28 March, The Indian EXPRESS
Lalit Kala Akademi chief's powers curbed by culture ministry (Page no-1)
(GS 2- Statutory, Regulatory and various Quasi-judicial Bodies)
- In an unprecedented move, the Ministry of Culture has curtailed the powers of the Lalit Kala Akademi (LKA) Chairman, V Nagdas, barring him from taking any "administrative actions", including on matters related to re "appointment, recruitment, transfer, disciplinary action and "financial decisions", without consulting the ministry.
- Nagdas, a painter and printmaking artist from Kerala, was appointed to the post on March 13 last year for a three- year term.
- The order issued by the ministry on January 8, 2024, addressed to Nagdas, cites his failure to respond to an earlier "complaint" and also alleges non- compliance with the ministry's "administrative directions".
NREGA wages: Goa sees highest hike of Rupees 34 per day, UP, Uttarakhand lowest at Rupees 7 (Page no-11)
(GS 2- Welfare Schemes for Vulnerable Sections of the population by the Centre and States and the Performance of these Schemes)
- The centre notified new wage rates for unskilled manual workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), 2005 for the financial year 2024-2025, with Goa seeing the maximum hike of 10.56% over the current wage rate, and Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand recording the lowest raise of 3.04% each.
- The new wage rates, notified by the Ministry of Rural Development under sub-section (1) of section 6 of MGNREGA 2005, will become effective from April 1, 2024.
- As per the notification, the highest rate of NREGS wage (Rs 374 per day) has been fixed for Haryana, while the lowest (Rs 234 per day) has been fixed for Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland.
- As far as the state-wise in- crease over the current year (FY 2023-2024) is concerned, Goa has seen the maximum hike of 10.56% (Rs 34), taking the wage to Rs 356 per day for FY 2024-2025 against Rs 322 per day in the current fiscal.
- Three other states Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana - have also seen over 10% hike in the NREGS wages.
India TB report-2024: Missing cases shrinking, 95% got treatment in 2023 (Page no-11)
(GS 2- Issues Relating to Development and Management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health)
- The gap between the estimated number and actual cases of tuberculosis (TB) is closing, according to the India TB Report 2024 re- leased by the Union Health ministry on Wednesday.
- This is an important marker as the "missing cases" are assumed to not have received treatment, continuing to spread the infection to others.
- There were only 2.3 lakh missing cases in 2023, as compared to 3.2 lakh the year before, the report states.
- According to the report, the majority of the TB cases are still re- ported by the government health centres, even as there has been an uptick in notifications by the private sector. Nearly 33% or 8.4 lakh of the 25.5 lakh cases reported in 2023 came from the private sector.
Ukraine Foreign Minister to visit New Delhi today (Page no-11)
(GS 2- Bilateral, Regional and Global Groupings and Agreements involving India and/or affecting India's interests)
- Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba will be visiting Delhi on Thursday, in what is his first visit to India. This visit comes in the backdrop of two years of Russia-Ukraine war, which has had no end in sight.
- During his visit, Kuleba will have a number of engagements, including official meetings with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Deputy NSA Vikram Misri to "discuss matters pertaining to the bilateral partnership and cooperation on regional and global issues of mutual interest," the Ministry of External Affairs said.
- Last week, Prime Minister Modi had held separate conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Zelensky.
Holes in social security (Page no-13)
(GS 3- Indian Economy and issues relating to Planning, Mobilization of Resources, Growth, Development and Employment)
- Social security is a human right, according to the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. The ILO's Recommendation of 2012 has called for all nations to institute a "social protection floor".
- According to the ILO's World Social Protection Report, 2022, India spends too little on social protection. As the events of 2020 and 2021 reminded us, precariousness and vulnerabilities remain concerns, with informal employment in India as high as 90 per cent of the workforce.
- A Crisil report in 2023 found that in the 11 states studied, the share of the economy (gross state domestic prod- uct) devoted to social welfare expenditures increased from 1.2-1.3 per cent on average in 2017-18 to about 1.6 per cent in 2022-23.
- This trend has continued in 2023-24 with several newly elected state governments opting for social protection measures. In the last few weeks, three states - Himachal, Delhi and Chhattisgarh have announced new income transfer schemes for women.
China, Lanka sign 9 pacts as Xi holds talks with Gunawardena (Page no-14)
(GS 2- India and its Neighborhood-Relations)
- China and Sri Lanka signed nine new agreements as Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena met Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qing here amid Colombo's efforts to restructure its to revive its bankrupt economy.
- In his meeting with Gunawardena, Xi called for consolidation of friendly relations between China and Sri Lanka which he said serves the fundamental interests and reflects the common expectations of the two peoples.
- China is willing to work with Sri Lanka to carry forward the spirit of the Rubber-Rice Pact, which is characterised by "independence, self-reliance, unity and mutual support," to consolidate political mutual trust, enhance ex- changes of experience in governance, expand practical cooperation, and advance the high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.
India-Pak: question of trade (Page no-16)
(GS 2- India and its Neighborhood-Relations)
- Pakistan's Foreign Minister Muhammad Ishaq Dar said his country may "seriously examine" the question of resuming trade with India.
- Pakistan stopped trade after the constitutional changes in Jammu and Kashmir in 2019. Like other aspects of the India-Pak relationship, trade too has been impacted by Islamabad's hard line on Kashmir and its support for terrorism.
- The dire state of the Pakistani economy, however, has raised hopes for a change in Pakistan's approach. But New Delhi will keep its fingers crossed.
