Indian Police Foundation (IPF) conducted a survey on citizens perception. In the survey, Delhi Police has been ranked at seventh spot, among Indian states and union territories (UT).
The survey was conducted by IPF to assess citizens’ perceptions and gauge impact of smart policing initiative by Prime Minister Modi, which was announced in 2014 at a conference in Guwahati.
IPF is a multi-disciplinary think tank, working for police reform and improvement of policing through capacity building, research, and policy advocacy. It is driven by coalition of progressive police professionals who believe that it is possible to transform police positively by means of collective action of police, citizens, State governments, Central Governments and political leadership.
The IPF was inaugurated at New Delhi, by Shri Rajnath Singh on October 21, 2015.
World Toilet Day is observed on November 19, every year to raise awareness on importance of toilets and sanitation in our daily lives.
The day is significant as one cannot imagine life without permanent toilets. Despite this fact, around 3.6 billion people across the world don’t have access to a proper toilet. Compromised sanitation can affect communities by contaminating food & water and by spreading serious diseases that take lives.
World Toilet Day initiative was started by Jack Sim from Singapore. He founded the World Toilet organisation NGO in 2001. His idea was to use day to raise awareness regarding the importance of sanitation and hygiene. The World Toilet Day initiative was backed by “Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA)”. The UN had recognised “Human Right to Water & Sanitation (HRWS)” as fundamental human right, in the year 2010.
United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) passed a resolution in its 67th session in 2013 to designate November 19 as world toilet day. UNGA recognised unsatisfactory progress made towards providing basic sanitary service access to all. It also recognised how lack of basic sanitary service negatively impacted the health and economic & social situation of the people. The resolution was adopted by 122 member states.
World Toilet Day is observed with the aim of creating and spreading awareness on sanitary practices which promote health, hygiene & safety of women. The day also discourages people from open defecation practises.
World Toilet Day 2021 was observed under the theme- “Valuing toilets”.
Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, pledged to clean Yamuna River completely by 2025 recently.
Chief Minister announced understated six-point action plan:
Delhi government has started de-silting and rehabilitation of sewer network, as well.
Yamuna River has become one of the most polluted rivers worldwide. It is particularly polluted downstream of New Delhi. New Delhi dumps around 58% of its waste into this river. According to 2016 study, there is 100% urban metabolism of River Yamuna when it passes through Delhi. Most pollution comes from Wazirabad, from where Yamuna River enters Delhi.
Ministry of coal has constituted a “Sustainable Development Cell”, in line with the commitment of clean energy.
FMC initiative was also started by coal companies to minimise environmental pollution. Under this initiative, coal is transported using conveyor belt from Coal Handling Plants to Silo for the purpose of loading. This process does away with the movement of coal through road. 39 such projects have been planned. Projects will be commissioned by 2023-24 with an investment of more than Rs. 13000 Crore. These FMC projects will help in saving diesel worth Rs 2100 crores per annum.
Union Minister of Civil Aviation, Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, inaugurated a curtain raiser event on November 18, 2021, regarding Wings India, 2022.
The Wings India, 2022 aims to bring the key stakeholders of Global Aviation market, States Governments, International regulators, and business associations together as a group representing airlines, in order to facilitate direct interaction with airport operators, various airlines, cargo operators and other players on a common platform.
Currently, India handles the third largest domestic traffic worldwide, following USA and China. This industry has witnessed significant growth over years, and had contributed significantly to India’s economic development. It is the pride of the nation as it is playing an important role in connecting Indians to the remotest area within the country as well as across the world.
Indian government had announced Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) called Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik scheme (UDAN) on October 21, 2016. As of now, it is running across 387 routes connecting 62 Airports which also include 6 Heliports and 2 Water Aerodromes. With the launch of this scheme, civil aviation sector in India is emerging as major pillar of economic growth.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to lay down the foundation stone of Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor project in Jhansi on November 19, 2021.
This event is being organised by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in association with the government of Uttar Pradesh. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated this event on November 17, 2021.
Central government has decided to set up two Defence Industrial Corridors in India. One of the corridors will be set up in Tamil Nadu while other in Uttar Pradesh.
Ministry of Defence has taken various steps to promote ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ in defence in recent years. These comprise of issue like positive indigenisation lists, promotion of start-ups under Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) initiative, 64 per cent capital procurement budget for domestic industry etc.
Hingoli income division handed around 225 hectares of land right in Maharashtra to the authorities of Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) venture.
Central authorities had given an ‘in precept’ approval to LIGO-India mega science proposal in 2016, to analyse the gravitational waves.
LIGO is a massive observatory to detect cosmic gravitational waves and to carry experiments. Its main objective is to make use of gravitational-wave observations in astronomical studies. This project currently operates three gravitational-wave (GW) detectors. Out of three, two are at Hanford in Washington while one is at Livingston in Louisiana.
The LIGO India project was proposed with the aim of moving one advanced LIGO detector to India, from Hanford. This project is piloted by Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Department of Atomic Energy (DAE). This project in India will be coordinated and executed jointly by three Indian research institutions namely, Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology (RRCAT) in Indore, Department of Atomic Energy organisations: Institute for Plasma Research (IPR) in Gandhinagar and Inter-University Centre for Astronomy & Astrophysics (IUCAA) in Pune.
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) approved the “NSDL e-Governance Infrastructure” as an account aggregator.
Account Aggregator is a critical step of enabling data democracy. It is a first-of-its-kind consent framework, developed to empower an individual with control over data. It will also empower people to securely and digitally access and share their data. NSDL e-Governance Account Aggregator services will play a significant role as a core contributor for empowerment of data-led economy.
DEPA will enable the collection & use of personal data in order to empower people in accessing better financial, healthcare and other services in real-time.
“Draft Food Safety and Standards (Genetically Modified or Engineered Foods) Regulations, 2021” was issued by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) on November 15, 2021.
FSSAI is a statutory body, set up in accordance with the Food Safety & Standards Act, 2006. It was established under Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. FSSAI is responsible to protect and promote public health through regulation and supervision of food safety.
Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has joined hands with Google India Pvt Ltd (GIPL) to support micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
The programme will majorly focus on enterprises run by women entrepreneurs. A suitable interest rate concession will also be provided to such enterprises.
SIDBI is the apex regulatory body that license and regulate the ‘micro, small & medium enterprise finance companies’ across India. It works under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Finance. SIDBI is headquartered at Lucknow and also have offices across the country. It was set up with the objective of providing refinance facilities to the banks and financial institutions. SIDBI engages in term lending & working capital finance to industries. It also serves as the principal financial institution in MSME sector.
SIDBI was established on April 2, 1990 by an Act of Parliament.
Researchers of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru, along with other collaborators, identified potential blood-based biomarkers for predicting disease progression and survival times among people with late-stage brain tumours.
As per researchers, late-stage gliomas like grade three and grade four gliomas are linked with a poor prognosis. Such tumour is hard to treat and patient is likely to have low chance of survival.
Study of the researchers suggests that two blood-based biomarkers, present on immune cells, can be used for identifying patients who might not perform well with any specific treatment strategies. Such blood-based testing methodology will help clinicians in understanding disease progression in better manner and choose effective treatment regimen.
The conventional cancer treatments such as chemotherapy are often ineffective to treat tumours. This led to a shift to newer techniques such as immunotherapy. Immunotherapy provoke immune system to attack tumour cells.
Researchers collected blood and tumour samples from patients having grade three and grade four gliomas. They compared the numbers of specific immune cells called neutrophils and monocytes in these samples. They also looked for differences in surface proteins composition on these cells across two grades of tumours. They found a certain type of monocytes called M2 monocytes, were present in samples from grade four tumours.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his address on November 19, 2021 announced that, central government will repeal all the three farm laws.
The three laws that let to agitation by farmers across India are:
Main concerns of farmers were that, these laws will abolish the Minimum Support Price (MSP), which is guaranteed by the Centre on select crops. It will eventually leave farmers at the mercy of big corporate houses.
PM noted that, majority of farmers are small scale farmers in India. Central government tool multi-faceted approach ranging from seed technology to crop insurance schemes, in order to help these farmers. The three farm bills were put forward to benefit of small farmers, to empower & strengthen them. However, the government could not convince a section of protesting farmers. In that light, the laws were repealed.
In his address pm also noted that, central government has decided to implement Zero Budget Natural Farming and make MSP more efficient. Government will set up a committee, comprising of Centre, State representatives, scientists, economists and farmers.