• The New Zealand and Australian cities have dominated the Global Liveability Index 2021.
  • Auckland has been ranked the best on liveability rankings due to the ability of New Zealand city to contain Covid-19 faster.
• According to the EIU survey, six of the top 10 cities are in New Zealand and Australia, where tighter border controls from the early days of the pandemic allowed residents to live a relatively normal life.
• It noted a decline in liveability in many European cities as they battled the second Covid-19 wave by closing schools and restaurants, and restructuring cultural and sporting events.
• The Japanese cities of Osaka and Tokyo grabbed second and fourth place.
• The two Swiss citicities (Adelaide, Perth, Melbourne and Brisbane) made it to the top 10 list, with Melbourne sharing the eighth position with Geneva.
• es, Zurich and Geneva, were ranked seventh and eighth respectively.
• Four Australian 
• Honolulu was the biggest mover up the ranking in the past six months, moving 46 places to get the 14th rank on the liveability index.

• The report mentioned that the living conditions remained worst in the Syrian capital Damascus.
  • Other cities scraping along the bottom of the rankings are Lagos, Port Moresby, and Dhaka.
• The Pakistani city of Karachi also featured in the 10 least liveable cities in the world.

• It is an annual assessment published by the London–based Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).
• It examines 140 cities worldwide to quantify the challenges presented to an individual’s lifestyle in the past year.
• Each city is assigned a liveability score for more than 30 qualitative and quantitative factors across five categories i.e. stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.

• It was demanded amid a decision by the Central and the State governments to upgrade the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC) into a territorial council.
• The Rengma Naga Peoples’ Council (RNPC) said in the memorandum that the Rengmas were the first tribal people in Assam to have encountered the British in 1839.
• They stated that the existing Rengma Hills was eliminated from the political map of the State and replaced with that of Mikir Hills (now Karbi Anglong) in 1951.
• The council said that during the Burmese invasions of Assam in 1816 and 1819, it was the Rengmas who gave shelter to the Ahom refugees.
• The petition said that the Rengma Hills was partitioned in 1963 between Assam and Nagaland at the time of creation of Nagaland State.
  • The Karbis, who were known as Mikirs till 1976, were the indigenous tribal people of Mikir Hills.

• They speak different dialects and do not know Karbi language of Karbi Anglong.
• It is a Naga tribe found in Nagaland and Assam.
• The Census 2011 states that the Rengma population stands at 62,951.
• The Rengma headquarters is located in Tseminyu.
• The traditional Rengma religion is an animist religion and involved spirit worship.
• Ngada is the harvest festival of the Rengmas.

• The Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India allows creation of Autonomous District Councils (ADCs) in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura & Mizoram.
• Article 244 of the Indian Constitution provides for the creation of ADCs which seeks to safeguard the rights of tribal population.
• ADCs are bodies representing a district to which the Constitution has given varying degrees of autonomy within the state legislature.

• They are empowered to reorganise boundaries of the tribal areas.
• They can choose to include or exclude any area, increase or decrease the boundaries and unite two or more autonomous districts into one.
• They can also alter or change the names of autonomous regions without a separate legislation.

• The farmers pay 1.5-2% of the premium with the rest borne by the state and central governments.
• It is a central scheme implemented by state agriculture departments as per central guidelines.
• A premium of Rs 1,300 can insure a hectare of soyabean for Rs 45,000.
• A total of 422 lakh farmers in the country had enrolled for the scheme paying a combined premium of Rs 3,018 crore (farmers’ share only) and insuring 328 lakh hectares in 2019-20.

• The delay in claim settlement, failure to recognise localised weather events, and stringent conditions for claims were among the major concerns of the state government.
• The scheme turned out to be non-profitable for insurance companies given the high payments they had to make because the farmers in Maharashtra predominantly depend of monsoon rains to water their crops.
• The payouts were close to or exceeded the premium collected in some years, leading to losses to insurance companies.
• The claims-to-premium ratio is low with the premium being paid to the company in Maharashtra
• The profit of the company is expected to reduce and the state government would access another source of funds in the Beed Model.
• The reimbursed amount can lead to lower provisioning by the state for the following year, or help in financing the paying the bridge amount in case of a year of crop loss.

• The district of Beed presents a challenge for any insurance company because it is located in the drought-prone Marathwada region.
• The farmers in the Beed region have repeatedly lost crops either to failure of rains or to heavy rains.
• The state Agriculture Department decided to tweak the guidelines for the district and the state-run Indian Agricultural Insurance Company implemented the scheme.
• Under the new guidelines, the insurance company provided a cover of 110% of the premium collected, with caveats.
  • If the compensation exceeded the cover provided, the state government would pay the bridge amount.
  • If the compensation was less than the premium collected, the insurance company would keep 20% of the amount as handling charges and reimburse the rest to the state government.
• In a normal season where farmers report minimal losses, the state government is expected to get back money that can form a corpus to fund the scheme for the following year.
• The state government would have to bear the financial liability in case of losses due to extreme weather events.

• The term ‘brood’ refers to a population of cicadas that is isolated from other populations because of differences in their year of emergence or locality.
• It is the largest brood of 17-year cicadas.
• It is found in Pennsylvania, northern Virginia, Indiana and eastern Tennessee

• They are members of the superfamily Cicadoidea and are physically distinguished by their stout bodies, broad heads, clear-membraned wings, and large compound eyes.
• Cicadas live underground for extended periods of time, typically 13 or 17 years, and feed on roots of trees both underground and above it.
• Among periodical cicadas, there are seven species and there are also some annual cicadas, which come out every year.
• They do not bite or sting, but when the males sing, their collective chorus can reach up to 100 decibels.
• The only harm cicadas can cause is during egg laying when small twigs may be damaged by deep slits cut by the female when she deposits her rows of eggs.
• The cicada nymphs go through five stages of development when they are underground.
• The males emerge from underground once they become adults, which take about 17 years for some periodical cicadas.

• The G7 comprises the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan.
• The UK currently holds the presidency of the G7 and has invited India, along with Australia, Republic of Korea and South Africa, as guest countries.
• The theme for the summit is ‘Build Back Better’ and the UK has outlined four priority areas for its presidency which are:
  • Leading the global recovery from coronavirus while strengthening resilience against future pandemics;
  • Promoting future prosperity by championing free and fair trade;
  • Tackling climate change and preserving the planet’s biodiversity; and
  • Championing shared values and open societies.

• It is the second time PM Modi will be participating in a G7 meeting.
• India had been invited by the G7 French Presidency in 2019 to the Biarritz Summit as a “Goodwill Partner”.
• During Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s UPA rule, India attended the G8 five times.
  • Russia was indefinitely suspended in March 2014 after the annexation of Crimea, reducing the count of the G8 to G7.

• India has long called for reforming global institutions and groupings to reflect modern-day geopolitical realities.
• Delhi will be watching the allocation announced by the US President very carefully as India faces a massive shortage of vaccines.
• The US is calling all like-minded countries to partner in dealing with Beijing and called for expanding G7 to G11.

• It stands for “Group of Seven” industrialized nations.
• It used to be known as the G8 (Group of Eight) until 2014 when Russia was excluded because of its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
• It was created more than four decades ago as an annual gathering of political leaders to discuss and exchange ideas on a broad range of issues.
• France, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and West Germanyformed the Group of Six in 1975.
  • Canada joined the following year and Russia eventually joined in 1998.
• It is an informal bloc and takes no mandatory decisions, so the leaders’ declarations at the end of the summit are not binding.

COMSOL Platform through I-STEM Recently, the Office of Principal Scientific Advisor to GoI has announced that India will now be able to access the COMSOL Multiphysics software suite at no cost through the I-STEM portal academic users. Indian Science Technology and Engineering facilities Map (I-STEM)

• It is an initiative of Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Govt. of India under the PM-STIAC mission.
• The I-STEM National Web Portal was launched formally in 2020.
• It protects the IP involved in building the I-STEM Portal.
• The objectives of I-STEM are:
  • Strengthen the R&D ecosystem by connecting researchers with resources;
  • Promoting technologies and scientific equipment development indigenously; and
  • Providing necessary supplies and supports to researchers
• It hosts the database of facilities across India so that a researcher desirous of using any of them can search for the same and make a booking online for using it.
• It lists more than 25,000 pieces of equipment from 850 institutions across the country, and has more than 20,000 Indian researchers.
• It features a Digital Catalogue of indigenously developed technologies and products, as well as host the platform for the various City Knowledge and Innovation Clusters.

• It is developed by the COMSOL Group.
• It is used worldwide as an indispensable tool for a variety of computer simulations for R&D as well as for learning and instruction.
• It is a general-purpose simulation software package for modelling designs, devices, and processes in all fields of engineering, manufacturing, and scientific research.
• It can be used on its own or expanded with functionality from any combination of add-on modules for simulating electromagnetics, structural mechanics, acoustics, fluid flow, heat transfer, and chemical engineering.
• It is hosted on a secure Azure Cloud and to be used simultaneously by up to 60 users located anywhere in the country.

• It is an overarching Council that facilitates the Principal Scientific Adviser’s Office to assess the status in specific science and technology domains.
• It is Prime Minister’s Science, Technology, and Innovation Advisory Council.
• The Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) to the Government of India coordinates to facilitate and ensure the implementation of significant interventions.
• The Secretariat is based at Invest India and provides support to the Office of the PSA on project management and monitoring.
• The 9 missions under PM-STIAC are:
  • Natural Language Translation: It aims to make opportunities and progress in science and technology accessible to all in their mother tongue.
  • Quantum Frontier: It aims to initiate work in the understanding and control of quantum mechanical systems with a large number of degrees of freedom.
  • Artificial Intelligence (AI): It focuses on efforts that will benefit India in addressing societal needs in areas such as healthcare, education, agriculture, smart cities and infrastructure.
  • National Biodiversity Mission: It includes comprehensive documentation of India’s biodiversity with the potential for cataloguing and mapping all life forms in India.
  • Electric Vehicle (EVs): It aims to develop vehicle sub-systems and components specific to Indian requirements.
  • Bioscience for Human Health: Its goal is to construct comprehensive reference maps of genomes and to understand the dynamics of how exposure to different environments impacts our bodies.
  • Waste to Wealth: It aims to leverage global technological capabilities to create socio-economic benefits for more than a billion Indians by addressing the issues of waste disposal, deteriorating air quality and increasing river pollution.
  • Deep Ocean Exploration: Its goal is to scientifically explore the deep oceans towards improving our understanding of the blue frontier.
  • AGNIi: aims to support the national efforts to boost the innovation ecosystem in the country by connecting innovators across industry, individuals and the grassroots.

• Every high court (whether exclusive or common) consists of a chief justice and such other judges as the president may from time to time deem necessary to appoint.
• The Constitution does not specify the strength of a high court and leaves it to the discretion of the president.
• The President determines the strength of a high court from time to time depending upon its workload.

• The chief justice is appointed by the President after consultation with the chief justice of India and the governor of the state concerned.
• The judges of a high court are appointed by the President.
• The President, in exercise of the power conferred by clause (1) of Article 217 of the Constitution of India, can appoint the Chief Justice of a High Court.

• A person to be appointed as a judge of a high court, should have the following qualifications:
  • He should be a citizen of India.
  • He should have held a judicial office in the territory of India for ten years; or
  • He should have been an advocate of a high court (or high courts in succession) for ten years.
• It is clear that the Constitution has not prescribed a minimum age for appointment as a judge of a high court.

• A person appointed as a judge of a high court, before entering upon his office, has to make and subscribe an oath or affirmation before the governor of the state.

• The Constitution has not fixed the tenure of a judge of a high court but it makes the following four provisions in this regard:
  • He holds office until he attains the age of 62 years.
  • He can resign his office by writing to the president.
  • He can be removed from his office by the President on the recommendation of the Parliament.
  • He vacates his office when he is appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court or when he is transferred to another high court.

• A judge of a high court can be removed from his office by an order of the President.
• The President can issue the removal order only after an address by the Parliament has been presented to him in the same session for such removal.
• The address must be supported by a special majority of each House of Parliament(i.e., a majority of the total membership of that House and majority of not less than two-thirds of the members of that House present and voting).
• It implies that a judge of a high court can be removed in the same manner and on the same grounds as a judge of the Supreme Court.

• It is Ministry of Health & Family Welfare's National Telemedicine Service.
• It is operational in 31 States/Union Territories.
• It is first of its kind online OPD service offered by a country government to its citizens.
• It is conceptualised as a doctor to doctor telemedicine platform in November 2019 for implementation at 155,000 Health and Wellness Centres under Ayushman Bharat Scheme in a Hub & Spokes model.
• It supports two types of telemedicine services viz. Doctor-to-Doctor (eSanjeevani) and Patient-to-Doctor (eSanjeevani OPD) Tele-consultations.
• The eSanjeevani AB-HWC is the doctor to doctor telemedicine platform.
  • It has been implemented at around 20,000 Health and Wellness Centres as spokes and over 1800 hubs in around 30 States.
• The eSanjeevani OPD (Patient-to-Doctor) was rolled out in 2020 in order to provide free online medical consultation to sick people at their residence.
• It was developed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC).

• It is the premier R&D organization of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) for carrying out R&D in IT & E (Information Technologies and Electronics).
• It is working on strengthening national technological capabilities in the context of global developments in the field.
• The setting up of C-DAC in 1988 itself was to built Supercomputers in context of denial of import of Supercomputers by USA.

• It stated that there has been a growth of 11.4% in the student enrolment in the last five years from 2015-16 to 2019-20.
  • The rise in female enrolment in higher education during the period is 18.2%.
• It showed that the continuous focus on education of girls, women empowerment and empowerment of socially backward classes increased participation of women, SCs and STs population in Higher Education.
• Total Enrolment in Higher Education: It stands at 3.85 crore in 2019-20 as compared to 3.74 crore in 2018-19, registering a growth of 11.36 lakh (3.04 %).
• Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER): It is the percentage of students belonging to the eligible age group enrolled in Higher Education.
  • In 2019-20, it is 27.1% against 26.3% in 2018-19 and 24.3% in 2014-2015.
• Gender Parity Index (GPI): In 2019-20, it is 1.01 against 1.00 in 2018-19 indicating an improvement in the relative access to higher education for females of eligible age group compared to males.
• Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR): In 2019-20, the PTR in higher education is 26.
  • In Universities and Colleges,it is 28 if regular mode enrolment is considered whereas PTR for Universities and its Constituent Units is 18 for regular mode.
• It revealed that the number of Institutes of National Importance (INIs) have increasedfrom 75 in 2015 to 135 in 2020.
• The number of PhDs has also increased by 60 per cent in the last five years.
  • The number of students pursuing PhD in 2019-20 is 2.03 lakh against 1.17 lakh in 2014-15.
• The Total Number of Teachers stands at 15,03,156 comprising of 57.5% male and 42.5% female.
• It highlighted that 3.38 crore Students enrolled in programmes at under-graduate and post-graduate level. 
  • Out of these, nearly 85% of the students (2.85 crore) were enrolled in the six major disciplines such as Humanities, Science, Commerce, Engineering & Technology, Medical Science and IT & Computer.

• It is an annual report released by the Department of Higher Education.
• It provides key performance indicators on the current status of Higher education in the country.
• It covers all institutions of Higher Education in the country, registered with AISHE code in AISHE portal.
• It was initiated in 2011 during which data for the year 2010-11 was collected.