News analysis

Index:

• Why do we need to inspire more girls to aspire for careers in science and technology?
• Marine Mega Fauna Stranding Guidelines
• Important news in short
• Content related to Ethics (GS-4)

Women empowerment (GS-1)

Why do we need to inspire more girls to aspire for careers in science and technology?

Context: There is an article called “Don’t STEM their progress” in today’s newspaper

What are the issues?

• Worldwide, women are not encouraged and supported to go for educations and careers in science and technology.
• Both conscious and unconscious biases, limit girls’ and women’s progress within these fields.
• People more likely to associate science and technology with men than with women. They also often hold negative opinions of women in “masculine” positions like
  computer scientists and engineers.
• Women are often judged as less competent than their male colleagues in science and technology.
• Women having careers in science and technology are also paid less for their work compared to men and experience huge difficulties in advancing in their careers.
• With the rapid digitisation transforming global societies at an unprecedented scale, the under­representation of women in science and technology puts them at the high risk of being thrown away by technology.

What can we do?

• We all must increase efforts to immediately change the status quo.
• We just need to have a transformative agenda that influences and changes norms and structures that hamper women, as well as enhances the visibility of women and girls as actors.
• We should provide inspiring examples, role models and success stories of women who successfully pursue careers in science and technology and spearhead knowledge building
  and technology development in science and technology fields.

Environment (GS-3)

Marine Mega Fauna Stranding Guidelines

Context: Union Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar Thursday released Marine Mega Fauna Stranding Guidelines for long-term conservation of marine species and their habitats.

Why these guidelines?

• These guidelines aim to increase coordination between various independent governments and civil societies responding to marine stranding, research and management, data sharing and thus promote inter-sectoral coordination in the conservation of marine animals.
• The guidelines aim to prepare a database on cetacean sighting and stranding across the India, and help set up a national stranding centre and another in the state with district/local coordinator with high stranding and bycatch cases.

What is in the guidelines?

• A basic marine stranding network will consist of first responders, forest guard, divisional forest officer, government official veterinary and marine police.
• A first responder keeps a live individual comfortable and a dead individual from getting washed back into the sea and supports the scientists, veterinarians and the departments in data collection or rescue release operations.
• The guidelines lay down the procedure to be followed for live and dead stranding. In case of live stranding, where the animal can be released into the sea, they will be tagged.
• “All responders must use gloves and masks. Each rescued marine animal may be satellite tagged, if the health of the stranded animals is good, for later identification and to track movements after release,” –according to the marine stranding guidelines.

Important news in short

• The Centre is on track to push the 2021 Census to2022 on account of the country’s continuing preoccupation with the COVID-­19 pandemic
• The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has said the three language policy does not apply to offices of the Union government. The Ministry gave this response to a question filed under the Right to Information (RTI)Act.
• A new visa scheme offering millions of people in Hong Kong a pathway to British citizenship went live on Sunday as the city’s former colonial master opens its doors to those wanting to escape China’s crackdown on dissent.
• International troops plan to stay in Afghanistan beyond the May deadline envisaged by Taliban’s deal with the U.S., four senior NATO officials said, a move that could escalate tensions with the Taliban demanding full withdrawal.

Content related to Ethics (GS-4)

• In the radio programme, Mann Ki Baat, Prime Minister Modi hailed the commitment of N.S. Rajappan, a differently-abled man from Kaippuzhamuttu, near Kumarakom, Kottayam.
  • For several years, he has been earning a living by collecting plastic bottles floating on the lake and the streams linked to it. (Social influence & persuasion)
• Indore District Magistrate Manish Singh said he had apologised to God for the local administration’s action of dumping homeless people outside the city in the cold weather,
  which had led to massive public outrage. (Empathy)

Prelims related content in today’s newspaper

• Little Andaman Island
• GST
• Vembanad Lake
• Periyar Tiger Reserve
• Su­30MKIs aircraft
• Chabahar port
• NATO