Daily CURRENT AFFAIRS

NEWS

The Food and Civil Supplies Department will start the distribution of fortified rice from April 1 in 14 districts of the state under 'Poushtika Karnataka' (Nutrition Karnataka) programme to eradicate malnutrition

DETAILS

• The personnel in the state's 58 rice mills are currently being trained in fortification
• The rice will be fortified with nutrients like iron, folic acid, and vitamin B12
• Five kg of food grains will be given per member as per the National Food Safety Act guidelines

FOOD FORTIFICATION IN INDIA

• Fortification is the addition of key vitamins and minerals such as iron, iodine, zinc, Vitamin A & D to staple foods such as rice, milk and salt to improve their nutritional content. These nutrients may or may not have been originally present in the food before processing.
• India’s National Nutritional strategy, 2017, had listed food fortification as one of the interventions to address anaemia, vitamin A and iodine deficiencies apart from supplementation and dietary diversification.
• Malnutrition is a prominent issue in India — 38 per cent of children under five years are stunted i.e. too short for their age, 36 per cent are underweight and 21 per cent are wasted i.e. too thin for their height, which is a sign of acute under-nutrition.
• 59 per cent women and 53 per cent children are anaemic.
• The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) made standards for fortification in the Food Safety and Standards (Fortification of Foods) Regulations, 2018, for five staples — wheat, rice, milk, oil and salt.
• The standards are given for wheat and rice fortification with iron, folic acid, and vitamin B12, the deficiency of which cause anaemia. Besides, other B vitamins are also added.
• Standards are provided for oil and milk fortification with vitamin A and vitamin D, the deficiency of which cause night blindness and rickets respectively; and salt fortification with iron along with iodine to prevent goitre.
• The food companies who wish to add micronutrients to these staples sold in the packages will also have to follow the standards set by FSSAI. If the product is fortified according to the standards, the package will carry an F+ label.
• The Union Ministries of Women and Child Development, Human Resource Development and Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution have mandated the distribution of fortified wheat flour, rice, oil and double fortified salt in their schemes — Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and Mid-Day Meal (MDM) and Public Distribution System (PDS) respectively.

Food Safety and Standards (Fortification of Foods) Regulations, 2018

• It prescribes the standards of addition of micronutrients for the purpose of food fortification.
• The manufacturers of the fortified food are required to provide a quality assurance undertaking.
• Packaging and labelling of the fortified food must state the food fortificant added, logo and the tagline "Sampoorna Poshan Swasth Jeevan".
• It should be in compliance to the Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling) Regulations, 2011.

NEWS

Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike has finally been brought within the ambit of the Karnataka Local Fund Authorities Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2003

THE ACT

• Passed in 2003
• Government issued a notification on the BBMP (Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management) Rules, 2021
• As per article 283 of Indian constitution & Karnataka Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2002
• Provides for the responsibility of Local Fund Authorities
• Ensure best practice of financial management of local funds
• Enhance the scope for improving social and physical infrastructure and human development
• Achieving sufficient revenue surplus, ensuring prudent management of public fiscal operations of the Local Funds and use of a medium term fiscal frame work,  performance enhancement, citizen participation and transparency
• Removing impediments to the effective conduct of fiscal policy
• Enabling prudent financial management through appropriate modern systems and with greater transparency in fiscal operations of the Local Funds with the use of a medium-term fiscal frame work.

NEWS

Karnataka government has launched Women@Work (W@W) programme

DETAILS

WHEN WAS IT LAUNCHED - 8th March ( Women’s Day )

AIM

• Focus on corporate programs that will be helpful in attracting the women workforce
• Women will be trained in specialized skills
• As part of the Karnataka Digital Economy Mission, efforts are also being made to provide 5,000 jobs for women with the necessary employable skills by 2026. Through industry upskilling and reskilling programs, mentorship, and institutional and organizational networking, the programme will empower women to actively participate and join the workforce
• As part of this programme, free certificate courses will be provided with the aim of getting the women of the state technically trained in various disciplines.

WHO HAS DEVELOPED THIS PROGRAMME - The Karnataka Digital Economy Mission (KDEM) has developed this programme in collaboration with KTECH, Karnataka Skill Development Corporation

 CONTEXT

Chief Justice of India

• Pushed for greater women share in judiciary
• Backed 50% representation for women in judiciary.

He pointed

• Women constituted only about 30% of the subordinate judiciary
• In High Courts, women judges constitute 11.5%
• Supreme Court currently has four women Justices out of the sitting 33. That makes it just 12%.
• Of the 1.7 million advocates, only 15% are women.
• Only 2% of the elected representatives in the State Bar Councils are women
• There is no woman member in the Bar Council of India
• One of the main reason for the continuing battle of women in spite of acquiring sufficient skills and knowledge is the lack of adequate representation at the helm of affairs
• Presence of women as judges and lawyers, will substantially improve the justice delivery system
• Presence of women on the Bench and in the Bar has more than a symbolic importance.
• They bring to the law a different perspective, one that is built upon their experience. They also have a more nuanced understanding of the differing impacts that certain laws may have on men and women

ISSUES

INFRASTRUCTURE

• Absence of restrooms, child care facilities
• Crowded as well as claimed small Court rooms
• It was found in a survey of 6000 trial court rooms, that about 22% of them do not have washroom facilities for women

SOCIETAL NORMS

• Prevalence of certain attitudes about the role of women in society regardless of the type of employment

FAMILY  

• Employed women quit the workforce mid-career due to domestic responsibilities that fall to women.
• According to a  report by International Labour Organisation in 2018, India had one of the world's largest gender gaps in unpaid care work which resulted in female labour force participation rate of only 24%, better only than Pakistan in South Asia

BIAS RELATED TO WOMEN 

• The woman face bias, from their colleagues as well as litigants. This bias affects not just women advocates but also those on the bench.
• This creates completely unwelcome atmosphere and sides court rules for women, it becomes duty for all lawyers and judges to ensure a friendly environment

APPOINTMENTS IN JUDICIARY

• The direct recruitment from the bar which accounts for a quarter of district judge appointments is a grade b eligibility criteria that fail to take into consideration the differential familial  expectations from women
• To be eligible for a district judge, advocate must have minimum 7 years of continuous practice, this could be your disqualifying criteria for many women advocates because of intervening social responsibilities of marriage and motherhood preventing them from a continuous practice

IMPACT OF INCLUSION OF WOMEN 

• Substantially improve the justice delivery system
• Women can bring a different perspective to the law which would enrich the legal field
• Achieving equality for women judges should be our goal not only because it is right for women but also because it is right for the achievement of a more just rule of law
• Women judges help in strengthening the judiciary as well as help to game the trust of people
• Would be seen as a positive step of judiciary being perceived as more transparent, inclusive and representative of the people whose lives they affect. 
• Women judges by their mere  presence have the capability to enhance the legitimacy of courts sending a powerful signal that they are open and accessible to those who seek recourse to justice
• The women judges bring those lived experiences to their judicial actions that tends towards a more comprehensive and sympathetic perspective encompassing not only the legal basis but also awareness of consequences of the judicial action
• Having more diverse judiciary and shows diversity of perspectives and install the high degree of public confidence

WAY FORWARD

• Focus should be to increase the number of girls choosing to study law after school. The chief justice of India also recommended some form of uniform policy reservation for girls for entry into law colleges across the country
• Chief justice advocated for the need to form a separate entity, the national judicial infrastructure corporation for introduction of inclusive designs for Court complexes to create a more welcoming environment for women
• Judiciary must realise that women take a longer path to success that is often interrupted by childbirth and childcare. That does not imply that they do not have the appetite for judicial responsibility, but that the institution needs to do what it takes to bring them on board. 
• To be truly diverse, the Indian judiciary would need representation of judges from not only different gender identities, including trans and non-binary but also different caste, socioeconomic, religious, and regional backgrounds.
• The former Supreme Court judge of the United States said that women belong in all places where decisions are being made, it shouldn't be that women are the exception.

NEWS

A webinar on Captive Employment Policy under Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) was recently held

ABOUT CAPTIVE EMPLOYMENT

WHO IS A CAPTIVE EMPLOYER

• Any employer or industry
• Provides employment to candidates in their own organization or one of its subsidiaries
• Has suitable in-house training facilities
• NOTE : Placements provided by captive employers are called captive placements.

CAPTIVE EMPLOYMENT IN INDIA

• First of its kind initiative aimed at a
• Addressing the vision of a dynamic and demand-based skilling ecosystem
• Catering to the requirements of industry partners assuring sustainable placements for rural poor youth
• Shot in the arm for the DDU-GKY programme
• Assures post-training placement of candidates for a minimum of six months with a minimum CTC of Rs 10,000/-
• Model will allow the industry to source trainees as per their requirement with active support from States/UTs and train them as per the requirement of their own organizational/industry/ subsidiaries /operational need and provide candidates with assured placement
• A Request for Expressions of Interest (REOI)  has been floated on 1 February, 2022, to empanel such ‘Captive Employers’ and the first pre-proposal meeting regarding the same was organised on 21 Feb, 2022

DEEN DAYAL UPADHYAYA GRAMEEN KAUSHALYA YOJANA (DDU-GKY)

• Launched on the 25th September, 2014
• Nationwide placement-linked skill training program
• Funded by the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), Government of India (GoI)
• Seeks to build the placement linked skills of the poor rural youth and place them in wage employment across various sectors of the economy
• Has an outcome led design with guaranteed placements for at least 70% trained candidates and is moving towards minimum mandatory certification.

NEWS

Union Ministry of Power has launched the Virtual Smart Grid Knowledge Center (Virtual SGKC) and Innovation Park

VIRTUAL SMART GRID KNOWLEDGE CENTER

• Located within the powergrid centre in Manesar (Haryana), Virtual Smart Grid Knowledge Center (Virtual SGKC) is the first of its kind initiative by the Union government.
• The initiative, as part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav Programme, will be one of the leading Centers of Excellence globally to foster innovation, entrepreneurship and research in smart grid technologies.
• Established by POWERGRID with support from the Union ministry of power and technical assistance from US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) for demonstration and advancement of frontier smart grid technologies.

SIGNIFICANCE

• One of the leading Centers of Excellence globally to foster innovation, entrepreneurship and research in smart grid technologies and create capacities in the power distribution sector.
• Enable a digital footprint of the physical setup of SGKC, the need for which was felt during Covid-19 pandemic.

SMART GRID

• Electrical Grid with Automation, Communication and IT systems
• Monitor power flows from points of generation to points of consumption (even down to appliances level)
• Control the power flow or curtail the load to match generation in real time or near real time
• Can be achieved by implementing efficient transmission & distribution systems, system operations, consumer integration and renewable integration.
• Helps to monitor, measure and control power flows in real time that can contribute to identification of losses and thereby appropriate technical and managerial actions can be taken to arrest the losses. 

BY : International Labor Organization

WHAT IS IN REPORT

• Around the world, 650 million women of reproductive age do not have maternity protection in line with Maternity Protection Convention, 2000.
• According to Maternity Protection Convention, 2000, pregnant women should be given a minimum of 14 weeks of paid maternity leave on at least two-thirds of their previous salary.
• Of the 185 countries surveyed, 85 countries did not meet the maternity leave provision. According to the report, under the current pace of reform, it would take at least 46 years to achieve minimum maternity rights.
• There is no paternity leave available to 1.2 billion men of prime reproductive age. In countries where paternity leave is given, it remains short
• The report also highlighted how some workers do not get legal protection. They include workers in the informal sector, migrants, adoptive parents, and parents who are (LGBTQI+). The report noted that providing paternity leave would help both parents to balance work and child care responsibilities.
• The report noted that only 40 countries provide pregnant or nursing women protection against dangerous work, in line with ILO standards
• In only 53 countries there is a right to get paid time off for prenatal medical exams.
• The ILO report called for greater investment in care services to create a more gender-equal world of work. These investments will also create around 300 million jobs by 2035.

NEWS

The International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup 2022 was held in Cairo, Egypt from 26th February to 8th March 2022

HOW INDIA PERFORM

• Saurabh Chaudhary won gold in the Men’s 10m Air Pistol gold medal match
• Anish Bhanwala and Rhythm Sangwan won the gold medal in the 25m rapid fire pistol mixed team
• Indian trio of Anish Bhanwala, Gurpreet Singh, and Bhavesh Shekhawat won the silver medal in the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol team competition
• In the women’s 10m air pistol team event Nivetha Paramanantham, Esha Singh, and Ruchira Vinerkar clinched the gold medal
• In the women’s 25m pistol team event Esha Singh, Rahi Sarnobat, and Rhythm Sangwan won the gold for India
• In the women’s 10m air pistol individual event Esha Singh clinched the Silver medal
• In the 50m rifle 3 positions mixed team event Akhil Sheoran and Shriyanka Sadangi won the bronze medal

• The 13th edition of the Bengaluru International Film concluded recently. Doddahatti Boregowda and Pinki Elli? won the top honours in the Kannada cinema section for 2021 and 2020 respectively. Yuvarathna won the best Kannada popular entertainment award for 2021.
• Ex DHARMA GUARDIAN-2022, an annual exercise between Indian Army and Japanese Ground Self Defence Force culminated at Foreign Training Node, Belgaum
• Haryana state budget has announced a ‘Sushma Swaraj Award’ for women for their significant achievements or contribution in different walks of life in the international and national spheres.
• Sahitya Akademi’s Festival of Letters known as Sahityotsav is India’s most inclusive literature festival. It is being held in New Delhi
• A floating solar project at Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu has been set up by leading fertilizer manufacturer Southern Petrochemical Industries Corporation Ltd (SPIC)