Why in news?

• UDISE, integrating DISE for elementary and secondary education, was one of the largest Management Information Systems on School Education.
• It was initiated in 2012-13.
• UDISE+ is an updated version (developed in 2018-19) of UDISE to overcome problems associated with the previous practice of manually filing data in paper format and feeding it onto computers.
• Under UDISE+ entire system is online with real-time data collection.
• Key Findings
• Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) which measure general level of participation has improved in 2020-21 (25.38 Gore) at all levels of school education compared to 2019-20 (25.10 Crore).
• Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR) stood at 26 for primary, 19 for upper primary, 18 for secondary and 26 for higher secondary, showing an improvement since 2018-19.
• Over 12.2 crore girls are enrolled in primary to higher secondary showing an increase of 11.8 lakh girls compared to 2019-20.
• Impact of COVID-19 pandemic: 39.7 lakh students of government aided, private school students shifted to Government schools during 2020-21.
• School infrastructure: Percentage of schools with functional girl’s toilet facility, drinking water, hand wash facilities, internet facility etc has increased in 2020-21 as compared to 2019-2020.

Why in news?

• SRS bulletin is brought out by office of Registrar General of India, Ministry of Home Affairs.
• It Initiated the scheme of sample registration of births and deaths in India Popularly known as SRS in 1964-65 on a plot basis and on full scale from 1969-70.
• Key Highlights
• Kerala tops with lowest Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) of 30. National MMR Is 103.
• MMR is derived as proportion of maternal deaths per 1,00,000 live births.
• Populous states like Rajasthan and Bihar showed huge improvement.
• Assam, UP and Madhya Pradesh continue to be the states with high MMR.
• India is set to achieve SDG of bringing MMR to 70 well before target year of 2030.
• Steps taken to Accelerate Pace of Reduction for MMR
• Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram, where every pregnant woman is entitled to free delivery, including caesarean section in public health institutions.
• Pradhan Mantri Surakshlt Matrltva Abhlyan to provide antenatal care.
• LaQshya– Labor room Quality improvement Initiative:
• Reproductive, Maternal, New Born Child Health and Adolescent (RMNCH+A) services.
• Over 10 lakhs Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) have been engaged.

Why in news?

• Russian troops have been accused of violating Geneva conventions in ongoing war.
• Geneva Conventions are a set of four treaties (formalised in 1949) and three additional protocols, the first two of which were formalised in 1977 and the third in 2005, which codify widely accepted ethical and legal international standards for humanitarian treatment of those impacted by any ongoing war.
• Geneva Conventions have been ratified by 196 states, including all UN member states.
• Three Protocols have been ratified by 174, 169 and 79 states respectively.

About Geneva Conventions

• First Geneva Convention
• Protects wounded and sick soldiers on land during war. • Also extends to medical and religious personnel, medical units, and medical transport.
• Second Geneva Convention
• Protects wounded, sick and shipwrecked military personnel at sea during war.
• Also extends to hospital ships and medical transports by sea.
• Third Geneva Convention
• Applies to prisoners of war, including a wide range of general protections such as humane treatment, maintenance and equality across prisoners etc.
• Fourth Geneva Convention
• Protects civilians, including those in occupied territory.

Three Additional Protocols

Protocol I and II

• They strengthen the protection of victims of international (Protocol I) and non-international (Protocol II) armed conflicts and place limits on the way wars are fought.

Protocol III

• Created an additional emblem, the Red Crystal, which has the same international status as the Red Cross and Red Crescent emblems.

Why in news?

• Tripura Government has announced a special scheme ‘Mukhyamantri Chaa Srami Kalyan Prakalpa’ for tea workers.
• A special scheme, allotting 85 crores for its implementation, as a step towards bringing the 7000 tea garden workers of Tripura under the social security net.
• This special scheme would ensure housing, rations, and financial support to the tea garden workers by integrating the facilities that are entitled to them, by the state government and the central government.

Key information:

• About 75% of the 7000 tea garden workers are women and they produce nearly 90 lakh kilograms of tea through 54 tea estates & 21 tea processing factories across the state. The tea production is mainly distributed in the North, Sepahijala, Unakoti, and West Tripura districts.
• The Union Home and Cooperation Minister, Amit Shah had recently inaugurated the year 2022 Women Empowerment Campaign and Chief Minister Shramik Kalyan Prakalp scheme for the women of Tripura on the occasion of International Women’s Day & has also laid the foundation stone for National Forensic Sciences University in Agartala, capital of Tripur

Why in news?

• International Day of Mathematics (IDM)is observed globally on the 14th of March every year. It is also known as the Pi Day because the mathematical constant π (pi) can be rounded down to14.
• It aims to educate people about the essential role of mathematics in science and technology, improve quality of life, empower women and girls, and contribute to sustainable development.
• This is a relatively new event that was created just a couple of years back. The theme for 2022 IDM is “Mathematics Unites“.

History of the day:

• The proclamation of March 14as the International Day of Mathematics was adopted in the 205th session of the UNESCO’s Executive Council.
• The day was then adopted in the 40th session of the General Conference of UNESCO in November 2019.Later in 2020, the world celebrated its First International Day of Mathematics on March 14, 2020.

Why in news?

• World Rotaract Day is celebrated on the 13th of March every year to acknowledge the services provided by the rotaractors across the world.
• The theme of World Rotaract Day 2022 is “Rotary Making a Difference”.
• World Rotaract Week will be held from 11 March 2022 to 18 March 2022.
• Rotary Club is the community service organization for young men and women. They take part in international service projects, in a global effort to bring peace and international understanding to the world.

What is Rotaract?

• Rotaract means rotary in action. Rotary is an organization of business and professional people who unite worldwide to provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations and help build goodwill and peace in the world.
• World Rotaract Day is commemorated to honour the beginning of the first such club, Rotary International, in 1968 at North Carolina, USA.
• Now it has transformed into a major Rotary-sponsored organization with more than 9,539 clubs spread around the world.

Why in news?

• Recently the European Space Agency (ESA) introduced its new one-of-a-kind mission named “Vigil”, which is meant to protect the Earth from ‘Vigil’ is derived from the Latin word ‘vigilia’ meaning wakefulness, while ‘vigilis exceptus’ means sentry, or guard.
• The mission was previously named “Lagrange” after the location the mission spacecraft will be sent but later the name has been changed to ‘Vigil’.
• The Vigil spacecraft will be launched to the fifth Lagrange(L5) point which is 150 million kilometres from both Earth and the sun.

Lagrange Points:

• Lagrange points are the locations in outer space that are gravitationally stable as compared to other locations.
• The L5 is the fifth Lagrange point which is located at an equal distance from both the Sun and Earth. The James Webb Space Telescope and the Gaia spacecraft, launched by ESA are located at the second Lagrange point (L2).

Functions of ESA Vigil:

• The spacecraft at L5 would stream a constant feed of near-real-time data on hazardous solar activity, before rolling into Earth’s view.
• The ESA Vigil positioned in an unvisited position in space will help to warn earth about the oncoming solar storms which can damage power grids, disrupt telecommunications and threaten satellites and the vital services they provide.
• This will provide more time to protect spacecraft in orbit, infrastructure on the ground and explorers now and in the future, unshielded by Earth’s magnetic field and vulnerable to our star’s violent outbursts.
• As part of ESA’s Vision for the future, the new Protect ‘accelerator’ will ensure the resilience of technologies on which modernity depends.
• ESA Vigil Mission Patch:
• The design of the patch features a stylised wing of protection which shelters Earth from the sun’s hazardous radiation.
• The L5 point is emphasised with the five stars shown just above the blue Earth.

Why in news?

• World Glaucoma Day is annually observed across the globe on 12th March to create awareness about Glaucoma, the one of the most common cause of irreversible blindness.
• World Glaucoma Week(WGW), a global initiative of the World Glaucoma Association (WGA) and World Glaucoma Patient Association is also annually observed to create awarenss about Glaucoma.
• The week highlights glaucoma as the leading cause of preventable irreversible blindness worldwide. WGW 2022 is celebrated from 6th to 12th March 2022.
• Theme: The theme of WGW 2022 is “The world is bright, save your sight”.

About Glaucoma

• Glaucoma is a group of eye conditions that damage the optic nerve.
• lt is a chronic, progressive, degenerative disorder of the optic nerve that produces characteristic visual field damage.
• It can occur at any age, but it is most common in older adults.
• It is estimated that around 80 million people have glaucoma worldwide. Approximately 50% of individuals with glaucoma are unaware that they have the disease.
• The World Health Organisation (WHO) has estimated that 4.5 million people are blind due to glaucoma.
• In India (2019), glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness, with at least 12 million people affected and nearly 1.2 million people blind from the disease.

Why in news?

• As per astronomers, Space junk dug new crater on Moon.
• It was the first unintentional case of space Junk hitting the moon surface that created a new crater (around 65 feet wide) on Moon.
• Piece of space junk was part of Chang’e 541 -a lunar mission launched by the China.
• Craters on the moon are of a more permanent nature than those on earth. This Is because:
• Absence of atmosphere means there is no wind system on moon, and hence no cause for erosion of existing craters.
• Absence of tectonics prevents the moon’s surface from forming new rocks, or causing a shift in the existing surface patterns.
• Absence of volcanism makes it impossible for craters to be covered.
• Space debris, also called space Junk, artificial material that is orbiting Earth but is no longer functional.
• This material can be as large as discarded rocket stage or as small as a microscopic chip of paint.
• Space debris orbits around the earth at 25,265 kph in low Earth orbit.
• Risk associated with Space Debris: Astronaut suits/equipment are not designed to deal with it; re-entering into the earth may pose risk to life, Increase the cost of operation etc

Kessler Syndrome

• It is a phenomenon in which the amount of junk In orbit around Earth reaches a point where it just more and more space debris, causing big problems for satellites astronauts and mission planners.

Why in news?

• Wheat exports from India are expected to grow exponentially in the backdrop of Russia-Ukraine war as wheat crop from India will be available from early March as compared to other global wheat producers.
• Russia and Ukraine together account for a quarter of global wheat supply.
• So far, wheat exports from India have crossed historical high of 6.5 million tonnes achieved earlier in 2012-13 fiscal.
• This year, it is expected to exceed 10mt.

About Wheat

• It is the main cereal crop in India grown in the rabi (winter) season.
• India is the world’s second-largest producer of the wheat after china.

Climate requirement

• Can be grown in tropical and sub-tropical zones and also in temperate zone and cold tracts of far north.
• Requires cool, moist weather during the major portion of the growing period followed by dry, warm weather to enable the grain to ripen properly.
• Optimum temperature range: 20-25 C.
• During heading and flowering stages, excessively high or low temperatures and drought are harmful to wheat.
• Soils with a clay loam or loam texture, good structure and moderate water holding capacity are ideal for wheat cultivation.