First World Solar Technology Summit

Why in News ?

International Solar Alliance (ISA) organised first World Solar Technology Summit and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will deliver the inaugural address. It will be conducted on 8th September this year.

Objective of the meet

• To bring the spotlight on state-of-the-art technologies.
• To develop technologies for efficient solar energy production.

About the Event

The event will hold four technical sessions

• Session -1 : Vision 2030 & Beyond: The overall context of PV technology development and its future.
• Session -2 : Towards a Decarbonised Grid: The most recent advancesregarding key components such as PV modules and storage technologies.
• Session -3 : Disruptive Solar Technologies: On-grid application.
• Session -4 : Solar Beyond the Power Sector: Innovative applications where PV is used to move, heat, cool, and drive eco-friendly industrial processes

Solar Photovoltaic Technology

• The technology used for the process of converting light/photon to electricity/voltage.
• The technology used to generate power through solar cells and solar cells were being used to power space satellites.
• In fact the method of generating the electricity is costly as compared to other method and it need more research to made it affordable.
• Vast majority of today’s solar cells are made from silicon.
• Next generation technologies may offer lower costs, greater ease of manufacture, or other benefits and ongoing research for developing such cells.

International Solar Alliance

• It aims at lowering the cost of technology and finance.
• Member countries. pledged to deployment of over 1,000 GW of solar energy and mobilize more than USD 1,000 billion into solar power by 2030.
• Solar is key source of affordable and reliable energy and play significant role in achieving the universal energy access goal (SDG 7)
• Member countries : 67 countries have signed and ratified the ISA Framework Agreement.
• Major programmes under ISA are
  • Scaling Solar Application for agricultural use
  • Affordable Finance at Scale
  • Solar Mini Grids
  • Scaling Solar Rooftops
  • Solar E-mobility & Storage
  • Large-Scale Solar Parks

Source : PIB

Topic : GS III :- Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.

                    GS III :- Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life.

Reservation based on birth place : Madhya Pradesh

Why in News ?

Madhya Pradesh government’s decision to give government jobs only to children of the state but not given details of the proposal.

Constitutional Validity

Article 16 says Equality of opportunity in matters of public employment

Article 16 (1) There shall be equality of opportunity for all citizens in matters relating to employment or appointment to any office under the State

Article 16 (2) No citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place of birth, residence or any of them, be ineligible for, or discriminated against in respect or, any employment or office under the State

Constitution specifically prohibits discrimination based on place of birth and the decision is not constitutionally valid. It violates constitutional guarantees made to citizens against discrimination.

Various Verdict

Allahabad High Court 2019 : Struck down a recruitment notification issued by the Uttar Pradesh Subordinate Service Selection Commission, which prescribed preference for women who were original residents of the state.

Supreme Court 2002 : Rejected the appointment of government teachers in Rajasthan, where the state selection board gave preference to applicants belonging to the district or the rural areas of the district concerned.

K.C. Vasanth Kumar v. State of Karnataka 1985 : Supreme Court has suggested that the reservations in favour of backward classes must be based on the mean test. The policy of reservations should be reviewed every five years or so and if a class has reached up to that level where it does not need the reservation. Its name should be deleted from the list of backward classes.

States barring Employment

1. Maharashtra : only those living in the state for over 15 years with fluency in Marathi are eligible.
2. Jammu and Kashmir : Government jobs are reserved for “domiciles
3. Uttarakhand : Recruits residents of the state in some posts.
4. West Bengal : Reading and writing skills in Bengali is a criterion in recruitment to some posts.

What can be done ?

The move for such reservation is against the constitution. Even the reservation provided to many classes should be reviewed every five years and if the classes reached a level that they does not need reservation it should be removed.

Source : Indian Express

Topic : GS :- Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

No need to audit PM-CARES : SC

Why in News?

Supreme Court dismisses plea to transfer money to National Disaster Relief Fund and declared that no need to audit PM-CARES. PM CARES Fund was set up in March during the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

What PIL Says and other concerns

• The PIL seeks to transfer voluntary funds from PM CARES to the NDRF that can be Helpful for tackling COVID-19 crisis.
• PM CARES is not subject to audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General but by private auditors.
• The contributions under PM-CARES are 100% tax free and also not under public scrutiny.
• Questions the need for creating a reserve when Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund is already in existence.
• In one and a half months the fund received thousands of crores worth of donations including unlimited tax-free contributions from major corporates.

SC observations

• No institutions and individual can be prohibited to make contributions to the PM CARES Fund.
• The Centre will be free to transfer funds to NDRF as it deems appropriate and solely rely on Government.
• SC rejected the need for a fresh national disaster management plan to tackle COVID­19 challenges.
• Court also rejected the idea that the PM CARES was constituted to circumvent the NDRF already in existence under the Disaster Management Act of 2005 to receive contributions to finance the fight against a calamity.

National Disaster Relief Fund vs PM-CARES

• NDRF constituted under Section 46 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 a statutory fund. At the same time PM-CARES has no statutory backing.
• NDRF has budgetary backing but PM-CARES do not have any backing.
• The funds collected under NDRF will be subject to a statutory audit by the CAG but PM-CARES do not have CAG audit and audited by private auditors.

About Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund

• It was set up in January 1948 to accept public contributions for the assistance of Partition refugees.
• Currently it is used to provide aid for the families of those who died in natural calamities, accidents or riot.
• A joint secretary in the PMO administers the fund on an honorary basis.
• In 1985 previous committee constituted for the management of PMNRF transfer the authority to PM.
• Data shows that the fund has an unspent balance of Rs. 3,800 crore.

What need to be done?

• It should be comes under the ambit of RTI because RTI definition covers organisations financed substantially by the government, including non-governmental organisations.
• It should be comes under the audit of CAG instead of private auditors.

Must Read : PM Cares Fund RTI

Source : The Hindu

Topic : GS II :- Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability

Digital Quality of Life Index 2020 Released by SurfShark

Why in news ? 

SurfShark Digital Quality of Life Index 2020 which researches on the quality of a digital well being in 85 countries. India ranks among the lowest in the world in terms of Internet quality.

Digital Quality of Life Index 2020

• A virtual private network (VPN) provider based in the British Virgin Islands.
• It seeks to rank countries on,
  • Internet affordability and quality
  • Electronic infrastructure
  • Security and government.
• All parameters have equal weightage.
• Canada stands out as a country with the highest digital quality of life.

India’s Performance

• India occupies 79th place ranking below countries including Guatemala and Sri Lanka.
• India makes it into the top 10 in terms of Internet affordability it outperforms countries such as the U.K., the U.S. and China.
• For e-governance India occupies the 15th place globally, just below countries like New Zealand and Italy.
• India is at the bottom of the pillar with unstable and slow mobile Internet ranked at 78.
• India performed poorly ranking at 57th position in Security.

Performance of other Countries

• Highest digital quality of life are in Europe, with Denmark leading among 85 countries and first seven countries from Europe.
• Canada stands out as a country with the highest digital quality of life in the America.
• Japan takes the leading position in Asia.
• South Africa enjoy the highest quality of digital lives in Africa.

Source : The Hindu

Topic   : Prelims, GS III :- Awareness in the fields of IT and Computers

Atal ranking ARIIA 2020 Highlights

Why in News ?

The Atal Rankings of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA) 2020 has been released.

What is ARIIA?

• It is an initiative of Ministry of Education (key player among others) to systematically rank all major higher educational institutions and universities in India.
• ARIIA is an initiative of the Ministry of HRD, implemented by AICTE and Ministry’s Innovation Cell, Government of India
• The other six categories (earlier five) are centrally funded institutions, state-funded universities, state-funded autonomous institutions, private/deemed universities, private institutions and women only higher educational institutions.
• The major indicators for ARIIA
  1. Budget, Expenses to Support & Revenue Generated (20 Marks)
  2. Infrastructures & Facilities to Support Innovations and Start-ups (10 Marks)
  3. Awareness Activities for Promoting Idea Generation and Innovation (20 Marks)
  4. Promotion and Supporting Entrepreneurship Development (20 Marks)
  5. Intellectual Property (IP) Generation, Technology Transfer and Commercialisation (14 Marks)
  6. Innovative Learning Methods & Courses (10 Marks)
  7. Innovations in Governance of the Institution (6 Marks)

Atal Ranking Highlights

• IIT-Madras has emerged as the best institute under the institute of national importance category.
• Best institutes in self-finance category In Self-finance institutes, SR Engineering College, Telangana.
• Avinashlingam Institute of Home Science and Higher education best women only institute Taminadu
• College of Engineering, Pune under Government and Government Aided Colleges.
• Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Bhubaneswar under Private or Self-Financed Universities.
• Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai got the top position under Government and Government Aided Universities.

Source : PIB

Topic : Prelims, GS :- Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources