GS PAPER II NEWS
Mission Van Dhan
Why in News
- Keeping in line with the Prime Minister’s call for “Atmanirbhar Bharat” aligned to the slogan of “Be Vocal for Local Buy Tribal”, towards realizing the goal of “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas” and the Sankalp made in the Sankalp Patra 2019, TRIFED has been implementing “ Sankalp Se Siddhi – Mission Van Dhan”.
Key Point
- As part of this initiative, Mission Van Dhan was launched by Minister for Tribal Affairs on 15th June 2021. The Mission targeted the establishment of 50,000 Van Dhan SHGs subsumed into 3000 Van Dhan Vikas Kendra Clusters (VDVKCs).
Through its extensive ecosystem of partners involving State Nodal Department, State implementing agencies, convergence partners, reputed training institutions, established over the past few years, to systematically and efficiently implement the scheme.- Keeping in line with the Prime Minister’s call for “Atmanirbhar Bharat” aligned to the slogan of “Be Vocal for Local Buy Tribal”, towards realizing the goal of “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas” and the Sankalp made in the Sankalp Patra 2019, TRIFED has been implementing “ Sankalp Se Siddhi – Mission Van Dhan”.
- As part of this initiative, Mission Van Dhan was launched by Minister for Tribal Affairs on 15th June 2021. The Mission targeted the establishment of 50,000 Van Dhan SHGs subsumed into 3000 Van Dhan Vikas Kendra Clusters (VDVKCs).
- Through its extensive ecosystem of partners involving State Nodal Department, State implementing agencies, convergence partners, reputed training institutions, established over the past few years, to systematically and efficiently implement the scheme.
Background
- TRIFED has been implementing several noteworthy initiatives for the empowerment of the tribals. In fact over the past two years, The ‘Mechanism for Marketing of Minor Forest Produce (MFP) through Minimum Support Price (MSP) & Development of Value Chain for MFP’ has impacted the tribal ecosystem.
- The term Van Dhan was coined by the Prime Minister while inaugurating the scheme at Bijapur, Chhattisgarh on 14 April 2019.
- A component of the same scheme, this is a programme for value addition, branding & marketing of Minor Forest Produces by establishing Van Dhan Kendras to facilitate creation of sustainable livelihoods for the forest-based tribes.
- It has emerged as a source of employment generation for tribal gatherers and forest dwellers and the home-bound tribal artisans.52976 Van Dhan SHGs subsumed into 3110 VDVK Clusters covering 9.27 Lakh beneficiaries in 27 States/UTs, have been formed.
- Training of clusters completed, advance training through “TECH for Tribal” programme in association with reputed institutions like IITs, TISS etc for 36925 Beneficiaries underway. All active clusters have initiated MFP procurement operations out of which around 1600 clusters started to value and processing operations.
- A number of success stories have emerged and sales of more than of Rs. 1500 lakhs have been achieved. In addition, two mega MFP Processing Projects in Jagdalpur (Bastar) Chhattisgarh, and Raigad, Maharashtra, are at advanced stages of completion.
- The Enterprise approach under the Mission will provide economies of scale and help in fostering Tribal entrepreneurship on a large scale with participation of NGOs, creating tribal owned, tribal managed production units while leveraging all existing funds and resource pools.
GS PAPER II
ASEM Summit
Why in News
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- Addressing the first plenary session of the 13th ASEM Summit, the Vice President said that the world today is facing and grappling with acute economic, technological and security challenges.
- He also said that reforms are still needed as the existing multilateral system has failed to effectively respond to these challenges.
Key point
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- Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu has emphasized the need for reform of the United Nations Security Council and other major international organizations to enable them to reflect contemporary realities and deal with contemporary challenges.
- The two-day summit is being hosted by Cambodia in virtual mode and its theme is “Strengthening Multilateralism for Shared Development”.
Vice President’s Address at ASEM-13: Key Points
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- Noting that without peace, development suffers, Naidu also highlighted that lack of development and stunted economic progress provides fertile ground for violence and instability.
- Therefore, he called for efforts to boost economic activity and enhance livelihood security, suggesting that this would go a long way in the revival of countries adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Stressing the need to reduce the causes of persistent insecurity at the global level, the Vice President also highlighted the need to reform the international structure responsible for maintaining global peace and security.
- Recognizing that the challenges of today’s dynamic and interdependent world cannot be solved with outdated systems that were designed to address the challenges of the past, Naidu expressed his ambition to reimagine international cooperation and further expressed the urgent need to expand.
- “It is the lack of a coordinated global response that has exposed the shortcomings and weaknesses of the multilateral system, as seen today.” he adds.
- The Vice President reiterated that the pandemic has exposed loopholes ranging from unreliable global supply chains to uneven vaccine distribution, underscoring the need for global solidarity and strengthening multilateralism.
- The Vice President also congratulated all the participating members on the 25th anniversary of the ASEM process established in the year 1996. Praising ASEM for bringing together leaders and peoples of both continents to address issues of global concern, they reaffirmed India’s commitment to work towards strengthening the forces of cooperative multilateralism.
GS PAPER II
MGNREGA Scheme
Why in News
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- Government of India has allocated more than Rs 10000 crore for MNREGA scheme on November 25, 2021.
Key point
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- The Government of India, while allocating the funds, said that Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGA) is a demand based scheme.
- The Central Government also clarified that, during the financial year 2021-2022, more than 240 crore person-days have been created so far.
- In addition, over Rs 68,568 crore has been released for the implementation of the scheme in the States and UTs.
- Increased allocation for MNREGA scheme in India
- The Central Government has increased the said fund allocation for the financial year 2021-22 by 18 percent as per the budget estimate as compared to the previous financial year.
- The ministry had so far allocated an additional amount of Rs 50,000 crore for the MGNREGA scheme over and above the budget estimate.
- Recently, the Finance Ministry has allocated an additional amount of Rs 10,000 crore for this scheme as an interim measure.
Mahatma Gandhi Employment Guarantee Act, 2005
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- MGNREGA is an Indian labor law and social security measure, implemented with the aim of guaranteeing the ‘right to work’ in India.
- This act was passed on August 23, 2005 under the government of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.
- The objective of the Act is to enhance livelihood security in rural areas by creating at least 100 days of wage employment in every household for unskilled adult members in a financial year.
Background
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- The proposal of this Act Narasimha Rao in the year 1991.
- It was accepted in the Parliament and implemented in 625 districts of India.
- After this, the scope of NREGA was extended to cover all the districts of India with effect from 1st April 2008.
GS PAPER III
Agriculture law withdrawal bill passed
Why in News
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- After being passed in the Lok Sabha on the very first day of the winter session of Parliament, the Agricultural Laws Repeal Bill, 2021 has also been passed in the Rajya Sabha. Amidst heavy uproar and sloganeering by the opposition in both the houses, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar introduced the agriculture law withdrawal bill.
Key point
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- Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar introduced the Agricultural Law Return Bill on 29 November 2021.
- This session of Parliament will run from November 29 to December 23. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had recently announced the decision to withdraw three agricultural laws and after this the Union Cabinet approved the bill to repeal these three laws.
- Before the winter session, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that this is an important session of Parliament. The citizens of the country want a productive session. They are fulfilling their responsibilities for a bright future. The government is ready to discuss every subject, ready to have an open discussion. He said that the government is ready to answer every question.
Agricultural law
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- The Agricultural Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill 2020 states that farmers can now sell food grains to anyone outside the APMC mandis. No duty will be levied on this, whereas the purchase of agricultural products in APMC mandis has different mandi charges and other cesses in different states.
- Provision for contract farming was made in the second law Price Assurance and Agricultural Services on Farmers’ Empowerment and Protection Contract Bill 2020. In this, it was said that by contracting with the companies and sellers doing agricultural business, it was said to sell their crops in future at a predetermined price.
- The third law was the Essential Commodities (Amendment). In this, a provision was made to remove potato, onion, edible oil, oilseeds and some other agricultural products from the category of essential commodities. This means that they could be stocked as much as they wanted. There was an exemption in the law for the entry of private companies in the agriculture sector.
GS PAPER II
Omicron Corona Virus Edition (Version)
Why in News
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- The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently said that, it is not yet clear whether the new Omicron corona virus variant (version) is more transmissible than other SARS-CoV-2 variants or, Omicron more causes serious illness.
Key point
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- “Preliminary data suggest that the hospitalization rate of patients with corona virus is increasing in South Africa, but not necessarily as a result of specific infection with Omicron, the total number of these corona-infected people is increasing.” – WHO.
- However, this agency has emphasized that, preliminary evidence suggests that this variant may carry a higher risk of reinfection.
- The WHO has also said that it is working with technical experts to understand the potential impact of the said variants on the current response against the COVID-19 disease, including vaccines.
- The WHO further stated that, “There is currently no information to suggest that the symptoms associated with Omicron are different from those of other types of corona virus.”
Major features
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- The WHO added again in its statement that, “The initial reported infections were from university studies – young individuals with a more mild illness of the corona virus – but it took several days to understand the level of severity of Omicron editions.” It will take anywhere from several weeks.”
- WHO further said that PCR tests continue to detect corona infection with Omicron – which was first detected in South Africa earlier this month – and studies are underway to determine whether, faster have any effect on antigen detection tests,
- ‘We stand with African countries’.
- The World Health Organization has urged countries around the world not to impose flight restrictions on southern African countries due to concerns over the new Omicron Edition.
- WHO’s regional director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, has called on countries in the world to follow science and international health regulations to avoid using travel restrictions.
GS PAPER II
Global Observatory on Donation and Transplantation (GODT) Report
Why in News
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- Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) Mansukh Mandaviya recently said that India is now ranked third in the world in organ donation and transplantation as the total number of organ transplants performed per year in the country has increased to 12,746. Has been.
Key point
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- According to the data available on the Global Observatory on Donation and Transplantation (GODT) website, India now ranks third in the world behind only the United States of America and China.
- The organ donation rate has increased almost four times as compared to the year 2012-13. However, we still face a huge gap between the number of patients requiring transplantation and the number of people who consent to organ donation after death.
- Organ donation and transplant activities have been negatively impacted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Indian organ donation day
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- Since the year 2010, Indian Organ Donation Day is celebrated every year to remember the contribution made by the deceased donors and their families to the society.
- In the event, Maharashtra’s State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (SOTTO) won the award for transplanting the highest number of deceased donors, while the Regional Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (ROTTO) for the western region was recognized for the best performance .