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Daily Current Affairs for UPSC, IAS, UPPSC/UPPCS, BPSC, MPPSC, RPSC and All State PCS Examinations

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Finance Commission holds meeting with Jal Shakti Minister

Why in News ?

• Recently, Chairman of the 15th Finance Commission and other members held a meeting with Minister of Jal Shakti and his team of officials.

About the Meeting :

• The issue was of Commission grants to Rural Local Bodies for provisions of drinking water and sanitation services.
• The Commission raised specific concerns of about 2.5 lakh Panchayati Raj Institutions involved in drinking water supply and sanitation, and
• Their coordination with the ministries of Panchayati Raj and Jal Shakti, and the states.

Finance Commission

• Article 280 of the Constitution of India provides for a quasi-judicial body, the Finance Commission.
• It was formed to define the financial relations between the central government of India and the individual state governments.
• It is constituted by the President of India(1st in 1951) every fifth year or at such earlier time as he considers necessary.
• The recommendations made by the Finance Commission are only advisory in nature and hence, not binding on the government.
• The 15th Finance commission makes recommendations for the period of 2020-2025 (5 years).

• Constituted by the President in November 2017
• It is headed(chairman) by N K Singh.
• Deliberation period is from end of 2017 to end of October 2019.

• The 15th Finance Commission has been set up in a time when important reforms have been taken under like-

• Formation of NITI Aayog.
• Abolition of the planned and non-planned expenditure.
• GST Reforms.

Russia’s Victory Day Parade

Why in NEWS ?

• India will send a 75-member Tri-Service contingent to participate in the military parade in Moscow on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the victory in the Second World War.

About the Victory Day Parade

• Russia commemorates the Soviet Union's victory over the Nazis each year on May 9 with a massive military display that sees thousands of troops and tanks parade through Red Square and military jets fly in formation over the capital.
• President of Russia act as the guest of honour and keynote speaker in virtue of his constitutional mandate as Supreme Commander of the Russian Armed Forces.
• Putin postponed the May 9 parade celebrating Victory Day due to the rapid spread of the coronavirus within Russia.
• Now, Victory Day Parade scheduled to be held on June 24, 2020, in Moscow.

Importance For India

• The participation in the parade will be a mark of tribute and solidarity with the people of Russia at a time when they remember their heroes of the Great Patriotic War.
• The contingent will participate in the parade in Moscow to honour the heroism and sacrifices made by the Russians.
• India is seeing it as an opportunity to deepen the relations with old friend Russia balancing the Indian tilt towards USA and in background of India-China military adventure in Ladakh.

e-Learning in a pandemic-hit India:

About:

• With over 320 million students affected in the country due to COVID-19, a pandemic-stricken India brings a shock to an education system that is already facing problem in handling the transition to distance learning or e-learning solutions.
• With educational institutions still closed, the idea and implementation of viable solutions to provide unhindered education to students has been on the minds of the government, policymakers and concerned citizens.

Government Initiatives

The Ministry of Human Resource Development has launched numerous e-learning projects and initiatives that serve as valuable resources for both students and educators.

• Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman, introduced several initiatives and reforms to enhance the education sector. Laying emphasis on technology-driven education, she announced the launch of the PM e-VIDYA initiative, a program that would serve as a unifier of all modes (online, digital, on-air) of education in the country, allowing for easy, multi-modal access.
• She also announced three new initiatives focused on providing students, teachers and their families with psycho-social support during the pandemic, achieving literacy and numeracy targets countrywide, and attaining global education standards.
• HRD Minister reported that these initiatives have seen a sharp increase in access during the nationwide lockdown imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• While the country has adopted these measures as short-term, crisis-combating solutions, these new initiatives and a transition to e-learning will address some of our society’s most pressing problems and change the nature of our education system wholly. To ensure widespread access to these opportunities, however, a number of steps need to be taken which have their own challenges-

1. Opportunity : Access to online education for women

Literacy rates are higher for males than for females, and in urban as compared to rural areas. Interestingly, across levels of education, more females are enrolled in school than males. But the number of female students that actually attend classes is questionable as-

• Parents are reluctant and sometimes outrightly refuse to send their daughters to school, often citing the non-necessity of obtaining an education, care-giving responsibilities and family obligations as reasons.
• Other factors that come in to play are those of safety and wellbeing. Long distances between home and school, lack of sanitation facilities, availability of proper meals are all causes of concern.

Online education as a solution for females

• Availing online education may ease parents’ concerns about their daughters’ safety when it comes to going to school.
• Female students may take classes in the comfort of their own homes, without having to make long, sometimes dangerous, commutes to places of education.
• New e-learning initiatives would allow women to pursue their education and targeted skill building programmes online.

With newly acquired skills, they could also take up jobs that allow them to work remotely, allowing them flexibility while providing them with a stable source of income.

2. Challenge: Availability of Safe spaces

Learning cannot take place in a disruptive environment.

• For many students, the inability to go to school means staying back in abusive homes, where they are subjected to the trauma of domestic abuse. There is a concerning pandemic-related surge in cases of domestic violence worldwide.
• Female students in India suffer at the hands of abuse and violence, poverty, child marriage, lack of care and nutrition, and outdated patriarchal ideas that has acted as hindrance in education.
• These glaring realities point to the urgent need of the government to ensure the implementation of more targeted social safety nets, welfare and protection schemes, and the easy availability of counselling services to those in need. Dismantling patriarchal mindsets will take time, but all efforts need to be made to ensure the protection of the some of the most vulnerable members of society.

3. Challenge: Infrastructure capacity building

For families that choose to support their children’s education even in these hard times, a lack of access to infrastructure may be detrimental to their children’s learning. The available tools of imparting e-learning are-

• TV in India has penetration of about 64 percent, with 183 million households owing at least one TV.
• Radio (AM) reaches 99 percent of the Indian population, and FM radio reaches 65 percent.
• India has the second largest number of Internet users in the world i.e. over 560 million. A notable statistic is that a majority of Indians (29 percent in 2018) accessed the Internet via their mobile phones, reportedly due to affordable and accessible data plans.

While these numbers may seem impressive, India still has a long way to go to ensure that its citizens are able to easily access and properly utilize these services.

• If digital and electronic devices provided for free under government welfare schemes, NGOs, and corporate CSR initiatives, those who needed them the most would greatly benefit.
• Another viable alternative would be the availability of loans on easy terms and low-or-no-interest EMI schemes to make purchasing these devices easier.
• The government must also work towards strengthening the country’s telecom infrastructure to make it more robust to be able to support digital remote learning.

Way Forward

• The COVID-19 pandemic has driven the government, policymakers and educators to innovate and implement dynamic digital learning initiatives, and encouraged students and their families to access and familiarise themselves with these new forms of learning.
• This challenging moment in history should be taken as a powerful step to rethink and revamp the country’s education sector and propel the country’s youth forward to take on a post-pandemic world.
• In creating an environment for the assimilation of education and technology, as educational institutions reopen, the country must not revert to its old ways but take the next steps to embracing the “new normal.”

The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC)

IN NEWS

• The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has rolled out a unique project to produce Neera and Palmgur which has huge potential to create employment in the country.

ABOUT

• This project aims at promoting Neera as a substitute to soft drinks while also creating self-employment to Adivasis and traditional trappers.
• KVIC distributed tool kits for extraction of Neera and making palmgur to 200 local artisans who were given 7 days training by KVIC
• Neera, extracted from the palm trees before sunrise, is a nutrient-rich health drink consumed in many Indian states.

KVIC

• The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) is a statutory body formed in April 1957 (as per an RTI) by the Government of India, under the Act of Parliament, 'Khadi and Village Industries Commission Act of 1956'.
• It is an apex organisation under the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, with regard to khadi and village industries within India, which seeks to - "plan, promote, facilitate, organise and assist in the establishment and development of khadi and village industries in the rural areas in coordination with other agencies engaged in rural development wherever necessary."

Why this initiative required?

• The project has been rolled out on the initiative of Ministry of MSME who is also exploring the feasibility of engaging some big players of the state to start using Neera as soft drinks to make it commercially useful.
• Also, due to lack of institutionalized market technique, the commercial production and large scale marketing of Neera has not commenced yet.

KHELO INDIA STATE CENTRES OF EXCELLENCE

IN NEWS

• The Sports Ministry is all set to establish Khelo India State Centers of Excellence under the Khelo India Scheme.

IMPLEMENTATION

• Centre will be identified in each State and Union Territory with an aim to create a robust sporting ecosystem in the entire country.
• In the first leg, the Ministry has identified state-owned sports facilities in eight states including Karnataka, Odisha, Kerala, Telengana, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland which will be upgraded into Khelo India State Centre of Excellence.
• The State and Union Territory will run the centre and build capacity to turn it into the world-class sporting facility. .
• They will be responsible for all aspects of management of the centre including, boarding, lodging and maintenance, while funds for expert coaches, supporting staff, equipments, infrastructure will be extended through the Khelo India Scheme.

PURPOSE

• These centres are being established to strengthen India’s pursuit for excellence in Olympics. Effort is to scale up the best sporting facilities available in each state into academies of world-class standard.
• The sporting facilities have been identified after in-depth analysis by a government committee and this step will tap the talents from across the country and will prove beneficial in training of athletes.

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