Daily Current Affairs 23 June 2023 – IAS Current Affairs
Current Affairs 23 June 2023 focuses on Prelims-Mains perspective. Major events are :
Upanishads and Scriptures
Source : Indian Express
GS III : Science and Technology
Overview
- About Upanishads and Upanishads
- Significance of Upanishads
Why in News ?
PM Modi presented the U.S. President, a first edition print of the book The Ten Principal Upanishads from 1937.
About Upanishads and Upanishads
Hindu scriptures
- There are broadly 2 categories of Hindu sacred texts
- Shruti, the revealed – Sruti is direct experience, Great Rishis heard the eternal truths of religion and left a record of them for the benefit of posterity.
- It constitute the Vedas (Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva) and accompanying texts.
- The Vedas are primary authority and foundational scriptures of the Hindus.
- Smriti, the remembered – Smriti is a recollection of that experience so it is secondary authority.
- The Smritis or Dharma Sastras also are books written by sages, but they are not the final authority.
- If there is anything in a Smriti which contradicts the Sruti, the Smriti is to be rejected.
- It includes Brahmanas (ritual texts), Aranyakas (forest or wilderness texts), and Upanishads (philosophical texts).
- These include the great epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata, Dharmashastras, Puranas and all other post-Vedic scriptures.
Upanishads.
- Shruti, the revealed – Sruti is direct experience, Great Rishis heard the eternal truths of religion and left a record of them for the benefit of posterity.
The Upanishads
- Also known as the Vedanta (the end of Veda) forms the very foundation of Hinduism.
- It is a religious and Philosophical treatises.
- It speculate about the ontological connection between humanity and the cosmos.
- Dated to roughly 800-500 BC, the Upanishads discuss concepts such as transmigration, nature and God.
- They represent the “Knowledge of Brahman” (Brahma-vidya) and are mostly related to Vedas.
- Oldest Upanishads – Brihadaranyaka and Chandogya Upanishads – 1st millennium BC.
- The latest Upanishad – Muktika Upanishad – by Dara Shikoh – 1656.
- The Upanishads were given particular importance by 8th century Hindu scholar Adi Shankara, whose interpretations synthesised the Advaita Vedanta tradition.
- Significance of Upanishads
- The Upanishads are the most sacred late Vedic and post-Vedic Sanskrit texts which are considered to contain the ultimate truth and the knowledge that leads to spiritual emancipation.
Global Gender Gap Report 2023
Source : The Hindu
GS I : Society
Overview
- About Upanishads and Upanishads
- Significance of Upanishads
Why in News?
World Economic Forum (WEF) published the Global Gender Gap Report 2023 recently.
About Global Gender Gap Report
- The Global Gender Gap Index is published annually since 2006.
- Published by: World Economic Forum (WEF).
- WEF: a non-profit organization based in Geneva, Switzerland.
- It engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.
- It benchmarks the current state and evolution of gender parity across four key dimensions:-
- Economic Participation and Opportunity
- Educational Attainment
- Health and Survival
- Political Empowerment
- On each of these four sub-indices as well as on the overall index the GGG index provides scores between 0 and 1.
- 1 : full gender parity
- 0 : complete imparity.
- It is the longest-standing index trackingthe progress of numerous countries’ efforts towards closing these gaps.
Key findings
- Global gender gap score in 2023 stands at 68.4%.
- Modest improvement of 0.3% points compared to the previous year.
- There is a significant slowdown in the overall rate of change.
- At the current rate of progress, it would take 131 years to achieve full gender parity.
- Top-Ranking Countries : Iceland is the most gender-equal country for the 14th consecutive year, with a gender gap score of 91.2%.
- It is the only country to have closed over 90% of its gender gap.
- Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA):-
- SSA has been ranked above Southern Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.
- Women in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have to wait another 102 years to achieve gender parity with men.
- Gender equality in the region may not be fully realized until 2125.
- 17 of the region’s 36 countries marked progress of 0.5 percentage points or more.
- SSA is the lowest-ranked region in terms of educational attainment.
- Health and Survival:
- The gender gap in health and survival has closed by 96% globally.
- Political Empowerment:
- The gender gap remains significant, with a closure rate of 22.1% globally.
- Educational Attainment:
- The gender gap in educational attainment has closed by 95.2%.
- Significant progress was made over the 2006-2023 period.
- The gender gap in educational attainment is projected to close in 16 years.
- Economic Participation and Opportunity:
- The gender gap in economic participation and opportunity stands at 60.1% globally.
- The gender gap in economic participation and opportunity is projected to close in 169 years.
India’s Ranking in the report
- Rank 2023:127th out of 146 countries.
- Rank in 2022: 135th
- India’s Progress:-
- India climbed eight places indicating an improvement in its ranking.
- India has closed 64.3% of the overall gender gap, showcasing progress in various areas.
- India has achieved parity in enrolment across all levels of education.
- Challenges for India:
-
- Economic participation and opportunity in India achieved only 36.7% parity.
Global Liveability Index 2023
Why in News?
Recently, the Global Liveability Index 2023 was published. The Global Gender Gap Index is published annually since 2006.
About Global Gender Gap Report
- It is published by the Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU) of the Economist.
- The concept of livability assesses the best or worst living conditions of cities based on 30 qualitative and quantitative factors across five broad categories of stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure.
- It quantify the challenges that might be presented to an individual’s lifestyle in 173 cities worldwide
- Assessing liveability has a broad range of uses, from benchmarking perceptions of development levels to assigning a hardship allowance as part of expatriate relocation packages.
Major Findings
- The top rank of the liveable cities is dominated by European and North American cities.
- Asia-Pacific cities have made some of the biggest gains, accounting for eight of the top ten movers up the rankings as economies recover from the pandemic
- Vienna in Austria tops the ranking of the most liveable cities in the world followed by Copenhagen in Denmark, Melbourne, and Sydney on 3rd and 4th rank while Vancouver has been placed as the 5th best city on the liveability index.
- Among Asian countries, only Osaka in Japan features among the top 10 most liveable countries at number 9.
- Worst performers: Damascus (Syria) and Tripoli (Libya) are still at the bottom of the list, held back by social unrest, terrorism and conflict. However, while Damascus has seen no improvement since last year, scores for Tripoli and other cities in the bottom ten have improved as the pandemic has receded.
- Key Analysis : After the end of covid restrictions, the liveability index has shown a noticeable improvement across the world. The average index score among all 172 cities has now reached 76.2 out of 100.
- EIU’s Liveability Index has risen significantly in the 2023 survey, reaching a 15-year high as the world moves on from the covid-19 pandemic and healthcare and education scores improve in many cities in Asia and the Middle East and Africa.
- However, scores for stability have slipped backward since last year, amid several instances of civil unrest around the world
- The war in Ukraine and the resulting economic and political disruption are affecting liveability in many European cities.
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