The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has greeted the people on the auspicious occasion of Nuakhai Juhar.

In a tweet, the Prime Minister said, "The special occasion of Nuakhai is about celebrating the hardwork of our farmers. It is due to their efforts that our nation is fed.

May this auspicious day bring prosperity and good health for everyone. Nuakhai Juhar!"

Indian Railways generates more than 6,40,000 mandays of work till 21 August 2020 under Gareeb Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyan These mandays of work generated in 6 States viz. Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh

Ministry of Railways is monitoring the progress made in these projects and work opportunities generated for the migrant labours of these states under this Scheme

Till 21 August, 2020, payment of Rs 1,410.35 Crores have been released to the contractors for the projects being Implemented Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan being implemented in 116 districts in 6 states

Around 165 Railway infrastructure projects are being executed in these states Posted On: 23 AUG 2020 5:10PM by PIB Delhi

Indian Railways has generated more than 6,40,000 mandays of work under Gareeb Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyan in 6 States viz. Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry is closely monitoring the progress made in these projects and generation of work opportunities for the migrant labours of these states under this scheme. Around 165 Railway infrastructure projects are being executed in these states.

Till 21 August, 2020, 12,276 workers have been engaged in this Abhiyaan and the payment of Rs 1,410.35 crores has been released to the contractors for the projects being implemented.

Railway has appointed nodal officers in each district as well as in the States so that a close coordination is established with the State Government.

Railway has identified no. of railway works which are being executed under this scheme. The works are related to (i) construction and maintenance of approach roads for level crossings, (ii) development & cleaning of silted waterways, trenches and drains along the track, (iii) construction and maintenance of approach road to railway stations, (iv) repair and widening of existing railway embankments / cuttings, (v) plantation of trees at extreme boundary of railway land and (vi) protection works of existing embankments/ cuttings/bridges.

It may be noted that Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi launched a massive employment -cum- rural public works campaign named Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan to empower and provide livelihood opportunities in areas/ villages witnessing large number of returnee migrant workers affected by the devastating COVID-19 on 20th June 2020. The Prime Minister announced that an amount of Rs 50,000 crores would be spent for building durable rural infrastructure under the Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan.

This Abhiyaan of 125 days, is being undertaken in mission mode, and involves focused implementation of 25 categories of works/ activities in 116 districts, each with a large concentration of returnee migrant workers in 6 states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Odisha. Public works is being undertaken during this campaign will have a resource envelope of Rs. 50,000 crores.

The Abhiyaan is a convergent effort between 12 different Ministries/Departments, namely; Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Road Transport & Highways, Mines, Drinking Water & Sanitation, Environment, Railways, Petroleum & Natural Gas, New & Renewable Energy, Border Roads, Telecom and Agriculture, to expedite implementation of 25 public infrastructure works and works relating to augmentation of livelihood opportunities.

Anoop Ramakrishnan and NR Akhil, Firstpost, Aug 25, 2020

The Constitution mandates legislatures to meet, at least, once every six months. Over the next month, most legislatures, including the Parliament, will be convening their sessions, as the six-month interval comes to an end. However, the continuing threat of the pandemic presents a problem of going about business as usual, particularly with regards to physical access to legislatures.

While the legislators and legislative staff will still manage to overcome this problem, physical access to legislatures will be restricted, more than usual, for citizens. Technology, particularly, TV broadcasting presents a viable solution.

Legislatures, being elected bodies, are the most representative of institutions in a democracy. They are constitutionally entrusted with the responsibilities to enact legislation, scrutinise executive action, and reflect and represent citizen interests. To effectively essay their representative role, legislatures are therefore required to inform and educate the citizens about their roles, functions, and work, and constantly engage in discussions with them on policies and laws.

The first Global Parliamentary Report, jointly published by the Inter Parliamentary Union and United Nations Development Programme in 2012, examined the evolving relationship between citizens and parliament. The report identified two broad ways in which legislatures could improve their engagement with the public. First, to provide more information and improve public understanding of legislatures, and second, to consult and involve the public more in the work of legislatures.

Since 2006, the Lok Sabha (LS) and later in 2011, Rajya Sabha (RS), have been broadcasting live proceedings through dedicated TV channels. This has contributed to a discernible increase in public interest in parliamentary proceedings, further aided by the parallel rise in the use of smartphones and social media. Very often, we come across video snippets, on YouTube, or through WhatsApp, of a passionate speech made by an MP or an important policy announcement made in the Parliament.

The same then sparks an animated debate among people and garners significant attention on social media as well. These channels also air discussions and shows on wide-ranging topics such aspParliamentary affairs, foreign relations, legal issues, history, literature, the environment and culture, among others.

However, despite the successful precedent of LSTV and RSTV, state legislatures have not followed suit. An exception comes in the form of the Kerala Assembly, which this week, launched a dedicated TV channel called Sabha TV. The channel aims to telecast the Assembly proceedings and other programmes on the history of the legislature. Sabha TV will initially air through other existing TV channels and will later progress to a full-fledged channel.

Elsewhere, the legislatures of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh broadcast their proceedings through different TV channels, while a few others such as Bihar, and Delhi (Kerala too) webcast their proceedings over the internet. There have also been instances where state legislatures have either introduced limitations (like Karnataka) on or have completely stopped the broadcast of proceedings (like Gujarat).

People's access to legislatures (and information on legislatures) can also take place through media reportage and digital means (through the use of dedicated websites). Most legislatures provide gallery access to journalists when the House is in session. This enables them to report on and inform the public about (i) the proceedings of the House, (ii) the performance of legislators, and (iii) documents, such as, government budgets, questions asked, other reports etc.

However, this gallery access is currently limited to only print and TV journalists. New media (digital/internet news entities) journalists do not enjoy similar levels of access, except in theLok Sabha. Considering the increasing consumption of news and information via the internet, this lack of physical access to journalists from news portals/websites is a significant barrier to publicising information on the work of legislatures. However, notwithstanding this gap, the current COVID-19 threat limits the viability of this option.

Proactive publication of legislative information and records, particularly through dedicated websites, is yet another way to access legislatures.

While the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha websites are incredible repositories of information, the websites of state Assemblies like Kerala, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan among others, are also very well maintained and updated. They publish a wide range of information, such as texts of debates, bills introduced and passed, questions and answers, legislative agenda, and session resume, etc. Many of them, as mentioned before, also offer the option to view proceedings via webcast.

On the other hand, websites of assemblies, such as Gujarat or Tamil Nadu, provide only limited information and are often not updated, while those of most North East states are poorly maintained or don’t even exist. This is now being addressed through a national programme — National e-Vidhan Application (NeVA) Project — that aims to bridge the gap between legislatures across the country and bring all the legislatures together on one web-based platform.

However, as the National Sample Survey of 2018 reports, only 4.4 percent rural households have a computer, as against 14.4 percent in urban areas, while only 14.9 percent rural households have access to the internet as against 42 percent in urban areas.

With such a digital divide, in addition to the literacy divide, access to legislative information via websites will be limited to only a small, educated population. Further, with the general rise in India's TV viewership and smartphone usage, and in particular, a 40 percent rise in TV viewership over pre-COVID-19 times, there is no time like the present for state legislatures to open up their proceedings for viewing to the public.

While the Parliament is often the cynosure of all eyes, state legislatures, unfortunately, seem to gain attention only when a particular state government’s survival is in question. A case in point being the disproportionate publicity around the floor tests in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh this year, and in Karnataka (in 2019). This public "apathy" towards state legislatures is in part, due to the transparency of information available on the Parliament and the lack thereof on state legislatures.

It is therefore time for state legislatures to embrace openness and further engage with the people. The current COVID-19 crisis, in particular, presents an opportunity for state Assemblies to consider broadcasting its proceedings. While setting up a dedicated TV channel may not be feasible at short notice, legislatures can explore partnerships with other TV networks or proceed with webcasting.

Accessible, accountable and open legislatures allow citizens to meaningfully participate in the legislative process. It can reinforce public confidence in their representative institutions and thus, ensure a robust decision-making process.

The authors are programme officers at PRS Legislative Research, a New Delhi-based research organisation. Views expressed are personal

Context: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced that the Centre will decide on the recommendations of a committee set up to reconsider the minimum age of marriage for women.

The minimum age of marriage, especially for women, has been a contentious issue.

Background: The Union Ministry for Women and Child Development set up a committee in June, headed by Jaya Jaitley, to examine matters pertaining to age of motherhood, imperatives of lowering Maternal Mortality Ratio and the improvement of nutritional levels among women.

It will examine the correlation of age of marriage and motherhood with health, medical well-being, and nutritional status of the mother and neonate, infant or child, during pregnancy, birth and thereafter.

What the law says? Currently, the law prescribes that the minimum age of marriage is 21 and 18 years for men and women, respectively.

The minimum age of marriage is distinct from the age of majority, which is gender-neutral. An individual attains the age of majority at 18 as per the Indian Majority Act, 1875.

For Hindus, Section 5(iii) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955sets 18 years as the minimum age for the bride and 21 years as the minimum age for the groom. Child marriages are not illegal but can be declared void at the request of the minor in the marriage.

In Islam, the marriage of a minor who has attained puberty is considered valid under personal law.

The Special Marriage Act, 1954 and the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 also prescribe 18 and 21 years as the minimum age of consent for marriage for women and men respectively.

Why is the law being relooked at? From bringing in gender-neutrality to reduce the risks of early pregnancy among women, there are many arguments in favour of increasing the minimum age of marriage of women.

Early pregnancy is associated with increased child mortality rates and affects the health of the mother. Despite laws mandating minimum age and criminalising sexual intercourse with a minor, child marriages are very prevalent in the country.

Also, according to a study, children born to adolescent mothers (10-19 years) were 5 percentage points more likely to be stunted (shorter for their age) than those born to young adults (20-24 years).

Context: In his address to the nation on Independence Day, the PM has launched the National Digital Health Mission which rolls out a national health ID for every Indian.

The scheme will be rolled out through a pilot launch in the Union Territories of Chandigarh, Ladakh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep.

What is the National Digital Health Mission? It is a digital health ecosystem under which every Indian citizen will now have unique health IDs, digitised health records with identifiers for doctors and health facilities.

The Mission is expected to bring efficiency and transparency in healthcare services in the country. The new scheme will come under the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana.

Key features: It comprises six key building blocks — HealthID, DigiDoctor, Health Facility Registry, Personal Health Records, e-Pharmacy and Telemedicine. The National Health Authority has been given the mandate to design, build, roll-out and implement the mission in the country.

The core building blocks of the mission is that the health ID, DigiDoctor and Health Facility Registry shall be owned, operated and maintained by the Government of India.

Private stakeholders will have an equal opportunity to integrate and create their own products for the market. The core activities and verifications, however, remain with the government.

Under the Mission, every Indian will get a Health ID card that will store all medical details of the person including prescriptions, treatment, diagnostic reports and discharge summaries.

The citizens will be able to give their doctors and health providers one-time access to this data during visits to the hospital for consultation.

What was the need for this mission? The mission aims to liberate citizens from the challenges of finding the right doctors, seeking appointment, payment of consultation fee, making several rounds of hospitals for prescription sheets, among several others and will empower people to make an informed decision to avail the best possible healthcare.

Background: The ambitious National Digital Health Mission finds its roots in a 2018 Niti Aayog proposal to create a centralised mechanism to uniquely identify every participating user in the National Health Stack.

Have there been global instances of such a centralised health record system? In 2005, the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) started deployment of an electronic health record systems with a goal to have all patients with a centralised electronic health record by 2010. While several hospitals acquired electronic patient records systems as part of this process, there was no national healthcare information exchange. The program was ultimately dismantled after a cost to the UK taxpayer was more than £12 billion, and is considered one of the most expensive healthcare IT failures.

Context: India and Bangladesh have been engaged in a long-standing dispute over water-sharing in the Teesta.

Adding to the existing tensions, Bangladesh is now discussing an almost $1 billion loan from China for a comprehensive management and restoration project on the Teesta river. Why India is concerned and worried? Bangladesh’s discussions with China come at a time when India is particularly wary about China following the standoff in Ladakh.

How have relations between Bangladesh and China been developing? China is the biggest trading partner of Bangladesh and is the foremost source of imports. Recently, China declared zero duty on 97% of imports from Bangladesh. The concession flowed from China’s duty-free, quota-free programme for the Least Developed Countries. China is the biggest arms supplier to Bangladesh.

About Teesta river: Teesta river is a tributary of the Brahmaputra (known as Jamuna in Bangladesh), flowing through India and Bangladesh. It originates in the Himalayas near Chunthang, Sikkimand flows to the south through West Bengal before entering Bangladesh. The Teesta Barrage dam helps to provide irrigation for the plains between the upper Padma and the Jamuna.

Efforts to resolve the dispute: Negotiations on how to share the water have been going on since 1983. A 2011 interim deal – that was supposed to last 15 years – gave India 42.5 percent of the Teesta’s waters and gave Bangladesh 37.5 percent. Bengal opposed this deal so it was shelved and remains unsigned.

Bangladesh sought a fair and equitable distribution of Teesta waters from India, on the lines of the Ganga Water Treaty 1996. The treaty is an agreement to share surface waters at the Farakka Barrage near their mutual border.

In 2015, the Indian Prime Minister’s visit to Dhaka generated expectations to take forward the issue but it still remains unresolved. However, In India, individual states have significant influence over transboundary agreements, impeding the policymaking process.

West Bengalis one of the key stakeholders of the Teesta agreement and is yet to endorse the deal.

Importance of Teesta River: For Bangladesh: Its flood plain covers about 14% of the total cropped area of Bangladesh and provides direct livelihood opportunities to approximately 73% of its population.

For West Bengal: Teesta is the lifeline of North Bengal and almost half a dozen of districts of West Bengal are dependent on the waters of Teesta.

Context: The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has allowed the initiation of insolvency proceedings against Anil Ambani after two companies promoted by him failed to pay dues on Rs 1,200 crore that they had borrowed from State Bank of India (SBI).

The insolvency process will be initiated against Ambani as he had given personal guarantee against the loans provided to his firms.

Personal insolvency: The case is significant as it is one of the first cases of insolvency against a major business group head.

The rules for initiation of personal insolvency were notified last year in December.

What is the process for personal insolvency? As the NCLT has allowed the appointment of an interim resolution professional (IRP) in the matter, SBI will now approach the IRP with a list of the assets provided by Ambani as a personal guarantee when his companies had sought the loan.

In the case of banks providing loans against personal guarantee, the guarantor has to furnish a list of assets whose value is equivalent to the total amount of loan being given. In case of failure to pay these assets, these guarantees can be invoked.

What happens to Anil Ambani after the insolvency process is over? Like corporate insolvency processes, a businessperson is free to start with a clean slate after a personal insolvency case against them is over.

The lenders will be eligible to recover their dues only from the collateral deposited or personal assets belonging to that person.

However, any or all assets mentioned in the list provided at the time of sanctioning of the loan, even if transferred to someone else, can also be attached and sold.

Ambani will be free to run other businesses which are not under insolvency, or which are able to service their debts and obligations on time.

Context: Department of Food &Public Distribution issues directions to States/UTs to include all eligible disabled persons under the National Food Security Act 2013.

It has also asked the states to ensure that they get their entitled quota of food grains under NFSA & Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana.

Enabling provisions: Section 38 of the Act mandates that the Central Government may from time to time give directions to the State Governments for effective implementation of the provisions of the Act.

The Section 10 of the National Food Security Act, 2013 provides for coverage of persons under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana in accordance with the guidelines applicable to the said scheme and the remaining households as priority households in accordance with such guidelines as the States Government may specify.

Disability is one of the criteria for inclusion of beneficiaries under AAY households

National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013: The objective is to provide for food and nutritional security in human life cycle approach, by ensuring access to adequate quantity of quality food at affordable prices to people to live a life with dignity.

Key features: Coverage and entitlement under Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS): The TDPS covers 50% of the urban population and 75% of the rural population, with uniform entitlement of 5 kg per person per month. However, the poorest of the poor households will continue to receive 35 kg per household per month under Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY).

Subsidised prices under TPDS and their revision: For a period of three years from the date of commencement of the Act, Food grains under TPDS will be made available at subsidised prices of Rs. 3/2/1 per kg for rice, wheat and coarse grains.

Identification of Households: The identification of eligible households is to be done by States/UTs under TDPS determined for each State. Nutritional Support to women and children: Children in the age group of 6 months to 14 years and pregnant women and lactating mothers will be entitled to meals as per prescribed nutritional norms under Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and Mid-Day Meal (MDM) schemes.

Malnourished children up to the age of 6 have been prescribed for higher nutritional norms. Maternity Benefit: Pregnant women and lactating mothers will also be receiving maternity benefit of Rs. 6,000. Women Empowerment: For the purpose of issuing of ration cards, eldest woman of the household of age 18 years or above is to be the head of the household.

Grievance Redressal Mechanism: Grievance redressal mechanism available at the District and State levels.

Cost of transportation & handling of food grains and FPS Dealers’ margin : the expenditure incurred by the state on transportation of food grains within the State, its handling and FPS dealers’ margin as per norms to be devised for this purpose and assistance to states will be provided by the Central Government to meet the above expenditure.

Transparency and Accountability: In order to ensure transparency and accountability, provisions have been made for disclosure of records relating to PDS, social audits and setting up of Vigilance Committees.

Food Security Allowance: In case of non-supply of entitled food grains or meals, there is a provision for food security allowance to entitled beneficiaries.

Penalty: If the public servant or authority fails to comply with the relief recommended by the District Grievance Redressal Officer, penalty will be imposed by the State Food Commission according to the provision.

Context: The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has prepared a draft standard for the supply system of piped drinking water– ‘Drinking water supply quality management system — requirements for piped drinking water supply service’.

The draft has been prepared by the BIS’ Public Drinking Water Supply Services Sectional Committee.

Highlights of the draft: It outlines the process of water supply, from raw water sources to household taps. It outlines the requirements for a water supplier or a water utility on how they should establish, operate, maintain and improve their piped drinking water supply service.

It states that the water treatment process should be planned in such a manner that after treatment the drinking water should conform to the Indian Standard (IS) 10500 developed by the BIS.

It contains guidelines for top management of the water utility, in terms of accountability and customer focus, establishing a quality policy for their service, monitoring the quality of water released to people, and conducting a water audit.

It states that the concept of district metering area (DMA) should be adopted where possible. DMA is a concept for controlling leakages in the water network, which is essentially divided into a number of sectors, called the DMAs, and where flow meters are installed to detect leaks.

It mentions that water should be sampled at the treatment plant every four hours against quality parameters. In the distribution system, the sampling should be done every eight hours at the water reservoirs. Random sampling should also be done at household levels.

Significance of the draft and need for it: The standard holds importance as it is expected to make the process of piped water supply more uniform, especially in rural and underdeveloped areas of the country where the system runs on various government orders and circulars.

It is a national level Non-Governmental organization established in the year 1978.

The organiztion was formed with an Imperative to moderating the pace of population growth for a smoother course of development so as to ensure an overall improvement in the quality of life of the people and maintain a proper balance between population and development.

Nuakhai Juhar is the agricultural festival is also called Nuakhai Parab or Nuakahi Bhetghat.

Nuakhai is a combination of two words signifies eating of new rice as ‘nua’ means new and ‘khai’ means eat.

It is one of the most ancient festivals celebrated in Odisha, Chhattisgarh and areas of neighbouring states to welcome the new crop of the season.

On this day, people worship food grain and prepare special meals. Farmers offer the first produce from their lands to Goddess Samaleswari, the famous ‘Mother Goddess’ of Sambalpur district of Odisha.

The Centre has constituted the national council for transgender persons.

Composition: Headed by the Union social justice minister and comprising representatives from 10 central departments, five states and members of the community.

The council is India’s first and formed under Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019.

The council has five main functions — advising the central government on the formulation of policies, programmes, legislation and projects with respect to transgender persons; monitoring and evaluating the impact of policies and programmes designed for achieving equality and full participation of transgender persons; reviewing and coordinating the activities of all the departments; redressing grievances of transgender persons; and performing such other functions as prescribed by the Centre.

Flavonoids are a group of phytonutrients present in almost all vegetables and fruits.

They, along with carotenoids, are responsible for the varied colours of fruits and vegetables.

They are associated with health benefits being good antioxidants, having anti-inflammatory properties and also offer benefits for the immune system.

Why in News? Recently, scientists from Agharkar Research Institute (ARI), found the first synthetic route for producing flavonoids molecules related to the treatment of tuberculosis and chikungunya.