• International Mother Language Day (IMLD) is a worldwide annual observance forming a part of UNESCO’s calendar of events, held on 21st February to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism.
• It was first announced by UNESCO on 17th November, 1999.
• It was formally recognized by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in 2008.
• The latter called upon its member states “to promote the preservation and protection of all languages used by people of the world”.

In India:

• India has unparallel linguistic and cultural diversity and fittingly, it is proposed to observe in India 21st February, 2020 for events that promote our languages and the associated diversity of usage and literature.
• It has been decided to celebrate Matribhasha Diwas on 21st February every year, to promote the use of mother tongues and to achieve the following objectives:-

1. To highlight the linguistic diversity of our country
2. To encourage usage, not only of the respective mother tongue but other Indian languages as well
3. To understand and draw attention to the diversity of cultures in India and the consequent forums of literature, craft, performing arts, scripts and other forms of creative expression
4. To encourage the learning of languages other than one’s own mother tongue

• The Union government has recently decided to rename well-known think tank Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) as ‘Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses’.

Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA)

• It is a non-partisan, autonomous body under the Ministry of Defence.
• It was established as a registered society in New Delhi in 1965.
• It is dedicated to objective research and policy relevant studies on all aspects of defence and security.
• IDSA is governed by an Executive Council, whose members are distinguished personalities from various walks of life. The Council is headed by a President.
• Members of the Council are elected for two-year terms at the Annual General Body meeting.

• Union Minister for Tribal Affairs has recently inaugurated the function to celebrate “16th Foundation of Day of National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST)” organised by National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST).

National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST)

• It was established by amending Article 338 and inserting a new Article 338A in the Constitution through the Constitution (89th Amendment) Act, 2003.
• By this amendment, the erstwhile National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes was replaced by two separate Commissions namely- (i) the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC), and (ii) the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST).
• The Commission comprise a Chairperson, a Vice Chairperson and three full time members (including one lady member). 
• The term of office of Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson and each member is three years from the date of assumption of charge.
• The Chairperson has been given the rank of Union Cabinet Minister, and the Vice-Chairperson that of a Minister of State and other Members have the ranks of a Secretary to the Government of India.

• The Union Cabinet has recently approved 22nd Law Commission of India for a period of three years from the date of publication of the Order of Constitution in the Official Gazette.

The Law Commission of India shall, inter-alia,: -

1. identify laws which are no longer needed or relevant and can be immediately repealed;
2. examine the existing laws in the light of Directive Principles of State Policy and suggest ways of improvement and reform and also suggest such legislations as might be necessary to implement the Directive Principles and to attain the objectives set out in the Preamble of the Constitution;
3. consider and convey to the Government its views on any subject relating to law and judicial administration that may be specifically referred to it by the Government through Ministry of Law and Justice (Department of Legal Affairs);
4. Consider the requests for providing research to any foreign countries as may be referred to it by the Government through Ministry of Law and Justice (Department of Legal Affairs);
5. take all such measures as may be necessary to harness law and the legal process in the service of the poor;
6. revise the Central Acts of general importance so as to simplify them and remove anomalies, ambiguities and inequities;

Background

• The Law Commission of India is a non-statutory body constituted by the Government of India from time to time.
• The Commission was originally constituted in 1955 and is re-constituted every three years.
• The tenure of twenty-first Law Commission of India was upto 31st August, 2018.
• The various Law Commission have been able to make important contribution towards the progressive development and codification of Law of the country. The Law Commission has so far submitted 277 reports.

The 22nd Law Commission will be constituted for a period of three years from the date of publication of its Order in the Official Gazette. It will consist of:

1. a full-time Chairperson;
2. four full-time Members (including Member-Secretary)
3. Secretary, Department of Legal Affairs as ex-officio Member;
4. Secretary, Legislative Department as ex officio Member; and
5. not more than five part-time Members.

• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by the Prime Minister, has recently given its approval for upward revision of interest subvention from "up to 2%" to "up to 2.5% p.a." under the scheme Dairy processing and Infrastructure Development Fund (DIDF) with the revised outlay of Rs. 11184 Cr. 

Dairy Processing and Infrastructure Development Fund

• To ensure that Dairy Cooperatives remain competitive for the sustained benefit of farmers, the Government of India had announced creation of Dairy Processing and Infrastructure Development Fund under National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) with a total corpus of Rs. 8000 crore over a period of 3 years (i.e. 2017-18 to 2019-20), in the Union Budget of 2017-18.
• The funding period (2017-18 to 2019-20) of the scheme is revised to 2018-19 to 2022-23 and the repayment period to be extended upto 2030-31 with spill over to first quarter of the FY 2031-32.
• Funding will be in the form of interest bearing loan, which will flow from NABARD to National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) / National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) and in turn to eligible End Borrowers.

Objectives of the scheme:

The scheme has been designed with the following objectives:

1. To modernize the milk processing plants and machinery and to create additional infrastructure for processing more milk.
2. To create additional milk processing capacity for increased value addition by producing more dairy products.
3. To bring efficiency in dairy processing plants/producer owned and controlled dairy institutions, thereby enabling optimum value of milk to milk producer farmers and supply of quality milk to consumers.
4. To help the producer owned and controlled institutions to increase their share of milk, thereby providing greater opportunities of ownership, management and market access to rural milk producers in the organized milk market.
5. To help the producer owned and controlled institutions to consolidate their position as dominant player in the organised liquid milk market and to make increased price realisation to milk producers.

• Recently, China seeks help of tech giants to track coronavirus with QR codes.
• The QR Code is a two-dimensional version of the barcode.
• ‘QR’ stands for "Quick Response", which refers to the instant access to the information hidden in the Code.
• It consists of black squares arranged in a square grid on a white background.
• Up to 7089 digits or 4296 characters can be entered in one Code.
• The hidden information can be read by an imaging device such as a camera and the required data is then extracted from patterns that are present in code.
• It encodes same amount of data in one-tenth the space of a traditional bar code.
• It carries information both horizontally and vertically.
• The data stored in it can be restored even if it is partially damaged or dirty.

• Recently, Government unveils plan for research on Indigenous Cows.
• It is to be funded by multiple institutions, the initiative, SUTRA PIC, is led by Department of Science and Technology.
• The proposals under this theme aims to perform,

1. Scientific research on complete characterisation of milk and milk products derived from Indian indigenous cows;
2. Scientific research on nutritional and therapeutic properties of curd and ghee prepared from indigenous breeds of cows by traditional methods;
3. Development of standards for traditionally processed dairy products of Indian-origin cow.

• Gir, Hallikar, Red Sindhi, Sahiwal, Deoni, Amritmahal, Khillari, Kangayam, Bargur, Kankrej, Ongole, Krishna valley are some of the Indigenous Cattle Varieties of India.
• Ayrshire is from Scotland, and is considered as most beautiful dairy breed. 

• India is in no rush to sign a trade deal with the US and is focussed on a mutually beneficial pact, government sources after US President Donald Trump indicated that a trade deal might not materialise during his visit herr.
• India enjoys a trade surplus with the United States.
• In 2018-19, India’s exports to the US were $52.4 billion, while imports were $ 35.5 billion.
• Trade deficit dipped from $21.3 billion in 2017-18 to $16.9 billion in 2018-19.
• India pulled out of RCEP recently, to protect service workers and farmers and US is not a part of RCEP.

• Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) is a method of care of preterm infants. The method involves infants being carried, usually by the mother, with skin-to-skin contact.
• WHO recommends that it be continued till baby attains a weight of 2.5 kg or till babies wriggle out.
• This guide is intended for health professionals responsible for the care of low-birth-weight and preterm infants.
• Designed to be adapted to local conditions, it provides guidance on how to organize services at the referral level and on what is needed to provide effective kangaroo mother care.
• The guide includes practical advice on when and how the kangaroo-mother-care method can best be applied.
• As 20 million low birth weight (LBW) infants are born each year worldwide, KMC has become a very important way of caring for these high risk infants.

• No country in the world is currently positioned to provide a healthy childhood coupled with a healthy environment fit for the future, according to a new report.
• A Future Fit For Children report is a landmark report released by a commission convened by WHO, UNICEF and  The Lancet.
• The first 33 positions are occupied by high-income countries starting with Norway, South Korea, the Netherlands, France, Ireland, Denmark, Japan, Belgium, Iceland and the UK.
• No low-middle-income (LMIC) country figures in the first 50 positions. Moldova is the first LMIC to figure in the list at 51st rank. India’s rank is 131st  among 180 countries.
• ‘Healthy childhood’ has been measured by the ‘Flourishing Index’ which includes measures for child survival and well-being such as health, education, and nutrition.
• The healthy environment has been measured by ‘Sustainability Index’, including a proxy for greenhouse gas emissions.