Daily Current Affairs for UPSC IAS: 27th May 2022

7th India-Canada Joint JSTCC Meeting:

Two memorandums of understanding (MoUs) were renewed at the 7th India-Canada Joint Science and Technology Cooperation Committee (JSTCC) meeting.

• The MoUs were signed by the Indian Ministry of Science and Technology with the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and National Research Council Canada (NRC), respectively, under the 2005 Agreement for Scientific and Technological Cooperation.
• Earlier, India and Canada held the fifth Ministerial Dialogue on Trade & Investment (MDTI), where Ministers agreed to formally re-launch the negotiations for India-Canada Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) and consider an Interim Agreement or Early Progress Trade Agreement (EPTA) that could bring early commercial gains to both the countries.

Highlights of the Meeting:

• The focus areas of the collaboration include national missions, quantum computing, artificial intelligence (AI), and cyber-physical systems, among others.
• A large number of Indian students studying in Canadian universities will benefit from the collboration.
• India and Canada benefit from strong bilateral relations and are committed to deepening ties, with science, technology, and innovation being key pillars of the relationship.
• Under the terms of the agreement made in 2005, the JSTCC meets every two years to review ongoing collaborations between Canadian and Indian researchers and set priorities for the next period in fields like agriculture and food security, healthcare and healthtech, clean technologies and environmental research, marine and polar research, quantum tech and AI, and human capacity development and researcher mobility.
• Both countries agreed to continue monitoring progress on key priorities in bilateral science, technology, and innovation projects (STIP) during the 2022-2024 period.
• India plays an active role in the global technology research and development ecosystem by facilitating academic and scientific relationships with other countries.

Bongosagar Exercise:

The third edition of Exercise Bongosagar, bilateral naval exercise between India and Bangladesh, commenced at Port Mongla, Bangladesh.

• It is an annual exercise. Second edition of the exercise, held in Northern Bay of Bengal in 2020.
• The exercise is aimed at developing a high degree of interoperability and joint operational skills through the conduct of a wide spectrum of maritime exercises and operations between the two navies.
• Participating in the exercise are Indian Naval Ships Kora, a guided missile corvette, and Sumedha, an offshore patrol vessel.
• Bangladesh Navy is being represented by BNS Abu Ubaidah and Ali Haider, both Guided Missile Frigates.

National Conference Of Women Legislators:

The two-day National Conference of Women Legislators has been inaugurated on 26th May 2022 by President Ram Nath Kovind in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. Arif Mohammed Khan, the governor of Kerala presided over the inaugural session at the Kerala Legislative Assembly Complex.

• This event will be drawing a large number of female legislators and parliamentarians from across the country.
• This is the first-ever such event that is being hosted by the Kerala state Assembly.
• It is in line with the central government’s Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav honouring the 75th independence anniversary of the country.
• At this conference, various sessions will be held that are based on themes vital to the country’s women legislators.
• The conference will also be focusing on various modern issues like:
  • gender equality
  • women’s rights
  • female representation in the decision-making bodies of the nation
  • The conference will be having sessions on:
    • Constitution and Women’s Rights: In this session, the speakers will include Lok Sabha MP Kanimozhi, Gujarat Assembly Speaker Nimaben Acharya, and former Rajya Sabha member Brinda Karat, and former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar.
    • Role of Women in India’s Freedom Struggle: The panelists for this session will include MPs Jebi Methar and Supriya Sule and former MP Subhashini Ali.
    • Women’s Rights and Legal Gaps- The panelists for this session are MP Jaya Bachchan, West Bengal minister Shashi Panja, Justice Anu Sivaraman of Kerala High Court, and Delhi Assembly deputy speaker Rakhi Birla.
    • Under Representation of Women in Decision Making Bodies- This is the last session of this conference at it will include Telangana MLC Kavitha Kalvakuntla, Uttarakhand Assembly Speaker Ritu Khanduri, and Annie Raja, the general secretary of the National Federation of India Women.

National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2021 Report:

The Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education released the National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2021 report. The last NAS was held in 2017.

• It assesses the health of school education system in the country by conducting comprehensive evaluation survey of children’s learning competencies at classes III, V, VIII and X with a cycle period of three years.
• The report also evaluated competencies of students in subjects such as mathematics, languages, and environmental studies (EVS) for Classes 3 and 5; language, mathematics, science and social science for Class 8; and language, mathematics, science, social science and English for Class 10.

Findings:

• Nearly 80% students found learning at home during the pandemic “burdensome” and felt that they learnt better in school with help from peers.
• As many as 24% students said they had no digital device at home.
• Though 45% students found the experience “joyful”, 38% also said that they had difficulties in learning.
• Out of a score of 500, students across various classes performed better in languages, but lagged behind in subjects like mathematics and science.
• Across various subjects and classes, SC, ST and OBC students perform worse than general category students.

LGBTIQ Persons In The World Of Work : ILO

A document has been released by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on “Inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ+) persons in the world of work”.

• Around the world, LGBTIQ+ persons face harassment, violence and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics.
• Discrimination has an economic cost not just to LGBTIQ+ persons and their families but also to enterprises and national economies.
• Studies have shown that diversity in the workplace, including LGBTIQ+ persons, is better for business.
• It recommended member countries, employers’ organisations and representatives of workers to launch social protection programmes to remove barriers that LGBTIQ+ persons face in society.
• A national policy and labour law review will allow governments to assess their country’s work policy environment for LGBTIQ+ persons.
• Consultation with LGBTIQ+ communities and employers’ and workers’ organisations will allow the identification of barriers faced by LGBTIQ+ persons. when entering the labour market and accessing government schemes, including those on social protection.
• The ILO asked trade unions to help LGBTIQ+ workers to organise and exercise their right to freedom of association.

Abhilasha Barak : First Woman Combat Pilot Of Army

Captain Abhilasha Barak has become the first woman to join the Army Aviation Corps as combat aviator after completion of a six-month combat Army aviation course.

• She has been awarded the coveted wings along with 36 Army pilots during a valedictory ceremony at the Combat Army Aviation Training School, Nashik.
• Barak hails from Haryana and was commissioned into the Army Air Defence Corps in September 2018.
• The Army Aviation Corps, the youngest Corps of the Army, was formed on November 1, 1986 and over the years, has expanded with addition of new units and equipment such as Cheetah and the advanced light helicopter Dhruv, weaponised Rudra and the light combat helicopter.
• In August 2021, Army Aviation got control of the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), which were earlier with the Artillery, bringing all aviation assets under one roof.

PARAM PORUL Supercomputer:

PARAM PORUL, a state-of the art Supercomputer at NIT Tiruchirappalli was dedicated to the nation under Phase 2 of the National Supercomputing Mission (NSM).

• A MoU was signed between NIT Tiruchirappalli and Centre for Development in Advanced Computing (C-DAC) in 2020 to establish this 838 TeraFlops Supercomputing Facility under NSM.
• NIT, Tiruchirappalli has been carrying out research in the areas of societal interest such as Health, Agriculture, Weather, Financial Services. The facility installed under NSM will strengthen this research.
• PARAM PORUL system is based on Direct Contact Liquid Cooling technology to obtain a high power usage effectiveness and thereby reducing the operational cost.

National Supercomputing Mission (NSM):

• National Supercomputing Mission (NSM) is a joint initiative of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and Department of Science and Technology (DST).
• Under NSM, till date 15 supercomputers have been installed across the nation with compute capacity of 24 petaflops.
• All these supercomputers have been manufactured in India and operating with indigenously developed software stack.

Recognition Of Sex Work As a Profession : Supreme Court

The Supreme Court, in a significant order has recognised sex work as a “profession” whose practitioners are entitled to dignity and equal protection under law.

• The Supreme Court has directed that police should neither interfere nor take criminal action against adult and consenting sex workers.
• Notwithstanding the profession, every individual in this country has a right to a dignified life under Article 21 of the Constitution.
• The Bench ordered that sex workers should not be “arrested or penalised or harassed or victimised” whenever there is a raid on any brothel, “since voluntary sex work is not illegal and only running the brothel is unlawful”.
• A child of a sex worker should not be separated from the mother merely on the ground that she is in the sex trade.
• Further, if a minor is found living in a brothel or with sex workers, it should not be presumed that the child was trafficked.
• Sex workers who are victims of sexual assault should be provided every facility including immediate medico-legal care, a three-judge Bench directed in an order which was passed after invoking special powers under Article 142 of Constitution.

Digital India BHASHINI:

The Ministry of Electronics and IT conducted a brainstorming session with Researchers and Start-ups aimed to shape strategy for Digital India BHASHINI [BHASHa INterface for India].

• The government intends to integrate start-ups’ innovation, development and consumption of technology.
• Digital India BHASHINI is India’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) led language translation platform.
• A Bhashini Platform will make Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) resources available to MSME (Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises), Startups and Individual Innovators in the public domain.
• Bhashini Platform is a part of the National Language Translation Mission.
• The mission aims to ensure that as more Indians connect to the internet, they are able to access global content in their own languages.