Current Affairs in Short: 23 November 2021

Andhra Pradesh Assembly passes bill to repeal Act intended to establish three capitals in state

•The Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly on November 22, 2021, passed a Bill to repeal the controversial Andhra Pradesh Decentralization and Inclusive Development of All Regions Act, 2020, that intended to establish three capitals in the State.

•Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy said his government will bring a comprehensive, better, and complete Decentralization Bill. The 2020 Act has been repealed to safeguard the interests of the people. The farmers of the Amravati region had been protesting the three capitals decision for more than 700 days now.

•The Andhra Pradesh government earlier had suggested that the state could have three capitals, an Executive Capital in Vishakhapatnam, the Judiciary Capital in Kurnool, and the Legislative Capitals in Amaravati.

5^th East Asia Summit Conference on Maritime Security Cooperation to be held on November 23-24

•The 5^th East Asia Summit (EAS) Conference on Maritime Security Cooperation will be held in Kolkata from November 23 to 24, 2021. India will organize the event in partnership with Australia. The Secretary (East), Ministry of External Affairs Riva Ganguly Das will represent India.

•Apart from both governments, organizers include the ASEAN-India Centre (AIC) at Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) in collaboration with the National Maritime Foundation (NMF) of Australia and the Research Centre for East and North East Regional Studies, Kolkata (CENERS-K).

•The 5^th East Asia Summit Conference on Maritime Security Cooperation will deliberate on various aspects of maritime security cooperation under four thematic sessions namely maritime security, science and technology cooperation, resource and information sharing, and pandemic and disaster risk reduction and management.

US adds four Afghan men to its Designated Global Terrorists list

•The US Treasury Department has added four Afghan men to its Designated Global Terrorists list including Ismatullah Khalozai who was designated as a key financial facilitator for ISIL-Khorasan (ISIL-K) in Afghanistan.

•The US Department alleged that Khalozai was transferring funds to finance ISIL-K operations from Turkey for two years.

•The US added three more Afghan men namely Sanaullah Ghafari, Sultan Aziz Azam, and Maulawi Rajab to its Designated Global Terrorists list.

India, World Bank sign loan worth $250 million to improve learning across Andhra Pradesh

•The Central Government, the state government of Andhra Pradesh, and the World Bank on November 18, 2021, signed a loan agreement worth $250 million for the Supporting Andhra's Learning Transformation Project which aims to improve the quality of learning for more than 50 lakh students in Andhra Pradesh.

•Beneficiaries from this initiative include about 40 lakh students (between the age of six and fourteen) in over 45,000 government schools, and over 10 lakh children (between the age of three and six) enrolled in Anganwadis (Integrated Child Development Centers), and about 1,90,000 teachers, and more than 50,000 Anganwadi workers.

•Under the Supporting Andhra's Learning Transformation Project, Andhra Pradesh has adopted a new competency-based teaching-learning approach. The project will aid the State in improving teaching practices through classroom-based mentorships, Personalized Adaptive Learning (PAL) methods, need-based teacher training for teachers of all grades and subjects.

Atal Innovation Mission, Vigyan Prasar announce collaboration between Atal Tinkering Labs and Engage with Science

•A flagship initiative of NITI Aayog Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) on November 22, 2021, announced a collaboration with Vigyan Prasar which is an autonomous organization of the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India for driving synergies between AIM’s Atal Tinkering Labs (ATL) and Vigyan Prasar’s unique interactivity platform Engage With Science (EWS).

•The collaboration between AIM and Vigyan Prasar will aid in reviving and updating our education practices to keep up with technological advances. The Engage with Science program with ATLs will help foster the culture of STEM innovation.

•Atal Innovation Mission has established 9200+ Atal Tinkering Laboratories (ATLs) in schools across India with a vision to ‘Cultivate one Million children in India as Neoteric Innovators’. Young children get a chance to work with tools and equipment to understand the concepts of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math).

•As part of the collaboration, Engage with Science will onboard all 9200+ ATL-enabled schools. Certificates and incentives will be offered to students and teachers about STEM content consumption based on their points earned in the activities conducted. Engage With Science is a part of the India Science OTT channel project and aims to publicize and popularize STEM video content on India Science, the nation’s own STEM OTT channel.