POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. Eat Right India Movement                                                                                           

2. Institutions of Eminence (IoE) Scheme                                                                      

3. WHO South-East Asia Region plans to banish measles, rubella by 2023              

ECONOMY

1. India among top 10 nations in gold reserves                                                            

2. India ranked 34th on world travel, tourism competitiveness index                        

SECURITY

1. CURTAIN RAISER: EX TSENTR 2019                                                                         

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE  

Eat Right India Movement

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

Context :

•  Government has launched a mass media campaign on the Eat Right India movement.

Eat Right India Movement :

• It was launched by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).

• This movement is aligned with the government’s flagship public health programmes such as POSHAN Abhiyaan, Anemia Mukt Bharat, Ayushman Bharat Yojana and Swachh Bharat Mission.

• The movement aims to cut down salt/sugar and oil consumption by 30% in three years.

• It also aims to engage and enable citizens to improve their health and well-being by making the right food choices.

Need of such Movement :

• The country is in need of a movement on preventive health for all in the backdrop of the increasing burden of non-communicable diseases including diabetes, hypertension and heart diseases, widespread deficiencies of vitamins and minerals and rampant food-borne illnesses.

Significance :

• The Eat Right India movement acts as a crucial preventive healthcare measure to trigger social and behavioural change through a judicious mix of regulatory measures, combined with soft interventions for ensuring awareness and capacity building of food businesses and citizens alike.

                                                                                                             Source :- PIB ; The Hindu

Institutions of Eminence (IoE) Scheme

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

Context :

• Recently, the Ministry of Human Resource Development has declared 5 public Universities as Institutions of Eminence (IoE).

  • These are IIT Madras, Banaras Hindu University, IIT Kharagpur, University of Delhi and University of Hyderabad.

Benefits of Institutions of Eminence :

• Government Institutions to get additional funding upto 1000 Cr.

• The selected Institutions under IoE shall have complete academic and administrative autonomy.

• The Institutions of Eminence will have complete financial autonomy to spend the resources raised and allocated, subject to general conditions & restrictions of the Statutes and GFR.

• Academic collaborations with foreign higher educational institutions (in top 500) would be exempt from government approvals.

• Freedom to hire personnel from industry, etc, as faculty who are experts in their areas but may not have the requisite higher academic qualifications.

• Freedom to recruit faculty from outside India (limit of 25% of its faculty strength for public institution).

• Freedom to enter into academic collaborations with other Institutions within the country.

• Freedom to have own transparent merit based system for admission of students.

• Freedom to admit additionally foreign students on merit subject to a maximum of 30% of the strength of admitted domestic students.

• Freedom to fix and charge fees from foreign students without restriction.

• Freedom to determine the domestic student fees, subject to the condition that no student who gets selected admission is turned away for lack of finance. Every Institute to encourage scholarships and extension of loans facility.

• Freedom to offer courses within a program as well as to offer degrees in newer areas, including inter-disciplinary ones, after approval of its Governing Council and conforming to the minimum prevailing standards.

• Freedom to have the flexibility of course structure in terms of number of credit hours and years to take a degree, after approval of their Governing Council and conforming to the minimum prevailing standards.

• Flexibility in fixing of curriculum and syllabus, with no UGC mandated curriculum structure.

• Freedom to offer online courses as part of their programmes with a restriction that not more than 20% of the programme should be in online mode. Certificate courses can entirely be through online mode.

• UGC Inspection shall not apply to Institutions of Eminence.

                                                                                                                                                                    Source :- PIB

WHO South-East Asia Region plans to banish measles, rubella by 2023

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

Context :

• Member-countries of the World Health Organisation (WHO) South-East Asia Region have resolved to eliminate highly infectious childhood killer diseases measles and rubella by 2023.

Key Highlights :

• A resolution to eliminate the diseases was adopted at the 72nd session of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia in Delhi.

• To achieve the new targets, the member-countries resolved to strengthen the immunisation systems for increasing and sustaining high level of population immunity against the two diseases at both the national and sub-national levels.

• The resolution calls for ensuring a highly sensitive laboratory supported case-based surveillance system – better evidence for appropriate planning and response. It also emphasises on preparedness for outbreak response activities.

• All countries pledged to mobilise political, societal and financial support to ensure the interruption of transmission of indigenous measles and rubella virus by 2023.

More in the news:

• Measles elimination and rubella control has been a regional flagship priority since 2014.

  • Bhutan, DPR Korea, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Timor-Leste have eliminated measles and

• Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Timor-Leste have controlled rubella.     

Significance :

• Eliminating measles will prevent 500,000 deaths a year in the region, while eliminating rubella/ CRS would avert about 55,000 cases of rubella and promote health and wellbeing of pregnant women and infants.       

                                                                                                                                                         Source :- The Hindu

ECONOMY  

India among top 10 nations in gold reserves

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY - Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization of resources, growth, development and employment. Inclusive growth and issues arising from it.

Context :

• According to the World Gold Council, India has gold reserves totalling 618 tonnes, the 10th largest gold reserve in the world.

Key Highlights :

• According to the latest release by the World Gold Council, U.S. leads the country list followed by Germany.

• While the IMF is ranked third, followed by countries such as Italy, France , Russia , China , Switzerland and Japan before India at the 10th spot.

• India’s gold reserves have grown substantially in the past couple of decades from 358 tonnes in 2000 to the current 618 tonnes.

• India’s entry into the list of top ten countries comes at a time when the quantum of monthly purchases is the lowest in over three years.

                                                                                                                       Source :- The Hindu

India ranked 34th on world travel, tourism competitiveness index

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY - growth, development and employment ; Effects of liberalization on the economy.

Context :

• According to the recent report by World Economic Forum - World Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index 2019, India has moved up six places to rank 34th.

Key Highlights :

• Spain, France, Germany, Japan and the United States are the world’s most travel-ready nations.

• Japan remains Asia's most competitive travel and tourism economy, ranking 4th globally.

• China is the largest travel and tourism economy in Asia-Pacific and 13th most competitive globally.

• As per the report, China, Mexico, Malaysia, Thailand, Brazil and India -- which are not high-income economies but rank in the top 35.

• India's ranking improved from 40th to 34th, the greatest improvement over 2017

• India, which accounts for the majority of South Asia's T&T (travel and tourism) GDP, remains the sub-region's most competitive T&T economy           

                                                                                                               Source :- Business Standard

SECURITY  

CURTAIN RAISER: EX TSENTR 2019

GS PAPER - 03 SECURITY - Various Security forces and agencies and their mandate

Context :

• Exercise TSENTR 2019 is part of the annual series of large scale exercises that form part of the Russian Armed Forces' annual training cycle.Ex TSENTR 2019 :

• The  Exercise TSENTR 2019 will be conducted by Central Military Commission of Russia. Apart from host Russia, military contingents from China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan will also take part in this mega event.

• The exercise aims at evolving drills of the participating armies and practicing them in the fight against the scourge of international terrorism thereby ensuring military security in the strategic central Asian region.

• The TSENTR-2019 strategic measures will focus on

  • evaluating the level of troop preparedness,

  • the acquisition of the required skills and

  • raising the level of inter- operability and

  • demonstrate the readiness of the participating armies.

• The exercise TSENTR 2019 will comprise two modules.

  • The first module will include counter- terror operations, repelling air strikes, reconnaissance operations and defensive measures,

  • while the second will focus on offensive operations.

                                                                                                                       Source :- PIB

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