Daily Current Affairs for UPSC IAS: 13th April 2022

What Is e-BCAS Project?

The Parliamentary Consultative Committee attached to the Civil Aviation Ministry discussed ‘e-BCAS project’.

• Bureau of Civil Aviation Security, BCAS establishes, develops, implements maintains, and reviews the National Aviation Security Programme.
• It also safeguards civil aviation operations against acts of unlawful interference and threat, taking into account the safety, regularity, and efficiency of flights.
• It has now undertaken e-BCAS, an initiative under e-Governance for automation of internal processes. This will be an online platform for facilitation of stakeholders.
• It will leverage strength of existing processes and organizational structure, with the objective to make entire activities transparent, user-friendly, and efficient.
• It will digitize the office processes, facilitate fast approvals, and ensure ease of doing business, by technological integration across various divisions and processes.
• Under e-Sahaj module, issuance of security clearance will be provided.
• Under the e-training module, 16 training courses are being run for aviation security training and certifications. The Module involves online testing and effective supervision of the quality of training being imparted.

Telangana Dalit Bandhu Scheme:

Dalit activists from across India have appreciated Dalit Bandhu scheme.

• It is a scheme to uplift Dalits on all fronts and therefore activists have demanded the scheme be extended at the national level.
• Dalit Bandhu enables entrepreneurship among Dalits through a direct benefit transfer of Rs 10 lakh per family.
• This is going to be the biggest cash transfer scheme in the country.
• To promote Dalit entrepreneurship, the government has decided to start a system of reservation for Dalits in sectors where the government issues licences. This includes wine shops, medical shops, fertiliser shops, rice mills, etc.
• Apart from monetary assistance, the government plans to create a corpus called the Dalit Security Fund permanently to support the beneficiary in the event of any adversities.
• This fund will be managed by the district collector concerned, along with a committee of beneficiaries.

Megaliths Of Assam:

The discovery of a number of megalithic stone jars in Assam’s Dima Hasao district has brought to focus possible links between India’s Northeast and Southeast Asia, dating back to the second millennium BC.

• The paper, ‘An archaeological survey of the Assam stone jar sites’ documents three distinct jar shapes (bulbous top with conical end; biconcial; cylindrical) on spurs, hill slopes and ridge lines.
• At one site, Nuchubunglo, as many as 546 jars were found. This is arguably the largest such site in the world.
• The study published in Asian Archaeology, calls for more research to understand the “likely cultural relationship” between Assam and Laos and Indonesia, the only two other sites where similar jars have been found.

Assam Megaliths:

• Some jars are tall and cylindrical, while others are partly or fully buried in the ground.
• Some of them spanned up to three metres high and two metres wide. Some of the jars feature decorative carvings, while others are plain.
• The jars of Assam were first sighted in 1929 by British civil servants James Philip Mills and John Henry Hutton, who recorded their presence in six sites in Dima Hasao: Derebore (now Hojai Dobongling), Kobak, Kartong, Molongpa (now Melange Puram), Ndunglo and Bolasan (now Nuchubunglo).
• Two sites were discovered in 2016. In 2020, four more sites were discovered by the History and Archaeology Department at North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong, Meghalaya.

5G Vertical Engagement And Partnership Program:

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has invited Expression of Interest (EoI) for “5G Vertical Engagement and Partnership Program (VEPP)” initiative to build strong collaboration partnerships across 5G Use-case ecosystem stakeholders.

• It is an Initiative, where the DoT will “facilitate necessary approvals, regulatory clearances to enable use case prototyping, pilots, demos, trials at the user or vertical industry premises”.
• The DoT will facilitate access to experimental spectrum, access to testbeds and engagement with academia, other ministries for necessary regulatory policies and pilots wherever feasible.
• The technology stakeholders, which agree to be a part of the partnership will work to develop and deploy prototypes and pilots for 5G use cases as per the needs of the respective ministries or industry verticals to help accelerate commercial usage and adoption by enterprises.
• It seeks to build strong collaboration partnerships across 5G Use-case ecosystem stakeholders with velocity and with an exclusive emphasis to address User/Vertical Industry needs.
• It will enable close collaboration between User verticals and 5G Tech stakeholders (Service providers, Solution providers & partner Original Equipment Manufacturers), which can trigger a multiplier effect to try & finetune 5G digital solutions in respective economic verticals.

Anti-Tank Guided Missile ‘HELINA’ : Successfully Tested

Indigenously developed helicopter launched Anti-Tank Guided Missile ‘HELINA’ was successfully flight tested on April 11, 2022 at high-altitude ranges as part of user validation trials.

• The flight-test was jointly conducted by the teams of scientists from Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Indian Army and Indian Air Force (IAF).
• The flight trials were conducted from an Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) and the missile was fired successfully engaging simulated tank target.
• The missile is guided by an Imaging Infra-Red (IIR) Seeker operating in the Lock on Before Launch mode. It is one of the most advanced anti-tank weapons in the world.
• Helina has a maximum range of seven kilometers and has been designed and developed for integration on weaponized version of the ALH.
• Helina can engage targets both in direct hit mode as well as top attack mode.
• In the top attack mode, the missile is required to climb sharply after launch and travel at a certain altitude and then plunge on the top of the target.
• In the direct hit mode, the missile travels at a lower altitude, directly striking the target.

Lata Deenanath Mangeshkar Award:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be honoured with the first-ever Lata Deenanath Mangeshkar Award, instituted in the memory of the veteran singer who passed away in February this year.

• Master Deenanath Mangeshkar Smruti Pratishthan informed that the award will be given annually to a person who has made a path-breaking, spectacular and exemplary contribution to the nation and its people.
• The organization said, Mr. Modi is an international statesman who has put India on the path of global leadership. Calling Mr. Modi an inspiration, the organization said, he is one of the greatest leaders that India has seen in its glorious history.
• Among the other awardees will be singer Rahul Despande, who will receive the Master Deenanath Award besides three other special awardees including veteran actress Asha Parekh, actor Jackie Shroff and the Mumbai Dabbawalas, represented by Nutan Tiffin Suppliers.

Mian Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif : Current Prime Minister Of Pakistan

Mian Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif (born 1951) is a Pakistani politician serving as the 23rd and current prime minister of Pakistan, in office since 11 April 2022.

• He is the current president of the Pakistan Muslim League (N) (PML-N).
• Previously, he has served as the Chief Minister of Punjab three times in his political career, making him the longest-serving Chief Minister of Punjab.
• Amid the 2020–2022 Pakistani political crises, he was elected Prime Minister on 11 April 2022 after the no-confidence motion against Imran Khan.
• The opposition parties sought to remove Khan from office, while accusing his alleged hybrid regime of poor governance, political victimisation of opponents, and mismanaging the economy and foreign policy.

State Energy And Climate Index : NITI Aayog

Gujarat has topped the list for larger States in the NITI Aayog’s State Energy and Climate Index–Round 1 that has ranked States and Union Territories (UTs) on six parameters including discoms’ performance, energy efficiency and environmental sustainability.

• The States have been categorised based on size and geographical differences as larger and smaller States and UTs.
• The index is based on 2019-20 data.
• Gujarat, Kerala and Punjab have been ranked as the top three performers in the category of larger States, while Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh were the bottom three States.
• Goa emerged as the top performer in the smaller States category followed by Tripura and Manipur.
• Among UTs, Chandigarh, Delhi and Daman & Diu/Dadra & Nagar Haveli are the top performers.
• Punjab was the best performer in discom performance, while Kerala topped in access, affordability and reliability category.
• Haryana was the best performer in clean energy initiative among larger States and Tamil Nadu in the energy efficiency category.
• The State Energy and Climate Index (SECI) is the first index that aims to track the efforts made by States and UTs in the climate and energy sector.

RBI Draft Norms For Trade Via E-commerce:

The Reserve Bank of India has proposed to modify the existing norms that are in place with the aim of rationalizing and simplifying the process for payment settlement for imports and exports through e-commerce.

• The draft guidelines named ‘Processing and Settlement of small value Export and Import related payments’ that are facilitated by Online Export-Import Facilitators (OEIF) have been issued by the RBI.
• Currently, the banks are permitted by the RBI to offer the facility of settlement and the processing of export and import-related remittances.
• It is done by entering into a contract with the Online Payment Gateway Service Providers (OPGSPs) with respect to the export of services and goods and the import of software and goods.
• With the increase in the e-commerce ecosystem development, the RBI has received various feedback from several stakeholders and banks.
• After a comprehensive review of the feedback, the guidelines are being modified by the Reserve Bank of India to rationalize and simplify the settlement process of payment for import and export through e-commerce.
• Regarding import transactions, the RBI has proposed that this facility will be made available for the online import of digital products and goods that do not exceed the value of USD 3,000.
• In the case of exports, the limit of USD 15,000 has been proposed.