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Current Affairs [PDF] - March 16-31, 2020

National Importance. It includes IIT-Kanpur, IIM Indore, Institute of Social Science, Bhubaneshwar.
Under the initiative, the institutes are to develop course contents related to entrepreneurship in value
addition.
Significance
The programme in later stages is to be linked with Van Dhan Vikas Kendra (VDVK). Every VDVK consists of
20 tribal gatherers and 15 Self Help Groups. VDVKs aims at providing capacity building and skill
upgradation.
The programme will help to market the products produced by the SHGs at the VDVK.
Pradhan Mantri Van Dhan Yojana
It is an initiative that was launched in 2018. The Scheme aims to strengthen tribal producer companies. It
was launched in 27 states. TRIFED is the nodal agency implementing the scheme.
Defence Minister launches draft of Defence Procurement Procedure, 2020
On March 20, 2020, the Defence Minister Shri Rajnath Singh launched the draft of new Defence Procurement
Procedure. The new procedure aims to increase the indigenous manufacturing.
Highlights
The new procedure aims to increase Indigenous Content ratio. The ratio is the percentage of content of the
defence equipment built in India. For instance, the Indigenous Content Ratio of Light Combat Aircraft Tejas
is 75.5%.
The procedure also incentivizes raw materials like special alloys and software.
Buy Global
The procedure has introduced “Buy Global” category. Under this category, only minimum necessary is to be
bought from abroad.
Key Features of DPP, 2020
The new procedure has introduced Leasing as a new category. This is to replace huge initial payments with
periodical rental payments. A new system has been introduced for software procurement. This is because,
software gets updated at faster rates out of all other technologies.
What is Defence Procurement Procedure?
The Defence Procurement Procedure is the process that is followed to simplify procurement of defence
equipment.
March 21, 2020
United Nations launches World Happiness Report, 2020: India ranks 144
On March 20, 2020 United Nations released the World Happiness Report on the International Day of
Happiness, 2020. Finland ranked first in the report and India ranked 144. Around 156 countries were
assessed under the ranking. This is the eighth World Happiness Report prepared by the organization.
This year the report has given a special role for environments and has linked people’s happiness to their
environment. Apart from environment, the report also considers urban, social and other natural factors in
framing the index for a country.
Highlights
Following Finland, Denmark and Switzerland ranked second and third positions respectively. Finland ranked
topmost for the third consecutive time. Afghanistan ranked the least. The United States moves by one place
and was at 18th position. The United Kingdom was at 13th position.
India was ranked among the least happy nations.
India
According to the index, the urban-rural difference in India was high. Also, the report noticed that in India, the
peri-urban population was happier than urban population.
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