PIB+HINDU- 23 AUGUST:

PIB:

1. President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday launched the "Akashvani Maitree" Channel

at a function organised at Raj Bhawan here. The channel is a unique venture of All India
Radio and is aimed at strengthening ties between India and Bangladesh.

The salient features of Akashvani Maitree are as follows:

. Channel's uniqueness lies in sharing of content between Bangladesh Betar and

Akashvani Maitree

. It will be a common platform for participatory content creation

. The aim of the channel would be to strengthen cultural, economic, political & emotional
bonding between the two neighbours

. This service is launched from a State-of-the-art Super Power Transmitter of 1000kw,

installed at Chinsurah, West Bengal

The re-launch of the channel on 596 KHz has twin objectives, say officials: To counter
the presence of CRI (Chinese Radio International with its strong programming) and to
attract Bengali-speaking listeners from both countries. Live-streaming of programmes
online will cater to the Bengali diaspora.

2. National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources (NBAGR): It premier institute is dedicated to

work with its mandate of identification, characterization, evaluation, conservation and utilization
of livestock and poultry genetic resources of the country.

approved registration of nine new breeds of livestock and poultry. This includes one
breed of cattle, two breeds each of goat and sheep, three breeds of pig, and one breed
of chicken.

1. Badri cattle: These are indigenous cattle available in hilly areas of Uttarakhand. well
adapted to the hilly terrain and climatic conditions and comparatively more resistant to
diseases

2. eressa Goat: It is an indigenous goat breed maintained by Nicobari tribal farmers of

Nicobar group of islands.

3. Kodi Adu Goat: Kodi Adu goats are native to Thoothukudi & Ramanathapuram
districts of Tamil Nadu.
4. Chevaadu sheep: Chevaadu sheep are found in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu.
Animals are small to medium in size.

5. Kendrapada sheep: Breeding tract of Kendrapada sheep comprises of six coastal

districts of Odisha viz. Kendrapada, Jagatsingpur, Cuttack, Puri, Jajpur and Bhadrak.

6. Tenyi Vo pig: These are indigenous pigs reared in Nagaland mainly for pork
production.

7. Nicobari pig: Nicobari pigs are indigenous pigs of Nicobar Islands and are reared by Nicoabri
tribes since time immemorial.

8. Doom pig: Doom pigs are distributed in Dhubri, Bongaigaon and Kokrajhar districts
of Assam.

9. Kaunayen chicken: Its breeding tract consists of Thoubal, Imphal West, Imphal East
and Bishnupur districts in the valley region.

3. neem-coating of urea :
With 46% N content, Urea is the most popular Nitrogenous fertilizer around the world. When
Urea is applied to soil, it is first hydrolysed (i.e. broken by water) into Ammonical form
(Ammonium Ion i.e. NH4+) and then to nitrite (NO2-), followed by to nitrate (NO3-) forms by
the process called nitrification. Here, we note that most crops use nitrate as source of nitrogen (A
few crops such as Paddy prefer Ammonical form over nitrate.). Thus nitrification process is
necessary for making nitrogen available to plants. However, if the process of nitrification is too
rapid; nitrogen will escape to atmosphere and plants will not be able to recover it from Urea
efficiently.
Generally, the plants are able to recover a fraction of all Urea N and this fraction is known as
Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE). This NUE stands anywhere between 30 to 50%.
Further, faster conversion of nitrate into Urea also results in accumulation of nitrates in soil /
underground water. Once nitrate reaches underground water, it is most difficult to remove; and
causes diseases such as blue baby syndrome.

Nitrate levels at or above this level have been known to cause a potentially fatal blood
disorder in infants under six months of age called methemoglobinemia or "blue-baby"
syndrome; in which there is a reduction in the oxygen-carrying capacity of blood.

4. Regional connectivity scheme:

An airline signing up for it will connect small towns in flights of about 1 hour with ticket charges
capped at Rs 2,500. As the fares are low and wouldn't cover costs, there will be viability gap
funding, 20% of which will be borne by the governments of states which are part of the scheme.
There will also be a levy on scheduled carriers flying on trunk routes such as Delhi-Mumbai.
State governments signing up for the scheme shall also implement incentives such as zero airport
charge ..

5. FIPB:

is a governmental body which offers a single window clearance for FDI proposals in India that
are not allowed access through the automatic route. The members of the FIPB includes
Secretaries of different ministries. The FIPB is headed by the Secretary of the Department of
Economic Affairs of the Ministry of Finance.

6. The bill proposes the creation of a new class of insolvency professionals that will specialize in
helping sick companies. It also provides for
creation of information utilities that will collate all information about debtors to prevent serial
defaulters from misusing the system. The bill
proposes to set up the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India to act as a regulator of these
utilities and professionals.
It also proposes to use the existing infrastructure of National Company Law tribunals and debt
recovery tribunals to address corporate
insolvency and individual insolvency, respectively.

What exactly will the new law do that is different?

For one, the new Bill seeks to consolidate all existing laws. Secondly, it specifies a timeframe
180 days after the process is initiated, plus a 90-day extension for resolving insolvency.

It proposes to do this by creating a host of new institutions. These would include:

* Insolvency Professionals, who will conduct the insolvency resolution process, take over the
management of a company, assist creditors in the collection of relevant information, and manage
the liquidation process,
* Insolvency Professional Agencies, who will examine and certify these professionals,
* Information Utilities, which will collect, collate and disseminate financial information related
to debtors, and
* Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India, a regulator that will oversee these new entities.

Under the new law, what are the various stages through which the resolution process
must pass from the time a company files for bankruptcy?

There are five stages in all.

One, when a loan default occurs, and either the borrower or the lender approaches the NCLT or
DRT for initiating the resolution process.
Two, the creditors appoint an interim Insolvency Professional (IP) to take control of the debtors
assets and companys operations, collect financial information of the debtor from information
utilities, and constitute the creditors committee.

Three, the committee has to then take decisions regarding insolvency resolution by a 75%
majority.

Four, once a resolution is passed, the committee has to decide on the restructuring process that
could either be a revised repayment plan for the company, or liquidation of the assets of the
company. If no decision is made during the resolution process, the debtors assets will be
liquidated to repay the debt.

Five, the resolution plan will be sent to the tribunal for final approval, and implemented once
approved.

Key Issues and Analysis

Time-bound insolvency resolution will require establishment of several new entities.

Also, given the pendency and disposal rate of DRTs, their current capacity may be
inadequate to take up the additional role.

IPAs, regulated by the Board, will be created for regulating the functioning of IPs. This
approach of having regulated entities further regulate professionals may be contrary to
the current practice of regulating licensed professionals. Further, requiring a high value
of performance bond may deter the formation of IPAs.

The Code provides an order of priority to distribute assets during liquidation. It is

unclear why: (i) secured creditors will receive their entire outstanding amount, rather than
up to their collateral value, (ii) unsecured creditors have priority over trade creditors, and
(iii) government dues will be repaid after unsecured creditors.

The Code provides for the creation of multiple IUs. However, it does not specify that full
information about a company will be accessible through a single query from any IU.
This may lead to financial information being scattered across these IUs.

The Code creates an Insolvency and Bankruptcy Fund. However, it does not specify the
manner in which the Fund will be used.

7. A two-day meeting of BRICS Ministers on Disaster Management ended in Udaipur,

Rajasthan today with the adoption of the Udaipur Declaration. The meeting laid bare the
common thread of challenges on disaster issues faced by all the BRICS nations.
PIB 24 AUGUST:

1. PRAGATI INITIATIVE:

PRAGATI is a multi-purpose and multi-modal platform aimed at addressing grievances of

common man. It also aims at simultaneously monitoring and reviewing important Union
government programmes and projects as well as projects flagged by State Governments. It is an
innovative project in e-governance and good governance and accountability with real-time
presence and information exchange among the key stakeholders.

Key features of PRAGATI

Designed in-house by the Prime Ministers Office (PMO) team with the help of National
Informatics Center (NIC).
Uniquely bundles three latest technologies including Digital data management, geo-spatial
technology and video-conferencing.
Three-tier system that brings PMO, Union Government Secretaries, and Chief Secretaries of the
States at one stage. Thus, offers a unique combination in the direction of cooperative federalism.

Prime Minister can directly discuss the issues with the concerned Central and State officials with
full information and latest visuals of the ground level situation.

The system will work on strengthen and re-engineer the data bases of Centralized Public
Grievance Redress And Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) along with Project Monitoring Group
(PMG) and the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

2. Sugamaya Pustakalaya is an online platform that makes accessible content

available to print-disabled people. It has been created by Department of Empowerment
of Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan), Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment
in collaboration with member organizations of Daisy Forum of India and powered by
TCS Access.

3. The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) has introduced a new star rating methodology
called Indian Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio (ISEER) for air conditioners. This
evolved rating methodology factors in variance in higher temperature in India and rates
air conditioners accordingly.

Since 2010 Bureau of Energy Efficiency has mandated air conditioners as a mandatory-
labelled appliance under Energy Conservation Act and since then air conditioners
cannot be sold without star label. Now as per latest notification, from January 2016,
Star-2 is the least efficiency level to be sold in the market, hence variation in power
consumption is compared between Star-5 (most efficient) and Star-2 (least efficient) air
conditioners.

4. The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given its
approval to enhance the grant of compensation to the civilian victims under the scheme
titled Central Scheme for Assistance to Civilian Victims of Terrorist/ Communal/Left
Wing Extremist (LWE), Cross Border Firing and Mine/IED blasts on Indian Territory
from Rs.3 lakhs to Rs.5 lakhs.

5. Union Minister of Home Affairs Shri Kiren Rijiju, a UN designated Disaster Risk
Reduction (DRR) Champion for the Asia Region, attended the First Asian Science and
Technology Conference for Disaster Risk Reduction held at Bangkok in Thailand.

6. Cabinet approves introduction of the "Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016":

What is surrogacy?
The definition is fairly simple when a couple wants a baby but is unable to have a child
because either or both partners are medically unfit to conceive, another woman is artificially
inseminated with the sperm of the father. She then carries the child full term and delivers it for
the couple. In such a case, the surrogate mother is the biological mother of the child. In instances
when the fathers sperm cannot be used, a donor sperm can also be used. This is traditional
surrogacy.

There is also gestational surrogacy, wherein eggs from the mother are fertilised with the
fathers/donors sperm and then the embryo is placed into the uterus of the surrogate, who carries
the child to term and delivers it. In this case, the biological mother is still the woman whose eggs
are used, while the surrogate is called the birth mother.

The concerns with surrogacy and IVF in India

> The list of objectives of the Bill is the prohibition of foreigners from commissioning
surrogacy in the country, which has time and again led to exploitation of women,
especially those in rural and tribal areas. The Bill, once in effect, will help authorities to
take action on the various surrogacy rackets that are currently in operation across the
country.
> There have also been many instances of childless couples of very advanced age
opting for surrogacy and IVF. Though the Bill so far just prohibits single parents,
homosexual couples and live-in relationship couples to opt for altruistic surrogacy, many
hope the guidelines will also aid in dissuading senior couples from opting for this as
well.