Relevance IN - Prelims (about SEQI) + Mains (GS II Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

What's the NEWS

• School Education Quality Index (SEQI) was developed by NITI Aayog to evaluate the performance of States and Union Territories (UTs) in the school education sector.
• Kerala, Manipur and Chandigarh top in overall performance
• Haryana, Meghalaya, Daman & Diu show most improvement in the first edition of index.

Know! the objective of SEQI

• The index aims to bring an ‘outcomes' focus to education policy by providing States and UTs with a platform to identify their strengths and weaknesses and undertake requisite course corrections or policy interventions.
• In line with NITI Aayog's mandate to foster the spirit of competitive and cooperative federalism, SEQI strives to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and best practices across States and UTs.

Know! the process of SEQI

• Developed through a collaborative process, including key stakeholders such as Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD), the World Bank and sector experts, the index consists of 30 critical indicators that assess the delivery of quality education.

These indicators are categorized as below:
Category 1: Outcomes
Domain 1: Learning outcomes
Domain 2: Access outcomes
Domain 3: Infrastructure and facilities for outcomes
Domain 4: Equity outcomes
Category 2: Governance processes aiding outcomes

• Schooling should result in successful learning outcomes. A credible system of assessment in this regard is crucial to design necessary remedial actions.
• To ensure the system is geared towards learning, SEQI assigns almost half its weight to learning outcomes. This sends a strong signal across the nation to ensure the focus remains centred on learning outcomes.

Large States, Small States and UTs

• To facilitate a like-for-like comparison, States and UTs have been grouped as Large States, Small States and UTs. Within each of these groups, the indicator values have been appropriately scaled, normalized and weighted to generate an overall performance score and ranking for each State and UT.
• States' and UTs' performance on Learning Outcomes is driven by their results on the National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2017.
• Their performance on Access Outcomes is primarily driven by enrolment ratios at the secondary level and transition rates from upper-primary to secondary level.
• In terms of Infrastructure & Facilities for Outcomes, States' and UTs' performance is strongly linked to the presence of Computer Aided-Learning (CAL) at the elementary level and vocational education at the secondary and senior-secondary level.
  

Know! more about SEQI

• SEQI also included an analysis of States and Union Territories for each indicator under study.
• For instance, indicators such as average score in Class 3, 5 and 8 for Language and Mathematics, Transition Rates from primary to upper-primary level, capturing equity in learning outcomes between general and marginalised sections of society, supply a wealth of data for future action and policy design for every State.
• States and UTs are ranked on their overall performance in the reference year 2016-17, as well as on their annual incremental performance (difference in the overall performance) between the reference year and base year (2015-16).
• The rankings present incredible insights on the status of school education across States/UTs and their relative progress over time.
• SEQI is envisioned as a dynamic instrument that will continue to evolve. Over time, the relevance of the existing indicators and the availability of data for new indicators will be factored into the index design. In particular, the linkages between policy actions and SEQI indicators will be analyzed to reflect the efforts made by States and UTs to improve school education.

Cyber Security/Awareness
National e Governance Division (NeGD), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) signed an MoU with The National Law Institute University (NLIU), Bhopal
Relevance IN - Prelims (about the objective of MoU) + Mains (GS III Achievements of Indians in science & technology; indigenization of technology and developing new technology. Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology, bio-technology
Objective

• To implement an ‘Online Capacity Building Programme on Cyber Law, Crime Investigation and Digital Forensics through NeGD Learning Management System (LMS)'.

Know! why its needed

• With advent of digital age and increased use of mobiles and computers, there has been a significant increase in cybercrimes over the past few years which pose a major challenge for the Law Enforcement Agencies (LEA).
• The goal of this programme is to enable Police Officers, State Cyber Cells, Law Enforcement Agencies, Prosecutors and Judicial Officers to acquire the requisite skills to deal with Cyber Forensics cases efficiently & effectively as per the Indian Cyber Law while adopting global best practices, standards and guidelines.
• NeGD, under the Digital India Programme in collaboration with NLIU Bhopal has taken this initiative to offer 9 months Online PG Diploma Course in Cyber Law, Crime Investigation & Digital Forensics to 1000 officials through its Learning Management System (LMS).

Economic Development
Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme 2019 -20
Relevance IN - Prelims (about Sovereign gold bond) + Mains (GS III Economic development)
What's the NEWS

• Government of India, in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India, has decided to issue Sovereign Gold Bonds. The Sovereign Gold Bonds will be issued in six tranches from October 2019 to March 2020
• The Bonds will be sold through Scheduled Commercial banks (except Small Finance Banks and Payment Banks), Stock Holding Corporation of India Limited (SHCIL), designated post offices, and recognised stock exchanges viz., National Stock Exchange of India Limited and Bombay Stock Exchange Limited.

Know! the features of the Bond are:

• The intention of this scheme is to mobilise finances and reduce the economic strains caused by imports of physical gold and reduce the Current Account Deficit (CAD).
• Under the scheme, each bond is equivalent to one gram of gold. Minimum investment is kept at 1 grams and the maximum limit of investment is up to 4 kg per fiscal.
• Price of the bond is fixed in Indian rupees on the basis of the closing price for gold of 999 purity during the last three business days of the week preceding the subscription period.
• The Bonds will be restricted for sale to resident individuals, HUFs, Trusts, Universities and Charitable Institutions.
• The Bonds will be denominated in multiples of gram(s) of gold with a basic unit of 1 gram.
• The tenor of the Bond will be for a period of 8 years with exit option after 5th year to be exercised on the interest payment dates.
• Minimum permissible investment will be 1 gram of gold.
• The maximum limit of subscribed shall be 4 KG for individual, 4 Kg for HUF and 20 Kg for trusts and similar entities per fiscal (April-March) notified by the Government from time to time.
• Payment for the Bonds will be through cash payment (upto a maximum of Rs. 20,000) or demand draft or cheque or electronic banking.
• The Gold Bonds will be issued as Government of India Stock under GS Act, 2006. The investors will be issued a Holding Certificate for the same. The Bonds are eligible for conversion into demat form.
• The investors will be compensated at a fixed rate of 2.50 percent per annum payable semi-annually on the nominal value.
• Bonds can be used as collateral for loans. The loan-to-value (LTV) ratio is to be set equal to ordinary gold loan mandated by the Reserve Bank from time to time.
  
  
• The interest on Gold Bonds shall be taxable as per the provision of Income Tax Act, 1961 (43 of 1961). The capital gains tax arising on redemption of SGB to an individual has been exempted. The indexation benefits will be provided to long term capital gains arising to any person on transfer of bond.
• Bonds will be tradable on stock exchanges within a fortnight of the issuance on a date as notified by the RBI.

Environment Conservation
Global Student Solar Assembly to commemorate 150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi
Relevance IN - Prelims (about the global student solar assembly) + Mains (GS III Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment
What's the NEWS

• To commemorate 150^th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and to promote the Gandhian idea of sustainable living, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy in association with IIT Bombay, is organizing the Global Student Solar Assembly on 2^nd October 2019.
• These students will be accompanied by their trainers who would provide them hands-on training on how to assemble their own solar study lamps.

Know! the need of such awareness

• With the severe threat of climate change looming large, world is increasingly turning towards Gandhian ideas of environmental care and sustainable living.
• Gandhi Ji's concept of non-violence went beyond human race and envisaged non violence towards environment as well.
• His maxim that, "The earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed" has to be our guiding principal in our fight against climate change.
• For India fight against climate change is a matter of faith and commitment. India has committed to reduce its carbon intensity by 33-35 % by the year 2030 and to install cumulative renewable energy capacity of 175 GW by 2022 and 450 GW by 2030.
• This Workshop aims at sensitizing young minds about energy sustainability and environmental care. While making their own solar lamps, the students will also get introduced to the concept of self sufficiency

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