Madhunani Paintings.
The
artists from Madhubani District of Bihar have recently became famous for making
masks with hand-painted Madhubani Motifs.
Highlights:
•
The origin of Madhubani painting is from Mithila region of Bihar. It is one of
the oldest and most famous Indian art forms which is also practised in Nepal.
•
Its art can also be noticed in the Ramayana, the Indian epic. It is also known
as Mithila or Madhubani art.
•
It is popular because of their tribal motifs and use of bright earthy colours.
Traditionally the women of the village drew these paintings on the walls of
their dwelling, as a demonstration of their feelings, hopes, and ideas.
•
It includes geometrical patterns, floral, animal and bird motifs. The colours
used in paintings comprise natural extracts from plants and other natural
sources.
•
The colours are applied flat with no shading and no empty space is left. These
are usually dark and bright with pigments like lampblack (obtained from coal)
and ochre (earthy yellow pigment).
•
These paintings are not made with modern brushes but rather with twigs,
matchsticks, and fingers. But now artists use brushes, nib-pens and synthetic
colours as well to paint.
•
It is based on the mythological characters which depict the life of Hindu
deities like Krishna, Rama, Lakshmi, Shiva, Durga, and Saraswati.
•
Its widely painted designs are of Tulasi plant, court scenes, wedding scenes,
social happenings etc.
• It also has heavenly bodies like the Sun and the Moon often form the centrepiece of paintings.
Women Army officers will be getting permanent commission.
The
Ministry of Defence has issued the formal Government Sanction Letter for grant
of permanent commission (PC) to women officers in the Army.
The
order specifies the grant of permanent commission to SSC women officers in all
the 10 streams in which they presently serve — Army Air Defence, Signals,
Engineers, Army Aviation, Electronics and Mechanical Engineers, Army Service
Corps, Army Ordnance Corps and Intelligence Corps, in addition to the existing
streams of Judge and Advocate General and Army Educational Corps, the Army
said.
The order follows a Supreme Court verdict in February that directed the government that women officers be granted PC and command postings in all services other than combat.
Following
this, Army chief Gen. Manoj Naravane said it was an enabling one and gave a lot
of clarity on how to move forward. He stated that the same procedure for male
SSC officers would be followed for women to give permanent commission.
About
322 women officers had approached the top court and the issue of command
postings came up in the discussion on subsequent avenues after the grant of PC.
CPCB
issues guidelines on disposal of COVID waste.
Central
Pollution Control Board, CPCB has issued fresh guidelines on disposal of
COVID-19 waste. It has directed that masks and gloves used by everyone, whether
infected or not, should be cut and kept in paper bags for minimum 72 hours
before disposing off them.
The
CPCB also directed commercial establishments shopping malls, institutions and
offices to follow the same procedure with discarded protective personal
equipment,PPE from general public.
It
asked to ensure that general solid waste and biomedical waste generated from
quarantine centres and quarantine homes is not mixed and they should be
collected separately.
It
added that leftover food, empty juice bottles or tetra packs, empty water
bottles, packaging material, and any other items, generated or handled by
COVID-19 patient should be collected along with other general solid waste in
bags securely tied for handing over to waste collectors.
The CPCB also recommended use of bio-degradable or non-disposable cutlery to minimize waste generation.
Bachpan Bachao Andolan
The Delhi High Court has recently sought
responses from the Delhi government on a petition that said statements of child
witnesses lodged at child welfare centres should be recorded through video conferencing and not
physically in courts. It has been filed by Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) in view
of the outbreak of Covid-19.
About Bachpan
Bachao Andolan:
•
It is India's largest movement campaigning for the rights of children.
•
It was started in 1980 by Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi.
•
Its mission is to Identify, release, rehabilitate and educate children in
servitude through prevention, direct intervention, mass mobilisation and legal
action to create a child-friendly society.
•
It functions as a Non-Government Organisation (NGO), which has centred its
focus on ending bonded labour, child labour and human trafficking, as well as
demanding the right to education for all children.
•
It organises Baal Panchayat on the occasion of World Day against Child Labour
i.e. 12th June.
• It has so far freed more than 88,000 children from servitude, including bonded labourers.
•
Kailash Satyarthi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with Malala
Yousafzai for their contribution towards child education, in 2014.
Manodarpan
initiative launched by the Indian HRD Minister.
It is an initiative launched by the Union
Ministry of Human Resource Development as part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat
Abhiyan.
•
The objective of the initiative is to provide psychosocial support to students
for their mental health and well-being.
•
The portal will include student counselling, tips, podcasts, etc. aimed at
reducing stress levels and anxiety.
Background:
•
The outbreak of the global pandemic COVID-19 presents a challenging time for
everyone around the world.
•
Not only is this pandemic a serious medical concern, but it also brings mixed
emotions and psycho-social stressors for all.
•
There are emerging mental health concerns with a specific focus on children,
adolescents and youth especially children with disabilities.
•
Children and adolescents may be more vulnerable and may experience a heightened
level of stress, anxiety and fearfulness, along with a range of other emotional
and behavioural issues.
•
Such unanticipated and sudden changes will be required to be addressed from all
educational platforms.
• Teachers as well as families with an empathetic and patient approach can go a long way in mitigating such needs of children and adolescents.
•
This time can also be challenging for teachers and parents.
•
The Manodarpan initiative has been launched with a view to provide support to
students, families and teachers all over the country and ensure their
well-being.
Joint
collaboration for the development of ultra rapid test kit for COVID-19.
India
and Israel have jointly developed an ultra rapid testing kit for COVID-19. The
testing kit which has proven its efficacy in lab results will now be subjected
to broader trials.
Principal
Scientific Adviser to Government of India, Professor K VijayRaghavan informed
that Indian DRDO scientists along with Defence Research Wing of Israel have
been conjointly working on the COVID testing kit.
Speaking
exclusively to AIR News, Professor VijayRaghavan said the rapid testing kit can
generate preliminary COVID results within 30 seconds.
He
said, the kit has been developed by integration of many novel technologies
which includes artificial intelligence based online voice test, breathalyser
test, isothermal testing and testing using polyamino acids.
India
and Israel are also the members of the world consortium of scientists working
on COVID Vaccine.
Since the outbreak of Covid19, Prime Minister NarendraModi and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu have had three telephonic conversations, in which they discussed mutual cooperation in dealing with the Pandemic.
Discussion
on rescheduling of bilateral debt repayment issue.
India
and Sri Lanka are continuing to hold technical discussion on rescheduling of
bilateral debt repayment by Sri Lanka.
The
Indian delegation comprising of senior officials from the Ministry of External
Affairs, Ministry of Finance and EXIM
Bank interacted with representatives from government of Sri Lanka through a
video conference this week.
The
High Commission of India in Colombo said it will continue to work towards
coordinating and facilitating such engagement as a part of India’s overall
commitment to work with Sri Lanka to counter and mitigate the effects of the
COVID-19 pandemic.
It may be recalled that both sides had discussed the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and its likely health and economic impacts during Prime Minister NarendraModi’s telephone conversations with Sri Lankan President GotabayaRajapaksa on 23 May and Prime Minister MahindaRajapaksa on 27 May 2020.
Dibru-Saikowa National Park.
National
Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued notices to the Ministry of Environment, Forest
and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Oil India Limited (OIL) and two concerned state
entities to explain how environmental clearances for the seven proposed
drilling sites in the Dibru- Saikhowa National Park were given.
Highlights:
The
OIL has clarified that its exploratory drilling project is “under” and not “in”
the 765 sq
km
Dibru-Saikhowa National Park.
➡ This argument is based
on Extended Reach Drilling (ERD) enabled drilling of wells up to a
depth
of approximately 4 km from an existing well plinth without entering the
protected area.
➡It had obtained
permission for the seven wells in 2016 on the basis of the ERD technology.
➡ The ERD is drilling a
well horizontally to at least twice its vertical depth. It is extensively used
to intersect hydrocarbon targets far from the surface or areas of the reservoir
that
otherwise were difficult to access.
➡ The notice has been
issued following a gas leak that occurred at OIL’s baghjan oil field,located
near the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park.
➡The disaster at Baghjan
has impacted the surrounding ecological life and displaced close to 11,000
people from their homes.
➡ The NGT had also ordered
the formation of a committee to probe allegations of large-scale illegal coal
mining by North Eastern Coalfields inside Dehing Patkai Elephant Reserve in
Assam’s Tinsukia district.
About
Dibru-Saikhowa National Park:
➡ It is a National Park
as well as a Biosphere Reserve situated in the south bank of the river
Brahmaputra in Assam.
➡Its forest type
comprises of semi-evergreen forests, deciduous forests, littoral and swamp
forests and patches of wet evergreen forests.
➡ It is the largest
swamp forest in north-eastern India.
➡ It is an identified
Important Bird Area (IBA), notified by the Birdlife International. It is most
famous for the rare white-winged wood ducks as well as Feral Horses.
The
Mammals found includes Tiger, Elephant, Leopard, Jungle Cat, Bears, Small
Indian Civet, Squirrels, Gangetic Dolphin, Hoolock Gibbon, etc.
➡The Maguri Motapung
wetland is a part of the Reserve.
Indian Bullfrog.
➡ It's scientific name
is Hoplobatrachus tigerinus.
➡ Its common names are
Bullfrog, Golden Frog, Green Frog, Tiger Frog etc.
➡ It is protected under
IUCN Red List status is Least Concern, Indian Wildlife Act 1972:
Schedule
IV and Schedule IV along with Schedule III provide protection with lesser
penalties.
➡ It is native to the
Indian subcontinent and is the largest frog in India. These are prolific
breeders (producing many offspring), have short breeding seasons, and each egg
clutch
can
contain up to 5,750 eggs.
➡ Its tadpoles are carnivorous and eat other tadpoles (including their own species). They grow to be the largest (around 20 millimetres) and also grow the fastest.
➡The adult bullfrogs
pose a threat to small endemic vertebrates because they can eat everything
which fits into their mouths like centipedes, leeches, native frogs, lizards,
small snakes and even chicks and ducklings.
➡ It eats the native
frogs as well and their diets overlap, indicating a possibility of competition.
It is one of the invasive species on the islands of Andaman and Nicobar.
Indian Agri
ministry to share tax payer’s details with IT department for PM-KISAN scheme.
The
ministry of agriculture will have to share information of taxpayers with income
tax department for identifying the eligible beneficiaries under the PM-KISAN
scheme, the Central Board of Direct Taxes has notified.
The
PM-KISAN scheme provides Rs 6,000 per year in three instalments as income
support to all landholding farmers' families for meeting agriculture and
domestic needs related expenses.
Affluent
farmers have been excluded from the scheme such as income tax payers in the
last assessment year, professionals like doctors, engineers, lawyers, chartered
accountants etc and pensioners drawing at least Rs 10,000 per month.
The Centre has released more than Rs 50,850 crores as of February 2020, benefitting 8.46 crores farmer families. The scheme covers a total of 14 crore beneficiaries as per estimates of the Agriculture Census 2015-16.
FOCUS ON MAINS
Topic : GS 3 Food
Security.
Holes
in the Safety Net.
Context:
In
the early days of India’s lockdown, stories of food insecurity were rampant.
As
“Unlock 2.0” progresses, many analysts hope that labour markets will provide
the much needed economic resources to the vulnerable.
But
amidst a range of localised lockdown measures, immediate economic distress
continues to persist.
The
Centre and state governments need to expand the ambit of food transfer
programmes and bolsterpolicies that target people most at risk of malnutrition.
Persistence of
food insecurity:
There
is sound policy that can be built on.
The
Central government has extended the provision of extra rations of five kg of
wheat/rice and one kg of pulses through November, making good use of its
abundant grain stocks.
Many
state governments have stepped in to fill gaps — Bihar’s recent expansion of
rations and transfers to school children is one such example.
And,
a good monsoon points to the potential for bumper crops.
Yet, our analysis of data from several surveys and previous research suggests the persistence of food insecurity, especially among economically and socially disadvantaged groups.
Caloric needs:
First,
even with smooth access to rations, those out of work and with little or no
savings will find it hard to cover their households’ full caloric needs.
Our
research team recently evaluated how Chhattisgarh’s public distribution system
functioned through the lockdown and how rural households were faring in the
state.
Ration
shops functioned well: Out of over 4,000 PDS shops we surveyed, 99% were open
through the lockdown and stock-outs were extremely rare.
Of
the over 3,900 households we surveyed in rural Raipur, 95 per cent reported
receiving rations.
But
20 per cent of the surveyed households worried they would run low or out of
food in the coming weeks.
Interviews
with anganwadi workers revealed that households were eating fewer fruits and
vegetables, and more rice and dal than before the lockdown.
This
is consistent with the NSS data that suggest free rations in Chhattisgarh
helped households cover 15 to 33 per cent of their monthly food expenditure,
depending on the ration card holder.
Inequalities:
Second,
distribution of food within households could be worsening both during the
lockdowns and under increased economic hardship.
With
anganwadis shut in many states, daily hot meals for young children have been
replaced by irregular distributed take-home dry rations.
This
change is likely to hit girls hard — substantial inequalities in food
consumption within the same household are well-documented.
Too frequently, girls and women still eat last at home.
Research
shows how failing to meet nutritional needs among mothers, potential mothers
and young children has long-lasting repercussions on women’s health, morbidity
and mortality and the human capital that constitutes the next generation.
This
type of food insecurity is often invisible, yet can lead to glaring health,
cognitive, educational, and wealth deficits in the years to come.
Migrant workers:
Third,
significant gaps in the food security safety net remain for returning migrants.
While
the prime minister extended two months of rations for eight crore migrant
workers in May and June, irrespective of their ration card status, there is no
sign that the programme will be continued. Official data suggest that it
remains difficult to get rations to migrants. In April, we began phone surveys
of migrants, who were formerly working in urban areas across India.
Half
of the respondents reported recent food insecurity (eating less than normal).
In more recent rounds of surveys in June and July, this share increased to
two-thirds.
Implementation
bottlenecks within the delivery system are further restricting access to food
and cash transfers in many areas.
So,
how can the Centre and state governments address these concerns?
Providing food
to all:
Like
many others, we favour providing food to all who arrive at ration shops seeking
it, regardless of identification.
Waiting
for all systems to be fully operational and online for the One Nation, One
Ration Card scheme could cause fatal delays.
This is especially critical to ensuring that returning migrant workers without ration cards can access food transfers.
In
the short-run, it will also ease implementation bottlenecks.
For
young children, adolescent girls, and pregnant and lactating women, a period of
malnutrition can have lifelong adverse consequences.
Identifying
ways of maintaining social distancing while reopening anganwadis for essential
services (such as vaccinations and hot meals) should be a priority to ensure
these individuals, and not just their households, receive food.
Diversifying and
expanding products:
Finally,
the central and state governments should consider diversifying and expanding
products available at fair price shops to help households meet nutritional
needs while stabilising local food prices.
The
short-term introduction of free lentils via the PDS system is welcome.
Governments
could expand this list to include other essentials such as oil, sugar and
locally procured items (such as vegetables and milk).
Research
has shown that access to rations via PDS helps insulatepoor households from
food price spikes.
Our
survey of fair price shops in Chhattisgarh also produced similar results.
Prices
for chana in private shops in panchayats where PDS shops also stock chana are
10% lower than in panchayats where PDS shops do not stock chana.
Conclusion:
India
should not allow one emergency — the pandemic — to turn into another.
Food
security problems are not abatingand there are clear steps that should be taken
before it is too late.
