National
National Standards for Civil Service Training Institutions” at Capacity Building Commission (CBC)
⇒ Union Minister of State (I/C) Science & Technology; Minister of State (I/C) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh launched the “National Standards for Civil Service Training Institutions” at Capacity Building Commission (CBC) headquarters on 18 July 2022.
Adil Zainulbhai, Chairman of the Capacity Building Commission, Members of the Commission – Praveen Pardeshi, Member-Administration, Dr R. Balasubramaniam, Member-Human Resource and Hemang Jani, Secretary of the Commission were present at the event.
Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has institutionalised the capacity building mechanism for civil servants, who are the pivotal instruments of governance.
- He also said India became the first country in the world to come out with a unique model to create standards for civil service training institutions at national level and expressed hope that soon India will be a global model in this regard.
- The standardisation in the training ecosystem will play a pivotal role in elevating capacities of a training institute.
- The ‘National Standards for Civil Service Training Institutions’ (NSCSTI) will act as a tool to drive standardising and harmonisation.
- CBC consulted various Central Training Institutions (CTIs), academia, global standard setting bodies in the development of the standards.
- The studies conducted by CBC highlighted 8 focus areas such as Training Needs Assessment (TNA), Faculty Development, Collaboration with different institutes, digital readiness etc. which have the potential to significantly elevate civil service capacity building.
Key Points:
- The National Standards for Civil Service Training Institutions (NSCSTI) is developed by Capacity Building Commission (CBC) to create a baseline for Central Training Institutes on their current capacity, for elevating their quality and capacity of training delivery and to harmonise standards for training.
- It will also set aspirations for training institutions to strive towards excellence.
- The country is having standards and accreditation in higher education, healthcare and environment, but for the first time it became applicable for training institutions also.
Udyamita Pakhwara
⇒ In the 75th year of India’s Independence, “Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav” was celebrated by the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India. Under this, Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihood Mission (DAY-NRLM) of the Ministry of Rural Development organized “Udyamita Pakhwara” across the Country from 1st to 15th July, 2022.
- Secretary (RD) inaugurated the Pakhwara virtually on 1st July, 2022.
Objective:
The objective of this Udyamita Pakhwara was to highlight the importance of enterprise growth and entrepreneurship development under non-farm livelihoods in rural areas across the country.
Activities:
A series of activities under Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP), One Stop Facility (OSF), Clusters, Incubators, SHG products marketing, PMFME scheme were organised in this duration across the country.
Key Points:
- During this period, more than 1,400 awareness camps on enterprise promotion and various schemes related to rural entrepreneurship were organized.
- 3,512 business plans were prepared by Community Resource Persons – Enterprise Promotion (CRP-EP) under Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP) and One Stop Facility (OSF).
- Further, Rs 11.91 Crore were dispersed towards the Community Enterprise Fund (CEF) to these enterprises through Community Institutions.
- DAY-NRLM is also facilitating mobilization of SHG individual beneficiaries and groups for support under PMFME scheme of MoFPI.
- Accordingly, a total of 6753 applications were submitted to State Nodal Agencies for Seed Capital support under PMFME scheme.
- Further, during Udyamita Pakhwara, Rs.10.8 Crore were released to SHGs under PMFME for Seed Capital support.
- Activities under Clusters and Incubators schemes were also initiated in the States.
- The focus on capacity building resulted in assessment and certification of 115 master CRP-EPs as per the NSQF norms.
International
17th CII-EXIM Bank Conclave
⇒ The 17th CII-EXIM Bank Conclave on India-Africa Growth Partnership−Creating Shared Futures was held on 19-20 July 2022 in New Delhi.
The Conclave was focused on project exports, trade, investments, exchange of knowledge and expertise creating shared value for business and industry at large between India and Africa.
Focus Countries:
Republic of Namibia, Republic of The Gambia, Republic of Zambia
Ministerial Participation from Africa:
Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, The Gambia, Togo, Zambia
Focused Sessions:
- Trade and Investment
- Sector Focused
- Trilateral Cooperation
- Role of Regional Communities to Create Common Markets
- Regional Product Network in Africa
- Country Focused
About Conclave:
The CII- EXIM Bank Conclave on India-Africa Project Partnership was launched in the year 2005 with the support of the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India.
The Conclave has emerged as one of the largest congregation of senior ministers, policy makers and business leaders from Africa and India, cutting across sectors.
Since 2005, Conclave has:
- Given shape to policy dialogues of the Government of India, Exim Bank and the Industry.
- Encouraged Indian exporters to access the African Countries.
- Provided platform for discussing more than 4430 projects.
- Encouraged companies looking for business opportunities beyond Government of India’s Lines of Credit.
- Facilitated dialogue with other financial institutions in the African region, with competitive credit facilities to support business efforts by Indian companies.
Fields Medal 2022
⇒ The prestigious Fields Medal 2022 was announced by the International Mathematical Union (IMU) in July 2022. The recipients are normally announced at the International Congress of Mathematicians, which was originally due to be held in Russia this year but moved to Helsinki instead.
Read More About Fields Medal 2022
Sports
Bumrah breaks Lara’s world record
⇒ India captain Jasprit Bumrah bludgeoned a hapless Stuart Broad for 29 runs to create a world record for maximum runs off a single over in Test cricket, beating the legendary Brian Lara’s feat by one run.
The world record stayed with Lara for 18 years — he had hit South African left-arm spinner Robin Peterson for 28 runs in a Test match in 2003-04, which included four fours and two sixes off six legal deliveries.
- Former Australia player George Bailey had also scored 28 in an over but he was behind Lara in terms of boundary count.
- Broad, who had also been hit for six sixes in an over by Yuvraj Singh in the inaugural World T20 in 2007, gave away 35 runs in the 84th over of the Indian first innings in the fifth rescheduled Test here. There were six extra runs — five wides and a no-ball.
- In the end, the Indian skipper was not out on 31 off 16 balls with four boundaries and two sixes.