Daily Current Affairs for State Exams: 16.04.2021

The Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India Prof. K VijayRaghavan launched the “MANAS” App to promote wellbeing across age groups.
MANAS which stands for Mental Health and Normalcy Augmentation System was endorsed as a national program by the Prime Minister’s Science, Technology, and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC).
MANAS is a comprehensive, scalable, and national digital wellbeing platform and an app developed to augment mental well-being of Indian citizens.
MANAS was initiated by the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India. It was jointly executed by NIMHANS Bengaluru, AFMC Pune and C-DAC Bengaluru.
Note: In India, the Mental Health Care Act 2017 was passed on 7 April 2017 and came into force from 29 May 2018.

2. “Online Grievance Management Portal” for persons from scheduled castes launched

Union Minister for Communication & IT and Law & Justice Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad launched the “Online Grievance Management Portal of National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC)” at a function organised by NCSC on the occasion of 130th birth anniversary of Bharat Ratna Baba Saheb Dr. B. R. Ambedkar.
NCSC Grievance Management portal would make it easier for the Scheduled Castes population of country to register their complaint from any part of the country.
The portal designed in collaboration with the Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geoinformatics (BISAG-N), a Centre of Excellence under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India will facilitate an end-to-end e-filing of complaints and grievances and their tracking.
About the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC): It was set up under Article 338 of the Constitution of India.

Microsoft has come forward to start a pilot project in selected 100 villages in 10 districts of 6 states (Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Andhra Pradesh) to develop farmer interface for smart and well-organized agriculture, including post-harvest management and distribution.
For this project, Microsoft has joined in with its local partner, CropData.
This project will reduce the input costs for farmers and make farming easy.
The government aims to increase the income of farmers by removing the bottleneck of inconsistent information. A major initiative, in this regard, is the creation of Agri-Funds based on the National Farmers Database.
Note: Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar recently launched a 'National Nursery Portal' developed by the National Horticulture Board to connect nursery operators with consumers.

Udhampur district of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has bagged top position at National level for successfully implementing Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) during 2020-21.
The district has received top position for constructing roads of 560.49 km in 2020-21.
However, four more districts from the Union Territory have also figured in the list of PMGSY top performing 30 districts in the country. It includes Rajouri, Doda, Kathua and Reasi districts of Jammu division of Jammu and Kashmir.
Chhattisgarh bagged the first place among all states/UT for developing the highest road length under PMGSY, Uttarakhand (2^nd place), Jammu & Kashmir (3^rd place).
Facts about Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY): It is a nationwide plan in India to provide good all-weather road connectivity to unconnected villages.

The first National Level Dialogue on Agri-Food Systems-Advancing Equitable Livelihoods was conducted on 12 April 2021.
The National Dialogue was facilitated by the Inter departmental Group constituted by Department of Agriculture Cooperation & Farmers Welfare and the representatives from UN Agencies in Delhi.
Note: The United Nations Secretary General has called for the first ever UN Food Systems Summit to be held in September 2021to strategize the actions for positive change in Agri-food systems in the World to realize the vision of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The Summit 2021 is planned to be essentially participatory and consultative and needs the game changing ideas from the experiences through the National, Sub-national (State) and independent consultation for the five Action Tracksrelated to safe and nutritious food, sustainable consumption patterns, nature-positive production, advance equitable livelihoods, and resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and stress.

US President Joe Biden has formally announced his decision to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan before September 11, 2021, the 20th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre.
Note: The U.S. and its NATO allies had signed a deal with the Taliban in February 2020 to withdraw their troops from Afghanistan if the Taliban met certain preconditions.
NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) is an international alliance that consists of 30 member states from North America and Europe. It was established at the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty on 4 April 1949.

Eminent Historian and an expert on Awadh especially Lucknow Yogesh Praveen passed away.
Yogesh Praveen had a deep knowledge of the culture and history of Avadh, especially Lucknow.
He was awarded Padma Shri in 2019.
Apart from books he also published poetry. He had received several other awards, including the UP Ratna Award (2000), the National Teachers Award (1999), the Yash Bharti Award (2006), and the UP Sangeet Natak Academy Award (1998).