Daily Current Affairs 22 March 2024 – IAS Current Affairs

Current Affairs 22 March 2024 focuses on the Prelims-Mains perspective. Major events are:

National Internet Exchange of India and BhashaNet portal

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

Overview

1. News in Brief
2. About BhashaNet portal
3. National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI)

Why in the News?

Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) have announced the launch of the BhashaNet portal.

News in Brief

• The event was held with the active support of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
• The event marked a significant milestone in advancing digital inclusion and promoting Universal Acceptance across India.
• The theme of the event, “BhashaNet: Impetus Towards Universal Acceptance,” highlighted MeitY/NIXI’s unwavering commitment towards ensuring that, regardless of linguistic or textual barriers, everyone can fully participate in the digital world.

About BhashaNet portal

• The BhashaNet portal, a joint initiative by
  • National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI)
  • Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)
• It was unveiled at the Universal Acceptance (UA) Day event on March 21, 2024.
• This launch marks a significant step towards promoting digital inclusion and linguistic diversity in India.
• Portal aims to bridge the digital divide and ensure that everyone, irrespective of their language or script, can access and benefit from digital services.

Universal Acceptance
Concept that aims to ensure that all domain names and email addresses, regardless of language or script, can be used by all internet-enabled applications, devices, and systems.

National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI)

• NIXI is a not-for-profit Organization under section 8 of the Companies Act 2013.
• It was registered on 19th June 2003.
• NIXI was set up for peering of ISPs among themselves to route the domestic traffic within the country, instead of taking it to the US/Abroad, thereby resulting in better quality of service (reduced latency) and reduced bandwidth charges for ISPs by saving on International Bandwidth.
• NIXI is managed and operated on a Neutral basis, in line with the best practices for such initiatives globally.
• .IN is India’s Country Code Top Level domain (ccTLD).
• The Govt. of India delegated the operations of INRegistry to NIXI in 2004.
• Indian Registry for Internet Names and Numbers (IRINN) in India provides allocation and registration services of IP addresses and AS numbers.

Indian Registry for Internet Names and Numbers (IRINN)

• Govt. of India, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology endorsed the operations of the National Internet Registry (NIR) to National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI).
• NIR is entrusted with the task of coordinating IP Address allocation with other Internet resource management functions at national level in the country.
• The NIR has been named as Indian Registry for Internet Names and Numbers (IRINN).
• IRINN is a division functioning under NIXI and provides allocation and registration services of Internet Protocol addresses (IPv4 & IPv6) and Autonomous System numbers to its Affiliates.

Plastic Waste Management (Amendment) Rules 2024

Source: The Hindu
GS III: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment

Overview

1. News in Brief
2. Key Facts Plastic Waste Management (Amendment) Rules 2024

Why in the News?

The Environment Ministry has introduced rules that make it harder for makers of disposable plastic ware to label such products as ’biodegradable’, introducing a stipulation that they must not leave any microplastics behind.

News in Brief

• Biodegradable plastic and compostable plastic are projected as the two broad kinds of technological fixes to India’s burgeoning problem of plastic waste pollution.
• The provisions came into force on 14-3-2024.
• The amendments aim to enhance plastic waste management practices in the country.

Key Facts Plastic Waste Management (Amendment) Rules 2024

Change in Defenition

• Biodegradable plastics
  • This means plastics, other than compostable plastics, which undergo degradation by biological processes in specific environments such as soil, landfill, sewage sludge, fresh water, and marine, without leaving any microplastics or visible or distinguishable or toxic residue, which have adverse environmental impact.
• Importer
  • The earlier definition was only for plastic packaging/ carry bags or MLP, but now it includes various plastic resins/ Pellets/ intermediate materials used for manufacturing plastic packaging/films/ preforms for commercial use.
• Manufacturer
  • A person engaged in the production of plastic raw materials, including compostable plastics and biodegradable plastics.
  • Earlier, Compostable and Biodegradable plastic were not included
• Producer
  • Persons engaged in the manufacture of plastic packaging; and, include a person engaged in the manufacture of intermediate material to be used for manufacturing plastic packaging.
  • Also, the person engaged in contract manufacturing of products using plastic packaging or through other similar arrangements for a brand owner.
• Seller
  • This means a person who sells plastic raw materials such as resins or pellets or intermediate materials used for producing plastic packaging.
  • Now new entity Seller has been included in the definition.

Other Amendments

• Rule 4 relates to Conditions and the provision relating to selling of raw material has been revised. Earlier, only the producer who had a valid registration from the State Pollution Control Boards or Pollution Control Committee could get the raw materials from the manufacturer.
• Rule 7-A relating to the Responsibility of Panchayat at the District level has been inserted which lays down similar responsibilities the local body has to assess.
• Rule 11 on Marking or Labelling
  • The commodity made from compostable plastic will have to bear a label compostable only under industrial composting.
  • Shall conform to the Indian Standard: IS/ISO 17088:2021 titled as Specifications for Compostable Plastics.
  • The commodity made from biodegradable plastic will have to bear the label Biodegradable in, specify the number of days, only in the specified recipient environment such as soil, landfill, water etc.
• Manufacturer Commitment
  • Manufacturers of compostable plastic/ biodegradable plastic carry bags or commodities permitted under the rules, will have to obtain a certificate from the Central Pollution Control Board (‘CPCB’) before marketing or selling.
  • Manufacturers of compostable plastic/ biodegradable plastic will have to inform the CPCB, the quantity of such commodities introduced in the market and the pre-consumer waste generated by it.
• Duty of Local Body
  • The plastic waste generated.
  • Plastic waste management infrastructure is available for collection/ segregation/ processing and send a report to the State Pollution Control Board or Pollution Control Committee by 30th June of each year.
  • Measures to prevent stocking, distribution, sale and usage of prohibited single-use plastic items in their jurisdiction.

e-shram Portal

Source: PIB
GS II: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources

Overview

1. News in Brief
2. Salient features of e-Shram portal
3. Government schemes to the unorganised workers registered on e-Shram

Why in the News?

The government plans include unorganised workers registered on its e-Shram portal to opt for pension and health insurance schemes, as the Aadhaar-authenticated database with an estimated 300 million enrolments by December 2024 will likely form the basis for launching universal social security benefits in future.

News in Brief

• The Supreme Court (on March 19) directed the State Governments and Union Territories to grant ration cards to 8 crore workers in the Unorganised sector who, despite being registered under the center’s e-Shram portal, do not have these ration cards.
• This, in turn, will allow these workers to get the benefit of schemes by the Union of India and state governments, as well as the benefit of the National Food Security Act, 2013 (Act).
• The timeline given by the Court for the task is two months.

Salient features of e-Shram portal

• Ministry of Labour & Employment, Government of India launched e-Shram portal (eshram.gov.in) on 26th August 2021.
• It aims for the creation of a comprehensive National Database of Unorganised Workers verified and seeded with Aadhaar.
• e-Shram portal is meant to register and support unorganised workers by providing them a Universal Account Number (UAN).
• The Portal captures details of workers such as name, permanent address, current address, occupation, educational qualification, skill type etc.
• It allows registration under 30 broad occupation sectors and around 400 occupations.

Government schemes to the unorganised workers registered on e-Shram

• e-Shram has been integrated with the National Career Service (NCS) Portal. An unorganised worker can register on NCS using his/ her Universal Account Number (UAN) and search for suitable job opportunities. An option/ link has also been provided to the registrant on the portal to seamlessly register on NCS.
• Also integrated with the Pradhan Mantri Shram-yogi Maandhan (PM-SYM).
  • PM-SYM is a pension scheme for unorganised workers who are aged between 18-40 years.
  • Using UAN (eShram), any unorganised worker can easily register on Maandhan portal (maandhan.in).
• To provide skill enhancement and apprenticeship opportunities to unorganised workers, the portal has been integrated with the Skill India Digital portal of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.

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