Passage 1
The country recorded its highest-ever growth in indigenous defence production in value terms during Financial Year (FY) 2023-24, the defence ministry announced on Friday. As per the data received from all Defence Public Sector undertakings (DPSUs), other PSUs manufacturing defence items and private companies, the value of defence production in the country has gone up to a record-high figure of ₹1,26,887 .the Ministry said in a statement. The value of defence production in FY 2022-23 was ₹1,08,684 crore. The feat has been achieved due to the policy reforms, initiatives and ease of doing business brought in by the government in the last 10 years with focus on attaining self-reliance, it stated. This accomplishment is attributed to the government’s policy reforms, initiatives, and efforts to improve the ease of doing business over the past decade, all aimed at achieving self-reliance, the ministry noted.
“The indigenisation efforts have been pursued aggressively on a sustained basis, that resulted in the highest ever VoP. Moreover, the spiralling defence exports have contributed tremendously to the overall growth in the indigenous defence production,” the statement said.
In addition, the spiralling defence exports have contributed tremendously to the overall growth in the indigenous defence production, the Ministry noted. Defence exports touched a record-high of ₹21,083 crore in FY 2023-24, reflecting a growth of 32.5% over the last fiscal when the figure was ₹15,920 crore. In the last five years (since 2019-20), the value of defence production has been increasing steadily, and grown by over 60%, the statement added.
Source- https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/india-registered-highest-
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Passage 2
The Department of Telecommunication released draft rules on Thursday prescribing how the Digital Bharat Nidhi (DBN will be administered for a 30-day public consultation.
The USOF was established to provide telecom services in remote and rural areas at affordable prices through a universal access levy, a percentage of revenue earned by operators under various licences. Under section 25, payments received for DBN will first be credited to the Consolidated Fund of India. They will then be credited to the DBN by the central government (on parliamentary approval through a law) exclusively to provide access to telecommunication services in underserved rural, remote and urban areas; support pilot projects and consultancy assistance; support research and development; or support introduction of new telecom services, technologies and products.
The proposed rules aim to replace rules 523 to 527 of the Indian Telegraph Rules, 1951, which prescribed USOF operations. However, the new rules will not override existing arrangements until their expiry. USOF was given statutory status in December 2003 through amendments to the Indian Telegraph Act .
The new rules remove definitions of financial terms such as “capital recovery”, “net cost” and “revenue”. They also omit definitions of technical terms like “village public telephone”, “secondary switching area” and “broadband connectivity”.
Under the proposed rules, the central government will appoint an “administrator” of the DBN who will select “DBN implementers” through “bidding” or invitation of applications from eligible persons.
The rules stipulate that DBN implementers, on receiving funding, must offer services to underserved areas in “an open and non-discriminatory” manner, complying with instructions from the DBN administrator.
Source – https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/digital-bharat-nidhi-
