Current Affair 1:

Conditions for a Political Party to be recognized as National and State Party

 

First, we need to register a Party, then only it can be recognized.

So, how to register?

Section 29A of the Representation of People’s Act, 1951 defines the process for the registration of a political party.  Any association or body of individual citizens of India can register as a political party with the Election Commission of India (ECI) by following the guidelines laid down for this purpose.

The benefits of registering a political party are many. The candidates set up by a political party, registered with the ECI will get preference in the matter of allotment of free symbols compared to purely independent candidates. Further, registered political parties, in course of time, can get recognition as `State Party’ or National Party’ provided they fulfill the required conditions.

When does a Registered Party become a Recognized Party?

A registered political party is accorded the status of a recognized state or national party as per the criteria listed in ‘The Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968’. This order was amended from time to time.

Recognition as a State Party

For any political party to be eligible for recognition as a State Party in a state, it has to satisfy any of the five conditions listed below.

In brief, the five conditions are:

 

Recognition as a National Party

For any political party to be eligible for recognition as a National Party, it has to satisfy any of the three conditions listed below.

In brief, the three conditions are:

 

Eight national parties in India are BSP, BJP, Congress, CPI, CPI-M, TMC, NCP and recently added National peoples' Party (NPP). NPP is the first national party from the North-East region.

Current Affair 2:

Strengthening Teaching-Learning and Results for States Program (STARS)

 

News: Performance of World Bank aided project STARS was reviewed recently.

STARS project would be implemented as a new Centrally Sponsored Scheme under Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education. (MOE)

The objective of the Strengthening Teaching-Learning and Results for States (STARS) Operation for India is to improve the quality and governance of school education in selected states.

The STARS Program has two results areas:

1. National component that supports efforts to improve overall monitoring and measurement activities in the Indian school education system and
2. State component with five sub-components.

                              

Results Area 1: National Component - at the national level, four goals will frame STARS support to Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).

1. The first goal is to strengthen MHRD’s national data systems to capture robust and authentic data on retention, transition, and completion rates.
2. Second, STARS will support MHRD in improving states’ Performance Grading Index (PGI) scores, again by incentivizing states’ governance reform agendas through State Incentive Grants (SIGs), with financial support from STARS.
3. Third, the operation will support the strengthening of learning assessment systems. Specifically, STARS will supply multi-year financing for India’s participation in Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2021, including establishing an independent National Assessment Center to manage that participation.
4. To support MOE’s efforts to establish a National Assessment Center (PARAKH). Included in the National Education Policy 2020, this autonomous institution under the Union Education Ministry will set norms for student assessment and evaluation for all school boards across the country, most of which currently follow norms set by State governments.

Results Area 2: State Component has five sub-components.

1. Strengthening Early Years Education
2. Improving Learning Assessment Systems
3. Strengthening School to Work/Higher Education Transition
4. Improving Teacher Performance and Classroom Practice
5. Governance and Decentralized Management for Improved Service Delivery

The STARS project also aims to focus on initiatives of PM e-Vidya, Foundational Literacy and Numeracy Mission and National Curricular and Pedagogical Framework for Early Childhood Care and Education as part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.

Funding: With support from World Bank

Current Affair 3:

Biofortification

 

Biofortification is the process by which the nutritional quality of food crops is improved through agronomic practices, conventional plant breeding, or modern biotechnology.

Biofortification differs from conventional fortification in that biofortification aims to increase nutrient levels in crops during plant growth rather than through manual means during processing of the crops. Biofortification may therefore present a way to reach populations where supplementation and conventional fortification activities may be difficult to implement and/or limited.

Biofortification is a process of improvement of nutritional profile of plant-based foods through agronomic interventions, genetic engineering, and conventional plant breeding.

Genetic Engineering and Breeding is known to you already. Agronomical approaches we will discuss in brief.

Biofortification through agronomic approaches can be achieved by applying mineral fertilizers to the soil, foliar fertilization, and soil inoculation with beneficial microorganisms.

Mineral Fertilizer

Mineral fertilizers are inorganic substances containing essential minerals and can be applied to the soil to improve the micronutrient status of soil and thus plant quality. The Phyto availability of minerals in the soil is often low; thus, to improve the concentration of minerals in the edible plant tissues, the application of mineral fertilizers with improved solubility and mobility of the minerals is required.

Foliar Fertilization

Foliar fertilization is the application of fertilizers directly to the leaves. It could be successful when mineral elements are not available immediately in the soil or not readily translocated to edible tissues. Pulse crops were biofortified with micronutrients, Fe, Zn, and Se, through foliar application in various studies that resulted in increased levels of these micronutrients.

Plant Growth Promoting Micro-organisms

Rhizobia, mycorrhizal fungi, actinomycetes, and diazotrophic bacteria are beneficial soil microorganisms associated with plant roots by symbiotic association, and these protect plants by various methods such as promotion of nutrient mineralization and availability and production of plant growth hormones. Though these are naturally present in the soil, their populations can be enhanced by inoculation or agricultural management practices.

Current Affair 4:

About National Commission for Protection of Child Rights

 

The Commission’s Mandate is to ensure that all Laws, Policies, Programmes, and Administrative Mechanisms are in consonance with the Child Rights perspective as enshrined in the Constitution of India and also the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

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