National
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi visits Chamba, Himachal Pradesh
⇒ The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of two hydropower projects and launched Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY)-III in Chamba, Himachal Pradesh, on 13 October 2022.
Details:
» The Prime Minister laid the foundation stone of two hydropower projects – the 48 MW Chanju-III Hydro-electric Project and the 30 MW Deothal Chanju Hydro-electric Project.
- Both these projects will generate over 270 million units of electricity annually and Himachal Pradesh is expected to get annual revenue of around Rs 110 crores from these projects.
» The Prime Minister also launched Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) – III in Himachal Pradesh for the upgradation of around 3125 kilometres of roads in the state.
- More than Rs 420 crores has been sanctioned by the Central Government under this phase for the upgradation of 440 kilometres of roads in 15 border and far flung blocks of the state.
Logistics Ease Across Different States (LEADS) 2022 Survey Report:
⇒ Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Shri Piyush Goyal addressed the National Workshop on PM GatiShakti held to mark the first anniversary of the roll out of the National Master Plan, in New Delhi on 13 October 2022.
He said that PM GatiShakti National Master Plan has the potential to save over Rs 10 Lakh Crore annually by improving logistics efficiency.
- The workshop focussed on the progress and achievements made by PM GatiShakti till date and the way forward.
About PM GatiShakti:
- The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi launched PM GatiShakti on 13 October 2021 for integrated planning of infrastructure and synchronized project implementation across all concerned Central Ministries, Departments and State Governments.
- PM GatiShakti is a transformative approach for integrated and holistic planning across concerned Ministries/Departments to improve multimodal connectivity, and logistics efficiency and address critical gaps for the seamless movement of people, and goods, with a focus on minimizing disruptions and ensuring timely completion of works.
- It provides for an integrated platform, the National Master Plan, where all the economic zones and their multimodal connectivity infrastructure are depicted, along with physical linkages to promote a comprehensive and integrated multimodal national network of transportation and logistics to create efficiency gains and avenues for further developments, value addition and creating employment opportunities.
Logistics Ease Across Different States (LEADS) 2022 Survey Report:
» The Minister also launched the Logistics Ease Across Different States (LEADS) 2022 survey report.
The LEADS is an indigenous data-driven index to assess logistics infrastructure, services, and human resources across all 36 States and UTs. LEADS continues to act as a guiding & bridging mechanism for the identification of interventions enhancing logistics efficiency at State/UTs.
- By engaging with various end-user stakeholders, the LEADS acts as a feedback mechanism on the existing logistic capacities and draws recommendations for further improvement.
- The LEADS further uses the feedback evaluation to classify states on the scale of logistics ease currently present among them.
Key Points of LEADS 2022:
- The LEADS 2022 has garnered more than 6500 responses from more than 2100 respondents across the country.
- Unlike the previous versions of LEADS which were based on ranking systems for all states, LEADS 2022 has adopted a classification-based grading, states have been now classified under four categories viz coastal states, hinterland/landlocked states, north-eastern states, and Union Territories.
- For the assessment of how well a State or UT has performed in comparison to the Top State/UT within the specific cluster.
Three performance categories namely:
- Achievers: States/UTs achieving 90% or more percentage,
- Fast Movers: States/UTs achieving percentage scores between 80% to 90%,
- Aspirers: States/UTs achieving percentage scores below 80% have been made.
Result of LEADS 2022:
» The LEADS 2022 survey report would assist PM GatiShakti National Master Plan (PMGS-NMP) and National Logistics Policy (NLP) to perform a network mapping of logistics infrastructure, services, and regulatory environment enabling State Governments to identify and fill the gaps and achieve data-driven multimodal connectivity.
Important Day
World Standards Day 2022
⇒ World Standards Day, also known as International Standards Day, is celebrated every year on 14 October.
The day is a means of paying tribute to the collaborative efforts of thousands of experts worldwide who develop the voluntary technical agreements that are published as International Standards.
- The members of the International Organisation for Standards (ISO), International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), and International Telecommunication Union (ITU) celebrate World Standards Day each year.
Theme:
The theme for the World Standards Day 2022 was ‘Standards for SDGs – Our shared vision for a better world’.
» On the occasion of World Standards Day, Bureau of Indian Standards, Mumbai organized a Standards Conclave – “Manak Mahotsav” based on the theme ‘Standards for Sustainable Development Goals – A Shared Vision for a Better World’.
History:
- The date was chosen to mark the first gathering of delegates in 1956 from 25 countries in London who decided to create an international organisation for facilitating standardisation. The ISO was formed a year later in 1947.
- However, the first World Standards Day was celebrated in 1970.