Current Affairs 23 April 2021 – IAS Current Affairs

Current Affairs 23 April 2021  focuses on Prelims-Mains perspective. Major events are :

1. FOSS4GOV Innovation Challenge
2. Van Dhan Vikas Yojana

FOSS4GOV Innovation Challenge

Why in News ?

To increase awareness about the usage of FOSS in governance and Government functioning, and adoption of FOSS, a virtual roundtable discussion Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in Government was organised by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY)

Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)

• Free and open-source software (FOSS) allows users and programmers modify software code.
  • This gives developers the opportunity to improve program functionality by modifying it.
  • The software does not have copyright issues.
• The source code is licensed free of charge, encouraging modifications and improvements.

Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) innovations in India

• India’s huge potential of FOSS, the Government of India had issued a Policy on Adoption of Open Source Software in 2015.
• FOSS4GOV Innovation Challenge which will harness the innovation potential of the FOSS community and start-ups to solve for critical issues in Government Technological issues.
• The #FOSS4GOVInnovation Challenge calls upon FOSS innovators, technology entrepreneurs and Indian Startups to submit implementable open source product innovations
  • These innovations mainly focussed in CRM and ERP with possible applications for Govtech in Health, Education, Agriculture, Urban Governance etc.
• Participants to be eligible for incubation support, prize money, mentorship by domain experts, institutional support from eminent organizations for incubation of ideas and listing of solutions on GeM.

Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) Need

• Provides interesting tools and processes with which women and men can create, exchange, share and exploit software and knowledge efficiently
• It can be considered to be a practical tool for the development of innovation as its provides free and open aspirations. 
• Open source software can help you minimise expenses as licensing fees and maintenance fees.

Challenges Ahead

• The conventional software developing firm will loss their hand in the market as the FOSS challenges them directly. 
• The system of copyright and trademark will be questionable leads to difficulty Managing Licenses
• Open-source platforms can increase the risk of security breaches and this should be taken care of.
• Compatibility issues may arise with hardware specifications.
• The code availability to anyone may lead to exploitation .

Source : PIB

GS III : Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology, bio-technology and issues relating to intellectual property rights

Van Dhan Vikas Yojana

Why in News ?

Progress made by TRIFED in various areas including setting up of Van Dhan Vikas Kendras, MSP for MFP programme and retail of Handlooms and Handicrafts

Van Dhan Vikas Yojana

• Van Dhan Scheme is an initiative of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and TRIFED launched in April 2018 aims to improve the tribal economy through various product marketing and production.
  • Ministry of Tribal Affairs as Nodal Department at the Central Level.
  • TRIFED as Nodal Agency at the National Level.
  • State level, the State Nodal Agency for MFPs and the District collectors.
  • At local levels Kendras are proposed to be managed by a Managing Committee.
• Establishment of “Van Dhan Vikas Kendra” is for providing skill upgradation and capacity building training.
  • Training and technical support is provided by TRIFED.
  • It is proposed to develop 3,000 such centres in the country.
• TRIFED spearheads implementation of the Van Dhan programme in 27 States and 307 Districts with availability of MFPs(Minimum Forest Produce)  and significant forest dwelling tribal population.

Source : PIB

GS II :  Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes; mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections

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