☑️Daily Current Affairs 16 January 2021
◾️Petroleum & Natural Gas Ministry launches SAKSHAM campaign to spread awareness about green energy
The Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry launched month-long mass awareness campaign 'SAKSHAM' to spread awareness about green and clean energy. The pan-India campaign will focus on adoption of cleaner fuels. The Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Tarun Kapoor launched the campaign in New Delhi.
The campaign will spread awareness about seven key drivers that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had recently mentioned. They include moving towards a gas-based economy, cleaner use of fossil fuels, greater reliance on domestic sources to drive bio-fuels and increased use of electric vehicles.
🔸About Petroleum & Natural Gas Ministry:
➖The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MOP&NG) is a ministry of the Government of India. It is responsible for the exploration, production, refining, distribution, marketing, import, export, and conservation of petroleum, natural gas, petroleum products, and liquefied natural gas in India.
➖The ministry is headed by the Cabinet Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Dr M M Kutty is the Secretary of the Ministry.
🔹Important areas of work allocated to the Ministry
➖Exploration and exploitation of petroleum resources, including natural gas.
➖Production, supply distribution, marketing and pricing of petroleum including natural gas and petroleum products.
Oil refineries, including Lube plants.
➖Additives for petroleum and petroleum products.
Lube blending and greases.
➖Planning, development and control of, and assistance to all industries dealt with by the Ministry.
➖All attached or subordinate offices or other organisations concerned with any of the subject specified in this list.
➖Planning, development and regulation of oilfield services.
➖Public sector projects failing under the subjects included in this list,
➖Engineers India limited and IBP Company. together with its subsidiaries, except such projects as are specifically allotted to any other Ministry/Dept,
➖Administration of various Central laws relating to Petroleum and Natural Gas.
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☑️Daily Current Affairs 16 January 2021
◾️Railway Ministry rolls out new iron ore policy governing allocation of rakes, transportation of iron ore
Ministry of Railways rolled out a new iron ore policy governing allocation of rakes and transportation of iron ore. The Policy aims to attune it to the present day needs of customers and to meet the complete requirement of transportation of iron ore customers. It will provide total logistics support to steel industry to meet the competitive challenges. The new policy has been named as Iron-ore Policy 2021 and will come into effect from 10th Feburary this year.
Production of steel is critically dependent on transportation of iron and other raw materials. The policy sets down clear guidelines on how to fully meet the requirement of customers by leveraging infrastructure facilities available at loading and unloading ends to the fullest.
Railways Ministry said, Iron-ore is the second most important stream of traffic of Railways and along with steel accounts for nearly 17 per cent of total one thousand 210 million tonne freight loading in 2019-20. The new policy is expected to have positive impact on the steel industry, provide powerful impetus to the core sector of the economy and boost country’s economic growth.
🔸Details About Ministry of Railway:
➖The Ministry of Railways is a ministry in the Government of India, responsible for the country's rail transport. The ministry operates the state-owned Indian Railways, an organisation that operates as a monopoly in rail transport and is headed by the Chairman of Railway Board. The Ministry of Railways along with the Railway Board is housed inside Rail Bhavan in New Delhi.
➖Current Minister of Railways: Piyush Goyal (September 2017 – Present)
➖Formed on March 1905
➖Annual budget: ₹72,216 crore (US$10 billion)
➖Headquarters: New Delhi
🔸Present Members of Railway Board:
➖Chairman of Railway Board and Chief Executive Officer: Suneet Sharma
➖Member Infrastructure: Pradeep Kumar
➖Member (Traction and Rolling stock): Rajesh Tiwari
➖Member (Operation and Business development): P.S. Mishra
➖Member (Finance): Mr. Naresh Salecha (L/A)
➖Finance Commissioner: Position abolished
➖Secretary: Sushant Kumar Mishra
🔸 History of Ministry of Railway
➖In 1901, on the recommendations of Sir Thomas Robertson Committee regarding the administration and working of the railways, an early version of the railway board was constituted. It initially had three members.
➖In 1905, its powers were formalised by Lord Curzon's government. Its membership consisted of a Government Railway official, who was the Chairman of the Board, a Railway Manager from England and an Agent of a Company Railway. The Board was placed under the Department of Commerce and Industry of the British Indian Government.
➖In 1921, a reorganisation of the Railway Board was carried out, and a Chief Commissioner of Railways was appointed, who was solely responsible to the Government for decisions on technical matters and for advising the Government on matters of policy.
➖In April, 1951 the post of Chief Commissioner was abolished and the senior-most functional member was appointed the Chairman of the Board, resulting in a membership of four.
➖On 24 December 2019, the Union Cabinet decided to reduce the size of the board from eight to five. It also decided to merge its different cadres into a single Railway Management Service. The newly constituted Board will have Members for "Operation,[sic] Business Development, Human Resources, Infrastructure and Finance".
➖The Modi government on 21 September 2016 approved merger of the rail and general budgets from 2017, ending a 92-year-old practice of a separate budget.
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☑️Daily Current Affairs 16 January 2021
◾️Prime Minister Narendra Modi launches World's largest COVID-19 vaccination drive in the country
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India's COVID 19 vaccination campaign is based on very humane principles and those exposed to maximum risk get priority. Launching the world's largest COVID-19 vaccination program through video conferencing, Mr Modi stressed that this type of large-scale vaccination campaign has never before been run in history. He pointed out that India is vaccinating three crore people in its first phase of vaccination. Mr Modi added that in the second phase, 30 crore people will be vaccinated. He said there are only three countries in the world with a population over 300 million - India, China and the US.
The Prime Minister praised those scientists who had been involved in making the vaccine against Corona for the past several months. He exuded pride how two Made in India vaccines were readied in such a short period. Mr Modi said Indian vaccines are much cheaper than foreign vaccines but are equally good. He said there are some vaccines abroad whose single dose costs up to 5,000 rupees and have to be kept in freeze at minus 70 degree temperature. He said India's vaccines enjoy global credibility because of their track record. The Prime Minister said scientists gave nod to the two made-in-India vaccines after being sure of their effects, and asked people to not heed rumours and propaganda.
Mr Modi highlighted the need to have two doses of corona vaccine. Between the first and second doses, a gap of about one month will be kept. The body will develop the immunity against the corona only 2 weeks after the second dose. The Prime Minister gave the mantra of "Dawai Bhi, Kadaai Bhi" and requested people to not make the mistake of taking off the mask and not maintaining social distancing after getting the first dose.
He said India's fight against COVID 19 has been one of self-confidence and self-reliance. Mr Modi got emotional while talking about the hardships faced by healthcare and frontline workers during the pandemic. He said the whole world is today accepting the manner in which India has dealt with the pandemic. He said India also set the example in front of the world how Center and state governments, local bodies, government and social institutions can work better by uniting.
➖CEO and Owner of the Serum Institute of India Mr. Adar Poonawalla who was also administered the Covishield vaccine has thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for launching the world's largest vaccination drive against Coronavirus. Mr.Poonawalla was given the vaccine at his office in Pune.
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✅Daily Current Affairs 16 January 2021
◾️Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda to receive SKOCH Challenger Award
Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda will virtually receive SKOCH Challenger Award conferred to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs for e-Governance tomorrow. The award has been given to the Ministry for its IT-led initiatives and other transformational initiatives leading to outcome-based performance improvement.
The Ministry of Tribal Affairs has taken up several transformational initiatives recently. It has digitalised all the processes leading to a paperless office, monitoring is data driven and a performance dashboard is d on a real time basis. There is transparency with tribal related data available in the public domain.
Mr Arjun Munda said, there is a dramatic change in the approach to policy making and action. He said, the government wants evidence-based policy making which will be realistic and address the problems of tribals at the grass root.
🔸 About Ministry of Tribal Affairs:
The Ministry of Tribal Affairs, a branch of Government of India, looks after the affairs of the tribal communities in India.
➖Headquarters: New Delhi
➖Annual budget: ₹6,000 crore (US$840 million) (2018-19 est.)
➖Cabinet Minister: Arjun Munda
➖Minister of State: Renuka Singh Saruta
➖Agency executive: Deepak Khandekar, Secretary, IAS
🔸 History of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs:
The ministry was set up in 1999 after the bifurcation of Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (India) to have a more focused approach on the integrated socio-economic development of the Scheduled Tribes (STs), the most underprivileged of the Indian Society. Before the formation of the ministry the tribal Affairs was being handled by different ministries which were:
➖As a Division of the Ministry of Home Affairs known as Tribal Division since after independence up to September 1985.
➖Ministry of Welfare: From September 1985 to May 1998.
➖Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment from May 1998 to September 1999.
🔸Functions of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs:
➖Tribal Welfare-Planning, Policy formulation, Research and Training.
➖Tribal development including scholarships to STs.
➖Promotion of voluntary efforts in development of STs.
➖Administrative Ministry with respect to matters concerning Scheduled Areas.
➖The Ministry of Tribal Affairs is the Nodal Ministry for overall policy, planning and coordination of programmes of development for Scheduled Tribes.
🔸Organisations of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs:
Ministry has one Commission, One Public Sector Undertaking and one Co-operative Society under its administrative control, namely :
➖National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST)
➖National Scheduled Tribes Finance and Development Corporation (NSTFDC)
➖Tribal Co-operative Marketing Federation of India (TRIFED)
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