The Shrinath Veer Mhaskoba Festival was recently held in Pune.
About festival
Shreenath Mhaskoba is Kaal bhairava an Avatar of the Hindu deity Lord Shiva.
It is celebrated in Veer village i.e. 50 Km from Pune & on the banks of river Purnaganga.
It overlooks the Purandar Fort at a distance.
The Festival takes place during the Magh Poornima (full moon of February) & continues for 10 days.
1st Naval Commanders’ Conference of 2024
Time to Read :🕑 1 Mins
Why in news?
The first edition of the Naval Commanders' Conference of 2023 is scheduled to commence on 06 Mar 23.
About Naval Commanders’ Conference of 2024
The conference serves as a platform for Naval Commanders to discuss important security issues at the military-strategic level and interact with Senior Government functionaries through an institutionalised forum.
The novelty of this year’s conference lies in the fact that the first phase of the Commanders' Conference is being held at sea, and for the first time, onboard India’s first indigenous aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant.
The Chief of Defence Staff and the Chiefs of the Indian Army and Indian Air Force would also interact with the Naval Commanders on subsequent days to address the convergence of the three Services vis-à-vis common operational environment, and avenues of augmenting Tri-Service synergy and readiness towards the defence of the nation and India’s national interests.
An operational demonstration at sea is also planned as part of the activities on Day 1.
During the conference, Naval Commanders would also be provided with an update on ‘Agnipath Scheme’ executed in the Indian Navy in Nov 22.
Government considers Art-371-like shield for Ladakh
Time to Read :🕑 5 Mins
Why in news?
The central government is considering granting the Union Territory special protections similar to those outlined in Article 371 of the Constitution.
About Article 371
Special provisions under Article 371 would allow protections to be extended to the local population of Ladakh, while stopping short of the widespread autonomy that is provided to ADCs and ARCs under the Sixth Schedule.
When the Constitution first came into force, Article 371 stood alone, requiring the creation of “development boards” in Maharashtra and Gujarat for certain regions to assess their overall development and the need for government expenditure. As new states were created, more special provisions were introduced.
Article 371 of the Constitution includes special provisions for 11 states, including six of the Northeast.
Articles 371 and 371-A through J provide “special provisions” for specific states, often to give representation to certain religious and social groups and to allow these groups to exercise autonomy over their affairs without interference from the state and central governments.
Under Article 371-A, which contains provisions related to Nagaland, Parliament cannot enact laws that affect the social, religious, or customary legal practices of Nagas, or the transfer and ownership of land without concurrence from the state Assembly. Similar protections have also been extended to Mizos from Mizoram under Article 371-G
Articles 371-B and C allow the creation of special committees in the Legislative Assemblies of Assam and Manipur. These committees comprise MLAs elected from tribal areas and Hill areas respectively.
Special provisions have also been introduced to provide reservations in the Sikkim Legislative Assembly (Article 371-F), to protect “the rights and interests of the different sections of the population”.
Notably, the special provisions for Nagaland, Manipur, Sikkim, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh (371-H), and Goa (371-J) were introduced shortly after each of these states was officially created. If special provisions are introduced for Ladakh, it would be the first time they are introduced for a Union Territory as opposed to a state.
INS Jatayu: Lakshadweep
Time to Read :🕑 5 Mins
Why in news?
The Indian Navy officially commissioned its new naval facility, INS Jatayu, on Minicoy Island.
About INS Jatayu
INS Jatayu—the second naval base in Lakshadweep after INS Dweeprakshak in Kavaratti— will also enhance the Indian Navy's efforts in anti-piracy and anti-narcotics operations in the Western Arabian Sea.
INS Jataya naval base - The existing Naval Detachment Minicoy, which is under the operational command of the Naval Officer-in-Charge (Lakshadweep), will be commissioned as INS Jatayu.
A naval detachment has administrative, logistics, and medical facilities.
INS Jatayu will be upgraded to a naval base with additional infrastructure such as an airfield, housing, and personnel, after obtaining the requisite environmental and other clearances.
The Lakshadweep Islands
Lakshadweep, ‘a hundred thousand islands’ in Sanskrit and Malayalam, is an archipelago of 36 islands located between 220 km and 440 km from Kochi. The islands, only 11 of which are inhabited, have a total area of only 32 sq km.
The Lakshadweep are part of a chain of coralline islands in the Indian Ocean that includes Maldives to the south, and the Chagos archipelago farther beyond, to the south of the equator. Given their location in the Indian Ocean, the Lakshadweep are of huge strategic importance to India.
Minicoy straddles vital Sea Lines of Communications (SLOCs) — the world’s main maritime highways — including the Eight Degree Channel (between Minicoy and Maldives) and the Nine Degree Channel (between Minicoy and the main cluster of Lakshadweep islands). In consequence, the Lakshadweep Islands are also vulnerable to marine pollution.
Green jobs and the problem of gender disparity
Time to Read :🕑 11 Mins
Why in news?
India's transition to low-carbon development has the potential to create around 35 million green jobs by 2047, particularly in sectors like manufacturing, construction, renewable energy, energy efficiency, and automobiles.
About Green jobs
Green jobs are decent jobs that contribute to preserve or restore the environment, be they in traditional sectors such as manufacturing and construction, or in new, emerging green sectors such as renewable energy and energy efficiency.
Green jobs help:
Improve energy and raw materials efficiency
Limit greenhouse gas emissions
Minimize waste and pollution
Protect and restore ecosystems
Support adaptation to the effects of climate change
At the enterprise level, green jobs can produce goods or provide services that benefit the environment, for example green buildings or clean transportation. However, these green outputs (products and services) are not always based on green production processes and technologies.
Therefore green jobs can also be distinguished by their contribution to more environmentally friendly processes. For example, green jobs can reduce water consumption or improve recycling systems.
Yet, green jobs defined through production processes do not necessarily produce environmental goods or services.
As illustrated by the diagram below, a distinction can thus be drawn between employment in green economic sectors from an output perspective and job functions in all sectors from an environmentally friendly process perspective. For the ILO, green jobs are all those jobs that fall in the dashed area:
Gender disparity in green jobs
Men are more likely than women to go into green employment, meaning that women are frequently underrepresented in these fields.
Even though India's potential for producing renewable energy increased by 250% between 2015 and 2021, women made up only 11% of the workforce in the solar rooftop industry.
According to the Annual Survey of Industries 2019–20, the industries that employ women are primarily found in clothing, textiles, leather, food, and tobacco.
On the other hand, according to a 2019 Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) report, 85% of workers in the manufacturing, transportation, infrastructure, and construction industries are men.
According to a 2023 survey by the Skill Council for Green Jobs, men received 85% of the training for green skills, while over 90% of women felt that social norms prevented them from pursuing green job training.
In India, women make up 42.7% of STEM graduates overall, but they only make up 30.8% of graduates in programs related to engineering, manufacturing, and construction—the three main industries involved in the green shift.
Challenges to women's participation:
Social norms that impose restrictions: Women are generally categorized into specific roles by society, which restricts their access to technical and leadership roles in the green economy.
Safety Concerns: Women may experience safety concerns at work, which can be a major deterrent to joining some professions.
STEM Education: Since these subjects are vital to the industry, fewer women in green employment correspond to a lower proportion of women in STEM fields.
Family Restrictions: Women's career choices and possibilities for skill development may be limited by traditional family roles and duties.
Absence of Gender-Specific Training: Training initiatives that cater to the unique requirements and situations of women working in the renewable energy industry are badly needed.
Way forward:
Gender analysis is necessary to gather data on the current and potential effects of low-carbon transitions on female entrepreneurs and workers while taking into account the unseen and hidden roles that women play in a variety of industries and regions.
In order to reduce gender bias and stereotyping, it is imperative that the status quo be reviewed, women's current roles mapped, structural impediments preventing them from choosing certain careers addressed, and an environment that supports their involvement in green jobs created.
Building supportive networks, providing loans without collateral, and providing financial literacy training are essential elements in realizing their potential and Appropriate instruments need to be created in order to evaluate creditworthiness, award loans, and lower operating expenses for women-owned companies.
Women's integration into green jobs can be facilitated by increasing the proportion of women in leadership roles who can integrate gender-specific demands into low-carbon development strategies.
It is necessary to implement a multifaceted strategy for a gender-just transition approach that prioritizes employment, social protection, lessening the burden of caregiving, and facilitating skill development.
To fully utilize the advantages of innovation, technology, and finance for female workers and entrepreneurs, partnerships between the public and commercial sectors as well as other stakeholders are required.
The Civil Services Exam is conducted every year by the UPSC to select suitable candidates for the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), IFS (Indian Foreign Service), IPS (Indian Police Service), IRS (Indian Revenue Service) and other Central Services like the Audits and Accounts, Railway Technical Services etc.
These services are vital for the administration of the Nation as they form the underlying basis of the policy formulation, implementation and execution in almost all the domains of the Governance. Sardar Patel had called the Civil Service the “Steel Frame of India“, the backbone of India’s Administration.
Being part of the Services is associated with prestige, power and a sense of responsibility toward the Society and the Nation. No doubt, the Services attract the best among the vast talent pool of the country.
And it is no surprise that the competition for the CSE is becoming fiercer every year. Over the last 3-4 years the number of applicants has hovered around 1,000,000 out of which approximately 500,000 appear for the Preliminary Exam. On an average 10,000 candidates qualify for the Mains Examination and less than 2,500 are called for the interview. Finally, only about 1,000 or fewer candidates qualify to be part of the Services. Thus the conversion ratio from appearing in the Preliminary Examination to the final selection in the Services is less than 0.2% (considering only the
Thus only sincere hard work may not be enough to be part of the Services. The aspirants need suitable guidance and study material to get selected and fulfil their dream of serving the Nation. Unacademy strives to provide quality content to the learners in order to supplement the guidance they receive from top Educators on the Unacademy Platform and aid their preparation.
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