CURRENT AFFAIRS

The lack of reliable jobs data could bring a decade-long effort to improve estimates of informal sector activity (which feeds into GDP calculation) to a creaking halt

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Why in News?
Recently, provisional results of the Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) was released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
The survey was conducted during April 2021 to January 2022 through ASI Web Portal.

Why in News?
Recently, the second-year anniversary of National AI Portal was celebrated on 30th May, 2022.
What is the National AI Portal?
About:
Launched in 2020, it is a joint initiative by the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), National e-Governance Division (NeGD) and NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Services Companies).

Why in News?

The government is in the process of taking ‘advanced action’ to expedite the privatisation of public sector banks.

The government is geared up to take further steps to rein in inflation as well as maintain economic stability and growth.

Why in News?
India's eight core sector industries showed a robust growth of 8.4% in April compared to 4.9% in March 2022.
The eight core sector industries comprise 40.27% of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).
The eight core sector industries in decreasing order of their weightage are: Refinery Products> Electricity> Steel> Coal> Crude Oil> Natural Gas> Cement> Fertilizers.

Why in News?
Recently, Bihar government has announced that it will undertake a socio-economic survey of all castes and communities (SECC).
What is the Difference between Census and SECC?
Census:
The origin of the Census in India goes back to the colonial exercise of 1881.
Census has evolved and been used by the government, policymakers, academics, and others to capture the Indian population, access resources, map social change, delimitation exercise, etc.
However, as early as the 1940s, W.W.M. Yeatts, Census Commissioner for India for the 1941 Census, had pointed out that “the census is a large, immensely powerful, but blunt instrument unsuited for specialized inquiry.”

Why in News?
Recently, the Tracking SDG 7 – The Energy Progress Report 2022 was released which showed that the Russia-Ukraine war and Covid-19 crisis have considerably slowed down efforts towards attaining the Seventh Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 7) target.
The Energy Progress Report is a product of close collaboration among the five SDG 7 custodian agencies in the form of a specially constituted Steering Group:
International Energy Agency (IEA), International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), World Bank, World Health Organization (WHO).

Why in News?
Recently, the Ministry of Finance has revised the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) rules, where the interest that the fund accrues will be deposited in the Consolidated Fund of India.
So far, the interest accrued on the fund used to be added to the MPLADS account and could be used for the development projects.
 

Why in News?
The Indian rupee fell to an all-time low of 77.44 against the U.S. Dollar.
What is Depreciation?
About:
Currency depreciation is a fall in the value of a currency in a floating exchange rate system.
Rupee depreciation means that the rupee has become less valuable with respect to the dollar.
It means that the rupee is now weaker than what it used to be earlier.
For example: USD 1 used to equal to Rs. 70, now USD 1 is equal to Rs. 77, implying that the rupee has depreciated relative to the dollar i.e. it takes more rupees to purchase a dollar.

The Covid-19 restrictions provided a major thrust to the digitisation of Indian courts. The judiciary, led by the Supreme Court and the High Courts, adopted e-filing for urgent matters and conducted frequent hearings over video conferencing.

Digitization, for the Indian judiciary, presents a golden opportunity to reduce the pendency of a plethora of cases and preserve the decade-old documents.

For centuries, India has been home to hundreds of languages and thousands of dialects, making its linguistic and cultural diversity the most unique in the world. In fact, our linguistic diversity is one of the cornerstones of our ancient civilization. It is our mother tongue that lends expression to our vision and aspirations, our values and ideals, as also our creative and literary endeavors. In a speech some years ago, the former UNESCO Director-General, Koïchiro Matsuura, underscored the importance of mother tongue when he remarked that “the language we learn from our mothers (mother tongue) is the homeland of our innermost thoughts.” He aptly described each language to be “as valuable and distinct as every irreplaceable human life”.