Prelim Bits 02-03-2019

Minor Forest Produce (MFP)

Indian Forest Act 1927 defines "forest-produce" which connotes to those products whether found in, or brought from a forest.
Minor Forest Produce (MFP) is a subset of forest produce.
It got a definition in 2007 when the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, was enacted.
It is defined as all non-timber forest produce of plant origin.
It includes bamboo, brushwood, stumps, canes, Tusser, cocoon, honey, waxes, Lac, tendu/kendu leaves, medicinal plants and herbs, roots, tuber and the like.
It provides both subsistence and cash income for people who live in or near forests.
They form a major portion of their food, fruits, medicines and other consumption items and also provide cash income through sale.

FAME India Phase II

Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME) in India Phase II for promotion of Electric Mobility in the country was approved by the cabinet.
It is the expanded version of the present scheme titled 'FAME India 1 which was launched on 2015.
It is to encourage Faster adoption of Electric and hybrid vehicle by way of offering upfront Incentive on purchase of Electric vehicles
It also motivates to establish the necessary charging Infrastructure for electric vehicles.
It will help in addressing the issue of environmental pollution and fuel security.

Sovereign Patent Fund

The National Electronics Policy (NEP) 2019 aims to create a Sovereign Patent Fund (SPF).
It is a State-led investment fund that will acquire Intellectual Property (IP) assets important to national economic objectives.
It can develop a domestic innovation ecosystem, acquire critical IP and reduce the knowledge gap.
It will help in generating new businesses based on the IP assets owned by Indian corporate.
It will support the MSME players largely by making cutting edge technologies available at a low cost.
In the global scenario, SPFs were first launched in South Korea, followed by France and Japan.
Click here to know about National Electronics Policy 2019.

Param Shivay

It is a supercomputer of 833 teraflop capacity.
It was built at the cost of Rs 32.5 crore under the National Super Computing Mission at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Banaras Hindu University (BHU).
It will include 1 peta byte secondary storage and appropriate open source system.
This supercomputer centre will help deal with social issues faced by common people.
India’s first supercomputer called PARAM 8000 was launched in 1991.
The other super computers in the country are as follows,

Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation

It was established in 2002 with a primary aim to stabilize displaced animals and release them back into the wild.
It is situated in Kaziranga National Park, Assam.
It was founded by the Assam Forest Department and Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) with support from WTI’s partner, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).
It is recognised by the Centre Zoo Authority (CZA).
It is a systematic and scientific initiative to deal with wild animals in distress where immediate human intervention is required for their survival.
The CWRC has five different types of animal enclosures for primates, carnivores, ungulates, birds and turtles & tortoises.

Inclusive Internet Index (3i)

It is prepared by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) for Facebook.
India ranked 47th in the overall “Inclusive Internet Index 2019” score.
Sweden topped the chart, followed by Singapore and the US.
The 'Inclusive Internet' score was based on the scores of availability, affordability, relevance and readiness categories.
It was noted that men still have more Internet access than women globally.
However low and lower middle income countries narrowed the gender gap in 2018.
Comprehensive female e-inclusion policies, digital skills programs and targets for women and girls to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) are having demonstrable benefits.
There are still about 3.8 billion people around the world without fast and reliable Internet access.
The percentage of households connected to the Internet globally increased, on average from 53.1 % to 54.8 %.

Source: PIB, The Hindu, Business Standard