Why in news?

• Armand Gustav “Mondo” Duplantis, the American-Swedish pole vaulter ‘representing Sweden’ breaks his own pole vault World record by clearing 6.19-meters (m) at the Belgrade Indoor Meeting 2022 in Belgrade, Serbia.
• Previously at the Muller Indoor Grand Prix 2020, Glasgow, Duplantis set the World record of 6.18m.
• Duplantis secured Gold medal in Tokyo Olympics 2020 in pole vault event by clearing 6.02m.

Why in news?

• The Union minister for power has inaugurated the Virtual Smart Grid Knowledge Center (Virtual SGKC) and Innovation Park in yet another digitisation effort aimed at advancing smart grid technologies and building capacity in the power distribution sector.
• The Union government’s new Virtual Smart Grid Knowledge Centre, which is housed within the POWERGRID centre in Manesar, is the first of its type. This platform also hosts the solutions that are physically present at SGKC’s Manesar
• This comprises advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), smart houses, microgrids, and the Outage Management System (OMS), among other things.
• The Virtual SGKC, which was established by Union Minister RK Singh, would provide a digital footprint of the SGKC’s physical setup, which was felt to be necessary during COVID-19.
• With backing from the Union Ministry of Power and technical aid from USAID, POWERGRID designed and created the Virtual SGKC.
• The platform, as it stands now, coexists with the physical infrastructure and offers remote access to all of SGKC’s current offerings, as well as others. Currently, the platform hosts more than 50 solutions from more than 30 technology partners across eight theme areas, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, and IoT.
• The SGKC was formed by POWERGRID with backing from the power ministry and National Smart Grid Mission for demonstration and progress of frontier smart grid technologies, according to the Union ministry.

Why in news?

• The state government of Maharashtra has announced to set up the country’s first medical city named as ‘Indrayani Medicity’ in Pune, to provide all kinds of specialised treatment under one roof.
• It will come up in 300-acre of land area in Khed taluka of Pune. The project is estimated to attract investment worth over Rs. 10,000 crore.
• Indrayani Medicity will have hospitals, centres for medical research, pharmaceutical manufacturing, wellness and physiotherapy, and will be the first-of-its-kind city in the country to have all the treatments available at one place.

Key points:

• The Medicity will have about 24 separate hospital buildings, each housing one department. The Medicity will not only benefit Pune but will also be useful for people from neighbouring districts who come to the city for better treatment.
• There will be medical education and research institutes, and treatment will be provided at affordable rates to citizens.
• The proposed Medicity will have separate departments for trauma critical, heart disease, kidney, brain disease, dentistry, paediatrics, ophthalmology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, urology, haematology, organ transplantation, gynaecology, cardiology and psychiatry and separate super-speciality hospitals will be set up for all departments such as cancer, AYUSH etc.
• The Medicity will be set up by the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA). The entire facility is likely to have over 10,000 to 15,000 beds.

Why in news?

• World Consumer Rights Day is celebrated on March 15 every year.
• The day marks an opportunity to urge that all consumers’ rights be recognised and safeguarded, as well as to protest market abuses and social injustices that jeopardise those rights. The day highlights the power of consumers and their rights for a fair, safe and sustainable marketplace for everyone.
• This year the International Consumer Rights Day will be celebrated on the theme of “Fair Digital Finance.” The Department of Consumer Affairs will commemorate this day with multiple events being held in New Delhi.
• History of the day:
• World Consumer Rights Day is inspired by President John F Kennedy’s special message to the US Congress that was delivered on 15th March 1962. In this message he formally addressed the issue of consumer rights becoming the first world leader to do so.
• The consumer movement first marked that date in 1983 and now uses the day every year to mobilise action on important issues and campaigns.

Why in news?

• Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying called for a roadmap for conservation of Halari breed of Donkey.

About Halari Donkey

• Native to Saurashtra region of Gujarat.
• Currently it is in a threatened state and requires immediate steps towards conservation to reverse the declining trend in the population (Numbers declined from 1200 in 2015 to 439 in 2021-22 in its native tract).
• Challenges in conservation:
• Unavailability of Halari Donkey male for breeding,
• Disincentives to rearers with no avenues for streamlining the livelihoods (based on donkey milk).

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.