• Headquartered in New Delhi, Prasar Bharati is a statutory autonomous body set up by an Act of Parliament. It comprises the Doordarshan Television Network and All India Radio (AIR), which were earlier media units of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

KEY POINTS

• The new logo was released by the secretary I&B Apurva Chandra, secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) in the presence of Mayank Kumar Agrawal, CEO, Prasar Bharati, DPS Negi, Member (Finance), Prasar Bharati, and officers of Ministry of I&B and Prasar Bharati.
• In the earlier format, the corporate office of Prasar Bharati used both AIR and Doordarshan logos on both the sides of the written text ‘PRASAR BHARATI’ along with the Indian emblem in the middle.
• Inspired from the identities of both All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan, the new logo of Prasar Bharati is defined as a blend of both AIR and Doordarshan.
• As per the broadcaster, the new logo of Prasar Bharti is replete with rich meaning. The elements in the central circle and map of India signify the service of trust, security, and perfection for the common man.
• While the elements in the central circle and map of India signify the service of trust, security and perfection to the Nation, its colour, ‘Dark Moderate Blue’ represents both the sky and the sea and is associated with open spaces, freedom, intuition, imagination, inspiration, and sensitivity.
• Blue also represents meanings of depth, trust, loyalty, sincerity, wisdom, confidence, stability, faith, and intelligence. The colour blue also pays tribute to the Indian ethos and traditions associated with religious figures; mythological characters found in the Indian miniature paintings.

• Consul-General of Japan in Chennai Taga Masayuki conferred Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star to Vice Chairman of the Sanmar Group Narayanan Kumar in recognition of his contribution to the strengthening economic relations between Japan and India.
• Kumar is among the Spring 2022 Imperial Decorations recipients.
• He has been instrumental in promoting friendship, goodwill and mutual understanding between Japan and India by organising economic delegations to Japan as well as a number of events on Japanese economy and culture.
• He is also the Chairman of the Indo-Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry and former President of the Confederation of Indian Industry.

• The Global Gender Gap Index benchmarks gender parity across four key dimensions or sub¬indices — economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.
• It measures scores on a 0¬to¬100 scale, which can be interpreted as the distance covered towards parity or the percentage of the gender gap that has been closed.
• India ranks poorly among its neighbours and is behind Bangladesh (71), Nepal (96), Sri Lanka (110), Maldives (117) and Bhutan (126). Only the performance of Iran (143), Pakistan (145) and Afghanistan (146) was worse than India in South Asia.
• In 2021, India ranked 140 out of 156 nations
• Iceland retained its place as the world’s most gender-equal country, followed by Finland, Norway, New Zealand and Sweden, as per the annual Gender Gap Report 2022 of the World Economic Forum (WEF) released in Geneva.
• Only 11 countries are ranked below India on the index of 146 nations, with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Congo, Iran and Chad being the worst-five.
• The WEF warned that the cost-of-living crisis is expected to hit women hardest globally with a widening gender gap in the labour force and it will take another 132 years (compared to 136 in 2021) to close the gender gap.
• On India, the WEF said its gender gap score recorded its seventh-highest level in the last 16 years, but it continues to rank among the worst performers on various parameters.
• India registered the most significant and positive change to its performance on Economic Participation and Opportunity. But, labour-force participation shrunk for both men and women since 2021.
• The share of women legislators, senior officials and managers increased from 14.6 per cent to 17.6 per cent, and the share of women as professional and technical workers grew from 29.2 per cent to 32.9 per cent.
• The gender parity score for estimated earned income improved; while values for both men and women diminished, they declined more for men.
• However, in the area of political empowerment, the subindex where India ranks relatively higher at 48th place, showed a declining score due to the diminishing share of years women have served as head of state for the past 50 years.
• On the health and survival subindex, India ranked the lowest at 146th place and figured among the five countries with gender gaps larger than 5 per cent — the other four being Qatar, Pakistan, Azerbaijan and China.
• However, India was ranked the top globally in terms of gender parity for primary education enrolment and tertiary education enrolment and at the eighth place for the position of head of state.
• Within South Asia, India was ranked the sixth best on overall score after Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Bhutan. Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan scored worse than India.
• South Asia (62.3 per cent) has the largest gender gap of all regions, with low scores across all measured gender gaps and little progress made in most countries since 2021.
• At its current pace, it will take 197 years to close the gender gap in the region. The economic gender gap has closed by 1.8 per cent with increases in the share of women in professional and technical roles in countries including Bangladesh and India as well as Nepal.

• According to Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, the Ministry of Defence has set a target of Rs 1.75 lakh crores of defence production by 2025, which includes exports of Rs 35,000 crores.
• Defence PSUs would play a major role in achieving this goal with a contribution of 70-80 per cent.
• The Non-Official Directors (NODs) of DPSUs to ensure smooth implementation of various initiatives taken by the government towards achieving ‘Aatmanirbharta in Defence’.
• The defence minister described NODs as a bridge between DPSUs and the MoD, which not only strengthened corporate governance in public sector companies but also ensured that the work was carried out as per the policies of the government.

He listed various initiatives taken by the MoD to achieve self-reliance.

• Simplification of the acquisition process of defence equipment/platforms under the Defence Acquisition Procedure 2020.
• Flexibility in Offset guidelines.
• Increase in FDI limit to 74 per cent under Automatic Route and up to 100 per cent under the government route.
• Simplification of the process of obtaining a license.
• Launch of Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) initiative and enhanced use of Artificial Intelligence in the defence sector.

• Under the Go Green Initiative of the Union and State governments, 417 households in Una district have installed roof top solar power plants and received a subsidy amounting to Rs 5.4 crores.
• According to Sohan Singh, Project Officer at the Una office of HIMURJA, the Union government provides a subsidy of 40 per cent on the total cost of solar plant up to 3-kilowatt capacity, while there is a subsidy component of 20 per cent for plants having capacity above 3 kilowatts and up to 10 kilowatts.
• According to Project Officer, the expenses per kilowatt of installation is Rs 48,000 to Rs 50,000 and the consumers can sell extra power generated to the state electricity board.
• Power sale proceeds get deposited in the bank account of the beneficiary.

• Anurag Thakur, Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Youth Affairs and Sports, visited the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) at Saloh village in Haroli.
• He also interacted with IIIT Director S Selva Kumar and Registrar Amarnath Gill.
• The campus of the IIIT, one of the premier institutes, had been constructed on a 560-acre plot.
• According to the Union Minister, a sum of Rs 128 crore has been spent on the construction of the academic campus and hostels, adding that the newly constructed IIIT building would be dedicated to the nation as soon as the sports infrastructure was complete.

• The Himachal Government and Skye Air signed an agreement to enable drone delivery within the state, which faces severe connectivity issues due to difficult terrain.
• The agreement was formalised in the presence of Mukesh Repaswal, Managing Director, HPSEDC, and Anil Semwal, General Manager, HP State Electronics Development Corporation (HPSEDC), and Shrikant Sarda, co-founder and director (Govt Business), Skye Air Mobility.
• The drone technology-based logistics firm has entered into an agreement with the HPSEDC to lend its support by offering payload as service throughout the state.
• The empanelment of various drone service providers and companies is being carried out as part of the Project GARUD. Skye Air has been empaneled with the HPSEDC for the provision of drones as a service.
• Skye Air will be using its most reliable UAV, Skye Ship One, to facilitate real-time deliveries. It has already undertaken two successful drone delivery projects in Himachal in the past.
• It delivered vaccines and medicines over a distance of 12 km from Dharamsala to Tanda Medical College using its small category drone named Skye Ship One.
• In February this year, the technology was used in Chamba district to connect six primary health centres and community health centres via multiple flights between points covering an aerial distance of 170 km throughout the trial.

• Arjun Babuta came up with a stunning performance to register a scintillating victory against Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Lucas Kozeniesky of America to win the men’s 10m Air Rifle event in the ongoing ISSF World Cup.
• According to Arjun Babuta , Khelo India has helped a lot in shaping and preparing for big events and taught me how to handle pressure. Khelo Games acts as a launchpad for Indian athletes and does help a lot in the overall development.
• The 23-year-old shooter is from Punjab.

• According to the Ministry of Science and Technology that Scientists have identified co-dopants that can increase the photovoltaic performance of transparent metal oxides such as ZnO, In2O3 and SnO2 thereby creating potential for more efficient, better performing and more stable solar cells.
• The study has been published in the Journal of Power Resources shows the benefits of codopants in increasing the photovoltaic performance, repeatability, and stability in solar devices.
• Perovskites are a leading candidate for eventually replacing silicon as the material of choice for solar panels. Perovskite solar cell consists of a perovskite layer as the light absorber, sandwiched between the electron transport layer (ETL) coated with transparent conducting glass and hole transport layer (HTL) coated with a metal back contact electrode.
• A research team from Department of Physics, Alagappa University group focused on the electron transport layer of solar cell devices which is made up of transparent metal oxides.
• Cross-sectional morphologies of Perovskite films that had been prepared were analysed utilising Field emission Scanning Electron Microscopy, while elemental and chemical characteristics were examined using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS, Kratos AXIS Supra) supported by DST-Promotion of University Research and Scientific Excellence (PURSE).
• The study concluded that perovskite materials-based solar cells are cost-effective compared to commercial silicon-based solar cells.

• According to recent health report by ASSOCHAM, Air pollution is the topmost cause for the rising burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like hypertension, diabetes, stroke, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in India.
• According to the report, 76 percent of the population with NCDs is exposed to high air pollution. It also suggests that nearly 29 per cent of the population is exposed to high levels of household pollution, while 20 per cent is exposed to air pollution at the workplace.
• According to the report, after pollution, low physical activity and high stress levels are the most prevalent factors, while alcohol consumption, smoking and excessive intake of sugary drinks and red meat are the least prevalent factors leading to NCDs.
• “The report makes an alarming observation that NCDs increase after 18 years and show a quantum leap when an individual crosses the age of 35. More than two-thirds of people suffering from these diseases are in the most productive life age group – between 26 and 50 years.
• The recent Covid onslaught and the higher mortality rate among patients with NCDs (comorbidities) have brought the focus back on preventive healthcare. “Despite challenging circumstances, several laudable steps have been taken by the Government of India to address this mounting concern. A population-based initiative for screening, prevention, and control of common NCDs has been rolled out under the National Health Mission and as part of Comprehensive Primary Healthcare.
• The preventive aspect of NCDs is also strengthened through the Ayushman Bharat Health Wellness Centre scheme by promotion of wellness activities and targeted communication at the community level.
• The rising levels of pollution across the country especially pose a serious threat to expecting mothers. Multiple studies have established a direct link between air pollution and premature birth.
• According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the annual deaths caused by NCDs will increase to 55 million by 2030, if timely preventive interventions are not made.
• For India, a vast population combined with rapid urbanization and people’s changing lifestyle makes the problem even more complex.