1. Historic decision by UNESCO on World Hindi Day
Tags: International News
The permanent delegation of India to United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in Paris, Vishal Sharma announced that on the occasion of World Hindi Day (10th January 2022), UNESCO's World Heritage Centre (WHC) has agreed to publish Hindi descriptions of India's UNESCO World Heritage Sites on WHC (Vishwa Dharohar Samiti) website.
- This decision was welcomed by the Union Education and Skill Development minister Shri Dharmendra Pradhan. He said that Hindi is a matter of pride for every Indian and Hindi lover. The popularity of Indian languages on the global stage is welcoming and encouraging.
About UNESCO:
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN).
- It seeks to build peace through international cooperation in Education, the Sciences and Culture.
- It is also a member of the United Nations Sustainable Development Group (UNSDG), a coalition of UN agencies and organizations aimed at fulfilling the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
- Headquarters: Paris, France
- Director General: Audrey Azoulay
- Founded: 16 November 1945 in London, United Kingdom
- The organisation has 193 members and 11 Associate members.
2. Union Labour Ministry releases July-Sept. 2021 employment figures
Tags: National News
Union Minister for Labour & Employment, Shri Bhupender Yadav released the report on the second round of Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) part of the All-India Quarterly Establishment-based Employment Survey (AQEES) as of 01st July 2021.
- The AQEES has been taken up to provide frequent (quarterly) updates about the employment and related variables of establishments in both organized and unorganized segments of nine selected sectors which account for a great majority of the total employment in the non-farm establishments.
The nine selected sectors are :-
Manufacturing | Construction | Financial Services |
Trade | Transport | Education |
Health | Accommodation & Restaurant | IT/BPO |
- The report on Quarterly Employment Survey being a demand-side survey along with supply-side survey i.e Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) will bridge data gaps on employment in the country
- The second round of QES had a reference date of 1st July 2021 for the different items of information about an establishment. Data were collected through field visits from 11,503 establishments, out of the 12,038 establishments selected in the sample.
Key Highlights of the Report-
- The estimated total employment in the nine selected sectors in this round of QES (July-September, 2021) came out as 3.10 crore approximately, which is 2 lakhs higher than the estimated employment (3.08 crore) from the first round of QES (April-June, 2021)
- Of the total employment estimated in the selected nine sectors,
- Manufacturing accounted for nearly 39%
- Education with 22%
- Health around 10%
- IT/BPOs sectors both around 10%
- Trade and Transport sectors engaged 5.3% and 4.6% respectively.
- It is pertinent to mention that percentage for the IT/BPO sector in Quarter 1 was only 7.
- The overall percentage of female workers stood at 32.1, higher than 29.3% reported during the first round of QES.
- Regular workers constitute 87% of the estimated workforce in the nine selected sectors, with only 2% being casual workers. However, in the Construction sector, 20% of the workers were contractual and 6.4% were casual workers.
- Out of all working in seven of the nine sectors (excluding Education and health)-
- 28.4% were secondary or less educated
- 37.0% were graduates or had higher qualifications. This was as high as 91.6% in the IT/BPO sector and 59.8% in Financial Services.
- In the Health and Education sector
- 18% of the non-Clinical workers were secondary or less educated
- 26.4% in the non-Teaching staff of the Education sector were secondary or less educated.
- More than 40% of the employees in these two sectors were at least graduates.
- Nearly 90% of the establishments had less than 100 workers, while 30% of the IT/BPO establishments had at least 100 workers.
- 23.5% of all the establishments were registered under the Companies Act, this percentage was as high as 82.8% in IT / BPO, 51.2% in Construction, 42.8% in Manufacturing, 36.4% in Transport, 32.1% in Trade and 23.8% in financial services. The others were operating as registered societies, or registered under the Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017 or under Shops & Commercial Establishments Act, 1958.
- 5.6% of the total establishments had reported vacancies, a total of 4.3 lakh. While most of the vacancies (65.8%) were for unspecified reasons, 23% were due to resignation, and 11.7% were due to retirement of employees.
3. Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi sentenced to 4 years in prison
Tags: International News
On 10th Jan 2020, a court in military ruled Myanmar sentenced ousted leader of National League for Democracy(NLD) party, Aung San Suu Kyi to four years in jail on charges including possession of unlicensed walkie talkies. She denies all charges.
- Ms. Suu Kyi was detained on the day of the February 1 coup and days later, police said six illegally imported walkie talkies were recovered during a search of her home. The court handed her a two year sentence for breaching an export-import law by possessing the handheld radios and one year for having a set of signal jammers.
- She was also sentenced to two years on another charge of breaching a natural disaster management law related to coronavirus rules.
- The junta said that Ms. Suu Kyi is being given due process by an independent court.
- Her trial has been closed to the media and Ms. Suu Kyi’s lawyers have been barred from communicating with the media and public.
- The military has not even disclosed where she is detained.
For more details refer to the post on December 7, 2021.
4. Ghaziabad most polluted city in India followed by Delhi
Tags: National News
In a recently published analysis report, Ghaziabad is ranked as the most polluted city in India out of the 132 nonattainment cities with the highest levels of PM 2.5 and PM 10 followed by Delhi.
- The analysis is by NCAP Tracker, a joint project by news portal Carbon Copy and a Maharashtra based startup ‘Respirer Living Sciences’, designed to track India’s progress in achieving the clean air targets
- These cities are referred “nonattainment” as they consistently fail to meet the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) over a five-year period.
- For the PM 2.5 levels the CPCB’s safe limit is 40 ug/m3 and WHO’s safe limit is 5ug/m3
- Based on the Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring System (CAAQMS) data, Delhi’s PM 2.5 levels dropped from 108 ug/m3 in 2019 to 102 ug/m3 in 2021 and its PM 10 levels reduced from 217 ug/m3 to 207 ug/m3 during the same period after continuous monitoring.
National Clean Air Programme (NCAP)
- The Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (MoEFCC) launched National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) in 2019 as a long-term, time-bound, national-level strategy to tackle the air pollution problem across the country in a comprehensive manner with targets to achieve 20% to 30% reduction in Particulate Matter concentrations by 2024 keeping 2017 as the base year for the comparison of concentration.
- The city-specific action plans have been prepared which, inter-alia, include measures for strengthening the monitoring network, reducing vehicular/industrial emissions, increasing public awareness, etc.
For detail about PM 2.5 and PM 10 kindly see December 1, 2021 post.
5. Supreme Court to form probe panel on Prime Minister’s security breach
Tags: National News
The Supreme Court on 10th January 2022 said that it would set up an independent committee, to be headed by one of its former judges to investigate and fix responsibility on those responsible for the breach of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s security in Punjab on 5th January 2022.
- The Chief Justice of India N V Ramana, heading a bench also comprising Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli had asked the Registrar General, Punjab and Haryana High Court, to “forthwith seize and secure the records” of the visit.
- The Registrar General was to be assisted by the Director General of Police, Union Territory of Chandigarh, and an officer of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), not below the rank of Inspector General, nominated by the NIA Director General.
- These officers apart, the new committee, the bench indicated, would include another member, most likely the Punjab Additional Director General of Police (Intelligence).
- Supreme Court has also directed the Central government and the Punjab government not to go ahead with the inquires committee set up by them on this matter .
- The Union Government had set up Sudhir Saxena led Committee on the matter while Punjab Government set up a separate committee headed by retd. Justice Mehtab Singh.
6. KVIC to provide Khadi Handmade Papers Slippers to the devotees of Kashi Vishwanath
Tags: National News
Starting 14th January, Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) is beginning the sale of Khadi handmade paper “Use & Throw” slippers for the use of the devotees and the workers.
- The Khadi handmade paper slippers will be sold from the Khadi sales outlet located at the parking lot of the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor, Varanasi at a nominal price of Rs 50 per pair. The slippers will be sold by Kashi Hastkala Pratisthan, a registered Khadi Institution in Varanasi.
- The development comes in wake of the jute slippers sent by the Prime Minister for the workers of Kashi Vishwanath Temple after he learnt that most of the people working at the temple performed their duty barefoot.
7. 22 stranded tourists freeze to death in Pakistan after heavy snowfall
Tags: International News
At least 22 people, including 10 children, froze to death in their vehicles after heavy snowfall at the popular hill station Murree in Punjab province of Pakistan.
- Due to heavy snowfall, all routes leading to the hill station were closed causing all cars to remain stranded.
- Government has declared Murree as a calamity-hit area after heavy snowfall wreaked havoc in the city
8. PM Modi sends 100 pair of jute footwear for those working at Kashi Vishwanath Dham
Tags: National News
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sent 100 pairs of jute footwear for those working at Kashi Vishwanath Dham, Varanasi so that those performing their duties do not have to stay bare-footed in the chilling cold.
- Leather or rubber made footwear is not allowed within the temple premise hence the PM sent the jute made footwears to the temple worker.
9. Global Surya Namaskar on Makar Sankranti Day
Tags: National News
The Ministry of AYUSH( Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa-Rigpa and Homoeopathy ) is organising a global Surya Namaskar demonstration programme for 75 lakh people on January 14, the day of Makar Sankranti.
- This occasion commemorates thanksgiving to 'Mother Nature' for bestowing health, wealth and happiness.
- According to the ministry ,the Surya Namaskar has been known to develop immunity and improve vitality, which is significant to our health during pandemic conditions. Exposure to the Sun further provides the human body with Vitamin D, which has been widely recommended in all medical branches around the world.
- Surya Namaskar is a set of eight ‘asanas’ performed in 12 steps with coordination of the body and mind. It is preferably performed in the early morning.
Union Minister for AYUSH : Mr. Sabananda Sonowal
10. Government to start counselling of NEET PG from January 12, 2022
Tags: National News
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has announced the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Postgraduate) (NEET PG) counselling from January 12 ,2022.
- NEET-PG is a qualifying and ranking examination for postgraduate medical courses in government or private medical colleges.
- The Supreme Court on January 7, in an interim order, allowed resumption of counselling for NEET-PG admissions for 2021-22 while upholding the validity of 27% Other Backward Classes (OBC) and 10% Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) quota.
- Results of the NEET-PG were declared in the last week of September 2021, following which students had been waiting for the counselling to begin for nearly 45,000 postgraduate seats.
- The process was stalled after the Health Ministry’s proposal to reserve seats for EWS was challenged in court. The Supreme court stayed the counseling and asked the Government of India to explain the criteria it used for deciding EWS quota .
- Kindly see the 1 December 2021 post on EWS controversy
