Daily Current Affairs 19 September 2019

Daily Current Affairs

1) Skill India and IBM come together for nationwide Train-the-Trainer program in Artificial Intelligence

• The Directorate General of Training (DGT) division of the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, has signed an agreement with Global IT major IBM where the latter will carry out a nationwide Train-the-Trainer in Basic Artificial Intelligence Skills.
• ITI trainers will be trained on basic Artificial Intelligence (AI) skills towards using technology in their day-to-day training activities.
• The program aims at enabling the trainers with a basic approach, workflow, and application of artificial intelligence which they can apply in their training modules.
• IBM aims at training 10,000 faculty members from ITIs across the country and the program will be executed over one year with 14 trainers across 7 locations with over 200 workshops.
• IBM will provide the necessary training at seven centers including six National Skills Training Institutes (NSTI) and one Industrial Training Institute (ITI) in Pune.
• The training content will be divided into two parts, where a face-to-face workshop will be supported by online modules to ensure holistic learning and certification for faculty members.
• Each participant attending the workshop will go through a pre-assessment to gauge the level of their skills. The participants will take online courses with technical support from the trainers, enabling continuous learning. On completion of the program, participants will go through a post-assessment, to further gauge their skill set and the level they have achieved. Individuals that complete the course will be awarded certificates of participation and will be badged by IBM.

2) Shri Thaawarchand Gehlot Launches MIS Portal Under Accessible India Campaign

The Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD)under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has developed a Management Information System (MIS) for stakeholders of the Accessible India Campaign (AIC). Shri ThaawarchandGehlot, Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment launched the MIS portal.

About the portal 

• The MIS portal will bring all the nodal ministries, and States/UTs on a single platform for monitoring the progress being made against each target of AIC.
• The portal will be useful in maintaining all the functions on digital platforms and capture data on a real-time basis.
• The places being made accessible will become more effective as there is a provision of uploading images of such features. The portal is made fully accessible for Divyangjans.

About Accessible India Campaign

Accessible India Campaign or Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan is a program that is set to be launched to serve the differently-able community of the country. The program comes with an index to measure the design of disabled-friendly buildings and human resource policies. The flagship program has been launched by the Prime Minister on 3 December 2015, the International Day of People with Disabilities. The initiative also in line with Article 9 of UNCRPD(UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) to which India is a signatory since 2007. The scheme also comes under Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995 under section 44, 45, 46 for equal Opportunities and protection of rights which provides non-discrimination in Transport to Persons with Disabilities.

3) Cabinet approves Payment of PLB to railway employees for the FY 2018-19

• The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the payment of Productivity Linked Bonus (PLB) equivalent to 78 days wages to over 11.52 Lakh eligible non-gazetted railway employees (excluding RPF/RPSF personnel) for the Financial Year (FY) 2018-19, for maintaining industrial peace and motivation of railwaymen.
• This entails an expenditure of Rs. 2024.40 crores to the exchequer.

Benefits:

• Payment of PLB equivalent to 78 days wages to eligible railway employees (excluding RPF/RPSF personnel) for the FY 2018-19 would result in motivating a large number of railway employees to improve the performance of the Railways and enhance the productivity levels further, besides maintaining industrial peace.
• PLB to all non-gazetted railway employees is an acknowledgment of their contribution to the efficient running of the Railways.
• There being a large number of railwaymen and their families, this acknowledgment will enhance the sense of inclusiveness and equity among them

4) International Workshop for National Water Museum

• Under the Ministry of Jal Shakti, the Government of India has taken an initiative to develop National Water Museum.
• Ministry of Jal Shakti is organizing an International Workshop on 19th – 20th September 2019, at Central Water Commission Auditorium, New Library Building, R K Puram, New Delhi.
• Experts in the fields that go into developing a Water Museum from India and abroad, such as senior Government and town planning Officials, academicians, practicing engineers and consultants, and representatives from various Departments under the Ministry of Jal Shakti, are participating in the workshop.
• This is one of the numerous initiatives taken by the Ministry of Jal Shakti towards bringing about changes in the behavior of all stakeholders and the general public at large for sustainable use of water, in a way that is entertaining and recreating.

5) International Speed Post to New Countries

The Department of Posts has announced the commencing of the International Speed Post (EMS) Service to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Ecuador, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, and North Macedonia.

About EMS

• EMS or Express Mail Service is a premium service that enables its users to send documents and merchandise faster and with the added facility of being able to track the movement of the item on the internet. This facility is expected to augment people to people contact these countries and foster trade as EMS is a popular channel for small and medium enterprises.
• The EMS service to these countries will henceforth be available at major Post offices across India.

6) Commerce & Industry Minister gives away CAPEXIL exports awards

Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Railways, Piyush Goyal gave way the export awards of CAPEXIL in New Delhi

About CAPEXIL awards

CAPEXIL (Chemical and Allied Products EXport promotion councIL) is an award given to the MSME industry on their export performance. It is given annually

Commerce and Industry Minister urged the industry to engage with the world, grasp all opportunities that are available through the free trade agreements that India has entered into with other countries but at the same time protect the national interest, their business interests and above all the interest of the consumers.

7) Defence Minister Shri Rajnath Singh green signals writing of India’s border history

• Shri Rajnath Singh has given approval for initiating the work of writing the history of the country’s borders. Raksha Mantri held a meeting with eminent personalities of the Indian Council of Historical Research and officials of Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, Directorate General of Archives, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Defence, on September 17, 2019.
• It is proposed that the work will cover various aspects of borders including tracing its making; making & unmaking and shifting of borders; the role of security forces; the role of borderland people encompassing their ethnicity, culture and socio-economic aspects of their lives.
• The project is expected to be completed within two years.
• It is a first-of-its-kind project to make people aware of national borders and people living in the border regions.

8) Lump-Sum Turn Key (LSTK) contract for Coal Gasification Plant PF Talcher Fertilizers Limited was awarded to Wuhuan Engineering Co. Ltd, China.

• Lump-Sum Turn Key (LSTK) contract for Coal Gasification Plant PF Talcher Fertilizers Limited was awarded to Wuhuan Engineering Co. Ltd, China as a part of measures to revival closed units of Fertilizer Corporation of India Ltd. (FCIL) and Hindustan Fertilizers Corporation Ltd (HFCL). 
• The government has mandated Talcher Fertilizers Ltd (TFL), a Joint Venture Company of RCF, GAIL, CIL, and FCIL to revive the Talcher unit of FCIL with an estimated investment of Rs. 13,277 crores with a production capacity of 1.27 MMTPA of Neem coated Urea through coal gasification technology. 
• TFL has also been allotted Northern part of North Arkhapal mine as captive mine for meeting its coal requirements.

9) Cabinet approves Promulgation of the Prohibition of Electronic Cigarettes Ordinance

In a major health and wellness initiative for the country, the Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the Promulgation of the Prohibition of Electronic Cigarettes (production, manufacture, import, export, transport, sale, distribution, storage and advertisement) Ordinance, 2019.

Electronic-cigarettes are battery-operated devices that produce an aerosol by heating a solution containing nicotine, which is the addictive substance in combustible cigarettes. These include all forms of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems, Heat Not Burn Products, e-Hookah and the like devices.

BACKGROUND

The current decision has come on the back of an advisory issued by the Government in 2018 to all States to consider banning e-cigarettes. 16 States and 1 UT have already banned e-cigarettes in their jurisdictions. Notably, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), in a recent white paper on the subject, also recommended a complete ban on e-cigarettes based on currently available scientific evidence. The WHO has also urged member countries to take appropriate steps including prohibiting these products. These products are usually marketed as being safer alternatives for conventional cigarettes but such notions of safety are false. On the other hand, available literature suggests that these products may act as gateway products to induce non-smokers, especially youth and adolescents, to nicotine-use, leading to addiction and subsequent use of conventional tobacco products. E-cigarettes are usually promoted by the industry as smoking cessation aids but their efficacy and safety as a quitting aid have not yet been established.

10) Moti Bagh an Indian documentary film nominated for the Oscars

Moti Bagh, a documentary based on a Uttarakhand farmer's life nominated for the Oscars. The documentary film, directed by Nirmal Chander is based on the life of a farmer called Vidyadutt. The information was shared by Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat The Chief Minister appealed to young farmers to play a leading role in preventing migration from villages and take advantage of the schemes launched by the state government.

11) Robert O’Brien is the new U.S. National Security Adviser

U.S. President Donald Trump picked U.S. hostage negotiator Robert O’Brien as National Security Adviser, replacing hardliner John Bolton who was fired abruptly last week after clashing with the President on a host of issues. Mr. O’Brien, who will be the fourth person to hold the post in the Trump administration, has served as Mr.Trump’s special envoy for hostage affairs in the U.S.

Department of State since May 2018 and has a long history in Republican foreign policy circles.

12) India is the top source of immigrants across the globe

India has emerged as the leading country of origin for immigrants across the world, with 17.5 million international migrants in 2019 coming from India, up from 15.9 million in 2015, according to a dataset released by the Union Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA).