01.10.22 Daily [Uttar Pradesh] UPPSC Current Affairs

Varanasi City is all set to be declared as the first Cultural and Tourism Capital of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

Varanasi has been showcasing the culture and tradition of India for ages.

It will become the cultural and tourism capital of the SCO for year 2022-23, as a part of SCOs new rotating initiative that seeks to promote people-to-people ties and tourism among member countries.

Under the initiative, a city of cultural heritage from member states will be designated as cultural and tourism capital of SCO each year. Varanasi has become the first city to get the title.

City will be selected from member country, which will take over the Presidency of SCO on rotational basis.

Title will be given to cities in a bid to highlight its prominence.

The new initiative of the organisation will be implemented after the Samarkand Summit 2022. The Samarkand Summit of SCO is scheduled to be held at Samarkand, Uzbekistan from September 15-16 2022. After this initiative, India is set to take over SCOs Presidency and will host next Heads of the State summit. This is why, Varanasi has won the title of first Cultural and Tourism Capital of the SCO.

The donations that recognised national parties received during financial year 2020-21 decreased by over 420 crore, a sharp fall of 41.49% from the previous fiscal.

Donations to the BJPdecreased from 785.77 crore during FY 2019-20 to 477.54 crore during FY 2020-21 a fall of 39.23%. The party’s donations had increased by 5.88% during FY 2019-20 in comparison to FY 2018-19, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said in a statement.

Thedonations received by Congressplunged from 139.016 crore during FY 2019-20 to 74.524 crore during FY 2020-21 — a reduction of 46.39%.

Its donations had decreased by 6.44% between FY 2018-19 and FY 2019-20, the statement said.

A total of over 246 crore was donated to the national parties from Delhi, followed by 71.68 crore from Maharashtra and over 47 crore from Gujarat.

The corporate and the business sector made 1,398 donations to the national parties amounting to 480.655 crore over 80% of the total donations while 2,258 individual donors contributed 111.65 crore or 18.804% of the total to these parties during FY 2020-21.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development will implement naari adalat (womens courts) led by womens collectives in the country in a phased manner as an alternate grievance redressal mechanism to resolve petty disputes at the gram panchayat level.

The scheme is part of the Ministry guidelines for the Mission Shakti umbrella scheme. The umbrella scheme comprises of sub-schemes for womens safety and Empowerment.

In the beginning, the scheme will be launched in some States and Union Territories, preferably in aspirational districts where elected women representatives head gram panchayat, according to the guidelines.

In the first year, there will be an awareness drive regarding legal, constitutional rights and entitlements. In the second year, a formal set up of women collectives with seven to 11 members will be provided in order to address socio- economic and cultural issues faced by women.

The proposed framework for online gaming in India will catalyse innovation while protecting gamers rights, privacy and safety, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said.

Mr. Chandrasekhar termed online gamers important stakeholders and said that their views will be taken into consideration when the government comes up with a final framework for online games.

The government has set up an inter-ministerial panel to work on regulations for the online gaming and identify a nodal ministry to look after the sector.

To bolster measurement of Air Pollution in rural India, the Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur, is embarking on a $2.5 million project (19 crore) to install nearly 1,400 sensors in rural blocks of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The three-year pilot project is expected to pave the way for a national Network of air quality sensors in rural India.

Air pollution in India is largely framed as an urban blight though causes of pollution, such as burning, and reliance on diesel gensets for electricity are worsening air quality in villages too.

In 2019, the government launched the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) to achieve 20-30% reduction in particulate matter (PM) air pollution by 2024 with 2017 as the Base Year for comparison. This however is primarily aimed at 122 cities that have been categorised as Indias most polluted cities.

Under NCAP, 375.44 crore was provided to 114 cities from 2018-19 to 2020-21 and 290 crore was allocated to 82 cities for the financial year 2021-2022. The programme has an allocation of 700 crore envisaged for 2021-26. However interim analysis by independent bodies have found that theres been minimal reduction so far in PM trends under NCAP and that pollution-reduction targets remain elusive.