PIB – 13 August 2021

ATMANIRBHAR NARISHAKTI SE SAMVAD

Focus: GS II- Welfare schemes

Why in News?

PM Modi interacted with women Self Help Group (SHG) members/community resource persons promoted under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) via video conferencing. 

• During the event, a compendium of success stories of women SHG members from all across the country, along with a handbook on universalization of farm livelihoods will also be released by the Prime Minister. 

Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihood Mission:

• It is a centrally sponsored programme, launched by the Ministry of Rural Development in June 2011.
• To eliminate rural poverty through the promotion of multiple livelihoods and improved access to financial services for the rural poor households across the country.
• To reach out to all rural poor households and impact their livelihoods.

The objective of the Mission is to promote sustainable livelihoods for the poor such that they come out of poverty. The institutions of the poor are intended to facilitate

• access to formal credit;
• support for diversification and strengthening of livelihoods;
• and access to entitlements and public services.

Functioning:

• It involves working with community institutions through community professionals in the spirit of self-help which is a unique proposition of DAY-NRLM.
• It impacts the livelihoods through universal social mobilization by inter alia organising one-woman member from each rural poor household into Self Help Groups (SHGs), their training and capacity building, facilitating their micro-livelihoods plans, and enabling them to implement their livelihoods plans through accessing financial resources from their own institutions and the banks.

 Implementation:

• It is implemented in a Mission mode by special purpose vehicles (autonomous state societies) with dedicated implementation support units at the national, state, district and block levels, using professional human resources in order to provide continuous and long-term handholding support to each rural poor family.

 SHANGHAI COOPERATION ORGANIZATION

Focus: GS II- International Groupings

Why in News?

Union Agriculture Minister addresses the Sixth Meeting of the Agriculture Ministers of Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s (SCO) Member States.

 About Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO);-

• It is a permanent intergovernmental international organization.
• It’s creation was announced on 15 June 2001 in Shanghai (China) by the Republic of Kazakhstan, the People’s Republic of China, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan, and the Republic of Uzbekistan.
• It was preceded by the Shanghai Five mechanism.
• The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Charter was signed during the St. Petersburg SCO Heads of State meeting in June 2002, and entered into force on 19 September 2003.
• The SCO’s official languages are Russian and Chinese.
• Its membership was expanded to include India and Pakistan in 2017.
• The SCO also has four observer states i.e. Afghanistan, Iran, Belarus and Mongolia,  which may be inducted at a later date.
• Headquarters:  Beijing, China.

Above Image includes all the SCO members.

Organizational Structure of SCO;-

• The organization has two permanent bodies i.e. the SCO Secretariat based in Beijing and the Executive Committee of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) based in Tashkent. 
• The SCO Secretary-General and the Director of the Executive Committee of the SCO RATS are appointed by the Council of Heads of State for a term of three years. 
• However, the venue of the SCO council meetings moves between the eight members.
• SCO has the capacity to counterbalance North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), therefore, it is sometimes considered as “alliance of the East”, i.e, the Eastern complementary of NATO.

The SCO’s main goals are as follows:-

• Strengthening mutual trust and neighborliness among the member states.
• Promoting their effective cooperation in politics, trade, the economy, research, technology and culture, as well as in education, energy, transport, tourism, environmental protection, and other areas.
• Making joint efforts to maintain and ensure peace, security and stability in the region and moving towards the establishment of a democratic, fair and rational new international political and economic order.

EXERCISE INDRA

Focus: GS III- Defence

Why in News?

The closing ceremony of the Indo-Russia joint exercise INDRA was held on 12 Aug 2021.

• The aim of the exercise was to acquaint each other with operational planning, procedures, combat drills and conducting of joint operations against international terrorist groups.

Highlights:

• 12th Edition of Indo-Russia joint military Exercise INDRA 2021 was held at Volgograd, Russia from 01 to 13 August 2021.
• Both the contingents, comprising of 250 soldiers from each side displayed great enthusiasm and professionalism while practicing joint drills during the conduct of the exercise.
• During the validation phase, Mechanised Forces and Special Forces practiced integrated live firing and specialised joint operations which included clearance of rebel stronghold in an urban setting.
• The troops not only learnt about each others organizations, but also exchanged ideas and best practices being followed in Peace Keeping Operations under aegis of the United Nations.
• The exercise was a grand success and has taught valuable lessons to the troops of the participating countries.
• The camaraderie developed between the contingents during the course of exercise will certainly assist in enhancing confidence between the armies. The conduct of such Joint Military Exercises is an important step to strengthen the relations between India and Russia.