UPSC Daily Current Affairs | Prelim Bits 04-02-2020

International Platform on Sustainable Finance

• The European Union is launching the International Platform on Sustainable Finance (IPSF) together with relevant authorities from Argentina, Canada, Chile, China, India, Kenya, and Morocco
• It will be introduced at the IMF and World Bank Group Annual Meetings, in Washington D.C.
• To reach the Paris targets, trillions of investments in sustainable infrastructure will be needed over the next decades.
• The launch of this Platform is essential to stimulate investment and redirect capital flows towards our climate objectives at the scale required for the most important economic transition.
• It will act as a forum for facilitating exchanges and, where relevant, coordinating efforts on initiatives and approaches to environmentally sustainable finance, while respecting national and regional contexts.
• It will focus on environmentally sustainable initiatives in particular in the areas of taxonomies, disclosures, standards and labels, which are fundamental for investors to identify and seize green investment opportunities worldwide.

Classical Swine Fever (CSF) Vaccine

• ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI), Izatnagar, develops classical Swine Fever Cell culture Vaccine.
• CSF is one of the most important diseases of pigs causing high mortality.
• A lapinized CSF vaccine (Weybridge strain, UK) is being used in India since 1964 for controlling the disease.
• IVRI recently developed a new CSF Cell Culture Vaccine by attenuating an indigenous virulent CSF virus in cell culture.
• The vaccine virus has a very high titre, lakhs of doses can be produced very easily in cell culture, and the country's requirement can be easily fulfilled using this new vaccine.
• The new vaccine is ready for release and commercial production will be completed in less than a year.
• The vaccine would be the best choice for use in the CSF Control Programme (CSF-CP) already launched by Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying (DAHD)

SATHI

• Department of Science and Technology has launched Sophisticated Analytical & Technical Help Institutes (SATHI).
• It is an Initiative for building shared, professionally managed strong S&T infrastructure.
• It will facilitate seamless application and capture IPRs.
• It can be readily accessible to academia, start-ups, manufacturing, industry and R&D labs
• These Centers are expected to house major analytical instruments to provide common services of high-end analytical testing, thus avoiding duplication and reduced dependency on foreign sources.
• These would be operated with a transparent, open access policy.
• DST has already set up three such centres in the country, one each at IIT Kharagpur, IIT Delhi and BHU.

Santusht Portal

• ‘Santusht’ - Implementation Monitoring Cell (IMC) has been constituted in the Office of Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Labour and Employment.
• The objective of ‘Santusht’ is to promote transparency, accountability, effective delivery of public services and implementation of policies, schemes of Ministry of Labour and Employment at grass root level through constant monitoring.
• For public grievances, the Centralized Public Grievance Redressal and Monitoring System (CPGRAM) portal is already functional.
• Besides, written grievances as received from stakeholders are also disposed of by the Ministry.
• Further, online portal under ‘Santusht’ for public grievances has not been started so far.

Solar Risk Mitigation Initiative

• The World Bank– Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (WB-ESMAP), in partnership with, Agence Française de Développement (AFD), International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and International Solar Alliance (ISA) developed the Solar Risk Mitigation Initiative (SRMI).
• This unique approach offers technical assistance to help countries develop evidence-based solar targets, implement a sustainable solar program, and maintain robust procurement processes with transaction advisors.
• SRMI aims to support countries in developing sustainable solar programs that will attract private investments and so reduce reliance on public finances.
• It has three components to mitigate the risk of solar deployment:

1. Sustainable Solar Targets

2. Transparent Procurement

3. Viable Risk Mitigation Coverage

National Infrastructure Pipeline

• Recently, the Government has released a report of the task force on the National Infrastructure Pipeline for 2019-2025.
• Task Force was constituted to draw up the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) for each of the years from financial years 2019-20 to 2024-25.
• NIP will enable a forward outlook on infrastructure projects, which will create jobs, improve ease of living, and provide equitable access to infrastructure for all, thereby making growth more inclusive.
• NIP includes economic and social infrastructure projects.
• During the fiscals 2020 to 2025, sectors such as Energy (24%), Roads (19%), Urban (16%), and Railways (13%) amount to around 70% of the projected capital expenditure in infrastructure in India.
• It has outlined plans to invest more than ₹102 lakh crore on infrastructure projects by 2024-25, with the Centre, States and the private sector to share the capital expenditure in a 39:39:22 formula.

Ujh Multipurpose Project

• As per Government’s commitment to fast track utilization of India's rights under Indus Waters Treaty, the project is planned to be constructed in Kathua District of J&K on the River Ujh.
• River Ujh is a major tributary of River Ravi, this project will store around 781 Million Cubic meter of waters of river Ujh.
• After construction of the project, utilization of waters of Eastern Rivers allotted to India as per the Indus Water Treaty would be enhanced by utilizing of the flow that presently goes across border un utilized.

Virtual Experience Museums

• The Ministry of Culture has developed three Virtual Experiential Museums.
• In 2016, the Ministry of Culture was given the task of establishing Virtual Museums in at least 50 locations.
• Subsequently, Ministry of Culture has developed three Virtual Experiential Museums

1. Man Mahal at Varanasi,

2. Ajanta Caves at National Museum, Delhi.

3. Humayun Tomb in Delhi.

• The Ministry of Culture also proposes to set up a National Virtual Experiential Site Museum at Vadnagar, Gujarat.
• The Ministry of Tourism under its schemes of ‘Swadesh Darshan’ and ‘Development of Iconic sites’, has developed tourism infrastructure at various heritage destinations.
• Under both these schemes, the primary objective is to develop the identified destinations as benchmark tourist destinations in terms of comprehensive development of infrastructure & services.
• However, under both the above-mentioned schemes, interventions involving reconstruction of historic sites are not permissible.

Source: PIB, Economic Times