SOHRAI KHOVAR PAINTING; TELANGANA’S TELIA RUMAL
Context :
Jharkhand’s Sohrai Khovar painting and Telangana’s Telia Rumal were given the Geographical Indication (GI) tag by the Geographical Indications Registry headquartered in Chennai.
Sohrai Khovar painting :
- The Sohrai Khovar painting is a traditional and ritualistic mural art being practised by local tribal women during local harvest and marriage seasons using local, naturally available soils of different colours in the area of Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand.
- The Sohrai Khovar painting is primarily being practised only in the district of Hazaribagh. However, in recent years, for promotional purposes, it has been seen in other parts of Jharkhand.
- Traditionally painted on the walls of mud houses, they are now seen on other surfaces, too.
- The style features a profusion of lines, dots, animal figures and plants, often representing religious iconography.
Telia Rumal :
- Telia Rumal cloth of Telangana involves intricate handmade work with cotton loom displaying a variety of designs and motifs in three particular colours — red, black and white.
- Telia Rumal can only be created using the traditional handloom process and not by any other mechanical means as otherwise, the very quality of the Rumal would be lost.
- Telia Rumals are offered at the dargah of Ajmer Sharif in Rajasthan, with some devotees offering 50 or even 100 cloths. Telia Rumals were worn as a veil by princesses at the erstwhile court of the Nizam of Hyderabad; and as a turban cloth by Arabs in the Middle East.
Sero-Survey
Context :
Indian Council of Medical Research, ICMR and National Centre for Disease Control are going to initiate a population-based sero-survey in selected districts to monitor the trend in prevalence of COVID-19 infection at district level.
Aim : The aim is to monitor the trend in prevalence of SARS-COV2 infection at the district level.
Key Facts :
- A sero-survey involves testing of blood serum of a group of individuals and this will be used to monitor trends in prevalence of the novel coronavirus, or SARS-COV-2, infection at the district level.
- The agencies will use a combination of RT-PCR and Elisa antibody kits for these surveys.
- The facility-oriented surveillance is an expansion of the testing of flu and serious respiratory cases in hospitals being carried out by the government.
- The surveillance will be conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research and the National Centre for Disease Control in collaboration with key stakeholders and state health departments.
Global Nutrition Report 2020
Context :
The Global Nutrition Report 2020 stated that India is among 88 countries that are likely to miss global nutrition targets by 2025. It also identified the country as one with the highest rates of domestic inequalities in malnutrition.
India’s Status :
- India will miss targets for all four nutritional indicators for which there is data available, i.e.
- Stunting among under-5 children,
- Anaemia among women of reproductive age,
- Childhood overweight and
- Exclusive breastfeeding.
- Stunting and wasting among children
- Data: 37.9% of children under 5 years are stunted and 20.8% are wasted, compared to the Asia average of 22.7% and 9.4% respectively.
- Inequity:
- India is identified as among the three worst countries, along with Nigeria and Indonesia, for steep within-country disparities in stunting, where the levels varied four-fold across communities.
- For example, Stunting level in Uttar Pradesh is over 40% and their rate among individuals in the lowest income group is more than double those in the highest income group at 22.0% and 50.7%, respectively.
- In addition, stunting prevalence is 10.1% higher in rural areas compared to urban areas.
- Overweight and Obesity
- Data: Rate of overweight and obesity continues to rise, affecting almost a fifth of the adults, at 21.6% of women and 17.8% of men.
- Inequity: There are nearly double as many obese adult females than there are males (5.1% compared to 2.7%).
- Anaemia
- One in two women of reproductive age is anaemic.
- Underweight children
- Between 2000 and 2016, rates of underweight have decreased from 66.0% to 58.1% for boys and 54.2% to 50.1% in girls.
- However, this is still high compared to the average of 35.6% for boys and 31.8% for girls in Asia.
STATE OF THE WORLD’S NURSING REPORT 2020
Context :
During the ‘Year of the Nurse and Midwife,’ WHO has released the first ever State of the world’s nursing report. It has been developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) in partnership with the International Council of Nurses and the global Nursing Now campaign.
Higlights of the Report :
- Nursing is the largest occupational group in the health sector, accounting for approximately 59% of the health professions.
- The 27.9 million global nursing personnel include 19.3 million (69%) professional nurses, 6.0 million (22%) associate professional nurses and 2.6 million (9%) who are not classified either way.
- The global shortage of nurses is estimated to be 5.9 million nurses in 2018. The report calls for creating at least 6 million new nursing jobs by 2030, primarily in low- and middle-income countries.
- The countries accounting for the largest shortages (in numerical terms) in 2018 included Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nigeria and Pakistan.
Source : WHO
CHAMPIONS Portal for MSME
Context :
Recently, the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) has launched CHAMPIONS portal.
About :
- The CHAMPIONS stands here for Creation and Harmonious Application of Modern Processes for Increasing the Output and National Strength.
- It is a technology driven Control Room-Cum-Management Information System which utilises modern information and communication technology (ICT) tools.
- In addition to ICT tools including telephone, internet and video conference, the system is enabled by Artificial Intelligence, Data Analytics and Machine Learning.
- It is also fully integrated on a real time basis with the Government of India’s main grievances portal Centralized Public Grievances Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) and the Ministry’s other web based mechanisms.
- The entire ICT architecture is created in house with the help of the National Informatics Centre.
- A network of control rooms is created in the Hub & Spoke Model.
- The Hub is situated in New Delhi in the Secretary MSME’s office.
- The spokes will be in the States in various offices and institutions of the Ministry.
- Aim: To assist Indian MSMEs march into the big league as National and Global CHAMPIONS by solving their grievances and encouraging, supporting, helping and hand holding them.
- Three basic objectives:
- Support: To help the MSMEs in this difficult situation in terms of finance, raw materials, labour, permissions, etc.
- Explore: To help them capture new opportunities like manufacturing of medical accessories and products like Personal Protection Equipments (PPEs), masks, etc.
- Promote: To identify the sparks, i.e., the bright MSMEs who can not only withstand but can also become national and international champions.