What to read on 20th January

Polity, Governance and Policies

SC Collegium firm on appointing gay lawyer as HC judge (Page;1)

Judging a decade of the POCSO Act (Page;10)

Will take a decision on plea on Ram Setu soon, Centre tells SC (Page;12)

Scrapping of scheme did not raise price of rice: Food Secretary (Page;12)

Women officers in command soon (Page;14)

Economy

National Export Cooperative Society to trade nano fertilizers, dairy products in months  (Page;12)

RBI to guide inflation towards 4% target by 2024: officials  (Page;16)

SC rejects Google’s plea against NCLAT order in Android case  (Page;16)

‘Indian gold exporters must expand avenues  (Page;16)

‘UAE, India discuss rupee nonoil trade’  (Page;16)

Security Issues

We want normal ties with Pak., says MEA (Page;1)

Society

Wrestlers to step up protest (Page;1)

Ryots up in arms about integrated master plan of Kamareddy ((Page :6)

Man who dug hundreds of surangas ends life (Page;9)

Interested party (Page;10)

Flip the page to the chapter on middle schoolchildren (Page;10)

Environment

Munnar freezes at –2 degrees Celsius (Page;9)

Science & Technology

What is key to controlling diabetes? Awareness or wealth?  (Page;11)

Hyderabad

FCA to be shown on power bills from April 1 (Page;1)

Microsoft plans three more data centres in Telangana with ₹16,000 crore (Page;2)

 

 

 

 

Neelakurinji plant

It is rarest of rare plant species that grows in Western Ghats and does not grow in any other part of the world.

Neelakurinji is a tropical plant species. The flower has no smell or any medicinal value. The flowers of Neelakurinji are purple-blue in colour and blooms once in 12 years.

It is because of these flowers, Nilgiri hills in southern tip of Western Ghats are called blue mountains.

It is native to Shola forests in Western Ghats.

It is also seen in Shevroys Hills in Eastern Ghats, Anamalai hills and Agali hills in Kerala and Sanduru hills in Karnataka.

It grows at height of 30 to 60 cm on hills slopes at an altitude of 1300 to 2400 meters where there is no tree forest.

Paliyan tribal people living in Tamil Nadu use this flower bloom as reference to calculate their age.

In ancient Tamil literature, kurinji flowers symbolize love.

It has been categorized as endangered species.

 

 

 National Coal Index:

Why in news: Coal Ministry Offered relaxation in Revision of Performance Bank Guarantee and extended Bid due date for Commercial Coal Block auction upto January 30.

During the launching of the sixth-round commercial coal mines’ auction for 141 coal mines, the ministry of Coal decided to annually revise the Performance Bank Guarantee (PBG) based on the National Coal Index (NCI) for April at the beginning of the year 2023.

What is the NCI?

The NCI is a price index which reflects the change of price level of coal on a particular month relative to the fixed base year.The base year for the NCI is FY 2017-18. Rolled out on 4th June 2020. The aim is to have an index that will truly reflect the market price of coal.

Benefits:

For taxation purpose, the Coal Index will be the base indicator.

For future calculation of upfront amount and intrinsic value of mine, this Index will be helpful.

For calculation of annual escalation (monthly payment), this index can be basis.

 

Annual Status of Education Report 2022:

ASER Report 2022:  released  January 18, 2023. ASER is an annual survey conducted by the education non-profit Pratham in rural areas of India. The survey was last conducted at this large scale in 2018.

The ASER 2022 survey was conducted in 17,002 government schools in 19,060 villages across 616 districts.

As per the ASER 2022 report, there has been an improvement in enrollment levels of children in the age bracket of 6 to 14 years have gone from 96.6% in 2010 to 96.7% in 2014 and 97.2% in 2018 to 98.4% in 2022.

An increase of 7.3% points in government school enrollment in the period 2018 to 2022.

In only three states, the number of girls not going to school is above 10% – Madhya Pradesh (17%), Uttar Pradesh (15%), and Chhattisgarh (11.2%).

Nationally, children’s basic reading ability has dropped to pre-2012 levels, reversing the slow improvement achieved in the intervening years.

In both government and private schools, only 20.5% students of Class 3 can read, compared to 27.3% in 2018.

The proportion of Class 5 students who can read has dropped to 42.8% in 2022, compared to 50.5% in 2018.

 

Grameen Udyami Scheme:

The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), in collaboration with Seva Bharti and Yuva Vikas Society (SBYVS), launched the second phase of the Gramin Udyami project. The primary purposes of the project are to increase the rural economy, enhance employment opportunities in rural areas, reduce migration due to lack of facilities, and conserve natural resources. The organization provides financial support to develop an initiative for vocational training.

National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC): Established on July 31, 2008, under Section 25 of the Companies Act 1956, the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) is a non-profit public limited company. The Ministry of Finance established the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) on the public-private partnership (PPP) model.

Grameen Udyami project:  funded by the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC). The project’s main objective is to train 450 tribal students in Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand. Along with these, the project is also being implemented in six other states, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Gujarat.

It is implemented under the Sansadiya Sankul Pariyojana to expand the rural/local economy, enhance employment opportunities, reduce forced migration and also lead to the conservation of natural resources.

 

The training will be held for the following job positions:

Two-wheeler repair and maintenance, plumbing and masonry

Farm mechanization

An electrician and solar PV installation technician

IT/ ITES with e-governance

 

NCERT Launched India’s First National Assessment Regulator “PARAKH

PARAKH has been launched as a part of the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. It has envisaged a standard-setting body to advise school boards regarding the new assessment patterns and the latest research and promote collaboration between them.

The PARAKH regulator aims to set up assessment guidelines for all boards to help remove disparities in the scores of students enrolled with different state boards. PARAKH stands for The Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development. It is established within the education survey division of the NCERT

PARAKH will work in three major assessment areas including large-scale assessments, school-based assessments, and examination reforms.

It will work on bringing an equivalence in the recognized school boards in India in terms of the academic standards among learners.

PARAKH will closely work with the state directorates of education, state, education boards, and international organizations, working in the area of assessment and evaluation.

 

 Electricity (Amendment) Rules, 2022

The gazette notification on the Electricity (Amendment) Rules, 2022, came out on December 29. Ever since the Union Power Ministry shared the draft rules with the States last August, the CPI(M)-led government in Kerala had fiercely objected to Rule 14 which permits distribution companies (Discoms) to automatically recover from consumers, on a monthly basis, the expenses arising out of variations in fuel price and power purchase costs.

About  Rule 14 ;It permits distribution companies (Discoms) to automatically recover from consumers, on a monthly basis, the expenses arising out of variations in fuel price and power purchase costs.

It requires the State electricity regulatory commission to specify a price adjustment formula for automatically passing on the costs through the consumer tariff on a monthly basis.

Fuel and power purchase adjustment surcharges shall be calculated and billed to consumers, automatically, without going through the regulatory approval process, on a monthly basis, according to the formula, prescribed by the respective State Commission.