Current Affairs in Short: 12 August 2021

Delhi Board of School Education signs MoU with International Baccalaureate

•The Delhi Board of School Education (DBSE) on August 11, 2021, signed an MoU with International Baccalaureate (IB) to implement IB programmes in 30 government schools in 2021.

•The IB programme will be introduced across 30 schools affiliated with the DBSE. Of these 30 schools, 20 Schools of Specialized Excellence will offer education in four domains – Humanities, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), •Performing and Visual Arts, and ‘high-end 21^st Century Skills’, and 10 Sarvodaya Vidyalayas in East Delhi will have the program from nursery to 8th-grade level.

•Of these 20 SoSEs in the first phase, eight schools will specialize in STEM, five schools each will specialize in humanities and skills, two schools in performing and visual arts.

•In the first year, admissions in humanities, high-end 21^st Century skills, and performing and visual arts will be offered at the 9^th grade level in SoSEs whereas admissions in STEM will be offered at the 9^th and 11^th grade levels.

•In two years, 100 SoSEs will be set up with all four domains in every educational zone of Delhi, said the State government.

COVID-19: Punjab, only state to report suspected oxygen-shortage deaths during 2^nd wave

•As per the reports received by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the ministry’s Joint Secretary, Lav Aggarwal said that only one state has been informed about deaths due to oxygen shortage during the second wave of COVID-19.

•The Central government had asked all states and Union Territories to submit data on deaths due to a shortage of oxygen. Only 13 states and UTs including Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Odisha, J&K, Jharkhand, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, and Punjab responded.

•Of these, Punjab was the only state that reported 4 ‘suspected’ deaths due to shortage of oxygen.

COVID-19: Maharashtra govt to give 1 per cent reservation in education and jobs to orphans

•Maharashtra Women and Child Development Minister Yashomati Thakur on August 11, 2021, announced that the Maharashtra government will offer 1 per cent reservation in education and jobs to children orphaned during the COVID-19 pandemic.

•The state government will also offer concessions in examination fees, age, reimbursement of tuition fees, scholarships under education as per Scheduled Castes.

•The state government will also set up 50 hostels for working-class women in the state. The earlier scheme of ‘Hostels for Working Women’ with a 75:25 per cent share of the Central government and NGOs has been revised to 60:15:25 per cent of the Central government, State government, and NGOs.

•The initiative aims to assist single, widowed, divorced, and married women who have no close relatives or members in the city.

No increase in custodial deaths in country: Centre refutes reports in RS

•Centre on August 11, 2021, denied reports of an increase in custodial deaths in the country.

•Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai in a reply in Rajya Sabha stated that no such increasing trend in custodial deaths has been noticed.

•While quoting the Prison Statistics India 2019 report published by National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), Rai said the report states 1,775 deaths in prisons in 2019. “The data is uploaded by the respective State and Union Territories, in which the NCRB has a limited role of collating and publishing this data,” Rai added.

•Rai further noted that Prisons, Public Order, and Police are state subjects in the 7^th Schedule of the Constitution of India.

Jagannath Temple in Puri, Odisha to reopen from August 16

•Jagannath Temple in Puri, Odisha will reopen from August 16, 2021, however, devotees will only be allowed inside the temple from August 23, 2021.

•The Jagannath Temple Administration took the decision to reserve the temple for the servitors of the deities and the residents of Puri city for the entire week following the reopening on Monday, August 16, and thereafter open the temple in full effect to the general devotees from August 23 onwards.

•The Standard Operating Procedures by the temple administration state that devotees will have to show their final COVID-19 vaccination or RT-PCR negative certificate to enter the temple.

•The Temple will however be closed off on all weekends and major festivities to avoid any spike in COVID-19 cases due to mass gatherings.