Current Affairs Quiz 03 March 2023

State Of Higher Education in India
• With more than 500 million people,India has the largest population in the world in the age bracket of 5-24 years, presenting a huge opportunity in the education sector.
• India is the world’s 2nd largest higher education system, with around 38 million students in 50,000 academic institutions (including 1,057 universities).
• India has an aim of doubling gross enrolment rates from the current 26.3% to 50% by 2035.(NEP,2020)
• India is the 2nd largest source of international students (after China) globally.

Rules governing exit polls in India
• Representation of the People Act, 1951: Section 126A of the act prohibits the conduct of exit polls and dissemination of their results by electronic or print media during a defined period.
o The period of prohibition starts from the beginning of the hours fixed for polling in the first phase of an election and continues till the end of polling in the last phase of the election.
• Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961: It provides guidelines on the conduct of exit polls and mandates that any person who wishes to conduct an exit poll must obtain prior permission from the ECI.
o The rule also requires the pollsters to provide certain information to the ECI, such as the methodology used, the sample size, and the time and place of the survey.
• Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995: The act prohibits the transmission or re-transmission of any program or advertisement that violates the provisions of the RPA Act, 1951, including the prohibition on the dissemination of exit poll results during the specified period.
• Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021: The rules impose obligations on digital media platforms to ensure compliance with the provisions of the RPA 1951.
• Note: Violations of these laws can result in penalties, including fines and imprisonment, as well as the cancellation of the registration of the media organization or the pollster.

About SWAYATT Initiative
• It is an initiative to promote Start-ups, Women and Youth Advantage Through eTransactions on Government eMarketplace (GeM).
• It aimed to promote the inclusion of various categories of sellers and service providers on the portal by taking proactive steps to facilitate their training and registration, develop women’s entrepreneurship, and encourage the participation of the MSME sector and startups in public procurement.

Ken Betwa Link Project
• About:
o It is the first interlinking of rivers project under National Perspective Plan (NPP) taken for implementation in Bundelkhand region, which faces recurrent drought situation.
o Under this, the transfer of excess water from the River Ken to the Betwa basin through the use of a concrete canal is proposed.
• Aim:
o providing water security in the Bundelkhand
o also ensuring the overall conservation of the region and specially for landscape dependent species such as tiger, vulture and gharial.
Implementing Agency:
o A Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) called Ken-Betwa Link Project Authority (KBLPA) will be set up to implement the project.
o The National Interlinking of Rivers Authority (NIRA) has the powers to set up SPV for individual link projects.

Recently, the UK government reached a landmark deal with the European Union (EU) on post-Brexit trade rules that will govern Northern Ireland.
The ‘Windsor Framework’ will replace the Northern Ireland Protocol, which had proved to be among the thorniest of Brexit fall-outs, creating problems both economic and political.