09-02-23 Daily-Himachal Pradesh-HPPSC Current Affairs

Switching on its entire fleet of official vehicles, as electrical, Himachal Pradesh State Transport Department has achieved the distinction of becoming the first such department in the country to switch over to electrical vehicles (EVs). Adopting the Go Green approach, the Directorate of Transport has replaced the official petrol and diesel vehicles with electric ones.

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, congratulating the State Transport Department, said that Himachal has taken a lead in switching over to electrical vehicles and notified its policy, whereas some states of the country are in the final stage for implementing the same.

The motive to start these e-vehicles was to curtail unnecessary expenditure on petroleum products besides preserving the state’s pristine Environment. All the Government departments will be equipped with electrical vehicles within a year, said the Chief Minister, adding that EV Policy-2022 has also been notified.

The Government is also mulling to make Parwanoo-Nalagarh-Una-Hamirpur-Nadaun-Dehra highway as Clean and Green corridor. Apart from this, the e-buses will soon run on Shimla-Rampur corridor, he said, adding that the rest of the routes in the State will be provided e-buses in a phased manner in next three to four years, which will minimize both noise and Air Pollution.

The HRTC has been in loss since the last few years. Switching over to electrical vehicles will be a step forward to minimize the cost of transportation and will be affordable to all.

The electrical Charging Stations will be set up in a phased manner for which around 110 places along the four lanes, national and state highways have been identified. Besides, 700 government buildings have been selected to set up the electric charging stations.

Indias national accreditation system under the Quality Council of India (QCI) has been ranked 5^thin the world in the recent Global Quality Index (GQII) 2021. The GQII ranks the 184 economies in the world on the basis of the quality infrastructure (QI). Indias overall QI system ranking continues to be in the Top 10 at the 10^thposition, with the standardization system (under Bis) at 9^thand the metrology system (under NPL-CSIR) at 21^stposition in the world.

QI is the technical backbone for international trade, with metrology, standardization, accreditation and conformity assessment Services providing reliability and trust between trading partners.In India, the National Physical Laboratory under the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (NPL-CSIR) is the national metrology institute, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is the national standards body and the constituent national accreditation boards under Quality Council of India support are the custodians of the national accreditation system.

The GQII measures the relative development of countries QI. A formula calculates a score for each country based on its position in the sub-rankings for metrology, standards and accreditation.Geographically, the top 25 QI systems are mainly located in Europe, North America, and Asia-Pacific, with some exceptions, such as India (10th), Brazil (13th), Australia (14th), Turkey (16th), Mexico (18th) and South Africa (20th).

Government of India has formulated a Greenfield (GFA) Policy, 2008 which provides detailed guidelines, procedures and steps related to construction of Greenfield airports across the country. Under the GFA Policy, the project proponent- an airport developer or the respective State Government willing to establish a Greenfield airport is required to send a proposal to the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) in the prescribed format for 2-stage approval process i.e., ‘Site Clearance’ followed by ‘In-Principle’ approval.

Since 2019, 6 Greenfield airports namely, Kalaburagi (project cost Rs. 175.57 crore), Orvakal (Kurnool) (project cost Rs. 187 crore), Sindhudurg (project cost Rs. 520 crore), Itanagar (project cost Rs. 646 crore)Kushinagar (project cost Rs. 448 crore) and Mopa (project cost Rs.2870 crore) have been operationalised, out of which Kushinagar and Mopa airports are International airports.

TheSupreme Court banned all construction activities in thecore areasoftiger reserves,national parksand wildlife sanctuaries after it was brought to its notice by a court-appointed panel that illegal constructions for establishment of a tiger safari was being done within in the buffer area of theCorbett Tiger ReserveinUttarakhand.

The MoEF&CC to review norms issued under Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 and Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 relating to setting up of zoos and safaris within and wildlife sanctuaries and amend the same so as to discourage use of wildlife habitat for wildlife tourism activities which are non-site specific.

India and the European Union (EU) announced the formation of three working groups under the Trade and Technology Council that was set up to deepen strategic ties with the trade bloc. India and EU had in April last year agreed to establish a TradeandTechnologyCouncil, to tackle the challenges at the nexus of trade, trustedtechnologyand security. Such a council is the first for India with any of its partners and second for the EU, following the first one it has set up with the United States (US).

The working Groups will now start preparing for the first meeting of the council, which will take place before the next EU-IndiaSummit in spring of 2023. Ministerial meetings of the council will take place at least once a year, with the venue alternating between the EU andIndia.

The United Arab Emirates is in early discussions with India to trade non-oil commodities in Indian rupees, Minister for Dr Thani Al Zeyoudi said in World Economic Forum, Davos. The minister said other countries, including China, had also raised the issue of settling non-oil trade payments in local currencies. He added that the UAE is hoping to conclude a trade agreement with Cambodia in the first quarter.

The move would build on an agreement signed in 2022, which aimed to increase trade excluding oil between the two countries to $100 billion by 2027. Trading in Indias currency would also signal a stark move away from the US dollar, which dominates global commodities markets as well as trade for countries along the Persian Gulf.