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1. Nilmani Phukan and Damodar Mauzo win Jnanpith Award.
India’s highest literary award, the annual Jnanpith is bestowed on writers for “their outstanding contribution towards literature”.
Assamese poet Nilmani Phookan Jr has won the 56th Jnanpith Award, and Konkani novelist Damodar Mauzo has won the 57th Jnanpith Award.
India’s highest literary award, the annual Jnanpith is bestowed on writers for “their outstanding contribution towards literature”.
What is Damodar Mauzo’s contribution to Indian literature?
Mauzo, 77, is based out of Majorda, Goa.
He is notable for his novels, such as Karmelin, and Tsunami Simon, and short stories, such as Teresa’s Man and Other Stories from Goa.
His books have been translated into several Indian languages. His first collection of short stories was Ganthon, published in 1971.
He won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1983 for his novel Karmelin, which revolves around the lives of domestic workers in the Middle East.
It has been translated into 12 languages.
What else is Mauzo known for?
Mauzo is the co-founder of the Goa Arts and Literature Festival. He is also an activist and worked towards the inclusion of Konkani as a language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India in the 1980s, in a movement called Konkani Porjecho Avaz.
Who are Nilmani Phookan Jr and Damodar Mauzo, the winners of Jnanpith Award?
Phookan is a poet of renown, having written Surya Henu Nami Ahe Ei Nodiyedi, Gulapi Jamur Lagna, and Kobita. Primarily a poet, he also writes prose and is a pioneering art critic from Assam, with a focus on folklore and folk art.
Phookan is the third Assamese writer to receive the Jnanpith. Previous awardees were Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya in 1979 and Mamoni Raisom Goswami in 2000.
2. Over one lakh people get pension directly into their bank accounts through SAMPANN Project.
The Communications Ministry said, System for Accounting and Management of Pension – SAMPANN is an ambitious project of the Central Government being implemented by the Controller General of Communication Accounts, Department of Telecommunications. It was dedicated to the nation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in December, 2018.
SAMPANN Project has ensured recurring monthly savings to the government on account of Commission being paid to Banks and Post Offices for payment of Pension which approximately amounts to 11 crore 50 lakh rupees.
The system has helped the Department in faster settlement of pension cases and ease of accounting. More than nine thousand grievances have been settled through the system.
3. 276 Jal Shakti Kendras are set up at district level across the country.
Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat has said that two hundred seventy six Jal Shakti Kendras have been set up in various States and UTs so far including the districts of Kolhapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar, Thane, Jalgaon and Nadurbar in Maharashtra.
All the State Governments including Maharashtra have been requested to set up Jal Shakti Kendras in every district headquarters as a part of the campaign Jal Shakti Kendras (JSK) are to act as knowledge centres for disseminating information related to water conservation.
Union Government in partnership with states is implementing Jal Jeevan Mission-Har Ghar Jal which aims at providing potable water in adequate quantity and of prescribed quality on regular and long term basis to every rural household through tap water connection by 2024.
This scheme has an estimated outlay of 3.60 lakh crore rupees. The Minister also said, under the World Bank-assisted Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project new technologies and innovations were utilised for dam rehabilitation and repairs.
Jal Shakti Ministry in collaboration with Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan had started Catch the Rain, an awareness generation campaign in 623 districts of the country.
4. Two minutes silence observed on Sudden demise of CDS Bipin Rawat in the Parliament House.
In the Rajya Sabha, Deputy Chairman Harivash said, the country has lost an exceptional soldier.
General Rawat was commissioned on 16th December in 1978 into the Fifth Battalion of the Eleventh Gorkha Rifles.
General Rawat had a vast operational experience and served on various frontiers during his four decade service in the army.
Rawat had also commanded a Multi-national Brigade in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
General Rawat was appointed the Vice Chief of the Army Staff before assuming office of Chief of the Army Staff and he was the first Chief of Defence Staff.
General Rawat was awarded several gallantry and distinguished service awards during his service in the Army.
In the Lok Sabha, Speaker Om Birla lauded the contributions made by General Bipin Rawat as the country’s first Chief of Defence Staff.
IAF chopper Mi-17V5 crashed in Tamil Nadu’s Coonoor with CDS Bipin Rawat, wife Madhulika Rawat and 12 other persons aboard.
5. India’s Jhilli Dalabehera won a silver medal in the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships.
In Tashkent, Uzbekistan, which is being held alongside the World Championships.
Jhilli, the 22-year weightlifter from Odisha’s tribal Mayurbhanj district, finished second in the women’s 49 kg, the same weight class in which Mirabai Chanu won silver in Tokyo Olympics Games. Mirabai is not participating in this event as she is on a break.
Jhilli, who is an Asian champion and a bronze medallist in the World junior in 45kg but has moved up to 49kg as 45kg is not a recognised Olympic discipline, came up with the best effort of 73kg in snatch and 94 kg in clean and jerk for a total of 167kg — her personal best in this class.
6. India’s maiden human space mission “Gaganyaan” will be launched in 2023.
India will become the fourth nation in the world to launch a human spaceflight mission after the US, Russia and China.
The major missions like Test vehicle flight for the validation of Crew Escape System performance and the 1st uncrewed mission of Gaganyaan (G1) are scheduled during the beginning of the second half of 2022.
This will be followed by a second uncrewed mission at the end of 2022 carrying “Vyommitra” a spacefaring human robot developed by ISRO and finally the first crewed Gaganyaan mission in 2023.
More than 500 Industries are involved in the launch of Gaganyaan with several research modules, including indigenous health research modules.
The first time in 70 years, the sector has been unlocked for private participation to make India a competitive space market.
The Minister informed that this is the most ambitious space programme undertaken by ISRO till date and it will give a big boost to the Science and Technology development within the country, besides inspiring the Youth and Start-ups to take up bigger challenges and enhance the prestige of the country.
7. World Inequality Report 2022 states, India among the most unequal countries in the world.
As per the latest World Inequality Report 2022, India is a “poor and very unequal country, with an affluent elite,” where 57 percent of the national income is held by the top 10 percent, while the share of the bottom 50 percent is merely 13 percent in 2021.
The average national income of the Indian adult population is Rs 2,04,200, according to the report.
While the bottom 50 percent population’s average national income is at Rs 53,610, the top 10 percent earns around 20 times more at Rs 11,66,520.
Background
“Since the mid-1980s, deregulation and liberalisation policies have led to one of the most extreme increases in income and wealth inequality observed in the world. While the top 1 percent has largely benefited from economic reforms, growth among low and middle-income groups has been relatively slow and poverty persists. Over the past three years, the quality of inequality data released by the government has seriously deteriorated, making it particularly difficult to assess recent inequality changes.”
Source: (World Inequality Report 2022)
8. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman virtually participated in the G20 International Seminar hosted in Bali by the G20 Presidency of Indonesia.
Speaking on the G20’s theme for the year, “Recover Together, Recover Stronger”, the Ministry stressed on the fact that for a strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive recovery of the global economy, it is imperative to ensure collective progress of all countries.
Discussed about the importance of Inclusion, Investment, Innovation and Institutions to support the path of global recovery.
The Finance Minister emphasised on the importance of ensuring affordable and equitable access to vaccines and therapeutics to bridge the divergences being witnessed in the global economic recovery.
Ministry also highlighted that so far India has administered over 1.25 billion doses of vaccines and supplied more than 72 million vaccine doses to over 90 countries.
The present President of Bali is Joko Widodo and it’s capital is Denpasar.
9. Olaf Scholz has been sworn in as Germany’s new chancellor.
Bringing to an end Angela Merkel’s historic 16 years as leader.
He was voted in by the German parliament, where his three-party coalition has a substantial majority, and given a standing ovation.
His centre-left Social Democrats will govern alongside the Greens and the business-friendly Free Democrats. The handover of power marks an end to Mrs Merkel’s 31-year political career.
63-year-old, Mr Scholz, steered the Social Democrats to election victory in late September, positioning himself as the continuity candidate because he played a key role in the Merkel government as vice-chancellor.
Friedrich Ebert was the first holder of the German emperor and Germany was formed in the year 03rd October 1990.
The German parliament, the Bundestag, backed his appointment by 395 votes to 303, and he was then formally appointed as the ninth federal chancellor by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
He takes over from Mrs Merkel at 15:00 local time, heading Germany’s first 16-strong cabinet to include as many women as men.
The new government has ambitious plans to fight climate change by phasing out coal early and focusing on renewable energy, but their initial priority will be tackling the coronavirus pandemic.
10. NASA selects Indian-origin physician Anil Menon as one of astronauts for future missions.
Anil Menon has been selected by NASA along with nine others to be astronauts for future missions, the American space agency has announced. 45 years old Menon, a lieutenant colonel at the US Air Force, was SpaceX’s first flight surgeon, helping to launch the company’s first humans to space during Nasa’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission.
In a statement, NASA announced that it has chosen 10 new astronaut candidates from a field of more than 12,000 applicants to represent the US and work for humanity’s benefit in space.
Menon previously served NASA as the crew flight surgeon for various expeditions taking astronauts to the International Space Station.
Earlier, aeronautical engineer Sirisha Bandla in July became the third Indian-origin woman to fly into space after Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams.
Till now, Squadron leader Rakesh Sharma is the only Indian citizen to travel in space. The former Indian Air Force pilot flew aboard Soyuz T-11 on April 3, 1984.
