Home » Current Affairs Date: 11 April 2022

Current Affairs Date: 11 April 2022

National

Scheme for Economic Empowerment of DNTs (SEED)

⇒ The Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, Dr Virendra Kumar launched the Scheme for Economic Empowerment of DNTs (SEED) on 16th February, 2022 at Dr Ambedkar International Centre, New Delhi for the welfare of De-notified, Nomadic and Semi Nomadic Communities.

Under the scheme, good quality coaching, health insurance, livelihoods initiative at community level and financial assistance for construction of houses will be provided to the members of DNT/NT/SNT Communities.

About:

» The De-notified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes are the most neglected, marginalized and economically and socially deprived communities.

» The Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment took a decision in February, 2014 to constitute a National Commission for De-Notified, Nomadic and Semi Nomadic Tribes for a period of three years. This National Commission was constituted under the Chairmanship of Shri Bhiku Ramji Idate. This commission has given its report in December, 2017.

» Based on the National Commission’s recommendations, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has constituted the Development and Welfare Board for De-notified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Communities (DWBDNCs) in 2019.

    • A Scheme for empowerment of DNT communities have been formulated for families having income from all sources of Rs.2.50 lakh or less per annum and not availing any such benefits from similar Scheme of Centre Government or the State Government.
    • The Scheme will have following four components with an approximate cost of Rs 200 crore to be spent over a period of 5 years starting Financial Year 2021-22 to 2025-26.
The four components of the SEED scheme are:
    1. Educational empowerment
      • Free coaching to students from these communities for Civil Services, entry to professional courses like medicine, engineering, MBA, etc.
      • To provide coaching of good quality for DNT/NT/SNT candidates to enable them to appear in competitive examinations.
    2. Health Insurance through PMJAY of National Health Authority.
      • To provide health insurance to DNT/NT/SNT Communities.
    3. Livelihoods to support income generation
      • To facilitate livelihoods initiative at community level to build and strengthen small clusters of DNT/NT/SNT Communities institutions.
    4. Housing (through PMAY/IAY)
      • To provide financial assistance for construction of houses to members of the DNT/NT/SNT Communities.

New scheme “New India Literacy Programme"

⇒ Government approved a new scheme “New India Literacy Programme” (नव भारत साक्षरता कार्यक्रम) for the period FYs 2022-2027.

    • The new scheme covers all the aspects of Adult Education to align with National Education Policy 2020 and Budget Announcements 2021-22.
Objective:

The objectives of the scheme are to impart not only foundational literacy and numeracy but also to cover other components which are necessary for a citizen of 21st century such as:

    • Critical life skills (including financial literacy, digital literacy, commercial skills, health care and awareness, child care and education, and family welfare)
    • Vocational skills development (with a view towards obtaining local employment)
    • Basic education (including preparatory, middle, and secondary stage equivalency)
    • Continuing education (including engaging holistic adult education courses in arts, sciences, technology, culture, sports, and recreation, as well as other topics of interest or use to local learners, such as more advanced material on critical life skills)

» The scheme will be implemented through volunteerism through online mode. The training, orientation, workshops of volunteers, may be organized through face-to-face mode.

About Scheme:
    • The scheme will cover non-literates of the age of 15 years and above in all state/UTs in the country.
    • The target for Foundational Literacy and Numeracy for FYs 2022-27 is 5 crore learners @ 1.00 crore per year by using “Online Teaching, Learning and Assessment System (OTLAS)” in collaboration with National Informatics Centre, NCERT and NIOS.
    • The estimated total outlay of “New India Literacy Programme” is Rs.1037.90 crore which includes Central share of Rs.700 crore and State share of Rs.337.90 crore respectively for the FYs 2022 -27.
Adult Education (प्रौढ़ शिक्षा) is now ‘Education for All’ in the country:

As a progressive step, it has also been decided that from now onwards that the term “Education For All” will be used in place of “Adult Education” by the Ministry; In view of the fact that the terminology “Adult Education” is not incorporating appropriately all non-literates of 15 years and above age group.

Fintech Open Hackathon

⇒ NITI Aayog in association with PhonePe launched the Fintech Open Hackathon in February 2022.

    • As a part of the Fintech Open Month, NITI Aayog in association with PhonePe hosted the first-ever open-to-all Hackathon event for the most creative solutions for the FinTech space.
    • The Hackathon provided an opportunity for innovators, digital creators and developers from all over India to think, ideate and code.
Participants at the hackathon used any open-data APIs like PhonePe Pulse along with frameworks such as Account Aggregator as a foundation to power the following use cases:
    • Alternate risk models for Lending, Insurance or Investments with focus on financial Inclusion
    • Innovative Products that use the power data signals for various demographics and Geos for broader adoption of financial services
    • Improved Visualisation and Derived intelligence based on the Digital payments data

» The final app included one of the above.

» Participants used data sources like PhonePe Pulse, the Open Government Data Platform and RBI reports on payments to build on their submission.

The winners of the Hackathon were announced on 28th February, 2022.

Fintech Open Hackathon Winners:

    • 1st Place: Team Name – Super Duper
    • 2nd Place: Team Name – Sahitya, and Team Name – Hackoholics
    • 3rd Place: Team Name – CodeSquads, and Team Name – #Wellbeing

International

World Sustainable Development Summit 2022

⇒ The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi delivered the inaugural address at The Energy and Resources Institute’s (TERI) World Sustainable Development Summit 2022 on 16th February, 2022.

    • The 21st edition of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), the World Sustainable Development Summit (WSDS), was held from 16th to 18th February 2022 in a virtual format.
    • World Sustainable Development Summit is TERI’s annual flagship event.
Theme:

The theme for this year’s Summit was ‘Towards a Resilient Planet: Ensuring a Sustainable and Equitable Future’.

Discussion:

During the summit, a wide range of issues including climate change, sustainable production, energy transitions, global commons and resource security were discussed.

Participants:

The three-day summit was attended by President of the Dominican Republic, President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, Deputy Secretary General, United Nations, heads of various intergovernmental organisations, Ministers/ Envoys from more than a dozen countries and delegates from over 120 countries.

Death

Noted Kannada writer and poet, Shri Chennaveera Kanavi

⇒ Noted Kannada writer and poet, Shri Chennaveera Kanavi passed away on 16 February 2022 in Dharwad. Kanavi, 94, was also known as ‘Samanvaya Kavi’ (Poet of Reconciliation).

Kanavi’s first book, Kavyakshi, was published in 1949. He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi award for his poetry book Jeevadhwani. The noted poet had also received several honours including the Rajyotsava Award, Nrupathunga award, Pampa Award and the Sahitya Bangara Award.

Source: PIB & Other News Reports

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