UPSC QUIZ 20.06.2024

Explanation:

• Recently, UNICEF released “Child Nutrition Report 2024”– titled as “Child Food Poverty: Nutrition deprivation in early childhood”.

Key Findings of the Report

• Approximately 181 million children under the age of 5 years are living in severe child food poverty globally, which accounts for one in four children in this age group.
• According to UNICEF global databases, 2023,in India, 40% of children are living in severe child food poverty.
• Progress in addressing severe child food poverty is slow overall, but some regions and countries are demonstrating that progress is possible.
• Severe child food poverty affects children from both poor and non-poor households, indicating that household income is not the sole factor driving this issue.

Explanation:

• E-governance service provider Common Service Centre Special Purpose Vehicle (CSC SPV) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for converting 10,000 Farmer Producer Organisations (FPO) into Common Service Centres (CSC).
• This will benefit the farmers associated with FPOs registered under the '10,000 FPO Formation and Promotion Scheme' as it will help them get citizen-centric services and increase employment opportunities in rural areas.
• 'Formation and Promotion of 10,000 FPOs' is a Central Sector Scheme launched in the year 2020. It aims to increase the bargaining power of farmers, reduce the cost of production and increase the income of farmers through aggregation of their agricultural produce.
• CSC Scheme, which is one of the mission mode projects of the Digital India programme, is providing various services to farmers, including tele-consultation, crop insurance, e-pashu chikani, Kisan Credit Card and PM Kisan Yojanas.

Explanation:

• International Finance Corporation (IFC) has agreed to invest $105 million (around Rs 871 crore) in the non-convertible debentures of Brookfield's Bikaner Solar Power project in Rajasthan. IFC is a company of the World Bank Group which provides finance to the private sector companies.

Brookfield’s Solar Project in Bikaner

• Brookfield Global Transition Fund (BGTF) is building a 550 MW solar power project in Bikaner in two phases. The Brookfiled commissioned the first phase of the Bikaner solar power project 268 MW in March 2024. In the second phase the capacity of the solar power project is 282 MW taking the combined power generation capacity to 550 MW. The estimated cost of the second phase is estimated to be USD 317 million.
• BGTF is an equity investor and has set up a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to execute the project. The 80 percent of the BGFT holdings is owned by Brookfield Asset Management and 20% owned by Brookfield Renewable.
• The Bikaner Solar project is connected to the country’s interstate transmission system section of India's green energy corridor.

Explanation:

• Eminent children's film-maker Vinod Ganatra has been conferred with South Africa’s prestigious ‘Nelson Mandela Lifetime Achievement Award’ for his contribution to films.
• Vinod Ganatra becomes the first Indian to be honoured with the ‘Nelson Mandela Lifetime Achievement Award.
• Vinod Gantra was conferred with the award at the 7th Nelson Mandela Children’s Film Festival for his outstanding contribution to children's cinema.

Vinod Ganatra

• Globally renowned filmmaker and editor Vinod Ganatra of Gujarat but now based in Mumbai has been active in Film & Television Production from 1982.
• He has edited and directed about 400 Documentaries and newsreels. He has Produced 25 multilingual television programmes for Children and youth. His first TV programme, BAINGAN RAJA, won the ‘Janakinath Gaur Award’ from Doordarshan.
• His Gujarati film Harun Arun made on the India Pakistan border received the "Liv Ullmann Peace Prize” at the 26th Chicago International Children’s Film Festival. He is the only Indian to have won the prestigious ‘Liv Ullmann Peace Prize”.

Explanation:

• Newly constructed Prerna Sthal in the Parliament House complex has been inaugurated.
• Vice President and Chairman of Rajya Sabha, Jagdeep Dhankhar, inaugurated Prerna Sthal.
• He said the Prerna Sthal will inspire and motivate people.
• In Prerna Sthal, 15 statues of freedom fighters and Indian history icons have been relocated to a single location.
• The statues were earlier established in different parts of the Parliament campus.
• The Prerna Sthal aims to enhance visitor experience by use of modern technology such as QR codes to narrate the life stories of inspiring figures of Indian history.
• Prerna Sthal includes statues of Mahatma Gandhi, B.R. Ambedkar, late Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal and others.