BIHAR

45k villages in Bihar to get high-speed internet connectivity: Minister

Union electronics and information technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said around 45,000 villages in state would be connected through optical fibres to provide high-speed internet connectivity under the central government’s Bharatnet project.

Now, the central government has decided to provide high-speed internet connectivity to around six lakh villages as well, the IT minister said, adding it was a matter of great pride for him that the project would be launched from Bihar soon.

Prasad said there has been a hike of around 355% in budget allocation for Bihar when compared to period between 2009 and 2014.

He said around Rs 3,061 crore was allocated to Bihar by the Centre every year for railway projects during 2014-19.

The minister said the smartphone users in the country would soon avail the facility of Indian languages, including regional ones, as work on the project was under way.

INTERNATIONAL

Square Kilometre Array Observatory formed to set up World’s Largest Radio Telescope

The newly constituted Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO) Council held its maiden meeting and approved the establishment of the world’s largest radio telescope.

SKAO is a new intergovernmental organisation dedicated to radio astronomy.

The headquartered of SKAO is based in the United Kingdom

Currently organisations from ten countries are a part of the SKAO, which include Australia, Canada, China, India, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden, the Netherlands and the UK.

The Indian contingent of over 20 institutions will be lead by Pune-based National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA) of TIFR.

The SKAO telescope will be an array of antennas located in two continents, i.e. Africa and Australia.

Democracy Index 2020 Released by EIU

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) recently released a report entitled “Democracy in Disease and Health?” And, released the 2020 Democracy Index.

The 2020 Democracy Index report was covering 167 countries/regions. It classifies the economy into flawed democracies, fully democratic states, mixed regimes, and authoritarian regimes.

The report emphasizes that out of 167 countries, 23 countries are full democracies, 52 are defective democracies, 35 countries are mixed regimes, and 57 countries are authoritarian regimes.

In the Democracy Index, Norway ranks first. The other places that include 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th places in the index were won by Iceland, Sweden, New Zealand, and Canada.

India’s ranking dropped two places from the previous year. This year India ranks 53rd. Sri Lanka ranks 68th. It is also classified as a defective democracy. Pakistan ranks 105th. It is classified as a “hybrid regime.”

India & Bahrain join hands for Renewable Energy

The 1st meeting of the Joint Working Group in the field of Renewable Energy between India and Bahrain was held in virtual format.

In the meeting, both sides presented the initiatives taken, progress made and future targets set by their respective governments as well as opportunities available in this sector.

Both sides also agreed to forge deeper engagement in capacity building and focused cooperation between concerned agencies as well as the private sector of the two countries in this sector, particularly in the field of solar, wind and clean hydrogen.

NATIONAL

Union Minister Mentions About CWF in Parliament

In the ongoing meeting, the Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution has informed Congress about the Consumer Welfare Fund (CWF).

The Consumer Welfare Fund was established under the Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Act of 2017. The 1992 Consumer Welfare Fund rules have been incorporated into the 2017 CGST rules.

The fund was established by the Ministry of Finance (Ministry of Finance) and operated by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs (Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution).

The goal of CWF is to promote and protect consumer welfare.

Prime Ministers Five S Vision To Tackle Global Challenges

Raksha Mantri emphasized the Prime Minister’s “Five S” vision to tackle global challenges in his keynote speech at the IOR Defense Ministers Meeting.

PM Modi’s “Five S Vision” representative to tackle global challenges:
♦ Samman (respect)
♦ Samvaad (dialogue)
♦ Sahyog (cooperation)
♦ Shanti (peace)
♦ Samriddhi (prosperity)

KAPILA Campaign for Patent Awareness

The Government initiated a campaign, namely the ” Kalam Program for Intellectual Property Literacy and Awareness Campaign (KAPILA) for Intellectual Property Literacy aimed at raising patent awareness.

KAPILA was launched in October 2020.
Scheme objectives:

Build awareness of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) among Higher Education Institutions (HEIs)

Provide intellectual property protection for inventions originating from faculty and students from HEIs.

Develop intellectual property right Credit Courses

Provide intellectual property training programs for faculty and students in HEIs.

Sensitization and development of IP archiving system

Rashtriya Yuva Sashaktikaran Karyakram (RYSK) by Youth Affairs Ministry

The Rashtriya Yuva Sashaktikaran Karyakram Scheme is a Central Sector Scheme of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.

The Rashtriya Yuva Sashaktikaran Karyakram Scheme is a Central Sector Scheme of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and has been continuing since the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan”.

The scheme aims to cultivate the personalities and leadership skills of young people and enable them to participate in nation-building activities.

The beneficiaries of this scheme are young people in the 15-29 age group. In the case of the programme specifically targets young people, the age group is 10-19 years old.

This is an overall scheme that includes the following sub-schemes:

Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (founded in 1972, one of the largest youth organizations in the world)
National Youth Corps
National Programme for Youth and Adolescent Development
International Cooperation
Youth Hostels
Assistance to Scouting and Guiding Organisations
National Youth Leadership Program

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