Current Affairs 2 June 2021 – IAS Current Affairs

Current Affairs 2 June 2021  focuses on Prelims-Mains perspective. Major events are :

1. One Nation One Standard
2. Production Linked Incentive Scheme of Pharmaceuticals
3. Government e-Marketplace Railway Procurement

Prelims

1. World Milk Day

One Nation One Standard

Source : PIB
GS II : Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation

Key Facts

• This unique initiative of two organizations under GOI is going to set a template for all the rest of leading research and standard development organizations in the country to follow and adapt World Class Standards.
• National Standards Body, has launched a scheme which provides for Recognition of SDO.
• In the process, RDSO reviewed its Standard Formulation procedures to realign them with the Best Practices of Standardization.
  • Encoded in the WTO-TBT Code of Good Practice
  • Also mandated by the Bureau (BIS) as essential criteria for recognition as SDO.

One Nation One Standard

• Aims to ensure quality products in the country.
• The purpose is to converge multiple standards with the BIS which is a recognised national body for standardisation in India.
• The uniform national standards will help in making it mandatory for more products.

Research Design & Standards Organization

• To enforce standardisation and co-ordination amongst various railway systems were integrated into a single unit named Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO) in 1957.
• It is the under Ministry of Railways at Lucknow.
• It is the one of India’s leading Standard formulating Body undertaking standardization work for railway sector.

Production Linked Incentive Scheme of Pharmaceuticals

Source : Indian Express
GS II : Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate

Key Facts

• The approved outlay of the scheme is Rs 15000 crore.
• Operational guidelines for the Production Linked Incentive Scheme have been prepared and the scheme is now open to applications from the industry.
• Applications are invited in three groups based on the Global Manufacturing Revenue.
  • A maximum of 55 applicants will be selected under the scheme.
  • The applicants will be required to achieve minimum cumulative investment per year over a period of 5 years.
• The eligible products have been categorised into three categories.
  • Products covered under the scheme are formulations, bio-pharmaceuticals, active pharmaceutical ingredients, key starting material, drug intermediates, in-vitro diagnostic medical devices, etc.
  • Category-1 and Category-2 products attract 10% incentive.
  • Category-3 products attract 5% incentive.
• Selected manufacturers will be able to receive production linked incentives based on incremental sales of pharmaceutical products for a period of 6 years.
  • A selected participant will be able to get a maximum incentive of Rs 1000 crore, Rs 250 crore and Rs 50 crore respectively.
• An Empowered Group of Secretaries will undertake periodic reviews of the scheme to ensure its smooth implementation along with the other PLI schemes of the Govt. of India.
• Technical Committee will assist the department in all technical issues which arise during the implementation of the scheme.
• SIDBI, the Project management Agency selected for this scheme, will be responsible for implementation and will be the interface with the industry

SIDBI : Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) set up on 2nd April 1990 under an Act of Indian Parliament. Acts as the Principal Financial Institution for Promotion,Financing and Development of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) sector.

Indian Pharmaceutical Sector

• India ranks 3rd worldwide for pharmaceutical production by volume and 14th by value.
  • India is the largest provider of generic drugs globally.
  • Indian pharmaceutical sector supplies over 50% of global demand for various vaccines, 40% of generic demand in the US and 25% of all medicine in the UK.
  • Over 80% of the antiretroviral drugs used globally to combat AIDS are supplied by Indian pharmaceutical firms.
• Indian Economic Survey 2021, the domestic market is expected to grow 3x in the next decade.
• Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy in the pharmaceutical sector up to 100% under the automatic route for manufacturing of medical devices subject to certain conditions.

Government e-Marketplace Railway Procurement

Source : PIB
GS II : Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation

Key Facts

• Integration of GeM with the Railway e-procurement system towards the Unified Procurement System for buyers should be done expeditiously.
• There are over 52 thousand buyers and over 18.75 lakh sellers registered on the portal.
  • Its order value reached Rs 38620 crore in FY 2020-21.
• GeM has taken several covid-19 related initiatives, which includes prioritization of products/brand approval for the categories.
• New features and functionalities have been rolled out based on feedback from both Buyers and Sellers:
  • Various new bidding formats including Custom Item Bidding, BoQ-based bidding, Capacity based Bidding.
  • Procurement of Installation, Commissioning, Training and AMC/CMC along with Milestone-based payments.
  • Introduction of Interest penalty on Buyers for delayed payments.
  • Revamped Seller Ratings System

What is Government e-Marketplace ?

• Government e-Market Place hosted by Directorate General of Supplies and Disposals where common user goods and services.
• GeM is a user friendly portal for making procurement by Government officers.
• Public procurement forms a very important part of Government activity and reform in Public Procurement.

Public procurement refers to the process by which governments and state-owned enterprises purchase goods and services from the private sector.

• It aims to transform the way in which procurement of goods and services is done by the Government Ministries and Departments, Public Sector Undertakings and other apex autonomous bodies of the Central Government.
• Transparency in Procurement
  • GeM eliminates human interface in vendor registration, order placement and payment processing, to a great extent.
  • GeM is a completely paperless, cashless and system driven e-market place.
• National eGovernance Division (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology) has developed GeM portal for procurement of both Products & Services.

Prelims

World Milk Day

• The international day established by the Food and Agriculture Organization.
• The day is intended to provide an opportunity to bring attention to activities that are connected with the dairy sector.
• India for ensuring availability of quality fodder and feed for the cattle nutrition through Pashuaadhar
• MFAHD has scheme for developing infrastructure under Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF) under AtmaNirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.

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