GS Analyst
Daily Current Affairs

China has planned to build another highway through Aksai Chin, connecting Xinjiang with Tibet, which is likely to run across the Indian border and reduce the distance from Doklam region.

• The first time the government has acknowledged Chinese construction over the land since
• There were some temporary constructions few years back but now done permanent constructions in the region.
• Satellite images show the construction of a big village on the banks of Tsari Chu River in Upper Subansiri district between November 2019 and 2020.
• China continues to be in illegal occupation of approximately 38,000 sq. in the Union Territory of Ladakh, and Aksai Chin, and also claims approximately 90,000 sq. km. of Indian Territory in Arunachal Pradesh.

• G219’ will be the second national highway through the disputed Aksai Chin region, where China controls 38,000 sq km of land claimed by India.
• It is expected to be complete by
• The G695 national expressway is the only highway now that exists near Indian Territory build by China.
  
  

China’s strategic Plan

The Infrastructure development near LAC by China in recent past years have the following reasons:

• Mobilise its troops faster
• Infrastructural development
• Territorial expansion: The Bridge is in Chinese territory, and the Indian Army will have to now factor this in its operational plans.
• New border law
• China renamed 15 places in Arunachal Pradesh on its map

India’s Stand

• India-China Border Roads(ICBRs) is a Government of India project for developing infrastructure along the Sino-Indian border by constructing strategic roads, including bridges and tunnels. 
• The ICBR project is largely in response to Chinese infrastructure development along the borderlands with India.
• As of May 2021, India is constructing at least 177 roads in two phases of over 10,023 km (6,228 mi) total length along its Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China under the "Border Infrastructure and Management Fund" (BIMF) of Ministry of Home Affairs.
• This includes 73 roads of 3,323 km (2,065 mi) length under ICBR-I (Phase-I) approved in 2005 and additional 104 roads of more than 6,700 km (4,200 mi) length under ICBR-II (Phase-II) approved in

In a bid to provide adequate nutrition to Children from Classes 1 to 8, they will get boiled eggs, bananas or groundnut chikki for 46 days of the on-going academic year in their Mid-day meals.

• Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, malnutrition has become common as nutritious food was scarce. 
• Nutritionists have stated the need for increasing the frequency at which supplementary nutrition is provided for the students under Mid-day meals.
• As per the report (2020) of the United Nations Development Programme entitled “Charting pathways out of multidimensional poverty: Achieving the SDGs,” the incidence of multidimensional poverty in India has significantly reduced from 55.1% in 2005 to 27.9% in 2015–2016.

• The State government has issued a formal order stating that eggs,bananas or groundnut chikki would be provided as supplementary nutrition for the children under the Pradhan ManthriShakthiNirmanprogramme (PM POSHAN).
• It was earlier known as Mid-Day Meal Scheme.
• This programme was already in operation of Kalyana Karnataka districts like Bidar, Ballari, Yadgir, Koppal, Kalaburagi, Raichur and Vijayapura.
• Now this plan will extend to all government and aided schools across the State.

• Now the students will get egg, banana or chikki with midday meals weekly twice.

Pradhan ManthriShakthiNirman Programme

• The Government has approved the Centrally Sponsored Scheme ‘Pradhan MantriPoshan Shakti Nirman (PM POSHAN)’ for providing one hot cooked meal in Government and Government – aided Schools till
• The Scheme is being implemented by the Ministry of Education.
• Objective: The main objectives of the PM POSHAN Schemeis to address two of the pressing problems for majority of children in India, viz. hunger and education by improving the nutritional status of eligible children in Government and Government-aided schools as well as encouraging poor children, belonging to disadvantaged sections.
• Implementation:The Scheme is implemented across the country covering all the eligible children without any discrimination of gender and social class.

Nutrition and food norms under the scheme are as under:

Potential Benefits of the programme

• Provide wholesome food under Mid-day meals: To maintain a balanced diet for children under age group from class 1 to 8 needs major attention for their physical and mental development.
• Segregated meals for both Vegetarian and Non-Vegetarian children to promote protein consumption to reduce

Other Government Interventions

• POSHAN Abhiyaan: Aims to reduce malnutrition in a phased manner, through a life cycle approach, by adopting a synergised and result oriented approach. All these schemes address in one or other aspects related to nutrition and have the potential to improve nutritional outcomes in the country.
• Pradhan MantriMatruVandanaYojana under the Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services Scheme (ICDS) as targeted interventions for Children under 6 years, Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers and Adolescent Girls, throughout the country.
• Mission Poshan 2.0, an integrated nutrition support programme has been announced in budget 2021-22 for all States/UTs.
  • It seeks to strengthen nutritional content, delivery, outreach and outcomes with focus on developing practices that nurture health, wellness and immunity to disease and malnutrition.
  • Steps have been taken to improve nutritional quality and testing in accredited labs, strengthen delivery and leverage technology under Poshan Tracker to improve governance.

A recent study published in PLOS Global Public Health journal casts a shadow over the progress of health care targeting women in the country.

It also questioned the reliability of the country’s own periodic estimates of maternal mortality ratio, or MMR.

About the study

India is going to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Independence but still so many districts show a very high MMR.

• It clearly indicates that there is inadequacy of responsiveness of health systems.
• Maternal Health is analysed by access to contraceptives, antenatal care, post-delivery health care, body mass index, and the economic status.
• However India’s policies are concerted to reduce higher-order births and births in higher ages.
• India’s focus now should be to improve overall care for women, and keep real time track of such crucial health data.
• Immediate action is required to meet the SDG goal regarding

Key Points

• Researchers from the International Institute for Population Sciences used data from routine records of maternal deaths under the Health Management Information System, with Census data and the Sample Registration System (SRS) to provide the MMR for all States and districts of India. 
• State-wise disparities have been observed.
• The analysis suggests that 70% of districts (448 out of 640 districts) in India have reported MMR above 70 deaths.
• Many of the districts in southern India and Maharashtra have an MMR of less than 70.
• At the same time, the north-eastern and central regions have the least number of districts (12 and six districts, respectively) with an MMR less than 70.
• Significantly, it also demonstrates the presence of huge within-State inequalities, even among the better performers — Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana.
• According to the SRS (2016-18), only Assam (215) has an MMR of less than 200, while in this district-level assessment, the indications are that about 130 districts have reported above 200 MMR.

How the Maternal Mortality is calculated in India?

• In India, the number of deaths caused due to pregnancy and childbirth has been very high over the years but recent records show that there has been a decline in the MMR of India.
• It is tough to calculate the exact maternal mortality except where the comprehensive records of deaths and causes of death are available.
• So surveys and census are used to estimate the levels of maternal mortality.
• Reproductive Age Mortality Studies (RAMOS) is presently considered the best way to calculate MMR.
• In this, different sources and records are analysed to get data regarding the death of women of reproductive ages and also through verbal autopsy to estimate the number of deaths.
• The MMR is calculated at both global and regional level every five years through a regression model.
• The Sample Registration Survey (SRS) is used to get an estimate of the maternal mortality rate.
• The Office of the Registrar General’s Sample Registration System (SRS) had last released a special bulletin on Maternal Mortality in India in March 2022.
  
  

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is all set to implement the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in a phased manner for wholesale and retail segments as announced in the Union Budget 2022-23.

• The fintech companies are transforming the very definition of banking and finance with their role played in the digital segment.
• The contribution of fintech in digital payment can also be observed by usage of prepaid payment instruments.
• The revolution which the QR code brought along and the interoperability put the banking on the fingertip phase.
• Fintech has already made a mark in the digital payment space with the invention of UPI (Unified Payments Interface) in the country.
• India's UPI transaction has seen participation of 323 banks and has recorded 5.9 billion monthly transactions worth over $130 billion.

What is CBCD?

• CBDC is a digital or virtual currency but it is not comparable with private virtual currencies or crypto currency.
• Private virtual currencies do not represent any person's debt or liabilities as there is no issuer.
• The CBDC will be a sovereign-backed digital currency.
• The introduction of CBDC was announced in the Union Budget 2022-23, by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
• It was enacted by the amendments to the relevant section of the RBI Act, 1934 with the passage of the Finance Bill 2022.
• The passage of the bill has enabled the RBI to issuance of CBDC.

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Role of RBI

• The CBDC will be held in a digital wallet that is supervised by the Central bank.
• In India, RBI supervises the digital rupee although it may delegate some power to banks.
• RBI’s digital rupee will not directly replace demand deposits held in banks. Physical cash will continue to be used by banks, and people who wish to withdraw cash from banks can still do so.
• But they can also opt to convert their bank deposits into the new digital rupee.

Recent developments in the field of Digital Currencies

• The Reserve Bank issued guidelines regulations for emerging areas such as payment banks in 2014,
• Account aggregator in 2016,
• Pre-paid instruments in 2017 and Peer-to-peer lending;
• Invoice discounting 2018.
• They facilitated the industry in digital and for facilitating on-boarding of consumers, individuals as well as KYC documentation.

India may get its first Adivasi President in Droupadi Murmu, her political rise from a Panchayat post to that of Presidential candidate is a success story.

• Empowerment of women in all spheres and in particular the political sphere is crucial for their advancement and for the foundation of gender equal society.
• It is central to the goals of equality, development and peace.
• The Indian democracy which is more than half a century old has entered the next century. But a large mass of women are kept out of political arena still.
• There can be no true democracy, or no true people’s participation in governance and development without equal and proportional participation of men and women at different levels of decision making.
• Participation of women in political life is integral to the advancement of women. 
• But PRIs has changed the definition in terms of women empowerment and hence make them more inclusive in the political sphere.

Key points

• Her nomination as the National Democratic Alliance’s presidential candidate happened in concurrence with the 30th anniversary of the passage of the Constitution (73rd Amendment) Act.
• The Act came into effect April 24, 1993.
• It empowered state governments to take the necessary steps that would lead to the formalisation of Gram Panchayats and help them operate as units of self-governance.
• DroupadiMurmuwas born in Odisha’s revenue village Uparbeda, dominated by Adivasis.
• She was elected as a Ward Sabha councillor in 1997.
• She was also elected to the Odisha Legislative Assembly in 2000 while serving as a PRI official in a Rairangpur Nagar panchayat.
• She has been elected to the Assembly twice.
• Then she served as the Governor of Jharkhand from May 8, 2015 to July 12, 2021.
• Murmu and a few other women politicians who started their political career from Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) and reached Parliament or legislative assemblies.

Panchayati Raj Institutions

• Balwant Rai Mehta was a parliamentarian who is credited for pioneering the concept of the Panchayati Raj in India and was also known as the ‘Father of Panchayati Raj’.
• The primary objective of establishing the third tier of the government (PRI) is to increase democratic participation,to better articulate local needs and priorities, and to ensure a more efficient use of local resources along with greater accountability and transparency.

Significance of PRIs in India

• Panchayati Raj institutes village local government that plays a significant role in the development of villages especially in areas like primary education, health, agricultural developments, women and child development and women participation in local government, etc.

What are the features of Panchayati Raj?

• Gram Sabha: Gram Sabha is the primary body of the Panchayati Raj system. It is a village assembly consisting of all the registered voters within the area of the panchayat.
• Three Tier system: village, intermediate and district levels.
• Election of members and chairperson: The members to all the levels of the Panchayati Raj are elected directly and the chairpersons to the intermediate and the district levels are elected indirectly.

Benefits for Women Empowerment in PRIs

• Reservation of seats
• Local representation
• Ground level development of women issues ie. In Rural India.

Some other Women politicians who excel their political Journey

• JothimaniSennimalai- Tamil Nadu
• Phulo Devi Netam- Chhattisgarh
• SulataDeo- Odhisa
• Rekha Devi- Bihar

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has set new deadlines for major missions, with its first solar mission and third lunar mission set to take place in the first quarter of 2023.

• The Indian space agency had in 2019 announced its plans to set up its own space station in “five to seven years” after successfully launching its first human spaceflight mission.
• The first milestone for the Gaganyaan mission was also decided to be undertaken in the last quarter of 2022 which will be the first abort demonstration mission.
• The scientific missions slated for 2023 have been repeatedly pushed back since 2020 amidst the pandemic that slowed down all activities of the space agency, including the number of launches.
• There were only two launches in 2020 and 2021.

Gaganyaan

• Gaganyaan is a mission by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
• It has Three flights will be sent into orbit.
• There will be two unmanned flights and one human spaceflight.
• The Gaganyaan system module, called the Orbital Module will have three Indian astronauts, including a woman.
• It will circle Earth at a low-earth-orbit at an altitude of 300-400 km from earth for 5-7 days.
  
  
• Launch: GSLV Mk III, also called the LVM-3 (Launch Vehicle Mark-3,) the three-stage heavy lift launch vehicle, will be used to launch Gaganyaan as it has the necessary payload capability.

Chandrayaan-3

• The Chandrayaan-3 mission is a follow-up of Chandrayaan-2 of July 2019, which aimed to land a rover on the lunar South Pole.
• The subsequent failure of the Vikram lander led to the pursuit of another mission to demonstrate the landing capabilities needed for the Lunar Polar Exploration Mission proposed in partnership with Japan for 2024.
• Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark-III was developed by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), is a three-stage vehicle, designed to launch communication satellites into geostationary orbit.
• It has a mass of 640 tonnes that can accommodate up to 8,000 kg payload to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and 4000 kg payload to GTO (Geo-Synchronous Transfer Orbit).

Upcoming Developments by ISRO

• XpoSat: It will be India’s second astronomical observatory in space after the
• It will help in studying cosmic x-rays.
• Shukrayaan Mission: The ISRO is also planning a mission to Venus, tentatively called Shukrayaan.