1.RBI suggests action plan to promote financial education
News: Reserve Bank of India(RBI) has launched the National Strategy for Financial Education 2020-2025(NSFE).It is the second NSFE , the first one being released in 2013.
Facts:
- Aim: To create a financially aware and empowered India.
- Prepared by: The strategy has been prepared by the National Centre for Financial Education(NCFE) in consultation with all the Financial Sector Regulators under the aegis of the Technical Group on Financial Inclusion and Financial Literacy.
Key Provisions of the Strategy:
- Approach: The policy emphasizes a multi-stakeholder-led approach for empowering various sections of the population to develop adequate knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviour.
- Financial Education: The policy has recommended a ‘5 C’ approach for dissemination of financial education in the country:
- Content: Financial Literacy content for various sections of population.
- Capacity: Develop the capacity and ‘Code of Conduct’ for financial education providers.
- Community: Evolve community led approaches for disseminating financial literacy in a sustainable manner.
- Communication : Use technology, media and innovative ways of communication for dissemination of financial education messages.
- Collaboration: Streamline efforts of other stakeholders for financial literacy.
- School Education: Integrate financial education content in the school curriculum, various professional and vocational courses.
- Monitoring: Adopt a robust ‘Monitoring and Evaluation Framework’ to assess progress made under the strategy.
- A specific period in the year needs to be identified to disseminate financial literacy messages on a large/ focused scale.
Additional Facts:
- National Centre for Financial Education(NCFE): It is a Section 8 (Not for Profit) Company promoted by RBI, Securities and Exchange Board of India(SEBI), Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) and Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA).
- Mission – To undertake a massive Financial Education campaign to help people manage money more effectively to achieve financial well being by accessing appropriate financial products and services through regulated entities with fair and transparent machinery for consumer protection and grievance redressal.
2.NHAI launches ‘Harit Path’ to monitor plantation along national highways
News: National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has developed a mobile App called ‘Harit Path’.
Facts:
- Purpose: To facilitate creation of Green Highways across the country by monitoring the location, growth, species details, maintenance activities, targets and achievements of each of its field units for each and every plant under all plantation projects.
Additional Facts:
- Harit Bharat Sankalp: It is a nation-wide plantation drive by NHAI with the aim to promote environment protection and sustainability.Under this initiative, NHAI has planted over 25 lakh plants in 25 days along the stretches of the National Highways.
- National Highways Authority of India(NHAI):It was constituted under National Highways Authority of India Act,1988.It is a nodal agency of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
- Purpose: It is responsible for the development, maintenance and management of National Highways entrusted to it and for matters connected or incidental there.
3.Kerala’s ‘Namath Basai’ programme brings tribal children back to school
Facts:
- Namath Basai: It is a Kerala government’s unique programme of teaching tribal children in their mother tongue.
- Implementation: It is implemented by the Samagra Shiksha Kerala (SSK).
- Significance: The SSK has distributed some 50 laptops exclusively for Namath Basai.Hence,it has succeeded in retaining hundreds of tribal children in their online classes by making them feel at home with the language of instruction.
Additional Facts:
- Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan: It is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme launched as an integrated scheme for school education extending from pre-school to class XII to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education at all levels of school education.
4.FSSAI kick-starts Eat Right Challenge
News: The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India(FSSAI) has launches the Eat Right Challenge.
Facts:
- Eat Right Challenge: It is an annual competition for districts and cities across the country to encourage them to strengthen the food safety and regulatory environment and awareness among consumers to make better food choices.
- The challenge is part of Eat Right India(ERI) movement which aims to improve public health in India and combat negative nutritional trends to fight lifestyle diseases.
Additional Facts:
- FSSAI: It is a statutory, autonomous body established under the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.It is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the regulation and supervision of food safety.
5.Explained: China twist in India-Bangladesh Teesta river challenge
News: Bangladesh is discussing an almost $1 billion loan from China for a comprehensive management and restoration project on the Teesta river.
Facts:
- Teesta River: It is a tributary of the Brahmaputra (known as Jamuna in Bangladesh), flowing through India and Bangladesh.
- Origin: The river rises in the eastern Himalayas flows through the Indian states of Sikkim and West Bengal through Bangladesh and enters the Bay of Bengal.
- Drainage: It covers nearly the entire floodplains of Sikkim while draining 2,800 sq km of Bangladesh.For West Bengal, it is the lifeline of half-a-dozen districts in North Bengal.
- Dispute: The dispute over Teesta is the most contentious issue between India and Bangladesh.However, Teesta river water sharing agreement has not been signed due to opposition from West Bengal.(River is a State subject and is notable in this context).
6.External Affairs minister attends 6th Round Table of AINTT
News:Union External Affairs Minister has attended the sixth roundtable of ASEAN-India Network of Think Tanks(AINTT).
Facts:
- ASEAN-India Network of Think Tanks(AINTT): It was established at the 7th ASEAN-India Summit in Thailand in 2009.
- Purpose: It comprises think tanks, policy makers, scholars, media and business representatives to provide policy inputs to Governments on future direction of cooperation.
- 6th Round Table of AINTT: It was organized by the Ministry of External Affairs in partnership with the Foreign Ministry of Thailand.
- Theme: ASEAN-India: Strengthening Partnership in the Post COVID Era’.
Additional Facts:
- ASEAN: It is a regional grouping which was established in 1967 with the signing of the Bangkok Declaration.
- Members: Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, The Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Brunei, and Laos.
- Headquarters: Jakarta, Indonesia.
7.Kerala to host dragonfly festival
News: World Wide Fund for Nature(WWF)-India State unit has joined hands with the Society for Odonate Studies(SOS) and Thumbi Puranam for the first-ever State Dragonfly Festival in Kerala called Thumbi Mahotsavam 2020.
Facts:
- State Dragonfly festival: It is a part of a national dragonfly festival being organised by the WWF India, Bombay Natural History Society & Indian Dragonfly Society.
- It is organised in association with the National Biodiversity Board, UNEP, UNDP and IUCN – Centre for Environment Conservation.
- Mascot: ‘Pantalu’ is the official mascot of the festival.
Additional Facts:
- Dragonfly: It is an aerial predator insect most commonly found near freshwater habitats throughout most of the world.
- Significance: Dragonflies act as important bio-indicators of the ecological health of an area as they feed on mosquitoes and other insects that are vectors to life-threatening diseases like Malaria and Dengue.
- Bioindicators: These are living organisms such as plants, plankton, animals and microbes which are used to assess the health of the natural ecosystem in the environment.
- Examples of Bioindicators:
- Lichens are powerful Bioindicators of air quality.
- Algae blooms are often used to indicate large increases of nitrates and phosphates in lakes and rivers among others.
