ASER report finds 20% rural children lacking text books at home.
About 20% of rural children have no textbooks at
home, according to the Annual State of Education Report (ASER) survey conducted
in September, the sixth month of school closures due to COVID-19 across the
country.
In Andhra Pradesh, less than 35% of children had
textbooks, and only 60% had textbooks in Rajasthan. More than 98% had textbooks
in West Bengal, Nagaland and Assam.
In the week of the survey, about one in three rural children had done no
learning activity at all. About two in three had no learning material or
activity given by their school that week, and only one in 10 had access to live
online classes.
Although the Centre has now permitted States to
start reopening schools if they can follow COVID-19 safety protocols, a
majority of the country’s 25 crore students are still at home after seven
straight months.
The ASER survey provides a glimpse into the levels of learning loss that
students in rural India are suffering, with varying levels of access to
technology, school and family resources, resulting in a digital divide in
education.
In 2018, ASER surveyors found that about 36% of
rural households with school-going children had smartphones. By 2020, that
figure had spiked to 62%. About 11% of families bought a new phone after the
lockdown, of which 80% were smartphones.
This may indicate why WhatsApp was by far the most
popular mode of transmitting learning materials to students, with 75% of
students who got some input receiving it via the app. About a quarter of those
who got input had personal contact with a teacher.
Centre streamlines process for patent filing.
The patent process has been streamlined to
facilitate the compliance burden and boost innovation.
The recent Patents (Amendment) Rules, 2020 have further streamlined the
requirements related to the filing of Form 27 and submission of verified
English translation of priority documents.
Now the patentee would get the flexibility to file a single Form-27 in respect
of a single or multiple related patents and authorized agents would be able to
submit Form-27 on behalf of patentees.
In addition, patentees would get six months from the expiry of the financial
year for filing of Form-27.
Besides, the applicant would not be required to submit the priority document in
the Indian Patent Office, if the document is available in WIPO's (World
Intellectual Property Organization) digital library.
These changes will streamline the requirements related to the submission of
statement regarding the working of a patented invention on a commercial scale
in India.
Integrated Theatre Commands
The next step in defence reforms after the
appointment of the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) would be the formation of
integrated theatre commands, Army Chief Gen. Manoj Naravane said on Wednesday.
This process would be “deliberate, thoughtful and well considered.”
Integrated Theatre Command:
• An integrated theatre command is one that enables
the pooling of resources of all three services under a single commander,
towards securing a particular geographical area.
• A military commander in charge of a joint command will have the resources of
the Army, the Navy and the Air Force at his/her disposal in the face of a
national security threat. The commander can also carry out joint training while
benefitting from the logistics of all three services.
India’s Service Commands:
• Currently, India only has two tri-service
commands.
• The first of these, known as the Andaman and
Nicobar Command (ANC), was created in 2001 and is led by service chiefs on a
rotational basis.
• The second is a functional command (not overseeing
a particular geographical location) called the Strategic Forces Command
established in 2006.
• The current structure of the armed forces includes
17 different commands, seven each belonging to the Army and the Air Force, and
three headed by the Navy. Under the Army, the commands are the Northern,
Southern, Eastern, Western, Central, Southwestern, Central and Maintenance and
Training. The Navy is divided into Western, Eastern and Southern commands.
• However, defence analysts have called for the
elimination of this separation through the establishment of integrated theatre
commands that enable all three services to prosecute
operations collectively.
Sir Syed’s Day has observed .
Sir Syed Ahmad Khan was born in 1817 in a family
that was close to the Mughal court, he was a man of many distinctions, a civil
servant, journalist, educationist, social reformer and historian among others.
• He served the British administration before the
revolt of 1857.
• He has also written a pamphlet titled “The Causes of the Indian Revolt'' to
explain the reasons for the revolt from an Indian perspective.
• He is the first and foremost, known for his
pioneering role in transforming the educational opportunities for Muslims.
• He realised that Muslims could only make progress
if they took to modern education. For this he started the Aligarh movement.
• He also pushed for social reforms and was a
champion of democratic ideals and freedom of speech.
• He was against religious intolerance, ignorance and irrationalism. He
denounced purdah, polygamy and easy divorce.
• Tahzebul Akhlaq (Social Reformer in English), a
magazine founded by him, tried to awaken people’s consciousness on social and
religious issues in a very expressive prose.
About Aligarh
Movement:
• It was a systemic movement aimed at reforming the
social, political and educational aspects of the Muslim community.
• The movement undertook to modernise Muslim’s
education by adapting English as a medium of learning and western education
rather than just focusing on traditional teachings.
• Sir Syed established the Scientific Society in
1864, in Aligarh to translate Western works into Indian languages to prepare
the Muslims to accept Western education and to inculcate scientific Temperament
among the Muslims.
• The Aligarh Institute Gazette, a magazine
published by Sir Syed was an organ of the Scientific Society.
• In 1877, he founded the Muhammadan Anglo Oriental College on the pattern of
Oxford and Cambridge universities. The college later grew into Aligarh Muslim
University.
• The Aligarh Movement helped in the Muslim revival. It gave them a common
language—Urdu.
Withdrawal of General Consent to CBI.
Maharashtra has withdrawn general consent to the
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Recently.
• General consent is the help given to CBI to
investigate corruption cases against central Government Employees in the
Concerned state.
• Without general consent, CBI would have to request
the State Government on a case-by-case basis to Carry out Investigations.
There are Two
Types of Consent:
• General: This consent is normally given to help
CBI seamlessly conduct its investigation into cases of corruption against
central government employees in the concerned state.
Almost all states have given such consent. The state
can withdraw this consent as well.
• Case-Specific: If state government do not give the “general consent”, then
CBI has to approach the concerned state government.
• The CBI is governed by the Delhi Special Police
Establishment Act, 1946 that makes consent of a state government mandatory for
conducting investigation in that state and its jurisdiction is limited to Delhi
and Union Territories.
• As policing is a state subject, the law permits
the agency to function within its jurisdiction only with the state government’s
approval.
• Section 5 of the Act extends the powers and
jurisdiction of the CBI to states.
• But Sec 5 is restricted by Section 6 which says:
the agency cannot investigate or conduct a raid in a state without the express
consent of the Government Concerned.
Exceptions:
• CBI will still have the power to
investigate old cases registered when general consent existed.
• Also, cases registered anywhere else in the country, but involving people
stationed in Maharashtra, would allow CBI’s jurisdiction to extend to Maharashtra.
Additional Information:
• The CBI is divided into three categories when it
comes to investigation.
• Anti-Corruption
Division:
✓ Investigates cases against public servants of:
✓ Central government
✓ Central Public sector undertakings
✓ State governments
✓ Investigates cases entrusted to the CBI by the
states
✓ Investigates serious departmental irregularities
committed by the above mentioned.
✓ Economic
Offenses Division:
✓ Investigates financial crimes, bank frauds, money
laundering, illegal money market operations, graft in PSUs and banks.
• Special
Crimes Division:
✓ It handles cases of conventional nature such as
offences relating to internal security, espionage, sabotage, narcotics and
psychotropic substances, antiquities, murders, dacoities/robberies, and
cheating among others.
✓ The CBI can take over a criminal case registered by
state police only in three situations:
1. Situation 1: State Government concerned makes a request to that effect and
the Centre agrees to it pursuant to receiving comments from the CBI.
3. Situation 3: if the Supreme Court or the High
Court orders the CBI to take up a case.
Key Facts:
• The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has
jurisdiction across the country and does not need special permission from State
Governments.
• The Enforcement Directorate (ED) which conducts
its probe under the PMLA and FERA Act does not require and has nothing to do
with the Delhi Police Special Establishment (DPSE) Act which gives power to the
CBI.
• In the past, Sikkim, Nagaland, Chhattisgarh,
Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and among others have withdrawn General
Consent to CBI.
• The superintendence of CBI related to
investigation of offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 lies
with the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and in other matters with the
Department of Personnel & Training (DOPT) in the Ministry of Personnel, Pension
& Grievances of the Government of India.
Central Asian countries welcome India’s line of credit.
The Foreign Minister of Central Asian Countries
welcomed the provision by India of one billion US dollar Line of Credit for
priority developmental projects in fields such as energy, IT, healthcare,
education and agriculture in the region.
• Foreign Ministers of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan as well as First Deputy Foreign Minister of the
Kyrgyz Republic participated in the meeting.
• According to the Joint Statement of the meeting,
the Ministers emphasized the need to continue close cooperation between the
Sanitary and Epidemiological Services of India and the Central Asian countries
in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic.
• The statement added that the Ministers emphasized the importance of concerted
efforts to further expand trade and economic cooperation including promoting
direct ties between the businesses of India and the Central Asian
countries.
• The Ministers appreciated India’s efforts to
modernize the infrastructure of the Chabahar port in Iran, which could become
an important link in trade and transport communications between the markets of
Central and South Asia
Evo Morales calls for calm in Bolivia.
Exiled former Bolivian President Evo Morales called
for calm after several hundred right-wing protesters demanded that a “military
junta” replace socialist President-elect Luis Arce.
On Monday, hundreds of demonstrators marched to military barracks in the eastern
city of Santa Cruz — a right-wing stronghold — and called for “military help”
to prevent the Movement for Socialism party from regaining power following a
year under conservative Jeanine Anez’s interim government.
Mr. Morales wrote on Twitter, however, that “the Constitution is very clear on
the role of the armed forces and the Bolivian police: We, as we always have
done, will respect them as institutions”.“We must all act calmly in a
constitutional way.”
Bolivia has been in political crisis for a year after
Mr. Morales ignored the Constitution and stood for and won a fourth successive
term as President, even though leaders are limited to two terms.
RBI asks lending institutions to waive interests.
The Reserve Bank has asked all lending institutions to
credit the interest waiver on loans upto two crore rupees for the six months
moratorium period beginning March 1, 2020.
The government announced the scheme for grant of ex-gratia payment of
difference between compound interest and simple interest for six months to
borrowers in specified loan accounts.
Under the scheme, the lending institutions have been mandated to grant
ex-gratia payment to certain categories of borrowers through crediting the
difference between simple interest and compound interest for the period between
March 1- August 31, 2020.
Post payment, lenders can claim the amount from the
central government. The scheme will cover education, housing, automobile
loans, MSME loans, personal loans to professionals, credit card dues, consumer
durable loans and consumption loans.
NITI Aayog releases report on
electricity access in India.
NITI Aayog, Ministry of Power, Rockefeller
Foundation and Smart Power India today launched the ‘Electricity Access in
India and Benchmarking Distribution Utilities’ report.
According to the report, 92 per cent of customers
reported the overall availability of electricity infrastructure within 50
metres of their premises.
87 per cent of the surveyed customers have access to
grid-based electricity. The remaining 13 per cent either use non-grid sources
or do not use any electricity at all.
The hours of supply have improved significantly
across the customer categories to nearly 17 hours per day.
The report is based on a primary survey conducted
across ten states, representing about 65 per cent of the total rural population
of India and with a sample size of more than 25 thousand, including households,
commercial enterprises and institutions.
The minister emphasized that the key recommendations
provided in the report in the areas of policy and regulation, process
improvement and infrastructure will be utilized for improving the power
distribution sector.
The report underlines some best practices adopted by
the better-performing electricity distribution utilities in India and provides
key recommendations to enhance sustainable electricity access.
South Asian Flash Flood Guidance System
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has
recently launched the South Asian Flash Flood Guidance System (FFGS).
Highlights:
• It is aimed at helping disaster management teams and governments make timely
evacuation plans ahead of the actual event of flooding.
• A dedicated FFGS centre will be established in New
Delhi, where weather modelling and analysis of rainfall data observations from
member countries will be done.
• Flash Floods are sudden surges in water levels
during or following an intense spell of rain.
• These are highly localised events of short
duration with a very high peak and usually have less than six hours between the
occurrence of the rainfall and peak flood.
• The flood situation worsens in the presence of
choked drainage lines or encroachments obstructing the natural flow of water.
• Forecasting flash floods is very difficult as an
event can occur within three to six hours and the water run-off quantity is
very high.
• Frequency of extreme rainfall events has increased
due to climate change and south Asia is highly prone to flash floods.
• Data suggest that across the world, about 5,000
people die Annually due to Flash Floods.
• Despite such high mortality, there was no robust Forecasting or Warning
System for flash Floods.
About South
Asian Flash Flood Guidance System:
• It has been developed by US-based Hydrologic
Research Centre after the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and few South
Asian countries put forth their views and the urgent need for such a warning
system.
• It based on the rainfall and potential Flooding
Scenario, flash flood warnings will be issued to Respective Nations.
• Flash flood threat warning will be issued six hours in advance, whereas flood
risk warning will be issued 24 hours in advance. Warnings about watershed level
will be issued 12 hours in advance.
• India is leading the delegation of nations,
including Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal, in sharing hydrological and
Meteorological data towards preparing Flash Flood Forecasts.
• India’s National Disaster Management Authority
(NDMA) and the Central Water Commission (CWC) partnered in developing the
System.
Habitat decline for Himalayan brown bear by 2050.
A recent study on the Himalayan brown bear has predicted a massive decline of
73% of the bear’s habitat by 2050 due to Climate Change.
Outcome of the
Study:
• These losses in habitat will result in loss of
habitat from 13 protected areas (PAs). 8 of 13 will become completely
uninhabitable by the year 2050.
• What should be done? There is a need to adopt
spatial planning of PAs in the western Himalayan region for the long-term
viability of the species.
• Adaptive spatial planning refers to conserving the
existing landscape and augmenting the fragmented areas of the habitat of the
species.
Himalayan Brown
Bear:
• India has four species of bears: Asiatic Black,
Sloth, Sun and Himalayan Brown Bear.
• All Indian Bear species are listed under Appendix I in CITES and Schedule I
of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
• The Himalayan brown bear, also known as the
Himalayan red bear, isabelline bear or DzuTeh, is a subspecies of the brown
bear.
• It is world’s largest terrestrial carnivore.
• It is a top carnivore of the high-altitude
Himalayan region as well India’s largest land carnivore.
• Appearance: It is smaller than Grizzly bears and
the Kodiak bears. It has thick reddish brown coat with no clear chest markings.
• Behavior: It is the least arboreal bear and is
largely terrestrial. It hibernates in winter.
They are diurnal and are generally solitary.
• Habitat: North-western and central Himalaya
(higher reaches, of Himalaya) including Pakistan, India, Nepal, Tibetan
Autonomous Region of China and Bhutan.
• It is found in small and isolated populations and
sometimes extremely rare in many of its ranges.
• Populations are present in the Great Himalayan National Park (Himachal
Pradesh) and the Deosai National Park, Pakistan.
• May also be present in south and western Ladakh,
in the upper Suru and Zanskar valleys.
Conservation Status:
• IUCN:
✓ Endangered in Himalaya Mountains (in Nepal, India
and Pakistan)
✓ Critically Endangered in Hindu Kush Mountain range
(Pakistan)
✓ Note: IUCN status of Brown bear (not Himalayan
brown bear), found across Eurasia and North America, is Least concerned.
✓ Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972: Schedule 1
✓ CITES: Appendix I
• Threats:
✓ Global warming: The elevation gradient in which the
brown bear is distributed in Himalayas is most vulnerable to global warming as
this elevation belt is getting warmer faster than other elevation zones of
Himalayas.
✓ Habitat loss, killing by livestock herders, and
poaching for fur and for the illegal body parts trade. In Pakistan there are
the additional threat of habitat insularisation (creation of islands of
habitats/ fragmented habitats).
