Portugal MP wins IPU presidency; beats Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Canada

Raman Pandit

Duarte Pacheco of Portugal has been elected the new President of Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) for the period of three years. The election was held during an extraordinary online session of the IPU’s Governing Council, its main decision-making body made up of parliamentarians from around the world.

Duarte Pacheco takes over from Gabriela Cuevas Barron, a Maxican parliamentarian, who has just concluded her three-year term.

           
There were four candidates include Duarte Pacheco from Portugal, Muhammad Sanjrani from Pakistan, Akmal Saidov from Uzbekistan and Salma Ataullahjan from Canada, in the fray for the election of IPU president.

New IPU president Pacheco, in a statement, said: “I believe that the IPU is the ideal forum to reach the goals of success we want for humanity: a world with more equality, social cohesion, peace, better environmental quality, and which can address, in unity, the global challenges we are now facing.”    

Prior to the election, a hearing with all four candidates took place on 21 October. The candidates had the opportunity to set forth their vision for the organization and to answer questions from the wider IPU membership. In order to encourage gender equality, each member parliament had three votes on condition that they had gender-balanced delegations. Single sex delegations were penalized by only having one vote. Over 40 per cent of voting members were women MPs and 27 per cent were under 45.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla congratulated Pacheco for his election as President of IPU. Birla said: “Your success in the election is a success of your vision of strengthening parliamentary diplomacy.” Birla hoped that Mr. Pacheco’s belief in ideals of democracy, rule of law, consensus building and multilateralism would help in building a stronger and more focused Inter Parliamentary Union in sync with the changing times.

Earlier, the governing council of IPU, Geneva resumed its business during the 206th Session in virtual format. The election process to elect the new IPU President through remote electronic secret ballot, with a 24 hour window for casting votes came to a close at 1930 hrs.

The Indian Parliamentary Delegation led by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and consisting of Poonamben Hematbhai Maadam, MP and Shri Swapan Dasgupta, MP attended the meeting of the IPU Governing Council. The Secretary General Lok Sabha, Snehlata Srivastava also attended the virtual meeting.    

  The IPU is a global organization of national parliaments dedicated to promoting peace through parliamentary diplomacy and dialogue. IPU has 179 Member Parliaments and 13 associate members.

International Parliamentary body to elect its president through remote electronic secret ballot

Raman Pandit

 In the backdrop of Covid-19 pandemic, the election of new president of Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) is to take place virtually through remote electronic secret ballot in the 206th session of the governing council of the IPU. This is an extraordinary virtual session, which is being organised from 1 to 4 November 2020 in place of a full-fledged in-person Statutory Assembly of IPU due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic.

There are four candidates in the fray for the election of IPU President viz. Mr Duarte Pacheco from Portugal; Mr Muhammad Sanjrani from Pakistan; Mr Akmal Saidov from Uzbekistan and Ms Salma Ataullahjan from Canada.
The outgoing President of IPU Gabriela Cuevas Barron (MP, Mexico) had completed her term on 19 October 2020. The term of the new President of IPU will be from 2020-23.
An Indian Parliamentary Delegation led by Mr Om Birla, Speaker, Lok Sabha and consisting of Ms Poonamben Hematbhai, Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha and Mr Swapan Dasgupta, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha is participating in the above mentioned Virtual Session and will cast their votes.  Secretary General, Lok Sabha Ms Snehlata Shrivastava and Secretary General, Rajya Sabha Mr Desh Deepak Verma will also attend the Virtual Session. Dr. Ajay Kumar, Joint Secretary, Lok Sabha Secretariat is the Secretary to the Delegation.
Prior to the scheduled Virtual Session of the Governing Council, a Virtual Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Geopolitical Group (APG) of IPU, consisting of 36 nations, was organized on 30 October 2020 by the President of Senate of Philippines, the current Chair of APG. Shri Swapan Dasgupta, Member of Parliament and Secretary General, Lok Sabha Ms Snehlata Shrivastava attended the meeting.
The Governing Council is the main policy-making body of the IPU which is inter-alia mandated to elect the new President of IPU. Each member Parliament of IPU is represented by three parliamentarians in the Governing Council and accordingly has three votes, provided the Delegation has both men and women.

The IPU is a global organization of national parliaments which began in 1889 as small group of parliamentarians, dedicated to promoting peace through parliamentary diplomacy and dialogue. Now, it has grown into a truly global organization of national parliaments and its membership inches ever closer to being universal with 179 Member Parliaments and 13 associate members.

The slogan of IPU is “For democracy. For everyone.”

The Inter-Parliamentary Union promotes democratic governance, institutions and values, working with parliaments and parliamentarians to articulate and respond to the needs and aspirations of the people. The International body of parliaments work for peace, democracy, human rights gender equality, youth empowerment and sustainable development through political dialogue, cooperation and parliamentary action.

The headquarters of Inter-Parliamentary Union are in Geneva, Switzerland. The IPU also have an office in New York, United States of America (USA).

India's leading Tech Institute and Software company TCS jointly develop a remotely-controlled factory operation system

India’s premier institute IIT, Kharagpur, and the world’s leading software company, TCS, have jointly developed an innovative technology to remotely control factory operations and real-time quality correction during industrial production.

IIT Kharagpur has developed novel Industry 4.0 technology for remotely controlled factory operations and real-time quality correction during industrial production, jointly with TCS to set a new trend in India’s advanced manufacturing sector.

Though the remotely controlled factory operations would help at the time of pandemic when workers have to maintain social distancing due to the hygiene and social distancing norms, the innovation would have a bigger impact in reducing cost and ensuring safe working environment to its workers.

The cloud infrastructure, remote and real-time operations systems developed by the IIT and TCS would hold the key to maintaining effective industrial operations. The benefits of controlled operations have a bigger impact especially in the context of Atma Nirbhar Bharat in delivering quality output at low costs said a senior officer of the Ministry of Science and Technology.

The present innovation upgraded the industrial process of friction stir welding to a multi-sensory system of Industry 4.0. It has not only set the course for remotely controlled operations in the Indian industrial sector but has also enabled real-time quality check and correction during the production process.

The new Technology would make possible for industrial houses to achieve standardized quality goals throughout the production process and reduce rejection hence lowering the cost of production.

Emphasizing on the need for such technologies to achieve the ‘Make in India’ goal, the Director IIT Kharagpur,  Prof Virendra K Tewari remarked, “While we are aiming to boost indigenous production and exports, our primary goal should be the quality output with minimum disruptions. Be it consumers in India or abroad, these are the two basic needs our industrial sector, which we must address for procuring orders in large volumes,”.

He said at IIT Kharagpur’s Centre of Excellence in Advanced Manufacturing Technology, scientists have set a target to bring to the forefront indigenously developed industry 4.0 technologies to support our industrial sector to achieve this goal.

The innovative technology was developed by Prof Surjya K Pal, Professor in-charge at the Centre of Excellence in Advanced Manufacturing Technology in association with TCS. It would acquire real-time information about the welding process through multiple sensors and enable online control of weld quality by means of cloud-based communication with the friction stir welding machine.

“Welding is at the heart of any industrial operations. If we can improve the weld quality in real-time during batch production we can reduce rejections in post-production sample checks,” said Prof. Pal.

Explaining the new technology, he said, “Our multiple sensor process involves various signal processing and machine learning techniques to predict the ultimate tensile strength of the weld joint is fabricated. This technology is connected with a vast experimental knowledge base to conform to a standard system and prediction of the weld joint strength. Any defect identified during the monitoring the procedure is corrected in real-time by sending modified parameters to the machine thus ensuring the standardized quality of the process.”

The concept of this technology can further be evolved for real-time control of other industrial processes and such work will be carried at the Centre with other industrial partners soon, affirmed Prof. Pal.

The Industry partner TCS views such innovation has helped to give a direction as an enabler of technology-based transformations in the country, especially in overcoming challenges called out by the pandemic.

“The remote friction stir welding machine quality control via multi-sensor fusion developed by Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Advanced Manufacturing Technology at IIT Kharagpur is a case in point,” said K Ananth Krishnan, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. According to him, “The Embedded Systems & Robotics, IoT and ICME platform teams from TCS Research and Innovation are working closely with IIT Kharagpur’s CoE towards AI-driven prediction/control of weld strength using a scalable and robust platform. Academic partnerships are an important part of TCS Research and TCS Co-Innovation Network (TCS CoIN) in creating real world solutions with scientific rigour.”

Ends.

New Parliament building to showcase democratic heritage of India

 

Raman Pandit

The planned new Parliament of India will not be just another building but it will showcase democratic heritage of India.
The building besides Chambers of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, will have a grand Constitution Hall which will house, among other things, the original copy of the Constitution, digital displays for showcasing India’s democratic heritage. The visitors will be given access to this Hall to help them to appreciate and understand India’s journey as a parliamentary democracy. 

The ground plus two-storey triangular-shaped building with a built-up area of approximately 60,000 metre square, is set to come up on plot number 118 of the Parliament House Estate, which currently houses a reception, boundary walls and other temporary structures. The current Parliament building, which is over 90 years old, will continue to house the famed Parliament library and function in tandem with the new Parliament. Unlike the current Parliament, however, the Lok Sabha in the new one could be used for joint sessions. With a regular seating capacity of 900, divided into 450 pairs of seating units, it has been designed to accommodate 1,350 MP for joint sessions. Designed in the line of Egyptian Parliament, the Lok Sabha hall will provide 50 per cent more space to each MP. The current Lok Sabha hall can only accommodate 552 MPs.   

 Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla chaired a review meeting this regard. During the meeting, Birla was briefed about the progress made in the shifting of facilities and other infrastructure from the area proposed for the construction of the new building.  The barricading plan and the various mitigating measures to control the air and noise pollution during the construction process were elaborated. The officers of the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs further briefed Birla about the proposed movement plan of VIPs and staff during this period, including during the Parliament Sessions. The existing Parliament House building will be suitably retro-fitted to provide more functional spaces for parliamentary events, to ensure its usage along with the new building, the officers mentioned. 

Reviewing the various aspects and progress of the project, Birla stressed on the smooth coordination and resolving issues between various agencies involved on a regular basis. He emphasized that there should be no compromise in ensuring quality-control and timely completion of the work. During the meeting, a decision has been taken regarding the formation of monitoring committee to oversee the day-to-day execution of the construction work of the new Building. The Committee will include, among others, officers of Lok Sabha Secretariat, Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs, CPWD, NDMC and architect/designer of the project. The new Building will have separate offices for Members of Parliament. Among other facilities for the Members, each seat for them in the Chambers will be comfortable (with blocks of two seats) and equipped with digital interfaces, which will be a step forward towards a paperless office. The new Building will also have a MP’s Lounge, a Library, six Committee rooms, dining areas and parking space. 

The construction of the new Building will commence in December 2020 and is likely to be completed by October 2022.

COVID-19 vaccine: No separate pathways for states

 

 Though the BJP has promised free coronavirus vaccine for everyone in Bihar but, in actual, the vaccine, once available, will be distributed under a special COVID-19 immunisation programme with the Centre procuring the doses directly and making it available for priority groups free-of-cost and states have been asked not to chart separate pathways of procurement. 

This special COVID-19 immunisation programme would run in parallel with the Universal Immunisation Programme, but will use its processes, technology and network of the existing vaccine distribution framework. The Centre has started the process of identifying around 30 crore priority beneficiaries who will be given vaccine in the initial phase. The government has demarcated four categories of people for vaccination in the initial phase -- around one crore healthcare professionals including doctors, MBBS students, nurses and ASHA workers, etc.; around two crore frontline workers including municipal corporation workers, personnel of the police and armed forces; about 26 crore people aged above 50; and a special group of those below 50 years of age with co-morbidities and requiring specialised care.

The existing digital platform and processes used for the Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) are being enhanced to track COVID-19 vaccine administration and movement -- from procurement to storage to distribution to individual beneficiaries -- as and when the vaccine becomes available, Health Ministry officials have said. Also, online training modules are being developed for vaccinators. The digital platform that is being enhanced is Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network (eVIN), which provides real-time information on vaccinestocks and storage temperatures across all cold chain points in the country under UIP.

Under UIP, children, adolescents and pregnant women are currently vaccinated against vaccine-preventable diseases free-of-cost by the state. The National Expert Committee on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19has already mapped the existing cold chain being utilised under the government's immunisation programme and has also made a projection of the additional requirement, Health Ministry officials had said earlier.

Presently, the committee is engaged in mapping private sector facilities that could serve the needs of supplementing the cold chain equipment.

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has said that the Centre estimates to receive and utilise 40-50 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccine covering around 25 crore people by July next year.

Vardhan had said the government is working round-the-clock to ensure that there is a fair and equitable distribution of vaccines, once they are ready.

The biggest benefit that India has is that it has a robust immunisation programme in place and it is implementing the largest immunisation programme of the world, with nearly 27 million newborns targeted for immunisation annually, the minister said.

“We have an established infrastructure for supply, storage and delivery of vaccines to the last mile, under our Universal Immunisation Programme, where we are administering around 600 million doses to children every year,” he said.

“The strength of these experiences in the vaccination landscape, our best practices and the robustness of our health delivery System will be leveraged and augmented using a strong IT backbone to ensure that this humongous national mission of vaccinating the identified priority groups with COVID-19 vaccine is achieved in a timely manner. The Indian government will leverage the integrated IT platform eVin for managing vaccine distribution,” Vardhan said.

Vardhan re-affirmed the commitment of the Indian government and assured that it has accorded top most priority to the research and manufacturing to ensure that the vaccine reaches to the last person.

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India permits Power Company to use Hi-Tech Drones for data collection and mapping

India permits Power Company to use Hi-Tech Drones for data collection and mapping

India today permitted country’s premier power PSU NTPC (National Thermal Power Corporation) to deploy hi-tech Drone RPAS (Remotely Piloted Aircraft System) for carrying out inspection activities in thermal power plants. Though the permission is only till December 2020, it is likely to extend as per the requirement of the thermal company.

The Hi-Tech drones would be used for terrain mapping, aerial inspections stockpile volumetric analysis and other applications at three sites of NTPC. The deployment of RPAS would drastically reduce the data collection cost and would also provide accurate data for site examination.

Initially, the deployment would be for carrying out research and inspection activities at Vindhyachal Super Thermal Power Station, Madhya Pradesh, Gadarwara Super Thermal Power Plant, Madhya Pradesh, and Sipat Super Thermal Power Project, Chhattisgarh, said a senior officer of the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) which had granted a conditional exemption to National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC).

Ministry of Civil Aviation Joint Secretary Amber Dubey said “NTPC will use the drones to carry out terrain mapping, stockpile volumetric analysis, aerial inspections and other applications at the three NTPC sites. This will provide NTPC excellent data with high accuracy at a fraction of the cost. This is in line with Government of India’s attempts to promote the use of industrial drones in infrastructure, mining, agriculture and disaster relief etc.”

He said the conditional exemption is till 31December or until the full operationalization of Digital Sky Platform, whichever is earlier. Conditions and limitations to National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Ltd, the Ministry said.

(by Vijay Thakur)

Condition and Limitation to NTPC for use of Drone

1.       This exemption to National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Ltd from the relevant provisions of CAR Section 3, Series X, Part I, is subject to exemption from Rule 15A of the Aircraft Rules, 1937 by Ministry of Civil Aviation.

2.       The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Ltd shall obtain necessary clearances from (a) Local Administration (b) Ministry of Defence (c) Ministry of Home Affairs (d) Air Defence clearance from Indian Air Force and (e) Airport Authority of India (AAI) prior to operation of Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS).

3.       The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Ltd shall only operate the RPAS which has been voluntarily disclosed to Government of India and issued with a valid Drone Acknowledgement Number (DAN) (i.e. D1DXOOS1T and D1DXOOS24 for NETRA PRO of M/s ldeaForge Technology Pvt Ltd).

4.       The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Ltd shall submit a comprehensive brief on the scope of operations and the copy of SOP to Flight Standards Directorate (FSD), DGCA. Operation of Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) shall be carried out only after the vetting/ approval of SOP.

5.       National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Ltd shall take necessary permission regarding Aerial Photography, if applicable, from Directorate of Regulations & Information, DGCA.

6.       The photographs/video-graphs, if taken through RPAS shall be used by National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Ltd only. National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Ltd shall be responsible for security of RPAS and data collected through RPAS.

7.       The operation of RPAS shall be restricted to day operations (from sunrise to Sunset), within Visual Line Of Sight (VLOS).

8.       The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Ltd shall indemnify DGCA from any legal cases or any other issues arising due to these operations.

9.       The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Ltd shall ensure that the RPAS is in working condition and shall be responsible for any eventualities due to malfunction I disorientation of equipment.

10.     In case of any injury to any person due to physical contact with the equipment, National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Ltd shall be responsible for medico-legal issues.

11.     The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Ltd shall have adequate level of insurance to cover any damage to third party resulting from accident I incident occurred during the operation of RPAS.

12.     The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Ltd shall ensure that hazardous material or variable payload are not carried in I using the RPA under any circumstances

13.     National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Ltd shall ensure safety, security and privacy of public, property, operator etc. Further, in case of any eventuality, DGCA shall not be held responsible.

14.     National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Ltd shall not operate the RPAS in no-fly zones specified in Para 13.1 of the CAR Section 3, Series X, Part I without the approval of concerned Ministries/ authorities.

15.     RPAS shall not be operated in the vicinity of airport as per the provisions of the CAR. If operated near the airport, approval from Airports Authority of India (AAI) shall be taken in advance regarding time and area of operations of RPAS.

16.     National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Ltd shall ensure that only trained I experienced bonafide personnel operates the RPAS.

17.     This letter shall not override other restrictions I SOP on Remotely Piloted Aircraft System framed by other Government Agencies.

In case of incident/accident during at any phase of the operations, reports to be submitted to Air Safety Directorate of DGCA.

COVID-19 ~ a threat to gender-based equality: UNESCO report

 

 Raman Pandit

The COVID-19 has created the biggest education disruption in human history, forcing millions of students out of school. It threatens the future of a generation with 24 million children and youth at risk of dropping out. The pandemic has brought to light already-existing challenges to education that have not been adequately addressed and has also highlighted deep and multiple forms of inequality having gender roots and implications, the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) report by UNESCO has pointed out.

Increase in gender-based violence during the period families spent at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, potential rise in teenage pregnancies or early marriages, possibility of a section of girls dropping out of schools or colleges, girls being at a disadvantage due to shift to online learning and increased responsibilities of household chores, are among the several implications pointed out by UNESCO in the report.

“Uncertainty over the contagiousness and deadliness of COVID-19 led governments around the world to impose lockdowns, curtail economic activity and close schools and universities. In April, 91 per cent of the global student population was affected in 194 countries. The COVID-19 pandemic has precipitated an education crisis, fuelled by deep and multiple forms of inequality. Some of these forms have gender roots and gender implications,” it   said.

The report said while the extent of implications is difficult to predict with precision, they need to be monitored closely. “The first of these implications is concern that the extended period families spent at home during the lockdown increased gender-based violence. Whether such violence affects mothers or girls, the consequences for girls' ability to continue learning are clear. Second, sexual and gender-based violence coupled with restricted access to reproductive health, police, justice and social support services may increase early pregnancy,” it added.

The UNSECO report has raised a red flag about the potential increase in early pregnancy likely to be a result of increased early marriages, a consequence of households being plunged deeper into poverty due to the pandemic. “One estimate is that COVID-19 could cause 13 million more child marriages over the next 10 years. There have been attempts, based on previous knowledge of the links between poverty and school attendance, to project the potential effect of COVID-19 on dropout. UNESCO suggests that 3.5 per cent of adolescent girls of lower secondary school age and 4.1 per cent of young women of upper secondary school age in sub-Saharan Africa are at risk of not returning to school,” it said.

Quoting the World Bank that girls aged 12 to 17 are more at risk than boys of not returning to school in low and lower-middle-income countries, the report recommended that the countries need to recognise the need to maintain contact with girls during the pandemic to support their eventual return to schools. “Fourth, the shift to online distance learning could disadvantage girls. In low and middle income countries, women are 8 per cent less likely than men to have a mobile phone and 20 per cent less likely to use the internet on it. Finally, school closures have led to increased child care and chore responsibilities at home, which are likely to disadvantage girls more.

“A study of secondary school students in Ecuador during lockdown showed boys and girls were equally likely to continue their education in the morning but more girls did chores in the afternoon, while boys were engaged in leisure activities,” it said.

According to United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) estimates, over 154 crore students are severely impacted by closure of educational institutions across the world amid the COVID-19 outbreak.