Daily PIB Analysis For UPSC/IAS | Free PDF Download -25th September 2018 -

Table of Contents

Higher Education in India and UGC

University Grants Commission (UGC): directs VCs of Unis to celebrate Surgical Strike Day on 29th Sep 2018.
The activities include parades, lectures by exservicemen and letter writing to pledge support for armed forces.
Why UGC has zeroed in on commemorating the 2016 surgical strike with enthusiasm, even our forces have tasted bigger glories in many other operations.
65 years ago UGC took birth to redeem India’s higher education.
But it has let the nation down.
When we compare our HEIs with their foreign counterpart we realize that we are far behind them.
For example, in the Times Higher Education list for Asian universities in 2018, the highest ranked Indian institutes slipped in relation to the previous year.
Education is at the heart of any attempt to equip a society to fulfil its potential.
Over last decade we have witnessed many bright minds heading out of India for higher education itself indicates that when it comes to winning the trust of our students our HEIs have failed us.
One of the main reason for the pollution of our HE is too much of politics going on in most of the institutions.

PMO

Speaking at a programme after dedicating Sikkim’s first airport at Pakyong near Gangtok to the nation today, Mr Modi reiterated his commitment to the Mantra of Sab Ka Saath- Sab Ka Vikas.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said, government is committed to make the Northeast region an engine of India’s growth story.
The Prime Minister said, for the first time since independence, stress has been given on increasing connectivity by both air and rail and providing electricity in remote areas of the North East and building infrastructure.
Mr Modi said, previous governments worked in a slow pace for ushering in development.
The Prime Minister said, the greenfield airport in Sikkim will not just improve connectivity, but will also boost tourism and other economic activities in the state.
Mr Modi said, it will lead to creation of more jobs for the youth and greater economic activity in the state. He said, the central government is taking steps to encourage organic farming in the state.
The Prime Minister said, the Centre has started Mission Organic Value Development in the region.
The scheme has been approved with an outlay of 400 crore rupees.
Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu, who was also present on the occasion, said the dream of the people of Sikkim to have an airport of their own has now come true.
Civil Aviation Secretary Rajiv Nayan Choubey said, the Pakyong Airport has been built at a cost of over 600 crore rupees.
He said, Commercial flights at the airport will begin from 4th of next month. Pakyong Airport Director R Manjunatha said, the airport will later provide international flight services, connecting Sikkim with other countries like Paro in Bhutan, Kathmandu in Nepal and Dhaka in Bangladesh.

Vice President’s Secretariat

- Scientists and Researchers at the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), in Hyderabad.
- Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu has said that Scientists play a key role in providing data and should focus on the requirements of the common man, more importantly of the farmer, and help in formulating strategies for better Governance.

The Vice President said that ISRO with its state-of-the-art facilities has been harnessing space technology for rural and urban development.
He further said that ISRO maintains one of the largest fleet of communication and remote sensing satellites with the versatile workhorse, Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) becoming a favoured carrier.
The Vice President said that rural development is vital for the country’s growth and several national flagship programmes are being implemented in the country for the same.
For effective implementation of those schemes, there is a need for optimal utilisation of satellite data for mapping and monitoring the resources and also take up impact assessment studies, he added.
Saying that India is committed to accord high priority to water conservation and its management through Watershed Development Component of Kisan Sinchaayi Yojana, the Vice President said that satellite data is being used to verify the execution of works under watershed development programme and also to assess the impact in terms of additional crop area.

Nambi Narayanan

Rocket scientist Nambi Narayanan had his career cut short, life disrupted and life experience stretched to the prison, where he spent 50 days, because of wrongful police action, political expedience and slow judicial procedure.
He was arrested in 1994 and the case against him was dismissed in 1998.
Supreme Court has ordered the government of Kerala to give him Rs 50 lakh as compensation
Dr Narayan Nerurkar, who was accused, in 1987, of leaking official documents of a military nature. The case against him was dismissed by a trial court 31years later.
Formerly India’s representative to Russian space agency Glavkosmos and one of the seven accused in the 1994 Isro spy case, Chandrasekhar, 76, slipped into a coma on Friday morning, hours before the Supreme Court announced a Rs 50 lakh compensation for Isro scientist Nambi Narayanan + , another accused in the spy scandal.
“It was the day he’d been waiting for but when it finally arrived, it was too late.”
These are examples of miscarriage of justice, individual suffering and national loss because the victims were scientists working for government projects.
If only the police personnel responsible for fabricating cases and their superiors are given exemplary punishment, even after retirement, would future fabricators of false cases be deterred.

SC

The Supreme Court today referred the plea challenging the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) of minor girls, among Dawoodi Bohra Muslims to a five-judge constitution bench.
The plea stated that female genital mutilation is performed illegally upon minor girls, and is against the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, of which is India is a signatory. It added that the practice also caused permanent disfiguration to the child’s body.