Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 10 September 2022

::NATIONAL::

The Union Cabinet has approved a new government scheme for the transformation of over 14,000 schools across the country into model institutions to achieve the objectives of the National Education Policy, 2020.

About:

The first mention of the scheme was made in Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s 2021 Budget speech where she spoke about the Centre’s vision to transform education in the country.
More than 15,000 schools will be qualitatively strengthened for effective implementation of the new national education policy.
As per the education ministry, the PM Shri Schools scheme will provide high-quality education in an “equitable, inclusive and joyful environment that takes care of the diverse background, multilingual needs and different academic abilities of children”.

Key features of the PM Shri scheme are:

Improvement of existing school infrastructure and provision of more facilities.
Early childhood care and education including Balvatika and foundational literacy and numeracy.
Development of ‘Green schools’. These will be equipped with solar panels, LED lights, nutrition gardens, and waste management, water conservation and harvesting systems.
Modern facilities including ICT (information and communication technologies) facility, smart classrooms, library, digital library, science labs and vocational labs etc.
Counselling focused on well-being and career.
Sports and arts for every child.
Provision of safe and appropriate infrastructure for girls and those with special needs.
Mother tongue and local languages to be encouraged.
Teachers are expected to adopt more experiential, holistic, integrated, play or toy-based, learner-centred, discussion-based, flexible and enjoyable methods.

The Supreme Court gave the government three months to take the lead and devise a policy framework to open up avenues of employment for transgender persons, particularly in the civil aviation industry.

Key highlights:

The order was a fallout of a petition filed by ShanaviPonnusamy, a transgender person from Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu, whose dream of flying high as an airline cabin crew member never took off.
The Supreme Court said the petitioner's case raised wider issues about the formulation of government policy to ensure the guarantee of non-discrimination against transgender people.
A Bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and Hima Kohli observed that the government has to comply with the enabling provisions of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act of 2019 in "letter and spirit".
The Court detailed specific provisions of the Act which mandated that no person or establishment, whether government or private, should discriminate against a transgender person in matters of employment, including recruitment or promotion or in any other related areas.
The court ordered the Department of Personnel and Training and the Social Justice Ministry to collaborate with the National Council for Transgender Persons, a body constituted under the Act, to consult stakeholders and prepare a “considered” policy for the community’s welfare and rights in the next three months.

The passing of Queen Elizabeth II is a delicate moment for the British Commonwealth, 14 countries out of which continue to recognise the monarch as their Head of State, a position that is explicitly stated in the constitutions and laws of some of these countries.

About:

The Commonwealth of Nations, or simply the Commonwealth, is a group of 56 member countries, the vast majority of which are former British colonies.
They are mostly in Africa, Asia, the Americas, and the Pacific. Three European nations are part of the Commonwealth: Cyprus, Malta, and of course, the UK itself.
Fourteen of these 56 countries — along with the UK — constitute the “Commonwealth realms”.
They are Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, The Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands, and Tuvalu.
The British monarch — now King Charles III, the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II — is the head of state of these countries.
Of the remaining 41 member states of the Commonwealth, 36 are republics — this group includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. The other five — Brunei Darussalam, Lesotho, Malaysia, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) and Tonga — have their own monarchs.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the World Dairy Summit on 12th September in Noida at India Expo Centre and Mart.

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India is organising the summit after almost a 48-year gap bringing together approximately 1500 participants from all over the world including CEOs and employees of dairy processing companies, dairy farmers, and other stakeholders.
Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’, India is committed to sustain its growth in milk production and milk processing in the coming decades.
Remembering the “Father of White Revolution”, Dr VergheseKurien, on his death anniversary, it must be pointed out that India currently is the largest milk producer in the world, contributing 21 percent of the total global milk production.

Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri announced the results of India Water Pitch-Pilot-Scale start-up challenge launched under Amrut 2.0 in March this year.

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A total of 76 startup have been selected out of 222 entries, which through their innovative ideas will help local civic bodies and water supply departments conserve water and resolve its scarcity.
The Minister declared the results in City-Startup Partnership Summit for Water Scarcity organised by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in New Delhi.
The Ministry extended this challenge under the name “Startup Gateway.” The Challenge aims at empowering startups in the water/ used-water sector to grow through innovation and design that will drive sustainable economic growth and generate employment opportunities.
Hundreds of startups representatives, Cities officials, academia and students participated in City-Startup Partnership Summit for Water Scarcity.

An international team of researchers led by Japan’s scientific institution, RIKEN’s Cluster for Pioneering Research (CPR), have devised a system that can create cyborg cockroaches, that are part insect and part machine.

Key highlights:

They claim that these insects, whose movements are controlled by tiny integrated circuits, will be able to conduct surveillance in procedures like urban search and rescue, environmental monitoring and inspection of areas dangerous to humans.
The researchers claim that, by equipping the cockroaches with small wireless control modules, handlers will be able to control the insect’s legs remotely for long periods of time.
The team used Madagascar cockroaches, which are not only the largest species of cockroaches, reaching an estimated 6 cm, but are also known for making hissing sounds when disturbed, which they make by expelling air from the openings on their back.