1) Laws regarding Moonlighting: Moonlighting refers to a state where employees work for remuneration with entities other than their employer.
- The Factories Act of 1948 places a restriction on the double employment of workers.
- However, this is limited only to ‘Factories’ and is not applicable to ‘Companies’ which are regulated by the Companies Act 2013.
- The Supreme Court in Glaxo Laboratories Limited vs Labour Court, Meerut held that the employer is not empowered to regulate the behaviour of workers outside duty hours.
- Since moonlighting is not defined under any statute, it is subject to the court’s
interpretation and the law of the land.
2) One District One Product scheme (ODOP): ODOP was launched by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries, to help districts reach their full potential, foster economic and socio-cultural growth, and create employment opportunities, especially, in rural areas.
- This initiative is carried out with the ‘Districts as Exports Hub’ initiative by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), Department of Commerce.
- There may be more than one cluster of ODOP products in one district. The States would identify the food product for a district, keeping in perspective the focus of the scheme on perishables.
- The ODOP product could be a perishable Agri produce, cereal-based product, or a food product widely produced in a district and their allied sectors.
3) Vyommitra: ISRO’s humanoid Vyommitra’s skills get a lift-off with digital grey matter.
- Vyommitra’, is a humanoid designed and developed by the ISRO to fly aboard unmanned test missions ahead of the Gaganyaan human space-flight mission, is undergoing pre-flight ground tests.
- ISRO Inertial Systems Unit (IISU) has successfully integrated it with a computer ‘brain’ which enables it to ‘read’ control panels aboard the unmanned test flights and communicate with the ISRO ground stations.
- The AI-enabled robot, which can withstand vibrations and shock during the flight, has been designed to resemble a human with facial expressions and speech and sight capabilities. It is a half-humanoid lacking lower limbs.
4) Super Apps: A super app is an omnichannel digital platform, i.e.- a platform developed by a company offering various services and products under one umbrella.
- For example, China’s WeChat, which started out as a messaging app, expanded into payments, cabs, shopping, food ordering, cab services to become a super app.
- A physical world analogy of a super app would be a mall, which allows retail space to various brands and shops across businesses and verticals.
5) Humanoid robot – Optimus: Tech billionaire Elon Musk has presented the latest prototype of a humanoid robot being developed by his Tesla electric car company.
- People were shown a video of Optimus performing simple tasks, such as watering plants, carrying boxes and lifting metal bars.
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