UPSC Daily Current Affairs | Prelim Bits 30-07-2020

Conservation Assured | Tiger Standards [CA|TS]

• CA|TS is a conservation tool developed in 2013, in collaboration with field managers, tiger experts and government agencies engaged in tiger conservation.
• It sets best practice and standards to manage target species, and encourages assessments to benchmark progress.
• Tigers are the first species selected for the initiative.

• CA|TS is being adopted for use beyond tigers, including potentially jaguars, lions and freshwater dolphins.

• CA|TS is a partnership of tiger range governments, inter-governmental agencies, institutions, NGOs and conservation organizations.
• WWF is helping tiger range countries to implement CA|TS.
• National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) announced the adoption of the across all of the country’s 50 Tiger Reserves.
• These 50 Tiger Reserves are spread across 18 states containing over 70% of the world’s tiger population.
• By this India becomes first among the 13 tiger range countries to nationally adopt CA|TS.
• This brings India’s total number of registered sites to 94 (which includes sites outside the Tiger Reserves). 
• This announcement further strengthens India’s contribution to the global goal set in 2010 to double the number tigers in the wild, known as TX2

ITER

• International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is world’s largest experimental fusion facility in France.
• It is most complex science project in human history, started in 2010.
• It will use hydrogen fusion, controlled by superconducting magnets, to produce massive heat energy.

• The magnetic fusion device has been designed to prove the feasibility of fusion as a large-scale and carbon-free source of energy based on the same principle that powers our Sun and stars.
• This nuclear fusion facility is an international cooperation among the European Union, Russia, the US, Japan, China, India and South Korea.
• It is the first industrial-scale fusion reactor and it will illuminate the way to produce clean, cheap, and abundant energy for millions of years.
• It will start generating a molten mass of electrically-charged gas “plasma” inside a core by 2025.

India’s Wind Power Project

• Sembcorp Energy India Limited (SEIL) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sembcorp Industries.
• Recently, it announced the completion of the latest 800MW wind power projects, bringing India its renewable energy capacity to 1730 MW.
• Power from these projects to light up more than 600,000 homes and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by over 2 million tonnes/annum
• Sembcorp becomes the first independent power producer to fully commission its projects awarded in the first three wind auctions held by the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI).
• This capacity is also the largest operational wind capacity with any developer to-date from SECI auction.

Solar Energy Corporation of India

• Solar Energy Corporation of India Ltd. (SECI) is a company of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.
• It is established to facilitate the implementation of the National Solar Mission (NSM).
• It is the only Central Public Sector Undertaking dedicated to the solar energy sector.
• The company's mandate has been broadened to cover the entire renewable energy domain and the company will be renamed to Renewable Energy Corporation of India (RECI).

New FDI Policy on Aviation  

• Ministry of Finance has allowed Non Resident Indians (NRIs) to have 100% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Air India.
• For the same, necessary amendments have been made in the Foreign Exchange Management Rules (Non-debt Instruments), 2019.

The new FDI policy allows the following

1. Removes the exception which permitted Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) 100% FDI in air transport, but not Air India.
2. This category of citizens has been replaced with NRIs, now allowed to commit 100% FDI in air transport, including Air India, through automatic route.
3. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been vested with the sole power to issue/interpret the rules regarding 100% FDI of NRIs.
4. Previously, it was required to do so in consultation with the Central Government.

• In March 2020, Union cabinet approved a policy to permit foreign investment up to 100% by those NRIs who are Indian Nationals in Air India through the automatic route.
• Earlier Foreign investments in Air India Limited, including that of foreign airlines shall not exceed 49% either directly or indirectly except in case of those NRIs, who are Indian nationals.

Routes of FDI

• FDI is an investment made by a firm or individual in one country into business interests located in another country.

1. Automatic Route - In this, the foreign entity does not require the prior approval of the government or the RBI.
2. Government route - In this, the foreign entity has to take the approval of the government.

• Method of clearance - Foreign Investment Facilitation Portal (FIFP) facilitates the single window clearance of applications which are through approval route.
• This portal is administered by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Subhash Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskaar

• It is an annual award instituted in 2018 by Union government to recognize the excellent work done by individuals and institutions in the country in the field of disaster management.
• These awards are announced on the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose on 23rd January every year.
• Three eligible institutions and individuals will be given the award every year with cash rewards

1. If the awardee is an institution, it will be given a certificate and a cash prize of Rs 51 lakh and the prize money will be utilised for disaster management-related activities only.
2. If the awardee is an individual, the person shall receive a certificate and a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh.

• An application by an institution does not debar any individual from that institution to apply for the award in his individual capacity.
• Only Indian nationals and Indian institutions can apply for the award.
• For institutional awards, voluntary organizations, corporate entities, academic, research institutions, response, uniformed forces or any other institution may apply for the award.
• The applicant must have worked in the area of disaster management like prevention, mitigation, preparedness, rescue, response, relief, rehabilitation, research, innovation or early warning related work in India.

Source: PIB, Times of India, the Hindu