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Shree Padmanabhaswamy Temple

Why in NEWS?

• Supreme Court upheld the right of the Travancore royal family to manage the property of deity at Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram reversing the 2011 Kerala High Court decision.

About the case

• The central legal question was whether Utradam Thirunal Marthanda Varma, the younger brother of Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma, the last Ruler of Travancore, could claim to be the “Ruler of Travancore” after the death of the ruler in 1991.
• The court examined this claim within the limited meaning of that term according to the Travancore-Cochin Hindu Religious Institutions Act, 1950 to claim ownership, control and management of the ancient Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple.
• The court said that, as per customary law, the shebait rights (right to manage the financial affairs of the deity) survive with the members of the family even after the death of the last ruler.

Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple

• Temple is in Thiruvananthapuram, is a blend of the Kerala and Dravidian styles of architecture.
• It is one of the 108 sacred Vishnu temples or Divya Desams in India. Divya Desams are the holiest abodes of Lord Vishnu that are mentioned in the works of the Tamil Azhvars (saints). The presiding deity of this temple is Lord Vishnu, reclining on Anantha, the hooded Serpent.
• Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala takes its name from the presiding deity of the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple, who is also known as Anantha(one who reclines on the Serpent Anantha).
• 'Thiruvananthapuram' literally means - the Land of Sree Anantha Padmanabhaswamy.

Govt. Finalising Guidelines for Bulk Drug, Medical Device Parks

IN NEWS

• The government said it is finalizing guidelines for selection of locations of upcoming bulk drug and medical device parks in the country.

ABOUT

• Department of Pharmaceuticals is finalizing guidelines, which will form the basis for objectively selecting locations of upcoming three bulk drugs parks and four medical devices parks in the country
• Union Cabinet on March 12, 2020 had approved scheme for development of three bulk drug and four medical device parks, in which the government will extend grants-in-aid to states with a maximum limit of Rs 1,000 crore per bulk Drug park and Rs 100 crore per medical device parks.

PURPOSE-

• This is being done in order to encourage domestic production of critical APIs (active pharmaceutical ingredients)/ KSM (key starting material) and medical devices. It will also result in significant generation of jobs.

CONCLUSION

• The development of bulk drug and medical device parks will help in bringing down India’s dependency on imports and making the country emerge as a major pharma exporter.
• These schemes will increase the competitiveness of domestic production of bulk drugs and medical devices due to benefits available in clusters in the form of state of art common infrastructure and logistics facilities.

Google will Invest $10 billion in India

IN NEWS

• Google is planning to invest $10 billion in India as part of plans to make the internet "affordable and useful" for a billion people.

ABOUT

• The promise of revenue from India’s growing digital market has drawn investors for years, but there’s been a surge in interest in the past few months.
• Google on Monday announced plans to spend $10 billion over the next five to seven years to accelerate the adoption of digital technologies.

PURPOSE

• The fund will focus on enabling affordable access to the internet and information for Indians in their own language, building new products and services relevant to India’s unique needs, empowering small and medium businesses in their digital transformation, and leveraging technology and artificial intelligence (AI) for social good, including digital literacy, outbreak predictions, and support for rural economies.

MODE

• The fund will be deployed to accelerate Google’s efforts through a mix of equity investments, partnerships, operations, infrastructure, and ecosystem investments.

CONCLUSION

• India is the world's fastest growing internet market, with almost 700 million internet users and nearly as many yet to come online for the first time. The country has attracted billions of dollars of investment over the last 15 years from the likes of Google, Facebook (FB), Netflix (NFLX) and Twitter (TWTR), which rushed to cash in on the internet boom.

PM Fasal Bima Yojana

Why in NEWS?

• Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman chaired a meeting to review the implementation of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY).

About

• The Finance Minister highlighted the need of carrying out awareness activities to ensure dissemination of information among all farmers in view of scheme becoming voluntary for all farmers and the need for states to release premium subsidy on time to ensure timely settlement of claims.
• Minister suggested that stringent follow up should be done with States where subsidy is pending specially those which are not implementing the Scheme in Kharif 2020 with a view to ensure payment of all pending claims to farmers at the earliest.
• It was informed that leveraging technology was one of the main focus areas in revamped PMFBY and the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare was working towards migrating to technology assessment of yield by 2023 and survey would be conducted after Rabi-2020-21 to ascertain the impact of the revamped PMFBY.

Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY)

• It was launched in 2016 and is being administered by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
• It provides a comprehensive insurance cover against failure of the crop thus helping in stabilising the income of the farmers.
• The prescribed premium is 2% to be paid by farmers for all Kharif crops and 1.5% for all Rabi crops. In the case of annual commercial and horticultural crops, the premium is 5%.
• The scheme is compulsory for farmers with loan, availing Crop Loan /Kisan Credit Card (KCC) account for notified crops and voluntary for others.
• It is implemented by empanelled general insurance companies and selection of the Implementing Agency is done by the concerned State Government through bidding.