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09:03
Agriculture Optional Notes PDF
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Saturday, August 22, 2020
GS SCORE GIST OF KURUKSHETRA July 2020 PDF
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08:45
GS SCORE GIST OF KURUKSHETRA July 2020 PDF
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THE HINDU NEWSPAPER IMPORTANT ARTICLES 22.08.2020
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08:35
Friday, August 21, 2020
Swachh Survekshan Awards 2020 Announced
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19:17
Swachh Survekshan 2020 awards have been announced and Indore became India’s cleanest city for the fourth year in a row. Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri announced the Swachh Survekshan 2020 result at the Award Ceremony ‘Swachh Mahotsav’ in the national capital being organised by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoUHA). This is the fifth edition of the annual cleanliness survey of the country. A total of 129 awards will be handed out to the top-performing cities and states.
Daily Current Affairs, 21st August 2020
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19:07
1) World Senior Citizen Day: 21 August
•The World Senior Citizen Day is observed globally on 21st August every year. This day is celebrated to raise awareness about issues affecting older people, such as deterioration with age and the abuse of the elderly and support, honour and show appreciation to seniors and to recognize their achievements. The World Senior Citizen’s Day also recognises and acknowledges the contributions of older people to society.
2) International Day of Remembrance and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism
•An online high-level event entitled “Not Forgotten: Stories of Remembrance of Victims of Terrorism”, will be held with the participation of the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr António Guterres, for victims to speak about remembrance on their own terms, reminding the audience that it is not only about bereavement, but also about acknowledging the experience of survivors.
3) MoTA partners MoRD to promote sustainable livelihood in Rural India
•The partnership between the two ministries will support the efforts of each other, such as the initiatives of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and objectives of DAY-NRLM deeply complement each other. Hence, they will together improve the economic opportunities available to tribal women by conducting the series of activities to synergize the efforts to fetch tangible results.
4) Harsh Vardhan launches game on COVID-19 “The Corona Fighters”
•Along with “The Corona Fighters” game, the minister also launched IEC’s two promotional videos urging adherence to key COVID-19 Appropriate Behaviours. Both products will seek to influence children, and through them the elders in the community, and spread the message as well as importance of COVID-19 appropriate behaviour.
5) Francisco Asue reappointed as PM of Equatorial Guinea
•Equatorial Guinea, a central African oil producer, has suffered double economic shock due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the drop in the price of crude, which is the source of three-quarters of the state’s revenue. According to the International Monetary Fund figures, the country’s economy is expected to contract by 5.5% in 2020.
6) Keith Rowley becomes PM of Trinidad and Tobago for 2nd consecutive term
•As per the preliminary result, PNM won 22 of the 41 electoral seats, while the opposition United National Congress (UNC) led by former prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar won 19 seats.
7) Ministry of Skill Development partners with Ministry of Shipping
•The Memorandum of Understanding will offer extensive employment opportunities to the youth of coastal areas. It will also strengthen the commitment of Coastal Community Development under Sagar Mala programme launched by the Ministry of Shipping. It will work towards nurturing the skilled manpower for the development of ports as well as maritime sector of India and globally.
8) Atal Innovation Mission signs SoI with Business Sweden
•Through this partnership, various initiatives of Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) like Atal Community Innovation Centers (ACIC), Atal Tinkering Lab (ATL), Atal New India Challenge (ANIC), Atal Incubation Centre (AIC), and Atal Research & Innovation for Small Enterprises (ARISE), will receive support with the help of programs, awareness campaigns, various activities and events which will improve the overall innovation grid of both the countries. India-Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre is an association between AIIMS Delhi, AIIMS Jodhpur and Business Sweden. It seeks to create an ecosystem of open innovation in both the countries.
The HINDU Notes – 21st August 2020
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12:00
📰 The leaders we need in today’s world
Existentialist questions of the day magnify the importance of leadership committed to a liberal, inclusive. egalitarian order
•A tormented world, shaken out of its comfort by a pandemic whose devastating reach mocks humanity’s collective capacity to prevail, yearns for answers about our common future. Glaring and persisting inequities of the world order, accentuated by the virus and the digital divide, foretell the story of a failed leadership and failing realisation of the Millennium Development Goals.
•The question of leadership befitting the moment was, therefore, seldom more relevant. History beckons us once again to summon leadership that can navigate a happy and secure future for all, anchored in the inviolability of values that define our humanity. Whether one subscribes to the view that history is a chronicle of accomplishments of the great men and women of their time, or believes that they do not make history “...as they please but under circumstances existing already...” the centrality of leadership at transformative moments in history stands empirically established. As Will Durant reminds us, leaders “are the very life and blood of history, of which politics and industry are but a frame”. Arnold Toynbee, in his monumental work, A Study Of History , tells us similarly that the rise and fall of civilisations is a history of periodic challenges and our response to them. Clearly, the question of leadership is integral to the context that summons it.
A potent cocktail
•A survey of the present landscape is both daunting and depressing. The global retreat of democracies, relegation of the ethical imperative to an obsessive pursuit of raw power as an end in itself, a crisis of institutional legitimacy, and the challenge of forging a political consensus needed for hard but necessary decisions interrogate the proclaimed assumptions of democratic resilience. The rise of ‘jingoistic nationalism’ in confrontation with an international cooperative endeavour to face common challenges, a skewed balance between demands of security and sanctity of civil rights, the sordid saga of fake news and misinformation, an unprecedented global financial crisis that has weakened our collective capacity to rescue national economies, loss of millions of jobs with an estimated $3.4 trillion lost in labour revenue and the resultant social distress, heightened geopolitical rivalries, racism, xenophobia, and woeful absence of a united global response to the challenge of climate change collectively present a potent cocktail of societal instability and political disruption.
•Increasing encroachment of the private sphere by a ‘surveillance state’ through the abuse of digital technologies and Artificial Intelligence systems raise discomforting questions about the flawed dominance of efficiency over ethics and power over principle. Notwithstanding the wholly welcome technological empowerment of vast swathes of humanity, digital inequality, the omnipresence of algorithm-driven platforms and commercial harvesting of personal data raise disquieting questions about an unhindered infraction of privacy rights and human dignity. Issues concerning accountability for autonomous systems, the absence of enforceable global norms on cybersecurity given the expanding reach of cyber bullies, and communal polarisation and violence facilitated by social media raise questions about the future of liberty and dignity in an age of rights. In a world driven by untamed technology, the relationship between its creator as the ‘measure of all things’ and his creation has been reversed. Digital ‘code wars’ are seen as the new ideological confrontation with a potential to divide the world. The diminished authority of the state to regulate the impact of technology on our social and political life questions the original premises of the social compact. The ‘insidious creep’ challenges the idea of the democratic state itself.
•The absence of an enforceable philosophical framework of values defining the boundaries of the digital world in which life as a drama of decisions is supplanted by algorithms and robots impels an unhurried reflection on the kind of world we want and the choices we must make. The new world in which life will be re-engineered and adapted to unprecedented changes will need extraordinary leadership that can apply knowledge of the new age to challenges of the future within a moral framework that celebrates freedom and fairness as cherished values.
•Leaders moulded in different frames are expected to follow their own trajectories, hopefully without falling to the seduction of absolute power induced by narrow nationalisms. Indeed, they must decide the bridges they should burn and those they must cross. Leaders are expected to mould the collective reflections of the people and flesh out a vision befitting the task at hand. They must reconcile power with public sentiment. In a world scarred by conflict and injustice, leadership is about giving hope in the future to the marginalised and respecting aspirations and mediating amongst competing views to forge a sustainable political consensus through powerful messaging.
True leadership
•Integrity, consistency, empathy, relentless determination, self-effacing humility, a binding moral compass and the ability to motivate masses within the inviolate ethical and ideological framework of politics are leadership attributes more relevant today than ever. A largeness of heart willing and able to rise above the petty and personal, together with intellectual depth necessary to lead the battle of ideas for the establishment of a dignitarian global society, best define the qualities of leadership in these troubled times. Arrogance, ignorance, obduracy, boastfulness, and ‘scapegoating’ have no place in the lexicon of elevating leadership needed to address the vexed questions that we confront. True leadership is about loyalty to larger purposes of the day and which, when confronted with a necessary choice, owes no apology to other multiple loyalties. It is about investing politics with a high moral purpose.
•Existentialist questions of the day magnify the importance of inspiring leadership committed to a liberal, inclusive and a truly egalitarian order. The time for such a leadership is here. Those aspiring to lead will have many challenges to meet and lessons to learn.
📰 The marriage age misconception
