High school students are being made to take a psychometric test to gauge their mental, emotional stability

• These tests are now being made mandatory in several schools and are aimed at assessing the mental and emotional stability of students.
• Such tests help understand if the child is facing any trauma and give an idea of what kind of support system he or she is part of.

FIRE panel constituted

• To tackle sexual harassment at work, Film Industry for Rights and Equity (FIRE) has constituted a 11-member gender sensitisation and internal complaints committee (GSICC), in accordance with the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Rules, 2013, headed by filmmaker Kavitha Lankesh.
• FIRE has appealed to the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce and other allied bodies to send harassment complaints in the workplace that were received.
• KFCC is an umbrella body of the film industry and it has so much responsibility on its hand.
• In earlier cases of sexual harassment and casting couch, the KFCC took a neutral stand. Here arises the need to have an independent GSICC, with which FIRE is equipped.
• ICC of FIRE will maintain the confidentiality of complainant. But, the complaint should be written.

ADGP Raghavendra Auradkar Report on revised pay scale

• The Committee to Examine Disparities in Pay and Allowance of Police headed by ADGP (recruitment) Raghavendra Auradkar, was constituted on June 28, 2016.
• To arrive at the 35% hike figure, the committee looked into pay scales of police forces in Punjab, Kerala, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal.
• Following the planned police protests, the Karnataka government had assured that it would recruit more police.
• Recruitments in the state have been held for close to a decade, with successive governments dragging their feet on the recruitment process.
• Karnataka has a shortage of about 25,000 police, and the state government has initiated the process for about 8,500 constables.

India Tropical Fruit Association.

• Pointing out at the absence of an apex body for fruit growers in the country, Ken Love, Executive Director, The Hawai Tropical Fruit Growers and internationally acclaimed fruit hunter, stressed on the need to form India Tropical Fruit Association.
• Such a body would help in sharing crop, product, marketing and technical information among domestic as well as foreign fruit farmers. It would help in getting funding for developing and maintaining germplasm.
• It is not only essential to form such a body, may be, as a non-governmental organisation (NGO), but the need of the hour is to save some of the vanishing fruit varieties.
• Educating consumers and getting self-educated on varieties of fruits is also important. For example, many are not aware that there are about 390 varieties of pomegranates and about 300 varieties of oranges.
• Unlike other plantation crops, the fruit business is not controlled by large corporates. Whereas the control of corporates could be felt in the marketing of arecanut, coconut, coffee and rubber. There only a few corporate players in the fruit business now. If pre and post-harvest methods are taken care of properly, fruit farming gave “reasonably good returns”.

‘Save Bandipur’ campaign picks up

• The campaign stems from the proposal made by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), Government of India, that it wanted to develop five stretches of 1 km each – of elevated roads – through the national park to ensure that there was 24x7 movement of vehicles along the national highway 212 (renamed as NH 766).
• At present, there is a ban on movement of traffic through the national park from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. and this is being opposed by a section of stakeholders. But environmentalists and wildlife activists have supported the ban, first introduced by the State government which was initially challenged in the High Court of Karnataka that upheld the decision.
• But the issue moved to the Supreme Court where it is being heard and in the interim the MoRTH submitted a proposal for elevated roads through Bandipur before the apex court.
• The activists of Bandipur Ulisi or Save Bandipur campaign submitted a memorandum to the authorities registering their opposition to the infrastructure project. They said being a prime elephant and tiger habitat these forests were the last vestiges of wilderness and a biodiversity hot spot that had to be conserved.
• The activists expressed concern that the project would be a source of disturbance to wildlife and clearance to it would set a wrong precedent leading to further destruction of flora and fauna.