Daily Current Affairs 27/08/2021
Finance Minister unveils 4th edition of Public Sector Bank Reforms Agenda - EASE 4.0
Why in News
- Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman unveiled the 4th edition of the Public Sector Bank (PSB) Reforms Agenda ‘EASE 4.0’ for 2021-22.
- She unveiled the annual report for the PSB Reforms Agenda EASE 3.0 for 2020-21 and participated in the awards ceremony to felicitate best performing banks on EASE 3.0 Banking Reforms Index.
Key Points
EASE 3.0 award winners:
- State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda and Union Bank of India have won the awards for best performing banks for PSB Reforms EASE 3.0 based on the EASE index.
About EASE 4.0:
- EASE 4.0 or Enhanced Access and Service Excellence – a common reform agenda for PSBs aimed at institutionalising clean and smart banking.
- It aims to further the agenda of customer-centric digital transformation and deeply embed digital and data into PSBs' ways of working.
Key Initiatives:
- Smart Lending
- 24x7 Banking with resilient technology
- Data-enabled agricultural financing
- Collaborating with financial ecosystem
About EASE Agenda:
- It was launched jointly by the government and Public Sector Banks (PSBs) in January 2018.
Various Stages:
- EASE 1.0 report showed significant improvement in PSB performance in resolution of Non Performing Assets transparently.
- EASE 2.0 was built on the foundation of EASE 1.0 and introduced new reform Action Points to make reforms journey irreversible, strengthen processes and systems, and drive outcomes.
- EASE 3.0 seeks to improve ease of banking working in all customer experiences, using technology.
- EASE Reforms Index: The Index measures performance of each PSB. The objective of the index is to encourage healthy competition among PSBs
Source: PIB
‘SUJALAM’ Campaign
Why in News
- The Ministry of Jal Shakti began ‘SUJALAM’, a ‘100 days campaign’ as part of the ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ celebrations.
Key Points
- The campaign will create more and more ODF (Open Defecation Free) Plus villages by undertaking waste water management at village level particularly through creation of 1 million Soak-pits and also other Grey water management activities.
- The campaign will aid in sustainable management of waterbodies.
- Furthermore, the campaign would boost the momentum of SBMG phase II activities through community participation and it will increase awareness about ODF-plus activities.
- The Campaign would use the platform of awareness and behaviour change achieved during the first phase of the SBMG and provides focus for sustaining the same along with achieving the visual cleanliness.
About Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM):
- SBM is a country-wide campaign initiated by the Government of India in 2014 to eliminate open defecation and improve solid waste management.
- Phase 1 of the SBM lasted till October 2019. Phase 2 is being implemented between 2020-21 and 2024-25.
- The mission was divided into two: Rural (SBM-G) and Urban (SBM-U).
Source: PIB
Forum for Decarbonizing Transport
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Why in News
- NITI Aayog and World Resources Institute (WRI), India, jointly launched the ‘Forum for Decarbonizing Transport’ in India.
- The forum is a part of the NDC-Transport Initiative for Asia (NDC-TIA) project.
Key Points
About NDC-TIA project:
- The NDC Transport Initiative for Asia (TIA 2020-2023) is a joint programme of seven organisations that will engage China, India, and Vietnam in promoting a comprehensive approach to decarbonizing transport in their respective countries.
- The project is part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI).
- NITI Aayog is the implementing partner for the India component of the project.
Aim:
- The project aims at bringing down the peak level of GHG emissions (transport sector) in Asia (in line with a well below 2-degree pathway), resulting in problems like congestion and air pollution.
Need:
- India has a massive and diverse transport sector, which is also the third most CO2 emitting sector.
- Data from (International Energy Agency- IEA, 2020; Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change, 2018) suggests that within the transport sector, road transport contributes to more than 90% of the total CO2 emissions.
Related Initiatives:
- FAME Scheme (Part of the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan)
- Incentives under PLI Scheme
- Renewable Automotive Industry
Source: PIB
37th PRAGATI Meeting
Why in News
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired the meeting of the 37th edition of PRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation) - the ICT based multi-modal platform, involving Centre and State governments.
- In the meeting, 9 agenda items were taken for review including 8 projects and 1 scheme.
- These 8 projects have a cumulative cost of Rs. 1,26,000 crore concerning 14 states.
- He reviewed the scheme of ‘One Nation – One Ration Card’ (ONORC).
Key Points
About PRAGATI:
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched multi-purpose and multi-modal platform PRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance And Timely Implementation) in 2015.
- PRAGATI is a unique integrating and interactive platform.
- The platform is aimed at addressing common man’s grievances, and simultaneously monitoring and reviewing important programmes and projects of the Government of India as well as projects flagged by State Governments.
- It is a three-tier system (PMO, Union Government Secretaries, and Chief Secretaries of the States).
- The system has been designed in-house by the PMO team with the help of National Informatics Center (NIC).
Note: In the previous 36 PRAGATI meetings, 292 projects having a total cost of 13.78 lakh crore have been reviewed.
Source: PIB
K J Alphons’s book 'Accelerating India: 7 Years of Modi Government'
- Former Union Minister, K J Alphons has presented his book ‘Accelerating India: 7 Years of Modi Government’ to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
- The Prime Minister said that he has made a commendable effort to encapsulate facets of India’s reform journey in his work, ‘Accelerating India.’
Note:
- Recently, Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu released this book at Upa-Rashtrapati Nivas.
- K J Alphons was the editor of this book. 28 eminent authors contributed 25 essays in this book on various sectors of Indian governance.
Source: PIB
Hisar Airport was renamed as Maharaja Agrasen International Airport
Why in News
- Manohar Lal Khattar, Chief Minister of Haryana has announced to rename the Hisar Airport as the Maharaja Agrasen International Airport (MAIA).
Key Points
- The Hisar airport became Haryana’s first DGCA licensed public aerodrome on September 27, 2018.
- The Hisar airport is presently under up-gradation to be transformed as an international airport by March 2024.
Source: TOI
Film Producer Pradeep Guha passes away
- Film Producer and well-known media personality Pradeep Guha passed away.
- Pradeep Guha had produced Hrithik Roshan and Karisma Kapoor-starrer "Fiza" as well as 2008 film "Phir Kabhi".
- He worked with the Times Group for almost 30 years and served as the president in the company. He also worked as Zee Entertainment’s CEO.
Source: Indian Express
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