1. Meeting of National Sagarmala Apex Committee (NSAC)
Tags: National News
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Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal will chair the meeting of the National Sagarmala Apex Committee (NSAC) on May 6, 2022 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.
About The National Sagarmala Apex Committee (NSAC)
It is the apex body to provide policy direction and guidance for port based development-Sagarmala projects and reviews its implementation.
It was constituted on 13 May 2015 by the Union Cabinet.
It is chaired by the Minister for Ports, Shipping & Waterways with Cabinet Ministers from stakeholder central Ministries and Chief Ministers & Administrators of Maritime States and Union territories as members.
The committee will review the Sagarmala program along with review of development of port-linked road and rail connectivity projects, development of floating jetties and inland waterways.
About Sagarmala National Programme
It is a National Programme aimed at accelerating economic development in the country by harnessing the potential of India’s 7,500 km long coastline and 14,500 km of potentially navigable waterways.
It was announced by the Prime Minister in 2014 and approved by the Union Cabinet on 25th March 2015.
It takes a vision to reduce the logistics cost for both domestic and EXIM cargo with optimum infrastructure investment.
Five pillars of the project
Port modernization & new port development,
Port connectivity enhancement,
Port-led industrialization,
Coastal community development and
Coastal shipping and Inland water transpor
2. India will be the official country of honour at Cannes Film Market
Tags: Latest Popular International News
India will take part as the official country of honour at the Cannes Film Festival to be held from May 17 to May 28.
This is the first time a country will take part in the 'Honour of Country' at the Cannes Film Festival.
The Cannes Film Festival, held annually in Cannes, France, is the 75th edition of Cannes.
India at Cannes Film Festival 2022-
India's Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Singh Thakur will participate in the festival and deliver the welcome address.
Actress Deepika Padukone will be seen as a jury in the main feature film competition at this year's Cannes Festival.
Renowned Indian author Satyajit Ray's "Pratidwandi" (1970) and Aravindan Govindan's "The Circus Tent" will be screened at the Cannes Classics strand of the festival.
In addition, the festival will also see a special screening of Indian filmmaker Shaunak Sen's Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner "All That Breathes".
3. India logs 6.2 percent hike in death rate during 2020 : CRS data
Tags: Latest National News
The Central Government has released the Civil Registration System (CRS) Report 2020 on the basis of the Birth and Death Report.
As per the report, the number of registered births has come down from 2.48 crore in 2019 to 2.42 crore in the year 2020, showing a decrease of around 2.40 per cent.
The Civil Registration System’ for 2020 report said that in the case of registered deaths, the number has increased from 76.4 lakh in the year 2019 to 81.2 lakhs in 2020 showing an increase of 6.2 percent.
Of the total registered deaths, males accounted for 60.2 per cent and females 39.8 per cent.
Maharashtra, Bihar, Gujarat, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Assam, and Haryana have contributed significantly to the increased number of deaths registered from 2019 to 2020.
According to NITI Aayog, the number of births and deaths included in the report are actual numbers collected from around 3 lakh registration units across the country.
About Civil Registration System (CRS)
It is a universal, continuous, compulsory, and permanent recording of birth, death, and stillbirth.
Registration of births and deaths is done under the Birth and Death Registration Act (RBD), 1969.
Above mentioned figures include deaths due to COVID-19 and other reasons.
4. 4th edition of the International Conference on Disaster Resilient Infrastructure
Tags: Summits International News
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today addressed the inaugural session of the 4th edition of the International Conference on Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (ICDRI) via video message.
The fourth edition of ICDRI was organised in a hybrid format in New Delhi from 4-6 May 2022.
ICDRI 2022 will engage with decision makers, practitioners and communities around the world to discuss challenges, identify good practices, develop collaborations and promote concrete actions.
This will include multi-sectoral and multi-country discussions around ecologically sensitive design for infrastructure transition, risk governance and finance, innovation and building human-centred, resilient.
About ICDRI
The International Conference on Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (ICDRI) is the annual conference of the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI).
It brings together member states, organisations and institutions to strengthen global discussion on disaster and climate resilient infrastructure.
In 2018 and 2019, the first and second international workshops on Disaster Resilient Infrastructure took place in New Delhi, India.
ICDRI 2021 was hosted virtually.
5. World Press Freedom Index : India slips to 150th position from 142nd
Tags: National Latest Popular International News
India’s ranking in the World Press Freedom Index has fallen down to 150th position from last year’s 142nd rank out of 180 countries.
Highlights of the 2022 report
Best performing countries
Norway– 1st
Denmark– 2nd
Sweden– 3rd
Estonia– 4th
Finland– 5th
Worst performerming countries
North Korea remained at the bottom of the list.
Russia is placed at 155th position, slipping from 150th last year.
According to the global media watchdog, China climbed two places to the 175th position, from 177th place last year.
Performance of India;s neighbourhood countries
Apart from India, the ranking of its neighbouring countries has also declined except Nepal.
While Pakistan is ranked 157th, Sri Lanka is at 146th, Bangladesh at 162nd and Myanmar at 176th.
About Press Freedom Index
It has been published by Reporters Without Borders every year since 2002.
This is based on the organisation's own assessment of countries' press freedom records in the last year.
The index ranks 180 countries and territories according to the level of freedom available to journalists.
The index is prepared on the basis of assessment of the level of pluralism, media freedom, media environment and self-censorship, legal framework, transparency as well as the quality of the existing infrastructure for news and information.
6. Home Minister Amit Shah inaugurates NATGRID premises at Bengaluru
Tags: Latest National News
Union Home Minister Amit Shah inaugurated the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) complex in Bengaluru which will help to prevent crimes and warn against any danger.
He said the security requirements today have changed significantly as compared to the security challenges in the past in terms of data, scope and complexity.
Therefore, legal and security agencies need automatic, secure and immediate access to information obtained from reliable sources.
The Government has entrusted the task of developing and operating a state-of-the-art and innovative information technology platform for accessing information from the data collection organisations to NATGRID.
The central government will soon develop a national database to monitor hawala transactions, terrorist funding, counterfeit currency, narcotics, bombing threats, illegal arms smuggling and other terror activities.
C-DAC is implementing NATGRID in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of a self-reliant India.
About National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID)
NATGRID is an intelligence sharing network that links data from standalone databases of various agencies and ministries of the Government of India.
It will also have access to the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems, a database that links crime information, including first information reports, across 14,000 police stations in India.
NATGRID came into existence after the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
It links intelligence and investigation agencies and is exempted from the Right to Information Act, 2005.
7. Linkage of e-Shram portal with the Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana
Tags: Government Schemes National News
Discussions are going on to link the e-Shram portal with the Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana.
The government is working on a mechanism to process accident insurance claims by unorganised workers registered on the e-shram portal, which has seen over 27 crore registrations so far.
In the Budget Speech 2022-2023, the Finance Minister had announced the linking of four portals - National Career Service, e-Shram, Udyami (for those interested in starting MSMEs) and Aseem (Atmanirbhar Skilled Employer Employer Mapping).
The inter-linking of the NCS and e-Shram portals had been completed recently.
So far more than 26,000 e-shram beneficiaries have registered on NCS and are benefiting from this linkage.
About e-Shram portal-
The Ministry of Labor and Employment has developed an eSHRAM portal to create a national database of unorganised workers.
It was launched in 2021.
Its aim is to welfare of workers in the unorganised sector who are not members of the EPFO or ESIC.
Registered members will be eligible for a range of benefits after signing up for Shramik Yojana and getting the e-Shram Card.
This will allow workers to receive Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) through e-Shramik Unique ID Number.
8. National Open Access Registry (NOAR) goes live successfully
Tags: National News
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National Open Access Registry (NOAR) has successfully gone live from 1st May 2022.
This is a centralized online platform through which the short-term open access to the inter-state transmission system is being managed in India.
It is an integrated platform that is accessible to all stakeholders in the power sector, including open access customers (both sellers and buyers), electricity traders, power exchanges, national/regional/state LDCs and others.
It provides automation in the workflow to achieve shorter turnaround time for the transactions.
The platform also has an integrated payment gateway for making payments relating to interstate short-term open access transactions.
The NOAR platform provides transparent and seamless flow of information between open access stakeholders.
9. No one can be forced to get vaccinated: SC
Tags: National News
The Supreme Court said that no person can be compelled to vaccinate against COVID-19, but it also said that "so long as there is a danger of spreading the disease, the rights of the people can be restricted in the wider public interest.
Right not to get vaccinated
The bench upheld a person's right to physical integrity and personal autonomy in the light of vaccines and other public health measures.
Physical integrity is protected under Article 21 (right to life) of the Constitution and no person can be forced to vaccinate.
The court struck a balance between the individual's right to bodily integrity and denial of treatment with the government's concern for public health.
Vaccine Hesitancy
People's reluctance to receive safe and recommended available vaccines is known as 'vaccine hesitancy'.
There are five main reasons for vaccine hesitation-
Confidence
Complacency
Convenience (or constraints)
Risk calculation
Collective responsibility
What was challenged in the petition?
Dr Jacob Pulial, a former member of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI), had filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the mandatory requirement of the vaccine.
The petition has also sought to make public the clinical data of vaccination.
The petition said that the Centre says that getting the vaccine is voluntary, but the states have made it mandatory.
Instructions to the central government
The Supreme Court directed the Central Government to make public the reports received from the public and doctors regarding the incidence of side effects of vaccines without compromising on the confidentiality of personal data.
10. The debate on the national language
Tags: Popular National News
A remark by a Hindi actor to the effect that Hindi is the national language of India has recently sparked controversy over the language's status under the Constitution.
What is the status of Hindi in the constitution?
Under Article 343 of the Constitution, the official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script.
The international form of Indian numerals will be used for official purposes.
Constituent Assembly debate
The Constituent Assembly was divided on this question.
The supporters of Hindi were insisting that English is the language of slavery and it should be abolished at the earliest.
The opponents were against the abolition of English as they feared that Hindi might dominate in areas where Hindi is not spoken.
There was a demand to make Sanskrit the official language, while some argued in favour of 'Hindustani'.
It was decided that the Constitution would talk only of 'Official Language'.
English will continue to be used for a period of 15 years.
The Constitution states that after 15 years, Parliament may by law decide on the use of English and as Devanagari for specified purposes.
What is the Eighth Schedule?
The Eighth Schedule lists the languages of the country.
Initially, there were 14 languages in the schedule, but now there are 22 languages.
There is no description of the type of languages to be included in the Eighth Schedule.
The Official Languages Act, 1963 was passed in anticipation of the end of the 15-year period during which the Constitution originally permitted the use of English for official purposes.
The three language formula
Since the 1960s, the Centre's education policy documents talk of teaching three languages - Hindi, English and a regional language in Hindi-speaking states, and Hindi, English and an official regional language in other states.
In practice, only a few states teach both their major language and Hindi in addition to English.
In states where Hindi is the official language, third language is rarely taught as a compulsory subject.
Tamil Nadu has consistently opposed the three-language formula and has stuck to teaching Tamil and English.
