Daily Current Affairs for 17th Dec 2021

GS PAPER II NEWS

Basic Literacy Index

• Why in News
  • Recently, the Baseline Literacy Index was released by Bibek Debroy, Chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM).
• Key point
  • West Bengal tops the list of large states in the list of literacy rate among children below 10 years of age in the country.
  • Bihar has been at the bottom of this list by performing poorly.
  • This information has come to the fore in a study conducted by the Institute for Competitiveness on ‘Index on Basic Literacy and Enumeration’. It is an indicator of literacy among children under 10 years of age.
  • The issues focused on making this report are educational infrastructure, access to education, basic health, learning outcomes and governance.
  • Out of the five pillars, it is observed that states have performed particularly poorly in governance, the statement said. According to the statement, more than 50 per cent of the states have scored below the national average i.e. 28.05.
• Kerala tops in the category of small states
  • According to this report, Kerala has topped in the category of small states while Jharkhand has been the worst performing state in the index.
  • The four categories into which the regions are divided are large states, small states, union territories and the Northeast.

How did the big states perform?

STATE	SCORE	RANK
West Bengal	59	1
Tamil Nadu	55	2
Maharashtra	53	3
Karnataka	50	4
Gujarat	50	5
Rajasthan	47	6
Madhya Pradesh	39	7
Uttar Pradesh	38	8
Bihar	37	9

• Top Scoring Regions in the North Eastern State Category
  • The Economic Advisory Council said that the top scoring regions are Kerala (67.95) and West Bengal (58.95) in small and large states respectively.
  • Lakshadweep (52.69) and Mizoram (51.64) are the top scoring regions in the Union Territory and North Eastern States category respectively.

How was the performance of smaller states?

State	Score	Rank
Kerala	68	1
Himachal Pradesh	57	2
Punjab	56	3
Uttarakhand	56	4
Haryana	53	5
Goa	51	6
Chhattisgarh	50	7
Andhra Pradesh	50	8
Telangana	46	9
Odisha	46	10
Jharkhand	45	11

Worst performing sectors

• • Among the worst performing regions, Ladakh is at the bottom of the list of Union Territories, while Arunachal Pradesh ranks last in the Northeast category.
  • The Index on Basic Literacy and Enumeration is a first step in this direction by establishing an understanding of the overall status of basic education among children below ten years of age in the States and Union Territories.

GS PAPER II

Ngadag Pel Gi Khorlo

Why in News

• • The Bhutan government has decided to confer the highest civilian honor of Bhutan ‘Nagdag Pel Ji Khorlo’ on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Key point

• • Another international civilian honor has been added to the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This information has been given by Bhutan Prime Minister Lotay Tshering.
  • So far many countries have honored Prime Minister Modi with their highest civilian honor.
  • Bhutan’s Prime Minister Tshering has said that PM Modi has played an unconditional friendship over the years and has helped immensely during the coronavirus pandemic.
  • Bhutan’s Prime Minister Tshering has told that he has seen PM Modi as a spiritual person. Let us tell you that after becoming the Prime Minister in the year 2014, Narendra Modi made his first foreign visit to Bhutan.
  • Even after becoming PM for the second time in the year 2019, Prime Minister Modi visited Bhutan in the month of August.
  • Relations between India and Bhutan have steadily strengthened in recent years. Experts believe that for these reasons, Prime Minister Modi has been announced to give Bhutan’s highest civilian honor.

Other honors received by the Indian Prime Minister

• • Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Palestine, Russia and Maldives have honored Prime Minister Narendra Modi with their highest civilian honours.
  • Saudi Arabia honored PM Modi with its highest civilian award, the King Abdulaziz Sachs Award, in 2016.
  • Afghanistan had also awarded Ghazi Amir Amanullah Khan the highest civilian honor in the year 2016.
  • Palestine honored PM Modi with its highest civilian honor Grand Collar in February 2018.
  • South Korea had awarded the Seoul Peace Prize to Prime Minister Modi in the year 2018.
  • The United Nations honored PM Modi with the Champions of the Earth Award for his historic work in the field of environment.
  • Russian President Vladimir Putin in the year 2019 awarded PM Modi his country’s highest civilian honor Order of St. Honored by Andrew the Apostle.
  • UAE had rewarded the PM with its highest honor Zayed Medal in the year 2019 itself.
  • Maldives also honored Prime Minister Modi with its highest honor Rule of Izzudeen in the year 2019.

GS PAPER II

Age of marriage of woman

Why in News

• • The Union Cabinet has approved a proposal to increase the age of marriage of a woman from 18 years to 21 years under the law. The legal age of marriage for men in the country is only 21 years.

Key point

• • Prime Minister Narendra Modi had mentioned this in his address from Red Fort on Independence Day last year. It was recommended by the task force headed by Jaya Jaitley in NITI Aayog.
  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing the country on August 15 last year, said that the government is reviewing the age of marriage of girls. He said that a committee has been formed for what should be the correct age of marriage of girls, as soon as its report comes, a proper decision will be taken regarding the age of marriage of daughters.
  • This proposal has been approved by the cabinet in the cabinet meeting on 15 December 2021. The Central Government will present a proposal in the Parliament to amend the existing laws.
  • This was mentioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address from Red Fort on 15 August 2020. The government is going to amend the existing law to implement this law.

What is law?

• • According to the current law, the minimum age of marriage for men in the country is 21 years and the minimum age for women is 18 years.
  • The government is now going to amend the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, and the Hindu Marriage Act.
  • The committee headed by Jaya Jaitley in NITI Aayog had recommended in this regard. The members of this committee are Dr. VK Paul was also there.

Formation of task force

• • The task force was constituted in June 2020. This committee submitted the report of the committee in December 2020.
  • The task force said that, at the time of giving birth to the first child, the age of the daughters should be 21 years.
  • At the same time, delay in marriage has a positive impact on the economic, social and health of families, women, children and society.
  • The age of marriage has increased even before
  • Earlier in 1978, the age of marriage of a woman was increased from 15 to 18 years. As India progressed on the path of development, avenues of education and career also opened up for women.

GS PAPER III

India-Vietnam agreement to enhance cooperation in the field of information technology

Why in News

• • During this, the two ministers also signed an India-Vietnam Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the field of information technology.

Key point

• • Exchanged views on various initiatives taken by both countries to promote digital economy and agreed to further enhance ICT trade and cooperation between the two sides.
  • The MoU intends to promote active cooperation and exchanges between private entities, governments, institutions involved in enhancing the capacity building of both countries and other public and private organizations in the field of ICT.
  • Under the Digital India program, India has made rapid digitization efforts in the last 19 months to address the crisis arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • India’s IT services sector, digital government initiatives and fast-growing tech startup ecosystem have not only shown resilience and maturity to meet the challenges of this pandemic, but are now role models for other developing and less developed countries .
  • There has been an active partnership between India and Vietnam over the years but there is great potential for further cooperation.
  • The common objective of Digital Transformation under Digital India Program and Digital Transformation Vietnam can further enhance cooperation and digital trade between the two sides.