PIB and AIR News 4-5th June, 2019

1. Vekateswara Veda Vigyana Peetham 

• Run by Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD)
• Situated at Tirumala in Andhra Pradesh

2. Retired Officers Digital Records Archive (Rodra) Website

• Manpower Planning (MP) Directorate, (MP 5&6) is responsible for custody and maintenance of approximately 1.2 Lakh service records of serving and retired officers of the Indian Army.  
• However, due to lack of digitisation and non-availability of latest address and contact details of veterans, connecting with veteran officers/family pensioners and addressing their grievances was a major challenge.
• To over come the same a website Retired Officers Digital Records Archive (RODRA) was launched. 
• The aim was to establish an interface between the custodian of officers’ Records i.e AG/MP 5&6 and veteran officers/Next of Kin (NOK) and to create a digital data repository in order to address documentation/pension related grievances and update on relevant policies.

3. On the eve of World environment Day, Union Environment Minister launches #selfiewithsapling campaign

• It  urges all to join and plant a sapling and post the selfie with the sapling on social media.
• World Environment Day 2019 will be hosted by www.worldenvironmentday.global/China with a theme of “Air Pollution”.
• Air pollution is the biggest environmental health risk of our time.

• India has formulated and launched the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP). This is a long term time bound national level strategy and tackle the increasing pollution problem across the country. 
• The objective of NCAP is comprehensive plan for prevention, control and abatement of air pollution besides augmenting the air quality monitoring network. The tentative national level target is reduction of PM2.5 and PM10 concentration by 20% – 30% by 2024.The focus of this year WED would be on the identified 102 Non attainment cities.

4. Tamil Nadu Health System Reform Program

• The Government of India, Government of Tamil Nadu (GoTN) and the World Bank  signed here today in New Delhi a $287 Million Loan Agreement for the Tamil Nadu Health System Reform Program. 
• The Program aims to improve the quality of health care, reduce the burden of Non-communicable Diseases (NCDs), and fill equity gaps in reproductive and child health services in the State of Tamil Nadu.
• Tamil Nadu ranks third among all Indian States in the NITI Aayog Health Index which is reflected in vastly improved health outcomes.
•  A key contribution to these achievements has been the establishment of emergency Obstetric and Neonatal Care Centers and the 108 ambulance service with previous support from the World Bank.  These have ensured that no mother has to travel more than 30 minutes to access emergency obstetric and neonatal care 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  

5. Swachh Survekshan 2020 League to be launched at the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA)

• Swachh Survekshan League 2020 will be a quarterly cleanliness assessment(i.e. April- June, July – September and October- December 2019 and will have a weightage of 2000 marks for each quarter) of cities and towns in India and will be integrated with Swachh Survekshan 2020, the 5th edition of the annual cleanliness survey of urban India to be conducted between January - February 2020 by MoHUA under the aegis of Swachh Bharat Mission- Urban (SBM-U).
• The performance of cities in SS League 2020 will be crucial to their ranking in Swachh Survekshan 2020 due to the 25% weightage of the quarterly assessments to be included in the annual survey in January 2020.  
• The objective of the Swachh Survekshan (SS) survey, which is conducted by an independent third party, is to encourage large scale citizen participation, ensure sustainability of initiatives taken towards garbage free and open defecation free cities, provide credible outcomes validated by third party certification, institutionalize existing systems through online processes and create awareness amongst all sections of society about the importance of working together towards making towns and cities a better place to live in.   
• Additionally, the survey also intends to foster a spirit of healthy competition among towns and cities to improve their service delivery to citizens, towards creating cleaner cities.
• 1st edition was in 2016.
•  3rd edition - 2018 was a quantum leap of scale - conducted across 4,203 cities in 66 days, and became the largest ever Pan India Sanitation Survey in the world, impacting around 40 crore people. 
• The 4th edition, Swachh Survekshan 2019 covered 4237 cities in a record time of 28 days and was a fully digitized and paperless survey. 
• While SS 2016 had seen Mysuru emerge as the cleanest city in India, Indore has retained the title of the Cleanest City in the last three years.

6. Fee waived off for SC/ST candidates joining vocational training under Jan Shikshan Sansthans
Directorate of Jan Shikshan Sansthan (DJSS) was formerly under the Ministry of Human Resources Development and was transferred to the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship in 2018

7. Study on Swachh Bharat Mission(Grameen)
These studies, commissioned by UNICEF and the Bill and Melinda Gates, were aimed at assessing the environmental impact and communication footprint of the Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) respectively

8. School Nursery initiative to be launched by MoEFCC
In this school kids will plant a seed, nurture the sapling and on his/her annual result would take the plant to be a trophy

9. ‘2nd Global Disability Summit’ at Buenos Aires, Argentina

• The objective of the summit is to deliberate on issues across the world concerning empowerment and inclusion of Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) and to work out a mechanism for enabling them to live an independent and dignified life.
• ‘1st Global Disability Summit’ was held in London in July 2018.

10. Economic Census -2019

• Economic Census is the complete count of all establishment located within the geographical boundary of India. 
• The Economic Census provides disaggregated information on various operational and structural variables of all establishments of the country. 
• Economic Census also provides valuable insight into geographical spread/clusters of economic activities, ownership pattern, persons engaged, etc. of all economic establishments in the country. 
• The information collected during Economic Census are useful for socio-economic developmental planning at state and district levels.
• Economic Census-2019
• The Seventh Economic Census (7th EC) is being conducted by Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) in 2019. In the current Economic Census, MoSPI has partnered with CSC e-Governance Services India Limited, a Special Purpose Vehicle under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology as the implementing agency for 7th EC.
• Economic Census will cover all establishments including household enterprises, engaged in production or distribution of goods/services (other than for the sole purpose of own consumption) in non-farm agricultural and non-agricultural sector will be counted.
• The first Economic Census was undertaken in 1977. The Second EC was carried out in 1980 followed by the Third EC in 1990. The fourth edition took place in 1998 while the fifth EC was held in 2005. The Sixth edition of Economic Census was conducted in 2013.

11. Ganga Quest 2019

• It was a month-long online quiz organized for awareness and knowledge dissemination about river Ganga. 
• The quiz was launched on 22nd April 2019 (World Earth Day) and ended on 22nd May, 2019 (World Biodiversity Day) by NMCG in partnership with Wild Life Institute of India, Tree Craze foundation, GIZ and VA Tech WABAG. Schools under CBSE Board, NavodayaVidyalayas and other schools and academic institutions participated actively in the quiz competition 
• Ganga Praharis were also felicitated during the event. A cadre of self-motivated volunteers from the local communities, Ganga Praharis have been created by Wild Life Institute of India. 
• These Praharis are working for biodiversity conservation and cleanliness of the Ganga River with the ultimate objectives of restoring the Nirmal and Aviral Dhara of Ganga.