Uttarakhand Affairs
IISWC and Sparsh Himalaya sign MoU
The Indian Institute of and Water Conservation (ICAR-IISWC) and Sparsh Himalaya have signed a memorandum of understanding to execute inter-organisational collaborative engagements to promote Himalayan Ecosystems, people and Resources.
ICAR-IISWC director M Madhu informed that the MoU is aimed at stimulating and facilitating collaboration and promoting mutually-interested common programmes that help advance the interests of the Himalayan ecosystems and related intellectual life and cultural development. National and international level collaborative programmes and engagements for enhanced outreach, and awareness on technological outcomes and success stories would also be aimed at through this MoU.
The potential areas of collaboration include research, training, capacity building, experience sharing, and knowledge management in the domain of rural development and natural resource-based sustainable livelihood promotion.
Immediately, bothorganisations are developing a joint plan for a national conference in January 2022 on the technological contributions and success stories of the research and development organisations working on the welfare of the Himalayas.
National and International Affairs
Only 56% Of Funds Utilized By States In Last 3 Years For The Nutrition Mission.
State Governments and Union Territories have utilized only 56% of the total budgets released under Poshan Abhiyan or Nutrition Mission in the earlier 3 years.
Highlights:
On December 8, the Minister for Women & Child Development, Smriti Irani, mentioned this in Parliament.
The central government emphasized that out of the total share of Rs 5312 between financial years 2019 to 2021, Rs 2985 crore was utilized.
Poshan Abhiyan was established in March 2018 to facilitate stunting, low birth weight, undernutrition challenges by 2% per year.
It also aims to decrease anaemia among young children, women and adolescents by 3% by 2022.
POSHAN Maah was followed in September 2018 to improve nutritional consequences for adolescent girls, children, pregnant women, and lactating mothers.
Art and Surrogacy Bill Passed In Rajya Sabha
On December 8, 2021, the Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill was passed in Lok Sabha.
Highlights:
The Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill was recently passed in the Lok Sabha which intends to regulate ART but then referred the bill to a standing committee.
ART covers all methods that are used to get pregnant. The procedures shall incorporate handling oocytes (immature eggs) or sperms outside the body.
It shall also involve giving the embryo into the womans body.
The ART Services shall cover the following: Donation of sperm or oocytes, In Vitro Fertilisation – fertilizing an egg and a sperm in the lab, Gestational Surrogacy – child carried by biological mother or surrogate mother.
The bill states that every ART bank or clinic should be listed under the National Registry of Banks and Clinics of India. The bill will authorize the National Registry.
The registry will act as a Database holding details of the hospitals and banks providing ART services.
UNICEF India to roll out five-year plan
UNICEF India is designing an ambitious and innovative five-year programme, comprising of social policy as a priority across all the sectors.
While designing the new programme, UNICEF wanted to talk with all the stakeholders and get details on how what could be done better in the new Environment post COVID-19 and where <a href="https://exam.pscnotes.com/Climate-change”>Climate Change was a major priority.
Covid-19 and climate change had exacerbated the Learning crisis. Around 286 million children had been affected in India. This number excluded the millions out of school because of several reasons.
Key Findings of the report
In the report, Europe has dominated the ranking in 2021. Global top 10 countries are from this region.
Switzerland has retained its top spot.
The UAE continues have improved its global talent ranking. Ranking has improved by one position to 23rd. In 2019, it was ranked at 30th
In the Arab world, UAE maintained its top position.
In the Middle East & North Africa, UAE maintained its second position, following Israel (first in this region).
The ranking is structured based on three factors:
and development,
Appeal and
Readiness
World Talent Ranking report
IMD World Competitive Centre published its World Talent Ranking Report on December 9, 2021.
This report is annually published by the IMD World Competitive Centre.
Report grades 64 economies on the basis of a range of factors like:
How economies invest in and develop local personnel
Their ability to attract & retain skilled workers, and
Quality of domestic talent pools.