Daily Current Affairs for UPSC, IAS, UPPSC/UPPCS, BPSC, MPPSC, RPSC and All State PCS Examinations

Govt asks NIC to ensure capturing FASTag Details before New Vehicle Registration

IN NEWS

• The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), in a letter to NIC, informed that full integration of National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) with VAHAN portal has been conducted.

ABOUT

• NHAI has rolled out program for Electronic Toll Collection on Toll Plazas on National Highways to be called FASTag.
• FASTag is a device that employs Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology for making toll payments directly from the prepaid account linked to it. It is affixed on the windscreen of your vehicle and enables you to drive through toll plazas.
• It was in 2017, that the fitment of FASTag in new vehicles, being sold under the category of category M and N, was made compulsory.

BENEFITS

• Ease of payment – No need to carry cash for the toll transactions and saves time.
• Online Recharge – FASTag can be recharged online through Credit Card / Debit Card / NEFT/ RTGS or Net banking
• SMS alerts for toll transactions, low balance, etc.
• Online Portal for customers
• Validity of 5 Years
• Environmental benefit:

• Reduced air pollution
• Reduced use of paper.
• Saves Fuel and gas.

• Social benefit :

•  Reduced toll payment hassles ,
• Analytics for better highway management

• Economic benefit:

• Reduced effort in management of cash at toll plaza,
• Reduced effort in monitoring centrally Digital India.

MANAGEMENT

• Indian Highways Management Company Limited (IHMCL) (a company incorporated by National Highways Authority of India) and National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) are implementing this program with help from Toll Plaza Concessionaires, FASTag Issuer Agencies and Toll Transaction Acquirer (select banks)

UNESCO's World Heritage Committee to review Hagia Sophia's Status

IN NEWS

• On Friday, UNESCO said that its World Heritage Committee would review Hagia Sophia‘s status after Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan declared the Istanbul monument a mosque.

ABOUT

• Erdogan made the announcement shortly after a top court ruled that the sixth-century building’s conversion to a museum in 1934 by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the modern secular Turkish republic, was illegal.
• Hagia Sophia officially the Great Mosque of Ayasofya and the Church of Hagia Sophia is a Late Antique place of worship in Istanbul that has served as a Greek Orthodox Christian patriarchal cathedral, briefly a Roman Catholic cathedral, later an Ottoman mosque, and a museum. Completed in 537, during the reign of the eastern Roman emperor Justinian I, it was then the world's largest interior space and the first to employ a fully pendentive dome.

UNESCO

• The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) seek to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity. This is embodied in an international treaty called the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, adopted by UNESCO in 1972.
• The Fund for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage of Outstanding Universal Value, called "the World Heritage Fund", was established under Article 15 of the World Heritage Convention and may be used only for such purposes as the World Heritage Committee shall define.
• India has 38 World Heritage Sites, and that makes India with the 6th largest number of World Heritage Sites in the world. There are 30 cultural sites, 7 natural sites and 1 mixed as recognized by UNESCO.

Atal Innovation Mission (AIM)

Why in NEWS?

• NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission has launched the ATL App Development Module for school children across the country.

About

• The ATL App is an online course, which is completely free.
• Through six project-based learning modules and online mentoring sessions, young innovators can learn to build mobile apps in various Indian languages and showcase their talent.
• Additionally, to build capacities and acumen for app development within school teachers, periodic Teacher Training sessions will be conducted on the AIM App Development course.
• Tinkering Labs across the country so that they can integrate their Tinkering Lab innovations with mobile apps enhancing the usability and reach of their innovations.
• This will be one of the largest app learning and development initiatives at a school level in any country.

Atal Innovation Mission (AIM)

• It is a flagship initiative set up by the NITI Aayog to promote innovation and entrepreneurship across the length and breadth of the country, based on a detailed study and deliberations on innovation and entrepreneurial needs of India in the years ahead.
• The objective of establishing AIM is to create scientific temper and cultivate the spirit of curiosity and innovation among young minds.

Function

• Entrepreneurship promotion through Self-Employment and Talent Utilization.
• For Innovation promotion: to provide a platform where innovative ideas are generated.
• To Scale-up support to Established Incubators.

Delimitation Process

Why in News?

• SC seeks reply from Centre and Assam government in plea challenging delimitation process in the state.

About

• Supreme Court sought response from Central and Assam government on plea questioning the exercise of delimitation of assembly and parliamentary constituencies in the state of Assam, saying it is proposed to be conducted on the basis of "stale figures" of Census 2001.
• Bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde has issued notice in the plea filed by All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF).
• Petition seeks directions for the deferment of the delimitation exercise until the COVID-19 pandemic is over.
• Also sought directions for 28 February order to be quashed which has "rescinded" an earlier notification of February 8, 2008 that had deferred the process of delimitation for Assam.
• The plea prays for the delimitation process to be deferred until the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise is completed in the state and Assam is relived form "disturbed area" by the competent authority.

Delimitation Process in India

• It is the act of redrawing boundaries of Lok Sabha and state Assembly seats to represent changes in population.
• In this process, the number of seats allocated to different states in Lok Sabha and the total number seats in a Legislative Assembly may also change.
• The main objective of delimitation is to provide equal representation to equal segments of a population.
• It also aims at a fair division of geographical areas so that one political party doesn’t have an advantage over others in an election.
• Under Article 82, the Parliament enacts a Delimitation Act after every Census.