WHY IN THE NEWS?

On September 2, 2021, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) awarded a 5-star ‘Eat Right Station’ certification to the Chandigarh Railway Station.

About:

• This certification was awarded for providing high-quality, nutritious food to passengers.
• It was awarded the certification after the conclusion of an FSSAI-empanelled third-party audit agency with ratings from 1 to 5.
• 5-star rating indicates exemplary efforts made by stations in ensuring that safe and hygienic food is available to passengers.

Which body is responsible for food supply?

Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation (IRSDC) is the body responsible for food supply to the Railways. It also looks after the upgradation of railway stations. IRSDC has selected the Chandigarh Railway station to upgrade it on the line of World Class Railway Station.

Eat Right Station certification

The ‘Eat Right Station Certification’ was the part of the ‘Eat Right India’ movement. It is a large-scale effort made by FSSAI to transform food system in India in order to ensure safe, healthy and sustainable food for all Indians. As per IRSDC, Eat Right India adopts a mix of regulatory, capacity building, collaborative, and empowerment approaches in ensuring that the food is suitable both for people as well as planet.

Which stations have got this certification?

Chandigarh Railway Station has become the fifth station in India to receive this certification. Other stations with this certification include- Anand Vihar Terminal Railway Station in Delhi, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in Mumbai, Mumbai Central Railway Station in Mumbai and Vadodara Railway Station in Vadodara.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

Ladakh adopted two endangered species, snow leopard and black-necked crane, as its State animal and State bird respectively on September 1, 2021.

About:

• Ladakh adopted these species two years after it was separate Union created as a separate Union Territory (UT) from the erstwhile State of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K).
• Snow leopard and black-necked crane are the designated State animal and State bird respectively from the date of issue of the notification.

Black-Necked Crane

Black-necked Crane is scientifically known as Grus nigricollis. It is a medium-sized crane found in Asia. It breeds on the Tibetan Plateau and remote parts of India & Bhutan. The crane is 139 cm long with a wingspan of 235 cm and weighs of 5.5 kg. It is whitish-grey in colour along with a black head, red crown patch, white patch to the rear of eye, black upper neck & legs. Some of its populations are known to make seasonal movements. It is respected in Buddhist traditions and is culturally protected in much of its range. In India, Black-necked crane are only found in Ladakh region. It was the State bird of J&K before it was made a UT in 2019.  It is an endangered species.

Snow leopard

Snow leopard is scientifically called as Panthera uncia. It is a felid of genus Panthera and is native to the mountain ranges in Central and South Asia. It has been listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List as its global population is lesser than 10,000 mature individuals. It is expected to decline by 10% by 2040. Poaching and habitat destruction are the biggest threat to them.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

World Social Protection Report 2020-22 was released by International Labour Organisation (ILO) on September 1, 2021.

About:

• As per report, more than half of the world population are not getting any form of social protection. This trend of no social protection is there even after expansion of social protections amidst the global outbreak of COVID-19.
• Only 47 per cent of the global population had effective access to one social protection benefit, in 2020 while 53 per cent (4.1 billion people) had no protection at all.
• People in Europe and Central Asia are among the best covered population. 84 per cent of populations in Europe and Central Asia are having access to at least one benefit.
• In America, the rate of social protection is 64.3 per cent.
• In Asia, the Pacific and the Arab States, lesser than half of people are covered under protection.
• In Africa, only 17.4 per cent of the people are getting at least one social protection.
• Most children across the globe had no social protection.
• Just one in four children in the world get a social protection benefit.
• 45 per cent of women with new-borns receive cash maternity benefit.
• One in three people with severe disabilities receive disability benefits.
• One in five people worldwide are covered in case they lose their job.

Rich Poor divide

This report examined the impact COVID-19 pandemic on social protection. It found, an additional spending required to ensure minimum social protection for all and reduce the financing gap has increased by 30 per cent since the start of the pandemic. On an average, countries spend approximately 13 per cent of GDP on social protection. However, high-income countries spend 16.4 per cent of GDP on social protection. On the other hand, low-income countries spend just 1.1 per cent.

Social Protection

Social protection comprises of access to healthcare and income security in cases of unemployment, old age, inability to work, and for families with children.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

The Shikshak Parv-2021 will be observed from September 5, 2021.

About:

• During the Shikshak Parv-2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address teachers, students and other stakeholders of the education sector on September 7.
• This event will be celebrated to honour the contribution of teachers.
• On the occasion, PM will launch five initiatives:

1. Indian sign language dictionary of 10,000 words
2. Talking books (audio books for visually impaired)
3. School quality assessment and accreditation framework (SQAAF) of CBSE
4. NISTHA teachers’ training programme for NIPUN Bharat, and
5. Vidyanjali portal to facilitate education volunteers, donors and CSR contributors in development of school.

Shikshak Parv-2021

Shikshak Parv-2021 will be celebrated by Ministry of Education (MoE) from September 5 to 17, 2021. It will be organised to recognise the valuable contributions of teachers and to take National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 ahead.

National Awards to Teachers

President Ram Nath Kovind will confer the National Award to Teachers through a webinar on September 5. For the award this year, an online self-nomination process was followed through a three-tier selection process at district, state and national level. During the event, a documentary film on each of the 44 awardee teachers will also be shown.

History of National Awards

National Awards to Teachers were first established in 1958 in order to recognise excellence and commitment of teachers towards shaping the minds and future of the youth. From the mid-60s onwards, September 5 was selected as a fixed date for the function to commemorate the birthday of Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (former President of India).

Theme of the webinars

The theme of webinars has been divided into nine sub-themes such as

1. Technology in Education: NDEAR,
2. Foundational Literacy and Numeracy: A Prerequisite to Learning

WHY IN THE NEWS?

The newest Mars rover of the American Space Agency, NASA has successfully collected the first rock sample for return to the Earth.

About:

• Rock sample was termed as the perfect core sample by the Perseverance rover’s chief engineer, Adam Steltzner.
• In earlier attempt, Perseverance drilled into much softer rock to crumble the sample, but it didn’t get inside the titanium tube. Then the rover drove a half-mile for a better sampling spot to drill again.
• Perseverance arrived at the Jezero Crater of Mars in February 2021.
• The Jezero Crater is believed to be the home of a lush lake-bed and river delta billions of years ago.
• Thus, this mission was launched in search of rocks that could reveal about ancient life.
• NASA has planned to launch more spacecraft to get samples collected by Perseverance.

About Mars 2020

Mars 2020 is a ‘Mars rover mission’ under the NASA’s Mars Exploration Program. It comprises of rover Perseverance and a small robotic, coaxial helicopter Ingenuity. This mission was launched from Earth on July 30, 2020 on an Atlas V launch vehicle. It touched down the Martian crater Jezero on February 18, 2021. NASA named the landing site of the rover as Octavia E. Butler Landing on March 5, 2021.  Perseverance and Ingenuity have been on Mars for 191 sols (196 total days) as of now.

What is Sol?

Sol is a solar day on Mars. It is the apparent interval between two successive returns of the Sun to the same meridian as witnessed by observer on Mars. Sol is longer than the Earth day by 24 hours, 39 minutes, 35 seconds.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

India and the United States had signed a Project Agreement for the ‘Air-Launched Unmanned Aerial Vehicle’ in the end of July 2021.

About:

• Air-Launched Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (ALUAV) will be launched under the ambit of Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI).
• The PA was signed on July 30 in between the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and U.S. Department of Defence (DoD) by co-chairs of the Joint Working Group (JWG) on Air Systems.
• The agreement highlights the collaboration between Indian Air Force, Air Force Research Laboratory, and Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for the design, development, demonstration, testing and evaluation of systems in a bid to co-develop an ALUAV prototype.

Background

The project agreement for the ALUAV is under the Research, Development, Testing and Evaluation Memorandum of Agreement that was first signed between MoD and U.S. DoD in January 2006. Agreement was renewed in January 2015.

Significance of the project

Project agreement is a significant step to deepen the defence technology collaboration in between India and United States by co-developing the defence equipment.

Aim of the DTTI

The Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI) was launched with the aim of bringing sustained leadership focus in a bid to promote collaborative technology exchange between both the countries. It also seeks to create opportunities for co-production and co-development of future technologies military forces of India and US. Under the initiative, a Joint Working Groups on land, naval, air, and aircraft carrier technologies have been set up to focus on mutually agreed projects in respective domains. Initiative was announced in 2012 as an ambitious initiative for the co-production and co-development of military systems.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, chaired the 24th meeting of Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi.

Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC)

FSDC is an apex-level body that was set by the government of India in order to create a super regulatory body. Its establishment was first recommended by the Raghuram Rajan Committee in 2008. Finally in 2010, Pranab Mukherjee (the then Finance Minister of India) decided to set up this autonomous body to deal with macro prudential and financial regularities of the entire financial sector in India. It is not a statutory body. No funds are allocated separately to the council to undertake its activities.

Background

In order to strengthen and institutionalize the mechanism of maintaining financial stability, to enhance inter-regulatory coordination and to promote financial sector development, FSDC was set up as the apex level forum in December 2010.

Function of the FSDC

This council is considered as India’s initiative to be better conditioned in preventing any economic crisis in future.

Members of the council

• Chairperson: Union Finance Minister of India
• Other Members:

1. Governor of Reserve Bank of India
2. Finance Secretary and/ or Secretary of Department of Economic Affairs
3. Secretary of Department of Financial Services
4. Secretary of Ministry of Corporate Affairs
5. Secretary of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology
6. Chief Economic Advisor to Ministry of Finance
7. Chairman of Securities and Exchange Board of India
8. Chairman of Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority
9. Chairman of Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority
10. Chairman of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India
11. Additional Secretary to Ministry of Finance

WHY IN THE NEWS?

• IRS officer JB Mohapatra was appointed as the chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes. His appointment was approved today by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC). He has already served as the acting chairman of the CBDT.
• A 1985-batch IRS officer, Mohapatra was given the additional charge as CBDT chairman after the tenure of incumbent PC Mody ended this year in May.
• Earlier, Mohapatra had served as the principal chief commissioner of Income Tax for the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana region.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

• IRS officer JB Mohapatra was appointed as the chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes. His appointment was approved today by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC). He has already served as the acting chairman of the CBDT.
• A 1985-batch IRS officer, Mohapatra was given the additional charge as CBDT chairman after the tenure of incumbent PC Mody ended this year in May.
• Earlier, Mohapatra had served as the principal chief commissioner of Income Tax for the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana region.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

• The Indian Naval Ship, INS Tabar, is on her goodwill visit to the number of ports in Africa and Europe since June 2021 till September 2021.
• As a part of this visit, INS Tabar took part in the Maiden Maritime Partnership Exercise with Algerian Navy, off the Algerian coast, in the Mediterranean Sea. The Algerian Naval Ship ANS Ezzadjer participated in the exercise.
• The objective of the exercise was to enhance interoperability, understand the concept of operations followed by each other, and opened the possibility of increasing interaction and collaboration between the two navies in the future.
• INS Tabar is a Talwar-class stealth Frigate built in Russia for the Indian Navy. The ship is a part of the Indian Navy’s Western Fleet, based in Mumbai.