India-Japan Fund (IJF)

The National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) has entered into a collaboration with the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) to launch a USD 600 million India-Japan Fund (IJF).

• India-Japan Fund will focus on investing in environmental sustainability and low carbon emission strategies.
• The fund aims to play the role of being a ‘partner of choice’ to further enhance Japanese investments into India.
• The fund was launched by the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) in partnership with Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC).
• The JBIC and Government of India (GoI) will act as anchor investors.
• It is the NIIF’s first bilateral fund, with the GoI contributing 49% of the target corpus and the remaining 51% contributed by JBIC.
• The Fund will be managed by NIIF Limited (NIIFL) and JBIC IG (a subsidiary of JBIC) will support NIIFL in promoting Japanese investments in India.

Quantum Dots

Recently the Chemistry Nobel Prize 2023 was awarded to the scientists for their discovery and synthesis of quantum dots.

• Quantum dots are particles that are a few nanometres wide.
• They exhibit unique optical properties due to their small physical size.
• Their structure and atomic composition are the same as bulk materials, but the properties of the bulk materials don’t depend on their size.
• The properties of quantum dots can be changed by changing their size.
• At the scale of nanometres, materials and particles are capable of new, size-dependent properties because quantum physical forces start to dominate.
• At the macroscopic scale, on the other hand, like in our day to day lives, gravity and the rules of classical physics dominate.
• These nanoparticles have wide-ranging applications across fields like electronics, advanced surgery, and quantum computing.
• Nanoscale-sized quantum dots are used to map biological tissues by biochemists.
• Quantum dots are used in photovoltaic cells to improve the absorption and efficiency in converting solar light into electricity.
• Certain cancer treatments use quantum dots for targeted drug delivery and other therapeutic measures.
• Quantum dots can be used as security markers on currency and documents as an anti-counterfeit measure.
• They can be used as fluorescent markers to tag and track objects.

National Cancer Registry Programme

• The main objectives of the programme is:
  1. To obtain an overview of patterns of cancer in different parts of the country.
  2. To calculate estimates of cancer incidence wherever feasible.
• The overall aim of the study is to get to know the similarities and differences in patterns of cancer across the country in a relatively cost-effective way.
• Since 1982, the National Cancer Registry Programme (NCPR) sources records via 2 mediums which are:
  1. Population-based cancer registries (PBCRs)
  2. Hospital-based cancer registries (HBCRs).
• PBCRs trace incidence and trends for a defined geographical population in a region, while hospital-based registries focus on the medical symptoms, diagnosis and care of cancer cases.
• NCPR keeps records of 38 PBCRs and 189 HBCRs distributed through India.
• These registries are regulated under the National Centre for Disease Informatics and Research (NCDIR) of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
• Since cancer is not a notifiable disease in India, data collection is active in nature.

Dynamic Injunction

The Delhi High Court recently passed a “dynamic injunction” in favour of the ICC World cup’s broadcaster of 2023, Star India Private Limited.

• An injunction is an official order given by a law court, usually to stop someone from doing something.
• The injunctions are granted by the court only after the court identifies the work and determines the plaintiff’s copyright in that work.
• To avoid this cumbersome process and grant protection to copyrighted works in a timely manner, courts sometimes rely on the concept of “dynamic” injunctions.
• A dynamic injunction is passed to protect copyrighted works even before they are publicly released, distributed or created.
• It ensures that no irreparable loss is caused to its authors and owner, owing to the imminent possibility of such works being uploaded on rogue websites or their newer versions.
• The concept of “dynamic” injunctions was for the first time used in the case UTV vs. 1337x in the Delhi High Court ruling in 2009.
• Star India stated that given the exclusive rights they had acquired from ICC is broadcast reproduction rights which are contemplated under Section 37 of the Copyright Act, 1957.
• Section 37 of the Copyright Act, 1957 deals with a “special right” extended to every broadcasting organisation.

Swavlamban 2.0

In the recently concluded Swavlamban 2.0, a number of announcements were made by Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh to promote ‘Aatmanirbharta’ in defence and innovation.

• It is a two-day seminar of Naval Innovation and Indigenisation Organisation (NIIO).
• Defence Minister Rajnath Singh at the event released the fifth Positive Indigenisation List (PIL) of 98 items.
• The items will be procured by the three armed services from indigenous suppliers in a staggered manner as per specified timelines.
• Highly complex systems, sensors, weapons and ammunition have been included in the list.
• All these items will be procured from indigenous sources as per provisions given in Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020 in staggered timeline.
• He also released the Indian Navy’s updated Indigenisation Roadmap ‘Swavlamban 2.0’.
• It was launched under 10th Defence India Start-up Challenges (DISC 10) & DISC 10 PRIME of Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) and 5 problem statements under iDEX for Fauji.
• 2 INDUS X challenges under ‘INDUS-X Mutual Promotion of Advanced Collaborative Technologies’ (IMPACT) were launched by the Raksha Mantri.
• SPRINT innovative challenge was launched by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi during the Swavlamban seminar in 2022.
• It promotes the use of indigenous technology and products in the Navy, has helped in taking the country forward in becoming self-reliant in the defence sector.

Naval Innovation and Indigenisation Organisation (NIIO)

• It was launched by the Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh in 2020.
• The NIIO puts in place dedicated structures for the end users to interact with academia and industry towards fostering innovation and indigenisation for self-reliance in defence.
• The NIIO is a 3 tier organisation that includes:
  1. Naval Technology Acceleration Council (N-TAC).
  2. A working group under the N-TAC that will implement the projects.
  3. Technology Development Acceleration Cell (TDAC).