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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 26 November 2021

::NATIONAL::

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has accorded its approval for stipendiary support of Rs. 3,054 crore to apprentices who undergo apprenticeship training under National Apprenticeship Training Scheme (NATS) of Ministry of Education for the period from 2021-22 to 2025-26.
Approximately 9 lakh apprentices will be trained by industry and commercial organisations.

About:

NATS is a well-established scheme of Government of India which has been demonstrated to enhance the employability of students who have successfully completed the apprenticeship training.
The apprentices who have completed graduate and diploma programme in Engineering, Humanities, Science and Commerce will be given stipend of Rs.9,000 and Rs.8,000 per month respectively.
The NATS will provide apprenticeship in the emerging areas under ‘Production Linked Incentive’ (PLI) such as Mobile manufacturing, Medical devices manufacturing, Pharma sector, Electronics/Technology products, Automobile sector etc.
The scheme will also be preparingskilled manpowerfor connectivity/logistics industry sectors, identified under GatiShakti.

The Indian Railways launched Bharat Gaurav trains that will be operated by private players and run on theme-based circuits.

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Through this policy, which offers operators the “Right of Use” of its rakes and infrastructure, the Railways has liberalised and simplified a part of operations that was otherwise carried out mostly by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC).
While any entity can run these trains, including state governments, it is implied that the policy is targeted at tour operators.

What is the Bharat Gaurav policy?

Under Bharat Gaurav, theme-based tourist circuit trains can be run either by private or State-owned operators.
Till now, IR had passenger segments and goods segments. Now, it will have a third segment fortourism.
About 3,033 coaches or about 150 trains have been earmarked.
Operator will have freedom to decide the route, halts, services provided, and tariff.
They will offer an all-inclusive package to tourists including rail travel, hotel accommodation,sightseeing arrangement etc.

The fifth World Congress on Disaster Management (WCDM) is being organised from November 24-27, 2021 at the IIT Delhi campus.
This year the theme is “Technology, Finance and Capacity for Building Resilience to Disasters in the Contexts of Covid-19”

About:

The World Congress on Disaster Management is an initiative of Disaster Management Initiatives and Convergence Society (DMICS) to bring researchers, policy makers and practitioners from around the world on the same platform to discuss various challenging issues of disaster risk management.
WCDM aims to promote interaction of science, policy and practices to enhance understanding of risks and advance actions for reducing risks and building resilience to disasters.
The WDC includes a number of special technical sessions, plenary sessions, thematic sessions, concurrent sessions, and special feature events, and pre-conference events. Moreover, poster presentations, exhibitions, and startups on disaster management are also on the schedule.

Cases of wild poliovirus continued to be on the decline across the world, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Only two cases of the disease were detected early this year — one in Pakistan and Afghanistan each. These are the only two countries where the disease is endemic.

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Poliomyelitis (polio) is a highly infectious disease that invades nervous system. There are 3 typesof wild polio virus- type 1, type 2, and type 3.
Only type 1 wild poliovirus remains in circulation.
There are two types of vaccines against poliovirus: Inactivated polio vaccine and Oral poliovaccine.
The poliovirus will continue to be classified as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern for at least another three months citing persisting “significant risks despite apparent progress”.

Niti Aayog has floated the idea of setting up full-stack ‘digital banks’.
Highlighting it would primarily work on the internet and other proximate channels to offer their services, instead of physical branches.
These proposed banks will help mitigate the financial deepening challenges being faced in the country.

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Digital banks (DBs) are banks as defined inthe Banking Regulation Act, 1949 (B R Act).
However, DBs will principally rely on theinternet and other proximate channels to offer their services and not physical branches.
DB entities will issue deposits, make loansand offer other services as a traditional bank.
DB would comply with the sameregulatory prudential and liquidity normsat par with other commercial banks.

Union Cabinet approved continuation of Ocean Services, Modelling, Application, Resources andTechnology (O-SMART) scheme from 2021-2026.

Objective of O-SMART scheme of Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) is to:

Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai’s apparent disappearance may have ended with a smattering of public events, which were carefully curated by state-run media and circulated in online clips. But many questions remain about the three weeks in which she was missing, and concerns linger over her well-being.
Peng, a former Wimbledon and French Open doubles champion, had been out of the public eye since Nov. 2. 2021 when she penned a since-deleted social media post accusing former Chinese Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli of sexual misconduct.