Madhya Pradesh government implemented the National Education Policy-2020 (NEP-2020) in the state on August 26, 2021.
Union Cabinet has approved the new NEP 2020 with the aim of introducing several changes in Indian education system, from school to college level. This policy was launched with the aim of making “India a global knowledge superpower”.
NEP proposes for universalization of education from preschool to secondary level and seeks to achieve 100% Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in school education by the year 2030. It will bring 2 crores out of school children back into the mainstream by the means of open schooling system. 10+2 system has been replaced by a new 5+3+3+4 curricular structure under the new policy.
NEP emphasis on Foundational Literacy & Numeracy and provides for no rigid separation between academic streams, vocational streams and extracurricular streams in schools. Vocational Education will start from Class 6 with Internships, as per the policy. It also provides for teaching up to at least Grade 5 in mother tongue or regional language. No language will be imposed on student.
In line with the Government’s commitment of replacing grey hydrogen with green hydrogen, India is proposing to mandate the use of green hydrogen in fertilizer and refining.
National Hydrogen Energy Mission was launched to enable cost competitive green hydrogen production. India will be also be conducting competitive bids for green hydrogen in three to four months in order to make road for viable usage of hydrogen as a fuel. India is also looking at bids for 4000 MW of electrolysers capacity.
Hydrogen is one among the abundant elements on earth that can be used as a cleaner alternative fuel option. Hydrogen is of following types:
According to Moody’s Investors Service, second wave of Covid infections has increased the asset risks for Indian banks.
Moody’s is the bond credit rating business of Moody’s Corporation. It represents traditional line of business and historical name of the company. The company provides international financial research on the bonds issued by commercial as well as government entities. Moody’s is among Big Three Credit Rating Agencies along with Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Group. It also finds place in the Fortune 500 list of 2021.
It ranks the creditworthiness of borrowers by using standardized ratings scale. This scale measures expected investor loss in case of default. In the rating system of the company securities are assigned a rating ranging from Aaa to C. Aaa is the highest quality while C the lowest.
Moody’s was founded in 1909 by John Moody in order to produce manuals of statistics for stocks and bonds & bond ratings. Company was identified as the Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organization (NRSRO) in 1975.
NRSRO is a credit rating agency, which is approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in a bid to provide information that financial firms are required to rely on for certain regulatory purposes.
On August 26, 2021 Government of Cuba announced to recognize and regulate cryptocurrencies for payment in the Island nation.
The Central American nation of El Salvador also recently announced to recognise the use of cryptocurrency Bitcoin because it is a way to encourage remittances from its citizens who are living abroad. El Salvador announced on June 9, 2021 to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. It became the first country worldwide to take this step.
Cryptocurrencies are binary data that are designed to work as a medium of exchange. In such exchange, individual coin ownership records are stored in a ledger in the form of computerized database. A strong cryptography is used to store the database in order to secure transaction records, control the creation of additional coins as well as to verify transfer of coin ownership. It does not exist in physical form like a paper money and is not issued by any central authority. Cryptocurrency is minted or created prior by a single issuer. So, it is generally considered as centralized.
Bitcoin is the first decentralized cryptocurrency, released in 2009.
On August 26, 2021 Government of Cuba announced to recognize and regulate cryptocurrencies for payment in the Island nation.
The Central American nation of El Salvador also recently announced to recognise the use of cryptocurrency Bitcoin because it is a way to encourage remittances from its citizens who are living abroad. El Salvador announced on June 9, 2021 to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. It became the first country worldwide to take this step.
Cryptocurrencies are binary data that are designed to work as a medium of exchange. In such exchange, individual coin ownership records are stored in a ledger in the form of computerized database. A strong cryptography is used to store the database in order to secure transaction records, control the creation of additional coins as well as to verify transfer of coin ownership. It does not exist in physical form like a paper money and is not issued by any central authority. Cryptocurrency is minted or created prior by a single issuer. So, it is generally considered as centralized.
Bitcoin is the first decentralized cryptocurrency, released in 2009.
Algeria has cut its diplomatic ties with Morocco due to hostile actions after months of resurgent tensions between both the countries.
Rivalry between Algeria and Morocco took a new twist in 2020 when the former U.S. President, Donald Trump, recognised Moroccan sovereignty over the territory in return for Morocco normalising its ties with Israel.
It is the conflict between Polisario Front and Kingdom of Morocco. Polisario Front is the national liberation movement of Sahrawi tribe who seek to end the Moroccan presence in Western Sahara. Under the Madrid Accords of 1975 with Mauritania & Morocco, Spain left the region in 1976. Until its exit, Spanish Governor-General administer the territory, with the help of two Mauritanian and Moroccan Deputy Governors. But Polisario Front opposed these agreements. Thus, Mauritania and Morocco sent their troops to claim the Western Sahara region.
This region was a Spanish colony, sharing its border with Algeria, Morocco, and Mauritania. The region is home to Sahrawi tribe.
The conflict continued for 4 years after 1976. Mauritania signed a peace treaty with Polisario in 1979 and withdrew its military forces from Western Sahara region. But Morocco advanced its troops and the war between Moroccan troops and Polisario Front continued till 1991. A ceasefire was agreed upon in 1991. Morocco was already having control over 80% of the territory.
Militaries of China, Mongolia, Thailand and Pakistan are set to take part in a multinational peacekeeping exercise called “Shared Destiny-2021”.
In the peacekeeping exercise, battlefield environment will be created by conducting drills of battlefield reconnaissance, security guarding & patrol, protection of civilians, protection to armed escort, response to violent & terrorist attacks, construction of temporary operation base and battlefield first aid & pandemic control for responding to UN’s Action for Peacekeeping initiative.
Henan is a landlocked province of China and often referred as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou. Henan province is the birthplace of Chinese civilization, comprising of over 3,000 years of recorded history. It remained cultural, economic and political centre of China until approximately 1,000 years ago. City is home to several heritage sites which have been left behind such as ruins of Shang dynasty capital city Yin and Shaolin Temple. It is the 5th-largest provincial economy and largest inland province in China.
NITI Aayog and World Resources Institute (WRI) of India together launched the ‘Forum for Decarbonizing Transport’ in India on August 23, 2021.
India comprises of a massive and diverse transport sector. It is is also the third most CO2 emitting sector. According to data of IEA 2020 and Ministry of Environment Forest & Climate Change 2018, within the transport sector, road transport contributes more than 90% of the total CO2 emissions.
Government of India is working for decarbonisation of road transport sector with the help of various policy and initiatives. Primary focus of the government is on adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) in India. NITI Aayog has been promoting EVs and sustainable mobility with the help of National Mission on Transformative Mobility & Battery Storage.
In order to leverage and streamline EVs across India, there is a need is to create a favourable ecosystem for stakeholders including Central & state Governments, financial institutions, state-designated agencies, OEMs, businesses, research & technical institutes and private bodies. These stakeholders should coordinate with each other to enable investment, ensure fair adoption in industry and encourage adoption. Thus, this forum was launched for NITI aayog & WRI to work in close coordination with the stakeholders in order to formulate strategies and develop appropriate business models to boost electric mobility across India.
Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman, launched the fourth edition of Public Sector Bank (PSB) Reforms Agenda called ‘EASE 4.0’ for the financial year 2021-22.
EASE 4.0 reforms look after four key initiatives to be adopted by public sector banks:
In order to enable the smart lending under EASE 4.0, PSBs are required to design and improve performance of loan initiation processes by simplifying it on the basis of standard operating procedures and time-bound actions. They are also required to introduce end-to-end digitised loans for new customers. They will have to broaden customer base and increase credit off-take by means of analytics and technology-driven credit offers.
Ministry of Textile and National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) launched an India size survey, in order to do away with the confusion of size. It has been titled as INDIAsize. The survey was officially launched on August 26, 2021.
The textile sector in India is the second largest employer. It generates about Rs 140 billion, out of which Rs 100 billion is from Indian consumers alone while Rs 40 billion is from export.
With INDIAsize, surveys are being conducted across six states namely Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Shillong and Kolkata. Survey in Delhi is currently underway with the aim of reaching to about 5,700 participants. In the survey, 100 anthropometric data points are being used from each of the participants. Participants have been selected from different age groups, income brackets and varied ethnicities.
Team is using a 3D whole body scanner technology to gather anthropometric data from participants. All the international protocols of national sizing survey are being used.
INDIAsize survey is part of “fibre-to-fashion” initiative by the Ministry of Textiles.
The NITI Aayog and a US-based tech giant, Cisco launched the next phase of the Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) on August 26, 2021.
According to the Sixth Economic Census, women only comprise of 13.76 per cent of the total entrepreneurs, amounting to 8.05 million out of total 58.5 million entrepreneurs in India.
WEP Nxt will catalyse women entrepreneur movement. This technology platform will soon become a personalised guide for every woman entrepreneur in India and help them to realise her dreams. It is a significant step to augment these efforts. It will be driven by evidence-based decision making on the basis of focused study of Indian women entrepreneurs and their urgent needs across following factors:
WEP is a first of its kind unified access portal. It brings women from different parts of India together and help them to realise their entrepreneurial aspirations. Platform was launched by the NITI Aayog in 2017. It brings together women from diverse backgrounds and provides them access to multiple resources, support, and learning.
Stockholm World Water Week (SWWW) was held online from August 23 to 27, 2021 by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI).
The Stockholm World Water Week was held under the theme: ‘Building Resilience Faster’.
Only SMC was invited to discuss at SWWW because, Surat’s achievement in treating sewage water and reusing it has been recognized by world’s top institute in water governance. Surat treats about 1,400 MLD sewage water out of which 320 MLD (33%) is reused.
WWW is a leading annual event that is organised to held discussions on global water issues. It is organized by SIWI since 1991. The weeklong event is attended by some 4,000 participants from 135 countries.
Surat city was recently awarded a ‘Water+ certification’ under the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). It was the first city from Gujarat to get recognition. It was awarded by the ministry of housing and urban Affairs (MoHUA) in the field of adopting best practices in waste water management.
The Election Commission launched a new initiative on August 26, 2021 in order to reach out to new voters by sending them a personalised letter along with voter identity card.
This workshop was organised with the agenda of reviewing state SVEEP plans and conduct extensive deliberations on important aspects of SVEEP in order to prepare a comprehensive strategy for forthcoming assembly elections. It was a two-day consultation workshop and was attended by chief electoral officers and SVEEP nodal officers from Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Uttar Pradesh which elections will be held in 2022. With the objective of broadening the idea and knowledge exchange, senior officers from Ministry of Information and Broadcasting also attended the workshop.
It is the flagship programme of Election Commission. It is organised for spreading voter education & awareness and promoting voter literacy in India.
ECI is a permanent and independent body was, established in 1950 by the Constitution of India directly. It was established in order to ensure free and fair elections. ECI gets power to superintendent, direct, and control the elections to parliament, state legislatures, office of the president of India as well as office of vice-president of India under Article 324.
Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Shri Mansukh Mandaviya, took charge as the Chairperson of Stop TB Partnership Board on August 26, 2021.
This partnership was established in the year 2000 in a bid to eliminate tuberculosis (TB) as a public health problem. It comprises of 1500 partner organizations including international organizations, nongovernmental & governmental organizations as well as patient groups. Its secretariat is located in Geneva, Switzerland. It is administered by UNOPS since 2015. Earlier, it was hosted by the World Health Organization.
Stop TB Initiative was established after the meeting of the First Session of Ad Hoc Committee on Tuberculosis Epidemic. It was held in London in March 1998.
Stop TB Partnership came up with the Amsterdam Declaration in March 2000 in order to Stop TB. The declaration called for action from ministerial delegations of 20 countries, having the highest burden of TB. In 2000 itself, World Health Assembly endorsed for the establishment of a Global Partnership to Stop TB.
It is a 5-year investment plan, representing the roadmap of accelerating impact on TB epidemic in order to meet the targets of WHO End TB Strategy. It is the 4th Global Plan since the establishment of Stop TB Partnership in 2000. This plan aims to end TB and do away the limited approach which only aims to control the diseases.