Daily Current Affairs for State Exams: 02 December 2021

Daily Current Affairs 02/12/2021

India Young Water Professional Programme
Why in News

The first edition of the India Young Water Professional Programme was launched by the Ministry of Jal Shakti.
The launch of the India Young Water Professional Program marks a significant milestone in Australia-India Water relationship.

Key Points

This program has been taken up under the National Hydrology Project, a Central Scheme of DOWR, and RD & GR and supported by the Australian Water Partnership.
This Program will be implemented by Australia India Water Centre (a consortium of Australian and Indian universities).
The seeds for this Program were sowed during a co-design workshop with National Hydrology Project (NHP) on ‘Sustainable Water Management’ in November 2019.
This initiative aims to provide a structured platform for capacity building with strategic and long-term investment to support the water management reforms in India.
Based on the success of this edition, a second phase of it will be planned in the later half of year the 2022.

Related Initiatives:

National Water Mission
Jal Kranti Abhiyan
National Rural Drinking Water Programme
NITI Aayog's Composite Water Management Index
Jal Jeevan Mission
Atal Bhujal Yojana
Jal Shakti Abhiyan

Source: PIB

Union Health Ministry releases NFHS-5 Phase II Findings
Why in News

The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare released the Factsheets of key indicators on population, reproductive and child health, family welfare, nutrition and others for India and 14 States/UTs (clubbed under Phase-II) of the 2019-21 National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5).
The findings of NFHS-5 in respect of 22 States & UTs covered in Phase-I was released in December, 2020.

Key Points

The States and UTs which were surveyed in the Phase-II are Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, NCT of Delhi, Odisha, Puducherry, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
The main objective of successive rounds of the NFHS is to provide reliable and comparable data relating to health and family welfare and other emerging issues.
The NFHS-5 survey work has been conducted in around 6.1 lakh sample households from 707 districts (as on March, 2017) of the country; covering 724,115 women and 101,839 men to provide disaggregated estimates up to district level.
The all-India and State/UT level factsheet released includes information on 131 key indicators.
It provides information on important indicators which are helpful in tracking the progress of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the country.

Key results from India and Phase-II States/UTs NFHS-5 Factsheets:

The Total Fertility Rates (TFR), an average number of children per woman has further declined from 2.2 to 2.0 at the national level and all 14 States/UT’s ranging from 1.4 in Chandigarh to 2.4 in Uttar Pradesh.
All Phase-II States have achieved replacement level of fertility (2.1) except Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh.
Overall Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) has increased substantially from 54% to 67% at all-India level and in almost all Phase-II States/UTs with an exception of Punjab.
Full immunization drive among children aged 12-23 months has recorded substantial improvement from 62 percent to 76 percent at all-India level.
11 out of 14 States/UTs have more than three-fourth of children aged 12-23 months with fully immunization and it is highest (90%) for Odisha.
Child Nutrition indicators show a slight improvement at all-India level as Stunting has declined from 38 percent to 36 percent, wasting from 21 percent to 19 percent and underweight from 36 percent to 32 percent at all India level.
More than half of the children and women (including pregnant women) areanemic in all the phase-II States/UTs and all-India level compared to NFHS-4, in spite of substantial increase in the composition of iron folic acid (IFA) tablets by pregnant women for 180 days or more.
Women's empowerment indicators portray considerable improvement at all India levels and across all the phase-II States/UTs.

Source: PIB

13th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM13)

Why in News

The 13th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM13) was held on 25-26 November 2021 via videoconference.
The Meeting was hosted by the Kingdom of Cambodia and chaired by Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia.

Key Points

The theme of Meeting was “Strengthening Multilateralism for Shared Growth”.
The Vice President, M. Venkaiah Naidu, addressed the Retreat Session of the two-day ASEM Summit in virtual format.
Leaders reaffirmed the importance of this partnership between Asia and Europe in strengthening dialogue and fostering action-oriented cooperation, based on consensus, equal partnership, mutual respect and mutual benefit to further advance a robust, inclusive and open multilateralism capable of addressing global and regional issues, particularly the COVID-19 pandemic.

Facts about Asia–Europe Meeting:

The Asia–Europe Meeting is an Asian–European political dialogue forum to enhance relations and various forms of cooperation between its partners.
Partnership: 53 ASEM Partners (51 countries and 2 regional organisations)
Founded: 1996

Note: The 2021 summit marks the 25th anniversary of the ASEM process.

Source: PIB

World's tallest railway bridge pier to come up in Manipur

Why in News

The Indian Railways is constructing the world's tallest bridge pier in

Key Points

The ambitious project in Manipur is part of the 111 km long Jiribam-Imphal railway line to connect the capital of Manipur with the broad gauge network of the country.
The bridge, which is being built at a pier height of 141 metres, will surpass the existing record of 139 meter of Mala - Rijeka viaduct, Montenegro in Europe.
The work on the bridge will be completed by December 2023.

Source: ET

Sweden's first female Prime Minister resigns hours after appointment

Why in News

Sweden's first ever female Prime Minister, Magdalena Andersson has resigned just hours after she was appointed.

Key Points

Magdalena Andersson was announced as leader but resigned after her coalition partner quit the government and her budget failed to pass.
A former junior swimming champion from the university city of Uppsala, she began her political career in 1996 as political adviser to then-Prime Minister Goran Persson. She has spent the past seven years as finance minister.

Source: HT

Indian Parag Agrawal takes over as CEO of Twitter

Why in News

Indian Parag Agrawal took over as CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of the social media platform Twitter.

Key Points

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has stepped down as Chief Executive of the company paving way for the current chief technical officer, Parag Agrawal, to take over.
Parag Agarwal has joined the list of Indian-origin Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella to head the world's top technology companies.
A Computer Science and Engineering graduate from IIT Bombay, Agrawal is a Ph.D. from Stanford University.

Source: newsonair

Indian tennis player Ramkumar Ramanathan wins maiden singles title on ATP Challenger Tour

Why in News

Indian tennis player Ramkumar Ramanathan won maiden singles title on ATP Challenger Tour in Manama, Bahrain.
This is his maiden Challenger level singles title after 12 years turning a Pro.
He outplayed Evgeny Karlovskiy in the summit clash of the ATP 80 Manama event, in Manama, Bahrain.

Source: newsonair

Noted Telugu Lyricist Sirivennela Seetarama Sastry passes away

Noted poet, Telugu film Lyricist Sirivennela Seetarama Sastry passed away at 66.
Sirivennela Seetarama Sastry wrote about three thousand songs, for over 800 films and most of them, known for their lyrical excellence and also popular.
The Government of India honoured him with Padma Shri award in 2019 and prior to that he received Andhra Pradesh Government Nandi Awards for 11 times and film fare awards for 4 times.

Source: TOI

December 2, International Day for the Abolition of Slavery

Why in News

The International Day for the Abolition of Slavery is observed every year on December 2.

Key Points

The focus of this day is to raise awareness about slavery and put an end to all kinds of slavery existing in the present-day world such as trafficking in persons, sexual exploitation, the worst forms of child labour, forced marriage, and the forced recruitment of children for use in armed conflict.
It is being organized since 1986 by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

Note:

According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) more than 40 million people worldwide are victims of modern slavery.
In addition, more than 150 million children are subject to child labour, accounting for almost one in ten children around the world.

Source: un.org