Sophisticated Analytical & Technical Help Institutes (SATHI): It is an initiative by the Department of Science and Technology to boost access to research and testing facilities and address problems of accessibility, maintenance, redundancy, and duplication of expensive equipment in Institutions. These Centres will be equipped with major analytical instruments and advanced manufacturing facilities which are usually not available at Institutes / Organisations. It would encourage and ensure the establishment of a National Network of Laboratories and testing facilities tightly linked to global standards. SATHI facilities will be used for 80% of their available time by external users, e. outside of the host institutes and the remaining 20% of their available time by internal users of the host institute. The facilities provided by the SATHI may be utilized by any user or organization upon payment of nominal charges. The duration of support for the SATHI Project will be for a period not exceeding 4 years.
Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY): It is a flagship scheme of the Government of India to extend affordable credit to micro and small enterprises. Mudra schemes are designed to bring enterprises into the formal financial system or to “fund the unfunded”. It enables a small borrower to borrow from all Public Sector Banks such as PSU Banks, Regional Rural Banks and Cooperative Banks, Private Sector Banks, Foreign Banks, Micro Finance Institutions (MFI), and Non Banking Finance Companies (NBFC) for loans upto Rs 10 lakhs for non-farm income-generating activities. Any Indian citizen who has a business plan for a non-farm sector income-generating activity such as manufacturing, processing, trading, or the service sector and whose credit need is less than Rs 10 lakh can approach either a bank, MFI, or NBFC for availing of Micro Units Development & Refinance Agency Ltd. (MUDRA) loans under PMMY. Types of loans provided: Under the aegis of PMMY, MUDRA has already created the following products-Shishu: covering loans up to 50,000/-;Kishor: covering loans above 50,000/- and up to 5 lakh; Tarun: covering loans above 5 lakh and up to 10 lakh. There is no subsidy for the loan given under PMMY.
Indira Gandhi Peace Prize: The Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament, and Development was instituted in the memory of the former prime minister by a trust in her name in 1986. It consists of a monetary award of 25 lakh rupees along with a citation. The award is given to individuals or organisations that work towards ensuring international peace and development, ensuring that scientific discoveries are used to further the scope of freedom and better humanity, and creating a new international economic order. Past recipients of this award include: Mikhail Gorbachev, former leader of the Soviet Union (1987);UNICEF (1989),Jimmy Carter, former president of the US (1997),UN and its secretary-general Kofi Annan (2003),Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany (2013),Indian Space Research Organisation (2014),Former Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh (2017),Sir David Attenborough (2019),Pratham NGO (2021).
Greenwashing: It is the process of conveying a false impression or misleading information about how a company’s products are environmentally sound. Greenwashing involves making an unsubstantiated claim to deceive consumers into believing that a company’s products are environmentally friendly or have a greater positive environmental impact than they actually do. In addition, greenwashing may occur when a company attempts to emphasize sustainable aspects of a product to overshadow its involvement in environmentally damaging practices. Companies can also greenwash initiatives with vague claims that don’t provide real data or scientific validation for the claims. For example, a car vendor claims that a vehicle is eco-friendly because it is more fuel-efficient while failing to mention or consider the larger industrial impact of vehicle manufacturing on the environment.
