12.07.23 Daily [Andhra Pradesh] APPSC Current Affairs

Andhra Pradeshended at the 17th place among all the states and Union Territories in the performance grading index 2.0 (PGI 2.0) 2021-22, the results of which were released by the Union government on July 7. The assessment was done based on the performance of the school education system of the state.

The PGI covers 73 indicators, focused more on qualitative assessment besides including digital initiatives and teacher education. The states/UT that were ahead of AP in the PGI 2.0 were Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Delhi, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Lakshadweep,Maharashtra, Puducherry,Punjab,Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal.
While the grades have been divided into 10 different categories based on the scores, no state/UT could achieve the top four grades. Chandigarh and Punjab are the only states/UTs that have made it to the fifth grade Prachesta-2 (641 700 score).

Six states/UTs entered into the top sixth category by scoring more than 581 points. Andhra Pradesh shared its place along with 13 other states/UTs in the Akanshi-1 (521 – 580), the seventh grade.

The PGI 2.0 structure comprises 1000 points, broadly consisting of six domains namely learning outcomes and quality, access, infrastructure and facilities, equity, governance processes, and teacher education and training. When it comes to the individual category scores, Andhra Pradesh scored more than 85% in the equity domain. The state also fared fairly well in access and teacher education and training domains.

The independent expert group on strengthening multilateral development banks (MDBs) has proposed the launch of a process to ramp up new equity of all these agencies by $100 billion as part of the overall strategy to triple annual commitments by 2030.

The panel co-chaired by former US treasury secretaryLarry Summersand 15th Finance Commission chairman N K Singh will share its report at the meeting of G20 finance ministers inGandhinagarnext week.
The first set of the recommendations in its report focuses on “The Triple Agenda” of trebling financing by 2030, setting up a triple funding mechanism through a fund and setting a triple mandate for MDBs that includes eliminating poverty, boosting shared prosperity, and contributing to Global Public goods, especially climate change.

The All India Football Federation (AIFF) on Tuesday passed a budget of Rs 134 crore — an increase of nearly 50 crore from last year — for 2023-24 during its Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Bengaluru.
The AIFF budget for 2022-23 was Rs 87 crore, which its general secretaryShaji Prabhakaranhad termed “meagre” for a big country like India.

The AGM also approved the appointment of a statutory auditor to audit the accounts of the federation and the financial statements and audit reports of 2022-23.

Chandigarh made a comeback to join Punjab, which retained its top position, to be among the best performing states in the latest Performance Grading Index (PGI) report for school education. Last years’ top performing states – Kerala and Maharashtra-are among the second best performing states/ UTs in the grading.

But none of the states/UTs could achieve the top five grades in the overall category, based on various domains like access, learning outcomes, infrastructure, equity, teachers’ training and governance processes. The education ministry on Friday released PGI-2021-22, an index for evidence-based comprehensive analysis of the school education system in India. PGI, revamped in 2021-22 in the wake of National Education Policy, has classified states/UTs into ten grades. The highest achievable grade is Daksh, which is for states/UT scoring more than 940 out of 1000 points. The subsequent grades areUtkarsh(881-940), Atti-Uttam (821-880),Uttam(761-820),Prachesta1 (701-760), Prachesta 2 (641-700), Prachesta 3 (581-640), Akanshi 1 (521-580), Akanshi 2 (461-520) and Akanshi 3 (401-460).

The two domains – access and equity- are the only ones where any state (Delhi) managed the top grade (Daksh). For learning outcomes, one of the key indicators of good performance, the top performers are Punjab, Chandigarh and Rajasthan while no states/ UTs could achieve the top grade for teacher education and training.

In 2019-20, Punjab, Chandigarh,Tamil Nadu, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Kerala topped the index, while the index during theCovidperiod (2020-21) recorded Kerala, Maharashtra and Punjab as the best performing states.

According to the education ministry, many of the indicators in the index had become redundant and hence were aligned with the new initiatives of NEP-2020 to include those relating to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The six domains in PGI 2.0 have 73 indicators relating to educational attainment of states/ UTs.

TheNISAR satellitehas reached a significant milestone as its two major components have been integrated to form a single spacecraft in Bengaluru, the US space agencyNASAhas said in a release.

According to NASA, In June, engineers successfully united the spacecraft bus and radar instrument payload of the NISAR satellite in a clean room at theISROfacility in Bengaluru. The payload had been transported from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California earlier in March, while the spacecraft bus was constructed at the ISRO facility.
The satellites cylindrical radar instrument payload contains two radar systems and is about the size of an SUV and partially wrapped in gold-coloured thermal blanketing. The S-band radar is particularly useful for monitoring crop structure and the roughness of land and ice surfaces, while the L-band instrument can penetrate denser forest canopies to study the woody trunks of trees, among other observables, the release added.

The wavelengths of the S-band and L-band signals are about 4 inches (10 centimetres) and 10 inches (25 centimetres), respectively, and both sensors have the potential to see through clouds and collect data day and night.

NISAR, a collaborative project between NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), stands for NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar. This advanced satellite is designed to track the movements of Earth’s land and ice sur