• A recently released UNDP report says Prejudices against women didn’t reduce in last decade, 90% people still hold gender bias.

ABOUT INDEX –

• It is released by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
• It quantifies biases against women, capturing people’s attitudes on women’s roles along four key dimensions— political, educational, economic and physical integrity.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS

• The index, covering 85% of the global population, reveals that close to 9 out of 10 men and women hold fundamental biases against women.
• Gender social norms have persisted for centuries and are pronounced in countries with lower and higher Human Development Index (HDI).
• ​​​​​​​The latest GSNI report showed little progress, despite global and local campaigns for women’s rights in recent years such as Me Too, Ni Una Menos, Time’s Up and Un Violador en Tu Camino.
• Biased gender social norms can contribute to lack of equality in political participation.
• Countries with greater bias in gender social norms also show a lower presence of women in parliament.
• On average, the share of heads of state or government who are women has remained around 10 % worldwide since 1995, and women hold just over a quarter of parliament seats globally.
• Women are underrepresented in leadership in conflict-affected countries, mainly at the negotiation tables in the recent conflicts in Ukraine (0%), Yemen (4%) and Afghanistan (10%).
• Globally, about seven of 10 peace processes did not include any women mediators or women signatories.
• Even in the 59 countries where adult women are more educated than men, the average income gap is 39%.
• Countries with no bias – Germany, Uruguay, New Zealand, Singapore and Japan.
• 25 % of people believe it is justified for a man to beat his wife.

• The Central Government had approved a national centre of excellence for sports for Himachal to be set up at a cost of Rs 100 crore to Rs 150 crore.
• The Union Sports Ministry would construct a stadium in every district of Himachal to hone local talent if the state government provides adequate land.

• Every woman employee whether appointed on regular, contractual, ad hoc or tenure/ temporary basis has a fundamental right to a reasonable duration of maternity leave (paternity leave in case of a male employee), child care leave (CCL) to promote motherhood and child care under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, read with Article 42.
• The HP High Court held this while dealing with a petition challenging the decision of the state government to decline the benefit of maternity leave and thereafter consequential benefit of conferment of work-charge status on the completion of eight years’ service.
• A Division Bench comprising Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan and Justice Virender Singh rejected the plea of the government and observed, “The right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution of India includes the right to mother. To become a mother is the most natural phenomena in the life of a woman. Therefore, whatever is needed to facilitate the birth of a child to a woman, who is in service, the employer has to be considerate and sympathetic towards her, must realise the physical difficulties that a working woman faces in performing duties at the workplace while carrying a baby in her womb or while rearing up the child after birth.”
• As per the fact, a woman worker delivered a child on May 30, 1996 and after availing of maternity leave with effect from June 1, 1996, to August 31, 1996, (only three months), she resumed duty. It is only on account of pregnancy and subsequent delivery that she could only perform duty for 156 days against the minimum requirement of 240 days in a year.

• The government of Himachal Pradesh has constituted the Chief Minister Council for Digital Governance.
• The council under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu will work as an apex body for providing leadership, strategic guidance and oversight to digital policies and programmes to assist in the digital transformation of Himachal Pradesh.
• The apex body would comprise experts from different fields, including IT, industries, data management, telecommunication, finance and the IIT.
• The council would comprise the Principal Adviser (IT and Innovation) to the Chief Minister, Chief Secretary and the Secretary (IT), besides professionals and experts from various fields.
• The council would meet at least once every three months or even more frequently, as per the requirement.
• The government will also implement e-office and Him Parivar projects efficiently, besides promoting drone use in the state.

• World Blood Donor Day is celebrated annually on June 14 to express gratitude for the selflessness of voluntary blood donors across the world. Blood is an invaluable contribution that one individual can offer to another, a profound gift that sustains life itself.
• In 2004, the World Health Organization (WHO) initially established World Blood Donor Day. During the 58th World Health Assembly in 2005, it was officially designated as an annual global event to promote awareness about the significance of blood donation.
• The WHO decided to commemorate the birthday of Karl Landsteiner as World Blood Donor Day. Landsteiner, an Austrian-American immunologist and pathologist, was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1930 for his contributions to the study of blood groups and the development of the modern blood transfusion system.
• The theme for World Blood Donor Day 2023 is ‘Give blood, give plasma, share life, share often.’
• The host country for the global event of World Blood Donor Day 2023 is “Algeria” through its National Blood Transfusion Service.

• Subodh Kumar Singh, has been named the Director General of the National Testing Agency (NTA).
• He is a 1997 Batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Chhattisgarh cadre.
• Subodh Kumar Singh is at present Additional Secretary in the Department of Food and Public Distribution under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.

ABOUT NTA

• National Testing Agency (NTA) was established as a Society registered under the Indian Societies Registration Act, 1860.
• It is an autonomous and self-sustained testing organization to conduct entrance examinations for admission/fellowship in higher educational institutions.

• Senior IAS officer Amit Agrawal has been appointed as CEO of Unique Identification Authority of India.
• He is a 1993 Batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Chhattisgarh cadre.
• Agarwal is currently serving as Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

ABOUT UIDAI

• The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is a statutory authority established on 12 July 2016 by the Government of India under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, following the provisions of the Aadhaar Act 2016.
• The UIDAI is mandated to assign a 12-digit unique identification (UID) number (Aadhaar) to all the residents of India.
• The UIDAI was initially set up by the Government of India in January 2009, as an attached office under the aegis of the Planning Commission.

• Nitin Agarwal has been appointed as the new director general of the Border Security Force (BSF).
• The post of BSF chief has been vacant for more than five months after Pankaj Kumar Singh retired on December 31, 2022.
• CRPF DG Sujoy Lal Thaosen has been handling the charge of BSF in an additional capacity since then.
• Nitin Agarwal, an IPS officer of the 1989 Kerala cadre, currently holds the position of Additional Director General of Operations at the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).
• He attained the rank of ADG in 2014 while serving with the
• The BSF is India’s leading security agency responsible for safeguarding the 4,096-kilometer-long international borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh.
• In addition, it carries out various responsibilities in the realm of internal security. The BSF comprises a workforce of over 2.65 lakh personnel serving in diverse roles.

ABOUT BSF

• BSF is primary border guarding organisation of India and termed as First Line of Defence of Indian Territories.
• It is the sentinels of Indian borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh.
• It came into existence on 1st December, 1965.
• It was created by merging various State Armed Police Battalions for achieving a better coordinated synergy between the border guarding functions in peace time and fighting the war during the eventuality on both Western and Eastern fronts.
• BSF is deployed on Indo-Pakistan International Border, Indo-Bangladesh International Border, Line of Control (LoC) along with Indian Army and in Anti-Naxal Operations.

• Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has released its annual assessment of the state of armaments, disarmament and international security of 2023.

FINDINGS OF THE REPORT

NUCLEAR ARSENALS

• The nine nuclear-armed states, the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) and Israel continue to modernize their nuclear arsenals. Russia and the USA together possess almost 90 percent of all nuclear weapons.
• China: China’s nuclear arsenal increased from 350 warheads in January 2022 to 410 in January 2023, and it is expected to keep growing. China could potentially have at least as many intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) as either the USA or Russia by the turn of the decade.
• India and Pakistan: India and Pakistan appear to be expanding their nuclear arsenals, and both countries introduced and continued to develop new types of nuclear delivery system in 2022. While Pakistan remains the main focus of India’s nuclear deterrent, India appears to be placing growing emphasis on longer-range weapons, including those capable of reaching targets across China.
• North Korea: North Korea conducted no nuclear test explosions in 2022, it conducted more than 90 tests of missiles. Some of these missiles, which include new ICBMs, may be capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
• Impact of Russia- Ukraine war on Nuclear diplomacy
• In the wake of the invasion, the USA suspended its bilateral strategic stability dialogue with Russia. In February 2023 Russia suspended its participation in the 2010 Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (New START)—the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty limiting Russian and US strategic nuclear forces. Talks about a follow-on treaty to New START, which expires in 2026, were also suspended.
• Iran’s military support to Russian forces in Ukraine and the political situation in Iran also overshadowed talks on reviving the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the 2015 agreement meant to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. The JCPOA’s revival now seems increasingly unlikely.

Peace agreements

• Opportunities for peace-making were limited in 2022. The UN succeeded in arranging a truce in Yemen that lasted from April until October—apparently leading to a decline in fatality rates and improved access to aid, despite ongoing violence—while a combination of mediators from African states, Saudi Arabia, the UN and the United States fitfully nudged the military authorities in Sudan to agree a new framework for civilian government following military– civilian turmoil throughout 2021.
• A successful military drive by the Ethiopian military and its allies forced the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front to sue for a truce in November 2022, which was hurriedly worked out in Pretoria, South Africa, and held reasonably well into 2023.
• In Colombia, a new left-wing government worked on a peace initiative with a number of armed groups in late 2022, which had made uncertain progress by December.

PRIVATE MILITARY AND SECURITY COMPANIES (PMSCS)

• The past 20 years have witnessed the rapid growth of There is no universally accepted, legally binding, standard definition of a PMSC and the sector often operates in a legal lacuna: the employees of PMSCs are not soldiers or civilians, nor can they usually be defined as mercenaries.
• The wars in Iraq (2003–11) and Afghanistan (2001–21) reshaped perceptions of the private military and security industry, with the massive deployment of contractors by the United States leading to new market opportunities across the globe.
• Factors contributing to the growth of PMSCs vary by region and state, but they mostly fit with cost-efficiency calculations, where the sector provides skills and services that states do not possess or that would be too costly for states to develop or perform themselves.
• The USA, the United Kingdom, China and South Africa together are estimated to host about 70 percent of the entire sector.

MILITARY EXPENDITURE AND ARMS PRODUCTION

• Global military expenditure rose for the eighth consecutive year in 2022 to reach an estimated $2240 billion, the highest level ever recorded by SIPRI.
• Despite the 7 per cent year-on-year increase in spending, world military expenditure as a share of world gross domestic product (GDP)—the military burden—remained at 2.2 percent because the global economy also grew in 2022.
• Governments around the world spent an average of 2 percent of their budgets on the military, or $282 per person.

INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS OF MAJOR ARMS

• The volume of international transfers of major arms in the five-year period 2018–22 was 5.1 percent lower than in 2013–17 and 3.9 percent higher than in 2008–12.
• The volume of transfers in 2018–22 was among the highest since the end of the cold war, but was still around 35 percent lower than the totals for 1978–82 and 1983–87, when arms transfers peaked.
• The 25 largest suppliers accounted for 98 percent of the total volume of exports, and the 5 largest suppliers in the period—the United States, Russia, France, China and Germany— accounted for 76 percent of the total volume of exports.

IMPORTERS OF MAJOR ARMS

• The five largest arms importers were India, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Australia and China, which together accounted for 36 percent of total arms imports.
• The region that received the largest volume of imports of major arms in 2018–22 was Asia and Oceania, accounting for 41 percent of the global total, followed by the Middle East (31 percent), Europe (16 percent), the Americas (5.8 percent) and Africa (5.0 percent).

ABOUT SIPRI

• SIPRI is an independent international institute dedicated to research into conflict, armaments, arms control and disarmament. It is based in
• It was established in 1966, SIPRI provides data, analysis and recommendations, based on open sources, to policymakers, researchers, media and the interested public.
• Funding: It was established on the basis of a decision by the Swedish Parliament and receives a substantial part of its funding in the form of an annual grant from the Swedish Government. The Institute also seeks financial support from other organizations in order to carry out its research.

• UN cultural and scientific agency UNESCO announced that the United States plans to rejoin and pay more than $600 million in back dues.

US DECIDES TO REJOIN UNESCO

• The United States has announced its plans to rejoin the UNESCO, after a decade-long dispute sparked by the inclusion of Palestine as a member.
• The return of the U.S., along with the payment of over $600 million in back dues, is a significant financial boost for UNESCO’s initiatives.
• Before leaving, the US contributed 22 per cent of the agency’s overall funding.

REASONS FOR LEAVING

• One of the main reasons was concerns over the organization’s perceived anti-Israel bias.
• The U.S. government criticized UNESCO for its handling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its recognition of Palestine as a member state.
• Another factor was financial concerns.
• United States had been contributing a significant portion of UNESCO’s budget.
• S. government had concerns about fiscal management and accountability within UNESCO.
• Furthermore, the decision to withdraw was also influenced by a broader scepticism towards multilateral institutions and a desire to reassess and prioritize U.S. engagement and funding in international organizations.

WHY DID US DECIDED TO REJOIN THE ORGANISATION?

• The decision to return was motivated by concern that China is filling the gap left by the US in UNESCO policymaking, notably in setting standards for artificial intelligence and technology education around the world.

ABOUT UNESCO

• UNESCO stands for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
• It is specialized agency of the United Nations (UN).
• The constitution, which entered into force in 1946, called for the promotion of international collaboration in education, science, and culture.
• The agency’s permanent headquarters are in Paris, France.
• Parent Organisation – United Nations Economic and Social Council