Important Facts for Prelims (25th October 2018) | 25 Oct 2018

Main Nahin Hum Portal and App

• Recently the Prime Minister launched the “Main Nahin Hum” portal and app, in New Delhi.
• It is aimed at pooling the resources that corporates put in towards social causes and aligning them with the initiatives of the government such as Swachh Bharat, Skill India etc.
• The portal will enable IT professionals and organizations to bring together their efforts towards social causes, and service to society, on one platform.
• The portal will also help the employees in identifying the volunteering opportunities for social causes and they can also collaborate with other employees on such projects.
• The portal is expected to help catalyse greater collaboration towards the service of the weaker sections of society, especially by leveraging the benefits of technology.
• It is also expected to generate wider participation of interested people who are motivated to work for the benefit of society.
• Since India has already become the third largest in terms of the start-up, social start-ups should become an intrinsic part of the ecosystem. The line between what is a business model and what is a social start-up model is very thin and areas such as electric vehicles which can serve both the purposes.

India-Israel Missile Deal-Barak 8

• India has awarded an additional USD 777 million deal to a leading Israeli defence firm for supplying Barak 8 Long-Range Surface-to-Air Missile (LRSAM) Air and Missile Defence Systems to ships of the Indian Navy.
• The missile system has been jointly developed by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), India's DRDO, Israel's Administration for the Development of Weapons and Technological Infrastructure, Elta Systems, Rafael and some other Indian defence companies.
• The Barak-8 LRSAM system is an operational Air and Missile Defence (AMD) system used by Israel's navy as well as by India's navy, air and land forces.
• The system provides broad aerial and point defence against a wide range of threats to the marine arena from the air, sea or land.
• Barak-8 incorporates a state-of-the-art phased array multi-mission radar, two-way data link, and a flexible command and control system, enabling users to simultaneously engage multiple targets day and night and in all weather conditions.
• Israel is emerging as one of India’s biggest suppliers of weapons, alongside the United States and long-term partner Russia.

Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund (FIDF)

• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has given its approval for creation of special Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund (FIDF).
• National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), National Cooperatives Development Corporation (NCDC) and all scheduled Banks shall be the nodal Loaning Entities.

Benefits

• Creation of fisheries infrastructure facilities both in marine and inland fisheries sectors.
• To augment fish production to achieve its target of 15 million tonne by 2020 set under the Blue Revolution; and to achieve a sustainable growth of 8% -9 %.
• Employment opportunities to fishers and other entrepreneurs in fishing and allied activities.
• To attract private investment in creation and management of fisheries infrastructure facilities.
• Adoption of new technologies.
• FIDF would provide concessional finance to State Governments / UTs and State entities, cooperatives, individuals and entrepreneurs etc. for taking up of the identified investment activities of fisheries development.
• Under FIDF, loan lending will be over a period of five years from 2018-19 to 2022-23 and maximum repayment will be over a period of 12 years.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi Awarded the 2018 Seoul Peace Prize

• This award recognizes Prime-Minister Narendra Modi ‘s efforts –
• In improving international cooperation, raising global economic growth.
• In accelerating the Human Development of the people of India by fostering economic growth in the world's fastest growing large economy and furthering the development of democracy through anti-corruption and social integration efforts.
• In the growth of the Indian and global economies, crediting 'Modinomics' for reducing social and economic disparity between the rich and the poor.
• In making the government cleaner through anti-corruption measures and demonetization, for his contribution towards regional and global peace through a proactive foreign policy with countries around the world under the 'Modi Doctrine' and the 'Act East Policy’.