• India has moved up a rank on the global Human Development Index (HDI), according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report ‘Breaking the gridlock: Reimagining cooperation in a polarised world’.
  • Switzerland has been ranked number one.
• The report stated that while India ranked 135 in 2021, it had moved up to 134 in 2022.
  • A total of 193 countries were ranked in 2022 and 191 countries in 2021.
  • India’s HDI value increases from 0.633 to 0.644 in 2022
• India’s Neighbors
  • Sri Lanka has been ranked much ahead at 78, while China is ranked 75, both categorised under the High Human Development category.
  • India also ranks below Bhutan stands at 125 and Bangladesh is in the 129th position.
    • India, Bhutan and Bangladesh are all in the Medium Human Development category.
  • Nepal (146) and Pakistan (164) have been ranked lower than India.

Specific findings

• India’s life expectancy at birth has slightly improved from 67.2 years in 2021 to 67.7 years in 2022.
• There is an overall increase (5.88%) in expected years of schooling (EYS) from 11.9 years to 12.6 years, leading to an improvement of 18 places when the EYS aspect was considered.
• The Gross National Income (GNI) per capita also improved from $6,542 to $6,951.
• India demonstrated progress in reducing gender inequality. India’s GII value of 0.437 is better than the global and South Asian averages.

• The high-level committee on “One Nation, One Election”, led by former President Ram Nath Kovind, submitted its report to President Droupadi Murmu.
• The high-level committee includes Home Minister Amit Shah, former leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Finance Commission chairman K Singh, former Lok Sabha Secretary General Subhash Kashyap and senior advocate Harish Salve.
  • Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal is a special invitee to the panel.
• The panel reasoned that the current system of having several elections every year, casts a huge burden on the government, businesses and the society at large.

RECOMMENDATIONS

• Foremost, the panel recommended simultaneous elections for Lok Sabha and state assemblies.
  • This is to be followed by synchronised local body polls within 100 days.
• Fresh elections could be held to constitute a new Lok Sabha in the event of a hung House or a no-confidence motion.
• When fresh elections are held for the Lok Sabha, the new Lok Sabha will only serve for the remaining time left in the term of the previous Lok Sabha.
• When fresh elections are held for state legislative assemblies, the newly elected assembly will continue to exist until the end of the full term of the Lok Sabha unless it’s dissolved earlier.
  • To put the system in place, Article 83 and Article 172 that deal with the duration of houses of Parliament and the duration of state assemblies need to be amended.
• The election commission can prepare a common electoral roll and voter ID cards in consultation with the state authorities.
  • For this, Article 325, which deals with voters, has to be amended.
• The election commission of India is responsible for Lok Sabha and assembly polls, whereas state election commissions conducts the local body polls.

• Ministry of AYUSH inaugurated the Yoga Mahotsav 2024, celebrating the 100-day countdown to this year’s International Day of Yoga.
• International Day of Yoga IDY is observed every year on 21st June.
• The theme of the 10th edition of IDY this year is – Yoga for Women Empowerment.
• The one-day Yoga Mahotsav-2024 organised covered a range of activities after the inaugural session, including theme-based technical sessions on Empowering Women’s Health through Yoga and Transforming Life through Yoga.

• International Day of Action for Rivers is observed on March 14^th to spread awareness about the importance of rivers and climate change.
• This year’s theme is “Water for All”.
• The International Day of Action Against Dams and For Rivers, Water and Life was adopted by the participants of the first International Meeting of People Affected by Dams, March 1997 in Curitiba Brazil.
  • Representatives from 20 countries decided that the International Day of Action would take place on March 14 – Brazil’s Day of Action Against Large Dams.”

• Devin is a super-smart computer program created by a company called Cognition, a US based applied Artificial Intelligence Lab.
• Devin, an AI tool, can write code, debugging, create websites and software, and learn from its mistakes.
• It’s designed to assist human engineers, not replace them, and has been successful in real-world jobs.
• Devin’s functionality includes thinking ahead, planning complex tasks, learning new technologies.
• When given a prompt or instruction, Devin analyzes the request and uses its vast database of knowledge and problem-solving techniques to generate code, design websites, or develop software.

• The government notified the appointment of ex-bureaucrats Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu as election commissioners.
• Prior to the new appointments, Election Commission of India only had Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar.
• Mr Sandhu and Mr Kumar are retired IAS officers of the 1988 batch. While Mr Sandhu is from the Uttarakhand cadre of IAS, Mr Kumar is from the Kerala cadre.
• Process
  • A search committee led by the Law Minister prepares a shortlist.
  • Then, a selection panel led by the Prime Minister and comprising the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha and a Union Minister makes the final choice.
• Issues
  • The Supreme Court had in March last year ruled that the panel must have the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice of India and the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha.
  • But the Centre thereafter brought a law to replace the Chief Justice by a Union Minister.

• Bhima Nayak sometimes spelled as Bhima Naik, was a resident of Dhaba Bawdi in the Badwani district of Madhya Pradesh.
• He was a prominent leader of the Bhils of Nimar.
• He took part in the Uprising of 1857 against the British Raj raising an anti-British force by bringing in men from Bhil, Bhilala, Mandoi, and Naik tribes, and collaborated with Tantia Tope.
• He deployed his troops on the Bhil-populated Bombay (Mumbai) and Agra Highway between Singhawa and Khull, where they constantly disturbed the British troop movements.
• Bhima had an important role in the 1857 Ambagani War.
• On the basis of espionage by one of their own men, the British succeeded in arresting him only in 1861 from his jungle hideout.
• He was found guilty, sentenced to transportation for life, and sent to Cellular Jail of the Andaman Islands.
• He died in the Andaman Islands on 29 December 1876.

• The Ministry of Home Affairs announced the celebration of ‘Hyderabad Liberation Day’ every year on September 17.
• Even after India’s independence on August 15, 1947, Hyderabad did not get independence and continued to remain under the rule of the Nizams for 13 months.
• The city was liberated from Nizam’s rule on September 17, 1948, after a police action namely ‘Operation Polo’.

ABOUT OPERATION POLO

• Operation Polo is the code name for the military operation conducted by the Indian Armed Forces in September 1948 to integrate the princely state of Hyderabad into the independent Union of India.
• The operation was initiated by the then Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel after Nizam remained indecisive about whether to join India or Pakistan or maintain independence.
• The military operation was conducted under the leadership of Major General J. N. Chaudhuri.
• The operation was concluded within less than five days, with minimal resistance from the Nizam’s force.
• In the end, the Nizam surrendered, after which Hyderabad officially became a part of India.

• The Supreme Court froze the Assam government’s move to withdraw a nearly 26-year-old notification constituting the Pobitora wildlife sanctuary.
• The Assam Cabinet had recently withdrawn the notification issued by the State Forest Department in 1998.
  • The government reasoned that declaration of the sanctuary was made without settling the rights of the people living in villages in the area, including Thengabhanga, Murkata and Mayong.
  • The Assam government has established a committee to redraw the boundary of the Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary

ABOUT POBITORA WILDLIFE SANCTUARY

• Covering an area of 38.81 sq km, the Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary was notified by the Assam forest department in March 1998.
• Located in the suburbs of the capital city of Guwahati, on the southern bank of Brahmaputra River.
• The Sanctuary consists of the Rajamayong Reserve Forest and Pobitora Reserve Forest.
• According to a census carried out in 2022, the sanctuary has a population of 107 rhinos, which is the highest density of the species in the world.
  • Other species include Asiatic Wild Water Buffaloes, leopards, jungle fowls, Civet cats, Wild boars, Wild Bears and the many species of the bird life both resident and migratory.

• Prime Minister inaugurated the ‘Pradhan Mantri Samajik Utthan and Rozgar Adharit Jankalyan’ (PM-SURAJ) national portal.
• It is a national portal launched to provide credit support to small entrepreneurs from marginalised communities.
• Nodal Ministry- Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment
• Small entrepreneurs from marginalised communities, including Scheduled Castes, Backward Classes, and sanitation workers, can benefit from the PM-SURAJ Portal.
• The objective of PM-SURAJ Portal is to provide financial assistance directly to beneficiaries, eliminate middlemen and commissions, and empower marginalised communities economically and socially.
  • Credit support will be provided to eligible persons across country, facilitated through banks, Non-Banking Financial Company-Micro Finance Institutions’ (NBFC-MFIs), and other organisations.
• PM-SURAJ Portal aims to uplift marginalised communities and integrate them into the mainstream economy, which is essential for achieving the goal of Viksit Bharat by 2047.