DOT EXTENDS M2M AND WPAN/WLAN REGISTRATION TO ALL ENTITIES & ADVISES TO REGISTER THROUGH THE SARAL SANCHAR PORTAL BY MARCH 31, 2024:

• Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Ministry of Communications (MoC), has extended Machine-to-Machine (M2M) and Wireless Personal Area Network/Wireless Local Area Network (WPAN/WLAN) registration to all entities engaged in the said businesses.
• All business entities (incl. Companies, Govt. Depts./Organizations, Partnership Firms, LLPs, Institutions, Undertakings, Proprietorship Firms, Societies and Trusts) engaged in M2M service provisioning and WPAN/WLAN Connectivity Provisioning are advised to register with DoT through a simple and transparent online process via Saral Sanchar portal (https://saralsanchar.gov.in)
• SARAL SANCHAR’ (Simplified Application for Registration and Licences) a Web based Portal, for Issuing of various types of Licences and Registration certificates is part of various Digital initiatives being taken by the Department of Telecommunications.
• It is a unified portal to issue various types of Licences and registrations in a digitised manner which will not only ensure transparency but also make the process more efficient.
• This will pave the way for a paperless, secure and hassle-free platform for various applicants.

• The Department of Telecommunications is committed to ensuring building a secure and innovative M2M/IoT (Internet of Things) landscape.
• National Digital Communication Policy aims at creating a robust digital communication infrastructure, enabling next generation technologies and ensuring a holistic and harmonised approach for harnessing Emerging Technologies such as M2M/loT.
• After considering the recommendations of TRAI on “Spectrum, Roaming and Quality of service (QoS) related requirements in M2M Communications” and views of M2M industry stakeholders.

The Scheme and Web-portal for Prime Minister’s Awards for Excellence in Public Administration for the year 2023 launched:

• Government of India has instituted a scheme in 2006 namely, “The Prime Minister’s Awards for Excellence in Public Administration” – to acknowledge, recognize and reward the extraordinary and innovative work done by Districts/ Organizations of the Central and State Governments.
• The registration on PM’s Awards web portal has commenced for due registration and submission of applications, and will be operational from 8^th January, 2024 to 31^st January, 2024.
• Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the entire concept and format of the PM’s Excellence Award has undergone a revolutionary change since 2014.
• The objective of the Scheme is to encourage Constructive Competition, Innovation, Replication and Institutionalization of Best practices.
• Under this approach, emphasis would be on good governance, qualitative achievement and last mile connectivity, rather than only on achievement of quantitative targets.
• The Award Scheme has now, this year, been restructured to recognize the performance of the District Collector through targeted individual beneficiaries and implementation with a saturation approach
• With this focus, the applications for Awards would be evaluated on three parameters, Good Governance, Qualitative and Quantitative.
• It is expected that all the districts participate in this Scheme of Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration 2023.
• For the year 2023, the scheme for Prime Minister’s Awards for Excellence in Public Administration aims to recognize the contribution of civil servants in under two categories:
  • Category -1- Holistic Development of Districts under 12 priority sector programmes. Under this category, 10 awards would be conferred
  • Category 2: Innovations for Central Ministries/Departments States, Districts. Under this category, 6 awards would be conferred

Over 10,000 cases of trafficking recorded in 5 years, but convictions remain at a dismal low:

• India recorded as many as 10,659 cases of human trafficking between 2018 and 2022. The data tabled by the Union Home Ministry in the Lok Sabha revealed that an average of 2,000 cases were recorded every year, with 2022 registering the highest of 2,250.
• The Ministry revealed details of the number of persons arrested, chargesheeted, convicted and acquitted for human trafficking between 2018 and 2022. In these five years, 26,840 persons — an average of 5,000 persons a year — were arrested. The number of those convicted, however, remains low — 1,031 in five years, just 4.8% of the arrests.
• Maharashtra registered the highest number of cases — 1,392 — in the past five years, followed by Telangana (1,301) and Andhra Pradesh (987).
• Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have become both source and destination.
• The States such as West Bengal and Assam are considered source States, while Maharashtra and Karnataka are destination States.
• The Ministry, in its reply, has also pointed out the steps taken to combat trafficking. These include upgrading the infrastructure of district anti-human trafficking units and strengthening intelligence and surveillance mechanisms to identify gangs and gather information about their modus operandi.

State govt. invokes ESMA on agitating Anganwadi workers:

• The State government has issued orders invoking the Essential Services and Maintenance Act, 1971, against the agitating Anganwadi workers and helpers.
• The government issued G.O. No. 2 to this effect.
• The services of the Anganwadi workers and helpers were brought under ESMA, and orders issued prohibiting strikes by them for six months in the State.

Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme:

• Launched on 2^nd October 1975, today, ICDS Scheme represents one of the world’s largest and most unique programmes for early childhood development.
• ICDS is the foremost symbol of India’s commitment to her children – India’s response to the challenge of providing pre-school education on one hand and breaking the vicious cycle of malnutrition, morbidity, reduced learning capacity and mortality, on the other.

Objectives: The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme was launched in 1975 with the following objectives:

1. to improve the nutritional and health status of children in the age-group 0-6 years;
2. to lay the foundation for proper psychological, physical and social development of the child;
3. to reduce the incidence of mortality, morbidity, malnutrition and school dropout;
4. to achieve effective coordination of policy and implementation amongst the various departments to promote child development; and
5. to enhance the capability of the mother to look after the normal health and nutritional needs of the child through proper nutrition and health education.

Services: The above objectives are sought to be achieved through a package of services comprising:

1. supplementary nutrition,
2. immunisation,
3. health check-up,
4. referral services,
5. pre-school non-formal education and
6. nutrition & health education.

Following is the chronology of events related to Aditya L1: 

• September 2, 2023: ISRO launches Aditya-L1 onboard PSLV-C57.
• September 3: First Earth-bound manoeuvre performed successfully, attaining an orbit of 245 km x 22459 km
• September 5: Second Earth-bound manoeuvre performed successfully. The new orbit attained was 282 km x 40225 km.
• September 10: Third Earth-bound manoeuvre attains new orbit of 296 km x 71767 km.
• September 15: Fourth Earth-bound manoeuvre to achieve new orbit 256 km x 121973 km performed successfully.
• September 18: Aditya-L1 commenced the collection of scientific data.
• September 30: The spacecraft escapes the sphere of Earth’s influence and goes on its way to the Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 1(L1).
• October 6: Trajectory Correction Manoeuvre (TCM) was performed for about 16 seconds to correct the trajectory. TCM endured the spacecraft was on its intended path towards the Halo orbit insertion around L1.
• November 7: HEL1OS payload captured first High-Energy X-ray glimpse of Solar Flares.
• December 1: Solar wind Ion Spectrometer (SWIS) in the Aditya Solar wind Particle Experiment (ASPEX) payload was made operational.
• December 10: The SUIT payload captures full-disk images of the Sun in near ultraviolet wavelengths.
• January 6, 2024: India’s first solar observatory Aditya-L1 reaches its destination.

India’s First Inland Waterways Development Council (IWDC) commits Rs 45,000 crore for development of River Cruise Tourism:

• The Inland Waterways Development Council (IWDC) was organised by the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), the nodal agency for inland waterways in India, under the Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways, Government of India.
• Inland Water Transportation (IWT) provided a unique opportunity to promote the use of electric, hybrid, hydrogen, and derivative (such as ammonia or methanol) propulsion fuels for ships.
• Inland Water Transportation (IWT) plays a pivotal role in transforming the logistics and passenger movement landscape in the country. Spanning over 22,000 km across 24 states, with 111 notified National Waterways; IWT emerged as an effective alternative mode of transportation.
• There are 46 initiatives identified to develop IWT under the Maritime Amrit Kaal Vision 2047, of which the key initiatives for enhancing modal share of coastal shipping and inland water transport include creation of port-based agglomeration centres, creation of coastal berths near coast-based production/demand centres, Road/Rail/IWT connectivity/expansion projects.