9 February current affairs for jkssb exam
Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit, a political science professor at Savitribai Phule Pune University, has been appointed as the first woman Vice-Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).
• She was appointed by President Ram Nath Kovind, who is the University’s Visitor.
• She will hold the job for the next five years.
• She succeeds M. Jagadesh Kumar, who was appointed Chairperson of the University Grants Commission last week.
• Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is a public central major research university located in New Delhi, India.
• It was established in 1969 and named after Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister.
The Union government released the Central Media Accreditation Guidelines-2022.
• Under this, the accreditation will be withdrawn or suspended if a journalist acts in a manner prejudicial to the country’s security, sovereignty and integrity, friendly
relations with foreign States, public order or is charged with a serious cognizable
offence.
• Among the other circumstances under which the accreditation can be withdrawn/suspended are actions prejudicial to decency, or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence.
• Accredited media persons have been prohibited from using the words “Accredited to the government of India” on public/social media profile, visiting cards, letter heads or on any other form or any published work.
The government’s recent announcement that the maternity benefit programme which provides ₹5,000 for first child will be extended to cover the second child only if it is a girl has met with sharp criticism from activists who have demanded that it be universalised.
• The Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY), launched in 2017, provides ₹5,000 for the birth of the first child to partially compensate a woman for loss of wages.
• It also aims to improve the nutritional well-being of the mother and the child.
• The amount is given in three instalments upon meeting certain conditions.
• It is combined with another scheme, Janani Suraksha Yojana, under which nearly ₹1,000 is given for an institutional birth, so that a woman gets a total of ₹6,000.
• Under the revamped PMMVY under Mission Shakti, the maternity benefit amounting to ₹6000 is also to be provided for the second child, but only if the second is a girl child, to discourage pre-birth sex selection and promote the girl child, Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani told the Lok Sabha.
The PM CARES Fund collected ₹10,990 crore since its inception in March 2020 until March
2021.
• It spent ₹3,976 crore during the 2020-21 financial year, according to the audited financial statement posted on its website.
• As on March 31, 2021, the Fund had an unspent balance of ₹7,044 crore.
• The Fund was set up to deal with “any kind of emergency or distress situation, like posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and to provide relief to the affected.”
• During the year, funds were disbursed for COVID vaccine purchase and testing, ventilators, hospitals, testing labs, oxygen generation plants and migrant welfare.
• Despite an earlier announcement that ₹100 crore would be spent on supporting vaccine development, no such disbursal seems to have been done.
• The Fund was established on March 27, 2020
Aadhaar is not mandatory for registration on the CoWIN portal for COVID-19 vaccination,
the government confirmed in the Supreme Court.
• A Bench led by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud was informed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare that one of the nine identity documents, including passport, driving
licence, PAN card, voter ID card, ration card, can be produced for vaccination.
• The court took note of the submission and disposed of a plea filed by Siddharthshankar Sharma, who claimed that the Aadhaar card was a mandatory requirement for access to the vaccine.
• CoWIN (Covid Vaccine Intelligence Network) is an Indian government web portal for COVID-19 vaccination registration, owned and operated by India's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
The Railway Protection Force has launched a nationwide operation to curb human trafficking.
• As part of “Operation AAHT”, special teams will be deployed on all long-distance trains/routes with focus on rescuing victims, particularly women and children, from the clutches of traffickers.
• The Railways, which operate about 21,000 trains across the country daily, is the most reliable mode of transportation for the traffickers who often move their victims on long-distance trains.
• As part of “Operation AAHT”, the infrastructure and intelligence network of the force could be utilised to collect, collate and analyse clues on victims, source, route, destination, popular trains used by suspects, identity of carriers/agents, kingpins etc and shared with other law-enforcing agencies.
• The RPF could act as a bridge cutting across States to assist the local police in the mission to curb the menace.
Power Minister R K Singh virtually launched Powerthon-2022, a hackathon competition to find technology-driven solutions to solve the complex problems in power distribution and to ensure quality and reliable power supply.
• Mr Singh said, this program is much needed in the power sector.
• He encouraged technologists to come forward not only with solutions to existing problems but also with other problem statements and ideas for reliable power supply.
• He said that ideas and concepts will be rewarded with licence and the development of prototypes will also be fostered.
• The competition will bring together qualified mentors with TSPs, innovators, and other participants from across the nation to create teams that hack for the future and develop solutions that contribute to creating a much more vibrant and efficient electricity network.