JHARKHAND

Enabling rural populace to fight for Right to Food

In a State like Jharkhand which is infamous for hunger deaths and rampant poverty and unemployment, access to social security schemes, especially those ensuring the rural masses proper food and nutrition, still remains a distant dream. A large chunk of people belonging to socially excluded communities and those living in far flung areas of the State are yet to manage two square meals for them and get benefits of government schemes due to lack of awareness.

The project named ‘Strengthening Rural Governance for Right to adequate Food’ launched in March 2020 being implemented by Phia Foundation in association with Welthungerhilfe being implemented with close coordination with the government in 40 villages of Khunti (20) and Latehar (20) districts of Jharkhand has turned out to be the harbinger of change for thousands of villagers of the area. The villagers are now discussing issues related to MGNREGA, NFSA, MDM, ICDS, AWC, FRA and several other schemes meant to benefit them.

They are participating in Gram Sabhas, taking help from NREGA Sahayata Kendras, Mobilizing people to facilitate awareness and their active participation, Adhikar Yatra, awareness campaigns, and other community meetings to spread the word among others and also making efforts to secure their rights through various government schemes.

The project aims at providing regular access to 90 per cent of the targeted households to PDS/MDM and ICDS services, strengthen grievance redressal mechanism of the government, to make functional multi stakeholder engagement with active local governance bodies Gram Sabha/standing committees (Village Assembly), Village Health Sanitation and Nutrition Committees (VHSNC) in strong collaboration with Panchayti Raj department and other line departments such as – Women and Child Development, Agriculture, etc.

It has also set goals to prepare, implement and assess participatory nutrition sensitive micro-plans in 80 per cent of the villages, make at least 10 Panchayats as Zero Hunger and make active VHSNCs in 75 per cent of the villages and monitor performance of ICDS and health facilities. During the entire project in the duration of four years more than 43000 villagers are aimed to be impacted.

INTERNATIONAL

India becomes co-chair of Asia Protected Areas Partnership (APAP), a regional forum to conserve wildlife

India has been chosen as the co-chair of the IUCN-supported Asia Protected Areas Partnership (APAP) for a period of three years till November 2023.

The APAP is chaired by IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Asia and co-chaired by an APAP nation member on a rotational basis.

India will replace South Korea ,which held the post for 3 years until November, 2020.

As a co-chair, India would be responsible to assist other Asian countries in managing their protected areas.

Bajaj becomes world’s most valuable two-wheeler company

Bajaj Auto has become the first two-wheeler company across the globe to cross a market capitalisation of ?1-lakh crore (around $13.6 billion).

The statement from Bajaj Auto claims that this market valuation is considerably higher than all other domestic two-wheeler companies.

The company’s share closed at ?3,479 giving it a market capitalisation ?1,00,670.76 crore.

The company claims that it has achieved this milestone as it celebrates the 75th year of its operations.

World Bank Released Global Economic Prospects Report

According to the report, the Indian economy will contract by 9.6% in 2020-21. The Indian economy will recover by 5.4% in 2021-22. India’s economic contraction will be mainly attributed to the sharp decline in household spending and private investment.

The informal sector accounts for four-fifths of the country’s employment, is severely affected. On the other hand, the world economy will grow by 4% in 2021. Services and manufacturing are gaining momentum. According to the World Bank, India is facing its first technological decline.

When GDP exceeds the quarter’s negative growth for two consecutive quarters, it is called a period of a technical recession. In India, the gross domestic product for the April to June quarter fell by 23.9%.

In the July and September quarters, the GDP growth rate contracted by 7.5%. This clearly shows that India’s GDP growth has experienced negative growth for two consecutive quarters. Therefore, India is in a period of technological decline.

According to data from the Indian Economic Monitoring Center, during the covid-19 pandemic, more than 500,000 salaried people lost their jobs.

NATIONAL

GST revenue collection for December 2020 records all time high

GST Revenue collection for last month has been recorded to be an all time high since the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax in the country.

The gross GST revenue collected in the month of December 2020 is Rs 1,15,174 crore.

The revenue collected is 12 per cent higher than the GST revenues in the corresponding period lasting last financial year.

The December 2020 revenues are significantly higher than the November’s revenues which was nearly Rs 1,04,963 crore.

Digital Payments Index by RBI

The Reserve Bank of India has established a comprehensive Digital Payment Index (DPI) to record the degree of digitization of payments across the country.

The RBI-DPI has been constructed with March 2018 as the base period.

The DPI in March 2019 and March 2020 reached 153.47 and 207.84, respectively, indicating considerable growth.

RBI-DPI contains five main parameters: Payment Enablers, Payment Infrastructure – Demand-side factors and Supply-side factors, Payment Performance and Consumer Centricity.

The RBI-DPI should be published on the RBI’s website every six months starting in March 2021 for 4 months.

Rashtriya Kamadhenu Aayog Announces Online Exam

Rashtriya Kamadhenu Aayog recently announced that it will conduct a national-level “Gaau-Vigyan” (Cattle Science) online exam. This is done to arouse students and the public’s interest in local cows and their benefits.

The exam will be on February 25, 2021.

All elementary, middle and university level students can take the te test for free.

The exam will be held every year starting in 2021.

This exam is the first time in China.

All those who take the exam should receive a certificate, and the results of the exam will be announced immediately after the exam.

Rashtriya Kamadhenu Aayog has prepared learning materials about cow science to help aspiring candidates.

Rashtriya Kamadhenu Aayog was established to organize animal husbandry in accordance with modern and scientific methods. It will take steps to improve the breed of dairy cows and prohibit the slaughter of dairy cows. It is an integral part of Rashtriya Gokul Mission. The mission is to protect and develop indigenous cattle breeds.

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