Daily Quiz: UPSC Prelims Marathon (Reports, Initiatives, Acts & Organizations) – September 20, 2020

Serampore Mission: William Carey founded Baptist Missionary Society in Britain, the first of its kind in that country in 1793.

• His mission was to preach the Gospel and convert believers to Christianity.
• Carey established a charity school first for the poor native boys in Madnbutty (North Bengal) as soon as he was able to settle there in 1794.
• At the far end of the 18th Century, the Baptist Missionary Society of England, sent four other missionaries, Marshman, Ward, Bransdon and Grant to join Carey, Fountain and Thomas in Bengal.
• They arrived here on the 13th of October, 1799. As they had no license to enter British East India Company’sterritory, the new missionaries took shelter in the tiny settlement of Denmark, Serampore, which was on the western bank of the river Hooghly, 20 Km. north of Calcutta.
• The Danish Governor, Colonel Bie, took them under his protection and permitted them gladly to settle there for their missionary work.
• Carey joined the new missionaries in Serampore. He arrived there on the 10th of January, 1800 and on the same day founded Serampore Mission.

Jonathan Duncan: In 1791 the efforts of Jonathan Duncan, the British resident at Benares, bore fruit and a Sanskrit College was opened at Benares for the “cultivation of the laws, literature and religion of Hndus”.

James Mill: From the early nineteenth century many British officials began to criticize the Orientalist vision of learning. James Mill was one of those who attacked the Orientalists.

The main objective of the Act was to improve the condition of education in India and upgrade the system to a better level.

• Universities were given the right of teaching along with the right of conducting examination. In short, their scope was enlarged.
• Universities had the right to make provision for promotion of study and research, to appoint university professors and lecturers, set up university laboratories and libraries and undertake direct instruction of students.
• The Indian Universities Act, 1904 laid down that the number of Fellows of a university shall not be less than fifty or more than a hundred and a Fellow should normally hold office for a period of six years instead of for life.
• Upto this moment, the number of the seats in the Senate of the Universities was not fixed and the Government used to make life-long nominations. According to the Indian Universities Act, 1904, the number was fixed. The minimum number was fifty and the maximum number was hundred. Their term was determined for five years.
• The Indian Universities Act, 1904 introduced the principle of election in the constitution of the Senate. According to this Act, 20 fellows are to be elected in the Universities of Madras, Calcutta and Bombay and 15 in other Universities.
• The Indian Universities Act, 1904 gave statutory recognition to Syndicates and made provision for the adequate representation of university teachers in the university Senate.
• The Governor General was now empowered to decide a University’s territorial limits and also affiliation between the universities and colleges.
• However, for better education and research a grant of Rs. 5 Lakh per year for 5 years was also accepted.

The James Augustus hickey was published the first news paper in India entitled the Bengal Gazatte.

• The Mirat – Ul – Akbar was published by Raja Ram Mohan Roy.
• Vishvanath Narayan Mandlik, C.S.I. (The Most Exalted Order of the Star of India) (8 March 1833 – 9 May 1899) was an eminent Bombay citizen, lawyer, author and a legal expert on Hindu law.
• He founded a bi-weekly in English called the Native Opinionin 1864 to which he was the sole contributor in the early years.

For all the progress inspired by the Global Goals one barrier impedes them all: the choice we make in our everyday lives continues to fuel consumption and production habits that are increasingly extending beyond the limits of our planet.

Our (UNEP) #SolveDifferent campaign focuses on an informative and emotive approach to communicating the environmental cost of key consumption and production models.

The Global Ecosystem Management Programme is involved in several initiatives that cut across its various programmes. They include;

• The Global Drylands Initiative (GDI): The Initiative strengthens natural resource governance in drylands through strengthening of resource rights, establishment of institutional mechanisms for ecosystem management, and development of enabling conditions for policy implementation and revision.
• Global Island Partnership (GLISPA): The scope of IUCN’s Islands Initiative is those islands, whether large or small, whose conservation and ecosystem management challenges are substantially shaped by “island” characteristics, including high levels of species diversity and endemism, openness of coastal ecosystems to land-based impacts, competition by people for limited resources including land and fresh water, and vulnerability to external forces, both natural and human-induced. GLISPA has been in existance for about 10 years now.
• Global Mountain Initiative: This is an evolving young initiative, which has been in existance for about a year now. Mountain areas cover 24% of the Earth’s land surface, are home to 12% of the global population, provide vital goods and services – particularly freshwater – to at least half of humanity, are key centres of biological and cultural diversity, and influence climates at many scales.
• Global Mangrove Management Initiative: This is an evolving young initiative, which has been in existance for about a year now Mangroves are continuously under threat from overharvesting, degradation and land reclamation. Yet we continue to cut them down unaware at times of the role these trees are playing within the coastal ecosystem.
• Mangroves for the Future (MFF): This is a unique partner-led initiative to promote investment in coastal ecosystem conservation for sustainable development.

The 14thGlobal Hunger Index (GHI) 2019 was released recently and it had ranked India a lowly 102 among the 117 countries it had mapped.

• The GHI has been brought out almost every year by Welthungerhilfe (lately in partnerships with Concern Worldwide) since 2000.
• A low score gets a country a higher ranking which implies a better performance.
• The reason for mapping hunger is to ensure that the world achieves ―Zero Hunger by 2030 – one of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.

Four indicators of GHI –

• Undernourishment (which reflects inadequate food availability)
• Child Wasting (which reflects acute under nutrition)
• Child Stunting (which reflects chronic under nutrition)
• Child Mortality (which reflects both inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environment)

The Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) is produced by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

• It measures the factors and policies that make a country a viable place to invest within the Travel and Tourism sector.
• India has secured 34th place in the Index.

Nagpur Resolution is a holistic approach for empowering citizens adopted during regional conference organized by DARPG in Nagpur.

• The conference was organized by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), in collaboration with the Government of Maharashtra.
• The resolution aims to empower the citizens by policy interventions for better service delivery through timely updating of citizens charters, implementation of enactments and benchmarking standards for continuous improvement.
• It also aims to ensure timely publication of Good Governance Index to identify the quality of governance in 10 sectors especially those pertaining to welfare and infrastructure at the Union, State and District levels.

It is an initiative of Andhra Pradesh Government to make police stations more approachable for the public, especially women.

• Spandana (means response) centers have been established within the premises of all District Collector offices and police stations.
• These centers mostly have a female receptionist and other staff members who are trained, briefed and sensitized in handling women victims and complainants.
• Spandana centres spread across the district, and each have video conferencing facility, it is easier and cheaper for people to lodge complaints.

Basholi painting is a reputed school of miniature paintings known for its vivid, evocative colors, bold lines, and deep-set facial patterns.

• This style of painting saw its best years in the 17-18th century.
• Basholi (Basoli) is a town in Kathua district in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, India.
• It was founded by Raja Bhupat Pal in the 16th century.
• Basholi paintings are considered as the first school of Pahari paintings, many of which have evolved into the much more detailed and widespread style of Kangra painting school.
• The Basholi paintings had obscure beginnings, although Raja Bhupat Pal is widely credited as its founder.