WHY IN THE NEWS?

Hingoli income division handed around 225 hectares of land right in Maharashtra to the authorities of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) venture.

About:

• The land was handed over in order to organise primary facilities within the nation.
• There are currently few such labs in the United States, at Hanford in Washington and Livingston in Louisiana. These labs examine the gravitational waves.
• This venture will provide alternatives to scientists and engineers for digging deeper into the concept of gravitational waves.

Background

Central authorities had given an ‘in precept’ approval to LIGO-India mega science proposal in 2016, to analyse the gravitational waves.

What is LIGO?

LIGO is a massive observatory to detect cosmic gravitational waves and to carry experiments. Its main objective is to make use of gravitational-wave observations in astronomical studies. This project currently operates three gravitational waves (GW) detectors. Out of three, two are at Hanford in Washington while one is at Livingston in Louisiana.

LIGO India project

The LIGO India project was proposed with the aim of moving one advanced LIGO detector to India, from Hanford. This project is piloted by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE). This project in India will be coordinated and executed jointly by three Indian research institutions namely, Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology (RRCAT) in Indore, Department of Atomic Energy organisations: Institute for Plasma Research (IPR) in Gandhinagar and Inter-University Centre for Astronomy & Astrophysics (IUCAA) in Pune.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

Delhi’s Chief Minister has announced a six-point action plan to completely clean the Yamuna by 2025.

• Timelines are set for every small aspect of the project and they will be revisited every 15 to 30 days to ensure that it is completed on time.

Action plan

• New sewage treatment plants (STP): Building new sewage treatment plants (STP), increasing the capacity of existing STPs, and technology upgradation
• In situ treatment of major drains. 
• Diverting industrial waste: All industrial waste will be diverted to the common effluent treating plants. There will be a crackdown on industries for not sending their waste to the treatment plants.
• Proper Sewer network: JJ clusters will be connected to the larger sewer network to completely stop stormwater drains from being polluted. Every household may also be connected to the sewer network.
• Desilting: Complete desilting of the entire sewer network 

About the Yamuna

• The Yamuna is a major tributary of the river Ganges,
• Origin: Yamunotri glacier near Bandarpoonch peaks, Uttarkashi, Uttarakhand. It meets the Ganges at the Sangam in Prayagraj, UP
• Important Tributaries: Chambal, Sindh, Betwa, Ken, Tons, Hindon.

Causes of Pollution in the Yamuna

• Industrial Pollution
• Mixing of Drains
• Effects of Rising Ammonia

WHY IN THE NEWS?

• The WePOWER India Partnership Forum was held through a virtual platform to boost the South Asia Women in Power Sector Professional Network (WePOWER) in India.
• The event was organized by the World Bank (WB) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) in association with the India Smart Grid Forum (ISGF). The event saw a panel discussion on expanding job opportunities for women in India’s Clean Energy Transition’.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

• The government of Arunachal Pradesh approved the ‘Pakke Tiger Reserve 2047 Declaration on Climate Change Resilient and Responsive Arunachal Pradesh’, which aims to promote “climate-resilient development” in the state.
• The announcement is the first of its kind by any state government in the country. For the first time, the State’s Cabinet meeting was conducted outside the capital Itanagar, at Pakke Tiger Reserve, where the ‘Pakke Declaration’ was adopted.
• The ‘Pakke Declaration’ focuses on a multi-sectoral approach to low-emission and climate-resilient development based on five broad themes, or Panch Dharas.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

• India’s first ‘grass conservatory’ or ‘germplasm conservation centre’ spread over an area of 2 acres was inaugurated at Ranikhet in Almora district of Uttarakhand.
• This conservatory is funded under the Central Government’s CAMPA (Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority) scheme and is developed by the research wing of the Uttarakhand Forest Department.
• To create awareness about the importance of grass species, promote their conservation, and facilitate research in the field.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

• The President of BCCI, Sourav Ganguly has been appointed as the Chairman of the ICC Men’s Cricket Committee, during the ICC Board Meeting. Ganguly will replace Anil Kumble who assumed the charge in 2012.
• Kumble stepped down having served a maximum of three separate three-year terms. The Board also approved that first-class status and list A classification will be applied to women’s cricket to align with the men’s game and applied retrospectively.
• Going forward the ICC Women’s Committee will be known as the ICC Women’s Cricket Committee and will assume all decision making responsibility for women’s cricket reporting directly to the CEC. Johnny Grave, CEO of Cricket West Indies has been appointed to the ICC Women’s Cricket Committee.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

• The first-of-its-kind, dedicated fisheries business incubator has been inaugurated in Gurugram of Haryana to nurture fisheries start-ups under real market-led conditions.
• The incubator is known as LINAC- NCDC Fisheries Business Incubation Centre (LlFlC). It was inaugurated by the Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Shri Parshottam Rupala.
• The centre has been established at a cost of Rs. 3.23 crore under the central flagship Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY).
• The National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) is the implementing agency for the LIFIC.
• The first batch of ten incubators from four states (Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra) have already been identified.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

• Union Minister, Piyush Goyal virtually launched India’s first Digital Food Museum in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. It is a 1,860-sqft museum co-developed by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museums, Bengaluru (Karnataka) with an estimated outlay of Rs 1.1 crore.
• The museum is the first one-of-its-kind effort to depict India’s food story from the beginning to India becoming the largest food gain exporter in the country.
• This museum showcases the Indian food evolution from nomadic hunter-gatherers into settled agriculture producers. The measures of the government will make the country top the list of largest agricultural exporters in the world.
• The museum will showcase the history of people from being foragers to producers, the story of the first harvest, the rise of villages and the preparation of demand days. The museum will display the grains of India and explain the food culture in different parts of the world.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

India was re-elected to the executive board of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) for the term of 2021-2025.

About:

• India was re-elected with 164 votes.
• Among Group IV Asian & Pacific States, Japan, Vietnam, Philippines, Cook Islands and China were also elected.

UNESCO Executive Board

UNESCO Executive Board is one among the three constitutional organs of the UN agency. It is elected by the General Conference. The board acts under the authority of General Conference. It examines the programme of work for organisation and corresponding budget estimates, which is submitted by Director-General. The board comprises of 58 member-states, each having a four-year term of office.

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

UNESCO is a specialised agency of United Nations (UN). It aims to promote world peace & security through international cooperation in education, science, arts, and culture. It comprises of 193 member states and 11 associate members besides partners in intergovernmental, non-governmental, and private sector. The agency is headquartered at World Heritage Centre in Paris, France. Apart from that, it has 53 regional field offices and 199 national commissions which facilitate its global mandate.

History of UNESCO

UNESCO was founded in 1945 by succeeding the League of Nations’ International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation. Its constitution establishes the goals, operating framework and governing structure of the agency.

UNESCO’s Program

UNESCO works across five major program areas namely, education, social or human sciences, natural sciences, culture and communication or information. It sponsors projects to improve literacy, protect independent media, provide technical training & education, and promote cultural diversity.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

16th Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2021 (Rural) was published by the Pratham foundation.

About:

• ASER provides reports on the schooling status of children in the age group of 5-16 age across rural India including the ability to do basic reading & arithmetic tasks.
• This year, ASER followed a phone-based survey format, as a field survey was not possible due to the covid-19 pandemic.
• Survey was conducted during September-October 2021.
• It tries to find out how children in aged between 5-16 studied at home since the onset of a covid-19 pandemic as well as challenges those schools & households now face in the backdrop of opening up of schools.

Key Findings of the report

Important findings of the ASER 2021 report are as follows:

• As per the report, there was an overall increase in the proportion of children enrolled in govt schools in between 2018 and 2020. Enrolment increased from 64.3% to 65.8%. But in 2021, enrolment suddenly increased to 70.3%.
• The enrolment rate in private schools has decreased as compared to last year. In 2020, the enrolment rate was 28.8% which decreased to 24.4% in 2021.
• In 2021, 73.1% of school respondents received training to implement Covid-19 prevention measures.
• Even though the availability of smartphones increased to 67.6% in 2021 as compared to 36.5% in 2018, around 79% of children in private schools had smartphones at home as opposed to 63.7% of children in government schools.
• The number of school-going children taking tuition increased by 40% during the closure of their schools.
• 52% of the respondents cited financial distress caused by the covid-19 pandemic as the reason for the increase in enrolments in government schools.