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The City
Delhi government and MCD schools across the capital held their first-ever joint parents-teacher meeting (PTM), which was aimed at encouraging parents to ensure their kids attend the Mission Buniyaad summer camp in May.
Mission Buniyaad had been launched for children in Delhi government and municipal body schools with the stated aim of ensuring there is “no child in any class who cannot read his/her textbook or solve basic numericals in Maths”.
The main component of the programme is the “summer camp” which is held during the vacation between May and July.
Following this, students, who are still behind, continue to be mentored and monitored through monthly assessments.
A mega PTM is being held in both MCD and Delhi government schools in Delhi. Just as Delhi government schools have been transformed with the help of all students, teachers, and parents, we will now work together to transform MCD schools as well.
Govt & Politics
Govt. revises nutritional standards in its food safety schemes for kids (Page no. 5)
(GS Paper 3, Food Security)
A decade after the National Food Security Act (NFSA) was enacted; the Centre has revised the nutritional standards of meals at schools and anganwadis, augmenting the proportion of calories and protein, while also mandating the inclusion of micronutrients in them.
The amendment has been done on the recommendations of an inter-ministerial committee, which, in its draft report, had also recommended that the serving of eggs as part of government food safety programmes be also made mandatory. However, that proposal has been shelved for now.
However, there are no restrictions on states and Union Territories to add eggs and other items on the menu of food safety programmes such as midday meals (now known as PM Poshan) at schools, or the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme at anganwadis that covers pre-school children, along with pregnant and lactating mothers.
Even if states are hesitant to add eggs, they will have to revise the menu and add more items including pulses and green leafy vegetables to meet the new standards. For now, eggs are part of the midday meal in 14 states and UTs.
In its draft report, the inter-ministerial team had recommended “urgent action”, citing the possible impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in worsening the “silent crisis” of undernutrition.
Editorial
Partners in prosperity (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
On April 26, high-level delegates from the four European Free Trade Association (EFTA) states — Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland — and India met in New Delhi “to discuss the prospects of resuming their negotiations towards a Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA)”.
A joint statement issued at the end of the talks reflects the parties’ common decision to “continue their efforts to resolve all issues outstanding and work towards deepening and strengthening the economic partnership, while contributing to a more inclusive global trading system”, a message of a shared desire to conclude a mutually beneficial TEPA at the earliest — for good reasons.
You might be asking what the relatively small EFTA states, with a total population of just over 14 million, could offer India.
The EFTA states may be small, but their economies stand tall with imports and exports of goods and services close to $1.3 trillion in 2021, making them the 10th largest merchandise traders and eighth largest services traders worldwide.
These small mountainous countries developed their labour force into highly skilled individuals due to topographic conditions that did not allow heavy industries. Today, the four nations rank among the highest in the world in innovation, competitiveness, wealth creation per inhabitant, life expectancy, and quality of life.
EFTA companies are world leaders in pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, machinery manufacturing, R&D-driven technology products, geothermal-related technologies, marine technology, energy-related services, financial services, banking and insurance.
Ideas page
Reimagining ration shops (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 3, Food Security)
The Department of Food and Public Distribution (DoF&PD), in particular the Food Corporation of India (FCI), must have heaved a sigh of relief that the procurement of wheat so far has crossed 20 million tonnes (MT), a notch higher than last year.
Three states — Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh — have contributed more than 98 per cent to the central pool.
In Khanna market in Punjab, which is supposed to be Asia’s largest grain market, almost 80 per cent of the purchases are being made by private trade.
Unseasonal rains have surely damaged the quality of grain in many pockets, and accordingly FCI has relaxed its quality parameters to accommodate lustre loss or shrivelled grain, etc for procurement.
The FCI hopes to procure at least 25 MT, which is sufficient for its public distribution system (PDS) needs. In any case, the corporation has more than comfortable rice stocks that can provide ample cushion to substitute rice for wheat, if and when the need arises.
There is, however, uncertainty about wheat production estimate this year, as was last year. Earlier, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare (MoA&FW) had estimated 112 MT of wheat production.
But after unseasonal rains, the revised estimate is yet to come. Punjab, which seems to have faced quite a rough weather just before the harvest time, is also in the process of estimating losses.
But our interaction with Punjab Agriculture University (PAU) and several market functionaries and farmers have given us the impression that production of wheat this year is higher than last year, notwithstanding the unseasonal rains.
Explained
Subaltern School (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, Education)
Historian Ranajit Guha, on the cusp of turning 100 this May, passed away at his residence in Vienna Woods, Austria, Anandabazar Patrika reported. Guha ushered in a new way of studying South Asia, departing from the primacy of elitist concerns that had previously dominated scholarship.
He, alongside his collaborators (many of whom were his students), began the Subaltern School, which remains one of the most influential post-colonial, post-Marxist schools in history.
Over time, the influence of this school has transcended South Asian history to shape scholarship from across the world and on various facets of life and society.
Born in Siddhakati, Backerganj (present-day Bangladesh) on May 23, 1923, Guha migrated to the UK in 1959. There he was a reader in history at the University of Sussex.
While studying and teaching Indian history, Guha recognised that mainstream historical narratives in and about India were grossly inadequate to study the complexity of India’s past. Crucially, what traditional narratives missed was the voice of underclasses – the subaltern.
The term “subaltern” was first coined by Italian Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci to refer to any class of people (for Gramsci, peasants and workers) subject to the hegemony of another, more powerful class.
This term was picked up by Ranajit Guha and like-minded colleagues in the early 1980s in their attempt to “rectify the elitist bias characteristic of much of research and academic work” in the field of South Asian studies.