• World Veterinary Day is observed on the last Saturday of April every year. This year it falls on 30th April 2022. World Veterinary Association was established with an objective to provide global leadership for the veterinary profession and promote animal health and welfare and public health through advocacy, education, and partnership.
• The theme for World Veterinary Day 2022 is “Strengthening Veterinary Resilience”. This essentially means providing veterinary doctors with all kinds of help, and resources they require in their journey.
• In 2001 World veterinary Association came up with World veterinary day. It all started with an international veterinary congress meeting led by a person named John Gamgee who was a veterinary college professor.

Recent Context

• The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) engineering marvel, Atal Tunnel, built-in Rohtang in Himachal Pradesh, received the Indian Building Congress (IBC) ‘Best Infrastructure Project’ award in New Delhi.

About Atal Tunnel

• The 9.02-km tunnel is the longest highway tunnel in the world above the height of 3,000 metres.
• It cuts through a mountain west of the Rohtang pass and shortens the distance between Solang Valley and Sissu by around 46 km and takes around 15 minutes to cover. Earlier, it would take nearly 4 hours to travel between the two points.
• Rohtang Pass is located in the state of Himachal Pradesh.
• It is present on the Pir Panjal Range of Himalayas.
• The tunnel, built using the New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM), was dedicated to the nation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 3, 2020.
• Fires inside the tunnel will be controlled within an area of 200 metres, and fire hydrants are provided at specific locations throughout the tunnel.
• Pollution sensors continuously monitor the air quality in the tunnel, and if the air quality is below the desired level, fresh air is injected into the tunnel via two heavy-duty fans on each side of the tunnel.

Recent Context:

• The World Bank has approved a USD 47 million projects to support the Government of India’s Mission Karmayogi, a national program to build civil service capacity. There are nearly 18 million civil servants employed across India, with approximately two-thirds at the state government and local authority levels.
• The Bank’s financing aims to support the Government’s objectives of enhancing the functional and behavioural competencies of approximately four million civil servants. It will focus on three components: the development and implementation of competency frameworks; the development of an integrated learning platform; and program monitoring, evaluation, and management.

About Mission Karmayogi: : National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building (NPCSCB)

Launch Year: 2014

Aim & Objective

• Building a future-ready civil service with the right attitude, skills and knowledge, aligned to the vision of New India.
• To prepare Indian civil servants for the future by making them more creative, constructive, imaginative, proactive, innovative, progressive, professional, energetic, transparent, and technology-enabled.
• Comprehensive reform of the capacity building apparatus at the individual, institutional and process levels for efficient public service delivery.

Funding:

• A sum of Rs 510.86 crore will be spent over a period of 5 years from 2020-21 to 2024-25.
• The expenditure is partly funded by multilateral assistance to the tune of $50 million.

Six Pillars of NPCSCB are:

• Policy Framework
• Institutional Framework
• Competency Framework
• Digital learning Framework
• The electronic Human Resource Management System
• The monitoring and evaluation system

Features of the scheme:

• IGOT Platform: The capacity building will be delivered through iGOT Karmayogi digital platform, with content drawn from global best practices.
• The platform will act as a launchpad for the National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building (NPCSCB).
• Rules based to Roles based : The programme will support a transition from “rules-based to roles based” Human Resource Management (HRM) so that work allocations can be done by matching an official’s competencies to the requirements of the post.
• Apart from domain knowledge training, the scheme will focus on “functional and behavioural competencies” as well, and also includes a monitoring framework for performance evaluations.
• Integrated Initiative: Eventually, service matters such as confirmation after probation period, deployment, work assignments and notification of vacancies will all be integrated into the proposed framework.

Why in news?

• Russia has withdrawn from unwto amid ukraine conflict, losing with immediate effect its rights and privileges as part of un specialized agency.
• Unwto is United Nations agency responsible for promotion of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism.
• Headquarters are based in madrid, spain since 1976.
• India is the founder member of unwto.

Why in news?

• Ministry of Rural Development launched 90 days AKAM campaign.
• The campaign aims to saturate 17 schemes of 9 Ministries in 75 selected districts across the country.
• Identified districts are aligned with birth place of 99 Freedom Fighters, who made the ultimate sacrifice for nation during India’s struggle for independence.
• Goal of campaign- To reach out to person at bottom of pyramid in rural areas by each of the participating ministries/departments.

Why in news?

• Hatti community of Sirmaur district in Himachal Pradesh have been demanding for inclusion under the Scheduled Tribe (ST) list since 1967 when Hatti from Jaunsar Bawar of Uttarakhand were included in ST list.
• The community in both the states are divided by Giri and Tons rivers but have similar traditions, and inter-marriages are commonplace.
• The Hattis are a close-knit community who got their name from their tradition of selling home grown vegetables, crops, meat and wool etc. at small markets called ‘haat’ in towns.

Why in news?

• The Ministry of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME) launched a revamped ZED Certification Scheme (originally launched in 2016), with an aim to make Indian companies globally competitive and help them get easier access to capital.
• MSMEs will get subsidy as per the following structure, on the cost of ZED certification:
  • Micro Enterprises: 80%
  • Small Enterprises: 60%
  • Medium Enterprises: 50%
• There is also provision for additional subsidy for Women/SC/ST Entrepreneurs or MSMEs in NER/Himalayan/LWE/Island territories/aspirational districts.
• It will cover both manufacturing (first phase) and services sector (2nd phase).

Why in news?

• Department of Posts has started providing NPS services through online mode.
• Any Citizen of India in age group of 18 to 70 years can avail this online facility.
• Subscribers are eligible for a tax deduction in NPS as per declaration made by Ministry of Finance under section 80CCD 1(B).
• NPS is voluntary Pension Scheme, regulated by Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA), through its designated post offices since 2010.
• NPS Trust is registered owner of all assets under NPS.

Why in news?

• The city of Agra in Uttar Pradesh has become the first in India to adopt vacuum-based sewer. These vacuum sewers will be placed in public areas. The maintenance and complete care of the sewers for up to five years will be done by the Netherlands company.
• The vacuum sewer is expected to be deployed in Kochi Municipal Corporation in Kerala after a successful trial in Agra.
• This technology is presently being employed in low-lying areas. Agra Smart City Ltd. has connected roughly 240 houses in the low-lying area near the Taj Mahal to a vacuum-based sewer system for Rs. 5 crores, where traditional sewer systems cannot be utilized.
• In this area, 112 chambers have been built with Geographic Information System (GIS)- based sensors to help locate the chamber’s position and the problem.
• The sewer connection project is estimated to cost Rs. 100 crores. iv.A 53-km sewer pipe has been installed, connecting 60,000 houses.

Why in news?

• Jamtara in Jharkhand has become the only district in the country where all gram panchayats have community libraries. This district with a population of about eight lakh has a total of 118-gram panchayats under six blocks and each panchayat has a well-equipped library that is open for students from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Career counselling sessions and motivational classes are also held free of cost here. Sometimes, IAS and IPS officers also visit these libraries to guide students. Everyone is welcome to visit these innovative sites.
• Gradually, libraries were set up in panchayats such as Chandradeep, Panjaniya, Menjhia, Gopalpur, Shaharpura, Champapur, and Jhilua.The villagers elected a President, Treasurer, and Librarian from amongst themselves, to run these libraries.