ODISHA
Odisha’s forward caste poor too deserve quota
In recent years, there has been a growing demand for reservation to economically poor class among upper/forward castes who are not being covered under existing reservation for SCs, STs and OBCs in education, job and other areas. The 103rd constitutional amendment made the reservation possible with insertion of clause 6 to both Article 15 and 16 with effect from January 14, 2019.
The States and Centre are now enabled to make provisions for the advancement of the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) among upper castes by extending benefits of reservation in admission in educational institutions, besides in Government jobs. The main indicator of economic disadvantage of EWS as decided by MSJE is the annual income of the family from all sources must be below Rs 8 lakh for the purpose of reservation.
Another scheme named Dr Ambedkar scheme of interest subsidy on educational loans for overseas studies of Masters, MPhil and PhD for EBCs student has been provided by the MSJE prescribed under education loan scheme of Indian Banks Association during the moratorium period.
The Canara Bank has been designated as nodal bank under the scheme. Thousands of students have been getting benefit of the two schemes. There are also State specific initiatives for the development of poor among upper castes in many forms. The States of AP and Telangana have introduced Andhra Pradesh Brahmin Welfare Corporation to support the poor Brahmins of the State for their educational and economic and all other related development. It is an AP Government undertaking corporation established since 2014. The schemes run under the corporation include titles such as Vedavyasa, Gayatri, Bharati to help the poor Brahmin students for education.
The other schemes are Vasista to face competitive exam, Dronachyary for skill development, Chanakya for entrepreneurship development, Kalyanmastu for marriage support, Kashyap for help to PWDs and orphans, Garuda for funeral expenses of deceased and Bhargav for group activities. There are also fund mobilization arrangement such as Krishna –Sudama endowment scheme and Akshya Brahman Nidhi to meet the purpose. Odisha has very less percentage of EWS among the upper caste population. The State Government must facilitate in availing required identification documents for the prospective beneficiaries to make them legally eligible to compete under EWS category following all norms.
It may help the real poorer section among the forward caste population of the State. It is reported by the Government of Odisha that due to non-availability of eligible applicants the Dr Ambedkar post matric scholarship for EBCs has not been utilized in early years of the scheme.
However during the year 2019-20, Rs 430.42 lakh has been made available for 11,670 EBC students of the State. The provision of economic backwardness criteria is also being followed in Right to Education Act 2009 which has provision of reservation of 25 per cent for economically weaker sections residing near the school but it is different from the EWS criteria in selection of students.
The criteria of identification of EWS have been subjected to criticism because of the rate of income ceiling fixed does not match with income ceiling fixed for SCs, STs and OBCs in matter of reservation and other benefits and specially crème layer criteria followed for OBCs.
INTERNATIONAL
Elon Musk’s SpaceX creates new world record; launches 143 satellites on single rocket
Elon Musk’s SpaceX created a new world record by launching 143 satellites on a single rocket.
SpaceX has beaten the Indian space agency ISRO’s record of deploying 104 satellites in a single launch in February 2017.
The launch vehicle for the SpaceX record-breaking flight was the Falcon 9 rocket.
The 143 satellites launched include commercial and government CubeSats, microsats and 10 Starlink satellites.
With these satellites, SpaceX aims to provide near-global broadband internet coverage all over the world by 2021.
SpaceX offered a very low price of 15,000 dollars per kilogram for each satellite to be delivered to a polar sun-synchronous orbit.
Europes Largest Solar Power Plant – Francisco Pizzaro
Spain and France signed an agreement to build a 590 MW solar power plant. This solar power plant will be the largest solar power plant in Europe. The agreement was signed by Iberdrola of Spain and Donone of France.
The construction cost of the solar power plant is 364 million US dollars. The solar power plant will be located in the province of Cáceres in western Spain.
The solar power plant will avoid emissions of 245,000 tons of carbon dioxide. It will power 375,000 people every year. The project will start power supply in 2022.
Spain is currently the busiest unsubsidized photovoltaic market in Europe. In 2020, Spain put into the production of 2.9 GW of solar energy. In 2019, Spain added 729 megawatts of solar power. Therefore, the increase in 2020 is four times the increase in 2019.
India has been increasing its solar power generation capacity. As of November 2020, India’s installed solar power capacity is 36.9 GW.
India has established 42 solar parks to provide land for promoters of solar power plants. India has set a goal of achieving 100 GW of solar power generation by 2022.
NATIONAL
ECI to Launch Digital Voter ID
The Election Commission of India (ECI) will launch the Electronic Election Photo ID (e-EPIC) program on the occasion of National Voters Day. By following the upcoming polls in five states of Kerala, Puducherry, Assam, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, a new digital card was launched.
The launched Identity card is the electronic version of the Election Photo Identity Card (EPIC). It is a non-editable secure portable document format (PDF) version.
The e-EPIC consists of a secure QR code as well as images and demographic information (including serial numbers and part numbers). This portable version can be downloaded on a mobile device or computer.
In addition to the physical or regular ID that can be stored digitally, this portable ID will also be activated.
The e-EPIC program will be launched in two phases.
PLI Scheme for Promotion of Domestic Manufacturing
Approval obtained under the PLI Scheme for Promotion of Domestic Manufacturing of key critical Key Starting Materials (KSMs)/Drug Intermediates and APIs.
The PLI scheme provides production-related incentives to boost domestic manufacturing and attract large amounts of investment, such as mobile phone manufacturing, specified electronic components, pharmaceuticals, food processing, solar photovoltaic manufacturing, medical equipment and other fields.
In the pharmaceutical field, the Department of Pharmaceutical has launched the PLI scheme, which aims to achieve self-sufficiency and reduce dependence on these critical Bulk Drugs – Key Starting Materials (KSMs)/Drug Intermediates and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) countries.
Rapid Assessment System for Feedback Process
The Government uses MEITY’s Rapid Assessment System (RAS) to process feedback on Covid vaccination.
“Rapid Assessment System (RAS)” is a platform developed by the National e-Governance Division, Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY) to obtain feedback from vaccinated people.
The plan aims to improve citizens’ vaccination experience while ensuring compliance with all norms during vaccination process in all vaccination centers.
This feedback system will help the Government make the vaccination process more citizen-friendly.
RAS was developed for online instant feedback (online or offline through the counter) of online e-services provided by the Indian Government and State Governments.
The main goal of RAS is to continuously evaluate the quality of e-services through feedback under each e-governance project, and to re-adjust the process to achieve the target benefits.
The RAS interface prompts citizens to provide feedback on service quality immediately after obtaining government electronic services.
The analysis function of RAS can help the integration department to improve the system and provide better services.