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Three students from Bengaluru and Mangaluru were awarded the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar

RASHTRIYA BAL PURASKAR

• Children will be awarded the ‘Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar’ for their exceptional abilities and outstanding accomplishments.
• Given by - President of India
• When - week preceding Republic Day (26th January) every year.
• Two Categories
  • Bal Shakti Puraskar
  • Bal Kalyan Puraskar.

Bal Shakti Puraskar

• Instituted in 1996 as the National Child Award for Exceptional Achievement, renamed from 2018 as Bal Shakti Puraskar.
• Recognize exceptional achievements of children in various fields i.e., innovation, scholastic achievements, social service, arts & culture, sports and bravery.
• Eligibility:
  • Indian Citizen
  • Residing in India
  • Between 5-18 years of age.
• Award: A medal, a cash prize of Rs. 1,00,000, book vouchers worth Rs.10,000, a certificate and citation.

Bal Kalyan Puraskar

• Instituted in 1979 as the National Child Welfare Awards, renamed from 2018 as Bal Kalyan Puraskar.
• Recognition to Individuals and Institutions, who have made an outstanding contribution towards service for children in the field of child development, child protection and child welfare.
• Eligibility:
  • Indian Citizen
  • Residing in India
  • Attained the age of 18 years or above (as on 31st August of respective year)
  • S/he should have worked for the cause of children for not less than 7 years.
  • Institution should not be entirely funded by the government
• Should have been in the field of child welfare for 10 years and performing consistently in the field.
• Award: Three awards are given in each of the two categories - Individual and Institution - along with cash prizes (Rs. 1,00, 000 and Rs. 5,00, 000 respectively).

NEWS

The Karnataka government’s ambitious Grama One initiative that seeks to eliminate middlemen and provide various departments’ services in the rural areas of 12 districts was launched on Republic Day.

DETAILS

 Single point assistance center for all citizen centric activities at village level which include G2C services, Banking services, RTI queries etc.

NEWS

Death anniversary of Sangolli Rayanna was observed recently

SANGOLLI RAYANNA

• Prominent warrior from Karnataka, India
• Army chief of the Kingdom of Kittur ruled at the time by Rani Chennamma and fought the British East India Company till his death.
• Participated in the 1824 rebellion and was arrested by the British, who released him later.
• Continued to fight the British and wanted to install adopted son Shivalingappa as the ruler of Kittur
• Mobilised local people and started a guerilla type war against the British.
• He and his “army” moved from place to place, burnt government offices, waylaid British troops and plundered treasuries.
• Most of his land was confiscated and what remained of it was heavily taxed.
• He taxed the landlords and built up an army from the masses.
• By treachery, he was caught in April 1831 and tried by the British; and sentenced to death.
• Shivalingappa, the boy who was supposed to be the new ruler, was also arrested by the British.
• Rayanna was executed by hanging to death from a Banyan tree about 4 kilometers from Nandagad in Belgaum district on 26 January 1832.
• Rayanna was helped by Gajaveera, a Siddi warrior, in his revolt against the British in 1829-30.

NEWS

Kerala govt decides to bring Ordinance to clip Lokayukta powers

DETAILS

• Kerala government recommended to the governor to issue the ordinance to amend Kerala Lok Ayukta Act, 1999
• Amendment is aimed at giving powers to the government to “either accept or reject the verdict of the Lokayukta, after giving an opportunity of being heard.’’
• As per the proposed amendment, the Lokayukta would have only the powers to make recommendations or send reports to the government.

LOKAYUKTA

• Anti-corruption authority or ombudsman – an official
• Appointed by the government to represent the interests of the public.
• Investigates allegations of corruption and mal-administration against public servants and is tasked with speedy redressal of public grievances.
• The Administrative Reforms Commission headed by Late Morarji Desai in 1966 recommended the setting up of the institution of Lokayukta.
• The Lokpal and Lokayukta Act, 2013, commonly known The Lokpal Act was passed by the Parliament of India in December 2013.It provides for the appointment of a Lokayukta “to investigate and report on allegations or grievances relating to the conduct of public servants.” It also called for establishment of Lokpal at the Centre.
• Who is appointed as the Lokayukta : The Lokayukta is usually a former High Court Chief Justice or former Supreme Court judge and has a fixed tenure.
• Selection of Lokayukta:
  • Chief Minister selects a person as the Lokayukta after consultation with the High Court Chief Justice, the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, the Chairman of the Legislative Council, Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly and the Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council.
  • Appointment is then made by the Governor.
  • Once appointed, Lokayukta cannot be dismissed nor transferred by the government, and can only be removed by passing an impeachment motion by the state assembly.

NEWS

Election Commission of India celebrated 12th National Voters Day on 25th January 2022.

ABOUT

• The National Voters’ Day has been celebrated on January 25 every year since 2011, all across the country to mark the foundation day of Election Commission of India, i.e. 25th January 1950. 
• The main purpose of the NVD celebration is to encourage, facilitate and maximize enrolment, especially for the new voters.
• Dedicated to the voters of the country, the day is utilized to spread awareness among voters and for promoting informed participation in the electoral process. New voters are felicitated and handed over their Elector Photo Identity Card (EPIC) in the NVD functions.
• During the event, the Honourable President of India will confer the National Awards for the year 2020-21 and launch ECI’s Web Radio:‘Hello Voters’.
• The National Awards for the Best Electoral Practices will be conferred on State and District level officers for their outstanding performance in the conduct of elections in different spheres such as IT initiatives, Security Management, Election Management during COVID-19, Accessible Election and contribution in the field of voter awareness and outreach

NEWS

Himachal Pradesh observes its statehood day on January 25.

DETAILS

• It became the 18thstate of India in the year 1971.
• It came to being in 1948 as centrally administered territory after the integration of 30 erstwhile princely states.
• During this occasion, the state-level Golden Jubilee event was conducted at the historic Ridge of Shimla.

NEWS

India ranks 85 in Transparency International’s corruption index

DETAILS

• The index ranks 180 countries and territories
• How - By their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and business people
• Uses a scale of 0 to 100 to rank Corruption Perception Index (CPI), where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.
• Transparency International gave India a CPI score of 40.
• In 2021, India ranked 86th with the same CPI score of 40.
• The report highlighted concerns over the risk to journalists and activists who have been “victims of attacks by the police, political militants, criminal gangs and corrupt local officials.”

NEWS

India celebrates 73 Republic Day

 DETAILS

• The Constitution came into effect on January 26, 1950, a date specially chosen to coincide with the anniversary of ‘Purna Swaraj Diwas’.
• January 26, 1930 was marked as ‘Purna Swaraj Diwas’, or the day the nation would attain complete freedom from its colonisers by the Congress.

• Being republican is an ideal to which we are meant to consistently aspire, and when we go astray, we should know that we have done something wrong, feel remorse, and make amends. If our political identity loses its republican character, we must quickly act to restore it.
• It is because we cherish being a republic that on every January 26 since 1950, we celebrate this founding moment. The parade and the ritual surrounding it are meaningless unless we get the spirit behind the event.

What is meant by a republic and what is its significance

Primary collective intent behind a republic is anti-monarchical

Greeks defined monarchy as the ‘rule of one (mono)’, a form of government where one person rules and all others obey; one is sovereign, all others his subjects.

What is wrong with the rule of one person? Why fear rule by one person?

• Perhaps the most pernicious quality about monarchy is that it subjects people to the whim and fancy of one person, to his arbitrary will.
• The entire decision-making process remains close to his chest. Hidden from everyone, it brooks neither transparency nor accountability. It is this tyrannical potential of the rule of one person, the absolute and arbitrary use of power that we dread.

What alternative does a republic offer?

• The English word ‘republic’ is derived from the Latin ‘Res publica’ — the public thing.
• This translates in the political domain into decision-making in the open, in full view of all.
• A republic then is associated with what we today call the ‘public sphere’, an open space where people put forward claims about what is good for the community, what is in collective interest.
• After discussing, debating and deliberating upon them, they reach decisions about which laws to have and what course of action to take. A republic is ‘government by free and open discussion’.
• The contrast between monarchical and republican forms of government could not be sharper. Monarchy entails surrender to the arbitrary power of another person, allowing whimsical intrusion in our choices, living at the mercy of the master.
• The phrase “We, the People” in the Constitution is not a mere literary embellishment but central to a republican constitution.
• The willingness to live by self-made regulations but enforced by public power or the state also means that those who value a republic are not against states per se but against those that take away our political freedom.

NEWS

73^rd Beating Retreat ceremony will Enthral audience

ABOUT

• Beating Retreat is a centuries-old military tradition going back to the days when troops disengaged from battle at sunset.
• As soon as the buglers sounded the ‘retreat’, troops ceased fighting and withdrew from the battlefield. It is for this reason that the custom of standing still during the sounding of the ‘retreat’ has been retained to this day.
• The ceremony in India is marked by the lowering of flags at dusk. A series of lights illuminate the outlines of the Rashtrapati Bhavan, North Block, South Block and Parliament House.
• This year, the hymn ‘Abide With Me’ has been dropped and replaced with a popular Indian tune ‘Ae mera watan ke logon’, which was composed by C. Ramachandra and for which Kavi Pradeep provided lyrics. There will also be 44 buglers, 16 trumpeters and 75 drummers as well as a drone show with over 1,000 drones built by an Indian start-up and a laser projection.

How is the Beating Retreat in India conducted?

• The ceremony is conducted every year on January 29 at Vijay Chowk to mark the formal conclusion of the Republic Day celebrations.
• The ceremony is graced by the President of India as the Supreme Commander of the armed forces.

NEWS

125^TH birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose observed recently

ABOUT

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose:

• Subhas Chandra Bose was born on January 23, 1897, in Cuttack, Orissa. He was affectionately called Netaji.
• In England, he appeared for the Indian Civil Service competitive examination in 1920 and came out fourth in the order of merit.
• However, Bose was deeply disturbed by the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and left his Civil Services’ apprenticeship midway to return to India in 1921.
• 23 Jan is celebrated as Parakram Diwas.

Contribution to Indian Freedom Movement:

• After returning to India, Netaji joined the Indian National Congress.

• He started working under Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das whom he later acknowledged as his political guru.
• Netaji along with Jawaharlal Nehru opposed the Motilal Nehru Report, which spoke for dominion status for India. They asserted that they would be satisfied with nothing short of complete independence for India.
• In 1938, Subhas Chandra Bose was elected President of the Haripura Congress Session.
• In 1939 at the Tripuri Session, Netaji again won the presidential elections against Gandhi’s candidate Pattabhi Sitaramayya. But due to ideological differences with Gandhi, Bose resigned and left congress.
• He then founded a new party named ‘the Forward Bloc’. The purpose was to consolidate the political left and major support base in his home state, Bengal.

Indian National Army:

• In 1941, Bose reached Germany via Afghanistan. On the maxim that “an enemy’s enemy is a friend”, he sought the cooperation of Germany and Japan against the British Empire.
• In 1943, he arrived in Singapore. Here he took over the reins of the Indian Independence Movement in East Asia from Rash Behari Bose and organized the Azad Hind Fauj (Indian National Army) composed mainly of Indian prisoners of war.
• Azad Hind Fauj then proceeded towards India to liberate it from British rule.
• However, the defeat of Japan and Germany in the Second World War forced INA to retreat, and it could not achieve its objective.

EVENTS 2022

PM unveils hologram statue of Netaji at India Gate

NEWS

The central government on the eve of 73rd Republic Day, announced the names of the Padma awardees.

PADMA AWARDS

• Highest civilian awards of the country
• Given in various disciplines and fields of activities – art, social work, public affairs, science and engineering, trade and industry, medicine, literature and education, sports, civil service, etc.
• Conferred in three categories
  • Padma Vibhushan- Awarded for exceptional and distinguished service.
  • Padma Bhushan- Awarded for distinguished service of a high order.
  • Padma Shri- Awarded for distinguished service in any field

Padma Vibhushan 2022

Five from Karnataka have been chosen for the Padma Shri. They are poet late Siddalingaiah, gamaka exponent H.R. Keshavamurthy, agriculture scientist Subbanna Ayyappan, innovative farmer Abdul Khader Nadakattin, and Amai Mahalinga Naik who single-handedly drilled tunnels to irrigate his land.

NEWS

Six Army personnel, five of them posthumously, have been selected for the Shaurya Chakra, the third highest peacetime gallantry award, by the President and Supreme Commander of the Indian armed forces, Ram Nath Kovind.

ABOUT THE AWARD

• Awarded for gallantry other than in the face of the enemy
• May be granted to civilians or to military personnel and may be awarded posthumously.
• Peacetime equivalent to Vir Chakra.
• Generally awarded for counter-insurgency operations and action against the enemy during peacetime.
• 3rd in order of precedence of peacetime gallantry award and comes after Ashoka Chakra and Kriti Chakra.

NEWS

Lahore High Court’s Justice Ayesha Malik was sworn in as the Supreme Court’s first female judge

DETAILS

• According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, women reportedly account for 17 per cent of judges overall and 4.4 per cent in high courts.
• Compare this to India, where the Supreme Court (established in 1950) currently has four female judges out of a total of 34. Three of them were appointed in September 2021 and one of them, Justice BV Nagarathna could possibly become India’s first female Chief Justice in 2027.
• India’s first female judge Justice Fathima Beevi was appointed in 1989, just eight years after Sandra Day O’Connor became the first woman to serve on the US Supreme Court. In 1981, O’Connor was appointed associate justice of the highest court by President Ronald Reagan.

MORE WOMEN IN THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM

• Representation of women in the judicial system is considered important not only for the sake of projecting equality, but also because women bring their lived experiences of being a woman to the courts, thereby adding a layer of gendered perspective.
• Judge Vanessa Ruiz, who is a Senior Judge for the Court of Appeals in the US argued in 2017 that the presence of women judges enlarges the scope of discussion by weighing in on how certain laws may be based on gender stereotypes, or how some laws can affect men and women differently. Such a gendered perspective can be especially significant in cases involving sexual violence and harassment, for instance.
• In 2021, Justice Malik delivered a landmark judgment in which she declared the “two-finger test” for victims of sexual assault illegal and unconstitutional. In her 30-page judgment, Malik said that the two-finger test and hymen test offended the personal dignity of the victims that is enshrined in Article 9 and 14 of Pakistan’s Constitution.

 

• Karnataka Bank has launched mobile banking facility to its NRI customers through its existing mobile banking application 'KBL MobilePlus' app.
• The country’s first woman Rafale fighter jet pilot Shivangi Singh was part of the Indian Air Force tableau at the Republic Day parade on Wednesday. She is only the second woman fighter jet pilot to be part of the IAF tableau.Last year, Flight Lieutenant Bhawna Kanth became the first female fighter jet pilot to be part of the IAF tableau.
• PM condoles the demise of eminent archaeologist Thiru R. Nagaswamy.