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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 17 February 2022

::NATIONAL::

The Union Health Ministry on Monday said the National Health Authority (NHA) is working on integrating SECC 2011 beneficiary database with National Food Security Act(NFSA),to enable beneficiaries to seek information regarding their entitlement under the AyushmanBharat Pradhan Mantri - Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) using their ration card number.

About NHA

It is an attached office of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare with full functional autonomy.
NHA is governed by a Governing Board chaired by the Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare.
It is responsible for implementing India's flagship public health insurance/assurance scheme.

AB PM-JAY:

It is also entrusted with the role of designing strategy, building technological infrastructure to create a National Digital Health Eco-system.

The Minister of State for Culture & Parliamentary Affairs Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal launched the career counselling workshop ‘Pramarsh 2022’ for the students of the Bikaner District region.

Key highlights:

In this workshop one lakh students participated from more than thousands schools of Bikaner district mainly from rural area.
Workshop conducted with the support of The National Institute of Career Services (NICS) which comes under the Ministry of Labour & Employment and educational start-up Edumilestones.
“Pramarsh2022” workshop was an extension of the efforts to bridge the industry academia gap and impart the knowledge about various choices available to the student.
The ongoing workshop is not limited to training of teach-ers and career workshop for students, but it is also proposed that an offline and online career assessment and service of Edumilestones digital career library will be facilitated to all students.

This week, in what is being called a historic first, Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett undertakes a two-day official visit to Bahrain, one of the seven Gulf countries whose relations with Israel have been sour on account of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Why is Bennett’s Bahrain visit significant?

The visit signals the growing ties that are developing between Israel and the Gulf countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates).
It comes a couple of years after another the UAE — a key ally of the US — normalised relations with Israel in 2020 after signing the ‘Abraham Accords’.

Abraham Accords:

This deal, sponsored by the US, was part of the country’s regional security agenda to counter Iran.
As part of this security agenda — signed during the Trump administration — the US prioritised improving relations between Israel and the Gulf countries, something that the latter nations have been wary of because of the Israel-Palestine conflict.
As part of the Abraham Accords, Israel agreed to stop further annexation of Palestinian territory.
The accords were signed by the leaders of Bahrain, Israel and the UAE in September 2020. Bennett visited the UAE in December 2021, becoming the first leader from Israel to visit the federation of seven emirates.

India’s Department for Promotion of Industry & Internal Trade (DPIIT) and Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) conducted a joint meeting for the yearly evaluation of progress under the Japanese Industrial Townships (JITs) in India.

What are JITs?

The Japan Industrial Townships (JITs) were established under “Action Agenda for India-Japan Investment & Trade Promotion and Asia-Pacific Economic Integration,” signed in April 2015 by METI (Japan) and DPIIT (India).
This action agenda was signed with the goal of growing Japanese investment in India by building “Japan Industrial Townships” across the country, specifically in the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) and Chennai Bengaluru Industrial Corridor (CBIC) regions.
Japan is the only country in India with distinct country-focused industrial townships.
These townships have ready-to-move-in facilities and completely constructed land available for allotment.

JIT’s in India

There are now 114 Japanese firms in the JITs. The majority of Japanese enterprises are located in the industrial townships of Neemrana and Sri City.
Since 2000, Japan has invested about USD 36.2 billion in important areas such as autos, electronics system design and manufacturing (ESDM), medical devices, consumer products, textiles, food processing, and chemicals, ranking as the world’s fifth-largest investor.

Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance today released an amount of 1154.90 crore rupees to four states for providing grants to Urban Local Bodies.
The States to which grants were released on Monday are Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, and Sikkim.
The grants released are meant for Non-Million Plus cities including Cantonment Boards.

The 15th Finance Commission:

The 15th Finance Commission in its report for the period from 2021-22 to 2025-26 has divided the Urban Local Bodies into two categories.
These are Million-Plus urban agglomerations and cities excluding Delhi and Srinagar, and all other cities and towns with less than one million population. The 15th Finance Commission has recommended separate grants for them.
Out of the total grants recommended by the Commission for Non-Million Plus cities, 40 percent is a basic grant and the remaining 60 percent is a tied grant. Basic grants are utilized for location-specific felt needs, except for payment of salary and incurring other establishment expenditures.
On the other hand, tied grants for the Non-Million Plus cities are released for supporting and strengthening the delivery of basic services.
Out of the total tied grant, 50 percent is earmarked for ‘Sanitation Solid Waste Management and attainment of star ratings as developed by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. The remaining 50 percent is tied to ‘Drinking water, rainwater harvesting and water recycling'.

Digital services company Jio Platforms has formed a joint-venture with Luxembourg-based satellite-linked content connectivity solutions provider SES to deliver satellite broadband services across India.

What does the deal entail?

The joint venture will use multi-orbit space networks that is a combination of GEO (geostationary equatorial orbit) and MEO (medium earth orbit) satellite constellations capable of delivering multi-gigabit links and capacity to enterprises, mobile backhaul and retail customers across the length and breadth of India and neighbouring regions.
The joint venture will be the vehicle for providing SES’s satellite data and connectivity services in India, except for certain international aeronautical and maritime customers who may be served by SES.
It will have availability of up to 100 Gbps capacity from SES and will leverage Jio’s sales reach in India to unlock this market opportunity.
As part of the investment plan, the joint venture will develop extensive gateway infrastructure in India to provide services within the country, the companies said.