Important Facts for Prelims (3 August 2018) | 03 Aug 2018

NITI Aayog Launches Move Hack

  • NITI Aayog has launched Move Hack, a global mobility hackathon to crowdsource solutions aimed at the future of mobility in India.
  • Transportation and mobility are emerging as potential drivers of innovation and economic growth of the 21st century.
  • Rapidly evolving technologies and business models for delivering mobility services have dramatic potential to transform the global transportation sector.
  • Mobility that ranges from pedestrian and personal transport to public transit and freight movement is extremely critical and impacts rural and urban daily lives.
  • The hackathon is organized in partnership with the Government of Singapore and is powered by Hacker Earth. 

NOTE: Crowdsourcing is the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people and especially from the online community rather than from traditional employees or suppliers

SAATHI Initiative

  • Ministry of Textiles and Ministry of Power have joined hands under the initiative SAATHI (Sustainable and Accelerated Adoption of efficient Textile technologies to Help Small Industries) in order to sustain and accelerate the adoption of energy efficient textile technologies in the powerloom sector and cost savings due to using of such technology.
  • Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a Public Sector entity under the administrative control of Ministry of Power, will replace old inefficient electric motors with energy efficient motors which will result in energy and cost saving up to 10-15% in the first phase.
  • The use of this efficient equipment will result in energy savings and cost savings to the unit owners at no upfront cost.

Save Dal Lake

  • According to a recent assessment, the size of Dal Lake has shrunk from its original area of 22 sq km to about 10 sq km.
  • The water quality of Dal Lake has deteriorated due to intense pollution caused by untreated sewage and solid wastes that flow into the lake.
  • The depth of the lake has come down in many places and its total capacity has gone down to 40%.
  • Encroachments of water channels and clogging have diminished the circulation and inflows into the lake, leading to extensive weed growth of water hyacinth which has emerged as a health hazard.
  • Houseboats on Dal Lake often discharge sewage into the water body.
  • The continuing night soil discharge from the 800 to 900 houseboats is causing extreme pollution.

NOTE: Dal Lake

  • Dal Lake, situated in the northeast of Srinagar (the capital of Jammu and Kashmir) in Kashmir valley (584 m above MSL), is one of the most beautiful lakes in India and the second largest lake in Jammu and Kashmir.
  • The lake has four main interconnected basins namely, Hazratbal, Bod dal, Gagribal and Nagin.

Apple Reaches Historic 1 Trillion Market Cap

  • Apple Inc became the first 1 trillion publicly listed U.S. company, capping a decade-long rise in its stock price fueled by its popular iPhone.

NOTE: Market capitalization(Market Cap) is the aggregate valuation of the company based on its current share price and the total number of outstanding stocks. It is calculated by multiplying the current market price of the company's share with the total outstanding shares of the company.

Connectivity for Health Project

  • Ministries of Electronics and IT (MeitY), Telecommunications and Health & Family Welfare will come together for a ‘connectivity for health’ project.
  • The aim is to connect all rural areas through a special broadband line, to provide telemedicine in rural areas, with government hospitals so that they have access to well- known doctors through video calling.
  • The government is already running various programmes as part of the ‘Digital India’ initiative, such as e-Hospital — an open-source health information management system, which is configurable and easily customisable with multi-tenancy support.
  • Recently, MeitY and the Health Ministry also tied up to implement the Ayushman Bharat scheme through three-lakh Common Service Centres (CSCs) across the country.
  • As per the agreement, a beneficiary can now visit the nearby CSC to get the benefit of this scheme. CSC will help the beneficiary identify his/her name in the Health Ministry database and his/her entitlement for the scheme.

NOTE: Ayushman Bharat is the National Health Protection Scheme, which will cover over 10 crore poor families (around 50 crore beneficiaries) providing coverage of up to Rs 5 lakh (per family per year) for secondary and tertiary-care hospitalisation.

Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY)

  • The Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) was launched in 2014 under which each Member of Parliament will take the responsibility of developing physical and institutional infrastructure in three villages by 2019.
  • The Yojana is about improving access to public services and community action for social and economic development so that these villages become role models worth emulation by neighbouring Gram Panchayats.
  • The goal is to develop three Adarsh Grams by March 2019, of which one would be achieved by 2016. Thereafter, five such Adarsh Grams (one per year) will be selected and developed by 2024.