Bharat Ratna
- Legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and eminent scientist Prof. C N R Rao were conferred with the country’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, by President Pranab Mukherjee.
- The President presented the honour at a brief function at the Rashtrapati Bhavan’s Durbar Hall attended by Vice President Hamid Ansari, Union ministers, Sachin’s wife Anjali, daughter Sara and a host of dignitaries.
Master batsman Tendulkar, who retired from international cricket on November 16 last year, is the first sportsman to be bestowed with the honour. - Tendulkar (40) and Rao (79), both of whom are recipients of Padma Vibhushan — the country’s second highest civilian honour, will join a list of 41 eminent personalities who have been conferred with the award that is given in recognition of exceptional service of the highest order, since it was instituted in 1954.
- An outspoken scientist, Prof Chintamani Nagesa Ramachandra Rao is a well recognised international authority on solid state and materials chemistry who has published over 1,400 research papers and 45 books.
He is the third scientist after C V Raman and former President A P J Abdul Kalam to be conferred with the Bharat Ratna. - The Bharat Ratna was announced after a gap of four years with Hindustani music doyen Bhimsen Joshi being the last recipient in 2009.
50% quota for women
- Making out a strong case to formulate a National Policy and Action Plan to end violence against women, a government-appointed panel has recommended 50 per cent reservation for women in all decision-making bodies and an overhaul of the criminal justice system to ensure justice for women.
- Suggesting that a separate panel be appointed by the government to study the status of Muslim women in the country, the High Level Committee on the Status of Women in India, in its preliminary report, said upgrading the Minister of Women and Child Development to Cabinet rank would reflect the government’s concern on women’s issues.
- Calling for an increase in resources, the panel said a large amount of resources was being directed towards child development in the Ministry.
- It said the Parliamentary Committee on the Empowerment of Women must examine the gender implications of all proposed legislation and the National Commission for Women, as an apex body responsible for and answerable to 50 per cent of the population, must go beyond ‘reactive interventions’ to fulfil the proactive mandate of studying, recommending and influencing policies, laws, programmes and budgets to ensure full benefits to the stakeholders.
- Focussing on the need to bring about major changes in the criminal justice system, the report suggests initiatives ranging from a more gender sensitive enforcement machinery to greater awareness of different legislation and their inter-connectedness, along with accountability for securing women’s rights.
‘Hejje’, mobile application
- Tiger-tracking and wildlife conservation have a new mobile application for vigorous monitoring and better coordination of anti-poaching camp personnel at Bandipur.
- For, “Hejje” (Pug mark), an indigenously developed Android-based application, was launched at Bandipur. It will help coordinate foot patrolling of forest staff apart from providing the range forest officers live update of their respective anti-poaching patrolling activities such as patrol time, water level in lakes, suspicious activities, tree population and forest fires.
- The application, launched by Conservator of Forests and Director of Bandipur Tiger Reserve H.C. Kantharaj, has been developed by KeyFalcon Solutions of Bangalore.
- Tigers in Bandipur, a prime tiger habitat, are vulnerable to poaching. Effective protection of this habitat calls for modernisation, and the induction of “Hejje” adds a new protocol to the monitoring system.
- The adjoining BRT Wildlife Sanctuary makes use of a similar application called “Huli”.
