ART AND CULTURE

1. What’s in a Galo name? A pointer to ancestors                                                 

SOCIETY                                                                                                                       

1. The National Population Register, and the controversy around it                      

GEOGRAPHY                                                                                                                

1. Italian Alpine glacier close to collapse, officials warn                                         

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE                                                                                       

1. Election Commission cuts short disqualification term for Sikkim Chief Minister 

2. Obesity and undernutrition coexist, finds study                                                  

3. Gender gap narrows in higher education enrolment: AISHE report                 

ECONOMY                                                                                                                   

1. Govt to launch enterprise development centres for MSMEs in all districts      

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY                                                                                

1. International Astronomical Union names asteroid after Pandit Jasraj              

What’s in a Galo name? A pointer to ancestors

GS PAPER - 01 ART AND CULTURE - Indian culture will cover the salient aspects of Art Forms, Literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times.

Context :

• An ethnic group in Arunachal Pradesh can tell who started its clan.

More in the news:

• The Galo community in Arunachal Pradesh follow a unique system of naming that helps them trace ancestors and origin.

• The Galos maintain genealogy (study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages) through given names.

• They follow a system of prefixing the second syllable of a father’s name to that of a son, who passes on the suffix in his name to his son.

• The names of ancestors can be traced from the first syllable or prefix of their names.

• Example: Kenjum Bagra is the 21st descendant of Memo, the founder of the Memo clan. Mr. Bagra’s father, at number 20 on the Memo line, is Gumken, his grandfather is Megum, and his great-grandfather is Gumme. The ‘me’ in his great-grandfather’s name was prefixed to his grandfather’s name, whose suffix decided his father’s name.

Galo:

• The Galos are one of the 26 major communities of Arunachal Pradesh.

• This central Eastern Himalayan tribe dominate West Siang, Lepa Rada and Lower Siang districts. They have a big population in East Siang, Upper Subansiri and Namsai districts too.

• The Galos belong to the Tani group inhabiting Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, besides Tibet.

• They trace their common origin to a primeval ancestor, Abotani.

• The Galo have been listed as a Scheduled Tribe under the name Gallong since 1950.     

                                                                                                                                                         Source :- The Hindu

SOCIETY

The National Population Register, and the controversy around it

GS PAPER - 01 SOCIETY - population and associated issues

Context :

• In the backdrop of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam excluding 19 lakh among the 3.3 crore who had applied, the resurrection of the National Population Register (NPR) project has added to the uncertainty around the idea of citizenship in the country.

• Even as issues of privacy associated with Aadhaar continue to be debated in the country, the NPR is on a drive to collect detailed data on residents of India.

• What has added to the conversation is Home Minister floating the idea of “one nation, one card” and asserting that the NRC would be implemented across the country.

National Population Register (NPR) :

• The National Population Register (NPR) is a register of the ‘usual’ residents of the country.

  • According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, a “usual resident of the country” is one who has been residing in a local area for at least the last six months, or intends to stay in a particular location for the next six months.

• The NPR is prepared at the local (Village or sub-Town), sub-District, District, State and National level, under provisions of the Citizenship Act 1955 and the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003.

• The NPR will collect both demographic data and biometric data. Biometric data will be updated through Aadhar details.

  • In the 2010 exercise, the RGI had collected only demographic details.

  • In 2015, it updated the data further with the mobile, Aadhaar and ration card numbers of residents.

  • For the 2020 exercise, it has dropped the ration card number but added other categories.

• The exercise will be carried out during the house-listing phase of Census 2021, during April to September 2020, in all the states and union territories, except Assam, where a National Register of Citizens was recently released.

Legal Provisions :

• The NPR is being prepared under provisions of the Citizenship Act 1955 and the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003.

•  It is mandatory for every “usual resident of India” to register in the NPR.

Background :

• The data for the NPR was first collected in 2010 along with the house listing phase of Census 2011.

• In 2015, this data was further updated by conducting a door-to-door survey.

• However, with the use of Aadhaar as the key vehicle for transfer of government benefits in the last few years, the NPR has taken a backseat.

Advantage :

• It will streamline data of residents across various platforms.

  • For instance, it is common to find a different date of birth of a person on different government documents. NPR will help eliminate that.

• It will help the government formulate its policies better and also aid national security.

• It will help to target government beneficiaries in a better way and also further cut down paperwork and red tape in a similar manner that Aadhaar has done.

• It will help in implementing the idea of ‘One Identity Card’ that has been recently floated by the government.
   

  • ‘One Identity Card’ seeks to replace duplicate and siloed documentations of Aadhaar card, voter ID card, banking card, passport, and more.

Concern :

• There is no clarity on the mechanism for protection of the vast amount of data that will be collected through NPR.

                                                                                                                                                   Source :- Indian express

GEOGRAPHY

Italian Alpine glacier close to collapse, officials warn

GS PAPER - 01 GEOGRAPHY - Important Geophysical phenomena such as earthquakes, Tsunami, Volcanic activity, cyclone etc.,

CONTEXT :

• Experts have warned that a section of the Planpincieux glacier on the iconic Mont Blanc in Italy is at the risk of collapsing.

Mont Blanc :

• The Mont Blanc glacier is Western Europe’s highest mountain range.

• It has 11 peaks above 4,000m in France and Italy and attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists every year.

• The border between Italy and France passes through the summit of Mont Blanc making it both French and Italian.

• The rising global temperatures are causing the melting of mountain glaciers and the retreat of polar ice sheets.

                                                                                                                                                Source :- Times of India

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

Election Commission cuts short disqualification term for Sikkim Chief Minister

GS PAPER - 02 POLITY - Statutory, regulatory and various quasi-judicial bodies Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Context :

• The Election Commission of India (ECI) has cut short, the disqualification term of Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang.          

More in the news:

• Prem Singh Tamang was convicted in a graft case and faced a six-year ban on contesting in elections after completing his one-year prison term.

• Citing Section 11 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, (RP Act) which allows the ECI to reduce or remove disqualification “for reasons to be recorded”, the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners have sharply reduced his disqualification term to just a year and a month.

• The ECI’s order said that the alleged offence for which the leader had been convicted in 2016 went back to 1996-1997, when the minimum punishment of two years would lead to disqualification under the Representation of People’s Act.

• It was also stated that the section of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, under which he was convicted, had been omitted in an amendment in 2018.           

                                                                                                                     Source :- The Hindu

Obesity and undernutrition coexist, finds study

GS PAPER - 02 POLITY - Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

Context :

• The first-ever comprehensive National Nutrition Survey has been conducted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) to measure malnutrition.

• The survey recorded not only micronutrient deficiencies but also details of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, cholesterol and kidney function in children and adolescents.

Key Findings :

• Out of the children in the age group of 5-9 years and adolescents in the age group of 10-19 years are

  • 10% are pre-diabetic

  • 5% are overweight

  • 5% suffer from blood pressure.

• The study found prevalence of indicators of non-communicable diseases alongside indicators of undernutrition shown by various NFHS surveys such as stunting, wasting and underweight.

• The survey provides for the first time hard evidence of the coexistence of obesity and undernutrition, among school-going children.

How national Nutrition survey is different from national health family survey :

• NFHS collects data to measure the prevalence of stunting, wasting and underweight and household dietary intake to measure deficiencies.

• Moreover, the survey collects data only for the age groups of 1-5 years and adults, and not for school going children between the age of 5 and 19 years.

                                                                                                                      Source :- The Hindu

Gender gap narrows in higher education enrolment: AISHE report

GS PAPER - 02 POLITY -  Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

Context :

• Recently Ministry of HRD release All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) for 2018-19 .

Key Findings :

• Gender gap has been narrowing significantly in India in higher education

• The general trend itself indicates the narrowing of the gender gap with female enrolment improving from 47.6% in 2017-18 to 48.6% in 2018-19

  • The female students constituted almost half (approx. 48.6%) of the total enrolment in higher education.

  • In U.P and Karnataka, more girls were enrolled than their male counterparts in the higher education of the state.

• For the survey, 944 out of 993 universities listed on the AISHE portal, uploaded the information during the 2018-19 survey.

• According to the findings, the total enrolment in higher education has been estimated at around 37.4 million, with a marginal increase in the gross enrolment ratio.

• The highest number of students are enrolled at the undergraduate level (at around 79.8 %), followed by post-graduation (10.8 %). But a surge was observed in integrated degree programmes.
   

  • Integrated programmes are becoming more popular as they provide a better foundation for the subject knowledge and practice.

  • At the undergraduate level, the highest number of students were enrolled in Arts/Humanities/Social Sciences courses (approx. 35.9%), followed by Science (16.5%), Commerce (14.1%) and Engineering and Technology (13.5 %).

• Only 2.5% of the total number of colleges were running Doctorate programmes and 35% had Post-graduate level courses.

• Out of the total number of colleges in India, only 11.04% are exclusively there for female students.

• According to the report, the percentage of women saw a steady rise in language courses, while on the other hand, men are opting for courses which can fetch them immediate employment, like that of courses in the field of Science and Technology.

• The share of female students was the lowest in the Institutions of National Importance.

                                                                                                                       Source :- The Hindu

ECONOMY

Govt to launch enterprise development centres for MSMEs in all districts

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY - Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Context :

• The Union Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Sector (MSME) Minister will soon launch Enterprise Development Centres (EDCs) for developing a cadre of indigenous entrepreneurs in the MSMEs.

Enterprise development Centres :

• Enterprise Development Centres(EDCs) are aimed at developing a cadre of indigenous entrepreneurs in the MSMEs.

• They are planned for every district by the end of the current financial year (2019-20).

• The EDCs will be similar to incubators for start-ups.They will be run by special purpose vehicles in partnership with the private sector, business management organisations, local industry associations.

• The centre will help new and existing businesses develop by providing services such as management training, and office space among others.

• The EDCs will also have enterprise clinics for struggling firms which the government hopes will reduce the number of small businesses falling into a debt trap financed by bank loans.           

                                                                                                                   Source :- Business Standard

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

International Astronomical Union names asteroid after Pandit Jasraj

GS PAPER - 03 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Context :

• The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has named an asteroid, discovered in 2006, after Indian classical singer Pandit Jasraj.

More in the news:

• The asteroid, or more formally known as a minor planet, is located between Mars and Jupiter, and was discovered on November 11, 2006, by the Catalina Sky Survey, whose telescopes are based in Arizona in the United States.

  • The asteroid belt is a region of the solar system falling roughly between the planets Mars and Jupiter where the greatest concentration of asteroids can be found.

  • It also serves as a sort of dividing line between the inner rocky planets and outer gas giants.            

                                                                                                                                Source :- The Hindu

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