14th Dec Daily current affairs for UPSC Civil Service Exam 2017

India BPO Promotion Scheme (IBPS)

• IBPS aims at setting up business process outsourcing (BPO) units in rural areas to secure balanced regional growth of the industry.
• It is under the Digital India Programme to create employment opportunities and promotion of BPO operations.
• The objective is to create opportunities for the youth living in these areas so that they do not need to migrate to urban clusters.
• It provides capital support along with special incentives up to Rs 1 lakh in the form of viability gap funding (VGF) to companies to create BPO units.
• Disbursement of financial support under the schemes is directly linked with employment generation.
• It provides special incentives for employment to women and Divyang, setting up operations in towns other than capital towns, generating employment beyond target and promoting local entrepreneurship.
• There are also special provisions for the Himalayan states of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand
• Metro cities such as Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, National Capital Region (NCR), and Pune, along with their urban agglomeration were excluded.

SANKALP Project

• Skills Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion (SANKALP) aimed at providing market relevant training to youths across the country.
• It is a centrally sponsored scheme under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and supported by World Bank loan assistance.
• It also aims to enhance institutional mechanisms for skills development and increase access to quality training by setting up a national body for vocational education - Vocational Education and Training (VET).
• VET shall regulate accreditation and certification in both long and short term thereby bringing about uniformity in vocational training.
• India has recently signed the loan agreement with World Bank for this project, which ends in 2023.

INS Kalvari

• It is a Scorpene class submarine, named after deep sea tiger shark, inducted into Indian Navy recently.
• The submarines of Scorpene class are propelled by diesel-electric engines and Torpedo is mounted as a primary weapon.
• It weighs 1500 tonnes and can go up to depths of 300m.
• It will have both anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare.
• It also features an additional air-independent propulsion (AIP) system.
• Conventional diesel-electric submarines have to surface every few days to get oxygen to recharge their batteries. With AIP systems, they can stay submerged for much longer periods.
• It is first of the six submarines developed by the French DCNS under Project 75.
• The project was signed in 2005 for building submarines by the Mazgaon Dock Limited in Mumbai with transfer of technology from France.
• INS Kalvari is followed by INS Khanderi which is currently undergoing sea trails and expected to be inducted by the end of 2020.
• The Navy currently possesses 13 conventional submarines and one nuclear attack submarine INS Chakra on lease from Russia.
• The Navy last inducted a conventional diesel-electric submarine, INS Sindushastra, procured from Russia in 2000.
• Click here to know more about INS Chakra and Khanderi

Ban on Petcoke

• The Supreme Court relaxed its ban on the use of petroleum coke and allowed cement and limestone industries to use it.
• The court has earlier urged States and Union Territories to move forward towards a nationwide ban on the use of petcoke and furnace oil to power up industries in an attempt to fight pollution.
• The decision to modify its earlier stand is due to government’s stand that petcoke is used as an ingredient and not as fuel in the cement industry.
• The sulphur is mostly absorbed in the process of cement-making.

New Island

• The world’s newest island “Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai” was formed during a volcanic eruption in the remote Pacific three years ago.
• The island rose from the seabed about 65 km northwest of the Tonga capital Nuku’alofa.
• Scientists expected that the island will last anywhere from six to 30 years due to its resilience.
• It is mainly because warm sea water combined with ash during the volcanic explosion to create a concrete-like substance known as “tuff” (a light porous rock).
• Scientists believe that studying the life cycle of this new island will give insights in to Mars environment, since it is having many similar volcanic islands.