As per a recent study, one of the oldest known Homo sapiens fossils, Omo Kibish I, may be around 35,000 years older than it was previously thought.

Highlights

• The study used volcanic ash to date the fossils and thus there were 22,000-year margin of error.
• Omo Kibish I was first unearthed in Ethiopia in 1967.
• It was difficult to date directly because, it contained only bone and skull fragments. As a result, experts remained divided over their age for long.

Previous age

In 2005, Geologists had analysed the layer of rock just underneath the findings. They came to conclude that, Omo I was at least 195,000 years old. That made the fossil at least that old as well as, oldest ever discovered at the time. However, there was a lot of uncertainty.

How was the date calculated?

Date was calculated by analysing the layers of ash deposited on the fossils. A more precise date means, to analyse the thick layers of ash. Earlier, it was nearly impossible as ash was so fine. However, availability of more refined methods made the team to link ash layer to an eruption of Shala volcano

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change recently launched “Star Rating System”. The system provides environmental clearance in short duration.

India and Denmark recently agreed to initiate joint research and development on green fuels, including green hydrogen, at a virtual meeting.

Key Facts

• The agreement was signed as a part of already adopted “Green Strategic Partnership – Action Plan 2020-2025”, at a virtual meeting on January
• Apart from the agreement, India-Denmark Joint Committee discussed national strategic priorities and developments in Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) in both the countries.
• Special focus was given on green solutions of future-strategy for investments in green research, technology, and innovation.

India-Denmark Joint Committee meeting agenda

• The committee emphasised on developing bilateral collaboration on mission-driven research, innovation, and technology development.
• They also emphasised on climate and green transition, water, energy, waste, food, etc, in accordance with the “Green Strategic Partnership – Action Plan 2020-2025”.
• They further agreed to organise 3-4 webinars for partnership development.
• They also stressed on promoting call for proposals in green fuels like green hydrogen.
• Committee reviewed the progress of ongoing projects being implemented across several areas including water, energy research, cyber-physical systems, and bioresources & secondary agriculture.

Who co-chaired the meeting?

India-Denmark Joint Committee meeting was co-chaired by:

1. K. Varshney- Adviser & Head of International Cooperation, Department of Science & Technology.
2. Stine Jorgensen- Deputy Director of Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science

The Ministry of Education conducted a survey to learn about the education losses during COVID times. The survey was conducted in November 2021. Three districts of Andhra Pradesh and 16 districts of Tamil Nadu couldn’t participate because of heavy rains. All the other districts participated in the survey.

About the survey

The survey is called the “National achievement survey”. It was conducted with the help of district level coordinators. Before this, the survey was conducted in 2017. The results of the survey are released as report cards for individual districts. And all the district data are compiled at national level. The survey was conducted in 1.23 lakh schools. The Government intends to identify the learning interruptions created by the pandemic and take remedial measures. The schools were closed in February 2020. They then adopted online classes. The digital divide in the country brought in huge impacts on the educational outcomes of the children.

The framework of the survey was created by NCERT.

Key Findings of the Survey

• In class III, around 6,37,867 students were expected to come to school or take online classes. However, only 5,40,325 attended the classes. Approximately, 84.71% turned up in Class III.
• In Class V, 6,29,870 students were expected to attend classes. But only 5,45,910 students attended the classes. Approximately 86.67% turned up in Class V.
• In Class VIII, 11,74,609 were expected to attend classes. Only 10,54,437 students attended the classes. Around 77% attended the classes.
• In Class X, 13,44,539 were expected. Only 12,59,758 attended. This is 93.69%. The rate of participation in class X was the highest as compared to the other classes.
• The education losses were more among the lower grade students. This affected their reading and counting skills.
• The primary classes were suspended when the survey was held.

Overall participation

In Class III, Class V, Class VIII and Class X, total of 37,86,885 students were expected to attend the classes. However, only 34,00,430 attended. This is 89.79%.

A recent Lancet study says that Antimicrobial resistance is now the leading cause of death. It has surpassed HIV and malaria. The study says that in 2019 antimicrobial resistance killed more than 1.27 million people all over the world. This is higher than those died of malaria and HIV.

What is anti – microbial resistance?

It is a condition where in the disease causing microbes such as bacteria, virus becomes resistant to drugs. The drugs and antibiotics taken are no longer killing them. The microbial resistances are life threatening. As the microbes are gaining resistance, doctors increase the dosage. Powerful doses do kill the microbes. But they also affect the human body cells. And organs begin to defunct. Human bodies cannot take antibiotics after a certain level.

What is the study saying?

• Low and middle income countries are the most affected by anti microbial resistance.
• Out of 4.95 million deaths that occurred in the world in 2019, 1.27 deaths were due to antimicrobial resistance. Deaths due to malaria were 640,000. Deaths due to AIDS were 860,000.
• The researchers studied 23 different types of disease causing bacteria. Of these only six caused 3.57 million deaths

First line of defence

70% of the deaths occurred due to the failure of antibiotics that are treated as the first line of defence. This included fluoroquinolones. Beta – lactams, etc. These antibiotics are usually prescribed for infections in bone infections, respiratory infection and urinary tract infections.

The first BRICS 2022 Sherpa meeting was held recently. The two day meeting was chaired by China. China thanked India for its hosting in 2021. During the meeting the countries discussed about the agenda of 2022. Also, they created the BRICS Calendar for the year 2022.

BRICS 2022 theme

Foster High Quality BRICS Partnership Usher in a New Era for Global Development

What happened in the meeting?

• The countries decided to conduct 25 events in 2022. Of this, five are to be hosted by India.
• China is to host BRICS Young Scientist Conclave. It is focus on modern agriculture, material science, artificial intelligence, bio – medicine, carbon peak neutralization.
• China will also host the tenth BRICS Science and Technology ministerial – level meet. During the meet, China will showcase the achievements of BRICS Framework Programme. The programme was implemented between 2015 and 2022.

What are India’s roles and responsibilities in BRICS 2022?

In 2022, India is to host five international events. These events are to be conducted under BRICS STI forum. The five events are as follows:

• Bio – technology and bio – medicine
• BRICS startups working group meeting. This group is to focus on Energy this year.
• ICT and high performance computing
• Science, Technology, Innovation and entrepreneurship partnership (STEIP) Working group meeting
• Launch of Knowledge Hub. The hub focuses on innovation.

Role of DPIIT in BRICS 2022

The Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade is to hold the BRICS Startup Forum meeting. Also, the DPIIT is responsible for creating the innovation knowledge hub.

Content creator and actress Prajakta Koli become India’s first UN Development Programme (UNDP) Youth Climate Champion.

• She won the title under her partnership with the UNDP.
• Title has been conferred to her because of her contribution towards mental health, girl child education and women’s rights through various global social campaigns.

As a part of her responsibilities, Prajakta will now be entrusted with interacting with young minds for raising awareness on issues like global warming, climate crisis, biodiversity loss and their impacts, because tremors of these issues are being felt by all sections of the society, including poor and marginalized communities.

Prajakta Koli is an Indian YouTuber and actress, known by her YouTube Channel “Mostlysane”. She makes comedy videos, focusing mostly on observational comedy related to daily life situations.

Achievements of Prajakta Koli

• Prajakta Koli has spoken up on issues such body shaming and online bullying with ‘Shameless’ under her campaign #iPledgeToBeMe, in the past. The campaign came into force on World Mental Health Day in 2016.
• She is a global ambassador for YouTube’s ‘Creators For Change’ initiative. She is known to draw attention of people to trolling, homophobia through “No Offence Campaign” and female subjugation.
• Her “No Offence Campaign” was showcased at the UN headquarters in New York on International Tolerance Day.
• In 2018, she was a part of three initiatives and social cause partnerships:

1. First with YouTube for Social Impact Girl’s Education campaign,
2. Second with Instagram on their Safer Internet Week campaign and
3. Third with One.org for their Girl Education campaign.

• In 2019 she received an invitation from “Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation” for “annual Goalkeepers Summit”.
• In 2021, she joined Google’s Impact Challenge to provide grants to non-profits who are addressing economic inequities faced by girls and women.

The Union Cabinet recently extended the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis for three more years. The current tenure of the commission ends in March 2022. The commission has been extended for three years after this. The extension is being made at a cost of Rs 43.68 crores. Safai karamcharis are the manual scavengers. They clean drainages and sewer with direct hands, without any protection or equipment.

Background

The National Commission for Safai Karamcharis were created as an advisory body. It provided recommendations to the Government of India on welfare of the safai karamcharis. Also, the commission evaluated the execution of special programmes for safai karamcharis.

Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013

The commission monitors the implementation of the act. It checks if the central and state governments take appropriate actions towards the complaints against under the purview of the act. Kindly note that the commission only monitors the act and does not work as governed by the act. The commission is not governed by any law.

Commission is a non – Statutory body

The commission was established in 1993. It was established under the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis act, 1993. The validity of the act was till 1997. Later it was extended till 2002 and then till 2004. Later it was made a non – statutory body. Meaning, it is not governed by laws or acts. Till date National Commission for Karamcharis functions as a non – statutory body.

The Digital Government Mission was launched by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. The mission will deliver government services to the citizens. It will use machine learning and artificial intelligence to deliver the services.

How will the mission work?

It imbibes automatic processes. For instance, a student applying for scholarship will get an alert from the concerned department directly. He or she need not enquire. It also provides easy access to food grains under the public distribution system. It includes renewal of driver licenses, reminders for renewal of government issued documents.

Aim of the mission

The mission aims to reach the benefits to the citizens before even they start enquiring about a scheme or subsidiary. This is the next phase of e – governance.

Background

The Government of India launched e-governance 15 years ago. Since then it has digitised income tax, certificates, passports, land records, etc. Also, the Government of India launched NODE in 2020. NODE is National Open Digital Ecosystem. It aims to replicate the success of UPI, GST, Aadhaar.

Push for the mission

The mission will be aided by the well-built platforms Digital India, Aadhaar, National Mission on Education using ICT, Digitdhan Abhiyan, BPO Scheme and UPI. These well-established systems will act as a foundation.

The Desh Ke Mentor Programme was launched by the Delhi Government in October 2021. The programme creates links between the class 9, class 10, class 11 and class 12 students with mentors.

What happened?

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights recommended the Delhi Government to suspend the Desh Ke Mentor Programme. Following this, the Delhi Government added new features. The concerns raised were against the safety and security of the children participating in the programme. Therefore, respective suggested changes were made.

Concerns raised by the Commission

The children and people unknown to them are brought together. This creates safety and security risks to the children. There is not police verification to provide the authenticity of the mentor. There are chances for child related crimes. A psychometric test is not enough to assess a person and his character.

Legality of the concerns

The concerns were raised under Section 13 and Section 15 of the Commission for Protection of Child Rights act.

Newly added features

The police officers will verify the mentors. The conversation between the mentors and children are recorded. The mentors and the children are not allowed to meet offline. Only online meetings are allowed. The contact details of the mentors and the children will be hidden. Both the participants will not know about the whereabouts of each other.

Amid the cybersecurity concerns in Chinese Olympics App, National Olympic Committees (NOC) are advising athletes from some western countries to leave personal devices at home or use temporary phones, at the Winter Games in Beijing.

Highlights

• NOCs will provide their athletes and staff with temporary devices to do away the security risks and combat any surveillance during Games.
• The Games are scheduled to take place from February 4 to February 20 in Beijing, China.

United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee Advisory

• The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee advisory states that, it should be assumed that every text, online visit, email and application access can be compromised or monitored.
• The advisory suggests to use rental or disposable laptops and phones while in Beijing or delete all data from personal devices before and after travelling.
• It also recommends the members to install virtual private networks (VPNs) on devices before leaving United States.
• It further notes that, though there are safeguards in place for protecting their systems and data, there should be “no expectation of privacy or data security or privacy while they operate in China.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) conducted a variable rate repo operation on January 20, 2022 for infusing liquidity, instead of using variable rate reverse repo operations (VRRR) to suck out cash.

Highlights

• This measure was taken because larger goods and services tax (GST) collection tightened liquidity recently.
• RBI has proposed to lend the banking system Rs 50,000 crore in a day, while it received bids for Rs 65,700 crore.
• Cut-off rate was 4.06 per cent and weighted average rate 4.10 per cent. Both are higher than repo rate of 4 per cent.
• Weighted average call money rate reached to 4.3587 per cent on January 20, showing liquidity stress in banking system. This rate is used by banks for the purpose of interbank lending.

Call Money Rate

The lowest call money rate was 2.80 per cent while highest rate was 4.65 per cent. This reflected liquidity asymmetry where one set of banks was having a low liquidity while money concentrated with the lender banks (usually public sector banks), because of their high deposit base.

Total system liquidity

Total system liquidity is at a surplus of Rs 6 trillion. This money is enough for money market rates to remain soft. However, overnight interbank rates have increased above the repo rate, along with the increase in money market rates and 10-year bond yields.

India and Israel recently widened the I4F during their eighth governing body meet. I4F is India – Israel Industrial research and development technological Innovation fund. The fund has now been widened to 5.5 million USD.

Projects

The fund has been widened to implement three research and development project. They are as follows:

• Centrally monitored Internet of Things Nanosensors for Molecular diagnostic in health care
• Internet of Things enabled satellite communication for real – time agriculture and environmental data collection
• NoMoreMos: It is a mosquito control biological solution

Basically, the fund is to be used for projects in the field of agriculture, health care and mosquito control.

I4F 2.0

During the governing body meet, the countries agreed on the new I4F strategy. The countries will broaden the scope of the fund in the new strategy. They will focus on market acceptability and technical feasibility. They are to develop new commercial products and technologies.

About I4F

• It was created under the collaboration of Department of Science and Technology of India and Israeli Innovation Authority.
• The fund promotes and supports joint research and development in the agreed “focus sectors”.
• The main aim of I4F is to commercialize the innovative technologies.
• The I4F is controlled, managed and implemented by the Global Innovation and Technology Alliance. In Israel, the fund is implemented by the Israeli Innovation Authority.