Rashtriya Mahila Kosh (RMK) to cover 10 lakh women over the next 3 years

The Union Women and Child Development Ministry has set a new target to cover at least 10 lakh women under Rashtriya Mahila Kosh (RMK) over the next three years. The new target was announced by Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi at the 52nd Governing Board meeting of RMK which has been recently reconstituted to make it more effective.

About Rashtriya Mahila Kosh (RMK)

RMK is a national credit fund for women under the aegis of the Ministry of Women and Child Development. It was established in 1993 for socio-economic empowerment of women. It aims to provide financial services with backward and forward linkages for women in the unorganized sector through Intermediary Micro Finance Organizations (IMOs) and Women Self Help Groups (SHGs) and to augment their capacities through multi-pronged efforts. RMK also extends micro-credit to the women in the informal sector through a client friendly, without collateral and in a hassle-free manner for income generation activities.

Bhopal gas tragedy completes 30 years on 3rd December

Bhopal gas tragedy which is considered as the world’s worst industrial disaster has completed 30 years on 3^rd December. Members of both the Houses of the Parliament stood in silence for a few minutes as a mark of respect to those who were killed. They even expressed their support and commitment to the people affected by the gas leak.
Bhopal gas tragedy

• It occurred on the night of 2-3 December 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.
• Over 500,000 people in Bhopal and surrounding area were exposed to Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) gas and other chemicals after gas leak incident.
• The government of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh confirmed 3,787 deaths as a result of gas leakage. Unofficial estimates exceeded 10,000.
• More than a half-million people were injured, with many dying from illnesses including lung cancer, kidney failure and liver disease.
• In 1989, Union Carbide paid $470 million to the Indian government to settle litigation stemming from the disaster.
• In 2010, eight low-level Indian executives of Union Carbide’s Bhopal subsidiary were convicted of negligence in this tragedy.

Warren M Anderson: In September 2014, former Chairman of Union Carbide Corporation, Warren M Anderson died. He was officially labeled as a fugitive by Chief Judicial Magistrate of Bhopal on 1st February 1992 Bhopal disaster. The judge also called him an absconder for failing to appear at the court hearings in a culpable homicide case. Union government had requested the US government to extradite him several times but it was always denied since the first extradition request in 2003 due to lack of evidence.

President presents National Awards for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities

On the occasion of International Day of Persons with Disabilities (3^rd December), President of India, Pranab Mukherjee presented the National Awards for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities. This award function was organized was by the Department of Disability Affairs at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi.
President also inaugurated the first Interactive Web Portal Swavlamban.info made by the Department of Disability for Disabled Persons.

About International Day of Persons with Disabilities

Since 1992, International Day of Persons with Disabilities is promoted by the United Nations on 3^rd December.  It was originally called “International Day of Disabled Persons”. The observance of the Day aims to promote an understanding of disability issues and mobilize support for the dignity, rights and well-being of persons with disabilities. It also seeks to increase awareness of gains to be derived from the integration of persons with disabilities in every aspect of political, social, economic and cultural life.
Theme for International Day of Persons with Disabilities 2014 is Break Barriers, Open Doors: for an inclusive society and development for all.

India ranked 85th in Corruption Perception List (CPI)

Transparency International has ranked India at 85th place in its Corruption Perception Index 2014 (CPI) which enlisted 178 countries. India scored 38 on a scale from 0 (most corrupt) to 100 (least corrupt). The CPI score of India has increased by 2 points in 2014 from its 2013 score of 36, thus helping India’s rank move up to 85 in 2014 from 94 in 2013.
Top 3: Denmark (Score -92), New Zealand (Score -91) and Finland (Score -89)
Bottom 4:  Afghanistan (Score -12), Sudan (Score -11), North Korea (Score -8) and Somalia (Score – 8).
India’s neighbours in Corruption Perception Index 2014

• Bhutan was placed at 30^th
• Sri Lanka was placed at 85th rank along with India.
• China was placed at 100^th
• Pakistan and Nepal were placed at 126^th
• Bangladesh was placed at 145^th
• Afghanistan was placed at 172th rank.

From 2012, the CPI methodology has been updated to provide for year-over-year comparisons.

East zone wins Deodhar trophy 2014-15

East Zone has won the Deodhar Trophy 2014- 15, a cricket tournament, by beating West Zone by 24 runs. The final match was held at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. East Zone won the toss and opted to bat first. East zone captain was Manoj Tiwary while West Zone was led by Yusuf Pathan.
Score: East Zone 269 for 8 in 50 overs beat West Zone 245 in 47.2 overs.
About Deodhar Trophy

• Deodhar Trophy is a List A cricket competition in Indian domestic cricket.
• It is named after Prof. D. B. Deodhar who is known as the Grand Old Man of Indian cricket. The competition was introduced in 1973-74 season. The first trophy was won by South Zone.

Match format: It is a 50-over knockout competition played on an annual basis among the 5 zonal teams – North Zone, South Zone, East Zone, West Zone and Central Zone. Two teams play in a quarter-final match, with the winner progressing to the semi-finals, met with the remaining 3 teams. From then, it is a simple knockout tournament. North Zone has won this trophy with a record of 13 times.

Lok Sabha passes school of Planning & Architecture Bill 2014

Lok Sabha has passed School of Planning and Architecture Bill, 2014. It was passed by a voice vote. This bill seeks to convert three Schools of Planning and Architecture (SPA) into centres of excellence and enable them to confer degrees on students.
The bill also proposes to set up a council for the SPAs similar to IITs and NITs to advise the central government on policy matters in the field of architecture and planning.
Its passage will benefit students of SPA Bhopal and Vijayawada who are still awaiting their degrees. In order to confer degrees, an institute has to be made a deemed university by an act of parliament.

About Schools of Planning and Architecture (SPA)

• The Schools of Planning and Architecture (SPAs) are a group of autonomous public institutes of higher education under Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.
• At present, the SPAs lists three institutes located at Bhopal, Delhi and Vijayawada.
• They were established with the objectives of providing quality Architecture and physical planning education.
• The SPAs primarily offer undergraduate, postgraduate, doctoral and executive education programmes.
• SPA at Delhi was established in 1948. SPA’s at Bhopal and Vijayawada were established in 2008.

Supreme Court sets up ‘Social Justice Bench’ to deal with social issues

Supreme Court has set up a special ‘Social Justice Bench’ in order to exclusively hear cases concerning social issues particularly those related to women, children and underprivileged sections of society. The main intention of setting up ‘Social Justice Bench’ is to provide specialised approach which needed for dealing with these cases.
The special bench will comprise justices Madan B Lokur and U U Lalit and from 12^th December the bench which will assemble every Friday at 2 PM.
This bench will ensure early disposal of such cases and to bring fruits of the rights provided under the Constitution to people.
It will deal specially with the matters relating to society and its members, to secure social justice, one of the ideals of the Indian Constitution.
Under the domain of social justice, several cases highlighting social issues are included. They are

• Release of surplus food grains lying in stocks for the use of people living in the drought-affected areas to frame a fresh scheme for public distribution of food grains.
• To take steps to prevent untimely death of women and children for want of nutritious food.
• Providing hygienic meal besides issues relating to children to provide night shelter to destitute and homeless.
• To provide medical facilities to all the citizens irrespective of their economic condition.
• To provide hygienic drinking water.
• To provide safety and secure living condition for the fair gender who are forced into prostitution etc.

Thus, by setting up the ‘Social Justice Bench’ SC is trying to play a proactive role in order to meet the goals of the Constitution by providing social justice to everyone.

Japan launches asteroid probe Hayabusa-2

Japan has launched H-IIA rocket carrying a space probe- Hayabusa2 destined for a distant asteroid 1999JU3. The H-IIA rocket blasted off from Tanegashima Space Center in the south of Japan. This launch comes just weeks after a Rosetta mission of European Space Agency made historic landing of Philae probe on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

Key facts of this mission:

• Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) sent the probe on a six-year mission. Hayabusa in Japanese means peregrine falcon.
• Project cost: 31-billion-yen ($260-million)
• Mission: This project aims to send the explorer towards the 1999JU3 asteroid in deep space. . It will also study the surface of comet by dropping tiny robots.  It will blast a crater in the asteroid to collect materials unexposed to millennia of wind and radiation, in the hope of answering some fundamental questions about life and the universe
• Duration: It is expected to reach the asteroid in mid-2018 and spend around 18 months in the area. If all goes well, asteroid samples will be returned to Earth in late 2020.

Background

Earlier, Japan’s Hayabusa 1 probe, had made history for round-trip flight to an asteroid- Itokawa from 2003 to 2010. The first Hayabusa mission had encountered several crippling problems, including a fuel leak, failures in its pointing system, and a glitch with the craft’s sample collection system. Despite the challenges, the spacecraft returned to Earth in 2010, carrying a fraction of the asteroid specimens intended.