Defence/Bilateral Relations/GSII
Centre for Land Warfare Studies (Claws)

What's the NEWS

• The Chief of the Australian Army is on a three day visit to India from 08 March 2022.
• In order to establish academic cooperation and engagement, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was also signed between Australian Army Research Centre (AARC) and Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS) on the side-lines of the visit.

• It is an independent think tank on strategic studies and land warfare in the Indian context.
• CLAWS is registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 and is a membership-based organisation.
• It is governed by a Board of Governors and an Executive Council
• The mandate of CLAWS covers national security issues, conventional military operations and sub-conventional warfare.
• The Centre also focuses on conflicts in the region and military developments in countries within India's strategic frontiers, particularly those in the Southern Asian region.
• CLAWS organises seminars and conferences, round-table discussions, workshops and guest lectures and undertakes research projects on national security related issues, especially those pertaining to land warfare.

• The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister has approved the establishment of the WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine (WHO GCTM) in Jamnagar, Gujarat by signing a Host Country agreement between the Government of India and the World Health Organization (WHO).
• The WHO GCTM will be established in Jamnagar under the Ministry of AYUSH.
• This would be the first and only global outposted Centre (office) for traditional medicine across the globe.

• A Joint Task Force (JTF) is constituted for coordination, execution and monitoring of activities for the establishment of this Centre.
• JTF comprises representatives from the Government of India, Permanent Mission of India, Geneva and the World Health Organization.
• Under the ambit of this, an interim office is being established at the ITRA, Jamnagar, Gujarat to execute the identified technical activities and planning of fully functional WHO GCTM.
• The WHO GCTM would provide leadership on all global health matters related to traditional medicine as well as extend support to member countries in shaping various policies related to traditional medicine research, practices and public health.

• The Ministry of AYUSH has collaborated with WHO on many fronts including developing benchmarks documents on training and practice of Ayurveda and Unani System, introducing a second module in the Traditional Medicine Chapter of the International classification of Diseases-11, developing apps like M-yoga, supporting the work of International Pharmacopeia of Herbal Medicine (IPHM) and other research studies etc.

• The ICD-11 is the eleventh revision of the International Classification of Diseases, and will replace the ICD-10 as the global standard for coding health information and causes of death.
• The ICD is developed and annually updated by the World Health Organization (WHO).

• The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister has approved the setting up National Land Monetization Corporation (NLMC) as a wholly owned Government of India company with an initial authorized share capital of Rs 5000 crore and paid-up share capital of Rs 150 crore.

• NLMC will undertake monetization of surplus land and building assets of Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) and other Government agencies.
• The proposal is in pursuance of the Budget Announcement for 2021-22.
• With monetization of non-core assets, Government would be able to generate substantial revenues by monetizing unused and under-used assets.
• At present, CPSEs hold considerable surplus, unused and under used non-core assets in the nature of land and buildings.
• NLMC will support and undertake monetization of these assets.
• NLMC is also expected to own, hold, manage and monetize surplus land and building assets of CPSEs under closure and the surplus non-core land assets of Government owned CPSEs under strategic disinvestment.
• NLMC will also advise and support other Government entities (including CPSEs) in identifying their surplus non-core assets and monetizing them in a professional and efficient manner to generate maximum value realization.

• Ministry of Education will be releasing a detailed report on Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) 2020-21 on school education of India.
• The UDISE+ system of online data collection from the schools was developed by Department of School Education & Literacy in the year 2018-19 to overcome the issues related to erstwhile practice of manual data filling in paper format and subsequent feeding on computer at the block or district level in the UDISE data collection system since 2012-13.
• In UDISE+ system, improvements have been made particularly in the areas related to data capture, data mapping and data verification.

• In 2020-21 total students enrolled in school education from primary to higher secondary stood at 25.38 crore.
• There is an increase of 28.32 lakh enrolments as compared to the 25.10 crore enrolment in 2019-20.
• Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) which measure the general level of participation has improved in 2020-21 at all levels of school education compared to 2019-20.
• Level wise GER in 2020-21 as compared to 2019-20 are: 92.2% from 89.7% in upper primary, 99.1 % from 97.8% in elementary, 79.8% from 77.9% in secondary and 53.8% from 51.4% in higher secondary respectively.
• In 2020-21 the Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR) stood at 26 for primary, 19 for upper primary, 18 for secondary and 26 for higher secondary, showing an improvement since 2018-19.
• The PTR for primary, upper primary, secondary and higher secondary was 28, 20, 21, and 30 respectively during 2018-19.
• In 2020-21 over 12.2 crore girls are enrolled in primary to higher secondary showing an increase of 11.8 lakh girls compared to the enrolment of girls in 2019-20.

• 84% of the total schools have functional electricity facility in comparison with 73.85% in 2018-19
• Percentage of the schools with functional drinking water has increased to 95.2 % in 2020-21 from 93.7 % in 2019-20.
• Percentage of the school with functional girl's toilet facility has increased to 93.91 % in 2020-21 in comparison with 93.2 % in 2019-20
• Percentage of schools with hand wash facilities has also improved during 2020-21 and now stands at 91.9 % as compared to 90.2 % in 2019-20.
• 40% of the schools have functional computers.
• During 2020-21, 39.7 lakh students of government aided, private school students shifted to Government schools

• The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister was apprised of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institute of Health of Department of Health and Human Services, USA, in September 2021 and in accordance with Rule 7(d)(i) of Second Schedule of Government of India (Transaction of Business) rules 1961.

• Cooperation shall be undertaken primarily in Chennai, India at the National Institute for Research on Tuberculosis (NIRT) of ICMR in the scientific area
• Focus on collaboration includes tuberculosis, parasitic infections, HIV/AIDS, Allergic diseases, immune system diseases, other emerging and re-emerging pathogens, and other diseases of shared scientific interest.

• The U.S. Government and the Government of the Republic of India may provide funding support for activities under this MoU depending on the availability of resources.
• The Parties may seek additional funding and active participation from governmental, non-governmental, private sector, foundation, and other sources, as necessary and consistent with usual and customary practice, to support individual projects.

• The Indo-US joint statement was originally signed in 2003 for the establishment of an International Center for Excellence in Research (ICER) in Chennai.
• The same has been extended in 2008 and again renewed in 2017 and now renewed as MOU.
• The ICER is located in Chennai and is a partnership between NIAID and the National Institute for Research on Tuberculosis (NIRT) of ICMR.
• This collaboration has supported over 13 clinical protocols, helped in developing a seminal understanding of the immunology of helminth infections

KEEP Learning KEEP Evolving
TEAM CL IAS