itat e-dwar, sometimes seen in the news recently, refers to?

a.   It is an e-filing portal of Income Tax Appellate Tribunal

b.   It is a fabric recently granted GI tag in the Himachal Region

c.   It is an app for Indian pilgrims to register for Haj pilgrimage

d.   It is a tax system followed during Mughals for the protection of their subjects

2)Consider the following statements with respect to International Labour Organization (ILO)

The ILO is founded as part of the Treaty of Versailles that ended the First World War.

In 1946, ILO becomes the first specialized agency of the United Nations.

India is the Chair of Governing Body of International Labour Organization (ILO) from 2022-2024.

Which of the statements given above are correct?

a.   1 and 2 only

b.   1 and 3 only

c.   2 and 3 only

d.   1, 2 and 3

3)Vandana Aggarwal Committee, sometimes seen in the news recently, was constituted recently for which of the following purposes?

a.   To look into issues pertaining to India’s Capital goods Sector

b.   To examine global best practices in ship financing and leasing

c.   To look into the feasibility of allowing life insurers to offer indemnity-based health policies

d.   To advise SEBI on measures required for transparency and simplification in mutual fund regulations

Context: International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) has constituted a committee to examine global best practices in ship financing and leasing, identify opportunities and devise a roadmap to enable such activities from GIFT IFSC.

This committee will be chaired by Ms. Vandana Aggarwal, former Senior Economic Advisor, Government of India.

Need:

• India is strategically located on the world’s shipping routes and has a large coastline of approximately 7,500 km.
• India also has 12 major and over 200 minor ports.
• Data from the Ministry of Shipping suggests that 95% of India’s trading by volume and 70% by value is done via maritime transport.
• Inspite of significant exposure to Shipping, India is yet to develop as an international shipping hub.
• IFSCA aims to provide an enabling regulatory framework and facilitative environment so that GIFT IFSC can become an international hub for Ship Financing & Leasing activities thereby benefitting shipowners, lessors, carriers, ship operators, ship management companies and other stakeholders in the maritime ecosystem.

Purpose of committee:

• The committee is mandated to examine the existing legal, regulatory, tax and other applicable frameworks, identify the bottlenecks pertaining to ship financing & leasing and recommend specific measures required which shall enable ship financing & leasing from IFSC at par with best international practices.
• The committee would submit its recommendations to IFSCA in three months.

Prelims Specific News :-

The world according to the Meiteis: Manipur has a little-known but highly evolved manuscript tradition called puya :- Manipur has a little-known but highly evolved manuscript tradition called puya. Most of the roughly 40,000 manuscripts or puya are not illustrated, but those that are, come with some extremely beautiful drawings. The myths in the puya might be relatively unknown as written stories, but their oral counterparts are likely to be more familiar, since Manipuri civilisation — with its cultural high notes as embodied in nat sankirtan music, declared part of UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage, or Manipuri dance, one of the classical dances of India — is predominantly performative. But manuscripts constitute the core of the patrimony of the essentially non-material civilisation of the Meiteis, who established the feudal kingdom of Manipur.

Jet Airways Revival : Jet Airways, grounded since 2019, took a step closer to revival last week after a bankruptcy court approved the insolvency resolution plan submitted by Kalrock Capital and Dubai-based entrepreneur Murari Lal Jalan.

Major issue remaining :- Time Slot Issue :

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and Ministry of Civil Aviation (MCA) have been given 90 days starting today to allot slots to the airline.

As per the NCLT order, the DGCA will take the final decision on the allotment of slots to the airline. A government official has told the news channel that the DGCA and MCA will study the detailed order before deciding on slots.

The airline’s slots had been allocated to other airlines after it was grounded. The decision marks the first step in what could be the return of India’s oldest and largest private airline.

Tackling vaccine hesitancy challenge in rural India :-

In rural India, concerns about COVID-19 vaccines are now increasingly commonplace.

Vaccination dilemma these days

• People voice their concern about what will happen to them if they get vaccinated and have doubts that the government is sending inferior quality vaccines to them.
• Vaccination sessions in local health centers often see very few or no takers.
• In contrast, urban vaccination sites face increased demand, especially in the 18-45 age group, and vaccine shortage is a major issue.
• From a public health and equity perspective, this is a cause for worry.

Why this failure?

• The fear of vaccines and rural communities not only resisting but also outright rejecting vaccination is a reality.
• Efforts by local health authorities to create awareness and convince people are of little avail.
• There are contrasting dimensions to the COVID-19 vaccine rollout: one where people are enthusiastically accepting it and the other of resistance.
• There are many diverse factors at play in this, which may go beyond the health concerns and have more to do with socio-anthropological aspects of health-seeking behavior.

Vaccine hesitancy

• Vaccine hesitancy refers to delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines despite the availability of vaccine services.
• It is complex and context-specific varying across time, place, and vaccines.
• It is influenced by factors such as complacency, convenience, and confidence.

Its scope

• Vaccine hesitancy is not a recent phenomenon. It is neither limited to a particular community or country nor have we seen it only in the context of COVID-19.
• We have also seen vaccine hesitancy among the urban and the more educated or ‘aware’ populations, with pockets of populations of socio-economically well-off communities refusing to get their kids vaccinated.
• While vaccine hesitancy can lead to a firm rejection of vaccines, there’s also a possibility of people changing their perceptions over time.

Socio-cultural context behind

• Most of our fears and apprehensions stem from a deep impact of something adverse or unfavorable that we have personally experienced or our social circles have experienced.
• Over time these become our beliefs, our innate guards.
• In the context of the concerns described at the beginning of this article, we must look at vaccine hesitancy from a distinct lens of fear and not necessarily skepticism for new vaccines.
• Rather, they seem to indicate deep-seated fears and belief in conspiracies, the fear of perhaps being discriminated and deceived, and of being omitted (from societal benefits).

Building trust

• Communities might not see the impact of a vaccine instantly, as it’s usually preventive in nature rather than curative.
• People are used to taking medications or intravenous fluids when they are unwell or in pain, and they may feel better almost immediately, but that’s not the case with vaccines.
• On the contrary, vaccines administered to a healthy person may lead to occasional side effects like fever, body aches, etc.
• Add to those rumors about deaths post-vaccination, and it may not be so easy for people to get convinced about the vaccines.

Way ahead

• Addressing vaccine hesitancy in rural India would first of all require health systems to be honest and transparent.
• Create awareness, let people know how vaccines work, how they help prevent disease, what are the probable side effects and how they can be managed.
• Health authorities need to be comfortable about people raising questions while providing the answers as best as possible.
• Being cognizant of local cultural sensitivities and working with trusted intermediaries is important in this effort.
• Sustained and meaningful efforts need to be made to build trust, gain the confidence of communities and meet their expectations.
• Even more crucial is to engage communities in planning, execution, and monitoring of health care services at all levels.

Species in News :-

A new species of skittering frog has been identified from the surroundings of the Thattekkad bird sanctuary.

Euphlyctis Kerala

• The new species is named Euphlyctis Kerala in honor of the remarkable biodiversity of the State, which is also known for many endemic species of frogs.
• The new species is known to be found in the freshwater bodies of the foothills of the Western Ghats, south of the Palakkad Gap.
• Although multiple skittering frogs have been described from India for almost two centuries (since 1799), the taxonomic mess within this group created a lot of confusion due to “morphological character crypticity”.
• Members of the genus Euphlyctis (skittering frogs) have their distribution range from Arabian Peninsula, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Thailand.
• As of now, Kerala is known to have 180 species of frogs and there could be many more new species awaiting formal descriptions.