DAILY NEWS ANALYSIS

PM presents sacred Chadar to be placed during the Urs of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti at Ajmer Sharif Dargah

Khwaja Chishti is also known by different names as, Khawaja Gharib Nawaz, ‘Sultan-Ul-Hind’ (Benefactor of the Poor).

• Birth – Sijistan (modern-day Sistan) in Iran in 1141-42 CE.

Visit to India – He started living and preaching in Ajmer after 2^nd Battle of Tarain (1192), where Mohammed of Ghori defeated Prithviraj Chauhan.

• His Mission – To establish the kingdom of God on Earth.
• Popularity – He was popular among the locals, kings, nobles, and peasants for his instructive discourses full of spiritual insights.
• He established the Chishti order of 'fakirs' in India.

Doctrines – It emphasised the unity of being with God (wa?dat al-wuj?d) and members of the order were also pacifists.

• They rejected all material goods as distractions from the contemplation of God.
• They abstained from connection with the secular state.
• Recitation of the names of God, both aloud and silently (dhikr jahr?, dhikr khaf?), formed the cornerstone of Chisht? practice.

Urs festival is an annual festival held at Ajmer in Rajasthan to commemorate his death anniversary.

Classical Language

Criteria evolved by Government of India to determine declaration of a language as a Classical language is as under:-

• • High antiquity of its early texts/recorded history over a period of 1500-2000 years;
  • A body of ancient literature/texts, which is considered a valuable heritage by generations of speakers;
  • The literary tradition be original and not borrowed from another speech community;
  • The classical language and literature being distinct from modern, there may also be a discontinuity between the classical language and its later forms or its offshoots.

Currently, six languages enjoy the ‘Classical’ status: Tamil (declared in 2004), Sanskrit (2005), Kannada (2008), Telugu (2008), Malayalam (2013), and Odia (2014).

• The benefits it provides once a language is notified as a Classical language:
  • Two major annual international awards for scholars of eminence in classical Indian languages.
  • Centre of Excellence for studies in Classical Languages is set up.
  • The University Grants Commission is requested to create, to start with at least in the Central Universities, a certain number of Professional Chairs for the Classical Languages so declared.”

Benefits of Recognition – 2 major annual international awards for scholars of eminence in classical Indian languages

• A Centre of Excellence for studies in Classical Languages is set up
• The UGC is requested to create, to start with at least in the Central Universities, a certain number of Professional Chairs for the Classical Languages so declared.

Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) is in Mysuru and Central Institute of Classical Tamil (CICT) is in Chennai.

NEWS:Recently, West Bengal Chief Minister has called for inclusion of ‘Bangla’ as a classical language.

Bengali Language

• It is an official language of West Bengal.
• It is the second most spoken language in India and the seventh most spoken language in the world.
• The Bengali people have a rich heritage and culture dating back to prehistoric times.
• Bengali is written from left to right

Recently Union government announced the Swachh Survekshan Awards 2023.

• An annual cleanliness ranking for urban areas since 2016.
• Released by – Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
• Coverage – Originally 73 cities in 2016, now has increased along with 4,416 urban local bodies, 61 cantonments and 88 Ganga towns.
• About 1.58 crore online citizen feedback and 19.82 lakh face-to-face views were received as a part of the ranking.
• Criteria
  • Door-to-door collection of waste
  • Segregation at source
  • cleanliness of public areas
  • Clean water bodies
  • Citizens’ feedback regarding the cleanliness of their cities

2023 Awards

• Among Cities with >1 lakh population – Indore and Surat were named the joint winners with 100% door-to-door collection of waste & remediation of dumpsites and 98% segregation at source.

2023 was the 7^th year in a row that Indore was named the cleanest city in the Swachh Survekshan Awards. Surat won the top award for the 1^st time. Of the 8 rounds of annual awards since 2016, this was the 1^st time that 2 cities shared the top prize.

• Among States – Maharashtra bagged the top spot with 89.24% door-to-door collection and 67.76% source segregation followed by Madhya Pradesh.
• Sasvad in Maharashtra was named the cleanest city among those with population below 1 lakh.
• Chandigarh won the award for the city having the best safety standards for sanitation workers, Safaimitra Surakshit Shehar.
• Varanasi was named the cleanest ‘Ganga town’.
• Mhow Cantonment was the cleanest cantonment in the country.
• Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Rajasthan, Nagaland and Tripura were ranked the bottom five states.

Scientific processing of waste had increased from 15-16% in 2014 to almost 76% by Jan 2024.

Indian government is set to roll out a human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination campaign for girls in the 9-14 years age group.

Cervavac is an indigenously developed quadrivalent vaccine by the Serum Institute of India (SII) in Pune, is already available commercially.

• Immunisation drive – It will be conducted through schools and existing vaccination points, planned in 3 phases over 3 years and is likely to start from the 2^nd quarter of 2024 for free.
• Currently, the 2-dose HPV vaccine is available commercially for about Rs 2,000 per dose.

None of the HPV vaccines available globally recommend a single-dose schedule

• Target – Nearly 8 crore children between the ages of 9 and 14 years will be eligible and when divided over 3 years.
• Benefits – It offers protection against the HPV strains that cause cancer of the anus, vagina and oropharynx and genital warts.

Cervical Cancer

• It is the 4th most common cancer in women which develops in a woman's cervix (the entrance to the uterus from the vagina).
• Cause – Almost all (99%) are linked to infection with high-risk human papillomaviruses (HPV), an extremely common virus transmitted through sexual contact.

At least 14 HPV types have been identified as oncogenic and among these, HPV types 16 and 18 considered to be the most oncogenic.

• Treatment – When diagnosed, it is a treatable form of cancer, as long as it is detected early and managed effectively.
• Prevention – Effective primary (HPV vaccination) and secondary prevention approaches will prevent most cases.
• With a comprehensive approach to prevent, screen and treat, it can be eliminated as a public health problem within a generation.

• World Braille Day is celebrated on January 4^th to commemorate the birthday of Louis Braille, the inventor of braille.
• The day recognizes the importance of braille as a means of communication and the role it plays in the lives of blind and visually impaired people.

Braille is a tactile representation of alphabetic and numerical symbols using 6 dots to represent each letter and number, and even musical, mathematical and scientific symbols.

• Supreme Court judge Justice BR Gavai has been nominated as the Chairman of the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee (SCLSC) recently.
• The SCLSC is a statutory body constituted under Section 3A of the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987.

It gives free legal services to the poor, marginalized, and unprivileged.