UPSC Daily Current Affairs | Prelim Bits 22-07-2020

Manodarpan Initiative

• Union Human Resource and Development Ministry virtually launched the Manodarpan initiative under Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.
• This initiative will provide psycho-social support to students, teachers and parents.
• It aims to address the issues related to mental health and emotional wellbeing.
• The components of the initiative are

1. Web page on the MHRD website for advisory on psychosocial support.
2. Voluntary Tele-Counselling service on the National Helpline by utilizing National level database and directory of counsellors.
3. Handbook on Psychosocial Support - Enriching Life skills & Wellbeing of Students to be published online.
4. Interactive Online Chat Platform for contact, counselling and guidance by psychologists and other mental health professionals

RAISE Initiative

• Retrofit of Air-conditioning to improve Indoor Air Quality for Safety and Efficiency (RAISE) is a national programme to improve indoor air quality.
• It is launched by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), under the administration of Ministry of Power.
• It is developed for healthy and energy efficient buildings, in partnership with US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) MAITREE programme.
• The pilot focuses on improving indoor air quality (IAQ), thermal comfort, and energy efficiency (EE) in EESL office’s air conditioning system.
• It can potentially alleviate the issue of bad air quality in workspaces across the nation.

U.S. Agency for International Development

• USAID is the world’s premier international development agency and a catalytic actor driving development results.
• The Market Integration and Transformation Program for Energy Efficiency (MAITREE), is a part of the US-India bilateral Partnership between the Ministry of Power and USAID
• It is aimed at accelerating the adoption of cost-effective energy efficiency as a standard practice within buildings, and specifically focuses on cooling.

Global Real Estate Transparency Index

• GRETI is released by Jones Lang LaSalle’s (JLL), a global real-estate firm.
• JLL has been tracking real estate transparency since 1999, the recent GRETI edition covers 99 countries and territories, and 163 city regions.
• The rankings have six Asia Pacific markets, among the top 10 biggest improvers globally.

1. Mainland China (32nd),
2. Thailand (33rd),
3. India (34th),
4. Indonesia (40th),
5. Philippines (44th)
6. Vietnam (56th)

• India’s higher levels of ranking are due to regulatory reforms, enhanced market data, and sustainability initiatives.
• India has also edged into the top 20 for Sustainability Transparency through the active role of Indian Green Building Council and Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment (GRIHA)
• GRIHA is a national rating system for green buildings that is adopted while designing and evaluating new buildings.

Household Social Consumption: Education Survey

• National Statistical Office (NSO) has report on “Household Social Consumption: Education”.
• The report surveyed 1.13 lakh households spread across over 8,000 villages and 6,000 urban blocks between July 2017 and June 2018.

Highlights of the report

1. Digital divide - Only 4% of the rural households having access to computers as compared to 23% in urban areas.
2. Education accessibility –

• Primary School - 92.7% of the rural households have a primary school within 1 km as compared to 87.2% in urban areas.
• Secondary School - 38% of the rural household have access to secondary school as compared to 70% in the urban areas on similar parameters.

3. Attendance ratio - Gross attendance ratio is nearly 100% of boys and girls in rural as well as urban areas attending classes.
4. Literacy rate - The all India literacy rate among persons aged 7 years and above is 77.7% with rural literacy (73.5%) and urban literacy (87.7%).
5. Internet access - 15% in the rural cluster and 42% in the urban areas have access to the internet.

Zoram Food Park

• Recently, Ministry of food processing industries has operationalized the first Mega Food Park (MFP) of Mizoram.
• The Zoram Mega Food Park has been set up under the ‘Mega Food Park Scheme’.
• It will boost the North-East Region’s potential to become the organic destination of the world due to its rich agricultural and horticultural produce.

Mega Food Park

• A Mega food Park typically consists of supply chain infrastructure including

1. Collection centers (CC),
2. Primary processing centers (PPC)
3. Central processing centers (CPC),
4. Cold chain
5. Around 25-30 fully developed plots for entrepreneurs to set up food processing units.

• The Scheme is based on the “Cluster” approach and envisages creation of state of art support infrastructure in a well-defined Agri/horticultural zone.

• The central government provides financial assistance up to Rs. 50 Crore per Mega Food Park (MFP) project.
• The MFP project is implemented by a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) which is a Body Corporate registered under the Companies Act, 2013.

Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary

• The Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary is also known as the Jeypore Rainforest.
• It is located in the Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts of Assam.
• Dehing is the name of the river that flows through this forest and Patkai is the hill at the foot of which the sanctuary lies.
• It is the only sanctuary in India which is home to seven different species of wild cats namely tiger, leopard, clouded leopard, leopard cat, golden cat, jungle cat and marbled cat.
• Assamese macaque, a primate found in the forest, is in the red list of Near Threatened species.
• It is also the place with the highest concentration of the rare endangered White Winged Wood Duck.
• Recently Assam government decided to upgrade Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary into a national park.
• Post upgradation, Dehing Patkai will be the sixth national park in Assam.
• Other National Parks - Kaziranga, Nameri, Manas, Orang and Dibru-Saikhowa.

Source: PIB, News on Air, Times of India, Business Line