About: MGNREGA

The Indian Parliament passed the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in 2005.
The mandate of the MGNREGA is to provide at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work at an average daily wage of ₹209.
The scheme is key to providing livelihoods to poor villagers and is a backbone of the rural economy in difficult times.
It is a demand driven wage employment programme and resource transfer from Centre to States is based on the demand for employment in each State.
Overall, 6 crore families hold active job cards under the scheme, and almost 5.5 crore families found work under the scheme in 2019.
The core objectives of the MGNREGS are:
Providing not less than one hundred days of unskilled manual work as a guaranteed employment in a financial year to every household in rural areas as per demand, resulting in creation of productive assets of prescribed quality and durability
Strengthening the livelihood resource base of the poor
Proactively ensuring social inclusion
Strengthening Panchayati Raj Institutions
The goals are:
Social protection for the most vulnerable people living in rural India by guaranteeing wage employment opportunities.
Enhance livelihood security of the rural poor through generation of wage employment opportunities in works leading to creation of durable assets.
Rejuvenate natural resource base of rural areas.
Create a durable and productive rural asset base.
Empowerment of the socially disadvantaged, especially, women, Scheduled Castes (SCs)and Scheduled Tribes (STs), through the processes of a rights-based legislation.
Strengthen decentralised, participatory planning through convergence of various anti-poverty and livelihoods initiatives.
Deepen democracy at the grassroots by strengthening Panchayati Raj Institutions.
Paradigm shift with the implementation of MGNREGA
MGNREGA is bottom-up, people-centered, demand-driven, self-selecting and rights-based programme.
It provides a legal guarantee for wage employment by providing allowances and compensation both in cases of failure to provide work on demand and delays in payment of wages for work undertaken.
Plans and decisions regarding the nature and choice of works to be undertaken, the order in which each worksite selection etc., are all to be made in open assemblies of the Gram Sabha (GS) and ratified by the GP.
Social audit is a new feature, which creates accountability of performance, especially towards immediate stakeholders.
Thus, MGNREGA also marks a break from the relief programmes of the past towards an integrated natural resource management and livelihoods generation perspective.

About: Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)

An exchange-traded fund can be seen as a basket of underlying assets, such as shares, bonds, commodities and indices, that are pooled together into a single entity.


It divides ownership of these assets into shares, which are later sold on the open market. Each share of an ETF gives its owner a proportional stake in the total assets of the fund.

Briefly, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are like mutual funds listed and traded on stock exchanges like shares.

Usually, ETFs are passive funds where the fund manager doesn’t select stocks on your behalf. Instead, the ETF simply copies an index and endeavours to accurately reflect its performance.

In an ETF, one can buy and sell units at prevailing market price on a real time basis during market hours.

The ETFs trading value is based on the net asset value of the underlying stocks that it represents.

ETFs are offered on virtually all asset classes ranging from traditional investments to alternative assets like commodities or currencies.

#Stockmarket #NSE #Equity #MCX

South India’s earliest Sanskrit Inscription found in A.P.



Context :-

The Epigraphy Branch of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has discovered the earliest Sanskrit inscription to have been discovered in South India as on date.

This significant finding is also the earliest epigraphic evidence for ‘Saptamatrika’ cult so far. The discovery was made in Chebrolu village in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh.

The inscription came to light when some local villagers informed ASI authorities about a pillar with some engravings when they were restoring and repairing local Bheemeshwara temple.

ASI called for conservation and preservation of pillar given its historical importance.

Key Findings What is Saptamatrikas?

They are a group of seven female deities worshipped in Hinduism as personifying the energy of their respective consorts.

There are references of Saptamatrika worship in early Kadamba copper plates as well as early Chalukyas and Eastern Chalukya copper plates. But this new discovery predates them by almost 200 years.


The Inscription found:

It is in Sanskrit and in Brahmi characters and was issued by Satavahana king Vijaya in 207 A.D.

The inscription records construction of a prasada (temple), a mandapa (a pavilion for public rituals) and consecration of images on southern side of temple by a person named Kartika for merit of king at temple of Bhagavathi (Goddess) Saktimatruka (Saptamatrika) at Tambrape (which is the ancient name of Chebrolou).

All the available records when verified, proved that Chebrolu inscription of Satavahana king Vijaya issued in his 5th regnal year (207 A.D.) is also the earliest datable Sanskrit inscription from South India so far.

Until now the Nagarjunakonda inscription of Ikshavaku king Ehavala Chantamula issued in his 11th regnal year (4th century A.D.) was considered the earliest Sanskrit inscription in South India.

The place also yielded another inscription which is in Prakrit language and of Brahmi characters and belongs to 1st century A.D.

This is thus the earliest epigraphic reference to Mutts and records gift of a cloister mandapa and chaitya to bhavatho (Lord) of the Gadasa Mutt by by a person hailing from Tabaava.

Source :- The Hindu

Mahadayi Project: Goa gets relief


Context :-

Union Environment Ministry kept in suspension its letter issued to Karnataka which had stated no environmental clearance was required for Kalasa Banduri Project.

About Kalasa Banduri project :
The project involves diverting water from Mahadayi river, the lifeline of Goa, into the Malaprabha river.

The Kalasa Banduri project is aimed at providing drinking water to three important districts of north Karnataka — Belagavi, Gadag and Dharwad — which go parched in summer due to acute water scarcity.

Mahadayi river originates from a cluster of 30 springs at Bhimgad in the Western Ghats in the Belgaum district of Karnataka. Then it enters Goa and finally drains in Arabian sea.

Goa state capital Panaji lies on the banks of Mandovi

Mahadayi Water Tribunal (MWT) Award in 2018:Karnataka has been allocated 13.5tmcft of water, Goa has been 24tmcft while Maharashtra has been allocated 1.3tmcft.

Source :- The Hindu

Best countries for female workers

• Nine of the 10 best OECD countries for working women are in Europe, and two of the top three are in the Nordics.
• And although there is progress being made in other parts of the world to close the gender equality gap, there is still a lot of work to be done.
• This is according to the PwC Women in Work Index 2019, which identified a gradual improvement across the OECD for female economic empowerment.
• The two top spots are unchanged, with Iceland’s position as the top performer strengthened by an increase in female labour force participation and a fall in the female unemployment rate.
• One reason for Sweden’s consistently high performance is its progressive parental leave legislation, which actively encourages men to use their statutory time off.
• Norway was knocked out of the top five by Slovenia, which saw a rising number of women in work.
• New Zealand, the only non-European OECD country in the top 10, sits in third place – its highest ever placing in the index.
• Luxembourg and Poland also made significant improvements, through narrowing the gender pay gap and a large reduction in the female unemployment rate, respectively.


• However, Portugal, the US and Austria all fell significantly; Portugal saw a substantial rise in its gender pay gap while the US and Austria experienced a drop in female labour force participation and full-time employment, respectively.
• PwC also looked at the relative performance of two non-OECD countries – China and India.
• China would have ranked between Slovakia (26) and Japan (27). It has a larger than average (among the OECD) gender pay gap of 25% coupled with a relatively high proportion of working women in full-time employment – at 89%.
• Meanwhile, India would be languishing right at the bottom of the PwC index. It has a substantial gender pay gap of 36% (higher than any other OECD nation) and relatively low levels of female participation in the workforce.
• If India could get female employment up to the same rate as Sweden (69%) it could potentially generate an extra $7 trillion – approximately 79% of India’s GDP.

Centre launches EChO Network to catalyze cross-disciplinary leadership in India


Context :-

• Government of India launched EChO Network, a national program to provide a template for cross-disciplinary leadership in India. The network specifically focuses on increasing research, knowledge, and awareness of Indian ecology and the environment. It was launched in New Delhi by Prof. K Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser to Centre. 

Currently, no such network is present anywhere in world, thereby, EChO Network establishes a new platform to change how science is embedded in our modern society.

About EChO Network

Founding Partners of EChO Network : 

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP), Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), India Climate Collaborative (ICC), RoundGlass and Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment (ATREE).

Objective : To bring together leaders and individuals working hard to make a positive difference for Indian ecosystem and to share knowledge and synergize their efforts under umbrella of science.

India has recently undertaken many national-level efforts for promoting ecological and environmental research on subcontinent, however, there still remains a lacuna of trained scientists with interdisciplinary skills and collaborative mindset.

Therefore, this network will inspire an entirely new approach to Indian education and exploration necessary for the post-technological world.

EChO Network would develop a national network to catalyse a new generation of Indians who can synthesize interdisciplinary concepts with strong technological expertise and knowledge as well as tackle real-world problems in agriculture, medicine, technology and ecology.

The Network will identify gaps in knowledge regarding selected topics in human and environmental ecosystems, with help of regular interactive sessions with citizens, industry, academia, and the government.

The program will also train postdoctoral leaders in research and outreach on selected topics, while also incorporating current public and private efforts into a national network.

Eventually, EChO Network intends to create an international distributed institute comprising of individuals housed within government, academic sectors, private, and, industry, thus combining their expertise and resources collectively to tackle large scale problems.

Source :- PIB

SAANS campaign objectives



1. Under SAANS, the government is targeting a reduction in pneumonia-caused deaths by 2025 to less than 3 deaths out of 1000 live births.

2. The health campaign will mobilise people to protect children from pneumonia and train health personnel and other stakeholders to provide prioritised treatment to control the disease.

3. A child suffering from pneumonia can be treated with a pre-referral dose of anti-biotic amoxicillin by Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers.

4. Under SAANS, health and wellness centres can use pulse oximeter (device to monitor oxygen saturation) to identify low oxygen levels in the blood of a child, and if required, treat him by use of oxygen cylinders.

5. A mass awareness campaign will also be launched about effective solutions for pneumonia prevention such as breastfeeding, and age-appropriate complementary feeding, immunization, good quality air, etc.