UPSC 2017-18: PIB Summary and Analysis Dec 01

Resource Efficiency (RE) Strategy 

• NITI Aayog and EU Delegation to India release the First ever Resource Efficiency (RE) Strategy for India

The Resource Efficiency Strategy includes the core-action plan for the period 2017-2018 and medium term action plan for 2017 – 2020 with the following key elements:

• Institutional development including setting up an inter-departmental committee and Task force of experts,
• Capacity development at various levels for strengthening of capacities and sharing of best practices,
• Development of an indicator monitoring framework for baseline analysis
• Launch of Short term course on RE under the MHRD GIAN Programme
• Promotional and regulatory tools in selected sectors (automotive and construction) such as Eco labeling for Secondary Raw Material (SRM) products, recycling standards, R&D and Technology Development, Sustainable Public Procurement, development of Industrial clusters and waste-exchange platform, information sharing & awareness generation along with development of sectoral action plans.

Background:

• Resource efficiency is a strategy to achieve the maximum possible benefit with least possible resource input.
• Fostering resource efficiency aims at governing and intensifying resource utilisation in a purposeful and effective way.
• Such judicious resource use brings about multiple benefits along the three dimensions of sustainable development – economic, social and environmental.

Kathakar: International Storytellers Festival 

Context

• The Minister of State for Home Affairs Shri Kiren Rijiju will inaugurate 7th edition of three day ‘Kathakar: International Storytellers Festival’ at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts ( IGNCA), New Delhi.
• Kathakar is the only oral storytelling festival in India and is a part of Ghummakkad Narain- the Travelling Literature Festival which was started under the aegis of UNESCO in 2010. Kathakar is an attempt to not just preserve the art form but also create new audiences for the same.
• The partners for this year’s festival are the IGNCA of Union Ministry of Culture in Delhi, Heritage Transport Museum in Gurugram and the NCPA in Mumbai.

Highlights

• The highlight of the inaugural session is the launch of the book ‘Curious Tales from the Himalayas’ co-authored by Shaguna Gahilote and Prarthana Gahilote.
• For the first time, the festival in Delhi will also have a circus Act performed by children from the slums trained by Sweedish Circus master Andreo.
• There will also be stories of Deendayal Upadhyay and Nanaji Deshmukh, celebrated by the Government of India.
• Vishal Bharadwaj and Mohit Chauhan will be coming together for the first time to share folk stories through music.
• Adding to that will be the two puppeteers from Italy and Andhra Pradesh who are not just master of their work but also the last ones promoting and practicing the art.

Milad un-Nabi

• Muslims in India observe Milad un-Nabi, which commemorates the Prophet Muhammad’s (or Mohammad’s) birthday
• Those who observe Milad-un-Nabi gatherings remember, discuss and celebrate the advent of the Prophet Muhammad’s birth and his teachings.

Hornbill Festival 

• The Hornbill Festival is a celebration held every year in Nagaland. It is also called the ‘Festival of Festivals’.
• It draws all the tribes and sub-tribes of Nagaland to the foothills below the lofty spurs of towering Mount Japfü wherin lies Naga Heritage Village, Kisama – the venue of hte Festival.
• The Hornbill Festival at Kisama and the International Music Festival represent the diversity of Naga society.
• It plays host to a weeklong medly of cultural performances, indigenous games, craft bazaar, music events, fashion, cycling, motor sporting, events, a kids carnival, floral galleria, food courts, film festival and a series of competitions in various activities.
• The President said that Nagaland has so much to offer. The strength of the state lies in its organic farm produce, flowers and fruits. Nagaland has rare medicinal plants and herbs that can help create jobs and boost the economy. He mentioned Naga jolokia, called King Chilli locally, one of the hottest chilli peppers of the world, and said we need to bottle it into one of the hottest selling sauces of the world.

National Nutrition Mission 

The proposal consists of

• mapping of various Schemes contributing towards addressing malnutrition
• introducing a very robust convergence mechanism
• ICT based Real Time Monitoring system
• incentivizing States/UTs for meeting the targets
• incentivizing Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) for using IT based tools
• eliminating registers used by AWWs
• introducing measurement of height of children at the Anganwadi Centres (AWCs)
• Social Audits
• setting-up Nutrition Resource Centres, involving masses through Jan Andolan for their participation on nutrition through various activities, among others

Major impact:

• The programme through the targets will strive to reduce the level of stunting, under-nutrition, anemia and low birth weight babies. It will create synergy, ensure better monitoring, issue alerts for timely action, and encourage States/UTs to perform, guide and supervise the line Ministries and States/UTs to achieve the targeted goals.

Benefits & Coverage:

• More than 10 crore people will be benefitted by this programme. All the States and districts will be covered in a phased manner

Implementation strategy and targets:

• Implementation strategy would be based on intense monitoring and Convergence Action Plan right upto the grass root level.
• NNM will be rolled out in three phases from 2017-18 to 2019-20. NNM targets to reduce stunting, under-nutrition, anemia (among young children, women and adolescent girls) and reduce low birth weight by 2%, 2%, 3% and 2% per annum respectively.
• Although the target to reduce Stunting is atleast 2% p.a., Mission would strive to achieve reduction in Stunting from 38.4% (NFHS-4) to 25% by 2022 (Mission 25 by 2022).