Today's GK(18-8-2013)

International Olympic Committee on 17 August 2013 refused to change its stance on barring charge-sheeted persons from contesting Indian Olympic Association elections, saying that entertaining IOA's objections would amount to undermining the Olympic charter. IOC had sent the revised draft Constitution of the IOA which envisaged barring of corruption-tainted persons from contesting IOA elections. IOA had objected to this provision saying that Indian law would prevail on these matters.

However, IOC stuck to its stand. It also issued a veiled threat of possible action to the IOA, reminding it that it has been under suspension and so should act responsibly to meet the conditions requested by the world body.

The IOC has never questioned the principle that till one is convicted one is innocent. However the IOC Code of Ethics clearly states that the Olympic parties (which include the NOCs) must undertake to respect and ensure the respect of the IOC Code of Ethics which says in particular that they must not act in a manner likely to tarnish the reputation of the Olympic Movement. The IOA (still suspended) must therefore act responsibly and must adopt a clear wording in its revised Constitution," IOC stated in its letter.

The wording of the proposed provision which reads The Law of the land will prevail in all the affairs concerning Indian Olympic Association cannot be accepted since this would leave aside and undermine the Olympic Charter and the IOA Constitution.

As per the IOC provision, the constitution would prevent any person charged by a Court in India for any serious criminal/corruption offense (whose situation would therefore tarnish the reputation of the Olympic Movement) from being eligible for election within the IOA.

Professor of economics, conservationist and mountaineer Harshwanti Bisht was selected on 12 August 2013 to receive the Sir Edmund Hillary Mountain Legacy Medal. The award is presented for remarkable service in the conservation of culture and nature in mountainous regions. The medal both recognizes Sir Edmund Hillary's own service on behalf of mountain people and their environment and also encourages the continuing emulation of his example. In 2003 the Sir Edmund Hillary Mountain Legacy Medal was initiated by unanimous resolution of the Namche Conference: Parks, People and Mountain Tourism.

Harshwanti Bisht, Rekha Sharma and Chandra Prabha Aitwal were the first three women to summit the main peak of Nanda Devi (7816m) in 1981. Bisht was also a part of the Indian expedition to Mt. Everest, in 1984.

Since 1989, Dr. Harshwanti Bisht has worked hard to improve conditions in the Gangotri area of Uttarakhand, at the headwaters of the Ganges in northern India. Her Save Gangotri project has planted tens of thousands of saplings, organized eco-awareness campaigns, propagated endangered medicinal herbs, and introduced ecotourism standards to an area that had been ravaged by climate change and unregulated pilgrimage.

Bisht has had remarkable success in restoring the birch forests around Gau Mukh (Cow Snout), the terminal area of Gangotri Glacier, ravaged by the double-whammy of unmanaged pilgrimage and mass-market tourism as well as climatic change. As the forests take hold, they have an increasingly significant impact in increasing humidity and lowering local temperatures

Iranian President on 16 August 2013 appointed outgoing Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi to head the Atomic Energy Organisation. Although Salehi is not directly involved in nuclear negotiations with world powers, he will be in charge of operating Iran’s nuclear facilities.

He will represent Tehran at the annual member state gatherings of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna each September. Salehi succeeded Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani.

Western nations opine that Iran's atomic energy programme is in fact an attempt to attain a nuclear weapons capability while Iran denies the charge  saying that it only wants the technology to generate electricity and for medical research.

Vijay Singh was named a recipient of the 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Society of Civil Engineers Environmental and Water Resources Institute (ASCE-EWRI) on 16 August 2013. He is a professor and a distinguished chair in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering at Texas A&M University.

Vijay Singh is an engineer specialising in water resources engineering and hydrology. He is internationally recognized. He made several advances in hydrologic and environmental modeling and received the most prestigious awards for hydrology from numerous professional societies.

Fact-sheet on Vijay Singh
• He is a professor in the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering. He joined the Texas A&M faculty in 2006.
• He got his B.S.E. from the U.P. Agricultural University in India, his M.S.E. from the University of Guelph in Ontario and his Ph.D. from Colorado State University.
• He also earned a D.Sc. from The University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa.

Vijay Singh has authored many journal articles and books on hydrology. His work has developed the application of kinematic wave theory to the point where it is widely used throughout the world in hydrologic models used for water resource modeling, flood planning and hydrologic design. His work on entropy theory has created a new branch of hydrology, called entropic hydrology.

At present, he serves as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Hydrologic Engineering and Water Science and Engineering, two of the premier journals in hydrology and continues on the editorial boards of 27 different journals.

The Rashtriya Uchattar Shiksha Abhiyan on 16 August 2013 proposed to put a ceiling of maximum number of colleges to be affiliated to any university at two hundred.The proposal has been submitted following several State Universities having a large number of colleges affiliated to a single university. For example Osmania University has 901 colleges affiliated to it while 811 colleges are attached to Pune University.

Rashtrusant Tukadoji Maharaj University Nagpur has 800 colleges with it and Rajasthan as well as Mumbai University have 735 and 711 colleges attached to them. The average number of affiliated colleges per university is 300. This phenomenon negatively affects the academic quality of the University. It is imperative that States create more universities so that affiliation does not result in large number of colleges being tied academically to one university.

The one lakh crore rupees scheme when implemented will lead to setting up and upgradation of new colleges and universities. The scheme may also facilitate increased number of students from secondary to higher education.

The Rashtriya Uchchatar Flagship Abhiyan is a new centrally sponsored flagship umbrella scheme aimed at providing strategic funding to State higher and technical institutions. States will develop comprehensive state higher education plans that utilize an interconnected strategy to address issues of expansion, equity and excellence together. Central funding will be linked to academic, administrative and financial reforms of state higher education.

Union Ministry of Finance on 16 August 2013 unveiled the National Skill Certification and Monetary Reward Scheme that will be implemented on pan-India basis, in New Delhi. This is a first of its kind scheme to be launched in the country. The scheme was first proposed by the Finance Minister in the last Union Budget to allocate 1000 rupees crore for a scheme that will motivate the youth of this country to acquire a vocational skill.The scheme is expected to benefit a million people in the first year of its implementation.

The scheme that is branded as STAR (Standard Training Assessment and Reward) for promotional purposes envisages that a monetary reward that will in essence financially help those who wish to acquire a new skill or upgrade their skills to a higher level.

The Union government is committed to improving the skills of the youth in the country. The STAR scheme that is being launched today is yet another proof of this government’s commitment to leaving no stone unturned in achieving the National Skilling Mission target. Shri Chidambaram said that during 2004-05 and 2009-10, 20 million jobs were created in the country and unemployment rate declined from 8.3 percent to 6.6 percent.

With the advancement of technology, the youth need to upgrade their skills for better opportunities.The National Skilling Mission envisages adding 500 million skilled Indians by the year 2022. While 150 million are expected to be contributed by the private sector working under National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), 350 million will be contributed by 18-odd ministries at the Centre.

The scheme is contemplated to skill atleast one youth from each family which had availed of 100 day employment under the under MNREGA scheme.The scheme itself has been created as an inclusive mechanism to benefit people in all walks of life, NSDC has defined skills in the right perspective and delivery of skills is now through an open architecture.

While the scheme envisages covering a million skilled people under this scheme, sufficient processes have also been pre-defined to ensure that the quality of the skill imparted is world-class. The monetary reward is strictly depended on obtaining a certificate that will be issued by qualified assessors after necessary tests have been passed. The skills are also benchmarked to National Occupational Standards that have been developed by NSDC with the support of the Sector Skill Councils.

The major highlights of the scheme are:
• A1000 crore rupees pan-India scheme launched by the Ministry of Finance
• Branded as STAR – Standard Training Assessment and Reward
• To benefit 1 million people
• Scheme to be implemented by National Skill Development Corporation
• Each tested and certified trainee to get an average of 10000 rupees to cover training costs.

National Skill Development Corporation
National Skill Development Corporation, a body under the Ministry of Finance, is one of its kind public private partnership endeavour with 51 per cent equity held by private sector and 49 per cent by the Union Government. Formed in 2010, NSDC is a professionally run not-for-profit company that includes 22 Sector Skill Councils and 87 training partners with over 2500 training centres spread across 352 districts in the country.

Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt won the 200-metre sprint at the World Athletics Championships in Moscow on 17 August 2013. This was his third successive 200 metre world title. It was also his 7th world gold medal. Bolt's compatriot Warren Weir clinched silver with a personal best 19.79 while America's Curtis Mitchell (20.04) took bronze by a hundredth of a second.

Bolt now has the opportunity to draw level with the present mark of eight world gold medals won by retired American duo Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson when he races the 4x100m relay on 18 August 2013.

American Tyson Gay was absent in this race because of suspension while Bolt’s Jamaican compatriot Yohan Blake was injured.