Daily Current Affairs 26 January 2020

Current Affairs Of Today Are

1) Padma Awards 2020 Announced

• Padma Awards - one of the highest civilian Awards of the country, are conferred in three categories, namely, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri. The Awards are given in various disciplines/ fields of activities, viz.- art, social work, public affairs, science and engineering, trade and industry, medicine, literature and education, sports, civil service, etc. ‘Padma Vibhushan’ is awarded for exceptional and distinguished service; ‘Padma Bhushan’ for distinguished service of high order and ‘Padma Shri’ for distinguished service in any field. The awards are announced on the occasion of Republic Day every year.
• These awards are conferred by the President of India at ceremonial functions which are held at Rashtrapati Bhawan usually around March/ April every year. This year the President has approved conferment of 141 Padma Awards including 4 duo cases (in a duo case, the award is counted as one) as per list below. The list comprises of 7 Padma Vibhushan, 16 Padma Bhushan and 118 Padma Shri Awards. 33 of the awardees are women and the list also includes 18 persons from the category of Foreigners/NRI/PIO/OCI and 12 Posthumous awardees.

2) 10th National Voters’ Day

• The National Voters’ Day (NVD) is celebrated all over the country on January 25 every year since 2011 to mark the Foundation day of Election Commission of India, which was established on this day in the year 1950. This year, the celebrations were spread over three days to mark the 70 illustrious years of ECI establishment. On 23rd January, the Commission organized the first-ever annual lecture series in memory of the first Chief Election Commissioner of India, Shri Sukumar Sen. Hon’ble former President of India Shri Pranab Mukherjee, delivered the keynote lecture. On 24th January, an International Conference on “Strengthening Institutional Capacity” was organized.
• The main purpose of the NVD celebration is to encourage, facilitate and maximize enrollment, especially for the new voters. Dedicated to the voters of the country, the Day is utilized to spread awareness among voters for promoting informed participation in the electoral process.

3) National Girl Child Day (NGCD)

National Girl Child Day (NGCD) was observed on 24th January with objectives of generating awareness on the issue of declining Child Sex Ratio (CSR) and create a positive environment around valuing the girl child.

The program also observed the anniversary of the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) Scheme.

National Girl Child Day was first initiated in 2008.

Objectives

• To increase the consciousness of the people and offer new opportunities to the girl child in the society.
• To remove all the inequalities faced by the girl child.
• To ensure that the girl child should get all their human rights, respect and value in the country.
• To work regarding gender discrimination, to educate people.

About BBBP

• Launch and expansion: Launched in January 2015 at Panipat in Haryana. All India Expansion of BBBP covering all 640 districts (as per Census 2011) was launched at Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan on 8th March 2018.
• It is a tri-ministerial effort of Ministries of Women and Child Development, Health & Family Welfare and Human Resource Development.

Implementation

• It is a Central Sector Scheme with 100% financial assistance for District level component and the fund is directly released to the DC/DM’s account for the smooth operation of the Scheme.
• The main objective of the scheme is to address the declining Child Sex Ratio (CSR) and related issues of empowerment of women over a life-cycle continuum.
• The specific objectives of the scheme include preventing gender-biased sex-selective elimination; ensuring the survival and protection of the girl child and ensuring education and participation of the girl child.

4) The government of India and the World Bank sign a USD 210 million loan agreement for the State of Maharashtra’s Agribusiness and Rural Transformation Project.

• The Government of India, the Government of Maharashtra and the World Bank today signed a loan agreement of USD 210 million to support smallholder farmers participate in competitive agriculture value chains, facilitate agri-business investments, increase market access and productivity in focus commodities, and build resilience of crops to recurrent floods or droughts in the Indian state of Maharashtra.
• The USD210 million Maharashtra Agribusiness and Rural Transformation Project will help build capacity of the nodal departments and institutions; increase private sector investments in agricultural value chains; remove constraints for producers and entrepreneurs in accessing emerging domestic and export markets; build the capacity of the state to respond to commodity-price fluctuations by providing access to timely information on markets and production trends, and enhance adoption of climate-resilient production techniques in the state.

5) Archaea: a primitive group of microorganisms

• Scientists have reported a new archaeon (a kind of microorganism), which they discovered in Sambhar Salt Lake in Rajasthan. 
• It has been named Natrialba swarupiae, after Dr. Renu Swarup, secretary, Department of Biotechnology.
• They are a primitive group of microorganisms that thrive in extreme habitats such as hot springs, cold deserts, and hypersaline lakes.
• These slow-growing organisms are also present in the human gut and have a potential relationship with human health.
• They are known for producing antimicrobial molecules, and for anti-oxidant activity with applications in eco-friendly waste-water treatment.

6) STEM–“Visualizing the Future: New Skylines”

• The Department of Biotechnology organized an International Summit on Women in STEM–“Visualizing the Future: New Skylines” on 23rd  and 24thJanuary, 2020 at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. The Summit was organized with the overall aim to boost the participation of women in the STEM field for the development of scientific careers.
• During the summit, different sessions of the summit included mechanisms of leadership building, empowering women through networking, career opportunities and interactive exercises with scientists. The aim was to showcase women in STEM successes as real-world examples of successful women scientists, doctors, and engineers demonstrating the excitement of being in the STEM fields as well as the rewards associated with it.
• Discussions and interactive sessions between aspiring young, mid-career and senior scientists in the STEM field were held to understanding the future requirements of women’s employment and career progression. Keynote speakers were renowned women scientists in STEM from different countries, young as well as established women scientists, science communicators and entrepreneurs from India.
• Around 350 participants from different STEM fields across the globe participated in the event including scientists, socialists, entrepreneurs, researchers, teachers, and students. Posters were presented by women scientists and students.
• The summit provided a good platform for young students and researchers to interact and network with leaders in the field, to develop ideas and generate a future action plan for making a career in STEMfields.

About STEM

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), previously Science, Math, Engineering and Technology (SMET), is a term used to group together these academic disciplines. This term is typically used when addressing education policy and curriculum choices in schools to improve competitiveness in science and technology development. It has implications for workforce development, national security concerns, and immigration policy. The science in STEM typically refers to two out of the three major branches of science: natural sciences, including biology, physics, and chemistry, and formal sciences, of which mathematics is an example, along with logic and statistics; the third major branch of science, social sciences, including psychology, sociology, and political science, are categorized separately from the other two branches of science and are instead grouped together with humanities and arts to form another counterpart acronym named HASS - Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. In the United States education system, in elementary, middle, and high schools, the term science refers primarily to the natural sciences, with mathematics being a standalone subject, and the social sciences are combined with the humanities under the umbrella term social studies.

7) NISHTHA– National Initiative for School Heads and Teachers Holistic Advancement

• NISHTHA is the world’s largest teachers’ training program of its kind in the world.
• It has been launched to improve Learning Outcomes at the Elementary level.
• The basic objective of this massive training program is to motivate and equip teachers to encourage and foster critical thinking in students.
• The initiative is first of its kind wherein standardized training modules are developed at the national level for all States and UTs. However, States and UTs can contextualize the training modules and use their own material and resource persons also, keeping in view the core topics and expected outcomes of NISHTHA.

The prominent features of this integrated program are

Activity-based modules including educational games and quizzes, Social-emotional learning, motivational interactions, team building, preparation for the school-based assessment, in-built continuous feedback mechanism, online monitoring and support system, training need and impact analysis (Pre and Post training).

Expected outcomes:

• Teachers will get awareness and develop their skills in various aspects related to Learning Outcomes, Competency-Based Learning and Testing, Learner-centered Pedagogy, School Safety, and Security, etc.
• This integrated program aims to build the capacities of 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 Block Resource Coordinators and Cluster Resource Coordinators in all States and UTs.

Need and necessity for such programs:

• Teachers today are also expected to be aware of the provisions regarding Gender, The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
• The integrated program, therefore, seeks to train all heads and teachers as first-level counselors to be alert and responsive to the needs of the students, in addition to promoting joyful learning and taking special care of the requirements of special children.

8)  The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS)  program

• Urban areas are likely to receive a renewed focus under the government’s ICDS program, which provides for anganwadis or day­care centers across the country for the delivery of nutrition and pre­school education.
• The government’s think tank, the NITI Aayog, has prepared a draft working paper, which once approved would be circulated to different ministries for consultations. These include the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the Ministry of Women and Child Development, the Ministry of Urban Housing and Affairs and the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation.
• Health and ICDS models that work in rural areas may not work in urban areas because of the higher population density, transportation challenges, and migration
• According to government data from 2018, of the 14 lakh anganwadis across the country there are only 1.38 lakh anganwadis in urban areas.
• The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) provide for anganwadis or daycare centers that deliver a package of six services including supplementary nutrition, pre­school non­formal education, nutrition, and health education, immunization, health check­up, and referral services to hospitals.
• The first­-ever pan­India survey on the nutrition status of children highlighted that malnutrition among children in urban India is characterized by relatively poor levels of breastfeeding as mothers have to travel long distances for work. It also found a higher prevalence of obesity because of relative prosperity and lifestyle patterns, along with iron and Vitamin D deficiency
• One thing which will be crucial for Anganwadi services in urban areas is strengthening safety and infrastructure

About Integrated Child Development Services

• Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) is a government program in India that provides food, preschool education, primary healthcare, immunization, health check-up, and referral services to children under 6 years of age and their mothers. The scheme was launched in 1975, discontinued in 1978 by the government of Morarji Desai, and then relaunched by the Tenth Five Year Plan.
• The tenth five-year plan also linked ICDS to Anganwadi centers established mainly in rural areas and staffed with frontline workers. In addition to fighting malnutrition and ill health, the program is also intended to combat gender inequality by providing girls the same resources as boys.
• A 2005 study found that the ICDS program was not particularly effective in reducing malnutrition, largely because of implementation problems and because the poorest states had received the least coverage and funding. During the 2018–19 fiscal year, the Indian central government allocated ₹16,335 crores to the program. The widespread network of ICDS has an important role in combating malnutrition especially for children of weaker groups.

9) Enemy properties

• A Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah will monitor the disposal of over 9,400 enemy properties, which the government estimates are worth about Rs 1 lakh crore.
• Two committees headed by senior officials will be set up for the disposal of immovable enemy properties vested in the Custodian of Enemy Property for India under The Enemy Property Act.

What are enemy properties?

• Properties that were left behind by the people who took citizenship of Pakistan and China.
• There are 9,280 such properties left behind by Pakistani nationals and 126 by Chinese nationals.
• Of the total properties left behind by those who took Pakistani citizenship, 4,991 are located in Uttar Pradesh, the highest in the country. West Bengal has 2,735 such estates and Delhi 487.
• The highest number of properties left by Chinese nationals is in Meghalaya (57). West Bengal has 29 such properties and Assam seven.
• The estimated value of all enemy properties is approximately Rs 1 lakh crore.

Who oversees these properties?

• Under the Defence of India Rules framed under the Defence of India Act, 1962, the Government of India took over the properties and companies of those who took Pakistani nationality.
• These “enemy properties” were vested by the central government in the Custodian of Enemy Property for India. The same was done for property left behind by those who went to China after the 1962 Sino-Indian war.
• The Tashkent Declaration of January 10, 1966, included a clause that said India and Pakistan would discuss the return of the property and assets taken over by either side in connection with the conflict.
• However, the Government of Pakistan disposed of all such properties in their country in the year 1971 itself.

How did India deal with the enemy property?

The Enemy Property Act, enacted in 1968, provided for the continuous vesting of enemy property in the Custodian of Enemy Property for India. Some movable properties too, are categorized as enemy properties.

• The 2017 amended Act expanded the definition of the term “enemy subject”, and “enemy firm” to include the legal heir and successor of an enemy, whether a citizen of India or a citizen of a country which is not an enemy; and the succeeding firm of an enemy firm, irrespective of the nationality of its members or partners.
• The amended law provided that enemy property shall continue to vest in the Custodian even if the enemy or enemy subject or enemy firm ceases to be an enemy due to death, extinction, winding up of business or change of nationality, or that the legal heir or successor is a citizen of India or a citizen of a country which is not an enemy.
• The Custodian, with prior approval of the central government, may dispose of enemy properties vested in him following the provisions of the Act, and the government may issue directions to the Custodian for this purpose.

10) Corruption Perception Index 2019

Corruption Perception Index 2019 has been released.

It is prepared by Transparency International.

What is the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI)?

• It is a composite index that draws from 12 surveys to rank nations around the globe.
• It has become a benchmark gauge of perceptions of corruption and is used by analysts and investors.
• The index is also based on expert opinions of public sector corruption and takes note of the range of factors like whether governmental leaders are held to account or go unpunished for corruption, the perceived prevalence of bribery, and whether public institutions respond to citizens needs.

How are the countries ranked?

• It ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, according to experts and business people. 
• It uses a scale of zero to 100, where zero is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean. More than two-thirds of countries score below 50 on this year’s CPI, with an average score of just 43.

Performance of India and neighbors:

• With a score of 41, India is at the 80th spot.
• The rank is also shared by China, Benin, Ghana, and Morocco.
• Neighbouring Pakistan is ranked at the 120th place.

Performance of various other countries:

Denmark and New Zealand have cornered the top spot, followed by Finland, Singapore, Sweden and Switzerland in the top ten.

Key observations:

• This year’s analysis shows corruption is more pervasive in countries where big money can flow freely into electoral campaigns and where governments listen only to the voices of wealthy or well-connected individuals.
• Not only are more than two-thirds of countries along with many of the world’s most advanced economies stagnating, but some are also seriously backsliding.
• In the last eight years, only 22 countries have shown significant improvement in the CPI, while almost as many have declined.

Indian scenario:

Even in democracies, such as Australia and India, unfair and opaque political financing and undue influence in decision-making and lobbying by powerful corporate interest groups, resulting in stagnation or decline in control of corruption.

Governments must urgently address the corrupting role of big money in political party financing and the undue influence it exerts on our political systems.

Suggestions

To end corruption and restore trust in politics, it is imperative to prevent opportunities for political corruption and to foster the integrity of political systems. Transparency International recommends:

• Manage conflicts of interest.
• Control political financing.
• Strengthen electoral integrity.
• Regulate lobbying activities.
• Empower citizens.
• Tackle preferential treatment.
• Reinforce checks and balances.