Virus Passport
Virus Passport China has launched a health certificate programme for Chinese international travellers, leading the world in plans for so-called virus passports. The digital certificate, which shows a user’s vaccination status and virus test results, is available for Chinese citizens via a programme on Chinese social media platform WeChat . The certificate is being rolled out “to help promote world economic recovery and facilitate cross-border travel,” The certificate, which is also available in paper form, is thought to be the world’s first known “virus passport”. China’s programme includes an encrypted QR code that allows each country to obtain a travellers’ health information. “QR health codes” within WeChat and other Chinese smartphone apps are already required to gain entry to domestic transport and many public spaces in China. The apps track a user’s location and produce a “green” code – synonymous with good health – if a user has not been in close contact with a confirmed case or has not travelled to a virus hotspot. But the system has sparked privacy concerns and fears it marks an expansion of government surveillance. Enroll today with the best civils service academy and take your first step towards your Civils journey. Feel free to reach out to us for any inquiries, collaborations, or support. We’re here to help. join now
Chandler Good Government Index (CGGI)
Chandler Good Government Index (CGGI) Why in News? India has been ranked 49th in the Chandler Good Government Index (CGGI),which classifies 104 countries in terms of government capabilities and outcomes. Key Points : Civil service innovation and capacity building is a key focus for the Indian government. The Chandler Good Government Index shows the importance of measuring and investing in governance capabilities that matter. It highlights a key need for ‘pracademics’ in government – people who combine a rigorous understanding of research and data with a practical and grounded sense of what governments need to do to succeed.” Finlandhas topped the CGGI list, in which each country is measured across over 50 open data points. The index focuses on seven pillars: leadership and foresight; robust laws and policies; strong institutions; financial stewardship; attractive marketplace; global influence and reputation; and helping people rise. Enroll today with the best civils service academy and take your first step towards your Civils journey. Feel free to reach out to us for any inquiries, collaborations, or support. We’re here to help. join now
Chandler Good Government Index (CGGI)
Chandler Good Government Index (CGGI) Why in News? India has been ranked 49th in the Chandler Good Government Index (CGGI),which classifies 104 countries in terms of government capabilities and outcomes. Key Points : Civil service innovation and capacity building is a key focus for the Indian government. The Chandler Good Government Index shows the importance of measuring and investing in governance capabilities that matter. It highlights a key need for ‘pracademics’ in government – people who combine a rigorous understanding of research and data with a practical and grounded sense of what governments need to do to succeed.” Finlandhas topped the CGGI list, in which each country is measured across over 50 open data points. The index focuses on seven pillars: leadership and foresight; robust laws and policies; strong institutions; financial stewardship; attractive marketplace; global influence and reputation; and helping people rise.
Immunisation Agenda 2030 (IA2030)
Immunisation Agenda 2030 (IA2030) Why in News? Recently, the United Nations and other agencies have launched the Immunisation Agenda 2030 (IA2030) during the World Immunisation Week.. About Immunisation Agenda 2030 The Immunisation Agenda 2030 (IA2030)was launched during World Immunisation Week. The IA2030 is based on learnings from Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP). It also aims to address the unmet targets of the GVAPthat were initially to be fulfilled as part of the global immunisation strategy of the ‘Decade of vaccines’ (2011–2020). It is underpinned by four core principlese. it putspeople in the centre, is led by countries, implemented through broad partnerships, and driven by data. Enroll today with the best civils service academy and take your first step towards your Civils journey. Feel free to reach out to us for any inquiries, collaborations, or support. We’re here to help. join now
Iron Dome aerial defence system
Iron Dome aerial defence system Why in New? The Iron Dome aerial defence system just intercepted a Hamas Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) that crossed from Gaza into Israel, Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) . What is Iron Dome aerial defence ? Iron Dome is a multi-mission system capable of intercepting rockets, artillery, mortars and Precision Guided Munitions like very short range air defence (V-SHORAD) systems as well as aircraft, helicopters and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) over short ranges of up to 70 km. It is an all-weather system and can engage multiple targets simultaneously and can be deployed over land and sea. Iron Dome is jointly manufactured by Rafael Advanced Systems and has been in service with Israeli Air Force since 2011. The radar system was developed by Elta. Its development was prompted after a series of rocket attacks on Israel by Hezbollah and Hamas in the 2000s. In the 2006 Lebanon war, around 4,000 rockets were fired on the northern parts of Israel resulting in the death of about 44 Israeli civilians and the evacuation of around 250,000 citizens. How does it work? An Iron Dome battery consists of a battle management control unit, a detection and tracking radar and a firing unit of three vertical launchers, with 20 interceptor missiles each. The interceptor missile uses a proximity fuse to detonate the target warhead in the air. The Iron Dome is deployed in a layered defence along with David’s Sling and Arrow missile defence system which are designed for medium- and long-range threats. Important advantages is its ability to identify the anticipated point of impact of the threatening rocket, to calculate whether it will fall in a built-up area or not, and to decide on this basis whether or not to engage it. This prevents unnecessary interception of rockets that will fall in open areas and thus not cause damage, the paper states. The system has intercepted thousands of rockets so far and, according to Rafael Advanced Systems, its success rate is over 90%. The I-DOME is the mobile variant with all components on a single truck and C-DOME is the naval version for deployment on ships. What are the limitations of the system? “The system has a ‘saturation point’. It is capable of engaging a certain (unpublished) number of targets at the same time, and no more. Additional rockets fired in a crowded salvo could succeed in breaching defences and cause damage. Hamas is developing mitigating strategies including lowering the trajectories of the projectiles while also continuing to accumulate thousands of rockets with improved precision. According to Mr. Shapur, one of the possible limitations is the system’s inability to cope with very short range threats as estimates put the Iron Dome’s minimum interception range at 5-7 kilometres. Among the threats mentioned were mortars, whose range usually does not exceed several kilometres,. The system is built to intercept a certain of projectiles and can be overwhelmed by a more capable adversary. Firing 500,000 shells an hour for several hours, or firing tens-of-thousands of shells per day over an extended period.” “This rate of fire would easily overwhelm a variant of Iron Dome, which is currently being proposed as a solution,”. Source: The Hindu Enroll today with the best civils service academy and take your first step towards your Civils journey. Feel free to reach out to us for any inquiries, collaborations, or support. We’re here to help. join now
FOSS4GOV Innovation Challenge
FOSS4GOV Innovation Challenge To promote the adoption of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in government,Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) has launched the #FOSS4GOV Innovation Challenge. It will harness theinnovation potential of the FOSS community and start-ups to solve critical issues in Government Technologies (GovTech). It calls upon FOSS innovators to submit implementable open source product innovations in CRM and ERP with possible applications for Govtech in Health, Education, and Agriculture etc. It is a key component of GovTech 3.0, which is about building secure and inclusive Open Digital Ecosystems (ODEs). The participants are eligible for incubation support, prize money, mentorship by domain experts, institutional support from eminent organizations for incubation of ideas and listing of solutions onGovernment e Marketplace (GeM). India’s largest-government projects (including Aadhaar) and many technology start-ups have also been built using FOSS. Enroll today with the best civils service academy and take your first step towards your Civils journey. Feel free to reach out to us for any inquiries, collaborations, or support. We’re here to help. join now
Sutra Model
Sutra Model SUTRA is Susceptible, Undetected, Tested (positive) and Removed Approach. SUTRA Model is used to chart the trajectory of COVID-19. It is used to predict the future of COVID-19 infections, susceptibility, undetected and positive persons in the country. This SUTRA Model is backed by GoI and was developed by professors from IIT Kanpur, IIT Hyderabad. The model uses three main parameters to predict the course of the pandemic which are: Beta:Also called contact rate, which measures how many people an infected person infects per day. It is related to the R0 value, which is the number of people an infected person spreads the virus to over the course of their infection. Reach:It is a measure of the exposure level of the population to the pandemic. Epsilon:It is the ratio of detected and undetected cases. Issues with SUTRA There have been many instances of the SUTRA forecasts being far out of bounds of the actual caseload and the predictions of the SUTRA model are too variable to guide government policy. The SUTRA model was problematic as it relied on too many parameters, and recalibrated those parameters whenever its predictions “broke down”. The SUTRA model’s omission of the importance of the behaviour of the virus; the fact that some people were bigger transmitters of the virus than others (say a barber or a receptionist more than someone who worked from home); a lack of accounting for social or geographic heterogeneity and not stratifying the population by ageas it didn’t account for contacts between different age groups also undermined its validity. New variants showed up in the SUTRA model as an increase in value of parameters called ‘beta’ (that estimated contact rate). Enroll today with the best civils service academy and take your first step towards your Civils journey. Feel free to reach out to us for any inquiries, collaborations, or support. We’re here to help. join now
Gaza Strip
Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip is a small boot-shaped territory along the Mediterranean coast between Egypt and Israel. Israel occupied the strip after 1967, but relinquished control of Gaza City and day-to-day administration in most of the territory during the Oslo peace process. In 2005, Israel unilaterally removed Jewish settlements from the territory, though it continues to control international access to it. Gaza Strip – Background UN General Assembly had favored the partition of Palestine region into an Arab State and a Jewish state. Under that resolution, UN General Assembly had said that it will be given to Arab State. After Israel became an independent nation (1948), the Arabs from Tel-Aviv and other parts of Israel/Palestine region, had started migrating to this place, to save themselves from riots and looting. These are called Palestinian (Arab) refugees. During the first Israel-Arab war, the Egyptian army had captured Gaza strip. But In 1967’s war, Israel re-captured Gaza Strip. But The Egyptian government did not consider as a part of Egypt and did not allow those refugees to become Egyptian citizens or to migrate to Egypt or to other Arab countries. (their side of border was opened in 2011) On the other side, Israel did not allow these refugees to return to their former homes. So these refugees are stuck from both the sides, live in poverty and food aids from United Nations. Ever since, there is rioting and violent street clashes between Gaza’s Palestinians (refugees/Hamas) and occupying Israeli troops. Enroll today with the best civils service academy and take your first step towards your Civils journey. Feel free to reach out to us for any inquiries, collaborations, or support. We’re here to help. join now
SARTHAQ
SARTHAQ Why in News? The implementation of the National Education Policy 2020 and released an implementation plan for school education called ‘Students’ and Teachers’ Holistic Advancement through Quality Education (SARTHAQ)’. About The Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education, has developed SARTHAQ is an indicative and suggestive implementation plan for school education. The plan was launched to implement the goals of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. Further, it will assist all the States/UTs in this task. Firstly, to provide all-around development for the students at the primary and secondary level. Secondly, to establish a safe, secure, inclusive and conducive learning environment for students as well as teachers. Thirdly, to meet the diverse national and global challenges of the present and the future. Further, it will help the students to imbibe 21st-century skills along with India’s tradition, culture and value system. Enroll today with the best civils service academy and take your first step towards your Civils journey. Feel free to reach out to us for any inquiries, collaborations, or support. We’re here to help. join now
South Sudan
South Sudan Made up of the 10 southern-most states of Sudan, South Sudan is one of the most diverse countries in Africa. It is home to over 60 different major ethnic groups, and the majority of its people follow traditional religions. Independence did not bring conflict in South Sudan to an end. Civil war broke out in 2013 when the president fell out with his then vice president, leading to a conflict that has displaced some 4 million people. Background 1956 – Sudan becomes independent but southern states are unhappy with their lack of autonomy. Tensions boil over into fighting that lasts until 1972, when the south is promised a degree of self-government. 1983 – Fighting starts again after the Sudanese government cancels the autonomy arrangements. 2011 – South Sudan becomes an independent country, after over 20 years of guerrilla warfare, which claimed the lives of at least 1.5 million people and more than four million were displaced. 2012 – Disagreements with Sudan over the oil-rich region of Abyei erupt into fighting, known as the Heglig Crisis. A peace deal was reached in June 2012 that helped resume South Sudan’s oil exports and created a 10km demilitarized zone along the border. 2013 – Civil war breaks out after the president, Salva Kiir, sacks the cabinet and accuses Vice-President Riek Machar of planning a failed coup. Over 2.2 million people are displaced by the fighting and severe famine puts the lives of thousands at risk. 2018 – Renewed bid to end civil war leads to a power-sharing agreement between the warring sides. India – South Sudan India has developed close ties with Sudan and in recent years warmed up to the Government of South Sudan as well. India’s Election Commission had helped organise Sudan’s first general elections in the late 1950s and Indian engineers had played a major role in setting up the country’s sugar industry and railways. Similarly India was one of the first countries to open a consulate in South Sudan and accord recognition to the Government of South Sudan after its independence on 9 July 2011. At present, India’s investment in the two Sudans is over $3 billion. In the last decade, India’s investments have been mainly in the energy sector. In 2003, India’s ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) had invested $750 million to acquire 25 per cent equity held by the Talisman group in the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC). GNPOC is a consortium that also includes the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), Malaysia’s Petronas and Sudan’s Sudapet. It had also invested in other energy assets in block 5A and 5B. Most of these assets are located in South Sudan.Therefore, it is natural that conflict and instability in the region will have an adverse impact on India. The relations between Sudan and South Sudan have worsened with armed conflict breaking out intermittently. Unfortunately, the countries have still not resolved their outstanding disputes on three crucial issues – energy, boundary demarcation, and citizenship. India along with the rest of the world should take urgent steps towards pushing the leaders of both the countries to peacefully negotiate and resolve the pending disputes. Read Also GAIL Enroll today with the best civils service academy and take your first step towards your Civils journey. Feel free to reach out to us for any inquiries, collaborations, or support. We’re here to help. join now
