Education/GSII
Convoke 2021-22

What's the NEWS

• NITI Aayog in partnership with Bharti Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Bharti Enterprises, launched Convoke 2021-22.

• Convoke is a National research Symposium which aims at addressing challenges in imparting education and strengthening its quality with special focus on all teachers, educationists, heads of schools across India.
• Through this platform, School Teachers/ Heads/Principals of Government Schools and teachers from Bharti Foundation network will be encouraged to use research-based solutions through scientific approach, and showcase their efforts taken at the grass-root level in improving learning outcomes.
• Convoke will help in create a culture of using research-based pedagogy to improve learning outcomes in school education
• The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 also recognises and identifies teachers and faculty as the heart of the learning process.
• It recommends that teachers will be recognised for novel approaches to teaching that improve learning outcomes in their classrooms.
• NEP recommends to develop platforms so that teachers may share ideas and best practices for wider dissemination and replication.
• Teachers over the years have been coming up with innovative solution to help support students and even more during lockdown.
• Through Convoke they can now share their micro research papers.
• These research papers will be analyzed by a panel of Educationists.
• The shortlisted Research Papers will be presented during ‘National Research Symposium' scheduled in January,2022.

• NITI Aayog today released a two comprehensive report titled - Reports on current status on Country level- secondary and tertiary level and district level emergency and injury care in India, these reports bring out and highlight the spectrum and load of emergency cases, it brings out the prevailing gaps in ambulance services, health infrastructure, human resources and equipment in the provision of optimal care.
• These studies were carried out by the department of Emergency Medicine, JPNATC, AIIMS, New Delhi in collaboration with NITI Aayog.

• There is need to create systems that can take of patients presenting with coronary syndrome, stroke, respiratory diseases, maternal and pediatric emergencies and injuries, that also represent leading causes of death and disabilities in India.
• These studies have assessed the prevailing status of 100 emergency and injury care centres in government and private hospital settings in 28 States and 2 Union Territories of India, in addition to 34 District Hospitals.
• These Report highlights the need to have a nation-wide policy for triage, standardized protocols for care, world-class ambulance services augmented with effective paramedics and expansion of blood banks.
• Amongst the centres studied, those accredited and having an ongoing academic program performed better, underscoring the need to have these measures in place.
• The landscape of emergency care includes timely access and acute care delivery to critically ill and injured patients.
• Premature death and Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) can be prevented by establishing robust integrated emergency care system with definitive care.
• The outcomes of this study will provide the policy inputs to improve and strengthen the emergency care services at all tiers of the healthcare facilities in India.

• Prime Minister addressed a function on Depositors First: Guaranteed Time-bound Deposit Insurance Payment up to Rs. 5 Lakh

• Deposit insurance covers all deposits such as savings, fixed, current, recurring deposits, etc. in all commercial banks, functioning in India.
• Deposits in State, Central and Primary cooperative banks, functioning in States/Union Territories are also covered.
• In a path breaking reform, Bank deposit insurance cover was enhanced from Rs. 1 lakh to Rs. 5 lakh.
• With deposit insurance coverage of Rs. 5 lakh per depositor per bank, the number of fully protected accounts at end of previous financial year constituted 98.1% of the total number of accounts, as against the international benchmark of 80%.
• The first tranche of interim payments has been released by the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation recently, against claims received from depositors of 16 Urban Cooperative Banks which are under restrictions by RBI.
• Payout of over Rs 1300 crore has been made to alternate bank accounts of over 1 lakh depositors against their claims.

• It is a specialised division of Reserve Bank of India which is under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Finance, Government of India.
• It was established on 15 July 1978 under the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation Act, 1961 for the purpose of providing insurance of deposits and guaranteeing of credit facilities.
• DICGC insures all bank deposits, such as saving, fixed, current, recurring deposit for up to the limit of Rs. 500,000 of each depositor in a bank.
• Earlier the depositors used to get their money after 8-9 years which has been reduced to 90 days under the Deposit Insurance Credit guarantee scheme.
• The functions of the subsidiary are governed by the provisions of 'The Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation Act, 1961' (DICGC Act) and 'The Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation General Regulations, 1961' framed by the Reserve Bank of India in exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (3) of Section 50 of the Act.

• The Prime Minister, has spoken to distinguished architect Shri Balkrishna Doshi and Congratulated him on being awarded the Royal Gold Medal 2022.

• The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) announced that Indian architect Balkrishna Doshi will be the recipient of the 2022 Royal Gold Medal
• The distinction, approved by Her Majesty The Queen and awarded each year since 1848, is given to architects or practices in recognition of a lifetime's work and the impact on the evolution of the field and the built environment.
• With a career spanning over six decades, Balkrishna Doshi has had a paramount influence in shaping the architecture of India through a pioneering interplay of modernism and vernacular that translated into projects that celebrate local culture, context and craft.
• The Royal Gold Medal, which is given in recognition of a lifetime's work, is approved personally by Queen Elizabeth II.
• The medal is a given to a person or a group of people who have had a significant influence on the advancement of architecture.

Environment/GSIII
India co-chairs Global Methane Initiative Steering Leadership Meeting
What's the NEWS

• A Steering Leadership meeting of Global Methane Initiative (GMI) has been held virtually
• Global Methane Initiative(GMI)
• It is a voluntary Government and an informal international partnership having members from 45 countries including the United States and Canada.
• The forum has been created to achieve global reduction in anthropogenic methane emission through partnership among developed and developing countries having economies in transition
• The forum was created in 2004 and India is one of the members since its inception and has taken up Vice-Chairmanship for the first time in the Steering Leadership along with USA. The Chairperson of the Steering Leadership is from Canada.
• Emission of methane is a big concern as it is a greenhouse gas having 25-28 times harmful effect than carbon dioxide

Information given by Ministers in Parliament
REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN DEFENCE FORCES

The representation of women in the defence forces is as follows:

• Figures are in respect of Women Officers only as women are inducted at officer level presently.

• Post Hon'ble Supreme Court order dated 17^th February 2020, Women Officers are being granted Permanent Commission in 10 Arms/Services of Indian Army
• Women Officers are also being inducted in Army Aviation Corps as Pilots from June 2021 onwards.
• The induction of women has commenced from the year 2020. First batch of women Military Police personnel have completed their training and reported to units.
• The Defence Forces have opened entry for women candidates in NDA, allowing girls to appear in NDA entrance exams from July 2022 courses onwards. For the first batch, written exam has been conducted on 14^th November, 2021.
• The Indian Air Force (IAF) undertakes various induction publicity measures to encourage youth including women to join IAF.
• Women officers in Indian Navy are appointed onboard warships. Until 2019, women officers were being commissioned as Pilots and Observers only for shore based aircraft.
• The Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) stream has been opened up for women officers.

What's the NEWS

• Ministry of Heavy Industries launched six web-based technology innovation platforms on 2nd July, 2021 in order to bring together the Industry & Academia to foster technological innovations in heavy industries.
• They offer opportunities to industries to seek optimum solutions for technological problems faced by them from the vast pool of scientific & technical manpower in the academia.

1. TechNovuus set up and maintained by Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI)focussing on Automotive sector (https://technovuus.araiindia.com).
2. SANRACHNA set up and maintained by BHEL focussing on the power sector and renewable energy sector (http://sanrachna.bhel.in).
3. DRISHTIset up and maintained by Central Manufacturing Technolgy Institute (CMTI), Bengalurufocussing on the various technologies associated with Capital goods ( http://www.drishti.cmti.res.in).
4. ASPIRE set up and maintained byInternational Centre for Automotive Technology (ICAT) focussing on Automotive Technologies development (http://www.aspire.icat.in).
5. KITE set up and maintained by AMTDC-IIT Madras focussing on Robotics and Virtual Reality, Machine Tools ( https://kite.iitm.ac.in).
6. SURGE set up and maintained by HMT MTL Ltd- IISc Bangalore is a Technology Innovation Platform focussing onMachine Tools sector (http://www.surgeindia.in).

• Professor Neena Gupta, a mathematician at the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata, has been awarded the 2021 DST-ICTP-IMU Ramanujan Prize for Young Mathematicians from developing countries for her outstanding work in affine algebraic geometry and commutative algebra.

• Professor Gupta is the third woman to receive the Ramanujan Prize, which was first awarded in 2005 and is administered by the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) jointly with the Department of Science and Technology (DST) Government of India and the International Mathematical Union (IMU).
• Ramanujan Prize is given annually to an eminent Mathematician who is less than 45 years of age on 31 December of the year of the award and has conducted outstanding research in developing countries by International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste and is sponsored by the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India.
• The DST-ICTP-IMU Ramanujan Prize committee, composed of eminent mathematicians from around the world

• Professor Gupta's solution for solving the Zariski cancellation problem, a fundamental problem in Algebraic Geometry, earned her the 2014 Young Scientists Award of the Indian National Science Academy, who described her solution as ‘one of the best works in algebraic geometry in recent years done anywhere'.
• The problem was posed by one of the most eminent founders of modern Algebraic Geometry, Oscar Zariski, in 1949.

Know! about the programme

• To ensure women safety in cyberspace, the National Commission for Women (NCW) has launched an online resource center to offer help for women in distress on issues pertaining to online safety such as cyber bullying, cyber stalking, financial frauds, etc under the ‘We Think Digital'programme, run collaboratively by the Commission, Facebook and Cyber Peace Foundation.
• The online resource center will be a milestone as it will help women the safe usage of technology and will also help them to be safe from online threats. It will act as a source of information and support for online presence.
• The center will also help in fighting Cyber violence against women and will help prevent tech abuse against them".
• The center will provide information on cyber security in the form of posters, awareness videos, quizzes and self-learning modules which will include lessons with tips for safe usage and reporting and redressal of cybercrimes.
• It will provide information on step-by-step process of reporting on cyber-crime issues including reporting on social media platforms, getting content taken down from website, etc.
• The project was launched as Digital Shakti in 2018 with an aim to help women across the nation to raise the awareness level on the digital front and to train them to fight cyber-crime in the most effective ways.
• The project has sensitized over 1,75,000 women. The partnership between the three organizations is currently in its 3rd phase and aims to sensitize 1.5 lakh women.

What's the NEWS

• Men in India capture 82% of labour income, while women earn just 18%, according to the first-ever estimates of the gender inequality in global earnings presented in the World Inequality Report 2022 released.

• The female share of the total labour income is the national aggregate labour income earned by women relative to the total aggregate of labour income within a country. In a country with perfect equality between women and men, the female labour income share would be 50%.
• But the report finds that it is below 50% around the world, with significant variations across countries, ranging from below 10% to 45%. The report covered 180 countries between 1991 to 2019.
• Female labour income in India of 18.3% is lower than the average for Asia, which was at 27% in 2019.
• Eleven countries in the region have values above 30%. Among the neighbours that performed worse than India were Bhutan (17.5%), Bangladesh (16.9%), Pakistan (7.4%), and Afghanistan (4.2%); and those with a higher share were Nepal (23.2%), Sri Lanka (23.3%) and China (33.4%).
• After the pandemic, there was a worsening of female labour participation rate, which fell to 16.1% during the July-September 2020 quarter, according to the Ministry of Statistics.
• Eastern Europe has the highest female labour income shares, with the average female share near 41%. Moldova has the highest female labour income in the world at 45%.
• Overall, the share of women in total incomes from work neared 30% in 1990 and stands at 34% today.

KEEP Learning KEEP Evolving
TEAM CL IAS