Current Affairs - National

Recently, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) organized25th Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) Deep Dive Training program under Cyber Surakshit Bharat initiative.

• It aims to strengthen the cyber security ecosystem in Government organizations in the country.

On 15th December, 2021, the Union Cabinet cleared a bill on electoral reforms, news agency PTI reported.

• The Election Commission has been pushing for key electoral reforms, including linking Aadhaar numbers to the electoral roll, making paid news an electoral offence, increasing the punishment for filing a false affidavit.

The National Investigation Agency(NIA) has approached the Supreme Court against a Bombay High Court order granting statutory bail to advocate and activist Sudha Bharadwaj.

About Default Bail

• Also known as statutory bail, this is a right to bail that accrues when the police fail to complete investigation within a specified period in respect of a person in judicial custody.

Recently, Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Amendment) Bill, 2021 was passed by Lok Sabha.

About the Amendment

• It seeks to replace the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Amendment) Ordinance, 2021.

The Intergovernmental Committee of UNESCO’s 2003 Convention on Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage has inscribed ‘Durga Puja in Kolkata’ on the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) of Humanity during its 16th session being held at Paris, France, from 13th to 18th December 2021.

• The Committee commended Durga Puja for its initiatives to involve marginalized groups, and individuals as well as women in their participation in safeguarding the element.

On 13th December, 2021, Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog and the Royal Embassy of Denmark to India announced the second edition of water innovation challenges to address the global water woes through innovations as part of the Indo-Danish Bilateral Green Strategic partnership.

According to a latest report by the Committee on the Empowerment of Women, there has been poor utilisation of funds in the implementation of scheme in many States.

• According to the report, almost 80 per cent of the funds for the scheme have been used for its advertising and not on sectoral interventions such as in health and education for women.

To improve leadership skills of grassroot women political leaders, the National Commission for Women (NCW) has launched a pan-India capacity building programme - ‘She is a Changemaker’ for women representatives at all levels, gram panchayats to parliament members and political workers including office bearers of National/State political parties.

On 28 November 2021, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment announced the formation of a three-member committee to review the criteria for Economically Weaker Section (EWS) reservations.

Need

• The issue had arisen after NEET aspirants challenged notification dated July 29, 2021 which had announced a 27 per cent quota for OBCs and 10 per cent reservation for EWS in under the All-India Quota category.

NITI Aayog has released the first-ever Multi-dimensional Poverty Index (MPI) of India.

• This baseline report of the national MPI measure is based on the reference period of 2015-16 of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS).