Latest changes to Aadhaar
- The Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2019, was passed by the parliament.
- The existing Act provides for the use of Aadhaar number as proof of identity of a person, subject to authentication.
- Authentication involves submitting the Aadhaar number and biometric information.
- The Bill additionally allows ‘offline verification’ of an individual’s identity, without authentication, through modes specified by UIDAI.
- The act provides that an individual may voluntarily use his Aadhaar number to establish his identity, by authentication or offline verification.
- The authentication of an individual’s identity via Aadhaar, for any service, may be made mandatory only by a law of Parliament.
- The Bill amends this to allow such disclosure on directions of officers not below the rank of a Secretary.
- UIDAI Fund- Under the existing Act, all fees and revenue collected by the UIDAI will be credited to the Consolidated Fund of India.
- The Bill removes this provision, and creates the Unique Identification Authority of India Fund.
- All fees, grants, and charges received by the UIDAI shall be credited to this fund.
- The fund shall be used for expenses of the UIDAI, including salaries and allowances of its employees.
- Complaints- Under the existing Act, courts can take cognizance of an offence only if the UIDAI registers a complaint.
- The Billamends this to allow the individual to register complaints in certain cases.
- It includes impersonation or disclosure of their identity.
- Use of Aadhaar- The existing Act allowed State or a corporate entity under any law to use Aadhaar.
- The Bill replaces this bit and allows the UIDAI to decide whether an entity can use Aadhaar.
Gaganyaan - National Advisory Council
- Gaganyaan is a India’s manned mission to space.
- It is a crewed orbital spacecraft which is expected to carry three people into the space for seven days.
- The mission is on track to be realized by the 75th Independence day or earlier.
- A “Gaganyaan National Advisory Council” has been created with members from different institutions and industries.
- The council comprises of,
- Secretaries of Department of Space, Science and Technology, Defence Research and Development, Scientific and Industrial Research
- Principal Scientific Advisor to PM
- Senior Officials from Armed Forces, Indian Coast Guard
- Former Chairman of ISRO
- Member of Space Commission
- Former Director of Aeronautical Development Agency
- Former Indian Astronaut
- Directors of Premier Academic and Research Institutions and Heads of various Indian Industries.
- The council will discuss on the overall project status of Gaganyaan, covering technical details as well as collaboration with various national stake holders.
- It set priorities at various National Institutions including Industries to accomplish Gaganyaan.
Study in India
- The ‘Study in India’ is a programme of HRD Ministry.
- Its objectives-
- To make India a preferred education destination for foreign students.
- To improve the soft power of India with focus on the neighbouring countries and use it as a tool in diplomacy.
- To double India’s market share of global education exports from less than 1 % to 2 %.
- To reduce the export, Import imbalance in the number of International students.
- To boost the number of inbound International students in India.
- Increase in contribution of international student in the form of direct spends, indirect spends, spillover effects.
- Increase in global ranking of India as educational destination.
- Growth of India’s global market share of International students.
- Fee waivers are proposed to meritorious foreign students.
- It also envisages setting up of call centres for support, algorithm for allocation of seats to the meritorious candidates.
- This programme will also act as a source of Forex.
- Study in India is helmed by EdCIL (Educational Consultants of India), a Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSE).
- It’s under the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India.
- It is a joint initiative of Ministry of HRD, Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
Operation Thirst
- The ‘Railway Protection Force’(RPF), Ministry of Railways launched “Operation Thirst”.
- It is an all India Drive to crack down selling of unauthorised Packaged Drinking Water.
- Almost all major stations over Indian Railway were covered during this operation.
- The bottles of unauthorised Packaged Drinking Water (PDW) have been seized under section 144 and section 153 of Indian Railway Act.
International Cooperation Scheme
- The Scheme is implemented by ‘Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises’(MSME).
- It’s objective,
- is to enhance the competency of MSMEs,
- Capturing new markets for their products,
- exploring new technologies for improving manufacturing capacity.
- The Scheme covers the following activities,
- Visit of MSME business delegations to other countries to international exhibitions, trade fairs for exploring new areas of technology up-gradation, facilitating joint ventures.
- Holding international Conferences and Seminars on topics and themes of interest to the Indian MSMEs.
- Visit and participation by Indian MSMEs for improving market for MSMEs products, foreign collaborations.
- It will provide financial assistance on reimbursement basis to the eligible,
- State/Central Government Organisations
- Registered Industry Associations,
- societies/trusts associated with promotion and development of MSME sector.
- Government Institutions and Registered Industry Associations associated with promotion and development of MSME sector can apply for financial assistance.
Source: Indian Express, PIB
