PIB Analysis : 8th July

PIB Analysis for UPSC CSE

Topics Covered

1. Coffee Table Book
2. Organization involved in promoting fine arts and performing arts
3. Capital to Risk-weighted Assets (CRAR)
4. Conservation of Mural Painting
5. Initiatives undertaken to improve the quality of education
6. National Translation Mission
7. Van Dhan Vikas Karyakram

1 . Coffee Table Book

Context : Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar launched a Coffee Table Book today, along with Dr. Hameed Nuru, Representative and Country Director, UN World Food Programme in India, to commemorate five decades of partnership between the Ministry and the agency towards addressing food and nutritional security in India.

About Coffee Table Book

• The Coffee Table Book showcases key milestones achieved by the Government of India in its efforts to make the nation free from hunger and malnutrition and WFP’s role in this endeavour.
• Some of the major turning points in India’s journey towards food and nutrition security captured in the book include the Green Revolution, the White revolution, improvements in livestock and dairy development and digitization of food safety nets.

2 . Organization involved in promoting fine arts and performing arts

Organizations involved

• Sangeet Natak Akademi (SNA) organizes festivals at all over the country, gives grants-in-aid for research, documentation, and publishing in the performing arts; organizes and subsidizes seminars and conferences of subject specialists; documents and records the performing arts for its audio-visual archive.
• Centre for Cultural Resources and Training (CCRT) organizes various training programmes on regular basis towards sensitizing in-service teachers for promotion and preservation of Indian Arts, Culture and Heritage. In each Training Programme regular sessions are held on various Classical Dances, Carnatic Classical Music and Hindustani Classical Music. The CCRT also organizes programmes for govt. & non-govt. (NGOs) school students under its Extension and Community Feedback programme in which sessions on Performing Arts are organized. In addition to this, CCRT paid a token honorarium and conveyance to the Experts and his/her accompanists to promote and encourage the Art and Artists. CCRT is also implementing following scholarship/fellowship schemes in various performing, visual & literary art fields:
  • Cultural Talent Search Scholarship Scheme
  • Award of Scholarships to Young Artists (SYA)
  • The Fellowship Scheme for the Award of Fellowship to outstanding persons in the Field of Culture.
• Kalakshetra Foundation (KF) is an institution for national importance for the preservation of classical arts which conducts various art festivals, seminars, workshops to preserve and promote Indian classical arts.
• Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) organizes events on Fine Arts and Performing Arts on a regular basis. It also works towards publicity of its programmes through e-newsletters, social media etc.
• National School of Drama (NSD), an autonomous organization of this Ministry organizes various festivals on regular basis including Bharat Rang Mahotsav, Jashnebachpan, Bal Sangam, Poorvottar Natya Samaroh, National Tribal festivals etc in different parts of the country mainly for the purpose of promotion of performing (Theatre) Arts.

3 . Capital to Risk-weighted Assets (CRAR)

About CRAR

• Capital to Risk (Weighted) Assets Ratio (CRAR) is also known as Capital adequacy Ratio, the ratio of a bank’s capital to its risk.
• The banking regulator tracks a bank’s CAR to ensure that the bank can absorb a reasonable amount of loss and complies with statutory Capital requirements. Higher CRAR indicates a bank is better capitalized.
• The Capital to risk weighted assets ratio is arrived at by dividing the capital of the bank with aggregated risk weighted assets for credit risk, market risk and operational risk.
• The capital to risk-weighted assets ratio is calculated by adding a bank’s tier 1 capital and tier 2 capitals and dividing the total by its total risk-weighted assets.
• As per RBI guidelines, banks are required to maintain a minimum Capital to Risk-weighted Assets (CRAR) of 9% on an ongoing basis.
• Out of the 9 per cent of CAR, 7 per cent has to be met by Tier 1 capital while the remaining 2 per cent by Tier 2 capital. 

4 . Conservation of Mural Painting

The Condition of Buddhist Wall Painting Sites in Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh (Tribal and Backward Areas)

• Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, an autonomous organisation under this Ministry is actively involved in the Government’s endeavor for conservation of Mural Paintings and ancient folk paintings which are on the verge of extinction.
• The project titled ‘The Condition of Buddhist Wall Painting Sites in Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh (Tribal and Backward Areas)’ aimed to develop a laboratory in Ladakh in collaboration with the partner institute especially for Himalayan material – thangkha and manuscript, with wall painting as a super specialty.
• In the first phase of this project, conservations work of (i) Maitreay Temple (Hunder- Nurba), (ii) Karsha Monastery – Nyingm/lakhangand (iii) Gonkhang- Thiksey monastery had been completed.
• Saboo and Diskit Monasteries have a sizeable collection of tangkha that are not in use for puja. 10 thangkas from both monasteries were restored by IGNCA conservation laboratory.
• IGNCA has signed MOU with Central Institute of Buddhist Studies (a Deemed University), Leh, Ladakh to explore, research, and for field work and capacity building programme in this domain.
• In Jammu and Kashmir, the conservation work of Karsha Monastery- Nyingma Lakhang, Gonkhang- Thiksey monastery and in Himachal Pradesh, conservation work of Maitreay Temple (Hunder- Nurba), Saboo and Diskit monasteries has been done by IGNCA.

5 . Initiatives undertaken to improve the quality of education

Different initiatives undertaken by Govt to improve quality of Education

• The Central Government has launched an Integrated Scheme for School Education – Samagra Shiksha, from 2018-19 which subsumes the erstwhile centrally sponsored schemes of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher Education (TE). Under Samagra Shiksha, funds are given to all States and UTs for various  interventions to improve the quality of education such as training of in-service teachers, headmasters and principals, remedial teaching for academically weaker students, provision of library grants to schools, ICT and digital initiatives, strengthening of teacher education institutions, Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan, Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat, etc.
• In order to focus on quality education, the Central rules to the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act have been amended to include reference on class-wise, subject-wise Learning Outcomes for all elementary classes. The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) conducted a National Achievement Survey, under which learning outcomes of students were evaluated, through a District level sampling and gaps were identified.
• Government of India has decided to participate in the Programme for International Students Assessment (PISA) to be conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 2021.
• Approval has been given for conducting a Census based audit called Shagunotsav of all government and government aided schools in all States and UTs. Further, in 2019-20 approval has been given for conducting a School Based Assessment (SBA) of all elementary stage students, to evaluate learning outcomes.
• MHRD has designed a 70 indicators based matrix Performance Grading Index (PGI) to grade the States and UTs.  To collect timely and accurate data, an Educational Management Information System called UDISE+ (UDISE plus) has been launched in 2018-19.
• In 2019-20, approval has been given for setting up Youth and Eco Club in all Government Schools across the country. In order to experience and celebrate the rich cultural diversity of India and to encourage experimental learning, Rangotsav was organized in schools in 2018-19.

6 . National Translation Mission

About National Translation Mission

• The National Translation Mission (NTM) is a scheme launched in 2008 which is being implemented through the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), Mysore to establish translation as an industry in general and to facilitate higher education by making knowledge texts accessible to students and academics in Indian languages.
• Under the scheme, the books of knowledge texts mostly text books of various subjects prescribed in Universities and Colleges are being translated in all Languages of the 8^th Schedule of the Constitution of India. National Translation Mission has so far published 40 Knowledge Text translations in 16 languages (Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Hindi, Kannada, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu).
• NTM has published 6 bilingual dictionaries (English to Indian languages) in collaboration with Pearson Education, India.
• The Mission has trained about 1400 budding translators through 3-week intensive courses (21 days) on ‘Introduction to translation’ and ‘Research Methodology in Translation’

7 . Van Dhan Vikas Karyakram

About Van Dhan Vikas Karyakram

• Van Dhan Vikas Karyakram is an initiative targeting livelihood generation for tribal population by harnessing the wealth of forest i.e. Van Dhan.
• The programme aims to tap into the traditional knowledge and skill sets of tribal people by adding technology and Information Technology for upgradation of output at each stage and to convert the tribal wisdom into a remunerative economic activity.
• Van Dhan Vikas Karyakram seeks to promote and leverage the collective strength of tribal people to achieve a viable scale.
• Implementation of Van Dhan Vikas Karyakram is through Van Dhan Kendras.