IIT-M again tops NIRF rankings, IISc second

• Among the universities, IISc, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Jamia Millia Islamia, Jadavpur University and Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham were among the top five.
• And among the top five colleges in the country are Miranda House, Hindu College, Presidency College, Loyola College and Lady Shri Ram College for Women.
• The top five medical institutes are All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, Christian Medical College, Vellore, National Institute of Mental Health & Neuro Sciences, Bengaluru, and Banaras Hindu University.
• The top five management institutes are Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad, IIM Bengaluru, IIM Kolkata, IIT Delhi and IIM Kozhikode.
• This is the seventh consecutive edition of NIRF.
• It ranks colleges, universities and research institutions and also provides an overall ranking of all of them combined. Institutes are also ranked across seven subject domains, namely engineering, management, pharmacy, law, medical, architecture and dental.
• A total of 4,786 institutions were evaluated on five parameters — teaching, learning and resources (TLR); research and professional practice; graduation outcome; outreach; and inclusivity and perception.

SCO to admit Iran as a full member; Belarus applied for membership

• Expanding the group is among the issues that leaders of the grouping are likely to discuss at the SCO summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, in September.
• China, Russia and four Central Asian states — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan — were the founding members of the SCO, while India and Pakistan joined the grouping in 2017 in its first round of expansion.
• Last year’s summit in Dushanbe agreed for Iran to join, while Belarus has also begun the membership process. China and Russia are looking to frame the grouping as a counter to the West — particularly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
• India will host the SCO summit next year, and Varanasi has been selected as the SCO region’s first “Tourism and Cultural Capital”, a title it will hold next year coinciding with India chairing the grouping.

France has delivered all 36 Rafale jets to India

• However, while 35 jets have arrived in India, one jet still remains in France, official sources said.
• One Rafale jet, which is the instrumented aircraft on which the 13 India specific enhancements (ISE) are being tested, is still in France.
• The last batch of three Rafale jets had arrived in India in February, taking the total Rafale jets in inventory of the Indian Air Force to 35. Work on upgrading all the Rafale jets in service to the Indian standard configuration with the 13 ISE is currently underway in India.
• The naval variant of the French jet, Rafale-M, is in the race along with Boeing F-18 Super Hornet for the Indian Navy’s tender for jets to operate from its aircraft carriers.
• In January, the Rafale-M had demonstrated its compatibility by operating from the Navy’s shore-based test facility in Goa, while the F-18 carried out demonstration in May.
• India and France had signed a €7.87 billion inter-governmental agreement (IGA) in September 2016 for 36 Rafale multi-role fighter jets in fly-away condition, following the announcement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in April 2015 citing “critical operational necessity” of the IAF.

Assam, Arunachal Pradesh Ink ''Namsai Declaration'' To Resolve Long-Standing Border Dispute

• Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Arunachal Pradesh counterpart Pema Khandu recently signed the Namsai Declaration for minimising the inter-State boundary dispute involving 123 villages.
• A list of these villages had been placed before a local commission by Arunachal Pradesh on December 26, 2007.
• According to the declaration, all border issues between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh will be confined to those raised before the local commission in 2007.
• Namsai is the headquarters of Namsai district in southern Arunachal Pradesh.
• Present-day Arunachal Pradesh, which attained Statehood in February 1987, used to be the North East Frontier Tract, administered by the Governor of Assam as an agent of the President of India.
• It was renamed North East Frontier Agency and brought under the Central government’s control in 1954.

Young people face higher health risks from alcohol than older

• The analysis found males between ages 15-39 at the greatest risk of harmful alcohol consumption. Among people who consumed unsafe amounts in 2020, 59.1% were in the 15-39 age group, and 76.7% of these were male.
• In India, 1.85% females and 25.7% males in the 15-39 age group consumed unsafe amounts of alcohol in 2020. This was lower than 1.79% females and 23% males in the 40-64 age group who consumed unsafe amounts.
• However, the authors note that consuming a small amount of alcohol (for example, between one and two 3.4-ounce glasses of red wine) can provide some health benefits for people in this age group, such as reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, and diabetes.

Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana: Andhra rejoins

• Andhra Pradesh was one of six states that have stopped implementation of the scheme over the last four years. The other five, which remain out, are Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Jharkhand, and Telangana.
• The government had launched PMFBY from kharif 2016. Under the scheme, all farmers including sharecroppers and tenant farmers growing “notified crops” in the “notified areas” are eligible for coverage.
• Initially, the scheme was compulsory for loanee farmers; in February 2020, the Centre revised it to make it optional for all farmers.
• In February 2020, the Centre decided to restrict its premium subsidy to 30% for unirrigated areas and 25% for irrigated areas (from the existing unlimited). Earlier, there was no upper limit for the central subsidy.
• Food crops (cereals, millets and pulses); oilseeds; and annual commercial / annual horticultural crops are covered under the scheme.
• In addition, pilots for coverage can be taken for those perennial horticultural/commercial crops for which standard methodology for yield estimation is available, state the scheme guidelines.

What are ''unparliamentary words’

• With opposition terming the unparliamentary words list a “gag order” meant to shield the Narendra Modi government against “criticism”, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla clarified that “no words had been banned”. He said that the decision to expunge words is the prerogative of the Chair.
• The new list has words and phrases disallowed not only in the Indian Parliament, but also in various state assemblies, as well as some parliaments of other countries.
• While Article 105(2) of the Constitution lays down that “no Member of Parliament shall be liable to any proceedings in any court in respect of anything said or any vote given by him in Parliament or any committee thereof”, MPs do not enjoy the freedom to say whatever they want inside the House.
• Rule 380 (“Expunction”) of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha says: “If the Speaker is of opinion that words have been used in debate which are defamatory or indecent or unparliamentary or undignified, the Speaker may, while exercising discretion order that such words be expunged from the proceedings of the House.”

The Recent Amendment of Flag Code of India

• Now, the National Flag shall be made of hand-spun, hand-woven or machine-made cotton/polyester/wool/silk/khadi bunting, as per the amended flag code.
• The amended flag code will facilitate the availability of flags on such a large scale and also make them affordable for the general public.
• The government will soon launch ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’– a nationwide campaign to encourage people to hoist the Tricolour at their homes to mark the 75th Independence Day.
• The use, display and hoisting of the National Flag in the country is guided by an overarching set of instructions called the ‘Flag Code of India 2002’. It brings together all laws, conventions, practices, and instructions for the display of the National Flag.
• It governs the display of the National Flag by private, public, and government institutions.
• The Flag Code of India took effect on January 26, 2002.
• As per Clause 2.1 of the Flag Code of India, there shall be no restriction on the display of the National Flag by members of the general public, private organizations, educational institutions etc. consistent with the dignity and honour of the National Flag.

The political tussle over podu cultivation and forest lands in Telangana

• The Telangana government last year moved against the encroachment of forest lands by non-tribals, who it said were indulging in the practice of shifting agriculture (podu).
• Several political leaders have expressed concern over shifting agriculture — in which a portion of land is cleared to raise crops in a particular season before the cultivators move to another location the next season, and to a third area after that, thus progressively degrading large areas of the forest.
• To stop this deforestation, the government wants to move out cultivators from deep inside forests to the periphery by allotting them land for cultivation.
• Tribal farmers who have been traditionally cultivating for decades would not be affected by this drive against illegal encroachers. Non-tribal farmers can apply to the state government to allocate them land outside the forests.