CSB IAS ACADEMY

CSB IAS ACADEMY

PIB
FEBRUARY-23

1. Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana (PM KISAN)

The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana (PM-KISAN) was announced in the
interim Budget 2019-20 on February 1, 2019.
Under the Scheme, Rs 6,000 will be given per year to small and marginal farmer families
having combined land holding/ownership of upto 2 hectares.The amount will be given in
three installments of Rs.2000 each.
The amount will be transferred directly to the bank account of beneficiaries
through Direct Benefit Transfer. DBT will ensure transparency in the entire process and will
save time for the farmers.The Scheme was introduced to augment the income of the
Small and Marginal Farmers (SMFs). It is estimated to benefit more than 12 crore small and
marginal farmers.
The PM-KISAN scheme aims to supplement the financial needs of the SMFs in procuring
various inputs to ensure proper crop health and appropriate yields, commensurate with
the anticipated farm income at the end of the each crop cycle. This would also protect
them from falling in the clutches of moneylenders for meeting such expenses and ensure
their continuance in the farming activities.PM KISAN is a Central Sector scheme with 100%
funding from Government of India. The Scheme becomes effective from1.12.2018 for
transfer of benefit to eligible beneficiaries.
2. Global Innovation Index has gone up from seventy six in 2014 to fifty seven in 2018, the
surge in innovation is clearly visible.
(The Global Innovation Index (GII) provides detailed metrics about the innovation
performance of 126 countries which represent 90.8% of the world’s population and 96.3%
of global GDP. Its 80 indicators explore a broad vision of innovation, including political
environment, education, infrastructure and business sophistication.
The Global Innovation Index 2018: Energizing the World with Innovation is the result of
a collaboration between Cornell University, INSEAD, and the World Intellectual Property
Organization (WIPO).)
India’s ranking in the World Travel and Tourism Competitiveness index has gone up from
sixty five in 2013 to forty in 2017.
(The World Economic Forum has, for the past 11 years, engaged leaders in travel
and tourism to carry out an in-depth analysis of the Travel and Tourism competitiveness of
136 economies across the world. Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index measures
“the set of factors and policies that enable the sustainable development of the travel
and tourism sector, which in turn, contributes to the development and competitiveness of
a country”.)
Atal Tinkering Labs is coming up across the country and helping foster an atmosphere of
innovation-Atal Tinkering Labs are dedicated works spaces where students (Class 6th to
Class 12th) learn innovation skills and develop ideas that will go on to transform India. The

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labs are powered to acquaint students with state-of-the-art equipment such as 3D

printers, robotics & electronics development tools, IoT & sensors etc.
The lab activities are designed to spur the spark of creativity, and go
beyond regular curriculum and text book learning. The labs will let students explore skills
of future such as design and computational thinking, adaptive learning and artificial
intelligence.

3. Dept. of Atomic Energy

Apsara reactor was built in 1956 and put to wide use, including for production and
applications of radioisotopes. Among the myriad uses of radioisotopes, use of
radio(active)pharmaceuticals - formulations or radioisotope labelled compounds - has
emerged as a major field in medicine, namely, Nuclear Medicine (NM). DAE has
remained in the forefront of R&D and production of a variety of radiopharmaceuticals for
supply to hospitals and nuclear medicine centres across the country. The sustained,
collective efforts of DAE Units have ensured the availability of the state-of-the-art
radiopharmaceuticals in India at an affordable price, thus serving thousands of patients
every day. The DAE programme on ‘radiopharmaceuticals for nuclear medicine’ is thus a
true testament to its motto, ‘Atoms in the Service of the Nation’.”
Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) has been rendering support to robust R&D as well as
delivery of products of medically important radioisotopes. Several important
radioisotopes such as, Molybdenum-99, Iodine-125, Iodine-131, Samarium-153, Lutetium-
177 are produced regularly using Dhruva reactor and Fluorine-18 using the medical
cyclotron facility and supplied to the hospitals all over the country through the Board of
Radiation and Isotope Technology (BRIT).
Major Nuclear Medicine Therapies undertaken: (a) 131I (Radioiodine) for thyroid cancer;
(b) 177Lu-DOTATATE for metastatic/ advanced Neuroendocrine Tumor; (c) 177Lu-PSMA
treatment for Metastatic Prostate Cancer.
BARC informed that two major Clinical Nuclear Medicine Centres under DAE serves
patients in this country: (a) Radiation Medicine Centre (RMC), a Division of BARC
instituted by Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha in the year 1963 and housed at Tata Memorial
Hospital Annexe Building at Parel, Mumbai; and (b) Department of Nuclear Medicine of
Tata Memorial Hospital, a DAE-aided Institute, housed at Tata Memorial Hospital Main
Building at Parel, Mumbai.
DAE’s indigenous radiopharmaceutical programme has provided a major boost not only
to the functioning of these two centers, but also to the entire NM therapeutic services
offered by other centres in the country.
Note: Radioisotopes are the unstable form of an element that emit radiation to transform
into a more stable form. Radiation is easily traceable and can cause changes in the
substance it falls upon. These special attributes make radioisotopes useful in medicine,
industry and other areas.
Most radioisotopes are artificially produced in research reactors and accelerators by
exposing a target material to “intense particles,” such as neutrons or protons, followed by
different chemical processes to bring them into the required chemical form.
Radioisotopes are an effective tool used in radiopharmaceutical sciences, industrial
applications, environmental tracing and biological studies. Aside from research reactors
and accelerators, they are also obtained from radioisotope generators.

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