General Studies-2:
Governance, Constitution and polity
- Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA)
- Aarambh 2020
- Public Affairs Index
- Roshni act
Issues Relating to Health, Education and Human Resources
- National Medical Commission
General Studies-3
Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc
- Sea-plane Service
- National Project Management Policy Framework.
Science and Technology
- D614G mutation in coronavirus
Miscellaneous
- Rashtriya Ekta Diwas
- Fit India Walkathon
1)Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA):
Why in news?
- Vice Presides over the 66th Annual Meeting of General Body of Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA)
What is IIPA?
- Indian Institute of Public Administration was created under the Societies Act of 1860.
- The Institute was formally inaugurated by the first Prime Minister of India, as the first President of the Society, on March 29, 1954
- The Institute has been set up to equip the public servants with knowledge, skills, and behavior required for managing the task of governance.
- In its effort to enhance the leadership, managerial, and administrative capabilities of the executives in government and public sector enterprises, the Institute works in close collaboration with national and international organisations.
The major activities of the Institute are:
- Training
- Research
- Advisory and Consultancy services
- Information dissemination and exchange
Vision
- Building upon the vision of its founding fathers, Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA) aims to be one of the world’s leading academic centers of thought and influence on public governance, policies and implementation so that public governance systems are more responsive to human needs and aspirations and aligned with human values.
2) Sea-plane Service:
Why in news?
- The Prime Minister inaugurated Water Aerodrome at Kevadia and the Sea-plane Service connecting Statue of Unity in Kevadia with Sabarmati Riverfront in Ahmedabad.
- These are part of a series of Water Aerodromes being planned to bring the last mile connectivity.
Seaplanes
- Seaplanes have the ability to land and take-off from water thus offering access to areas that do not have landing strips or runways.
- Thus it can help in connecting the geographies/regions that have challenges owing to its topography and bring the remotest parts of India into the mainstream aviation network without the high cost of building airports and runways.
- These smaller fixed wing airplanes can land on water bodies like lakes, backwaters and dams, gravel and grass, thus offering easy access to numerous tourist spots as well.
3) National Medical Commission:
Why in news?
- In a significant step towards affordable medical education, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has notified its first major regulation.
- Titled as “Minimum Requirements for Annual MBBS Admissions Regulations (2020)”, the notification issued replaces the “Minimum Standard Requirements for Medical Colleges, 1999 of the erstwhile Medical Council of India (MCI).
- The new Regulation shall be applicable to all new medical colleges proposing to be established, and to the established medical colleges proposing to increase their annual MBBS intake from the academic year 2021-22.
- The new standards have been defined keeping the functional requirements of the institution(s). These allow optimization and flexibility in utilizing available resources, and harnessing modern educational technology, tools to facilitate moving towards quality education, even when resources are relatively scarce.
The key changes:
- The new Regulation has deleted the quantum of land required for setting up a medical college and its affiliated teaching hospitals (all buildings are expected to conform to existing building bye-laws).
- The notification defines the minimum requirements of space for all student centric areas in the institution and the functional areas required.
- The Standards outlines the sharing of all available teaching spaces by all departments (compared to the inflexibility in the regulations so far) thereby mandating all teaching spaces to be enabled for e-learning and also digitally linked to one another (it was only desirable earlier).
- Under the new Regulation, a well-equipped “Skills Laboratory” for training students is essential now.
- It also defines a Medical Education Unit for training medical teachers in educational pedagogy.
- The space required for Library and the number of books and journals have been rationalized and reduced. Student counselling services has been mandated recognizing the increasing stress observed amongst medical students and residents in recent times.
- The new regulation now mandates the availability of a fully functional 300 bed multi-specialty hospital for at least 2 years at the time of application for establishing a new medical college (the earlier regulations did not specify the period of functionality).
- Two new teaching departments have now become mandatory in all medical college hospitals for the training of undergraduate medical students.
- These include the Department of Emergency Medicine (which has replaced the earlier Casualty Department) and will ensure access and prompt, appropriate response to emergencies particularly trauma; and
- The Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation which shall fill a large gap for those in need of comprehensive rehabilitative care.
- The Regulation has also outlined “desirable” and “aspirational” goals beyond the minimum requirements stated in the standards so as to stimulate medical institutions to strive for excellence. These elements will be utilized by the National Medical Commission while rating the medical institutions in the country.
National Medical Commission (NMC)
- It is an Indian regulatory body of 33 members which regulates medical education and medical professionals.
- It replaced the Medical Council of India on 25 September 2020.
- The Commission grants recognition of medical qualifications, gives accreditation to medical schools, grants registration to medical practitioners, and monitors medical practice and assesses the medical infrastructure in India.
- It was earlier established for 6 months by an ordinance in January 2019 and later became a permanent law passed by Parliament of India and later approved by President of India
4) Rashtriya Ekta Diwas:
Why in news?
- Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas observed the Rashtriya Ekta Diwas which commemorates the birth anniversary of Sardar Ballabhbhai Patel, by organising a Webinar.
Rashtriya Ekta Diwas
- National Unity Day (Rashtriya Ekta Diwas) is celebrated in India on 31 October.
- It was introduced by the Government of India in 2014.
- The day is celebrated to mark the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhai Patel.
- In 2018, this day was celebrated in Gujarat, and the Statue of Unity was dedicated which honours and depicts Sardar Patel.
Objective
- National Unity Day “will provide an opportunity to re-affirm the inherent strength and resilience of our nation to withstand the actual and potential threats to the unity, integrity and security of our country.
5) Aarambh 2020:
Why in news?
- To mark the celebrations of Ekta Diwas, the Indian Air Force performed a fly-past.
- PM Modi also then interacted with 428 officer trainees who belong to various civil services that are currently undergoing the 95th foundation course at Mussoorie’s, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration through a video conference as a culmination of Aarambh 2020.
- The theme of Aarambh 2020 will be ‘Governance in India @100’.
Aarambh
- Aarambh is an initiative that aims to bring all the trainees of All India Service, Foreign Service, and Group-A central Service together for a Common Foundation Course with a vision of breaking the silos of services and departments from the beginning of Civil Servant’s career.
- The purpose of Aarambh is to make civil servants capable of working smoothly and make changes across departments and fields.
6) Fit India Walkathon:
Why in news?
- On the occasion of National Unity Day (the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel), Union Sports Minister Shri Kiren Rijiju, along with Bollywood actor Vidyut Jammwal flagged off 200-km long ‘Fit India Walkathon’ on October 31 at Jaisalmer, Rajasthan.
What is Fit India Walkathon?
- The event has been organised by Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and will go on for 3 days in which over 100 ITBP jawans and personnel of various central armed police forces (capfs) are walking for over 200-km.
- The walkathon march will continue day and night and will also pass through the dunes of the Thar Desert in the area located along the India-Pakistan border.
- For most of the part during the march, the track runs along the International Boundary known for many battles and war, with Kishangarh Fort being a prominent location en-route.
- ‘Fit India Walkathon’ aims to create awareness about fit and healthy lifestyle in India and comes on the heels of recently concluded ‘Fit India Freedom Run’ that saw the participation of over 6.5 crore people across India.
- It is the vision of our Prime Minister to make the Fit India Movement into a people’s movement and take it to every corner of the country.
- The forces themselves are fit but by walking 200km on the borders of Jaisalmer they aim to motivate every citizen of the country that if they can cover 200km as a walkathon, every citizen can take up fitness in one form or the other.”
- Apart from ITBP, the march also has the representation of officials of Border Security Force (BSF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF), Rapid Action Force (RAF), Assam Rifles and National Security Guard (NSF).
7) Public Affairs Index:
Why in news?
- Recently, the Public Affairs Centre (PAC) has released the Public Affairs Index (PAI)-2020
Key Highlights of Public Affairs Index-2020 are as follows:
- The Public Affairs Centre has developed Public Affairs Index (PAI) as a unique statistical tool to evaluate the performance of governance in the States.
- It is largely based on secondary data and has been extracted from Union Government Ministries and Departments.
- According to the PAC, the governance performance is analysed in the context of sustainable development defined by three pillars of equity, growth and sustainability.
- It is a data driven platform to rank the 30 States of India from the lens of governance.
Ranking of states
- Kerala was adjudged the best-governed state in the country while
- Uttar Pradesh ended at the bottom in the large states category.
- The four southern states, namely, Kerala (1.388), Tamil Nadu (0.912), Andhra Pradesh (0.531), and Karnataka (0.468) stood in the first four ranks in the large state category in terms of governance.
- Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Bihar were at the bottom of the ranking scoring negative points in the category i.e. -1.461, -1.201 and -1.158 points respectively.
In the small state category
- Goa ranked first with 1.745 points,
- Followed by Meghalaya (0.797) and Himachal Pradesh (0.725).
The worst performers who scored negative points are
- Manipur, Delhi and Uttarakhand
Chandigarh emerged the best governed union territory
8) Roshni act:
Why in news?
- Three weeks after a High Court order declared the Roshni Act as amended from time to time as unconstitutional and unsustainable, the Jammu and Kashmir government on Saturday decided to annul all mutations, remove encroachment and retrieve such land within six months.
Roshni Act
- The Roshni Act is another name for the Jammu and Kashmir State Land (Vesting of Ownership to the Occupants) Act, 2001.
- The Principal Secretary (Revenue) shall ensure that all the mutations done in furtherance of the Act are annulled and also work out a plan to retrieve large tracts of state land, according to the order.
- The Roshni land scheme, or the Roshni Act, was believed to be a revolutionary step that had the twin objectives of generating resources for financing power projects and conferment of propriety rights to occupants of state land.
- It was hoped that the legislation would help to boost the farming sector and in turn generate substantial revenue for funding power projects across the state.
- The Act initially planned conferment of propriety rights of around 1,250 hectares of land to occupants of which 15.85 per cent of land was approved for vesting of ownership rights.
- But against the expected revenue from such occupants, the revenue actually generated was meagre, thereby failing to realise the objective of the scheme
9) National Project Management Policy Framework:
Why in news?
- NITI Aayog and Quality Council of India launched the ‘National Program and Project Management Policy Framework’ (NPMPF).
- The framework aims to bring radical reforms in the way infrastructure projects are executed in India.
Highlights
- “NPMPF” will help to realise the Prime Minister’s vision of an Aatmanirbhar Bharat.
- The framework would ensure the quality infrastructure by reduce costs and waste material.
- The framework do not compromise on the environment and ecology. It further ensure time-bound and result-oriented delivery of projects.
- The framework also ensure the accountability, monitoring, transparency, corruption-free system and a fast-track decision-making process.
Aim of the framework
The framework is aimed at formulating the radical reforms with an action plan of:
- Adopting a program and project management approach for infra development.
- Institutionalizing and promoting the profession of program and project management
- Enhancing the institutional capacity and capability of professionals.
How the initiative would be taken forward?
- Under the initiative, a capability development program will be launched to create awareness on the program and project management.
- The initiative would also ensure that it maintains its momentum and makes an impact on projects being planned and implemented currently.
10) D614G mutation in coronavirus:
Why in news?
- While novel corona virus is undergoing many mutations, one particular mutation called D614G, according to a study has become dominant variant in the Global Covid-19 pandemic.
D614G mutation
- When the virus enters an individual’s body, it aims at creating copies of itself.
- When it makes an error in this copying process, we get a mutation.
- In this case, the virus replaced the aspartic acid (D) in the 614th position of the amino acid with glycine (G). Hence the mutation is called the D614G.
- This mutated form of virus, was first identified in China and then in Europe.
- Later it spread, to other countries like the U.S and Canada and was eventually reported in India.