current bulletin - febraury 2020 polity ......2020/04/07 · current bulletin - febraury 2020 2...

CURRENT BULLETIN - FEBRAURY 2020

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POLITY & GOVERNANCESupreme Court directs states to set upGram Nyayalayas

Context: The Supreme Court of India directed the

states to establish "Gram Nyayalayas" anddirected the corresponding state high courtsto expedite the process.

Description: An Act passed by Parliament in 2008

provided for setting up of 'Gram Nyayalayas'at the grass roots level for providing accessto justice to citizens at the doorstep and toensure that opportunities for securingjustice are not denied to anyone by reasonof social, economic or other disabilities.

According to the report, Goa has issued twonotification to establish the GramNyayalayas. However, none are functioningat the moment and Haryana had issuednotification for three and Currently only twoare functioning.

In Jharkhand, 6 were notified, but only oneis functioning. The state of Uttar Pradeshnotified 113 Gram Nyayalayas. However,only 14 are functioning. The state had toestablish 822.

At present, only 208 Gram Nyayalayas arefunctioning as against 2,500 required tofunction according to the 12th five-year plan.

Gram Nyayalayas or village courts areestablished under the Gram Nyayalayas Act,2008 for speedy and easy access to justicesystem in the rural areas of India and theAct came into force from 2 October 2009.

A Gram Nyayalaya have jurisdiction over anarea specified by a notification by the StateGovernment in consultation with therespective High Court.

These are presided over by a Nyayadhikari,who will have the same power, enjoy samesalary and benefits of a Judicial Magistrateof First Class. Such Nyayadhikari are to beappointed by the State Government inconsultation with the respective High Court.

The court requested the chief justices ofhigh courts, where the constitution of 'GramNyayalayas' and appointments of itsmembers are pending, to expedite theprocess of consultation with the respectivestate governments.

The sections 5 and 6 of the 2008 Act providethat state government in consultation withthe high court will appoint a 'Nyayadhikari'for each 'Gram Nyayalaya', who will be aperson eligible to be appointed as a JudicialMagistrate of the First Class.

Lakshadweep: Occupancy rights toScheduled Tribes

Context: The union cabinet approved amendment of

the Laccadive, Minicoy and Amindivi IslandsLand Revenue and Tenancy Regulation, 1965to confer occupancy rights to the ScheduledTribe (ST) population in the union territory.

Description: The Scheduled Tribes in the island did not

have occupancy rights so far. The Occupancyright is the right to occupy and use tribalarea. Lakshadweep is an Archipelago with12 atolls, five submerged banks and threereefs. There are 17 uninhabited islands inthe region.

The decision has been taken to giveoccupancy rights, which was considered aspart of Good Governance.


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According to the SC and ST list (modificationorder), 1956, the inhabitants born to bothparents born in the islands are alone treatedas Scheduled Tribes.

According to Census 2011, there are aroundsixty thousand persons in the island. Of this93% of the population are indigenous andthe entire indigenous population in theisland has been classified as ScheduledTribes due to their social and EconomicBackwardness.

Surrogacy (Regulation) bill, 2019Context: The Union Cabinet approved the changes

introduced in the Surrogacy (Regulation) bill,2019.

Description: The Surrogacy (Regulation) bill was passed

in Lok Sabha in 2019. The aim of the bill wasto prevent commercial surrogacy. It also aimsto promote altruistic surrogacy that does notdemand monetary compensation apart frommedical expenses and insurance

Infertility in the bill was defined as inabilityto conceive after unprotected intercoursefor 5 years. The committee believed that itwas too long period for a couple to wait fora child. The Insurance Cover of a surrogatemother is to be increased from 16 monthsto 36 months.

The changes approved include not onlyclose relatives but "any woman" willing toact as a surrogate mother shall be allowedand also approved deleting the definitionof infertility.

Background: The Indian Council of Medical Research

(ICMR) made the first attempt at regulatingsurrogacy in 2005 by drafting the NationalGuidelines for Accreditation, Supervisionand Regulation of ART (AssistedReproductive Technology) Clinics in India -the clinics that treat infertility, like in-vitrofertilisation (IVF), and offer surrogacyservices.

This led to drafting of the ART Bill in 2008,2010 and 2014 but was never passed by theParliament. the Law Commission of Indiatook it up in 2009 recognising the need forregulating ART clinics and providing forrights and obligations of parties to surrogacy.It recommended allowing only 'altruistic'surrogacy and a ban on commercialsurrogacy.

It was examined by the ParliamentaryStanding Committee on Health and FamilyWelfare. In its 2017 report the panelsuggested wholesome changes andsuggested that the ART Bill should bebrought first since "there are no separatesurrogacy clinics as such" and that "generallyART clinics offer surrogacy services as well",concluding that "the need of the hour,hence, is to regulate all ART clinics".

The Bill proposes Surrogacy Boards at thenational and state/UT levels andappointment of appropriate authorities forregulating the practice and process ofsurrogacy.

The Bill explains that lack of legislation onsurrogacy has led to its rampantcommercialisation, unethical practices,exploitation of surrogate mothers,abandonment of children born out ofsurrogacy and import of human embryosand gamets. In line with therecommendations of the Law Commissionof India, it proposes to address these issuesand protect the rights of surrogate motherand child.

Clause 6 of Assam Accord: Committeesubmits Report

Context: A high-level committee submitted a report

over the implementation of Clause 6 ofAssam Accord.

Description: Assam Accord was an agreement signed

between the government of India and theleaders of Assam Movement in 1985. Under


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the agreement, the GoI agreed to accept allthe migrants that entered before 1966 andGoI agreed to provide social, political,cultural and economic rights to theAssamese people.

The Clause of Assam accord providesconstitutional, administrative andlegislative safeguards to preserve andpromote cultural, linguistic and heritage ofAssamese people.

Several actions have been taken underClause 6 to provide administrative,constitutional and legislative safeguards tothe Assamese people which include theformation of Srimanta SankardevaKalakshetra Society, Jyoti Chitraban filmStudio, the Archaeological Survey of Indiatook up preservation of 5 monumentsnamely Singri Temple ruins, Poa-Mecca,Urvashi Archaeological site, Kedar Templeand Hayagriva Madhava Temple.

On January 21, 1986 formed the AssamAccord Implementation Department tooversee the implementation of thecompact. In 1990, the union government setup a special task force for the same purpose,with LC Jain, a Planning Commission memberas its chairman. This panel made 94recommendations, of which the stategovernment had to implement 62 and theCentre, 25.

28% of Aadhaar based payment arecredited into wrong accounts: NITIAayog

Context: The NITI Aayog in its report on National

Nutrition Mission has mentioned one inthree Aadhaar based payments was creditedto a wrong bank account, especially inPradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana.

Description: Government is implementing Poshan

Abhiyan earlier known as National NutritionMission, since 18th December, 2017 to

address the problem of malnutrition in thecountry.

The Abhiyan aims to reduce malnutrition inthe country in a phased manner, through alife cycle approach, by adopting a synergizedand result oriented approach.

The report was prepared and released bythe Ministry of Women and ChildDevelopment were 28% of Aadhaar basedpayments were going to wrong bankaccounts.

The report also says that 66% of directbenefit transfers were based on Aadhaarand only 60% of the beneficiaries wereaware of the receipt of benefits.

The goals of Poshan Abhiyan are to achieveimprovement in Nutritional status ofchildren from 0-6 years, adolescent girls,pregnant women and lactating mothers in atime bound manner.

Out of all the women and child developmentschemes, PMMVY is crucial because, Rs 6,000transferred to the pregnant and lactatingmothers should reach them on time. This isbecause they are credited as wagecompensation and for their betterment ofhealth.

The report also ranked the states based on4 parameters namely Strategy and Planning,Governance and Institutional Mechanism,Programme Activities and InterventionCoverage, Service Delivery and Capacities.


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State of Andhra Pradesh ranked 1st in thecountry for overall implementation ofPoshan Abhiyan as per the recent reportshared by NITI Aayog.

As part of the programme the State hastrained all Angan Wadi Workers on modulescreated based on lifecycle approach, i.e first1000 days of life, with the support ofincremental learning Approach (ILA).

The State Government has given smartphones to around fifty five thousand AnganWadi workers to improve service deliveryand for reporting day to day actions, as wellas to council the targeted beneficiariesthrough video embedded in application.

POSHAN Abhiyaan (National NutritionMission) was launched by the governmenton March 8, 2018 which targets to reducestunting, undernutrition, anemia (amongyoung children, women and adolescentgirls) and reduce low birth weight by 2%,2%, 3% and 2% per annum respectively.

Abhiyaan aims to ensure service deliveryand interventions by use of technology,behavioural change through convergenceand lays-down specific targets to beachieved across different monitoringparameters.

The target of the mission is to bring downstunting among children in the age group 0-6 years from 38.4% to 25% by 2022.

Out of the 19 large states, Andhra Pradesh,Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh scoredthe top three ranks. They hadimplementation scores of 70% and above.

The least performing larges states wereKarnataka, Assam and Kerala. Among thesmall states Mizoram and Sikkim scoredabove 75%.

Among Union Territories Dadra and NagarHaveli, Chandigarh and Daman and Diu werethe best performers scoring above 75%

Completion of One year: PM-K isanScheme

Context: The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi

Yojana completed one year of itsimplementation which was launched toincrease the income of farmers whose majoraim is to help farmers by providing themincome support of Rs 6,000 per year.

Description: The scheme is being implemented by the

Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer Welfareand was launched on February 24, 2019.

The Scheme initially provided incomesupport to small and marginal farmers thathold land up to 2 hectares. Later, it wasextended to all farmers irrespective of thesize of their land holdings. Around 14 crorefarmers were to covered under the scheme.

PM-KISAN It is a Central Sector scheme with 100%

funding from Centre Government. UnderPM-Kisan Yojana, the central governmentprovides income support of Rs.6,000 peryear to all farmer families in country.

The income support is paid in instalmentsof Rs.2,000 every four months. The Schemedefines farmer family as- husband, wife andminor children. The entire responsibility ofidentification of beneficiary farmer familiesrests with State Governments and UnionTerritory government.

Till now, the Central Government hasreleased Rs 50,850 crores and has benefited8.46 crores of families and the amount areto be deposited directly in to the farmers'accounts under the scheme.

International Judicial ConferenceContext: The International Judicial Conference was

held in New Delhi and the theme was'Gender Just World'.

Description: The Conference discussed the changes


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being introduced by the Government ofIndia to bring Gender Equality in recruitingwomen in military services, selectionprocess of fighter pilots and freedom ofwomen to work in mines at night.

Topics of discussion at the Conferenceincludes Dynamic Interpretations of theConstitution in a Changing World, GenderJustice, Contemporary Perspectives onProtection of Constitutional Values,Protection of Right to Privacy in the InternetAge, Harmonisation of EnvironmentProtection and Sustainable Developmentand Protection of Right to Privacy.

The Conference also focused on the needfor technology to deliver rapid justice. Theinitiative "E-Court Integrated Mission ModeProject" of GoI, to integrate every court ofIndia with the E-Court system washighlighted.

Conference discussed on Terrorism, cybercrime, environmental degradation andhealth problems are the major issuesplaguing the world including the Indiansubcontinent and the judiciary needs toappropriately respond to them by evolvinginnovative principles while keeping in mindthe rule of law.

Globalisation demands the rule of law andwith increase in cross-border dealings,movement of citizens, goods andinvestment, there is a requirement ofstronger trust between nations.

The "Just World" fallacy is associated withthe actions of bringing fair actions towardseducation, health, gender equality and othersocial issues.

India has contributed to the evolution ofjurisprudence in many areas and thejudgments have been cited with acceptanceoverwhelmingly by other jurisdictions suchas the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore,Bangladesh and other countries in the Asiancontinent

The Conference introduced the "Just World"concept in the Judicial System of India. By

this it aims to take the judicial system of thecountry to every citizen irrespective of theirgender.

Also, it aimed to bring upon gender equalityin other crucial areas where women havestill not earned their recognition, especiallythe areas of mining and military.

National Organic Food FestivalContext: Ministry of Food Processing and Ministry of

Women and Chi ld Development jointlyinaugurated the National Organic FoodFestival in New Delhi.

Description: The festival aimed at strengthening organic

food produce in the country and also aimedat encouraging women entrepreneurs inmanufacturing organic produce.

It will also focus on facilitating businesslinkages and empowering womenentrepreneurs through pre-arrangedB2B(Business to Business) and B2G(Businessto Government) meetings.

Women entrepreneurs and self-help groupsexhibited their organic products at thefestival and claimed that the organic sectoris growing at a speed of 17% per year.

In order to achieve the target of exportingthe organic goods, Jaivik Kheti Portal hasbeen included in the agricultural budget.


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Organic Farming: India has the 9th largest World's Organic

Agricultural Land and the largest number ofproducers.

Organic Food Segment of India grew at rateof 10% during 2016-20. As per the IndianOrganic Sector - Vision 2025 report, India'sorganic business is expected to reachRs.75,000 Crores by 2025

Sikkim is the first organic state in the world.All of its farmland is certified organic.

Important schemes as part of OrganicFarming includes Paramparagat Krishi VikasYojana (PKVY), Mission Organic Value ChainDevelopment for North Eastern Region(MOVCDNER) and National Programme ofOrganic Production (NPOP).

Jaivik Kheti: National Project on Organic Farming (NPOF)

is a continuing central sector scheme since10th Five Year Plan.

Under the scheme, the GoI aims tostrengthen organic farming which waslaunched in 2004. The scheme initially aimedon usage of Bio-Fertilizers, later it focusedon producing organic foods.

Shyama Prasad Mukherji RurbanMission: Completes Four Years

Context: The Fourth Anniversary of Shyama Mukherji

Rurban Mission was celebrated all over Indiawhich was launched on February 21, 2016.

Description: The Shyama Prasad Mukherji National

Rurban Mission, launched by the UnionMinistry of Rural Development, focuses oncluster-based integrated developmentthrough location planning. It identifies ruralclusters across the country where increasingsigns of urbanization such as increasedurban density, higher levels of non-agricultural employment, increasedeconomic activity and other signs ofurbanization.

The mission aims at stimulating localeconomic development and will create wellplanned Rurban Regions and to develop 300Rurban clusters.

The mission aims to provide a new impetusto economic development at the local level.It will also provide a comprehensivetransformation to these rural clusters byincreasing basic services and creating well-organized rural clusters. This will lead to theoverall development of the region and willpromote integrated and inclusive ruraldevelopment.

SPMRM The Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Rurban

Mission is a centrally sponsored scheme.This mission has two components relatedto funding or finance: (1) Modified fundsthrough various Central Sector Schemes,Centrally Sponsored Schemes, State Sector/ Sponsored Schemes / Programs, CSRFunds, (2) Critical Gap Funds (CGF). Itprovides for a CGF up to Rs 30 crore percluster for non-tribal clusters and up to Rs15 crore per cluster for clusters in tribal andhilly states.

The Mission plans to develop Rurbanclusters contiguously with the GramPanchayats with a population of 25,000 to


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50,000 in plains and 5,000 to 15,000 in desertand hilly areas.

Around 100 clusters were to develop in thefirst year and it is a joint venture with thestate governments where the stategovernments had to identify the clusters.

Ujh (National) Multipurpose Project:Jammu Kashmir

Context: The Minister of North Eastern Development

chaired the Ujh Multipurpose (National)Project, Jammu and Kashmir to fast trackcomplete utilization of India's rights underIndus Water Treaty.

Description: The project is planned to be constructed in

Kathua District of J&K on the River Ujh whichis a major tributary of River Ravi.

After construction of the project, utilizationof waters of Eastern Rivers allotted to Indiaas per the Indus Water Treaty would beenhanced by utilizing of the flow thatpresently goes across border unutilized.

The project will help India utilizing thewaters of Eastern Rivers to the fullestabiding to the Indus Water Treaty and willhelp to store 781 million cubic metres ofwater of River Ujh.

The Meeting was held to fast track completeutilization of India's rights under IndusWater Treaty.

Indus Waters Treaty The Indus Waters Treaty signed between

India and Pakistan in 1960 where the watersof three rivers, namely Ravi, Sutlej and Beas(Eastern Rivers) shall be available for theunrestricted use of India.

The Indus system comprises the Indus,Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej wherethe basin is shared by India and Pakistan.

India is also allowed to use 20% of waterfrom Indus, Chenab and Jhelum (Westernrivers) for irrigation, power generation andtransport purposes While, the waters ofWestern rivers - Indus, Jhelum, and Chenabwere allocated to Pakistan except forspecified domestic, non-consumptive andagricultural use permitted to India asprovided in the Treaty.

India has also been given the right togenerate hydroelectricity through run of theriver (RoR) projects on the Western Riverswhich, subject to specific criteria for designand operation is unrestricted.

Sustainability Index: India ranks 77Context: WHO, Lancet and UNICEF together released

a report titled "A Future for the World'sChildren" according to which a new Globalindex has been included in comparingperformance of child nutrition, educationand sustainability.

Description: India ranked 77th on a sustainability index

that takes into account per capita carbon


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emissions and 131st on a flourishing rankingthat measures the best chance at survivaland well-being for children.

The outcome is based on 180 countrieswhich were compared and the parametersof comparison included child survival, childwellbeing, health and education,sustainability, child nutrition.

Flourishing is the geometric mean ofSurviving and Thriving where for Surviving,the authors selected maternal survival,survival in children younger than 5 years old,suicide, access to maternal and child healthservices, basic hygiene and sanitation, andlack of extreme poverty.

For Thriving, the domains were educationalachievement, growth and nutrition,reproductive freedom, and protection fromviolence.

The world's survival depended on childrenbeing able to flourish, but no country is doingenough to give them a sustainable future

The Sustainability Index ranks countries onexcess carbon emissions compared with the2030 target. This provides a convenient andavailable proxy for a country's contributionto sustainability in future.

The children in countries such as Norway,Republic of Korea and Netherlands havebest chances of survival and on the otherhand, Chad, Niger, Somalia and Mali werethe least performers and face very bad odds.

The report noted that under realisticassumptions about possible trajectoriestowards sustainable greenhouse gasemissions, models predict that global carbonemissions need to be reduced from 39·7giga- tonnes to 22·8 giga tonnes per year by2030 to maintain even a 66 per cent chanceof keeping global warming below 1·5°C.

According to the report, the poorestcountries have to do more to support theirchildren health and ability. They have tospend lots towards their children health inorder to provide them healthy lives. Thisdisproportionately is affected by the carbonemissions from rich countries.

The issue overall is threatening lives of allchildren and the current scenario is capableof creating devastating healthconsequences such as malaria, malnutritionand Dengue. Along with this the threats fromheat waves and rising ocean levels are alsohigh.

According to the report, the only countrieson track to beat CO2 emission per capitatargets by 2030, while also performing fairly- within the top 70 - on child flourishingmeasures are: Albania, Armenia, Grenada,Jordan, Moldova, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Uruguayand Vietnam

New policies and investment in all sectorsto work towards child health and rights;incorporating children's voices into policydecisions and tightening national regulationof harmful commercial marketing,supported by a new Optional Protocol to theUN Convention on the Rights of the Childshould be the major initiatives.

North East Sustainable DevelopmentGoal Conclave 2020: Assam

Context: NITI Aayog organized North East Sustainable

Development Goal Conclave 2020 in Assamand the conclave is to focus on SDGlocalization in the north eastern region.

Description: The conclave talks about the climate

adaptive agriculture, sustainablelivelihoods, education, health and nutrition,ski ll development, connectivity,entrepreneurship, infrastructuredevelopment.

NITI Aayog is currently monitoring SDGs atNational and Sub National levels and It isimportant to make progress in the North EastRegions at higher level as compared to therest of the nation this is the mainly becauseof the economy of these states that is stillbackward as compared to the rest of thecountry.


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Technical sessions were on 'Education, SkillDevelopment and Entrepreneurship','Communication, Connectivity andInfrastructure Development,'AddressingInequality and Exclusion in the North East'.

Niti Ayog says it is important to implementSDG localization in the North Eastern Statesto achieve Agenda 2030.

The session on Nutrition Security & Healthand Well being for All has broadly purveyedthe health situation in the region and theissues faced by various vulnerable groups,such as, women and children, people livingwith disabilities, people living with HIV/AIDS. It urged the states to focus ondeveloping a robust primary healthcaresystem and identify strategies to involve theprivate sector in secondary and tertiary care.

The Session on Climate AdaptiveAgriculture which brought out thechallenges of the environmental impact ofhigh-external- input-driven agriculture andsustained agricultural productivity.Technology based interventions in climateadaptive agriculture were analysed with aview to appraising their wider adaptabilityor reliability in the region.

The Prospects of knowledge development,capacity building and institutionalpartnerships were assessed in order toexplore actionable possibilities.

The session on Drivers of EconomicProsperity & Sustainable Livelihoodsfocused on the potential of MSMEs, agro-processing and handicrafts sectors so as toalign with India's export ambitions asarticulated in the Act East Policy.

The progress in the northeast region iscrucial in this decade of action for thecountry to achieve the SDGs by 2030 and thisconclave is part of NITI Aayog's continuousefforts towards fostering partnerships at thesub-national level. In terms of SDGlocalisation, the states in the region havetaken major strides in integrating theAgenda 2030 framework in their

developmental planning and visiondocuments.

22nd Law Commission of IndiaContext: The Union Cabinet approved the 22nd Law

Commission of India and the commissionhas been approved for a period of threeyears.

Description: The 22nd Law Commission will consist of a

full time Chairperson. It has four full timemembers which includes the secretariesfrom Department of Legal Affairs andLegislative department.

The Government will have the benefit ofrecommendations from a specialised bodyon different aspects of law which areentrusted to the Commission for its studyand recommendations.

The Law Commission shall, on a referencemade to it by the Central Government or suo-motu, undertake research in law and reviewof existing laws in India for making reformstherein and enacting new legislations.

It shall also undertake studies and researchfor bringing reforms in the justice deliverysystems for elimination of delay inprocedures, speedy disposal of cases,reduction in cost of litigation.

The Law Commission of India is a non-statutory body constituted by theGovernment of India from time to time. TheCommission was originally constituted in1955 and is re-constituted every three years.The tenure of twenty-first Law Commissionof India was upto 31st August, 2018.

The various Law Commission have beenable to make important contributiontowards the progressive development andcodification of Law of the country. The LawCommission has so far submitted 277reports.

The 22nd Law Commission will beconstituted for a period of three years fromthe date of publication of its Order in theOfficial Gazette.


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Members:a. full-time Chairperson;b. four full-time Members (including

Member-Secretary)c. Secretary, Department of Legal Affairs

as ex-officio Member;d. Secretary, Legislative Department as ex

officio Member; ande. not more than five part-time Members

The Law Commission will makerecommendations based on the aspects oflaws entrusted upon it. It will undertakeresearch works and suggest reforms that areessential to enact new legislations.

The functions includes to identify laws thatshall be repealed immediately and to reviselaws to simplify them, to respond torequests made by other countries in framingtheir legal system and to examine thecurrent laws in force and suggest ways toimprove them.

Permanent Commissioning of WomenOfficers in Defence: Supreme Court

Context: The Supreme Court of India upheld the

judgement of Delhi High Court over theissue of commissioning of women officersin Indian Army.

Description: The Supreme Court ordered the

government to grant permanentcommission to women officers in the Army'snoncombat support units on par with theirmale counterparts and should wish tocontinue with it after completing theirshort-service commission.

In the permanent service commission,women were not allowed, especially incombat units. They were pertained tocombat support units such as law, educationand logistics. Also, women were notappointed at the level of officers in thecombat units.

The High Court of Delhi in 2010 hadinstructed the GoI to provide permanentcommissioning of women officers in theIndian Army.

The GoI in 2010 had argued that women arephysiologically weak and are not as efficientas men when it comes to leading a combatunit. This was countered then and now byboth Delhi HC and the apex court.

The Supreme Court has upheld this rulingpronouncing that permanentcommissioning is allowed to all womenofficers irrespective of the years of services.

An absolute bar on women seeking criteriaor command appointments would notcomport with the guarantee of equalityunder Article 14 (right to equality).

The court flayed the government attitudeof dragging its feet on the issue of grantingpermanent commission to women officersas at odds with its policy of taking steps "toeradicate the divide between men andwomen officers in as many streams aspossible in an incremental manner".


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The court mentioned that If the societyholds strong beliefs about gender roles thatmen are socially dominant, physicallypowerful and the breadwinners of thefamily and that women are weak andphysically submissive, and primarilycaretakers confined to a domesticatmosphere then it is unlikely that therewould be a change in mindset.

February 28: National Science DayContext: Raman Effect was discovered by the

professor on February 28, 1928 and February28 is celebrated as the National Science Dayto mark the discovery of Raman Effect by SirC V Raman.

Description: The great physicist Sir Chandrashekhar

Venkat Raman made an important discoveryin the subject of physics on February 28, 1928since then the Government of Indiafelicitates scientists every year on this daywho contributed to the field of science.

National Council for Science & TechnologyCommunication (NCSTC), Department ofScience and Technology (DST) acts as a nodalagency to support, catalyze and coordinatecelebration of the National Science Daythroughout the country in scientificinstitutions, research laboratories andautonomous scientific institutionsassociated with the Department of Scienceand Technology.

NCSTC has supported various programmescountrywide by supporting its State S&TCouncils & Departments for organization oflectures, quizzes and open houses.

The National Science Day was firstdesignated in 1986 and was first celebratedin 1987. Sir C V Raman was awarded theNobel Prize for this discovery in 1930.

Raman Effect: The Raman Effect states that when a wave

of light comes out of a liquid, some part of

this light wave is scattered in a direction thatis different from the direction of theincoming light wave.

His research shows why the colour ofseawater looks blue. Raman Effect is aboutthe flexible distribution of photon particles.

This year, the theme for National ScienceDay 2020 is "Women in Science", which aimsto appreciate the contribution of women inthe field of science.

The basic purpose of this day is to inspirestudents to new experiments, attract themto science, and make them aware of scienceand scientific achievements.

About NCSTC: The programmes of NCSTC aims at building

capacity for informed decision making in thecommunity and promote scientific thinking.

The National Council for Science andTechnology Communication (NCSTC)proposed the central government thatNational Science Day should be celebratedon February 28 every year to mark thisdiscovery. After that, the Government ofIndia accepted that proposal and the firstNational Science Day was celebrated onFebruary 28, 1987.

Conference on traditional medicine:AYUSH

Context: The largest ever conference on traditional

medicine was held in New Delhi called asthe International Conference onStandardisation of Diagnosis andTerminologies of AYUSH.

Description: "Challenges in Counting and Classification

of Traditional Medicine Encounters" was thetopic discussed in the event which alsoincludes the International Classification ofDiseases based on traditional medicinalsystems.


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The event participants includes Serbia, SriLanka, Curacao, Mauritius, Iran, Japan, Qatar,Uzbekistan, Bhutan, Switzerland, Myanmar,Cuba, Ghana, Jamaica, Equatorial Guinea andIndia and the Conference was organized bythe Ministry of AYUSH.

ICoSDiTAUS-2020 is the biggest everinternational event dedicated tostandardisation of Diagnosis andTerminologies of Traditional Medicine interms of the broad level of participationcovering virtually all the continents.

The topics discussed in the conferenceincludes the challenges in Counting andclassification of traditional medicineencounters, Adapting ICD to TM Systemsand their implementation and Relevanceand regulation of Traditional Medicine inHealth Systems.

AYUSH is acronym of Ayurveda, Yoga andNaturopathy, Unani, Siddha andHomeopathy. GoI has been taking severalsteps to promote AYUSH. One such step isthis conference of standardization. It isimportant because, AYUSH helps to find costeffective treatment. For a populous countrylike India where expenditure on healthsector is just 1.17% of GDP (2019), costeffective treatments like AYUSH have vitalrole

The conference succeeded in taking forwardthe objective of expanding the InternationalClassification of Diseases (ICD) into therealm of Traditional Medicine systems at aconceptual level with all the countriesendorsing the same. The work on thesecond module of the Traditional MedicineChapter of ICD should be expedited with thecollaborative efforts of stake-holdingcountries. The suitability of Ayurveda, Unaniand Siddha systems for inclusion in the TMChapter of ICD was also pointed.

The New Delhi declaration emphasised thecommitment of the countries to TraditionalMedicine as a significant area of health care.It further sought the opportunity for

including traditional systems of medicinelike Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha in theInternational Classification of Diseases ofWHO which is the standard diagnostic toolfor health management across the world.

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