PIB – 11 September 2021

13th BRICS SUMMIT

Focus: GS II- International Relations

Why in News?

Prime Minister chaired the 13th BRICS Summit virtually.

Details:

• Theme: BRICS@15: Intra-BRICS Cooperation for Continuity, Consolidation and Consensus.  
• The Summit saw the participation of all other BRICS Leaders – President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, President Vladimir Putin of Russia, President Xi Jinping of China, and President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa.
• Prime Minister expressed his appreciation for the cooperation received from BRICS partners during India’s Chairship this year, which allowed the achievement of several new initiatives.
• These included the first BRICS Digital Health Summit; the first BRICS Ministerial Joint Statement on multilateral reforms; a BRICS Counter-Terrorism Action Plan; an Agreement on cooperation in field of remote-sensing satellites; a virtual BRICS vaccine Research & Development Centre; BRICS Alliance on Green Tourism, etc.  
• Highlighting the leading role that BRICS countries can play in the post-COVID global recovery, Prime Minister called for enhanced BRICS cooperation under the motto of ‘Build-back Resiliently, Innovatively, Credibly and Sustainably’.  
• The leaders also discussed important regional and global issues, including recent developments in Afghanistan. 
• There was convergence of views on the threat posed by growth of terrorism and extremism, and all BRICS partners agreed to accelerate implementation of the BRICS Action Plan on Counter-Terrorism.
• At the conclusion of the Summit, the leaders adopted the ‘New Delhi Declaration’.

What is BRICS?

• BRICS is the international grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
• This was set up as a move towards greater multi­polarity; hence the spread across three continents and both hemispheres.
• In terms of GDP, China occupies the second position; India the fifth; Brazil the ninth; Russia the 11th; and South Africa the 35th.
• In terms of growth rates, China grew at 6%; India at 4.5%, Russia 1.7%, Brazil 1.2% and South Africa 0.1%.
• BRICS does not exist in form of organization, but it is an annual summit between the supreme leaders of five nations.
• The Chairmanship of the forum is rotated annually among the members, in accordance with the acronym B-R-I-C-S.
• The BRICS seeks to deepen, broaden and intensify cooperation within the grouping and among the individual countries for more sustainable, equitable and mutually beneficial development.
• BRICS takes into consideration each member’s growth, development and poverty objectives to ensure relations are built on the respective country’s economic strengths and to avoid competition where possible.
• BRICS is emerging as a new and promising political-diplomatic entity with diverse objectives, far beyond the original objective of reforming global financial institutions.

INDIAN RANKINGS 2021

Focus: GS II- Education

Why in News?

Union Education Minister released the India Rankings 2021 instituted by the National Institutional Ranking Framework. 

Key Highlights of India Rankings 2021:

• Indian Institute of Technology Madras retains 1st Position in Overall Category as well as in Engineering for the third consecutive year.
• Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru tops the University as well as Research Institution category introduced for the first time in India Rankings 2021.
• IIM Ahmedabad tops in Management subject and All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi occupies the top slot in Medical for the fourth consecutive year.
• Jamia Hamdard tops the list in Pharmacy subject for the third consecutive year.
• Miranda College retains 1st position amongst colleges for the fifth consecutive year.
• IIT Roorkee takes the top slot for the first time in Architecture subject displacing IIT Kharagpur.
• National Law School of India University, Bangalore retains its first position for in Law for the fourth consecutive years.
• Colleges in Delhi dominate ranking of colleges with five colleges out of first 10 colleges from Delhi.
• Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Manipal, secure 1st position in “Dental” category.

PM STREET VENDOR’S ATMANIRBHAR NIDHI (PM SVANIDHI)

Focus: GS-II Social Justice, GS-III India Economy

 Why in News?

Ministry of Housing and urban Affairs( MoHUA) in collaboration with the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) launched the pilot drive ‘Main Bhi Digital 3.0’ – A special Campaign for Digital Onboarding and Training for street vendors under PM SVANidhi scheme across 223 cities in the country.

•  The BharatPe, Mswipe, PhonePe, Paytm, Aceware are participating in this drive to issue UPI IDs, QR code and provide digital training.
• Digital Payment Aggregators will handhold the street vendors to bring about enhanced adoption of digital transactions and behaviour change. 
• To promote digital transactions instruction has been issued to the Lending Institutions (LIs) to handover a durable QR Code and train the beneficiaries for conducting digital receipt and payment transactions within a week of disbursement.

 PM Street Vendor’s Atmanitbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi)

• PM SVANidhi is a Special Micro-Credit Facility.
• PM SVANidhi was launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs for providing affordable Working Capital loan to street vendors to resume their livelihoods that have been adversely affected due to Covid-19 lockdown.
• Under the Scheme, the vendors can avail a working capital loan of up to Rs. 10,000, which is repayable in monthly instalments in the tenure of one year.
• The scheme promotes digital transactions through cash back incentives.
• Beneficiaries: 50 lakh Street Vendors.

 The eligible vendors are identified as per following criteria:

• Street vendors in possession of Certificate of Vending / Identity Card issued by Urban Local Bodies (ULBs);
• The vendors, who have been identified in the survey but have not been issued Certificate of Vending / Identity Card;
• Street Vendors, left out of the ULB led identification survey or who have started vending after completion of the survey and have been issued Letter of Recommendation (LoR) to that effect by the ULB / Town Vending Committee (TVC); and
• The vendors of surrounding development/ peri-urban / rural areas vending in the geographical limits of the ULBs and have been issued Letter of Recommendation (LoR) to that effect by the ULB / TVC.

 PM SVANidhi and SIDBI

• Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) is the Implementation Agency for PM Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi)
• SIDBI will also manage the credit guarantee to the lending institutions through Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE).
• SIDBI will leverage the network of lending Institutions like Non-Bank Finance Companies (NBFCs), Co-operative Banks etc., for the Scheme implementation.

 Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE)

• The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, GoI and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), established a Trust named Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) to implement the Credit Guarantee Fund Scheme for Micro and Small Enterprises.
• Beneficiaries: New and existing Micro and Small Enterprises engaged in manufacturing or service activity excluding Educational Institutions, Agriculture, Self Help Groups (SHGs), Training Institutions etc., are eligible.
• Fund and non-fund based (Letters of Credit, Bank Guarantee etc.) credit facilities up to Rs 200 lakh per eligible borrower are covered under the guarantee scheme provided they are extended on the project viability without collateral security or third-party guarantee.

E-SHRAM PORTAL

Focus: GS II- Government policies and Interventions

 Why in News?

The Ministry of Labour Welfare and Employment is organizing various camps for registration of the unorganized workers on the E-shram portal.

About the E-Shram Portal

• With the help of the E-Shram Portal, the government aims to register 38 crore unorganized workers, such as construction labourers, migrant workforce, street vendors and domestic workers, among others.
• The workers will be issued an e-Shram card containing a 12-digit unique number, which, going ahead, will help in including them in social security schemes.
• The government had earlier missed deadlines for creating the database, inviting criticism from the Supreme Court.
• Targeted identification of the unorganized workers was a much-needed step and the portal which will be the national database of our nation builders will help take welfare schemes to their doorstep, who are the builders of our Nation.
• Targeted delivery and last mile delivery, has been a major focus of the schemes of government of India and the National Database of Unorganised workers (E-Shram portal) is another key step towards that.

ATAL INNOVATION MISSION

Focus: GS II- Government policies and Interventions

Why in News?

Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), NITI Aayog in collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) successfully launched the ATL Space Challenge 2021 for all school students across the country.

Details:

• The challenge has been designed for all the school students, mentors and teachers across the country who not only are associated with schools having ATL labs but for all the non ATL schools as well.
• This is to ensure that students of classes 6 to 12 are given an open platform where they can innovate and enable themselves to solve digital age space technology problems. 
• The ATL Space Challenge 2021 aligns with the World Space Week 2021 which is being observed from 4 to 10 October each year at the global level in order to celebrate the contributions of space science and technology.
• The aim of this challenge is to enable innovation among young school students to create something in space sector that will not only help them learn about the space but create something that space programme can use itself.
• The Space Challenge perfectly aligns with the objective of the nation-wide Mahotsav and support the young innovators and introduce them to newer technologies and skills.
• Students can create a solution that can be implemented and adopted leveraging technologies such as:

1. Explore Space

2. Reach Space

3. Inhabit Space

4. Leverage Space

About Atal Innovation Mission

AIM is Government of India’s flagship initiative to promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in the country.

Major Initiatives:

• Atal Tinkering Labs: Creating problem solving mindset across schools in India.
• Atal Incubation Centers: Fostering world class startups and adding a new dimension to the incubator model.
• Atal New India Challenges: Fostering product innovations and aligning them to the needs of various sectors/ministries.
• Mentor India Campaign: A national mentor network in collaboration with the public sector, corporates and institutions, to support all the initiatives of the mission.
• Atal Community Innovation Centre: To stimulate community centric innovation and ideas in the unserved /underserved regions of the country including Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
• Atal Research and Innovation for Small Enterprises (ARISE): To stimulate innovation and research in the MSME industry.