Table of Contents:
1. First State to Enforce ‘Right to Walk’ - Punjab.
2. Padma Desai Passed Away. 
3. Oscar-nominated documentary ‘Writing with Fire’ wins Peabody Award.
4. Union Health Ministry Launched ‘SAKSHAM’.

First State to Enforce ‘Right to Walk’ - Punjab. 

Punjab has become the first Indian State to implement the “Right to walk” by making it mandatory for all road-owning agencies, including the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), to provide footpaths and cycle tracks in all future expansion of roads and construction of new ones. This is a part of the efforts of Punjab to control the number of accidents and deaths of pedestrians and cyclists. 

These directions were issued by the Government of Punjab following 2 court orders after Public Interest Litigations (PILs) filed at the Punjab and Haryana High Court and the Supreme Court of India. 

In 2022, the Supreme Court of India notified the states to ensure the safety of the pedestrians and cyclists by provided dedicated, seamless and safe pedestrian lanes and cycle tracks. 

• Chief Minister of Punjab: Bhagwant Singh Mann 

• Governor of Punjab: Banwarilal Purohit 

Padma Desai Passed Away.

An Indian-American development economist and Padma Bhushan award winner, Padma Desai passed away at the age of 92 in New York, the United States of America (USA). She was born in Surat, British India (now in Gujarat) in 1931. 

She was the Gladys and Roland Harriman Professor of Comparative Economic Systems and Director of the Center for Transition Economies in 1992 at Columbia University in New York, USA. 

She is well known for her scholarship on Soviet and Indian industrial policy. In 1968 she co-authored a book titled “India: Planning for Industrialization” with Jagdish Bhagwati. 

In 2009, the Government of India honoured her with Padma Bhushan for literature and education. 

Important books by Padma Desai  

• The Soviet Economy: Problems and Prospects (1987) 

• Perestroika in Perspective: The Design and Dilemmas of Soviet Reform (1989) 

• Work Without Wages: Russia’s Nonpayment Crisis 

• Breaking Out: An Indian Woman’s American Journey 

Oscar-nominated documentary ‘Writing with Fire’ wins Peabody Award.  

Rintu Thomas and Sishmit Ghosh’s Oscar-nominated documentary “Writing With Fire” won the Peabody Award in the Documentary category recently. The documentary is about the only Dalit-women-led newspaper in the country: Khabar Lahariya and their shift to digital journalism after 14 years of print. 

The Peabody announced the 35 winners for the year 2022. The 83rd Peabody Awards are sponsored by UBS, the world’s leading global wealth manager. ‘Writing With Fire’ was the first Indian feature documentary to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.  

Union Health Ministry Launched ‘SAKSHAM’. 

Union Health Ministry has launched a learning management information system SAKSHAM, Stimulating Advanced Knowledge for Sustainable Health Management. SAKSHAM is a platform for providing online training and medical education to all health professionals in the country. It was launched by the Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan. 

This digital learning platform will ensure inclusive capacity building of health professionals from primary health centres located in rural and remote areas all the way up to tertiary care and corporate hospitals in metropolitan cities. Currently SAKSHAM: LMIS is hosting more than 200 public health and 100 clinical courses through online mode.