National Nutrition Strategy The nutrition strategy envisages a framework wherein the four proximate determinants of nutrition – uptake of health services, food, drinking water & sanitation and income & livelihoods – work together to accelerate decline of under nutrition in India. Currently, there is also a lack of real time measurement of these determinants, which reduces the capacity for targeted action among the most vulnerable mothers and children. Supply side challenges often overshadow the need to address behavioural change efforts to generate demand for nutrition services. This strategy, there... Read More...
Swaminathan Report: National Commission on Farmer The National Commission on Farmers was chaired by Prof. M. S. Swaminathan. The findings and recommendations encompass issues of access to resources and social security entitlements. Key Findings and Recommendations Farmer's distress: Agrarian distress has led farmers to commit suicide in recent years. The major causes of the agrarian crisis are: unfinished agenda in land reform, quantity and quality of water, technology fatigue, access, adequacy and timeliness of institu... Read More...
Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology NASA has invented a new type of autonomous space navigation that could see human-made spacecraft heading into the far reaches of the Solar System, and even farther - by using pulsars as guide stars. It's called Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology, or SEXTANT (named after an 18th century nautical navigation instrument), and it uses X-ray technology to see millisecond pulsars, using them much like a GPS uses satellites. Pulsars are highly magnetised, rapidly rotating neutron stars - the result of a massive star's core collapsing ... Read More...
Accessible India Campaign Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) has launched Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan) as a nation-wide Campaign for achieving universal accessibility for Persons with Disabilities (PwDs). It has the following three important components : Part A: Built Environment Accessibility An accessible physical environment benefits everyone, not just persons with disabilities. Measures should be undertaken to eliminate obstacles and barriers to indoor and outdoor facilities including schools, medical facilities, and workplaces. These... Read More...
India Hypertension Management Initiative (IHMI) The IHMI aims to reduce disability and death related to cardiovascular disease (CVD), the leading cause of death in India, by improving the control of high blood pressure (hypertension), reducing salt consumption and eliminating artificial trans-fats, leading risk factors for CVD. The initiative is an attempt to raise awareness about NCDs amongst families regarding packaged food and processed foods with excessive salt and trans-fat. The risk factors have to be managed at a very young ag... Read More...
Border Protection Grid The concept of Border Protection Grid (BPG) for multi-pronged and foolproof mechanism is to secure our border. The grid will comprise of various elements namely physical barriers, non-physical barriers, surveillance system, Intelligence agencies, State Police, BSF and other State and Central agencies. BPG will be supervised by a State level Standing Committee under the Chairmanship of respective Chief Secretaries. BPG will ensure greater help for the States in the overall border security. The areas to be covered by non-physical barriers are those where fencing is not feasible like rivers or null... Read More...
MSME Sambandh A Public Procurement Portal ‘MSME Sambandh’ was launched recently by the Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises. The objective of the portal is to monitor the implementation of the Public Procurement from MSEs by Central Public Sector Enterprises. The Procurement Policy launched in 2012 mandates the Central Government Departments / CPSUs to procure necessarily from MSEs i.e. every Central Ministry / Department / PSU shall set an annual goal for procurement from the MSE sector at the beginning of the year, with the objective of achieving an overall procurement goal of minimum... Read More...
Trachoma The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has released the National Trachoma Survey Report (2014-17). According to the report, India is now free from ‘infective trachoma’. Active trachoma infection has been eliminated among children in all the survey districts with overall prevalence of only 0.7%. This is much below the elimination criteria of infective trachoma as defined by the WHO. Trachoma is a chronic infective disease of the eye and is the leading cause of infective blindness globally. Trachoma is a disease of poor environmental and personal hygiene and inadequate access to wate... Read More...
INDICES The Environmental Performance Index (EPI) is a method of quantifying and numerically marking the environmental performance of a state's policies. This index was developed from the Pilot Environmental Performance Index, first published in 2002, and designed to supplement the environmental targets set forth in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. The EPI was preceded by the Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI), published between 1999 and 2005. Both indexes were developed by Yale University (Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy) and Co... Read More...
Integrated Disease Surveillance Project According to a recent data of Health Ministry Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) has indicated that food poisoning is one of the commonest outbreaks reported in 2017. This is apart from acute diarrhoeal disease (ADD). According to the recent data, 312 of the 1,649 outbreaks in 2017 were due to ADD and 242 were due to food poisoning. The IDSP has interpreted that the incidence of ADD and food poisoning is high in places where food is cooked in bulk, such as canteens, hostels and wedding venues. Food poisoning, also called food-borne illness, is caused by eati... Read More...
Wassenaar Arrangement Wassenaar Arrangement (WA) has decided to admit India as its new member. The inclusion which is expected to raise New Delhi’s stature in the field of non-proliferation besides helping it acquire critical technologies. The Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies, commonly known as the Wassenaar Arrangement, is a multilateral export control regime (MECR) with 42 participating states including many former Comecon (Warsaw Pact) countries. Wassenaar is a municipality and town located in the province of South Holland, on the western... Read More...
Pratyush supercomputer India has developed its fastest supercomputer yet, Pratyush, which is the fourth fastest supercomputer in the world dedicated for weather and climate research. It follows machines from Japan, USA and the United Kingdom. It can deliver a peak power of 6.8 petaflops (One petaflop is a million billion floating point operations per second and is a reflection of the computing capacity of a system). The machines will be installed at two government institutes: 4.0 petaflops HPC facility at IITM, Pune; and 2.8 petaflops facility at the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecast, Noida. A k... Read More...
Online portal ‘NARI’ Ministry of Women & Child Development has developed an online portal NARI. The portal will provide women citizens with easy access to information on government schemes and initiatives for women. In order to make this information more easily accessible in one place, the NARI portal summarizes over 350 government schemes and other important information for the benefit of women, with more being added everyday. It provides links to the Ministries, Departments and autonomous bodies offering these schemes as well as easy access to online applications and grievance redressal. NARI w... Read More...
Ganga Gram Project The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (MDWS) has launched ‘Ganga Gram’ – a project for sanitation based integrated development of all 4470 villages along the River Ganga. Funds will be generated from NRIs to support the various Ganga projects. Ganga Gram vision is an integrated approach for holistic development of villages situated on the banks of River Ganga with active participation of the villagers. After achieving ODF target in Ganga Villages, implementation of solid and liquid waste management and other integrated activities are remaining tasks. Mi... Read More...
SAMPRITI SAMPRITI is a joint Indo-Bangladesh training Exercise. The exercise has begun in the state of Mizoram at Counter Insurgency & Jungle Warfare School. It was conducted in a progressive manner wherein the participants initially familiarised themselves with each other’s organisational structure and tactical drills. Subsequently, the training advanced to various joint tactical exercises by the two Armies. It is the seventh such exercise in the SAMPRITI series. The exercise commenced with a validation exercise. The exercise is aimed to strengthen and broaden the aspects of interoperability and cooper... Read More...
e-Samvad Portal Ministry of Women & Child Development has developed e-Samvad portal. Through e-Samvad portal, NGOs and civil society can provide their feedback, suggestions, put up grievances, share best practices etc. Senior Officers within MWCD will be able to view the inputs/suggestions received for their concerned subject areas and appropriately respond to NGOs. This will help in formulation of effective policies and measures for welfare of women and children. Empowerment and welfare of women and children is top priority of the government, e-Samvad portal is an initiatives in this direction. Read More...
Buenos Aires Declaration WTO members and observers have endorsed a collective initiative to increase the participation of women in trade, for the first time in the history of the World Trade Organization. In order to help women, reach their full potential in the world economy, 118 WTO members and observers agreed to support the Buenos Aires Declaration on Women and Trade, which seeks to remove barriers to, and foster, women’s economic empowerment. Actions outlined in the Declaration will ultimately boost economic growth worldwide and provide more and better paid jobs for women. Th... Read More...
Plastic Ban and National Green Tribunal The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has imposed a complete ban on plastic items like carry bags, plates and cutlery in towns located on the banks of the River Ganga like Haridwar and Rishikesh. The Green Tribunal also imposed Rs 5,000 fine on those violating the order and said action will be taken against erring officials too. National Green Tribunal Act, 2010 (NGT) is an Act of the Parliament of India which enables creation of a special tribunal to handle the expeditious disposal of the cases pertaining to environmental issues. It draws inspiration from the India's constitutio... Read More...
Indian language support in phones Government has mandated support for Indian languages in all mobile phones to be sold in the country from July 1, 2017 onward. The government has included the Indian language support for mobile phone as per IS 16333 to the schedule of ‘Electronics and Information Technology Goods (Requirement for compulsory Registration) Order, 2012. The new standard mandates mobile phone companies to provide message typing facility in English, Hindi and a regional language of their users choice. The notification mandates both smartphones and feature phones to provide language support. Sign... Read More...
Peri-Urban Agriculture Peri-urban agriculture is generally defined as agriculture undertaken in places on the fringes of urban areas. There is no universally agreed definition, and usage of the term generally depends on context and operational variables. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations defines peri-urban agriculture as "agriculture practices within and around cities which compete for resources (land, water, energy, labour) that could also serve other purposes to satisfy the requirements of the urban population. The term “peri-urban... Read More...