Daily Current Affairs : 3rd August

Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE

Topics Covered

1. Institute of Eminence
2. INF Treaty
3. Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial Act
4. Ramon Magsaysay Awards

Read PIB Analysis with Daily current Affairs for comprehensive coverage of Current Affairs

1 . Institute of Eminence

Context : The IITs Madras and Kharagpur, Delhi University, University of Hyderabad, Amritha Vishwa Vidyapeetham and VIT are among the 20 institutions recommended for the grant of the Institute of Eminence status by the University Grants Commission. Satya Bharti Foundation — telecom major Airtel’s philanthropic arm — became the second greenfield institution to be given IoE status

Background

• The Institute of Eminence scheme aimed at developing 20 world-class institutions which would put India on the global education map.
• The Gopalaswami panel initially recommended 11 institutions for the tag in July 2018. The Centre had then accepted six recommendations — IITs Delhi and Bombay, IISc Bangalore, BITS Pilani, Manipal University, and the yet-to-open Jio University. In December, the committee recommended 19 more names and asked the UGC to consider all 30 for the tag.

About Institution of Eminence

• Institutions of Eminence scheme has been launched in order to implement the commitment of the Government to empower the Higher Educational Institutions and to help them become world class teaching and research institutions
• Ten public and ten private institutions are to be identified to emerge as world-class Teaching and Research Institutions. This will enhance affordable access to high quality education for ordinary Indians.
• Those selected will be given greater autonomy and freedom to decide fees, course durations and governance structures. The public institutions will also receive a government grant of ₹1,000 crore, while the private institutions will not get any funding under the scheme.

Objectives of the Scheme

•  to provide for higher education leading to excellence and innovations in such branches of knowledge as may be deemed fit at post-graduate, graduate and research degree levels and award degrees, diplomas and other academic distinctions;
•  to engage in areas of specialization to make distinctive contributions to the objectives of the university education system wherein the academic engagement is clearly distinguishable from programmes of an ordinary nature and is tuned to developing the capacity of the students and the researchers to compete in the global tertiary education marketplace through the acquisition and creation of advanced knowledge in those areas;
•  to provide for high quality teaching and research and for the advancement of knowledge and its dissemination through various research programmes undertaken in-house by substantial number of full time faculty and research scholars in diverse disciplines;
•  to pay special attention to teaching and research in unique and emerging areas of knowledge, including interdisciplinary areas, which are regarded as important for strategic needs of the country but are not being pursued by conventional or existing institutions so far, and award degrees, diplomas and other academic distinctions.
•  to aim to be rated internationally for its teaching and research as a top hundred Institution in the world over time.

The following were the principles used for identifying the (10) Public and (10) Private Institutions, from the list of (15) Public and (15) Private Institutions recommended by the EEC:

1. Since the thrust of the scheme is to prepare institutions for the global rankings, no existing institution which has NOT figured in any of the global/national ranks shall be recommended for the IoE status.
2. Only after exhausting the above criterion, if any slot remains vacant, consideration shall be given to ‘yet to be established (Greenfield)’ proposals. 

2 . INF Treaty

Context : The U.S. and Russia ripped up a Cold War-era missile pact on Friday in a move that raised the spectre of an arms race between the global superpowers.

About INF Treaty

• INF Treaty is the treaty between United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Elimination of Their Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles
• The treaty requires destruction of the ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of between 500 and 5,500 kilometers, their launchers and associated support structures and support equipment within three years after the Treaty enters into force.
• The treaty marked the first time the superpowers had agreed to reduce their nuclear arsenals, eliminate an entire category of nuclear weapons, and utilize extensive on-site inspections for verification.
• As a result of the INF Treaty, the United States and the Soviet Union destroyed a total of 2,692 short-, medium-, and intermediate-range missiles by the treaty’s implementation deadline of June 1, 1991

3 . Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial Act, 1951

What is Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial Act, 1951

• It is an act to provide for the erection and management of a National Memorial to perpetuate the memory of those killed or wounded on the 13th day of April, 1919, in Jallianwala Bagh.
• The act created a trust to maintain the memorial
• The trust that manages the memorial had included the Prime Minister as the chairperson, with the president of the Indian National Congress, Culture Minister, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Punjab Governor and the Punjab Chief Minister as its members now this has been amended

Gist of the Amendment

• The decisions aims to suitably amend the Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial Act, 1951 so as to secure representation as Trustees, “the Leader of Opposition recognized as such in the House of the People, or where there is no such Leader of Opposition, then the Leader of the single largest Opposition Party in the House”.

Benefits

• In the existing Act, there is a provision for representation of a single national political party. Deletion of the party specific member from the Trust will make it apolitical. The proposed amendment ensures representation of the Opposition Party in the Trust. The proposed Amendment will empower the Government to terminate and replace a Trustee to participate in functioning of the Trust or for any other reason.

4 . Ramon Magsaysay Awards

Context : Indian journalist Ravish Kumar has been awarded the 2019 Ramon Magsaysay Award for “harnessing journalism to give voice to the voiceless”. The other winners of the award, dubbed ‘Asia’s premier prize and highest honour’, include Myanmar’s Ko Swe Win, also a journalist; Thailand’s Angkhana Neelapajit, human rights activist; Philippines’ Raymundo Pujante Cayabyab, musician; and South Korea’s Kim Jong-Ki, an activist working with violence and mental health issues in youth.

About Ramon Magsaysay Award

• Ramon del Fierro Magsaysay was the third president of the Republic of the Philippines after World War II. His life had great impact not only in his country but on many people in many lands. He was one of the outstanding leaders of his time.
• Ramon Magsaysay Award is an annual award established to perpetuate former Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay’s example of integrity in governance, courageous service to the people, and pragmatic idealism within a democratic society
• The Ramon Magsaysay Award, is Asia’s premier prize and highest honor, celebrates greatness of spirit and transformative leadership in Asia.
• In the past five decades, the award has been bestowed on over three hundred outstanding men, women and organizations whose selfless service has offered their societies, Asia, and the world successful solutions to some of the most intractable problems of human development.
• The trustees of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation annually select the awardees. Awardees are presented with a certificate and a medallion with an embossed image of Ramon Magsaysay facing right in profile. The Award is presented to them in formal ceremonies in Manila, Philippines on August 31st, the birth anniversary of the much-esteemed Philippine President whose ideals inspired the Award’s creation in 1957.
• In 1958 Vinobha bhave was the first Indian to be conferred the award for community leadership