Current Affairs Of Today are
1) Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY)
- A vital program to support lactating mothers and pregnant women by compensating them for loss of wages during their pregnancy has been able to reach less than a third of the eligible beneficiaries, researchers who extrapolated from data obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) Act
- Almost 61% of beneficiaries registered under the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) between April 2018 and July 2019 (38.3 lakh out of the total 62.8 lakh enrolled) received the full amount of ₹6,000 promised under the scheme, according to an RTI
- However, the researchers, who are development economists, assert that since the scheme failed to reach at least 49% of all mothers who would have delivered their first child (an estimated total of 123 lakh for 2017 according to the researchers), the scheme was able to benefit only 31% of its intended beneficiaries.
- The scheme brings under its ambit 23% of all births and pays full benefits to a mere 14% of all births, which was at 270.5 lakh for 2017
About Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY)
The PMMVY is targeted only at women delivering their first child. A cash amount of ₹6,000 is transferred to the bank account of the beneficiary in three installments upon meeting certain conditions including early registration of pregnancy, having at least one antenatal checkup and registration of childbirth.
District Covered by Survey
The survey team covered a district each in six States Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Odisha in 2019 to interview women and inspect anganwadis. A total of 706 women were interviewed, including 342 pregnant and 364 lactating women.
Reason For not providing the proper facility to pregnant women
- The study found that only 50% of pregnant women and 57% of nursing women surveyed were eligible for the scheme.
- It also throws light on the need for higher awareness among the pool of beneficiaries only 66% of pregnant women and 69% of nursing women knew about the scheme
- Only 8% of pregnant women and 23% of nursing mothers received some benefits.
- Several factors impeded proper implementation of the program that aims to fight malnutrition among
- children. These include an application form of about 23 pages, a slew of documents such as motherchild protection card, Aadhaar card, husband’s Aadhaar card and bank passbook aside from linking their bank accounts with Aadhaar.
- The requirement to produce the husband’s Aadhaar card results in excluding women who may be living with men they are not married to, single mothers and those who may be staying at their natal home. Women must also have the address of their marital home on their Aadhaar card, which often results in newlyweds being either left out or forced to go from doortodoor when pregnant and needing rest and care.
Source The Hindu
2) ISRO set for the launch of Cartosat-3
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) returns to launching its operational satellites this month after a hiatus of six months.
About Cartosat-3
- Cartosat3, an advanced earth imaging, and mapping satellite will be flown on November 25 on the PSLV-C47 vehicle, subject to weather conditions
- Cartosat3, with an ISRObest resolution of 25 cm, will be the first of a series of high resolution, third-generation satellites planned for observing the Earth. The satellite will be able to pick up objects of that size (25 cm) from its orbital perch about 509 km away. This will make Cartosat3 among the few sharpest, if not the best, civil earth imagers worldwide.
The 1,560 kg satellite will have 13 small U.S. customer satellites riding as secondary passengers. They will be placed in a polar orbit.
3) Ministry of HRD has launched NISHTHA Programme
The Department of School Education and Literacy has launched a National Mission to improve learning outcomes at the Elementary level through an Integrated Teacher Training Programme called NISHTHA – National Initiative for School Heads’ and Teachers’ Holistic Advancement under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Samagra Shiksha in 2019-20.
Objective Of program
This training aims to motivate and equip teachers to encourage and foster critical thinking in students, handle diverse situations and act as first-level counselors. They will be oriented on and develop their skills on various aspects related to Learning Outcomes, Competency-Based Learning and Testing, Learner-centered Pedagogy, School Safety and Security, Personal-social qualities, Inclusive Education, ICT in teaching-learning including Artificial Intelligence, Health and well-being including yoga, Initiatives in School Education including library, eco-club, youth club, kitchen garden, School Leadership qualities, Environmental Concerns, Pre-school, Pre-vocational Education and School-Based Assessment in a joyful learning manner.
Coverage Of Program
This integrated programme will cover around 42 lakh participants covering all teachers and Heads of Schools at the elementary level in all Government schools, faculty members of State Councils of Educational Research and Training (SCERTs), District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs) as well as officials and Resource Persons from Block Resource Centres (BRCs) and Cluster Resource Centres (CRCs) in all States and UTs.
4) ADB, India Sign $91 Million Loan for Comprehensive Water Management in Karnataka
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of India today signed a $91 million loan to modernize the Vijayanagara Channel irrigation systems and prepare river basin management plans in the Krishna river basin that will help improve irrigation water use efficiency and contribute to improving sustainable water security in Karnataka.
Need Of Water Management
The project interventions are also tackling inefficient water use in agriculture that accounts for over 84% of the state’s total water use. This will improve water availability to meet the rising demand from other users in the state. About 30 water user cooperative societies will also be established and strengthened for improving their farmer irrigation canals under the second project. Improving irrigation efficiency under the investment program is expected to generate water savings of 1,700 million cubic meters for use on an additional 160,000 hectares of farmland. Annual farm incomes are also projected to rise by as much as 50% for some marginal households as a result of increased crop production, and about 1.5 million people could benefit overall.
5) NITI Aayog releases Report on Building a 21st Century Health System for India
NITI Aayog today released the report on ‘Health Systems for a New India: Building Blocks—Potential Pathways to Reforms’.
This report charts a clear roadmap for the complete transformation of India’s health system. It focuses on breaking silos in the health space and removing fragmentation between various initiatives, ensuring greater convergence between ministries as well as the Centre and states, as already initiated under Ayushman Bharat.
The report identified 5 focus areas of the future health system, 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.
6) Joint Exercise between the Qatari Emiri Navy and the Indian Navy Forces
Indian Navy Guided Missile Stealth Frigate INS Trikand and Patrol Aircraft P8-I arrived at Doha for the inaugural edition of the Bilateral Maritime Exercise Za’ir-Al-Bahr (Roar of the Sea) being conducted from 17 to 21 Nov 19 between the Indian Navy and Qatari Emiri Naval Forces. Za'ir-Al-Bahr 2019 would strengthen cooperation and enhance interoperability between the two navies.
7) Bhutan to levy charges on Indian tourists
In a major shift in policy, Bhutan plans to levy charges on tourists from regional countries, including India, Bangladesh, and the Maldives, who at present are exempted from any charges.
Reason for it
The sharp increase in the number of tourists from the region was cited for the move.
In 2018, of the 2,74,000 tourists visiting Bhutan, the council estimated that about 2,00,000 were from the region, of which about 1,80,000 were from India. In contrast to other international tourists, who pay $250 (Approx. INR. 18,000) as a minimum charge per day per person, which includes a $65 a day “Sustainable Development Fee”, as well as a $40 visa charge, tourists from India, Bangladesh, and the Maldives had so far paid no fees, and were able to cross over without visas.
8) National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-4
Odisha, which is one of the Empowered Action Group States, or eight socioeconomically backward States of India, has done remarkably well in health and nutrition outcomes over the past two decades. Its infant mortality rate has significantly declined. Its underfive mortality rate almost halved in the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)4 from NFHS3. It has seen a steep decline in stunting in children under five. Anemia in children and pregnant women has also decreased since NFHS3. Antenatal care and institutional deliveries have shown good improvement. All these changes have been possible with financing, policy support, robust leadership, and innovations in the delivery of services.
Nutritional interventions
Nutrition has a strong correlation to health and is integral to growth and development. Timely nutritional interventions of breastfeeding, ageappropriate complementary feeding, Vitamin A supplementation, and full immunization are effective in improving nutrition outcomes in children. Odisha has performed better than other Empowered Action Group States in reducing undernutrition and sets an example with its nutrition action plan calling for convergence with health, nutrition, and WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) programs.
Problems still exist
- Despite progress in child and maternal indicators, Odisha continues to be plagued by a high level of malnutrition. There is stark variability across districts in stunting ranging from as high as 47.5% in Subarnapur to a low of 15.3% in Cuttack. Wasting is high in 25 out of 30 districts. Almost half of the underfive children from tribal communities in Odisha are underweight, and 46% are stunted. The infant mortality rate among tribals is the fourth highest in Odisha, after Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh.
- Another challenge for Odisha is in reaching out to remote and particularly vulnerable tribal groups. This could be the reason why tribal women and children are lagging behind the national average on nutrition and health indicators. It is essential to improve the implementation of schemes and ensure the lastmile delivery of nutrition services. A part of the solution lies in setting up mini Anganwadi centers catering to farflung tribal hamlets. Raising awareness through community campaigns on the need for good nutrition would help improve the utilization of services by beneficiaries
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