1) Mission Karmayogi:
Mission Karmayogi OR National Program for Civil Services Capacity Building will radically improve the Human Resource management practices in the Government. It will use scale & state of the art infrastructure to augment the capacity of Civil Servants.
iGOT platform will enable the transition to a role-based HR management & continuous learning. Mission Karmayogi aims to prepare Civil Servants for the future by making them more creative, constructive & innovative through transparency and technology.”
National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building (NPCSCB) with the following institutional framework:-
- Prime Minister’s Public Human Resources (HR) Council,
- Capacity Building Commission.
- Special Purpose Vehicle for owning and operating the digital assets and the technological platform for online training,
- Coordination Unit headed by the Cabinet Secretary.
Salient Features
NPCSCB has been carefully designed to lay the foundations for capacity building for Civil Servants so that they remain entrenched in Indian Culture and sensibilities and remain connected, with their roots, while they learn from the best institutions and practices across the world. The Programme will be delivered by setting up an Integrated Government Online Training-iGOT Karmayogi Platform. The core guiding principles of the Programme will be:
- Supporting Transition from ‘Rules based’ to ‘Roles based* HR Management. Aligning work allocation of civil servants by matching their competencies to the requirements of the post.
- To emphasize on ‘on-site learning’ to complement the ‘off-site’ learning,
- To create an ecosystem of shared training infrastructure including that of learning materials, institutions and personnel,
- To calibrate all Civil Service positions to a Framework of Roles, Activities and Competencies (FRACs) approach and to create and deliver learning content relevant to the identified FRACs in every Government entity,
- To make available to all civil servants, an opportunity to continuously build and strengthen their Behavioral, Functional and Domain Competencies in their self-driven and mandated learning paths.
- To enable all the Central Ministries and Departments and their Organizations to directly invest their resources towards co-creation and sharing the collaborative and common ecosystem of learning through an annual financial subscription for every employee,
- To encourage and partner with the best-in-class learning content creators including public training institutions, universities, start-tips and individual experts,
- To undertake data analytics in respect of data emit provided by iGOT- Karmayogi pertaining to various aspects of capacity building, content creation, user feedback and mapping of competencies and identify areas for policy reforms.
Objectives:
It is also proposed to set up a Capacity Building Commission, with a view to ensure a uniform approach in managing and regulating the capacity building ecosystem on collaborative and co-sharing basis.
The role of Commission will be as under-
- To assist the PM Public Human Resources Council in approving the Annual Capacity Building Plans.
- To exercise functional supervision over all Central Training Institutions dealing with civil services capacity building.
- To create shared learning resources, including internal and external faculty and resource centers.
- To coordinate and supervise the implementation of the Capacity Building Plans with the stakeholder Departments.
- To make recommendations on standardization of training and capacity building, pedagogy and methodology
- To set norms for common mid-career training programs across all civil services.
- To suggest policy interventions required in the areas of HR Management and Capacity Building to the Government.
Background
Capacity of Civil Services plays a vital role in rendering a wide variety of services, implementing welfare programs and performing core governance functions.
A transformational change in Civil Service Capacity is proposed to be affected by organically linking the transformation of work culture, strengthening public institutions and adopting modern technology to build civil service capacity with the overall aim of ensuring efficient delivery of services to citizens.
A Public Human Resources Council comprising of select Union Ministers, Chief Ministers, eminent public HR practitioners, thinkers, global thought leaders and Public Service functionaries under the Chairmanship of Honorable Prime Minister will serve as the apex body for providing strategic direction to the task of Civil Services Reform and capacity building.
2)Gopal Krishna Committee report on the non-personal data governance framework:
Committee Recommendations:
- Making privately-held non-personal data open
- The objective is to make such data available for general use though the committee does lay down conditions for such data transfers.
- Non-personal data are the data that do not identify an individual none the less search data can be useful in either framing public policy for creating and providing new services
Example the aggregate data from land registries can tell a lot about land use patterns
Why the data should be open to citizens -5 reasons
- First state should be transparent about information that it has to improve accountability. This is one of the reasons why Right to Information act 2005 was established
- Second if taxpayer money has funded any of the data sets that it is an obligation of the state to return the fruits of that funding to the taxpayer
- Third by permitting the reuse of government data sets we avoid the need for duplication
- Fourth government data sets, curated according to publicly verified standards can lead to increased confidence in data quality and increased usage.
- Finally free flow of information can have beneficial effects on society in general
Failure to create an open data society in practice the quality and quantity of the data set is published by the government as still well short of ideal
Two reasons for our failure to create an open data society
- First is lack of clarity in some of the provisions of the NDSAP i,e that is the National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy 2012
- The second is inability to enforce guidelines appropriately
Concerns about open government data-
Open data may have issues of state interference in the Private data ecosystem and the report of Gopal Krishna committee is a missed opportunity to address the governance frameworks around what are some of the most important non personal data sets in the country those created by the government Agencies for those resulting from by taxpayers money
Flaws of the Committee report:
The Gopal krishnan committee would have evaluated what is going wrong with the existing policies and practices pertaining to government data and elaborated on how these can be addressed instead the report largely focuses on the dangers posed by data collection by the private sector entities
Since data governance is relatively new concept in India the government would be better served in taking an incremental approach to any perceived problems. This should begin with reforming how the government itself deals with citizens data.
3) MoU between India and Finland:
Context: Cabinet approves MoU between India and Finland for cooperation in the field of Geology and mineral resources.
Between Geological Survey of India, Ministry of Mines, the Government of the Republic of India and Geological Survey of Finland (Geologiantutkimuskeskus),
Ministry of Employment and the Economy, the Government of Finland.
This MoU aims to provide with a framework and a platform to promote and foster cooperation in the fields of geology, and mineral resources between the Participants for mutual economic, social and environmental benefit.
Share experiences on geological data management and information dissemination to promote exploration and mining, in the areas of geology and mineral resources.
Geological Survey of India (GSI)
Is a premier geo-scientific organization of the Government of India of international repute for creation and updation of national geoscientific information and mineral resource assessment.
These objectives are achieved through, ground surveys, air-borne and marine surveys, mineral prospecting and investigations, multi-disciplinary geoscientific, geo-technical, geo-environmental and natural hazards studies, glaciology, seismotectonic study, and carrying out fundamental research.
4) Brigadier level talks between India and China
- Talks at Chushul
- Talks between India and China to de-escalate the situation on the southern Bank of Pangong Tso remained inconclusive
- Talks are important as tensions are still running high in the Chushul sector with large number of Troops deployed on both sides very close to each other along the disputed boundary
- The action is centered around the blacktop area and around Rezang La and Rechin La
- At the same time the army also strengthened its position on the north bank as a precaution
- As a part of the precautionary deployment carried out on August 30 some readjustments of our positions on North Bank of Pangong Tso on our side of the line of actual control had also been carried out.
5) Question hour
- No question no private members bills in this monsoon session
- Reason extraordinary situation In view of pandemic The two hour break between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. would be used to disinfect both the Chambers
- Opposition says quarterly question hour in amounting to encroach Upon A members right and deny them an opportunity to question the government
- Private members bills or businesses usually fixed for every Friday
What is Question Hour, and what is its significance?
Question Hour is the first hour. It is during this one hour that Members of Parliament ask questions of ministers and hold them accountable for the functioning of their ministries. The ministers answers the question either in written or oral form.
Over the last 70 years, MPs have successfully used this parliamentary device to shine a light on government functioning. Their questions have exposed financial irregularities and brought data and information regarding government functioning to the public domain.
And what is Zero Hour?
- While Question Hour is strictly regulated, Zero Hour is an Indian parliamentary innovation. The phrase does not find mention in the rules of procedure.
- The concept of Zero Hour started organically in the first decade of Indian Parliament, when MPs felt the need for raising important constituency and national issues.
- Question Hour in both Houses is held on all days of the session. But there are two days when an exception is made.
- There is no Question Hour on the day the President addresses MPs from both Houses in the Central Hall.
- The President’s speech takes place at the beginning of a new Lok Sabha and on the first day of a new Parliament year.
- Question Hour is not scheduled either on the day the Finance Minister presents the Budget. Since the beginning of the current Lok Sabha, approximately 15,000 questions have been asked in the Lower House.
What is a private member’s Bill?
An MP who is not a minister is a private member and while both private members and ministers take part in the lawmaking process, Bills introduced by private members are referred to as private member’s Bills and those introduced by ministers are called government Bills.
- Government Bills are backed by the government and also reflect its legislative agenda. The admissibility of a private Bill is decided by the Chairman in the case of the Rajya Sabha and the Speaker in the case of the Lok Sabha.
- Before the Bill can be listed for introduction, the Member must give at least a month’s notice, for the House Secretariat to examine it for compliance with constitutional provisions and rules on legislation. While a government Bill can be introduced and discussed on any day, a private member’s bill can only be introduced and discussed on Fridays.
- Till day, 14 private members bills are passed.
6) Govt bans PUBG, we chat, 116 other mobile apps:
Why ban: Ban in the interest of ‘sovereignty and integrity of India, defense of India, security of state and public order’ by invoking section 69 of Information Technology Act.
The ministry of Electronics and Information Technology Government of India is invoking its power under section 69 A of the Information Technology act, read with the relevant provisions of the Information Technology (procedure and safeguards for blocking of access of Information by Public) Rules 2009 and in view of the emergent nature of threats that has decided to block 118 mobile apps in view of information available they are engaged in activities which is prejudicial
Section 69 A of Information Technology Act
Section 69 A of Information Technology Act 2000 was introduced by an amendment to the act in 2008
It gives the central government the power to block public access to any information online whether on websites or mobile apps
Under section 69 A, if a website threatens India’s Defence, its sovereignty and integrity friendly relations with foreign countries and public order, the government can ban it after following due procedure.
7) Micro plastic pollution devastating soil species:
- Micro plastic pollution causes significant damage to pollution of soil dwelling mites, Larvae and other tiny creatures that maintain the fertility of the research has found
- Discarded bags, cups, threads and other forms of plastic wastes are concentrated more in the earth and in oceans.
- Round worms sprinkles and other forms of micro arthropod and nematode are barely visible to the human eye but they play an essential role in recycling carbon and nitrogen and breakdown organic matter into a form the bacteria can consume.
- The effects of micro plastics through the soil food web leading to the modification of microbial functioning with further potential consequences on soil carbon and nutrient cycling.
What are Micro Plastics?
Micro plastics are very small pieces of plastic that pollute the environment micro plastics are not a specific kind of plastic but rather any type of plastic fragment that is less than 5 mm in length according to US national oceanic and atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
They enter natural Ecosystems from variety of sources including cosmetics, clothing and industrial processes.