South Africa declares State of Disaster over electricity crisis

In order to speed up the governments reaction to an ongoing Energy Crisis, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa proclaimed a state of Disaster. He also promised to designate a minister in his office who will concentrate on increasing the supply of power.

Since 2008, the nation has struggled with electricity shortages that have reached historic heights, resulting in rolling blackouts every day of this year.

Only 56% Of Funds Utilized By States In Last 3 Years For The Nutrition Mission.

State Governments and Union Territories have utilized only 56% of the total budgets released under Poshan Abhiyan or Nutrition Mission in the earlier 3 years.

Highlights:

On December 8, the Minister for Women & Child Development, Smriti Irani, mentioned this in Parliament.

The central government emphasized that out of the total share of Rs 5312 between financial years 2019 to 2021, Rs 2985 crore was utilized.

Poshan Abhiyan was established in March 2018 to facilitate stunting, low birth weight, undernutrition challenges by 2% per year.

It also aims to decrease anaemia among young children, women and adolescents by 3% by 2022.

POSHAN Maah was followed in September 2018 to improve nutritional consequences for adolescent girls, children, pregnant women, and lactating mothers.

Art and Surrogacy Bill Passed In Rajya Sabha

On December 8, 2021, the Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill was passed in Lok Sabha.

Highlights:

The Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill was recently passed in the Lok Sabha which intends to regulate ART but then referred the bill to a standing committee.

ART covers all methods that are used to get pregnant. The procedures shall incorporate handling oocytes (immature eggs) or sperms outside the body.

It shall also involve giving the embryo into the womans body.

The ART Services shall cover the following: Donation of sperm or oocytes, In Vitro Fertilisation – fertilizing an egg and a sperm in the lab, Gestational Surrogacy – child carried by biological mother or surrogate mother.

The bill states that every ART bank or clinic should be listed under the National Registry of Banks and Clinics of India. The bill will authorize the National Registry.

The registry will act as a Database holding details of the hospitals and banks providing ART services.

UNICEF India to roll out five-year plan

UNICEF India is designing an ambitious and innovative five-year programme, comprising of social policy as a priority across all the sectors.

While designing the new programme, UNICEF wanted to talk with all the stakeholders and get details on how what could be done better in the new Environment post COVID-19 and where https://exam.pscnotes.com/Climate-change”>Climate Change was a major priority.

Covid-19 and climate change had exacerbated the Learning crisis. Around 286 million children had been affected in India. This number excluded the millions out of school because of several reasons.

Key Findings of the report

In the report, Europe has dominated the ranking in 2021. Global top 10 countries are from this region.

Switzerland has retained its top spot.

The UAE continues have improved its global talent ranking. Ranking has improved by one position to 23rd. In 2019, it was ranked at 30th

In the Arab world, UAE maintained its top position.

In the Middle East & North Africa, UAE maintained its second position, following Israel (first in this region).

The ranking is structured based on three factors:

and development,

Appeal and

Readiness

World Talent Ranking report

IMD World Competitive Centre published its World Talent Ranking Report on December 9, 2021.

This report is annually published by the IMD World Competitive Centre.

Report grades 64 economies on the basis of a range of factors like:

How economies invest in and develop local personnel

Their ability to attract & retain skilled workers, and

Quality of domestic talent pools.

Fertiliser min may seek 2.5L crore subsidy for FY24

The fertiliser ministry may seek budgetary support of around Rs 2.5 lakh crore subsidy for 2023-24, considering the current trend of international prices. While the government had provisioned for only Rs 1.05 lakh crore fertiliser subsidy for 2022-23, the outgo has already surpassed Rs 2 lakh crore.

Though fertiliser ministry officials did not give the exact number, they said the government will provide adequate funds to ensure that farmers don’t face any additional burden due to fluctuation of prices in the international market.

IFFI 53 Film Personality of the Year Award goes to Megastar Chiranjeevi

Chiranjeevi.the IFFI Indian Film Personality of the Year Award for 2022 goes to megastar and actor-producer Chiranjeevi Konidela. The announcement has been made by the Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Anurag Singh Thakur, at the grand opening of the 53rdedition of IFFI, the International Film Festival of India.

In an illustrious film career spanning more than four decades, Chiranjeevi starred in more than 150 feature films in , as well as some films in Hindi, Tamil and Kannada. He is regarded as one of the most successful and influential actors of Telugu cinema.

In 2006, he was honoured with the Padma Bhushan, India’s third-highest civilian award, for his contributions to Indian Cinema.

According to the report on annual consumption of antibiotics published in the latest issue of the scientific publication, Journal of Antimicrobial Resistance, Telangana recorded the third highest consumption of antibiotics in the country between 2011 and 2019. While Delhi stood first, Punjab occupied the second position.

Delhi recorded the highest Median consumption rate (daily dose per 1,000 people) of 23.5 followed by Punjab 22.9 and Telangana 15.3. The lowest rates were reported in Madhya Pradesh 7.2, Bihar 8.1, Rajasthan 8.3, Jharkhand 8.5 and Odisha 8.9.

During the study period, the rates increased in six states including Telangana. Rates According to the study, states with high per-capita income like Telangana reported the highest median consumption rates.

However, the annual consumption rate at the all-India level decreased by 3.6% between 2011 and 2019. The share of access antibiotics (essential and widely available) decreased 13.1% and the access/watch (watch antibiotics are those given to treat select diseases) ratio declined from 0.59 to 0.49.

The team gathered data from a panel of 9,000 stockists (60% of total stockists across country), representing data from 5,000 pharmaceutical companies, 18,000 small distributors and sub-stockists, and 5lakh retailers.

Saudi Arabia commits $2.5 billion to Middle East green initiative

Saudi Arabia‘s Crown PrinceMohammed bin Salmansaid on Monday the kingdom would contribute $2.5 billion to a green initiative in theMiddle Eastover the next 10 years, and host its headquarters.

TheMiddle East Green Initiativewas launched by thecrown princelast year as part of efforts to reduce regional carbon emissions.

Saudi Arabia had said last year it aimed to contribute 15% of the $10.4 billion required for the fund’s clean energy projects.

It also plans to plant 50 billion trees across the Middle EAst and restore an area equivalent to 200 million hectares of degraded land. The initiative will help reduce global carbon levels by 2.5%.

Saudi Arabia plans to rely on renewables for 50% of its electricity generation by 2030, the prince said, removing 44 million tonnes of carbon emissions by 2035.