About:

• It is the first of its kind in the country, with time-bound action plans and multi-sectoral collaborations to achieve reduction in suicide mortality by 10% by 2030.
• The strategy broadly seeks to establish effective surveillance mechanisms for suicide within the next three years.
• It aims to establish psychiatric outpatient departments that will provide suicide prevention services through the District Mental Health Programme in all districts within the next five years.
• It also seeks to integrate a mental well-being curriculum in all educational institutions within the next eight years.
• It envisages developing guidelines for responsible media reporting of suicides, and restricting access to means of suicide.
• The stress is on developing community resilience and societal support for suicide prevention.
• While the strategy is in line with the WHO’s South East-Asia Region Strategy for suicide prevention, it says it will remain true to India’s cultural and social milieu.

Suicides in India:

• In India, more than one lakh lives are lost every year to suicide, and it is the top killer in the 15-29 years category.
• In the past three years, the suicide rate has increased from 10.2 to 11.3 per 1,00,000 population.
• The most common reasons for suicide include family problems and illnesses, which account for 34% and 18% of all suicide-related deaths.

• India and Gabon held the first Foreign Office Consultations in New Delhi.
• Both sides carried out a comprehensive review of the existing bilateral relations, including strengthening of cooperation in trade and economic relations, defence and maritime.
• The two sides also exchanged views on regional and international issues of mutual interest, including cooperation in the UN and other multilateral fora, climate change, International Solar Alliance and sustainable development.
• India and Gabon have traditionally enjoyed warm and friendly relations, which are based on shared democratic values and vision.
• The bilateral relationship has further strengthened in the past few years with opening of the Gabonese Mission in New Delhi and exchange of high-level visits.
• The bilateral trade between India and Gabon is growing at a healthy rate and has touched 1.12 billion dollars in 2021-22 from 440 million dollars in 2017-18.
• India is now the second-largest destination for Gabonese exports. Over 50 Indian companies have set up manufacturing units in the Gabon Special Economic Zone.

• India is amongst the top five best-performing countries on Climate Change. The latest report of Climate Change Performance Index- 2023, released at COP 27, shows Denmark, Sweden, Chile and Morocco as the only four small countries that were ranked above India.
• Power Ministry said, India has jumped two spots higher and now ranks 8th as per Climate Change Performance Index.
• The first, second and third ranks were not awarded to any country. The Ministry said, India has earned a high rating in the global greenhouse gas Emissions and Energy Use categories.
• The CCPI is an independent monitoring tool for tracking the climate protection performance of 59 countries and the European Union.

• India and Australia would now implement the free trade agreement on a mutually agreed date as the Australian Parliament on Tuesday approved the pact between the two countries.
• The India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (AI-ECTA) needed ratification by the Australian parliament before its implementation. In India, such pacts are approved by the Union Cabinet.
• The agreement was signed between the two countries in April this year.
• After the ratification, both sides will decide a date to implement the pact and customs authorities will also issue a notification a day before the implementation.
• Meanwhile, Australian trade minister in a statement said that the ECTA will enter into force 30 days (or another mutually agreed time) after the respective parties have confirmed in writing that they have completed their domestic requirements.
• The agreement, once implemented, will provide duty-free access to the Australian market for over 6,000 broad sectors of India, including textiles, leather, furniture, jewellery and machinery.
• Under the pact, Australia is offering zero-duty access to India for about 96.4 per cent of exports (by value) from day one. This covers many products that currently attract 4-5 per cent customs duty in Australia.
• Labour-intensive sectors which would gain immensely include textiles and apparel, few agricultural and fish products, leather, footwear, furniture, sports goods, jewellery, machinery, electrical goods and railway wagons.
• India’s goods exports to Australia stood at USD 8.3 billion and imports from the country aggregated to USD 16.75 billion in 2021-22.
• Goyal had earlier stated that the agreement would help in taking the bilateral trade from USD 27.5 billion at present to USD 45-50 billion in the next five years.

• Hamirpur has been ranked the third cleanest district in the country in the rural category and the first district in the state in the Swachh Bharat Mission rankings declared by the Union Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation today.
• The Jal Jeevan Mission envisages to provide safe and adequate drinking water through individual tap connections to all households in rural India by 2024.
• Deputy Commissioner Debasweta Banik said under the drinking water and sanitation programme, all gram panchayats of the district had implemented source sustainability measures as mandatory elements. She said these included recharge and reuse water sources through management, conservation and rainwater harvesting.
• She said under the Jal Jeevan Mission, community participation was ensured and elements such as information, education and communication were best used for the success of the programme in the district. “During the survey, every aspect of the mission was evaluated and was based on the feedback of people of the respective gram panchayats,” the DC added.
• She said this was a challenge, which was accomplished with relentless efforts of officers, staff and representatives of the panchayati raj institutions.

• The enrolment per school in Himachal Pradesh is the third lowest in the country.
• As per the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) report for 2021-22, the average enrolment count is 80 in the state, way lower than the national average of 178. Only Ladakh (61) and Mizoram (79) have lower enrolment per school than the state.
• Amarjeet Sharma, Director, Higher Education, blamed the demographic and topographic features of the state for the low enrolment. “As compared to other states, the density of population of the school-going children in the state is quite low. And that gets reflected in the low enrolment per school,” Sharma said.
• “Another reason for the low enrolment per school is the mushrooming of private institutions with little infrastructural facilities. Several private schools are running from just two-three rooms. They have low enrolment, which pulls down the overall enrolment per school,” he added.
• The low enrolment reflects in the pupil-teacher ratio as well, which is among the lowest in the country at 14. It’s exactly half the national average, which stands at 28. Only Ladakh (10), Mizoram (13) and Sikkim (10) have the lower pupil-teacher ratio than the state.
• “As per the Right to Education Act, there has to be a primary school within 1.5 km for children. So, many schools that have been opened to comply with this direction have meagre enrolment,” Sharma added.
• “There are several schools in interior areas where we have just a couple of children. The topography is such that children can’t access a school a little further away from their homes,” he said.
• Sharma further said the real-time data could be quite different from that offered by the report. “It has data until September 2021. In the past one year, several indicators would have improved.”

• The joint military exercise – Keen Sword 23 – is being held from November 10 to 19 this year.

What is the Keen Sword exercise?

• Exercise Keen Sword is a joint and bilateral field training exercise between the US military and the Japan Self-Defence Force.
• It is held once in two years to boost the preparedness and interoperability between the military personnel of Japan and the United States.
• This biennial exercise has been held since 1986.
• This exercise provides opportunities for the US military and the JSDF to train together across various mission areas in realistic scenarios.
• Its ultimate goal is to build credible deterrence amid growing Chinese aggression in the region.
• It aims to create comprehensive scenarios to challenge the critical capabilities required to support the security of Japan and the stability of the Indo-Pacific.

About Exercise Keen Sword 2023

• The two-week-long exercise was held around Tokunoshima Island, situated southwest of Japan. It includes the participation of 26,000 personnel from JSDF and another 10,000 personnel from the US military. A total of 4 warships and 2 aeroplanes from Australia, Canada and Britain also participated in the military exercise.
• The exercise includes several anti-submarine warfare and surface gunnery events that will help the Pacific partners to improve their joint and advance multilateral tactics.
• It also focuses on responding to ballistic missiles and new threats like operations in space and cyberspace. Simulations drills on remote islands is a major focus area of the exercise Tokunoshima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture.

Why is this exercise significant?

• The exercise comes amid the Chinese military’s growing presence near Taiwan, the neighbouring country of Japan. Also, the Chinese vessels are continuously trespassing into the Japanese territorial waters close to the Senkaku Islands in the Indo-Pacific.
• The Senkaku Islands are Japanese-controlled, uninhabited islands in the East China Sea. China is currently claiming that these islands are part of its territory.

About this Scheme:

• The UK-India Young Professionals Scheme will provide Indians places to work in the United Kingdom for up to two years.
• It will benefit 3,000 degree-holding Indians aged 18 to 30 years.
• This scheme will be implemented from the early 2023 on a reciprocal basis.
• The initiative will strengthen the Mobility Partnership and Migration between the countries as agreed in 2021.
• This scheme makes India the first visa-national country to benefit from the scheme.
• It was launched by the United Kingdom amid the huge labor shortages in the country.

Significance of this scheme:

• The United Kingdom is currently experiencing labor shortages in industries like hospitality, manufacturing, construction etc. A new study revealed that a three-quarters of the UK businesses were impacted by the labour shortages in the country. The BREXIT was blamed for the exacerbation of the labour shortage concerns. Labour force shortages were especially seen in sectors that heavily depended on the EU countries before the pandemic hit. The new scheme will address the labour shortages in the country.
• The new scheme will also reinforce the cultural and economic ties between the United Kingdom and India. A quarter of international students in the United Kingdom are from India. This shows the strong bilateral ties between the two countries. India’s investment in the UK is directly supporting some 95,000 jobs across the country.
• The scheme will also improve the United Kingdom’s ties with the Indo-Pacific region. The UK had taken several measures to boost its relations with the countries in the region, especially in the security aspects.

Challenges of this scheme

• Currently, millions of Indians are eligible for the UK-India Young Professionals Scheme. Therefore, it will create the problem of over-subscription of visas. There are also concerns regarding the monopolization 0f the scheme.

• India opposed the Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture that sought to minimize greenhouse gas emissions from the agriculture sector.

What is Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture?

• The Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture (KJWA) is a special decision under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that aims to recognize the unique potential of the agriculture sector in addressing the climate change.
• It addresses 6 interrelated topics on soil, nutrient usage, livestock, water, methods for gauging adaptation and socio-economic and food security dimensions of climate change across the agriculture sector.
• This decision is in line with the core mandate of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) – elimination of hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition; reduction of rural poverty; and increase productivity and sustainability of agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors.
• The KJWA proposes many approaches that have a high potential for adaptation, adaptation co-benefits, and mitigation related to land and food systems. These include the conservation and restoration of ecosystems, improving the sustainability of agricultural practices, and minimizing food wastage and losses.

Why has India opposed the KJWA?

• India held that emissions from the agricultural sectors are not “luxury” emissions but “survival emissions” of the poor. It blamed the developed countries’ historic emissions for the current climate crisis.
• Currently, agricultural tasks are the livelihood of small and marginal farmers who will find it difficult to make a rapid transition to sustainable agricultural practices.
• Developed countries are proposing sustainable agriculture to become a site for countering their excessive emissions.
• India pointed out that developed countries owe the world a carbon debt of 790 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide, which is worth 79 trillion USD even at the modest pricing of 100 USD per tonne. South Asia’s historic total carbon emissions from the pre-industrial period until 2019 are less than 4 per cent despite hosting a quarter of the global population. India’s per capita yearly emissions are about one-third of the global average. If the entire world emits carbon at the same per capita level as India, climate crisis can be addressed.

• Taking yet another historic step to ensure the benefit of health facilities to every needy person in the state, the Manohar Lal-led government has launched the ‘CHIRAYU Haryana’ (Comprehensive Health insurance of Antyodaya Units) scheme aimed to expand the Ayushman Bharat benefits to 29 lakh beneficiaries having in annual income limit of Rs.1.80 lakh.
• The scheme was launched during a state-level programme held at Manesar, Gurugram.
• After the launch, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar distributed golden cards to as many as 12 beneficiaries.
• With the launch of this scheme, eligible families will now not run from pillar to post for making financial arrangements to get better treatment facilities.
• CHIRAYU Haryana is expected to give new lease of life to the 1.25 crore Antyodaya population, which means that 50 per cent of residents of the state will be availing of the scheme benefit.
• The Chief Minister said that now the scope of this scheme has also been extended to Persons With Disabilities (PwD).