1st November, 2021 Current Affairs

Sakshi Education

National
NCRB Report on Suicides

National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) recently published its report titled “Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India, 2020”. In the year 2020, suicides in India have increased by 10 percent as compared to 2019 data and reached to 1,53,052.
Report notes that, suicides among student have increased by 21.20 per cent.
In absolute numbers, daily wage earners accounted for largest share of total suicides. It stood at 37,666 in 2020.
Number of suicides in 2020 was highest since 1982. It increased by 11.15 per cent as compared to 1981 data, accounting for 44,732 suicides.
The suicide rate has also increased from 10.4 percent in 2019 to 11.3 percent in the year 2020. Suicide rate is defined as number of suicides per lakh population.
Share of suicides among daily wage earners has doubled between 2014 and 2020.
Suicides among students have increased to its highest level since 1995.
In the year 2019, 10,335 cases were report. It increased to 14,825 in 2020.
In percentage terms, share of suicides among students went up from 7.4 per cent to 8.2 per cent in the same period.
Share of suicides among daily wage earners has doubled between 2014 and 2020. In the year 2014, their share was 12 per cent which increased to 23.4 percent in 2019. Tamil Nadu reported the greatest number of suicides among daily wage earners. It is followed by Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana and Gujarat.
NCRB report has divided suicides into nine categories namely; daily wagers, housewives, people working in the farm sector, students, professionals/salaried persons, retired persons, self-employed persons, and others. NCRB started categorizing daily wagers in the ‘Accidental Deaths & Suicides’ report in 2014.

MGNREGS Out of Funds in 21 states

According to the financial statement of “Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme”, it is running out of funds in 21 states.
The scheme has run out of funds halfway in the financial year 2021, and supplementary budgetary allocations will not be provided to compensate till the next Parliamentary session starts.
It is showing a negative net balance of Rs. 8,686 crore.
Shortage of funds mean that, payments for MGNREGA workers and material costs will be delayed, unless States use their own funds.
Centre is accusing some of the states with “artificially creating demand” for work.
The MGNREGA is a demand driven scheme. It guarantees 100 days of unskilled work to any rural household in need. During the lockdown period in 2020 amid covid-19 pandemic, this scheme was given its highest budget of Rs 1.11 lakh crore. This fund was used to provide a critical lifeline for 11 crore workers. But in Union Budget 2021-22, the scheme was allocated Rs 73,000 crore, as nationwide lockdown was over. Centre also announced that supplementary budgets will be allocated if money ran out. As of October 29, total expenditure including payments due already reached to Rs. 79,810 crore. 21 states including Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu are showing negative net balance.

International
G-20 Summit adopts Rome Declaration; Member countries agree on reciprocal recognition of vaccines and faster approval by WHO

The G20 summit, which concluded yesterday, has adopted Rome Declaration. The member countries have agreed on mutual recognition of vaccines, strengthening of WHO to give faster approvals to vaccines and suspending debt servicing for developing countries till December 2021.
G20 Rome has delivered a strong message of recovery from the pandemic, in terms of economy, health, employment, education, tourism and most importantly climate action.
The leaders adopted the Rome Declaration and this communique gives a strong message under the health section where we have agreed that COVID-19 immunization is a global public good.
G20 has identified sustainable and responsible consumption and production along with the provision of finance and technology as critical enablers to achieving climate goals.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's mantra of sustainable lifestyles finds resonance in the Rome declaration on sustainable consumption and responsible production patterns in line with SDG 12.
A lot of the agenda of developing countries in which India has been taking a leadership role has been brought into the text of the Rome Declaration.
Clean energy and innovation will play an important role in the years to come. Energy security and stability of energy markets have also been recognized by the G20 leaders.

India, Bangladesh review progress of Line of Credit projects

The 19th India-Bangladesh Line of Credit (LOC) review meeting was held in Dhaka on 27-28 October. The meeting reviewed progress of 43 projects being taken up for implementation under the Government of India Lines of Credit (LOCs) extended to Bangladesh.
The review meeting identified the existing issues with project implementation and their possible resolution mechanisms. Detailed timelines were determined for all steps involved in project implementation. India and Bangladesh agreed that the LOC review mechanism is an ideal platform to monitor the progress of projects, understand and remove procedural bottlenecks and ensure timely implementation.
Bangladesh is the largest development partner under India’s LOC programme, with four LOCs worth USD 7.862 billion extended to it for undertaking infrastructure development projects in a wide array of sectors. Approximately, USD 865 million has already been disbursed out of the total LOC till date.
Under the first LOC of USD 862 million, 12 out of 15 projects have already been completed and 3 projects are under execution. Under the second LOC of USD 2 billion, 2 projects are already complete and the other projects are under various stages of implementation. Under the third LOC of USD 4.5 billion, 1 project has reached execution stage, while the other projects are under various stages of DPP finalisation and tendering.
In the last three year, more than USD 990.85 million worth of contracts under the LOCs have been awarded. Another USD 325.58 million will be finalized within the next few months. This will enhance the utilization rate of LOCs significantly in the near future, said the press release issued by the High Commission of India in Bangladesh.
There is considerable improvement in the speed of projects reaching execution/tendering stage which has been made possible with active cooperation of the project-executing agencies of both sides.
It was agreed that the 20th Bilateral LOC Review Meeting would be held in Delhi in April 2022.

Science and Technology

DRDO and Indian air force flight test long range bomb

Team from Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Indian Air Force (IAF) have successfully flight-tested the indigenously developed Long-Range (LR) Bomb on October 29, 2021.
Long-Range Bomb was tested from an aerial platform in Odisha’s Balasore.
It was release from the IAF fighter aircraft and was guided within specified limits, with accuracy to a land-based target.
Flight of the bomb and performance was monitored with the help of a number of range sensors, telemetry & radar and Electro-Optical Tracking System deployed by the Integrated Test Range.
Bomb has been designed & developed by Research Centre Imarat (RCI) in Hyderabad in association with other DRDO laboratories.
IGMDP was an Indian Ministry of Defence programme for conducting research and development of comprehensive range of missiles. It was managed by the DRDO and Ordnance Factories Board.

Sports
J&K team for deaf clinches 1st position in World Deaf Judo Championship

In yet another shot in the arm of J&K sports performance, the J&K team for deaf clinched 1st position in World Deaf Judo Championship held at Paris Versailles, France.
Rakshanda Mehak who is part of the Indian team for the deaf clinched the bronze medal by defeating the South Korean team in the semi-final.
Worth to mentioning, our National Girls team has won a bronze medal while NircharaUmed of Haryana is below 57 KG category, Divya Tiwari of Uttar Pradesh is below 52 KG category and Rakshanda Mehak of J&K have added one more feather in the crown. The championship was held at Versailles, France from 26-30th October 2021 and the team is scheduled to arrive back to Jammu from Delhi.

Published date : 01 Nov 2021 06:28PM