CIVILS WEEKLY

  GLOBAL INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY ALLIANCE (GITA) At celebration of the 9th Foundation Day of GITA, Union Minister of Science & Technology underlined how Global Innovation and Technology Alliance (GITA) served as a catalyst for nurturing innovation and industrial R&D. About: Global Innovation & Technology Alliance (GITA) is a “not–for–profit” Section-8 Public Private Partnership (PPP) company. It is promoted jointly by the Technology Development Board (TDB), Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The Prime Minister’s Council on Trade & Industry had, in 2010, recommended incorporation of a Government’s arm’s length entity under PPP mode to professionally manage the Government’s funds for providing flexibility to industry for undertaking R&D along with global partners. The GITA platform encourages industrial investments in innovative technology solutions by Mapping technology gaps, Under...

  LOK VIRASAT Films Division (FD) is organising Lok Virasat, a festival of films on folk art and painting starting from November 27, 2020. About: an exclusive bouquet of documentary films on folk art and paintings - Lok Virasat - is being showcased, between November 27–29, 2020 on FD website and You Tube channel. The films being streamed include: The Kingdom of God , on the great Indian heritage of art and culture with focus on various folk art traditions, Bhavai - Fading Memories, a film on Bhavai - a folk art of Gujarat, Naman – Khele, a film on the ancient folk art performed in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, Sahi Jata, The Fusion Cult, a film on the unique fusion of muscle and music in the form of folk art on the back-drop of the ancient Orissa town of Puri and Therukoothu : Dancing For Life , a film depicting the age old Tamil folk art. PERIOD PRODUCTS (FREE PROVISION) (SCOTLAND) BILL The Scottish parliament passed a landmark legislation that has made period products such as sanitary ...

  INDIAN ECONOMY India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contracted 7.5% in the second quarter of 2020-21, following the record 23.9% decline recorded in the first quarter, as per estimates released by the National Statistical Office. About: The country has now entered a technical recession with two successive quarters of negative growth. Agriculture, which was the only sector to record growth between April and June this year, grew at the same pace of 3.4% in the second quarter. Manufacturing gross value-added (GVA) staged a sharp recovery to record 0.6% growth between July and September after collapsing 39.3% in the first quarter. Electricity, gas, water supply and other utility services also recorded 4.4% growth in the second quarter, recovering from a 7% contraction in Q1. But it remained a bleak quarter for several sectors, including mining, services such as retail trade and hotels, construction and financial services. While the 7.5% contraction in GDP came as a positive surprise,...

  PROHIBITION OF UNLAWFUL RELIGIOUS CONVERSION ORDINANCE, 2020 The UP Cabinet cleared an ordinance to ban religious conversion for marriage. The new law will put the onus on the defendant to prove that conversion was not for marriage. About: The Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Ordinance, 2020, recommends 1-5 years imprisonment if an accused fails to prove that the conversion of the woman was not for marriage or by use of force, allurement etc. The jail sentence for the offence would be 3-10 years if the woman is from the SC/ST community or is seen as part of mass conversion. The notice period to the district magistrate for the religious conversion has been doubled to two months from a month in an earlier draft. NIIF’s DEBT PLATFORM To drive infrastructure creation in the country, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the infusion of ₹6,000 crore equity in National Infrastructure Investment Fund’s (NIIF’s) debt platform in the next two years. About: Out of the propose...