Daily PIB 23rd January

• FAO’s Committee on Fisheries: India has been elected as the First Vice Chair of the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Committee on Fisheries (COFI) Sub-Committee on Fisheries Management. It is a subsidiary body of the Food and Agriculture Organization. It was established by the FAO Conference in 1965.It addresses issues on international fishing and aquaculture, providing policy guidance on fisheries management, recognising global challenges, and promoting collective solutions to ensure the environmental, economic and social sustainability of the fishing industry. The grouping makes recommendations to the FAO Council or its Director-General. It has also been used as a forum in which global agreements and non-binding instruments were negotiated. The Committee also reviews specific matters relating to fisheries and aquaculture referred to it by the Council  

The Sub-Committee on Fisheries Management is a new sub-group formed under the COFI in 2022, during the 35th session of the FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI), held in Rome. 

It will work closely with the two other COFI sub-committees, the Sub-Committee on Aquaculture and the Sub-Committee on Fish Trade. 

• Subhas Chandra Bose: He was born on January 23, 1897, in Cuttack, Orissa. In 1920, he passed the civil service examination, but in April 1921, after hearing of the nationalist turmoil in India, he resigned from his position. Bose then joined the Indian National Congress and actively participated in the Indian independence movement. Bose was elected president of the Indian National Congress for two consecutive terms but resigned from the post following ideological conflicts with Mahatma Gandhi. In 1939, he formed the Forward Bloc, an organization aimed at unifying all the anti-British forces in India. At the outset of the Second World War, he fled from India and traveled to the Soviet Union, Germany and Japan, seeking an alliance with the aim of attacking the British in India. With Japanese assistance, he reorganized and later led the Indian National Army, formed from Indian prisoners-of-war and plantation workers from Malaya, Singapore, and other parts of Southeast Asia, against British forces. Also with Japanese monetary, political, diplomatic, and military assistance, he formed the Azad Hind Government in exile. 

• Pradhan Mantri Suryodaya Yojana: PM Modi announced the ‘Pradhan Mantri Suryodaya Yojana’, a government scheme under which one crore households will get rooftop solar power systems. This scheme is a new attempt to help reach the target of 40 GW rooftop solar capacity. It will involve installing solar power systems at rooftops for residential consumers. The scheme would help not only reduce electricity bills of the poor and middle class, but also push India’s goal of becoming self-reliant in the energy sector. 

India’s current solar capacity: Installed capacity-According to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, solar power installed capacity in India has reached around 73.31 GW as of December 2023.Meanwhile, rooftop solar installed capacity is around 11.08 GW as of December 2023.Overall, solar power has a major share in the country’s current renewable energy capacity, which stands at around 180 GW. 

High performing states: In terms of total solar capacity, Rajasthan is at the top with 18.7 GW. Gujarat is at the second position with 10.5 GW.When it comes to rooftop solar capacity, Gujarat tops the list with 2.8 GW, followed by Maharashtra by 1.7 GW.