• 22 Dec 2022

Uttar Pradesh at 31st Place in Making Social Progress

Why In News?

• Recently the Prime Minister's Council for Economic Advice (EAC-PM) has released a Social Progress Index report, in which each state in the country has been given a rank in terms of social progress. Uttar Pradesh has been ranked 31st in this report.

Key Points

• The Council has based on three dimensions and 12 components to prepare the EAC-PM Social Progress Index. The first dimension is 'Basic Human Needs'. It consists of four components (i) nutrition and basic medical care, (ii) water and sanitation, (iii) shelter and (iv) personal safety.
• The second dimension is the foundation of well-being, the four components involved are (i) access to basic knowledge, (ii) access to information and communication, (iii) health and well-being and (iv) environmental quality.
• Similarly, the third dimension is challenge, which includes (i) individual rights, (ii) personal freedom and choice, (iii) inclusivity and (iv) access to advanced education as components.
• Uttar Pradesh's performance in all these three dimensions and components was, on average, normal. The state has fared better in providing housing under only two components - availability of drinking water and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Urban.
• Uttar Pradesh, which ranks first in the country in terms of population, has come at 31st position with 49.16 points in the Social Progress Index.
• In this index, Pondicherry has got 65.99 points, while Jharkhand, the last state, has got 43.95 points.
• The index's ranking is divided into 6 levels, the first level being very high social progress, second high social progress, third upper middle social progress, fourth low middle social progress, fifth low social progress and sixth very low social progress level. Uttar Pradesh has reached the fifth lowest social progress level in this index of social progress. Along with Uttar Pradesh, the states of Odisha and Madhya Pradesh are also included in this level.
• Significantly, the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister along with the Institute for Competitiveness and Social Progress Imperative released the Social Progress Index for states and districts of India. The report presents a comprehensive picture of social progress in India by evaluating changes in the performance of some key indicators since 2015-16.
• Further, the report highlights the progress made by the country's 112 aspirational districts, helping them track their social progress and understand areas that need more attention.

'Shilpgram Utsav', A Unique Festival of Folk Culture

Why In News?

• On December 21, 2022, Rajasthan Governor Kalraj Mishra inaugurated 'Shilpgram Utsav', a unique festival of folk culture in Udaipur, popularly known as the city of lakes of the state.

Key Points

• At the beginning of the program, the Governor inaugurated the exhibition of documented paintings by the West Zone Cultural Center in Sangam Auditorium by photographing the paintings contained in the clothes of Sant Mavji Maharaj of Beneshwar Dham.
• The Governor said that this craft village of Udaipur is famous all over the country. Here the rural and indigenous culture of Rajasthan, Goa, Gujarat and Maharashtra can be experienced simultaneously. The culture, lifestyle and traditions of different ethnic communities of all these states are depicted in the huts here.
• 400 craftsmen and 700 folk artists are participating in the Shilpgram Utsav. In Shilpgram, the paintings contained in the chops of Sant Mavji Maharaj of Beneshwar Dham have been photographed and documented, which is the heritage of the country.
• Governor Kalraj Mishra congratulated Jaipur-based tamasha artist and theatre personality Dilip Kumar Bhatt and Ahmedabad-based culture workers and tribal artists who have done remarkable work in the upliftment of tribal art. Bhagwan Das Patel to receive Padma Bhushan Komal Kothari Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award was presented.
• On the inaugural day of The Shilpgram Festival, 225 artists from 9 states exhibited their art as part of the 'Samagam' organized at the main stage. The programe started with a prolog in which the light of the festival was spread with lamps. After this, the program started with Shree khol dance of West Bengal. This was followed by Jammu and Kashmir Roff, Assam's Bodai Shikhala, Orissa's Gotipua, Maharashtra's Lavani, Goa's Samai, Jharkhand's Chhau Gujarat's Dang and Punjab's Bhangra.

Chief Minister's Rehabilitation Home Scheme

Why In News?

• On December 21, 2022, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot approved a financial provision of Rs 28.23 crore for the 'Mukhyamantri Rehabilitation Home Scheme' for proper housing of homeless, old age, working women and helpless/ destitute persons of the state.

Key Points

• According to the proposal, the homes will be operated in available government buildings and rented buildings in case of non-availability of government buildings till the departmental building is constructed for the homeless, elderly, working women and helpless/ destitute persons of the state.
• With this approval of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, a large number of construction work of Chief Minister's rehabilitation homes will be done as well as clothes, beds and food items will be purchased for residential buildings. This amount will also be used in rent, tax rate, royalties and grants for assistance.
• It may be mentioned that the Chief Minister had announced to set up 45 Chief Minister Rehabilitation Homes of 75 residential capacity each in the budget for the year 2022-23 . This financial approval has been given in the order of this announcement.

Rajiv Gandhi Urban Olympic Games-2023 Registration Portal

Why In News?

• On December 21, 2022, Ashok Chandna, Minister of State for Sports and Youth Affairs of Rajasthan, launched the registration portal of Rajiv Gandhi Urban Olympic Games-2023 at the Government Secretariat in Jaipur. With this, registrations for the urban Olympic Games scheduled from January 26 next year have started.

Key Points

• Speaking on the occasion, Minister of State Ashok Chandna said that Rajasthan is the first state to provide government jobs to national players along with a unique event like rural Olympic Games, which is being discussed all over the country. Rajasthan is continuously emerging as a 'Trend Setter' for other states in the sports sector.
• He informed that after the unprecedented success of Rajiv Gandhi Rural Olympic Games, these games are also being started in cities. He said that 30 lakh athletes participated in the Rural Olympic Games, which is a world record.
• He said that as per the announcement of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Rajiv Gandhi Urban Olympic Games-2023 are proposed to be held in the month of January.
• The games will be held in all the 240 urban bodies of the state, including 10 municipal corporations, 36 municipal councils and 194 municipalities. For this, a total of 628 clusters have been created, locally.
• A cluster has been formed in the Municipal Corporation and Municipal Council for every 20-25 thousand population on the basis of the 2011 census. However, due to the high population in the Municipal Corporation Jaipur Greater and Jaipur Heritage, a cluster has been created per 30-35 thousand population. At the same time, each municipality has been treated as a unit and a cluster.
• The Minister of State for Sports informed that 7 types of sports will be organized under urban Olympics. These include Kabaddi (Boys and Girls Category), Tennis Ball Cricket (Boys and Girls Category), Kho-Kho (Girls Category), Volleyball (Boys and Girls Category), Athletics (100 m, 200 m and 400 m). The competition will be held in football (boys and girls category) and basketball (boys and girls category). Competitions will be organized at the municipal, district and state levels.
• Sports and Youth Affairs Department Secretary Naresh Kumar Thakral said that players of all age groups can participate in these games. The registration of players can be done through the online portal rajolympic.rajasthan.gov.in till January 21. Registration can be done in individual or group categories.
• These games will be organized in coordination with the Sports Department, Autonomous Government Department, Education Department, Higher Education Department and Local Administration.
• The Secretary said that the division of clusters in each municipal corporation will be zone-wise, whose controlling officer will be the Deputy Commissioner-Zone and all urban bodies will choose the civic-wise venue for organizing the games.

Announcement of National and State Honors of Culture Department

Why In News?

• On December 21, 2022, the Madhya Pradesh Culture Department has announced the state summit awards for the year 2021. National and state awards will be given in this.

Key Points

• Director of Madhya Pradesh Culture Department Aditi Kumar Tripathi said that every year the Culture Department gives honors at the national and state level in various genres of art, culture, literature, music. The cultural identity of Madhya Pradesh has been established at the national level with these national and state honors by the department.
• All the artists and poets selected for the state summit award are given an honorarium of one lakh rupees each, a certificate of honor and a shawl-shriphal.
• The artists/literature artists selected for the State Summit Award are:
  • Hindi literature - Dr. Ashwini Kumar Dubey (Indore)
  • For Urdu Literature- Dr. Narendra Virmani (Indore)
  • For Sanskrit literature - Bhagwati Lal Rajpurohit (Ujjain)
  • For classical music- Pt. Shridhar Vyas (Ujjain)
  • For classical dance - Dr. Vijay Sharma (Bhopal)
  • For Rupankar Arts - Anil Kumar (Bhopal)
  • For the play - Prashant Khirwadkar (Bhopal)
  • For playing rare musical instruments - Munne Khan (Bhopal)
  • For tribal and folk arts - Sawni Bai (Dindori)
• Artists/literature artists selected for national awards are:
  • National Kabir Samman - Dr. Shyam Sunder Dubey (Hata) (Rs 3 lakh)
  • National Maithili Sharan Gupta Samman - Sadanand Gupta (Gorakhpur) (Rs 2 lakh)
  • National Iqbal Award - Syed Taqi Abdi (Rs 2 lakh) from Hyderabad
  • National Sharad Joshi Award - Shriram Parihar (Khandwa) (Rs 2 lakh)
  • Rashtriya Nanaji Deshmukh Samman - Tribal Welfare Centre Mahakoshal (Dindori) (Rs 2 lakh)
  • Rashtriya Kumar Gandharva Samman - Ms. Rukmini Vijay Kumar (Hyderabad) (Rs 1.25 lakh)
  • National Information Technology Award - Ravi Shankar Srivastava (Bhopal) (Rs 1 lakh)
  • National Nirmal Verma Samman - Ms. Shikha Varshney (London) (Rs. 1 lakh),
  • National Father Kamil Bulke Award - Dr. Hines Werner Weisler (Denmark) (Rs 1 lakh)
  • National Gunakar Mule Samman - Jayant Vishnu Narlikar (Kolhapur) (Rs 1 lakh)
  • Rashtriya Hindi Seva Samman - Ajit Vadnerkar (Bhopal) (Rs 1 lakh).

The Winners of the Design Competition Received Prizes at the State Handloom Expo

Why In News?

• On December 21, 2022, the State Handloom Expo-2022 was distributed to the winners of the design competition organized by the Madhya Pradesh Cottage and Village Industries Department on the theme of Fabrics of Madhya Pradesh at Bhopal Haat Bazar, Bhopal.

Key Points

• Mrs. India International Dr. Reenu Yadav and Mrs. Universe Joy Ms. Amrita Tripathi distributed the prizes of State Handloom Expo-2022.
• Amatullah Bohra, Archana Vishwakarma and Salma Ansari were awarded first, second and third prizes respectively in ethnic wear category from Bhopal district and Nandita Nair, Farah Nadeem and Manya Yadav in ready to wear category respectively.
• Similarly, Rakhi Gupta, Seema Pareek and Samiksha Nayak in ethnic wear category from Indore district and Divya Rathi, Saurav Kant Srivastava and Gulika Agarwal in ready to wear category were given first, second and third prizes respectively.
• All the winners were given seven products and certificates from seven selected districts under the 'One District-One Product' scheme.
• In addition to the design competition, Handloom on Wheels was also organized with the aim of saving the traditional process of production of handloom, khadi and silk fabrics of the state and to introduce the people of the state to the rich manufacturing art hidden behind them.

Quality Control Cell

Why In News?

• On December 21, 2022, on the instructions of Madhya Pradesh Public Works Minister Gopal Bhargava, a 'Quality Control Cell' has been constituted under the chairmanship of Secretary Public Works for quality control of construction works to be done by the Public Works Department.

Key Points

• Public Works Department Principal Secretary Sukhvir Singh said that the Quality Control Cell will monitor the completion of the work in the time-frame along with quality control of construction works. Apart from this, technical circulars will also be issued for quality control from time to time.
• The Principal Secretary said that Secretary Public Works R.K. Mehra will be the chairman in SAIL and Chief Engineer North Zone Gwalior B.P. Borasi, Superintending Engineer Bridge Division MP Singh, Assistant Engineer C.V. Tiwari, Assistant Engineer Sanjay Kulkarni and Consultant Ministry Ritesh Jain will be committee members.

Agreement Between Haryana and Central Government Regarding Maharaja Agrasen International Airport

Why In News?

• On December 21, 2022, Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala said that an agreement has been signed between Haryana and the central government regarding the Maharaja Agrasen International Airport to be built in Hisar and the state government has set a budget of Rs 945 crore for this mega project.

Key Points

• The Deputy Chief Minister said that Hisar Airport is being developed at the international level. It will be the first major airport in Haryana spread over 7200 acres.
• The under-construction runway of Hisar Airport is 10 thousand feet, which is in line with the international airport. In the last one and a half years, 90 percent of the runway work has been completed and the runway will be ready by March 2023.
• Along with this runway, taxi stand and 23 meter wide taxi-way, parking stand, fire station are also being constructed according to international standards. State-of-the-art lighting lights that allow airplanes to land at night and air traffic control system with latest technology will be installed.
• He said that the length of airstrips at international airports across the world ranges from 9 thousand to 12 thousand feet, while the length of airstrips at Hisar is 10 thousand feet.
• The Deputy Chief Minister said that after the construction of the second phase, the terminal and apron of the airport are also to be constructed under the standard of the international airport.
• He said that not only the international airport in Hisar, but it will be made an aviation hub. Apart from developing an airport on about 7200 acres of land, work will be started soon to develop a manufacturing hub on 3000 acres.
• With the construction of this airport, passengers from Amritsar to Jaipur will get convenience.

Preparations Begin to Convert Xavier Institute of Social Service (XISS) into a University

Why In News?

• On December 20, 2022, Dr. Joseph Marianus Kujur said in the program 'Samvad 3.0' organized at the institute that preparations have been started to convert Xavier Institute of Social Service into a university and 35 acres of land has been identified at Bandhgaon, Namkum in Ranchi for the new campus.

Key Points

• Director Dr. Kujur said that a University Task Force has been constituted to establish XISS as a university soon. It is headed by four other members, including Father Xavier Soreng.
• He said that under the New Education Policy 2020, two new diploma courses will be conducted from the new session. Under this, the six-month certificate course in Geoinformatics, which was earlier run, has now been converted into a one-year diploma course in Geoinformatics (GIS).
• Apart from this, one-year Diploma in Tribal Studies will be started. Its course plan has been prepared.

Roof Gardening Promotion Scheme

Why In News?

• On December 20, 2022, Uttarakhand Agriculture and Horticulture Minister Ganesh Joshi told in the Manthan auditorium of forest headquarters of Dehradun that there is immense potential for roof gardening in urban areas of the state. On the same lines, the government is going to operate a roof gardening scheme to promote vegetable production in urban areas.

Key Points

• Minister Ganesh Joshi said that the cultivable land in urban areas is continuously decreasing. Due to this, people living in urban areas will be encouraged to produce organic vegetables through roof gardening on the roofs of the house.
• The government has selected Dehradun as a pilot project for roof gardening. Soon this scheme will be implemented across the state.
• To promote roof gardening, Roof Gardening Week will be celebrated in the state from December 25, 2022 to January 2, 2023.
• He said that people are not getting chemical-free vegetables due to the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, but with roof gardening, people can produce vegetables organically for their needs on the roofs of their house. It will also be beneficial in terms of health.
• State Horticulture Director Dr. H.S. Baweja said that Uttarakhand is the second state in the country after Delhi, where it has been decided to run Roof Gardening Scheme.
• Dehradun Chief Horticulture Officer Meenakshi Joshi said that in addition to various types of vegetable production, vertical gardening and hydroponics (soilless farming) can also be availed in roof gardening.