES

• From the domain perspective, Universal Health Coverage, Inclusiveness, Security and Privacy by Design, Education and Empowerment of the citizens, and
• From the technology perspective, Building Blocks, Interoperability, a set of Registries as Single Sources of Truth, Open Standards, Open APIs and above all, a minimalistic approach.

Key Building Blocks

 

NDHM ACTION PLAN

IMPLEMENTATION

• A new entity, National Digital Health Mission (NDHM), is recommended to be established as a purely government organization with complete functional autonomy adopting some features of some of the existing National Information Utilities like UIDAI and GSTN.

MCQ #7

Who was the first Editor of Yojana magazine?
A. Khushwant Singh
B. R K Narayan
C. Mulk Raj Anand
D. None of the above