EDITORIALS & ARTICLES
28th April 2021
Assam Swanirbhar Nari Atmanirbhar Scheme
Recently, the Chief Minister of Assam has launched the “Swanirbhar Nari: Atmanirbhar Asom” scheme.
Assam Swanirbhar Nari Atmanirbhar Scheme
- It aims to create more than 3.72 lakh sustainable individual and 822 community assets benefiting around 4 lakh families.
- In the case of individual asset creation, 5 identified activities would be implemented across all Development Blocks.
- For community asset creation, 20 activities would be implemented in selected Development Blocks.
- It would be implemented under MGNREGA with the convergence of schemes of various state departments and missions.
- It includes Assam State Rural Livelihood Mission, Agriculture & Horticulture, Fishery, Environment & Forest, Handloom and Textiles, Sericulture, Veterinary, and Animal Husbandry, etc.
- The Panchayati Raj Institution (PRI) representatives will be giving full cooperation to the women of the self-help groups in the region of Assam so that the scheme can flow very easily.
- Eligibility: The applicant must be a permanent resident of Assam.
Significance of Assam Swanirbhar Nari Atmanirbhar Scheme
- It aims to empower the economically downtrodden women of the state.
- The implementation of the scheme by the Assam government will definitely help the women to hold their head high.
- The main objective of the scheme is to empower those women who belong to the financially disadvantaged category.
- It will provide employment opportunities to the women so that they can earn their living and improve their standard of living.
Sunidhi Project
Recently, the Government of India has launched ‘Sunidhi’ project.
- It is an ambitious information technology project called Superior New-generation Information and Data Handling Initiative (SUNIDHI).
- It aims to digitise all provident funds and pension related activities of the Coal Mines Provident Fund Organisation (CMPFO).
- It is an effort to make the system related to funds and pensions more robust.
- It is running from its data centre at Hyderabad in sync with the Disaster Recovery Centre at Bhubaneswar.
Coal Mines Provident Fund Organisation (CMPFO)
- It is a statutory body under the Ministry of Coal.
- It was established in 1948 through an Act of Parliament to administer different schemes of provident fund, pension and deposit linked insurance for coal mine workers.
- It administers the following Schemes:-
- Coal Mines Provident Fund Scheme
- Coal Mines Family Pension Scheme (merged with Pension Scheme in 1998)
- Coal Mines Pension Scheme
- Coal Mines Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme
Objectives of CMPFO
- Making CMPFO one of the best social security organization internationally by providing online settlement of PF , pension and other claims for the members, online status information about their claims and real time online grievance redressal,
- Maintaining highest level of security in investments made,
- Creating smooth systems for processing of claims and disbursements,
- Providing a transparent, people-friendly and responsive administration for the benefit of employees and pensioners,
- Protecting interest of the employees Vis-a- Vis their employers and enforcing the Act and Schemes with firmness, fairness and fearlessness,
- Introducing the most advanced tools of information technology to facilitate and improve performance, monitoring and compliance.
Maharashtra’s two-child norm for government employees
Recently, a woman officer from the Maharashtra Prison Department was dismissed from service after an inquiry revealed that she violated the Maharashtra Civil Services (Declaration of Small Family) rules because she suppressed the information from the authorities that she has three children.
- The Maharashtra Civil Services (Declaration of Small Family) Rule of 2005 defines a small family as wife, husband and two children.
- The rule stipulates that a person is not eligible for a job with Maharashtra Government if he or she has more than two children after 2005.
- Maharashtra is one of the few states in the country that have a ‘two children’ policy for appointment in government jobs or even for the elections of some local government bodies.
- The other states such as Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Gujarat, Odisha, Uttarakhand and Assam being the latest addition to the list in 2019.
- The rules mandate filing a small family declaration at the time of applying for a government job.
- The definition of child under these rules does not include adopted children.
- The rules make the Small Family norm an additional essential requirement for Groups A, B, C, D of Maharashtra government employees.
- A person having more than two children on the date commencement of the rule shall not be disqualified for appointment under these provisions so long as the number of children on the date of such commencement does not increase.
- It provided that one or more than one children are born in a single delivery within an year of the commencement, shall not be considered for the disqualification of the rules.
- The rules also empower the state government to give relaxation in ‘just and reasonable’ manner and mandates recording such reasons.
Saudi Green Initiative and the Middle East Green Initiative
Recently, the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Deputy Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has launched two initiatives i.e. ‘Saudi Green Initiative’ and the ‘Middle East Green Initiative’.
- The ongoing COVID19 pandemic is the need for collective action among members of the international community to effectively address global challenges such as pandemics and climate change.
- The pandemic has created an unprecedented crisis that demands an exceptional global response.
- The motto “safeguard the planet” was one of the main pillars of the Saudi G20 presidency.
- The Saudi leadership of the summit highlighted how climate change had negatively impacted the planet, people’s lives and their wellbeing.
- Saudi Arabia has been sharing its expertise and knowhow with its neighbouring countries to reduce carbon emissions resulting from hydrocarbon production in the region by 60% and globally by 10%.
Saudi Green Initiative
- It aims to raise the vegetation cover, reduce carbon emissions, combat pollution and land degradation, and preserve marine life.
- Under Saudi Green Initiative, 10 billion trees will be planted in the Kingdom.
- It aims to reduce carbon emissions by more than 4% of global contributions, through a renewable energy programme that will generate 50% of Saudi’s energy from renewables by 2030.
- It aims at raising the percentage of its protected areas to more than 30% of its total land area, representing roughly 6 lakh sq km, exceeding the global target of 17%.
Middle East Green Initiative
- Under this initiative, Saudi Arabia will work with the Gulf Cooperation Council countries and regional partners to plant an additional 40 billion trees in the West Asian region.
- It represents 5% of the global target of planting one trillion trees and reducing 2.5% of global carbon levels.
Ct value in a Covid-19 test
Recently, among various scientific terms that the Covid-19 pandemic has made part of the public vocabulary, one is the ‘Ct value’ in RT-PCR tests for determining whether a patient is positive for Covid-19.
Ct value in a Covid-19 test
- The cycle threshold or Ct is a value that emerges during RT-PCR tests.
- It is the gold standard for detection of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
- According to the ICMR advisory, the Ct value of an RT-PCR reaction is the number of cycles at which fluorescence of the PCR product is detectable over and above the background signal.
- The Ct value refers to the number of cycles after which the virus can be detected.
- If a higher number of cycles are required, it implies that the virus went undetected when the number of cycles was lower.
- The lower the Ct value, the higher the viral load because the virus has been spotted after fewer cycles.
- The ICMR has said that all patients with a Ct value less than 35 may be considered as positive while those with a Ct value above 35 may be considered as negative.
- The Ct value tells us about the viral load in the throat and not in the lungs.
- The Ct values may differ between nasal and oropharyngeal specimens collected from the same individual.
- The temperature of transportation, as well as the time taken from collection to receipt in the lab, can also adversely impact Ct values.
Importance of Ct value in a Covid-19 test
- The globally accepted cut-off for Ct value for Covid-19 ranges between 35 and 40which depend on instructions from the respective manufacturers of testing equipment.
- The ICMR has arrived at the Ct value of 35 based on laboratory experiences and inputs taken from several virology labs.
- The ICMR informed the Maharashtra government that it was not advisable to use a lower cycle threshold parameter as it would lead to missing several infectious persons and increase disease transmission.
Correlation between Ct Value and Disease Transmission
- The experts have said that although Ct value is inversely correlated with viral load, it does not have any bearing on the severity of the disease.
- It is possible that a patient can have a low Ct value, which means her viral load is high enough to be detected rapidly, but she may still be asymptomatic.
- A study has found that the time since the onset of symptoms has a stronger relationship with Ct values as compared to the severity of the disease.
World Happiness Report 2021
Recently, the World Happiness Report 2021 was released by the United Nations.
- Finland has been ranked as the happiest country in the world.
- It is followed by Iceland, Denmark, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Sweden, Germany and Norway.
- India’s ranking has been improved to 139 as compared to 144 in 2020 and 140 in 2019.
- The report has provided that Pakistan is on 105th, Bangladesh on 101st and China on 84th.
- The people in war-torn Afghanistan are the most unhappy with their lives, followed by Zimbabwe (148), Rwanda (147), Botswana (146) and Lesotho (145).
- The United States ranks at 19th place for happiness, despite being one of the richest countries in the world.
World Happiness Report
- It is published by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (UN-SDSN).
- It is powered by data from the Gallup World Poll and Lloyd’s Register Foundation.
- It ranks the world's 149 countries on "how happy their citizens perceive themselves to be".
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