Daily Current Affair – UPSC/IAS Exams – 3rd August 2019

Institutes of Eminence Scheme

Topic: Government Policies

In News:  20 institutions have been recommended for the grant of the Institute of Eminence status by the University Grants Commission.

More on the Topic: 

• The institutes of eminence scheme under the Union human resource development (HRD) ministry aims to project Indian institutes to global recognition.
• The selected institutes will enjoy complete academic and administrative autonomy.
• The government will run 10 of these and they will receive special funding.
• The selection shall be made through challenge method mode by the Empowered Expert Committee constituted for the purpose.
• Eligibility: Only higher education institutions currently placed in the top 500 of global rankings or top 50 of the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) are eligible to apply for the eminence tag.
• The private Institutions of Eminence can also come up as greenfield ventures provided the sponsoring organisation submits a convincing perspective plan for 15 years.

Source: Hindu and vikaspedia

Jallianwala Bagh

Topic: Governance

In News: The Lok Sabha amended the Jallianwala Bagh Memorial Bill to remove the Congress president as a permanent trustee.

More on the Topic:

• Hitherto, the trust that manages the memorial had included the Prime Minister as the chairperson, with the president of the Indian National Congress, Culture Minister, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Punjab Governor and the Punjab Chief Minister as its members.
• But now, the Congress chief is being removed as a member while the leader of the single largest Opposition party in the Lok Sabha is being added as a member of the trust.

About Jallianwala Bagh Memorial:

• Jallianwala Bagh is a public garden in Amritsar, and houses a memorial of national importance, established in 1951 by the Government of India, to commemorate the massacre of peaceful celebrants including unarmed women and children by British occupying forces, on the occasion of the Punjabi New Year (Baisakhi) on 13 April 1919 in the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre.
• The garden site of the massacre is located in the vicinity of Golden Temple complex, the holiest shrine of Sikhism.
• The memorial is managed by the Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial Trust, which was established as per the “Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial Act”.

Source: Hindu, Wikipedia

Ramon Magsaysay award

Topic: Awards

In News: Indian journalist Ravish Kumar has been awarded the 2019 Ramon Magsaysay Award for “harnessing journalism to give voice to the voiceless”.

More on the Topic:

• He is among five individuals who were declared winners of the award.
• Established in 1957, the Ramon Magsaysay Award is Asia’s highest honour.
• It celebrates the memory and leadership example of the third Philippine president after whom the award is named, and is given every year to individuals or organisations in Asia who manifest the same selfless service and transformative influence that ruled the life of the late and beloved Filipino leader.

Source: The Hindu

Pashmina Testing Centre

Topic: IPR related Affairs

In News: Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) Director General Ms. Surina Rajan said that BIS would set up a Pashmina testing centre in Leh, in partnership with the lab of Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), Leh.

More on the Topic:

• Pashmina is a fine type of Kashmiri wool which comes from 4 distinct breeds of the Cashmere goat namely:
• Changthangi (or Kashmir Pashmina goat) from the Changthang Plateau in Kashmir region,
• Malra from Kargil area in Kashmir region,
• Chegu from Himachal Pradesh
• Chyangara (or Nepalese Pashmina goat) from Nepal.
• Pashmina (also known as ‘cashmere’ in the West) literally translates to “Soft Gold” in Kashmiri.
• It is used to make shawl, scarf and wrap/stole.
• Kashmir Pashmina has been assigned Geographical indication (GI) tag under the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999.

Source: AIR

Indus Inscription

Topic: Art and Culture

In News: A recent research paper published claimed that  a majority of the Indus Valley inscriptions were written logographically (by using word signs) and not by using phonograms (speech sounds units).

More on the Topic:

• Discovered from nearly 4,000 ancient inscribed objects, including seals, tablets, ivory rods, pottery shards, etc., the Indus inscriptions are one of the most enigmatic legacies of the Indus Valley civilization which have not been deciphered due to the absence of bilingual texts, extreme brevity of the inscriptions, and ignorance about the language(s) encoded by Indus script.
• The inscriptions can be compared to structured messages found on stamps, coupons, tokens and currency coins of modern times.
• The study classifies signs into nine functional classes. Based on various archaeological evidence it claims that inscribed seals and tablets were used in some administrative operation that controlled the commercial transactions prevalent in the trade-savvy settlements of the ancient Indus valley Civilisation.

About the Indus Script:

• It is the earliest form of writing known in the Indian subcontinent, developed by the ‘Indus Valley Civilization’.
• The languages that the script represents is still unknown and its connection with proper Indian writing systems is uncertain.
• Square stamp seals are the dominant form of Indus writing media.
• The Indus Script was generally written from right to left but there are some exceptions where the writing is bidirectional.
• It combined both word signs and symbols with phonetic value.
• This type of writing system is known as “logo-syllabic”, where some symbols express ideas or words while others represent sounds.

Model Mains Question: Discuss the trade, cultural contacts and the extents of the Indus Civilization within and outside India.

Source: Hindu

National Digital Health Blueprint

Topic: e-Governance

In News: The government has released National Digital Health Blueprint (NDHB) which aims to create National Digital Health Eco-System, in public domain. Health Ministry has sought inputs from various stakeholders on its vision.

More on the Topic:

The Objectives of NDHB are aligned to the Vision of National Health Policy 2017 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) relating to the health sector. These include:

• Establishing and managing the core digital health data and the infrastructure required for its seamless exchange.
• Promoting the adoption of open standards by all the actors in the National Digital Health Ecosystem (NDHE), for developing several digital health systems that span across the sector from wellness to disease management.
• Creating a system of Personal Health Records, based on international standards, and easily accessible to the citizens and to the service providers, based on citizen-consent.
• Following the best principles of cooperative federalism while working with the States and Union Territories for the realization of the Vision.
• Promoting Health Data Analytics and Medical Research.
• Enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of Governance at all levels.
• Ensuring Quality of Healthcare.
• Leveraging the Information Systems already existing in the health sector

While the Blueprint has identified 23 Building Blocks, a few of the critical capabilities of NDHE are:

• Identification: The Blueprint handles the requirements of Unique identification of Persons, Facilities, Diseases and Devices through 2 Building Blocks, namely, Personal Health Identifier (PHI), and Health Master Directories & Registries.
• This can be achieved through a combination of Aadhaar-based Identification/ Authentication and through other specified types of identifiers.
• Citizen to be in Control: The Blueprint achieves the complex and mandatory requirements of maintaining the confidentiality, security, and privacy of health records through Consent Manager, Anonymizer and Privacy Operations Centre.
• Service Access/ Delivery: Access and delivery to be implemented by a combination of Web (India Health Portal), Mobile (MyHealth App) and Call Centres besides Social Media Platforms.
• The Command, Control and Communication Centre enable real-time monitoring and real-time interventions needed in the NDHE.
• Given the significant spread of smartphones and the prospects of its further growth, The Blueprint emphasizes the ‘Mobile First’ principle for the majority of stakeholder-facing services.
• Interoperability: The Health Information Exchange and the National Health Informatics Standards enable and promote the interoperability of various building blocks.

Source: PIB

Khanij Bidesh India Ltd. (KABIL)

Topic: Economy

In News: A joint venture company namely Khanij Bidesh India Ltd. (KABIL) is to be set up with the participation of three Central Public Sector Enterprises namely, National Aluminium Company Ltd.(NALCO), Hindustan Copper Ltd.(HCL) and Mineral Exploration Company Ltd. (MECL).

More on the Topic:

• The objective of constituting KABIL is to ensure a consistent supply of critical and strategic minerals to Indian domestic market.
• While KABIL would ensure mineral security of the Nation, it would also help in realizing the overall objective of import substitution.
• The KABIL would carry out identification, acquisition, exploration, development, mining and processing of strategic minerals overseas for commercial use and meeting country’s requirement of these minerals.
• The company will help in building partnerships with other mineral rich countries like Australia and those in Africa and South America, where Indian expertise in exploration and mineral processing will be mutually beneficial bringing about new economic opportunities.

Source: PIB