GS PAPER: II

Private universities in India

Why in the news?

• According to the Ministry of Education statistics, a total of 140 private universities were established across the country during the last five years with a maximum of them being set up in Gujarat, followed by Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.

About the report

• 28 private universities were established in Gujarat during the last five years, while 15 universities were set up in Maharashtra.
• Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka welcomed 14 and 10 universities respectively during the period.
• Seven private universities were established in Chhattisgarh in the last five years, while Jharkhand and Rajasthan got six universities each during the period.
• Five universities each were established in Bihar, Odisha, Uttarakhand and Telangana, while four each were set up in Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Manipur, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Sikkim, and Uttar Pradesh.

About Private Universities

• A private university is established by an Act passed by the State legislature concerned and notification issued by the State government concerned. Such private universities are empowered to award general degree programmes without the specific approval of the UGC.
• However, the approvals for running professional and medical programmes are given by the respective regulatory or statutory bodies, and such programmes are governed by the norms of respective bodies such as the All Indian Council for Technical Education, National Medical Commission, and the Dental Council of India.

GS PAPER – II

Rescue of Rohingyas

Why in the news?

• Recently the United Nations called for the urgent rescue of 185 people, mainly women and children, on a distressed boat last heard to be near the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Indian Ocean.

About report

• Around 70 of those onboard are children and 88 are women.
• At least a dozen are feared to be in critical condition with one individual reported to have already died.
• Many more could die under the watch of numerous coastal states without timely rescue and disembarkation to the nearest place of safety.
• According to UNHCR More than 2,000 Rohingya are believed to have attempted the risky journey to Southeast Asian countries in 2022.
• And since last year, more than 570 people, including Rohingya refugees, have been reported dead or missing at sea in the region.

About Rohingyas

• Rohingya, an ethnic group, mostly Muslim, hail from the Rakhine province of west Myanmar, and speak a Bengali dialect.
• They comprise one million out of the 53 million people that live in Myanmar, forming the world’s largest stateless population in a single country.
• Universally reviled by the country’s Buddhist majority, they have been oppressed by the government since the late 1970s when the government launched a campaign to identify ‘illegal immigrants’.
• Serious abuses were committed, forcing as many as 250,000 Rohingya refugees to flee to Bangladesh.
• The 1982 Citizenship Law in former Burma made the Rohingyas stateless people.
• They have often been called the most persecuted minority in the world.
• The 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims squeezed precariously into the northwest state of Rakhine, in mainly Buddhist Burma, bordering majority Muslim Bangladesh, are stateless and unwanted.

Why are they stateless?

• To qualify for citizenship, Rohingya applicants had to renounce their identity and accept being labelled as ‘Bengalis’ on all official documents.
• They also had to prove that they could trace the presence of their family in Rakhine back three generations.
• This is extremely difficult as many Rohingya lack documents or had lost them in 2012.

Why did the Crisis happen?

• Since World War II they have been treated increasingly by Burmese authorities as illegal, interloping Bengalis, facing apartheid-like conditions that deny them free movement or state education.
• The army “clearing operations” sparked the mass exodus of Rohingyas in both October 2016.
• In August 2017, were launched after insurgents known as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) attacked several paramilitary check posts.
• Rohingya activists claim the insurgents are mainly young men who have been pushed to breaking point by relentless oppression.

GS PAPER – II

Tanker with Indian crew hit by drone in Red sea

Why in news?

• An Indian flagged crude oil tanker in the Red sea was hit by a drone fired by Houthi militants, according to US military. The tanker reported no injuries from the strike.

How it happened?

• A Gabon filled commercial crude oil tanker with 25 Indian crew members reportedly come under a drone attack in the southern Red sea.
• Indian officials and the U.S. military informed about the attack.
• The U.S central command said the vessel MV Sai Baba was targeted by a drone launched by Houthi militants.
• This attack is a day after merchant vessel MV chem. Pluto with around 20 Indian crew members, was hit by a suspended drone about 217 nautical miles off the porbander coast in the Arabian Sea.
• All 25 crew members of MV Sai Baba are learned to be Indians.

What is MV Sai Baba?

• MV sai baba is a Gabon flagged vessel and it has received a certification from the Indian register of shipping.
• The US central command described the vessel as an Indian flagged tanker.

Why was the attack?

• The fresh attack came against the backdrop of Iran-backed Houthi rebels stepping up attacks on ships in the Red sea amid the Israel – Hamas conflict.
• The US central command is one of the key unified combatant commands of US.

GS PAPER – III

COVID-19: Detection of new variant JN.1 and WHO

Why in news?

• The World health organisation has urged the countries in Southeast Asia to strengthen surveillance in view of the increasing cases of respiratory disease including Covid 19 and its JN.1 variant and influenza

What is COVID-19?

• COVID-19 is the disease caused by SARS- CoV -2, the corona virus that emerged in December 2019. COVID-19 can be severe, and has caused millions of deaths around the world as well as lasting health problems in some who survived the illness.

What is JN.1 variant?

• The WHO has classified JN.1 as variant of interest following its rapid global spread.
• JN.1 is reported in multiple countries and its prevalence has been rapidly increasing globally
• It is currently evaluated as low at the global level.
• This variant may cause an increase in number of covid 19 cases amid surge of other viral and bacterial infections especially in the countries entering the winter season.

History of COVID-19 in India

• On January 20, the first case of coronavirus was registered in Kerala.
• On March 12, the first death from coronavirus was registered in the country.
• On March 25, lockdown announced in all over the country which kept on extending till July 2020.Afterwards cases starts declining.
• During March 2021 it began again to and this time more disastrous than before.
• During January 2021 the vaccination of Covid 19 started.