Navy accelerates indigenisation efforts, focus on weapons and aviation items

• This falls in line with the Government’s push to cut down on defence imports and boost domestic manufacturing which has gained further urgency due to the ongoing Russian war in Ukraine and the large scale dependency of Indian military on Russian arms and equipment.
• Till date, Navy has indigenised around 3,400 items under INIP, including over 2,000 machinery and electrical spares, over 1,000 aviation spares and over 250 weapon spares.
• The existing Naval Aviation Indigenisation Roadmap (NAIR) 2019-22 is also under revision.
• All the fast moving aircraft mandatory spares and high-cost indigenous repairs are being included in the revised NAIR 2022-27.
• Four in-house indigenisation committees have been formed to handle indigenisation of spares with respect to naval aircraft. In addition, the Naval Liaison Cells (NLCs) located at various places have been nominated as ‘indigenisation cells’.
• There are currently 41 ships and submarines under construction, 39 are being built in India shipyards while in principle approval from MoD exists for 47 ships to be built in India.
• The Naval Innovation and Indigenisation Organisation (NIIO) which was launched by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in August 2020 provides an accessible interface for academia and industry with Indian Navy capability development apparatus.

Egypt approves India as wheat supplier; to import about one million tonnes

• The Egyptian delegation’s visit to India follows several trade talks and meetings with the various wheat importing countries, which are exploring possibilities of sourcing grain from alternate sources as supplies have been disrupted because of the Russia and Ukraine conflict.
• Egypt imported 6.1 million tonnes (mt) of wheat in 2021 and India was then not part of the list of accredited countries that could export wheat to Egypt.
• More than 80% of Egypt’s wheat imports estimated to be close to $2 billion in 2021 were from Russia and Ukraine.
• Growth in wheat exports is driven mostly by the demand from countries such as Bangladesh, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Oman and Malaysia. However, India is also making efforts to boost wheat exports to other countries including Yemen, Afghanistan and Indonesia.

e-DAR portal to speed up accident compensation claims

• The Ministry of Roads, Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has developed the portal named ‘e-DAR’ (e-Detailed Accident Report).
• Digitalised Detailed Accident Reports (DAR) will be uploaded on the portal for easy access.
• The web portal will be linked to the Integrated Road Accident Database (iRAD). F
• rom iRAD, applications to more than 90% of the datasets would be pushed directly to the e-DAR.
• Stakeholders like the police, road authorities, hospitals, etc., are required to enter very minimal information for the e-DAR forms. Thus, e-DAR would be an extension and e-version of iRAD.

India to get record number of doctors in next 10 years: PM Modi

• Modi was speaking after virtually inaugurating a new super speciality hospital in Kutch, Gujarat.
• The goal of having at least one medical college in every district of the country and ensuring that medical education was in the reach of everyone will result in the country getting a record numbers of doctors and medical practitioners after 10 years.
• The Ministry of Health administers a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) for ‘Establishment of new Medical Colleges attached with existing district/referral hospitals’ with preference to underserved areas and aspirational districts, where there is no existing Government or private medical college.
• Under the Scheme, 157 new medical colleges have been approved in three phases and 70 are already functional. Out of 157 sites, 40 are in aspirational districts.

PM will inaugurate the three-day Global Ayush Investment & Innovation Summit (GAIIS) in Gandhinagar, Gujrat

• The most pertinent event of Ministry of Ayush for 2022, this Summit will witness the participation of industry leaders, academicians, and scholars to deliberate upon ways to promote traditional medicines, and systems.
• One of the aims of the Summit is to attract lucrative investments to build India as the Global Ayush Destination in the world.
• The ground-breaking ceremony for the WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine will also take place on 19th April, in Jamnagar, Gujarat. This centre will emerge as an international hub of global wellness taking traditional medicine systems of the world to new heights.

PM Narendra Modi unveils 108 ft Lord Hanuman statue in Gujarat''s Morbi

• This statue is the second of the 4 statues being set up in the four directions across the country, as part of #Hanumanji4dham project.
• It has been set up in the west, at the Ashram of Param Pujya Bapu Keshvanand ji in Morbi.
• The first statue of the series was set up in the north in Shimla in 2010.
• Work on the statue in the south at Rameswaram has been started.

Are UPA''s oil bonds to blame for high fuel prices?

• An oil bond is an IOU, or a promissory note issued by the government to the oil marketing companies (OMCs), in lieu of cash that the government would have given them so that these companies don’t charge the public the full price of fuel.
• An oil bond says the government will pay the oil marketing company the sum of, say, Rs 1,000 crore in 10 years. And to compensate the OMC for not having this money straightaway, the government will pay it, say, 8% (or Rs 80 crore) each year until the bond matures.
• Thus, by issuing such oil bonds, the government of the day is able to protect/ subsidise the consumers without either ruining the profitability of the OMC or running a huge budget deficit itself.
• Oil bonds were issued by several governments in the past. But the ones in question now are the ones which the UPA government issued.

Nagaland: 33% women reservation in Urban Local Bodies

• The civic body elections were first held in the state in 2004, in accordance with the Nagaland Municipal Act of 2001.
• In 2006, the Nagaland Municipal Act of 2001 was amended to include a 33 per cent reservation for women in line with the 1992 Constitutional amendment.
• Since then, there has been widespread opposition to the amendment, as many Naga groups contend that the reservations are in contravention with Naga customary laws as enshrined in Article 371(A) of the Constitution — which accords the state special status and protects its traditional way of life.
• In February 2017, as the Nagaland government tried holding the elections as per a Supreme Court directive (to hold elections with 33 per cent reservation for women), the state was convulsed by violent protests that led to ouster of the then chief minister T R Zeliang.

The UK-Rwanda Agreement Represents Another Blow to Territorial Asylum

• Under this new plan, people who arrive in Britain as stowaways in trucks or boats will be flown 6,400 kilometers to Rwanda, potentially for good.
• Once there, they will be assessed for eventual resettlement in the African nation.
• The UK has paid the Rwandan government £120 million for housing and integrating the migrants as part of the pilot scheme, which will initially last for five years.
• But the UK-Rwanda deal has not been popular among human rights and refugee organisations, who see it as an inhumane and expensive exercise. The United Nations has said that it raises “a number of human rights concerns.”