National Achievement Survey - Ministry of Education

• It assesses the health of school education system in the country by conducting comprehensive evaluation survey of children’s learning competencies at classes III, V, VIII and X with a cycle period of three years.
• The report also evaluated competencies of students in subjects such as mathematics, languages, and environmental studies (EVS) for Classes 3 and 5; language, mathematics, science and social science for Class 8; and language, mathematics, science, social science and English for Class 10.
• Nearly 80% students found learning at home during the pandemic “burdensome” and felt that they learnt better in school with help from peers.
• As many as 24% students said they had no digital device at home. Though 45% students found the experience “joyful”, 38% also said that they had difficulties in learning.
• Out of a score of 500, students across various classes performed better in languages, but lagged behind in subjects like mathematics and science.
• across various subjects and classes, SC, ST and OBC students perform worse than general category students.

End discrimination, frame specific policies for LGBTIQ+ workers: ILO

• Around the world, LGBTIQ+ persons face harassment, violence and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics.
• Discrimination has an economic cost not just to LGBTIQ+ persons and their families but also to enterprises and national economies. Studies have shown that diversity in the workplace, including LGBTIQ+ persons, is better for business.
• It recommended member countries, employers’ organisations and representatives of workers to launch social protection programmes to remove barriers that LGBTIQ+ persons face in society.
• A national policy and labour law review will allow governments to assess their country’s work policy environment for LGBTIQ+ persons.
• Consultation with LGBTIQ+ communities and employers’ and workers’ organisations will allow the identification of barriers faced by LGBTIQ+ persons. when entering the labour market and accessing government schemes, including those on social protection.
• The ILO asked trade unions to help LGBTIQ+ workers to organise and exercise their right to freedom of association.

Supreme Court says sex work is ''legal profession''

• The Supreme Court has directed that police should neither interfere nor take criminal action against adult and consenting sex workers.
• Notwithstanding the profession, every individual in this country has a right to a dignified life under Article 21 of the Constitution.
• The Bench ordered that sex workers should not be “arrested or penalised or harassed or victimised” whenever there is a raid on any brothel, “since voluntary sex work is not illegal and only running the brothel is unlawful”.
• A child of a sex worker should not be separated from the mother merely on the ground that she is in the sex trade.
• Further, if a minor is found living in a brothel or with sex workers, it should not be presumed that the child was trafficked.
• Sex workers who are victims of sexual assault should be provided every facility including immediate medico-legal care, a three-judge Bench directed in an order which was passed after invoking special powers under Article 142 of Constitution.

Levying service charges on customers ''not an unfair trade practice'': NRAI

• Ministry of Consumer Affairs wrote a letter to NRAI – the umbrella restaurant body – saying the restaurants are collecting service charges from consumers by default, even though collection of any such charge is voluntary and at the discretion of consumers and not mandatory as per law.
• A restaurant bill in India comprises food charge (from the menu), with an addition of service charge (anywhere between 5 to 15 per cent) and a 5 per cent GST on this amount (IGST+SGST). This is for all kinds of standalone restaurants.
• While the GST is a mandatory component as per law, it is the service charge which is supposed to be optional. It is the equivalent of what is known as gratuity around the world, or tip, in casual parlance.
• In the past, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs had come out with “Guidelines on Fair Trade Practices Related to Charging of Service Charge from Consumers by Hotels/ Restaurants”.
• Under this, it was clearly mentioned that “a component of service is inherent in the provision of food and beverages ordered by a customer, and therefore the pricing of the product is expected to cover both the goods and service components”.
• It also said that hotels and restaurants charging tips from customers “without their express consent in the name of service charges” amounts to unfair trade practice.

Demand for a separate state of Bhil Pradesh

• Bhils or Bheels are an Adivasi ethnic group in West India. Bhils are listed as tribal people of the states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan
• Bhils are one of the largest tribal group in India. They speak the Bhil languages.
• The Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP), a political party based in Gujarat, was formed in 2017.
• It envisions Bhil Pradesh as a separate state carved out of 39 districts spread over four states: 16 in Gujarat, 10 in Rajasthan, seven in Madhya Pradesh, and six in Maharashtra.

Mangarh massacre

• Bhil social reformer and spiritual leader Govind Guru first raised the demand for a separate state for tribals back in 1913 after the Mangarh massacre.
• The massacre, which took place six years before Jallianwalla Bagh and is sometimes referred to as the “Adivasi Jallianwala”, saw hundreds of Bhil tribals being killed by British forces on November 17, 1913 in the hills of Mangarh on the border of Rajasthan and Gujarat.

PARAM PORUL Supercomputer inaugurated at NIT, Tiruchirappalli

• A MoU was signed between NIT Tiruchirappalli and Centre for Development in Advanced Computing (C-DAC) in 2020 to establish this 838 TeraFlops Supercomputing Facility under NSM.
• NIT, Tiruchirappalli has been carrying out research in the areas of societal interest such as Health, Agriculture, Weather, Financial Services. The facility installed under NSM will strengthen this research.
• PARAM PORUL system is based on Direct Contact Liquid Cooling technology to obtain a high power usage effectiveness and thereby reducing the operational cost.

National Supercomputing Mission (NSM)

• National Supercomputing Mission (NSM) is a joint initiative of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and Department of Science and Technology (DST).
• Under NSM, till date 15 supercomputers have been installed across the nation with compute capacity of 24 petaflops. All these supercomputers have been manufactured in India and operating with indigenously developed software stack.

Renewable energy minister R K Singh asks states, UTs to set up committees for energy transition

• These Steering Committees will work under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretaries of the States and Union Territories.
• The Principal Secretaries of Power and New and Renewable Energy Departments, Transport, Industries, Housing and Urban Affairs, Agriculture, Rural Development and Public Works Departments will act as members of these Committees.
• The States and Union Territories will work on the annual strategy of energy transition under the mandate of the committee.
• Some states like Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttarakhand have already constituted such committees.
• He added that the energy transition is the only means of reducing carbon emissions and fulfilling our commitments made at international forums. He also urged the States to make efforts for zero diesel in agriculture by 2024 by limiting the consumption of diesel in the agriculture sector.

After wheat, the Government of India has decided to restrict the export of sugar to 10 million tonnes.

• The Union Department of Food and Public Distribution said the decision was in the wake of “unprecedented growth in exports of sugar” and the need to maintain sufficient stock of sugar in the country.
• It is for the first time in six years that the Centre is regulating sugar exports.
• The move will come into effect from June 1.
• According to the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), the industry has signed contracts to export over 8.5 million tonnes of sugar. Of these, around 7.1 million tonnes have been physically exported out of the country till the end of April.
• In the last year, the country had exported 4.3 million lakh tonnes till April, 2021.

Centre allows duty-free imports of crude soyabean, sunflower oil

• Retail inflation in edible oils and fats was 18.8% in March and 17.3% in April, and sunflower oil imports have been constricted due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict since February 24.
• The Finance Ministry has notified the duty structure changes which will become operational from May 25, stating that this would provide significant relief to consumers.
• Ukraine was the world’s largest sunflower oil exporter before the conflict began and India has been striving to tap alternative supplies from rival Russia and countries such as Argentina.
• Last October, the government reduced the basic import duties on edible oils amid runaway prices. The import duty on crude palm oil was slashed to 2.5%, from 10%, while those on crude soya and sunflower oils were cut to 2.5%, from 7.5%.