Daily Current Capsules -20^th November 2019

Infrastructure Development
Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises launches the International Symposium on Lighting (iSoL)

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about iSoL and ICAT) + Mains ( GS III Effects of liberalization on the economy, changes in industrial policy and their effects on industrial growth. Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.

What's the NEWS

• Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises inaugurated the International Symposium on Lighting (iSoL)
• Objective - The need to promote the Make in India initiative on the three pillars of 4th industrial revolution: Artificial Intelligence, robotics and 3-D printing technology.

Know! more about iSoL2019

• In iSoL 2019 an exhibition is being held with more than 30 stalls for automotive components with special focus on lighting components and vehicle display of more than 14 new models from 14 OEMs.
• This exhibition has provided networking opportunities to the component and equipment suppliers, manufacturers and OEMs.
• The International Symposium on Lighting (iSoL) from 2009 has grown and transformed itself into a global event.
• ICAT has been associated with the field of lighting research and testing since 2006. Taking this commitment to a greater height, iSoL-2019 is aimed at creating a knowledge sharing platform ensuring the flow of information.

Know! about ICAT

• International Centre for Automotive Technology is located at Manesar in Gurugram district of Haryana state of India.
• The Rs 1100 crore facility has facilities for vehicle homologation and also testing laboratories for noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) and passive safety.
• It also includes a powertrain laboratory, engine dynamometers, emission laboratory with Euro-V capability, a fatigue laboratory, passive safety laboratory, and vehicle test tracks.
• iCAT is also being developed as a Centre of Excellence (CoE) for component development and NVH.

Human Resource Development
Union HRD Minister Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank' launches UNESCO MGIEP Digital Learning draft Guidelines at the General Conference in Paris

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the draft guidelines + about MGIEP) + Mains ( GS II Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources
What's the NEWS

• On the occasion of the 40^th UNESCO General Conference, Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal‘Nishank', Union Minister, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, launched the first of its kind ‘Industry Guidelines on Digital Learning (discussion draft)' at the Ministerial Roundtable on ‘Media and Information Literacy and Games in the Digital World'.
• The Roundtable was jointly organized by the Government of Finland and the Government of India, in partnership with UNESCO Headquarters and UNESCO's category 1 institute, Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP).

Know! more about the Draft guidelines

• The Draft Guidelines were developed by UNESCO MGIEP, based in New Delhi, responding to the Vizag Declaration on Digital Learning adopted at TECH 2018, an international conference co-organized by UNESCO MGIEP and the State Government of Andhra Pradesh.
• The Draft Guidelines were developed to help build digital learning solutions that promote active learning and build 21st century skills, including social and emotional skills. In order to keep pace with rapidly changing societal and economic needs, the Draft Guidelines serve as a working document and invite feedback from relevant stakeholders.
• Building on the neurosciences of learning, which shows that parts of the brain can be ‘wired' or ‘trained' in intellectual as well as emotional intelligence, the Institute promotes the whole-brain approach to learning and harnesses the power of digital technologies to enable innovative pedagogies.
• Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP), a UNESCO Category 1 institute, for harnessing the power of digital technologies to facilitate learning in students.

Know! about My Dream project

• Under the MyDream project, UNESCO MGIEP and Samsung are conducting a two-year research study at JawaharNavodayaVidyalaya (JNV) schools across India.
• This study is designed to understand how project-based learning and SEL can be used to drive learning outcomes of students as defined by their Mathematics and Science scores measured by Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya and also to reduce their stress levels.

Women and Child Development
WCD Ministry to announce Bharatiya Poshan Krishi Kosh

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Bharatiya Poshan Krishi Kosh (BPKK) + Mains ( GS II Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources. Issues relating to poverty and hunger
What's the NEWS

• The Union Minister of Women and Child Development (WCD) and Textiles, Smriti Zubin Irani, will announce Bharatiya Poshan Krishi Kosh (BPKK)

Know! more about it

• The Union Government has launched Bharatiya Poshan Krishi Kosh with the aim of reducing malnutrition in India.
• The kosh was launched by WCD Minister Smriti Irani along with Bill Gates.
• The Bharatiya Poshan Krishi Kosh is a repository of diverse crops across 128 agro-climatic zones to help enable better nutritional outcomes.
• The Kosh aims to reduce malnutrition among women and children across the country, through a multi-sectoral results-based framework, including agriculture.
• The Bharatiya Poshan Krishi Kosh aims to promote and reinforce healthy dietary practices both at the individual and community level and tackle malnutrition in a sustainable manner
• On the occasion, father of Green Revolution and eminent agricultural scientist, Dr. M. S. Swaminathan highlighted a five-point action programme to make India nutrition secure.

The five-point action programme

1. Ensure calorie rich diet for women, especially pregnant women and children.
2. Ensure protein intake in form of pulses to eradicate protein hunger among women and children.
3. Eradicate hidden hunger due to micro-nutrient deficiency such as vitamin A, vitamin B, Iron and Zinc.
4. Ensure supply of clean drinking water.
5. Spreading nutrition literacy in every village, especially among women with children less than 100 days' old. platform as farmers and civil society members to make India malnutrition free.

NITI Aayog
NITI Aayog releases Report on Building a 21st Century Health System for India

Relevance IN - Prelims (facts related to the released report) + Mains GS II Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources)
What's the NEWS

• Government think tank NITI Aayog released a report ‘Health Systems for a New India: Building Blocks-Potential Pathways to Reforms.
• The report, synthesis of one-year long exercise, was released by Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar in the presence of co-founder of Microsoft and co-chairman of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates.
• The report has drawn from best practices of countries as diverse as Cambodia, Thailand, China, Russia, UK, US among the others for India to learn from.

Know! more about the report (challenges and suggestions)

• The report identified five focus areas of future health system - to deliver on unfinished public health agenda, change health financing away from out of pocket so spend into large insurers, integrate service delivery vertically and horizontally, empower citizens to become better buyers of health, harness the power of digital health.
• Niti Aayog has recommended that health system financing structure should be changed in such a way that predominant undesirable out-of-pocket expenditure is reduced and spending is directed towards larger risk-pools with strong strategic purchasing capabilities.

Example of Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust

• It has stressed on best practices adopted by Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust of Karnataka launched in 2010, which went on to empanel hospitals from neighbouring states, for patients living in border areas for their state health insurance scheme and are now aiming for providing the health scheme for their entire 6.4 crore population.
• Karnataka is also looking at bringing all schemes under a single umbrella. Another example, that has been cited for it's best practices is Meghalaya.

Other suggestions

• Even as the report has not out rightly suggested that Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY), government's cashless health insurance scheme covering 10 crore poor families for Rs five lakh annually, should be extended to whole of India, it discretely mentioned that PM-JAY should be considered with an eye on its potential to influence the overall healthcare transformation in India, beyond its current explicit mandate.
• The vision for health over the next fifteen years is to transform the delivery of health services in a way that they improve at a much greater pace, without financially burdening its citizens.
• The analysis and insights highlight that investments in strengthening the current health system will reap tremendous social and economic dividend for India.
  
  

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