Daily CURRENT AFFAIRS

Daily Current Affair - UPSC/KAS Exams - 25th Nov 2021

NEWS

Taking note of the rise in the number of children who are malnourished and anaemic in north Karnataka, the Department of Public Instruction has decided to provide eggs to students in government and aided schools in seven districts from December under Mid-Day meal scheme

ABOUT THE SCHEME

• Guarantees one meal to all children in government and aided schools and madarsas supported under Samagra Shiksha.
• Students up to Class VIII are guaranteed one nutritional cooked meal at least 200 days in a year.
• Under the Ministry of Education
• Launched in the year 1995 (Revamped in 2004)
• IMP POINTS
  • Place of serving meals to the children shall be school only.
  • If the Mid-Day Meal is not provided in school on any school day due to non-availability of food grains or any other reason, the State Government shall pay food security allowance by 15th of the succeeding month.
  • The meal shall be prepared in accordance with the Mid Day Meal guidelines issued by the Central Government from time to time.
  • Procuring AGMARK quality items for preparation of midday meals, tasting of meals by two or three adult members of the school management committee, including at least one teacher, before serving to children.
  • The School Management Committee mandated under the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 shall also monitor implementation of the Mid-day meal Scheme.
  • The State Steering-cum Monitoring Committee (SSMC) shall oversee the implementation of the scheme including establishment of a mechanism for maintenance of nutritional standards and quality of meals.

NEWS

The National Green Tribunal, Chennai, has directed a joint committee to ascertain if any construction has been made on Karwar Beach and in Kali riverbank areas in violation of CRZ rules and identify the same.

ABOUT CRZ REGULATIONS

• Coastal areas of seas, bays, creeks, rivers, and backwaters which get influenced by tides up to 500 m from the high tide line (HTL) and the land between the low tide line (LTL) and the high tide line have been declared as coastal regulation zone (CRZ) in 1991.
• By the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate change under the Environment Protection Act 1986.
• Implementation is to be ensured by state governments through their Coastal Zone Management Authorities.
• CRZs have been classified into 4 zones for the purpose of regulation:
  • CRZ-I: includes ecologically sensitive areas, where no construction is allowed except activities for atomic power plants, defense.
  • CRZ-II: includes designated urban areas that are substantially built up. Construction activities are allowed on the landward side only.
  • CRZ-III: includes relatively undisturbed areas, mainly rural areas. No new construction of buildings allowed in this zone except repairing of the existing ones. However, constructions of dwelling units in the plot area lying between 200-500m of the high tide line is allowed.
  • CRZ-IV: includes the water area covered between Low Tide Line and 12 nautical miles seaward. Except for fishing and related activities, all actions impugning on the sea and tidal water will be regulated in this zone.

NEWS

Acknowledging that poor families still need food security support in the middle of a recovering economy, the Centre has decided to extend its free ration scheme, Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY), for another four months, until March 2022.

ABOUT

• World’s largest food security scheme
• Part of Atmanirbhar Bharat
• Supply free food grains to migrants and poor
• Announced as part of the first relief package during the COVID-19 pandemic
• Provided to all the beneficiaries under public distribution system (TPDS) for Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) and priority household (PHH) ration cardholders.
• Eligible beneficiaries will receive 5kg of foodgrains and 1 kg Gram per month.

NEWS

The Centre has withdrawn Chhattisgarh from the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin with immediate effect

Why

The State has not shown any satisfactory results in respect of various parameters viz, registration of new houses, sanctioning of houses to PMAY-G beneficiaries, completion of previous allocated houses, etc. under PMAY-G

What did state say

State could not provide its share due to coronavirus-related expenditure.

What does it mean to the state

Chhattisgarh will lose on development work worth more than Rs 11,000 crore annually.

ABOUT PMAY-GRAMIN

• Erstwhile rural housing scheme Indira Awaas yojana (IAY)
• Aims at providing a pucca house, with basic amenities, to all houseless householder and those households living in kutcha and dilapidated house, by 2022.
• Cost sharing between Centre & States
  • 60:40 in plain areas
  • 90: 10 for North Eastern and Himalayan States.
• Envisages training of Rural Masons with the objective of improving workmanship and quality of construction of houses while at the same time, increasing availability of skilled masons and enhancing employability of such masons.
• Selection of beneficiaries under Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G) is based on housing deprivation parameters of Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC), 2011,

A child marriage is one in which the girl is below the age of eighteen years and the boy is below the age of twenty one years.

REASONS

• Economic necessity
• Male protection for daughters
• Child bearing
• Lack of education
• Caste & birth order and family size
• Patriarchy and gender discrimination against girls
• Brings in new workforce in to their families that can enhance production within the household.    

STATISTICS

• According to a United Nations report, India has the second highest number of child marriages.
• The rates of child marriage vary between states and are as high as 69% and 65% in Bihar and Rajasthan.
• UNICEF’s State of the World’s Children 2016 - Girls from the poorest households—and those living in rural areas—face twice the risk of being married before 18 as girls from the richest households or those living in urban areas
• Data from the fourth round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS4) in 2015-16 shows that even before Covid, one in four girls in India was being married before 18.
• Around 8 per cent of women aged 15-19 years were mothers or pregnant at the time of the survey.

IMPACT

• Denies her fundamental rights that every person is entitled to include the right to education, the right to rest and leisure and the right to protection from sexual abuse and exploitation.
• When girls are married young, they are forced to take up household responsibilities. This deprives them of a chance to educate and empower themselves.
• The most physiologically and psychologically draining situation for a young girl is if she attains early motherhood.
• Because of lack of protection child brides are often exposed to serious health risks, early pregnancy, and various STDs especially HIV/AIDS.
• Girl children often face situations of bonded labour, enslavement, commercial sexual
• Exploitation and violence as a result of child marriage. She is forced to take up roles that she isn’t mentally prepared for. It eventually leads to isolation and depression.
• Other - teenage pregnancy, population growth, child stunting, poor learning outcomes for children and the loss of women’s participation in the workforce.

WAY FORWARD

• Legislation is one part of the approach. Karnataka amended the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act in 2017, declaring every child marriage void ab initio, making it a cognisable offence, and introducing a minimum period of rigorous imprisonment for all who enable a child marriage.
• Other drivers of social change must play a fundamental role. These include expansion of secondary education, access to safe and affordable public transport, and support for young women to apply their education to earn a livelihood.
• Expansion of education goes beyond access. Girls must be able to attend school regularly, remain there, and achieve. States can leverage their network of residential schools, girls’ hostels, and public transport, especially in underserved areas, to ensure that teenage girls do not get pushed out of education.
• Girls’ clubs should be systematically formed in high school to provide informal social networks for group study, solidarity, and resilience. Teachers should hold regular gender equality conversations with high school girls and boys to shape progressive attitudes that will sustain into adulthood
• Empowerment measures, too, are required to end child marriage, such as community engagement through programmes like Mahila Samakhya. Children’s village assemblies in the 2.5 lakh gram panchayats across India can provide a platform for children to voice their concerns.
• Governmental action can drive social change. Field bureaucrats across multiple departments, including teachers, anganwadi supervisors, panchayat and revenue staff, all of whom interact with rural communities, should be notified as child marriage prohibition officers. Finally, and most important of all, decentralising birth and marriage registration to gram panchayats will protect women and girls with essential age and marriage documents, thus better enabling them to claim their rights.
• Conditional cash transfers (CCTs) have been the main policy instrument introduced by most states in the last two decades to end child marriage. However, with one-size-fits-all conditions, that may not always be responsive to the lived realities of teenage girls.

NEWS

To promote and attract tourism business, the Indian Railways Tuesday launched Bharat Gaurav trains that will be operated by private players and run on theme-based circuits.

DETAILS

• Any operator or service provider, or virtually anyone, can lease trains from Indian Railways to run on a theme-based circuit as a special tourism package.
• Minimum tenure -  Two years
• Maximum tenure - Codal life of the coach
• Operator has the freedom to decide the route, the halts, the services provided, and, most importantly, the tariff.
• In packaged tours, typically the passengers stop over at a place, stay at hotels, undertake sightseeing, etc. — all organised by tour operators.
• Operator will also have to propose a similar business model wherein it takes care of local transport, sightseeing, food, local stays, etc. along with operating the trains.
• Operator can carry out its own furnishings of the interiors of the trains if it wants within safety norms
• The annual ‘Right of Use’ charges calculated on the basis of the type of coach taken and the duration. In Bharat Gaurav scheme, the first year’s Right of Use charges have to be paid upfront and the second year’s have to be paid 15 days before the completion of the preceding year.

NEWS

Shortage of drug, Desferal 500 mg  hits thalassaemia patients in Karnataka

ABOUT THALASSAMEIA

• Inherited blood disorder
• Body produces an inadequate amount of haemoglobin - a protein molecule that carries oxygen in the red blood cells
• Results in the extreme destruction of red blood cells that leads to anaemia(condition in which the haemoglobin or red blood cells are less than the normal count)
• Mainly caused due to the abnormal haemoglobin synthesis
• Transferred by one of the parents who is a carrier of this disease due to either deletion of particular key gene fragments or a genetic mutation.
• Mild thalassemia requires no treatment, but acute thalassemia might require regular blood transfusions.

NEWS

Light-touch regulation of PM-WANI framework will encourage entrepreneurs to set up public wifi hotspots and generate additional revenue

ABOUT PM WANI

• Approved last year
• Aimed at helping accelerate the uptake of broadband Internet services.
• First recommended by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in 2017.
• Key features of the project:
  • Setting up of public WiFi hotspots across the country via public data offices or public data offices (PDOs).
  • Not require the PDOs to get a license or pay a fee.
  • Will involve multiple players, including PDOs, Public Data Office Aggregators (PDOA), app providers, and a central registry.

• Karnataka must procure locally-grown produce for distribution under the Public Distribution System (PDS), the Karnataka Agriculture Price Commission (KAPC) recommended to the state government in a report
• Karnataka’s ‘Chota Mumbai’ Hubballi has emerged as a key hub for all kinds of valves and related accessories and started contributing significantly to domestic and exports markets. Major global players have shifted their focus to India, says trade body; Hubballi sells, exports valves worth ₹1,000 cr. per annum
• Ministry of Panchayat Raj, Government of India had organised one day National Consultative Workshop on Citizen Charter and Delivery of Services by Panchayats as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav recently. Participants from 16 States signed the Mysuru Declaration and resolved to roll out the Common Minimum Service delivery by Panchayats across the country from April 1, 2022. The declaration is aimed at recognising Citizen Centric Services as the “Heart of Governance”
• Prime Minister chaired the meeting of 39th edition of PRAGATI, the ICT based multi-modal platform for Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation, involving Centre and State governments.
• PM pays tributes to Lachit Borphukan on Lachit Diwas

• Creating a travel bubble involves reconnecting countries or states that have shown a good level of success in containing the novel coronavirus pandemic domestically.
• Such a bubble would allow the members of the group to rekindle trade ties with each other, and kickstart sectors such as travel and tourism.
• Residents would be able to travel freely by rail, air, and sea without quarantine measures.