March 2021 Current Affairs with HP Magazine
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Index Sr. No. Topics Page No. 1 Polity and Governance 2-19 2 Economics 20-28 3 India and World 29-41 4 Environment 42-45 5 Science and Technology 46-53 6 Himachal Pradesh Current Affairs 54-61 7 Defence 62 8 Sports 62-63 9 Book and Authors 64 10 Agreements and MOU 64-65 11 Rank and Indices 65-66 12 Summits and Conferences 66 13 Appointments 66-67 14 Awards and Honors 68-69 15 Days and Themes 69-71 16 Obituary 71-72 17 Nation and States Miscellaneous 72-79 1 Polity and Governance: Rashtriya Sanskriti Mahotsav 2021: Why in News? The third and final leg of the 11th edition of the Rashtriya Sanskriti Mahotsav 2021 took place from 14th – 28th February 2021 at Murshidabad, West Bengal. About Rashtriya Sanskriti Mahotsav: • Rashtriya Sanstriki Mahostav is a flagship festival organised by the Ministry of Culture since November 2015. • It involves the demonstration of folk and tribal art, dance, music, cuisines and culture of one state to other parts of the country to ensure ‘Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat’ and provide platforms for artists and artisans. Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat • It was launched in 2015 to promote engagement amongst the people of different States/UTs so as to enhance mutual understanding and bonding between people of diverse cultures, thereby securing stronger unity and integrity of India. • It is an initiative of the Ministry of Education. • The broad objectives of the initiative are as follows: ➢ To Celebrate the Unity in Diversity of our nation and to maintain and strengthen the fabric of traditionally existing emotional bonds between the people, ➢ To Promote the spirit of national integration through a deep and structured engagement between all Indian states and Union Territories through a year-long planned engagement between states, ➢ To Showcase the rich heritage and culture, customs and traditions of different states for enabling people to understand and appreciate the diversity that is India, thus fostering a sense of common identity, ➢ To Establish long-term engagements, and ➢ To create an environment which promotes learning between states by sharing best practices and experiences? • Every State and UT in the country would be paired with another State/UT for a time period, during which they would carry out a structured engagement with one another in the spheres of language, literature, cuisine, festivals, cultural events, tourism etc Zonal Cultural Centres • The centers aim to strengthen the ancient roots of Indian Culture and evolve and enrich composite National Culture. • There are seven Zonal Cultural Centres (ZCC) in India. ➢ Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre Kolkata, North Central Zone Cultural Centre Allahabad, North east Zone Cultural centre Dimapur, North Zone Cultural centre Patiala, South Central Zone Cultural Centre Nagpur, South Zone Cultural Centre Thanjavur, West Zone Cultural Centre Udaipur • These ZCCs organize various cultural activities and programmes all over the country on a regular basis. • Other schemes of ZCCs - Award to Young Talented Artists, Guru Shishya Parampara, Theatre Rejuvenation, Shilpgram, Octave and National Cultural Exchange Programme (NCEP). 2 Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme Why in News? Government is planning to replace the Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP) with a new programme MERITE Project. About TEQIP project: • It was launched in 2002 by the Ministry of Education. World Banks is assisting in its implementation. • Aim: The TEQIP project aims to upscale the quality of technical education and enhance the capacities of technical institutions. Phases under the TEQIP project: Phase I: • TEQIP project was first launched in 2003. It was implemented in 13 States and covered 127 Institutions including 18 Centrally Funded Institutions. • It focussed on ➢ Promotion of Academic Excellence ➢ Networking of Institutions for quality enhancement and resource sharing ➢ Enhancing quality and reach of services to Community and Economy. Phase II: • Phase II of the TEQIP project was launched in 2010. The coverage was widened to cover 23 States/Union Territories (UTs) and 191 Institutes. • It focussed on ➢ Scaling up Post – Graduate education and demand-driven Research and Development innovation ➢ Establishing Centres of Excellence for focussed applicable research ➢ Training of faculty for effective teaching. Phase III: • It was started in 2017 and will be completed by 2021. It focussed on improving quality and equity in engineering institutions in seven low income, eight northeastern and three hilly States. • Under this phase, graduates from elite institutions such as NIT and IIT were recruited to teach in some of the poorest and most remote areas. They were paid salaries in accordance with the Seventh Pay Commission. What is the next step? • The Central Government is planning to replace the TEQIP project with a new programme called MERITE Project. • The MERITE project will have similar objectives to improve technical education. • However, the MERITE Project is still in the conceptual stage and has not yet received Cabinet approval. Neither States nor Centre is willing to commit continued funding of the TEQIP project. This may leave 1,200 assistant professors out of the job. Apart from that, it would also impact the rural colleges as they would be deprived of the faculty. 3 Other Initiative to Improve Technical Education • Margadarshan and Margadarshak (AICTE). • Institutions of Eminence (IoE) scheme. • Technical Education in Mother Tongue has been proposed by the National Education Policy (NEP). ➢ To achieve the objective that students may pursue the professional courses such as medicine, engineering, law, etc in their mother tongue. ➢ It suggests teaching in regional language till class 8 and enabling teaching the curriculum in a language which a student is comfortable in. Rights of Overseas Citizens of India Why in News? Recently, the government has notified a consolidated list of rights of the Overseas Citizens of India (OCI). ➢ The rights and restrictions are not new, they have been notified previously in 2005, 2007, and 2009. They were also mentioned in an OCI brochure published by the Ministry of Home Affairs in November 2019. Background to the Notification • In March 2019, the MHA clarified to the Karnataka High Court those students with OCI cards had “parity with Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and can lay claim only on the NRI quota seats based on the all-India tests”. • However on December 15, 2020, the High Court of Karnataka directed that students under the OCI category are to be considered as “citizens of India” for admission to professional courses and asked the State government to admit them to undergraduate professional courses, including engineering, medical, and dental, even under the government and institutional quotas, and not to restrict their admission only under the NRI quota. • The March 4 notification by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said that OCI card holders will have parity with NRIs in the matter of “appearing for the all India entrance tests such as National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, Joint Entrance Examination (Mains), Joint Entrance Examination (Advanced) or such other tests to make them eligible for admission only against any Non-Resident Indian seat or any supernumerary seat. • However, MHA notification also provided that the OCI cardholder shall not be eligible for admission against any seat reserved exclusively for Indian citizens. • Thus, OCI students were treated at par with NRI students, but not with students who exclusively are “citizen of India”. About Overseas Citizens of India cardholders: Constitutional Provisions • The Constitution deals with citizenship from Articles 5 to 11 under Part II. However, it contains neither any permanent nor any elaborate provisions in this regard. 4 • It only identifies the persons who became citizens of India on 26th January 1950 (i.e. when the Constitution commenced). • It empowers the Parliament to enact a law to provide for matters relating to citizenship. Accordingly, the Parliament has enacted the Citizenship Act, 1955, which has been recently amended in 2015. • The OCI scheme was introduced by The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2005 in response to demands for dual citizenship by the Indian diaspora. It provided to Overseas citizens many of the rights available to resident citizens. • Section 7A provides for Registration of Overseas Citizens of India. Government of India may register any person as Overseas Citizen of India (OCI), if – • Any person who is citizen of another country, but was a citizen of India at the time of, or at any time after, the commencement of the Constitution; or • Any person who is citizen of another country, but was eligible to become a citizen of India at the time of the commencement of the Constitution. • Any person who is citizen of another country, but belonged to a territory that became part of India after the 15th day of August, 1947. • Any person who is a child or a grand-child of such a citizen. • a person, who is a minor child of a person mentioned above. • However, if the applicant had ever been a citizen of Pakistan or Bangladesh, he/she will not be eligible to be registered as OCI. • The category was introduced by the government in 2005. The Government of India via Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2015 merged the Person of Indian Origin (PIO) category with OCI category in 2015. Benefits for OCIs • OCIs are entitled to a multipurpose, multiple entry, lifelong visa allowing them to visit India at any time, for any length of time and for any purpose. • At all Indian international airports, OCI cardholders are provided with special immigration counters. • They are exempted from police reporting for any length of stay in the country. • If an individual is registered as an OCI for a period of five years, he/she is eligible to apply for Indian citizenship. • OCI cardholders can open special bank accounts in India, buy the non-farm property and exercise ownership rights and can also apply for a Permanent Account Number (PAN) card.