National
Shri Dharmendra Pradhan launches the IndiaSkills 2023-24 and felicitates the World Skills 2022 Winners
⇒ Union Minister for Education and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan launched the IndiaSkills 2023-24 and felicitated the World Skills 2022 Winners on 17 October 2023 at an event held at Kaushal Bhawan, New Delhi.
- India has secured 11th position in the global competition (WSC 2022), the best-ever ranking so far.
WorldSkills competition 2022:
WorldSkills competition 2022 was conducted from September to November 2022 across Europe, North America, and East Asia comprising over 1,000 competitors from 58 countries in 61 skills.
- The competition was hosted by 15 countries in more than 20 cities.
Performance of India:
India participated in 50 skills and secured 11th position with 2 Silver Medals, 3 Bronze Medals and 13 Medallions for Excellence at the WSC 2022, its best ranking so far at the WorldSkills Competition.
List of Indian Medal Winners with Skill:
Silver:
- Praveen Giri- Water Technology
- Nandita Saxena- Patisserie & confectionary
Bronze:
- Likith Kumar YP- Prototype Modelling
- Karthik Gowda and Akhilesh N- Mechatronics
- Anushree Srinivasan- Hotel Reception
Complete List of Indian Medal Winners
Other Points:
- Indian Competitors, who represented the country at WorldSkills Competition 2022, were selected via IndiaSkills Competition 2021.
- A total of 165 IndiaSkills National Competition winners were trained for the WorldSkills Competition at designated training venues developed in line with WorldSkills standards under the mentorship of WorldSkills India Experts and trainers.
- Fifty-six competitors, 50 Experts and 11 Interpreters participated among which 19% were female (11 competitors). Some of the competitors also participated in new-age skills like Robot System Integration, Additive Manufacturing, Industry 4.0, Digital Construction, Mobile Application Development and Renewable Energy.
IndiaSkills 2023-24:
The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), operating under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), is hosting the mega contest, IndiaSkills 2023-24 — a pan-India competition anticipating participation from lakhs of aspirants.
- The registration for IndiaSkills Competition 2023-24 was open from 17 October 2023 to 15 January 2024.
Key Points:
- This prestigious event seeks to celebrate a myriad of skills, empowering individuals to envision a future filled with opportunities.
- The IndiaSkills competition is designed to align training standards with global benchmarks, fostering synergies with various industries.
- Participants will undergo a rigorous selection process at multiple levels—district, state, zonal, and national—with the ultimate reward being the chance to represent India in the WorldSkills Competition in Lyon, France, in 2024.
About IndiaSkills:
- IndiaSkills, the country’s biggest skill competition, is designed to demonstrate the highest standards of skilling and offers a platform to young people to showcase their talent at national and international levels.
- IndiaSkills Competition is held every two years with the support of state governments and industry.
About WorldSkills Competition:
- WorldSkills Competition is the largest skill competition in the world, held once every two years.
- It is conducted by WorldSkills International, which has 86 member countries.
- These competitions provide both a benchmark for high performance and an objective way to assess vocational excellence.
- The duration of the competition duration is 4 days spanning 16 to 22 hours.
WorldSkills India:
- WorldSkills India is an initiative of the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Government of India.
- NSDC, through its WorldSkills India initiative, has been leading the country’s participation at WorldSkills International competitions since 2011.
6th Annual Survey of India’s City-Systems - ASICS 2023 Report
⇒ Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of Housing & Urban Affairs and Petroleum & Natural Gas, released the sixth edition of the Annual Survey of India’s City-Systems, i.e., ASICS 2023 report at an event on 17 October 2023.
- The event was co-hosted by Janaagraha and Rainmatter Foundation at Hotel Imperial, New Delhi.
The Minister said the ASICS report provided the first nation-wide analysis of local governance in Indian cities, and has since, expanded on the scope of city-based analysis and evaluation of municipal performance through a citizen-centric lens.
- This report includes the study of 82 municipal legislations, 44 town and country planning acts, 176 allied acts, rules and notifications, 32 other policy/scheme documents, and 27 additional datasets pertaining to urban development in India.
In the sixth edition, ASICS focusses attention on the quality of municipal and town and country planning acts.
- ASICS 2023 evaluates the quality of urban laws (municipal acts and town and country planning acts) of all 35 states/Union Territories (UTs) in India through 52 questions using the city-systems framework.
- Further, to make the study more relevant, 25 additional data sets were analysed.
- For example, data on implementation aspects such as cities with active master plans, ward committees, disclosure of civic data by cities, as well as data that offers perspectives on India’s urbanisation such as the definition of urban in India, and district urbanisation patterns basis census 2011, etc. CAG performance audit reports on the implementation of the 74th CAA across 13 states were also analysed.
» Cities in India are principally governed by their respective state municipal acts and town and country planning acts.
- An evaluation of the quality of these acts along with allied acts such as community participation law or public disclosure law (where they are separate), and policy documents such as open data policy give a comprehensive understanding of the quality of urban governance in India from a root cause perspective.
The four high-level observations of ASICS 2023 are as follows:
- Urban legislations are not available in the public domain in accessible formats. Only 49% of states/UTs have put out municipal legislations on websites of respective state urban departments.
- The landscape of municipal legislations varies across the states. 15 states have a single municipal legislation governing all their cities. Five states/UTs do not have their own urban laws and have remained same as their parent state’s legislation. Tamil Nadu has 22 municipal legislations, thus being the state with the highest number of municipal legislations in India.
- Relative strength of urban laws varies across the country.
- Only five per cent of the amendments to municipal legislations have been of systemic nature.
Download 6th ASICS 2023 Report (Official Link)
About Annual Survey of India’s City-Systems (ASICS):
- ASICS is a comprehensive diagnostic of the state of India’s city-systems – the complex, mostly invisible factors (such as laws, policies, institutions, and institutional processes) that underpin urban governance and strongly influence the quality of life in India’s cities.
- ASICS is a health diagnostic of our cities. It is intended to serve as a bellwether of the degree and direction of systemic reforms being undertaken by governments in the urban context.
- ASICS aims to provide a common frame of reference for political and administrative leaders, business and academia, media, and civil society, in different cities to converge on their agenda for transformative reforms.
- ASICS, since its first edition in 2013, has improved its coverage besides strengthening its methodology. In its past editions, ASICS evaluated cities by scoring them on a scale of 0 to 10. Further, global cities such as New York, London, and Johannesburg (in 2017) were added to the study to serve as reference points for India’s cities.
International
42nd Prime Minister of New Zealand
⇒ Former Air New Zealand CEO, Christopher Luxon has been officially sworn in as the 42nd Prime Minister of New Zealand on 27 November 2023.
Luxon, a 53-year-old former businessman, was sworn in as the leader of a new coalition government by New Zealand’s Governor-General Dame Cindy Kiro at Government House in Wellington. In addition, New Zealand Governor-General, who represents British monarch King Charles III as head of state, swore in cabinet ministers.
- Luxon took over six weeks after his conservative National Party won national elections, ending Jacinda Ardern’s six-year Labour Party reign.
- The swearing-in follows weeks of coalition talks between National, ACT and New Zealand First.
Important Day
National Security Guard (NSG) Raising Day 2023
⇒ The Raising Day of the National Security Guard (NSG) is celebrated every year on 16 October.
- NSG, popularly known as Black Cats, celebrated the 39th anniversary of its establishment on 16 October 2023.
History:
- The NSG was established after the Union Cabinet decided to create a Federal Contingency Force that was well-trained to tackle various manifestations of terrorism.
- NSG was established on 16 October 1984 after Operation Blue Star to combat terrorist activities and protect states against internal disturbances.
- Formalised in the Parliament of India under the National Security Guard Act, 1986. It is one of the seven Central Armed Police Forces of India.