DAILY NEWS ANALYSIS

Monthly DNA

06 Jan, 2024

30 Min Read

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Paper	Topics	Subject
GS-II	Water Governance	Governance
GS-III	Credit Rating Agencies and INDIA	Economic Issues
	Regulation of Virtual Digital Asset	Internal security
	Ministry of Health and Family Welfare – YEAR REVIEW	S&T
PT Pointer	Seperate Toilets for women in district courts	Governance
PT Pointer	PM Vishwakarma	Governance

GS-II : Governance Governance

Water Governance poses one of the biggest challenges in modern-day India that looks out for definitive solutions.

Every place and every community have their unique stories and problems associated with water, wherein the governance addresses complications of the governor than the benefits of the governed.

How this scare water resource is to be allocated? How to generate livelihood in the food-energy nexus? How to keep the order of the biosphere balanced.

Key aspects of water governance:

The key aspects of an effective system of water governance in a water blessed country which includes a comprehensive policy followed by an Action Plan to formulate the policy.

Need to emphasized on the importance of resource literacy on water and building institutions in line with framed policies.

Experts prescribed the top-down approach and definition of ‘per capita availability’ to be rechecked and substituted with a bottom-up approach and relevant definitions, that is, a more localized treatment of governing water.

India aspires to become the 2^nd largest economy by 2047 which will have an enormous impact on the use of water resources and thus highlights the need for effective water governance.

Water governance – The OECD define water governance as the set of rules, practices, and processes through which decisions for the management of water resources and services are taken and implemented, and decision-makers are held accountable.
Actors involved – Central and local governments, regulators, NGOs, communities, and the private sector.

Need for water governance – India is a water stressed country due to erratic rainfall and excess removal of groundwater

The data (1990-2021) show that about 30% of the districts received less than normal South-west monsoon rainfall in 20 out of 32 years.
Out of 766 districts, 256 districts are water stressed.
By 2050, India is likely to experience water scarcity.
There are bureaucratic hurdles like Easement Act 1882, is still followed which gives unlimited power of groundwater withdrawal to the owner of land.
There is a lack of equity in water access.

At 1.4 billion, India accounts 17.5% of the world’s population but has only 4% of the fresh water resources. The per capita annual fresh water availability has gone down from 5177 cu m (1951) to 1486 cu m (2019).

What is the significance of water governance?

It ensures the sustainable and efficient use of water resources, address water-related challenges.
It promotes equitable access to water services.
It is also essential to address water-related challenges, such as water scarcity, water quality degradation, and climate change.

Top performers of G20 in Water Management

Water use efficiency – Turkey, UK, Saudi Arabia and India.
River rejuvenation – Australia, China, France, India, South Africa.
Climate resilient infrastructure – UK and US.
Safe drinking water – Germany, India, Mexico.
Water supply augmentation – Saudi Arabia.
Efficient water governance – Japan, Saudi Arabia.
Waste water management – India and Saudi Arabia.
Watershed management – Australia and Saudi Arabia.
Groundwater management – China and Slovakia.

What are challenges in water governance?

Fragmented policies – Owing to different jurisdiction and control of States, the interconnectedness of surface and groundwater systems resulted in fragmented policies.
Data gaps – Data is scattered across multiple agencies, and inadequate for sound decision-making.
Looming Water Crisis – A NITI Aayog report held that 21 major cities are expected to run out of groundwater as soon as 2020 which may affect nearly 100 million people.
Absence of River Boards – While the River Boards Act was passed in 1956, no river board was ever created till this date.
Federal issue – In India, water is a State subject except inter-State regulation of rivers which is under Central purview

Water – 7^th Schedule of Indian Constitution
	Union List	State List
Shipping and Navigation	On inland, tidal and national waterways	On inland waterways
Carriage of goods & passengers	By sea or in national waterways	By inland waterways
Fishing & fisheries	Beyond territorial waters	Within state boundary
Regulation on	Training and education of mercantile marines by states and other agencies and develop interstate rivers and river valleys	Taxes on goods and passengers carried by road/ inland waterways

What is the agenda for action?

To work for cooperative federalism in water governance.
To revamp existing National Water Resource Council.
To introduce an overarching institution for regulating the entire water sector at the State level.At present, only 5 states have water regulators in India.
To develop a model water regulatory framework for adoption by various States.
To restructure the CWC (Central Water Commission) and CGWB (Central Ground Water Board).
To adopt multidisciplinary expertise, bridging silos in water sector, and building multi-stakeholder partnership.

Source:

Credit Rating Agencies and INDIA

GS-III : Economic Issues Banking

Recently, India released a document titled ‘Re-examining Narratives: A Collection of Essays’ to present alternate perspectives on economic policy that have long-term implications for India’s growth and development priorities.

What are credit rating agencies?

Credit Rating Agencies (CRA) – According to IMF, they are private companies that assess credit risk of borrowers that seeks loans and issue fixed-income securities, such as bonds.

Beneficiary – Individuals, corporation, State or provincial authority, or sovereign government.

Prospective borrowers often must obtain a credit rating before they try to raise money in capital markets.

Lending parameters – Ratings contributes to the determination of the interest rate, or price, the borrower must pay for financing.

In India, CRAs are regulated by SEBI (Credit Rating Agencies) Regulations, 1999 of the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992.

6 Credit Rating Agencies (CRA) registered under SEBI are CRISIL, ICRA, CARE, SMERA, Fitch India and Brickwork Ratings.

sovereign credit rating?

An independent assessment of the creditworthiness of a country or sovereign entity.
Determining factors
- Per capita income
- GDP growth
- Rate of inflation
- Short-term external debt as a % of GDP
- Economic development
- History of defaults
- Political stability.
By allowing external credit rating agencies to review its economy, a country shows that it is willing to make its financial information public to investors.

Why do sovereign ratings matter?

Marker for investors – They provide about the creditworthiness of governments around the world and their ability and willingness to pay back debt.
Impact borrowing capacity – A poor sovereign rating can inhibit the country’s ability to borrow money from rich investors.
Governments with lower sovereign ratings have to pay higher interest rates when they borrow.
Influence businesses – If the sovereign rating of a country’s government is low, the businesses of that country end up with even higher interest rate when they borrow from global investors.
Supports development – A good rating can make developing countries (which lack capital) easier to become more productive and remove mass poverty.

Which are the main rating agencies?

Sovereign credit ratings predate the Bretton Woods institutions, i.e., the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
3 main agencies – Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch are globally recognised credit rating agencies.
Moody’s is the oldest which was established in 1900 and issued its 1^st sovereign ratings just before World War I.
In the 1920s, Poor’s Publishing and Standard Statistics, the predecessor of S&P, started rating government bonds.

While S&P and Fitch rate India at BBB, Moody’s rates the South Asian country at Baa3, which indicates the lowest possible investment grade, albeit with a stable outlook.

While the US and European countries have enjoyed a good record, ratings have been affected by global events.
- For instance, sovereign defaults spiked during the 1930s Depression, and most ratings were downgraded.

What is the government’s criticism?

The Finance Ministry has pointed out issues with the methodologies used by the rating agencies.
External influences - According to the document from ‘Fitch’, the rating agency takes comfort from high levels of foreign ownership in the banking sector
Bias over public banks – It discriminates developing countries where the banking sector is primarily run by the public sector.
It also ignores the public banks’ welfare and development functions including their role in promoting financial inclusion.
Opaqueness – Non transparent manner of selection of the experts consulted for the rating assessments.
Weightage issues – Agencies do not convey clearly the assigned weights for each parameter considered.
Composite governance indicator (weight of 21.4) is only based on the World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI)that uses indices such as freedom of expression, freedom of media, rule of law, corruption, quality of regulation, etc. but does not capture hard economic data.

Source:

Regulation of Virtual Digital Asset

GS-III : Internal security Internal security

Recently, the Financial Intelligence Unit India (FIU IND) issued show-cause notices to 9 offshore virtual digital asset service providers (VDA SPs) like Bitfinex and MEXC Global, among others.

What is FIU-IND?

Established in – 2004 under the Finance Ministry.
Aim – To act as a nodal agency for receiving, analysing and disseminating information relating to suspected financial transactions
Function – It receives reports from private and public sector banks every month which are
- Cash transaction reports (CTRs)
- Suspicious transaction reports (STRs)
- Cross border wire transfer reports
It is based on the mandate of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA).

Cash transaction reports – It is mandatory for banks in India to furnish a monthly CTR to the FIU on

- All transactions over Rs. 10 lakh or its equivalent in foreign currency or
- A series of integrally connected transactions that add up to more than Rs. 10 lakh or its equivalent in foreign currency

What are Virtual Digital Assets (VDA)?

According to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a virtual asset service provider (VASp) can be any natural or legal person who conducts activities like carrying out transfer of virtual assets, administer them, or oversee their sale by an issuer’s office.

India’s Union Budget for 2022-23 for the 1^st time defined VDA in the newly-inserted clause (47A) under Section 2 of the Income Tax Act, 1961.

VDA – It refers to

- any information or code or number or token
- generated through cryptographic means
- providing a digital representation of value exchanged with the promise of having inherent value
- or functions as a store of value or a unit of account
- can be transferred, stored or traded electronically
Thus it includes cryptocurrencies, DeFi (decentralised finance) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Indian currency and foreign currency as defined under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999, have been excluded from the ambit of VDAs.

Tax in India – 30% income tax on gains made from cryptocurrencies and also rules regarding 1% tax deducted at source on cryptocurrency came into effect.
Compliance – Entities dealing in VDAs, crypto exchanges and intermediaries are considered as ‘reporting entity’ under PMLA and thus brought under anti-money laundering/counter financing of terrorism regulations.
Obligations – To verify the identities of on boarded clients, and maintain records of their financial positions and potentially suspicious transactions.
Applicability – To all VDA SPs operating in India irrespective of physical presence.
The entities though catering to a substantial part of Indian users were not getting registered and coming under the Anti Money Laundering (AML) and Counter Financing of Terrorism Network (CFT) framework’.

Currently, 31 VDA SPs have registered with FIU IND.

Significance – It would ensure lack of anonymity and businesses not encountering multiple hurdles.

Some global regulations of VDA SPs are Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) in Dubai and Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) in European Union.

What approaches emerge when looking to regulate VDAs?

The Bureau for International Settlements (BIS), has considered provisions to regulate VDA in its report about financial stability from crypto assets in emerging economies.
Policy options under consideration are outright ban, containment and regulation.
- An outright ban – It may not prove enforceable because of the pseudo-anonymous nature of crypto markets and there could be a possibility that regulators become non transparent.
- Containment – It would imply controlling the flows between crypto markets and traditional financial systems or limiting their connections.
- But it would not address the vulnerabilities inherent in the crypto markets and could result in financial stability risks.
- Regulation –The report holds that it must be ensured that benefits of regulating and supervising are greater than the costs involved.
Challenges – Issues for emerging market economies (EMEs) are
- Defining the (regulatory) authority or entity
- Defining their scope of regulation
- Filling in the data gaps to understand the technology and interconnections

Bank of International Settlements (BIS)

Established in – 1930
Owned by – 63 central banks including RBI that account for 95% of the GDP
Office – Head office is in Basel, Switzerland and it has 2 representative offices in Hong Kong and Mexico City
Mission – To support central banks' pursuit of monetary and financial stability through international cooperation, and to act as a bank for central banks
Basel Committee on Banking Supervision of BIS provides the Basel norms

Source:

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare – YEAR REVIEW

GS-III : S&T Health

The Ministry is charged with health policy in India, which is also responsible for all government programs relating to family planning in India.

Departments

- Department of Health and Family Welfare
- Department of Health Research

Union Minister- Mansukh L. Mandaviya

Health Missions

National Health Mission (NHM) – It was launched in 2005 to provide accessible, affordable and quality health care to the rural population, especially to the vulnerable groups.

Components

- Health System Strengthening
- Reproductive- Maternal- Neonatal - Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCH+A)
- Control of Communicable and Non-Communicable Diseases

Sub Mission	Launch Year
National Rural Health Mission	2005
National Urban Health Mission	2013

Ayushman Bharat- It is a flagship scheme recommended by National Health Policy 2017 to achieve the vision of Universal Health Coverage. It has two components

- Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs)
- Pradhan Mandri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM- JAY)

PM-JAY is the world’s largest health insurance scheme fully financed by the government.Launched in 2018, it offers a sum insured of Rs.5 lakh per family for secondary care and tertiary care.Health Benefit Packages covers surgery, medical and day care treatments, cost of medicines and diagnostics.

Beneficiaries:It is an entitlement-based scheme that targets the beneficiaries as identified by latest Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) data.The National Health Authority (NHA) has provided flexibility to States/UTs to use non- Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) beneficiary family databases with similar socio-economic profiles for tagging against the leftover (unauthenticated) SECC families.

Funding:The funding for the scheme is shared – 60:40 for all states and UTs with their own legislature, 90:10 in Northeast states and Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal and Uttarakhand and 100% Central funding for UTs without legislature.

Nodal Agency:The National Health Authority (NHA has been constituted as an autonomous entity under the Society Registration Act, 1860 for effective implementation of PM-JAY in alliance with state governments.The State Health Agency (SHA) is the apex body of the State Government responsible for the implementation of AB PM-JAY in the State.

Key Highlights of the AB PM-JAY Statistics?

Ayushman Cards:
- Women account for approximately 49% of the total Ayushman cards created and approximately 48% of total authorised hospital admissions.
- As of December 2023, approximately 28.45 Crore Ayushman Cards have been created since the inception of the scheme, out of which, approximately 9.38 crore Ayushman Cards have been created during the year 2023.
Health Coverage:
- 55 crore individuals corresponding to 12 crore families are covered under the scheme and many states and union territories implementing AB PM-JAY have further expanded the beneficiary base, at their own cost.
Hospital Admissions:
- A total of 6.11 crore hospital admissions amounting to Rs 78,188 crores were authorised of which 1.7 crore hospitals admissions worth over Rs 25,000 crores were authorised during the year 2023 (Jan-Dec 2023).

Ayushman Arogya Mandir- The Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centre is renamed as Ayushman Arogya Mandir by upgrading the Sub Health Centres (SHCs) and rural and urban Primary Health Centres (PHCs), in both urban and rural areas.
Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission- Launched in 2021, it is the largest pan-India Centrally Sponsored Scheme for strengthening healthcare infrastructure across the country.
Swachh Swasth Sarvatra- It is a joint initiative along with Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation in 2016 to achieve better health outcomes through improved sanitation and increased awareness on healthy lifestyle.
Kayakalp programme- It was launched in 2015 under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan to maintain cleanliness in the public health sector by rewarding their performances.
Rogi Kalyan Samiti- It is a patient welfare committee which is a registered society that acts as a group of trustees for the hospital to manage the affairs of the hospital.
SaQushal: Safety and Quality, Self-Assessment tool for Health Facilities- Launched in 2022 to implement patient safety framework.

Maternal and Adolescent Health Care

Maternal Mortality Ratio of India has registered a decline from 130 per 1 lakh live birth in Sample Registration System (SRS) 2014-16 to 97 per 1 lakh live birth in SRS 2018-19.

Surakshit Matritva Aashwasan (SUMAN)- To provide quality healthcare at no cost and zero tolerance for denial of services for every woman and newborn visiting the public health facility to end all preventable maternal and newborn deaths.
Maternal Perinatal Child Death Surveillance Response- It is a software launched in 2021 which measures and track all the maternal and perinatal deaths in real time.
Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan- It was launched in 2016 which provides fixed day assured, comprehensive and quality antenatal care by gynaecology specialists to pregnant women on 9^th of every month at government health facilities.
LaQshya- It aims to improve the quality of care in Labour Room and Maternity Operation Theatres.
Janani Suraksha Yojana- It provides Direct Benefit Transfer to pregnant women for institutional deliveries in order to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality.
Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram- It entitles all pregnant women delivering in public health institutions to absolutely free and no expense delivery including C-section.
Midwifery Initiative- It is a program aimed at creating a dedicated cadre of Nurse Practitioners in Midwifery (NPMs) in India.
Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram- It was launched in 2014, with the key principles of adolescent participation and leadership, equity and inclusion, gender equity and strategic partnerships with other sectors and stakeholders.
Ayushman Bharat School Health and Wellness Program- It is a school based health promotion activities that combines health education, health promotion, disease prevention and improved access in an integrated manner at the school level.

https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1843841#:~:text=Janani%20Shishu%20Suraksha%20Karyakaram%20(JSSK,other%20consumables%2C%20diet%20and%20blood.

Child Health Program

Rasthriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram- It aims at early identification and intervention for children from birth to 18 years to cover 4 ‘D’s namely
- Defects at birth
- Deficiencies
- Diseases
- Developmental delays including disability

SAANS- It was launched in 2019, which is a Social Awareness and Actions to Neutralize Pneumonia Successfully initiative to reduce deaths due to childhood pneumonia for rural and urban areas.
IDCF campaign- The goal of Intensified Diarrhoea Control Fortnight campaign is to attain zero child death due to childhood diarrhoea.
Anaemia Mukt Bharat- It was launched in 2018 in a 6x6x6 strategy to reduce anaemia prevalence among children, adolescents and women in reproductive age group.
Mother’s Absolute Affection program- It attempts for the promotion of breastfeeding and provision of counselling services for supporting breastfeeding through health systems.

Immunization

Universal Immunization Program- It is one of the largest public health programs in the world launched in 1978, to provide vaccination at free of cost against 12 preventable diseases.

Nationally against 9 diseases	Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus, Polio, Measles, Rubella(a severe form of Childhood Tuberculosis), Hepatitis B, and Meningitis & Pneumonia which is caused by Hemophilus Influenza type B
Sub-nationally against 3 diseases	Rotavirus diarrhoea, Pneumococcal Pneumonia, and Japanese Encephalitis

Mission Indradhanush- It is a targeted approach focused to reach all left-out and dropped out children in pockets of low immunization coverage.

- Mission Indradhanush 5.0- It is a catch-up vaccination campaign rolled out for children upto 5 years of age and pregnant women in 2023, who were left out of routine immunization with the special focus on Measles Rubella Elimination goal.
Measles Rubella Elimination- India is committed to Measles Rubella Elimination by 2023.
Pulse Polio Immunization- It was launched in 1995 with an objective of achieving 100% coverage in Oral polio Vaccine.

India was declared Polio free country in 2014.

U-Win digital platform- Launched in 2023, it is a pilot project and an online case-based tracking and reporting system for the universal immunization program for children and pregnant women.

Family planning

As per NFHS-5(2019-21) India has achieved replacement fertility rate (Total Fertility Rate (TFR) =2.0)

Mission Parivar Vikas- It was launched in 2016 for increasing access to contraceptives and family planning services in 146 high fertility districts with TFR of 3 and above in 7 high focus states.
ASHA Schemes- Ensuring spacing at birth, home delivery of contraceptives and pregnancy testing kits would promote family planning.
New Contraceptive Choices- New contraceptives such as Injectable contraceptive and Centchroman have been added to the existing basket of choices.
Family Planning Logistic Management and Information System- A dedicated software to ensure smooth forecasting, procurement and distribution of family planning commodities across all the levels of health facilities.
National Family Planning Indemnity Scheme- The clients are insured in the eventualities of death, complication and failure following sterilization.

Health Insurance Schemes

Ayushman Bharat- Prandhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana-It is the largest publicly funded health assurance scheme in the world which provides health cover of Rs. 5 lakhs per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization.
- Ayushman Bhava- It was launched to ensure the saturation of various healthcare schemes at the village level, ultimately reaching the last mile beneficiaries.
- Ayushman App- It has been launched by National Health Authority, self-verification feature for beneficiaries has been enabled.
Central Government Health Schemes- It is mainly for serving or retired Central Government employees and their families.
Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi- It is a central sector scheme which provides one-time financial assistance to poor patients living below threshold poverty line and suffering from major identified life threatening diseases for medical treatment at government hospitals/institutes. It has 3 components namely
- Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi (RAN) - Financial assistance for treatment of life-threatening diseases providing maximum financial assistance up to Rs. 15 lakhs
- Health Minister’s Cancer Patient - Financial assistance for treatment of cancer at Regional Cancer Centres / Tertiary Care Cancer Centres and State Cancer Institutes
- Financial assistance for poor patients suffering from rare diseases - Maximum financial assistance is Rs 20 lakhs.

Disease Control Programmes

National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme- It is an umbrella programme for prevention and control of vector borne diseases namely Malaria, Japanese Encephalitis, Dengue, Chikungunya, Kala azar, and Lymphatic Filariasis.

Diseases	Elimination target year
Malaria	2030
Kala Azar	2023
Lymphatic Filariasis	2027

National Leprosy Eradication Programme- It aims to detect cases of leprosy at an early stage and provide complete treatment, free of cost, in order to prevent the occurrence of Grade II Disability (G2D) in affected persons.

The programme has achieved the elimination of leprosy as a public health problem as per WHO criteria of less than 1 case per 10,000 population at the National level in 2005.

National TB Elimination Program- It is launched with the goal of achieving Sustainable Development Goals related to TB by 2025, five years ahead of the global target of 2030.
Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan- It was launched in 2021 to provide additional support to TB patients in order to improve treatment outcomes, augment community involvement and leverage Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities.
Nikshay Poshan Yojana- It was launched in 2018 for providing Rs 500/month as Direct Benefit Transfer to support the nutrition of TB patients for the entire duration of treatment.
National AIDS and STD Control Programme (Phase-V)- It is a Central Sector Scheme with the focus on UN SDG 3.3 of ending HIV/AIDS epidemic as a public health threat through a comprehensive package of prevention, detection, and treatment.

E-Initiatives

Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission- It was launched to create a seamless online platform through the provision of a wide-range of data and infrastructure services through digital systems.
National Telemedicine Service (e-sanjeevani)-It provides access to specialized medical healthcare across the country by providing facility for doctor-to- doctor consultation and patient-to-doctor consultation.
- e-Sanjeevani AB-HWC- Doctor to doctor tele consultation
- e-Sanjeevani OPD- Patient to doctor tele consultation
Global Initiative on Digital Health- It was introduced during G20 India’s presidency in 2023 to create a common platform’to converge global efforts for digital health and bridge the digital divide by promoting equitable access to technological tools.
Mera Aspataal- It is a patient feedback system launched in 2016 with the mandate to integrate Central Government Hospitals and District Hospitals on the feedback portal.
Tele-evidence- It is a modality through which doctors can testify in the judicial process utilizing the video conferencing facility without visiting the courts.
CoWIN- It is a cloud based IT solution for COVID vaccination that allows user to register, verify and monitor their registration status online.
Tele MANAS- It provides universal access to equitable, accessible, affordable and quality mental health care through 24X7 tele-mental health services.
National Digital Health Blueprint- It is a policy document launched in 2017 that outlines the vision of creating a national digital health eco-system that supports universal health coverage.

Other key initiatives

Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra- To raise awareness about the government's policies and schemes among the people and foster an atmosphere of trust and collaboration.
National COVID 19 Vaccination Programme- It is the world’s largest vaccination programme launched in 2021, initially to cover the adult population in the shortest possible time.
National Programme for Tobacco Control and Drug Addiction Treatment- To regulate tobacco use depiction on Over-The-Top (OTT) media platforms, it conducts tobacco youth free campaign among other activities.
Swasthya Nagrik Abhiyaan- To conduct campaign which will lead to generation of demand for health services and promote health seeking behaviour.

https://pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetail.aspx?PRID=1990674

Source:

Seperate Toilets for women in district courts

GS-II : Governance Judiciary

Nearly 1/5^th of the district courts in India lack separate toilets for women, according to a report published by the Centre for Research and Planning of the Supreme Court recently.

The Centre for Research and Planning will serve as a bridge between academic research, legal and judicial education and the judicial systems.

Source:

PM Vishwakarma

GS-II : Governance Policies and Programmes

Jammu and Kashmir has become the first Union Territory (UT) to implement the PM Vishwakarma Yojana (PMVY) recently.
It is an initiative that aims to empower and enhance the skills of the craftsman community (Vishwakarmas).

18 traditional trades will be covered in the first instance under PM Vishwakarma.

Source:

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