DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS

By admin: June 29, 2022

Ramdarash Mishra received 31st Saraswati Samman 2021

Tags: Awards

Senior Hindi poet and writer Prof. Ramdarash Mishra has been honoured with the 31st Saraswati Samman for the year 2021.

• He was given this honour for his poetry collection "Main Toh Yahan Hoon".

• This book was published in the year 2015.

• Earlier, the 30th Saraswati Samman, 2020 was given to the famous Marathi writer Dr. Sharankumar Limbale for his novel 'Sanatan'.

• Ramdarash Mishra is the third litterateur to receive this honour in the Hindi language. Prior to this, Dr. Harivansh Rai Bachchan was conferred this honour in the year 1991 and Govind Mishra in 2013.

• Prof. Ramdarash Mishra was born on 15 August 1924 in Dumri village of Gorakhpur district of Uttar Pradesh.

• In a career spanning decades, Mishra has written 32 poetry collections, 15 novels, 30 short-story collections, 15 books of literary criticism, four collections of essays, travelogues and several memoirs.

• About Saraswati Samman -

• Saraswati Samman was instituted in the year 1991 by the KK Birla Foundation.

• This award is given every year to the outstanding literary work of Indian writers published in the last 10 years in any of the Indian languages mentioned in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution.

• The award carries a citation, a memento and a prize money of Rs 15 lakh.

• The recipient is selected by a selection committee, currently headed by Dr Subhash C Kashyap, former Secretary General of the Lok Sabha Secretariat.

• The first Saraswati Samman was given to Hindi litterateur Dr. Harivansh Rai Bachchan for his four-volume autobiography.

Himachal Pradesh government will start single use plastic buy back scheme

Tags: Government Schemes

In line with the decision of the Central Government to ban the use of single-use plastic, Himachal Pradesh has launched the “Single-Use Plastic Buy Back Scheme”.

• Under the Single Use Plastic Buy Back Scheme, the Himachal Pradesh government will buy single use plastic items from students of schools and colleges.

• Under this, students will be encouraged to bring single-use plastic items from home and deposit them in schools.

• For this, the government will pay Rs 75 per kg to the students.

• The scheme has been started with the aim of inculcating the habit of environmental protection among the youth.

• Single use plastic ban

• The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change had notified the Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021.

• These rules were notified to prohibit specific single-use plastic items.

• There will be a ban on the manufacture, import, storage, distribution, sale and use of single-use plastics as per the rules from July 1, 2022.

• This ban will not apply to items made of compostable plastic.

• The permissible thickness of plastic bags has been increased from 50 microns to 75 microns with effect from September 30, 2021 and to 120 microns with effect from December 31, 2022.

• Single use plastic

• Single use plastic is also known as disposable plastic.

• They are used only once.

• This plastic is so convenient and cheap that it has replaced other materials in the packaging industry.

• India produces 9.46 million tonnes of plastic waste every year, of which 43 per cent is single-use plastic.

National statistics day

Tags: Important Days

To popularise the use of statistics in everyday life, every year 29 June is observed as National Statistics Day.

• 29 June was chosen to honour the contribution made by Prof. Prashant Chandra Mahalanobis in establishing the National Statistical System.

• June 29 is the birth anniversary of Pro. P.C. Mahalanobis.

• National Statistics Day was celebrated for the first time in the year 2007.

• World Statistics Day is celebrated on 20 October.

• Purpose of the day

• The day is being observed to make the citizens of the country aware of how statistics helps in shaping and formulating policies.

• Statistics helps us to present the results effectively through proper analysis and proper methods of data collection.

• About Pro. PC Mahalanobis -

• Mahalanobis was born in Kolkata in the year 1893.

• Mahalanobis established the 'Indian Statistical Institute' in Calcutta in 1931.

• Pro. Mahalanobis has also played an important role in Indian planning. His planning model is a very popular model and was the basis of India's Second Five Year Plan (1956–61).

• He was the chairman of the United Nations Deputy Commission on Statistical Sampling from 1947 to 1951.

• In 1968, Mahalanobis was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, the country's second highest civilian award, for his outstanding contribution to the service of the nation and science.

NITI Aayog releases report on "India's booming gig and platform economy"

Tags: National News

Recently NITI Aayog released a report titled 'India's Booming Gig and Platform Economy'.

• According to the report the Indian gig workforce is expected to expand to 23.5 million workers by 2029-30, a 200% jump from the current 7.7 million.

• The report estimates that gig workers will constitute 4.1% of the total workforce in India by 2029-2030, up from 1.5% now.

• In the year 2020-21, 77 lakh (7.7 million) workers were engaged in the gig economy. Which constituted 2.6% of the non-farm workforce or 1.5% of the total workforce in India.

• Major issues raised in the report

• Job and income insecurity: Gig workers do not benefit from labour regulations relating to wages, hours, working conditions and the right to collective bargaining.

• Occupational safety and health risks: Workers engaged in employment with digital platforms, especially women workers in app-based taxi and delivery sectors, face various occupational safety and health risks.

• Gig economy

• The gig economy is a free market system in which there are simple temporary positions and organisations contract with independent workers for short-term engagements.

• According to a report by Boston Consulting Group, India's gig workforce employs 15 million employees in industries such as software, shared and professional services.

• According to the 2019 India Staffing Federation report, India is the fifth largest country in flexi-staffing globally after the US, China, Brazil and Japan.

• Gig worker: A person who works or participates in work arrangements and earns income from such activities outside the traditional employer-employee relationship".

• India's gig sector potential

• An estimated 56% of new jobs in India are being generated by gig economy companies in both blue-collar and white-collar workforce.

• The gig economy can provide 90 million jobs in the non-farm sectors in India, with the potential to increase GDP by a further 1.25% in the "long term".

Union Education Ministry released performance grading index for districts

Tags: National News

According to the Performance Grading Index released by the Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSE&L), Ministry of Education (MoE), three districts of Rajasthan- Sikar, Jhunjhunu and Jaipur have been placed in 'Utkarsh' grade in the year 2019-20.

• A year ago, no district came under the 'Utkarsh' category.

• Rajasthan has the highest number of districts in this grade at 24, followed by Punjab (14), Gujarat (13), and Kerala (13).

• The districts with the lowest score (1 out of 50) in this category in the year 2020 are South Salmara-Mankachar (Assam), Alirajpur (Madhya Pradesh), North Garo Hills and South Garo Hills in Meghalaya, and Khowai (Tripura).

• Bihar, Goa, Jammu and Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura and Uttarakhand have not a single district in the very best and best category.

• Progress

• As per the report, there has been an increase in the number of districts across all categories.

• The number of districts in the very best grade increased from 49 to 86 during 2018-19 to 2019-20, showing "significant improvement".

• 33 districts improved their scores in the results, but there was no improvement in grade-level.

• Digital Learning Category: 20 districts have shown more than 20% improvement as compared to 2018-19, while 43 districts have improved their scores by more than 10% during 2019-20.

• Infrastructural facilities: 478 districts improved their score in the year 2019-20 as compared to the year 2018-19.

• About performance grading index

• The PGI-D assesses the performance of the school education system at the district level by creating an index for comprehensive analysis.

• The PGI-D structure consists of a total of 600 points across 83 indicators, grouped under six categories.

• These categories are further divided into 12 domains.

• Assessment Grade:

• The PGI-D classifies districts into 10 grades. The highest grade is 'Daksh', for districts scoring more than 90% of the aggregate marks in that category or overall.

• This is followed by 'Utkarsh' (81% to 90%), 'Ati Uttam' (71% to 80%), 'Uttam' (61% to 70%), 'Pracheshta-1' (51 % to 60%) and 'Pracheshta-2' (41% to 50%) is ranked.

• The lowest grade in PGI-D is 'Aspirant-3' for a score of up to 10% of the total marks.

India approves the draft of the General Statutory Rules (GSR) notification to introduce NCAP (New Car Assessment Programme)

Tags: National News

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) approved the draft GSR notification to launch India NCAP (New Car Assessment Programme) to bring safer cars to India.

• The NCAP will be rolled out from April 1, 2023 and will mean that auto manufacturers in India as well as importers will have the option to get the cars within the country star rated.

• The program will work as a consumer-centric platform, and will allow customers to access safer cars based on star-ratings.

• The United States was the first country to start a program to test car safety standards through crash tests.

• India NCAP

• It is a new car safety assessment program that proposes a mechanism to give 'star rating' to automobiles based on their performance in crash tests.

• The India NCAP standards are aligned with global benchmarks and are beyond the minimum regulatory requirements.

• The proposed India NCAP assessment will assign a star rating from 1 to 5 stars.

• The vehicles for this program will be tested on the basis of testing agencies with necessary infrastructure.

• This will be applicable to M1 category approved motor vehicles with a gross forest cover of less than 3.5 tonnes, manufactured or imported in the country.

• Importance of NCAP for India

• 1. Empowering Consumers to Make Informed Decisions

• 2. Enhances Exportability

• 3. Automobile industries will be self-sufficient

Discovery of high grade lithium in Nigeria

Tags: International News

Recently high grade lithium has been discovered in Nigeria.

• Lithium

• Lithium is an element and is abundantly concentrated in nature in two minerals, spodumene and lepidolite.

• They are usually found in special rocks called rares and greases.

• The Geological Agency described lithium as high grade because it is found with an oxide content of 1–13%. Exploration usually starts at a low of 0.4%.

• Lithium has an atomic number of 3 and an atomic mass of 6.941.

• It is the lightest known metal.

• USE

• Lithium disilicate (Li2Si2O5) is a chemical compound from which glass and ceramic objects are made.

• Lithium metal is used to make useful alloys.

• Lithium is used in rechargeable batteries for mobile phones, laptops, digital cameras and electric vehicles.

• ADDITIONAL INFORMATION -

• The Greenbush mine in Western Australia is the largest hard-rock lithium mine in the world.

• The largest importers of lithium are South Korea, China, Japan, the United States and Belgium.

• Recent surveys by researchers from the Directorate of Atomic Minerals (under the Atomic Energy Commission of India) have estimated the presence of lithium reserves of 14,100 tonnes in a small stretch of land in southern Karnataka's Mandya district.

Russia to give Iskander-M missile system to Belarus

Tags: Science and Technology

Russia has announced the transfer of the "Iskander-M missile system" to Belarus.

• Iskander-M missile system

• This missile system can use ballistic or cruise missiles in its nuclear and conventional versions.

• The Iskander-M missile system is codenamed as "SS-26 Stone" by NATO.

• Russia uses the term Iskander-M to define the transporter-erector launch system as well as the short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) it fired.

• The system can be used to fire ground-launched cruise missiles (GLCMs) such as the SSC-7 and SSC-8.

• It was first successfully launched in 1996.

• The Iskander-M missile has a range of 500 km.

• It is capable of carrying a payload of up to 700 kg.

• The Iskander system was incorporated by Russia in 2006.

• It was developed in the late 1980s after the "Oka" SRBM (Short Range Ballistic Missile) or OTR-23 was banned in accordance with the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty.

• About Belarus -

• Belarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe.

• Capital - Minsk

• President- Alexander Lukashenko

• Prime Minister- Roman Golovchenko

• Currency- Belarusian ruble

Gabon and Togo join the Commonwealth of Nations

Tags: Popular International News

Two African countries, Togo and Gabon, were inducted into the Commonwealth of Nations as the 55th and 56th members, respectively, at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting held in Rwanda's capital, Kigali, chaired by Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

• Rwanda was the last country to join the Commonwealth in 2009.

• Togo and Gabon were historically French colonies that were never British colonies.

• New members Togo and Gabon

• The formal Commonwealth member process for the Central African nation of Gabon began in 2017 while the process for the West African nation of Togo began in 2014.

• Gabon is surrounded by Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, and the Republic of the Congo, which is also a member of the Commonwealth.

• Togo is bordered by Ghana, a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, as well as by Benin and Burkina Faso.

• About Commonwealth -

• The Rashtramandal, commonly referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political union of previously 54 and now 56 member states.

• It was originally created as the British Commonwealth of Nations through the Balfour Declaration at the royal convention of 1926.

• The current Commonwealth of Nations was formally formed in 1949 by the London Declaration.

• The current head of the Commonwealth is Queen Elizabeth II.

• Secretary General – Patricia Scotland

• Headquarters- London