Short News

Polity and Governance

ROSHNI – Centre of Women Collectives led Social Action (CWCSA)

Ministry of Rural Development and Lady Irwin College renews MoU for ROSHNI-CWCSA today

About:

• During the five-year term of MoU, MoRD will work with ROSHNI – Centre of Women Collectives led Social Action (CWCSA), to strengthen interventions for better results of Food, Nutrition, Health and WASH (FNHW) for rural communities.
• This partnership will strengthen nutrition, gender equity and livelihoods for women.
• Director of Lady Irwin College is the Chairperson of ROSHNI-CWCSA.
• This initiative will enhance capacity building of community resource persons (CRP) for FNHW and gender interventions.”
• ROSHNI-CWCSA is supported by UNICEF India technically and financially
• ROSHNI assists DAY-NRLM to improve food, nutrition, health, and WASH (FNHW) outcomes for 9.96 crore Self Help Group (SHG) members and their households across the country.
• It envisions breaking the self-perpetuating cycle of malnutrition - illness - out-of-pocket expenditure for addressing poverty.

National Girl Child Day

Every year on January 24th, National Girl Child Day (NGCD) is being celebrated nationwide. 

About –

National Girl Child Day is observed annually on January 24th in India.

• The day aims to raise awareness about the challenges faced by girls in society and to promote their empowerment.
• National Girl Child Day was initiated by the Ministry of Women and Child Development and the Government of India.
• It was first celebrated in 2008 to address issues related to the girl child and promote gender equality.
• The primary objective is to create awareness about the importance of the girl child and highlight the discrimination and inequalities they face.
• It focuses on promoting education, health, and nutrition for girls and ensuring their overall well-being.
• National Girl Child Day aligns with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goal 5 (Gender Equality), emphasizing the importance of empowering women and girls.

Vaibhav’ fellows

The Department of Science and Technology (DST) announced the first batch of ‘Vaibhav’ fellows.

About –

• Scheme is “open-ended” and was meant to facilitate meaningful collaboration, and potentially attract diaspora scientists to work in India.
• Twenty-two scientists, mostly based at North American and European institutes including the California Institute of Technology, the University of Oxford, the University of Michigan, the University of Geneva, the University of Waterloo, Canada, and the University of Oslo, will spend anywhere from a month or two annually, for a maximum of three years, at host Indian institutes.
• Currently, the institutions include the Indian Institute of Science, the Indian Institutes of Technology, the Indian Institutes of Science, Education and Research, and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, among others.
• The Vaibhav fellows are expected to begin a project, technology start-up, within three years along with the host institute, build long-term research connections with the institute, collaborate with the host faculty and bring in new ideas to the field, in Indian university and research settings.

About Scheme

• The Vaibhav fellowship scheme, first set into motion in June 2023, and is involve the Indian diaspora more closely to further India’s development, bears striking similarities to another scheme, called Visiting Advanced Joint Research Faculty (Vajra) scheme, again of the DST, initiated in 2018.
• Here too, diaspora Indian scientists were incentivised to spend short periods in Indian institutions.
• Both schemes would continue as they had different objectives. “Vajra was open to all foreign scientists, whereas Vaibhav is exclusively for the Indian diaspora,” said Professor Ajay Kumar Sood, Principal Scientific Advisor.
• While the Vajra scheme did see participation and visits by foreign faculty, the Vaibhav scheme – other than the emphasis on Indian diaspora – expected clear, translational outcomes in areas of science of research that the government had earlier identified as critical to development.

Khanjar

The 11th edition of India-Kyrgyzstan Joint Special Forces Exercise KHANJAR has commenced at the Special Forces Training School in Bakloh, Himachal Pradesh.

About-

• The exercise is scheduled to be conducted from 22nd January to 3rd February 2024.
• It is an annual event conducted alternatively in both the countries.The Indian Army contingent comprising 20 personnel is being represented by troops from The Parachute Regiment (Special Forces) and the Kyrgyzstan contingent comprising 20 personnel is represented by Scorpion Brigade.
• Aim of the exercise is to exchange experiences and best practices in Counter Terrorism and Special Forces Operations in Built-up Area and Mountainous Terrain under Chapter VII of United Nations Charter.
• The exercise will emphasise on developing Special Forces skills, advanced techniques of insertion and extraction.