Bihar Affairs
95% villages in Bihar getting tap drinking water: Report
Of the 30,272 wards in villages having contaminated sources of groundwater, as many as 29,180 of them have been provided with safe tap drinking water under the CM Rural Drinking Water Scheme, according to a communique received from the state public Health engineering department (PHED).
The scheme is popularly calledHar Ghar Nal Ka Jal. By corollary, PHED has 96.4% achievement to its credit. The drinking water being supplied to the wards concerned is free from contamination of fluoride, arsenic and iron content beyond the permissible limits.
The department also maintained that the Centre has also conducted a third-party survey of the piped water supply being provided in the villages. According to this survey, 95% of the villages have been getting uninterrupted piped drinking water supply.
As per the Centres survey done with regard to the provision of piped water, most of the habitations have been getting Safe drinking water.
Of the 1.08 lakh human habitations in the state, only 467 still had contaminated water, the central survey report has noted, adding that they included six villages having arsenic contamination and one fluoride, while water available in 460 other habitations had iron content beyond permissible limits.
It has taken five years to make an achievement in this regard, as the wards with contaminated ground water had already been mapped out, but the scheme to provide piped water supply was started by PHED in 2016. Besides, as many as 1,379 wards have been covered under 11 different multi-village piped drinking water supply system projects.
At that point of time, groundwater in 3,791 wards of 11 districts had fluoride contamination, while groundwater in 14 other districts had arsenic poisoning in their 4,742 wards. Groundwater of as many as 21,739 wards in 12 districts had iron content beyond approved limits.
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.