Comprehensive Current affairs 19 October 2020

 Government considers 30% allocation for neglected sections of northeast.

Indian Minister Jitendra Singh has said that an exclusive 30 per cent allocation has been decided for neglected sections of North East. Yesterday

Mr.Singh was speaking to a Chakma delegation represented by ‘Committee for Citizenship Rights of the Chakma and Hajong’ of Arunachal Pradesh. He said that the North Eastern Council affiliated to the Ministry of DoNER had, on the advice of Indian Home Minister , moved a proposal which was approved at the Cabinet Meeting.

He said, accordingly, it has been decided that 30 percent of North Eastern Council's allocations for new projects under the existing schemes will be devoted for focus development of deprived areas and emerging sectors of the North Eastern States.

Indian global hunger rank index slips further.

India has the highest prevalence of wasted children under five years in the world, which reflects acute undernutrition, according to the Global Hunger Index 2020. The situation has worsened in the 2015-19 period, when the prevalence of child wasting was 17.3%, in comparison to 2010-14, when it was 15.1%.

Overall, India ranks 94 out of 107 countries in the Index, lower than neighbours such as Bangladesh (75) and Pakistan (88). 2020 scores reflect data from 2015-19. The Index, which was released on Friday, is a peer-reviewed report released annually by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe.

It uses four parameters to determine its scores. India fares worst in child wasting (low weight for height, reflecting acute undernutrition) and child stunting (low height for age, reflecting chronic undernutrition), which together make up a third of the total score.

Although it is still in the poorest category, however, child stunting has actually improved significantly, from 54% in 2000 to less than 35% now. Child wasting, on the other hand, has not improved in the last two decades, and is rather worse than it was decade ago.

Kamdhenu Deepawali Abhiyan.

Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog (RKA) has started a nation- wide campaign to celebrate Kamdhenu Deepawali Abhiyan this year on the occasion of Deepawali festival.

• It is encouraged by the response to Gaumaya Ganesha Campaign which encouraged usage of eco-friendly material in manufacture of idols for the Ganesha Festival.

• Through this campaign, the RKA is promoting extensive use of cow-dung/ Panchgavya products during this Diwali Festival.

• Manufacture of Cow dung based Diyas, Candles, Dhoop, Agarbatti, Shubh-Labh, Swastik,Samrani, Hardboard, Wall-piece, Paper-weight, Havan samagri, Idols of Lord Ganesha and Goddess Lakshmi for this year’s Diwali festival has already started.

• RKA aims reaching 11 crore families to ignite 33 crore Diyas made of cow-dung during this year’s Deepawali festival.

 • Apart from generating business opportunities to thousands of cow -based entrepreneurs / farmers / women entrepreneurs, the use of cow-dung products will lead to cleaner and healthier environment.

• It will help in making Gaushalas ‘Atma Nirbhar’ too.

• By providing an environment friendly alternative to Chinese made Diyas, the campaign will boost up Make in India vision and also promote ‘Swadeshi’ movement while reducing environmental damage.

• Various segments of stakeholders like farmers, manufacturers, entrepreneurs, Gaushalas and other concerned are being involved at large to make the campaign of Kamdhenu Deepawali a grand success.

Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog (RKA):

• Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog (RKA) has been constituted in 2019 for the conservation,protection and development of cows and their progeny and for giving direction to the cattle development programmes.

RKA is high powered permanent body to formulate policy and to provide direction to the implementation of schemes related to cattle so as to give more emphasis on livelihood generation.

• Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog functions as an integral part of Rashtriya Gokul Mission.

• The Aayog reviews existing laws, policies as well as suggest measures for optimum economic utilization of cow wealth for enhanced production and productivity, leading to higher farm income and better quality of life for the dairy farmers.

• Livestock economy sustains nearly 73 million households in rural areas. Even though, the country is largest producer of milk, the average milk yield in India is only 50% of the world average.

• The low productivity is largely due to deterioration in genetic stock, poor nutrition and unscientific management.

 • RKA is trying to implement the vision of Prime Minister for ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat’. The Cow-centric economy can also help in achieving this goal by making its own humble contribution. For this purpose, RKA has been consistently endeavouring to increase the use of various cow- panchgavya products to raise the income of farmers, gaupalaks, youth,women, self-help groups and other stakeholders.

School Closure may Cost India adversely.

The extended closure of schools amid the COVID-19 pandemic could dent India’s future earnings, as depleted learning levels of students will translate into poorer productivity

.• As many as 5.5 million students could drop out of schools across South Asia, combined with substantial learning losses for those who remain enrolled in schools, would cost South Asia as much as $622 billion in future earnings and Gross Domestic Product.

• World Bank said these in its latest South Asia report titled “Beaten or broken: Informality and COVID-19”.

Highlights of the Report:

• Far-reaching impact: South Asian governments spend only $400 billion a year on primary and secondary education, so the total loss in economic output would be substantially higher.

• Far-reaching impact:

South Asian governments spend only $400 billion a year on primary and secondary education, so the total loss in economic output would be substantially higher.

• During the first quarter of FY21, the current account turned to a surplus, as a large decline in imports more than offset a drop in exports.

• With significant net foreign investment inflows, foreign reserves reached USD 534.5 billion at end-July, equivalent to more than 13 months of FY20 imports.

 • Following a sharp depreciation in March, the rupee has gradually regained its value against major currencies but remains slightly weaker than at the start of the year.

• The growth slowdown in FY20 and the contraction in early FY21 have impaired revenue collection.

• Thus, after increasing to 7.6 percent in FY20, the general government deficit is believed to have increased further during the first half of FY21.

• More recent household survey data indicate significant disruptions to jobs due to COVID-19 that likely boosted the poverty rate, with 2020 rates back to levels overserved in 2016.

• The labour force participation rate was 3.2 percentage points lower in the last week of August than in the months leading up to the lockdown.

• Between the last four months of 2019 and May-August 2020, the proportion of people working in urban and rural areas fell by 4.2 and 3.8 percentage points, respectively.

• Overall, the pandemic has likely raised urban poverty, creating a set of “new poor” characterized by non-farm employment and secondary or tertiary education.

• The COVID-19 shock will lead to a long-lasting inflexion in India’s fiscal trajectory.

Study finds World experiencing rising rates of chronic disease, public health failures.

The world is experiencing rising rates of chronic disease, persistent infectious diseases and public health failures that have fuelled deaths in the COVID-19 pandemic. This has been highlighted in a major global study on human health published in The Lancet Medical Journal .

The Global Burden of Disease Study 2019 analysed the burden of 369 diseases and injuries on human health in 204 countries and territories, in the past 30 years. Speaking on the occasion, WHO Chief Dr.TedrosGhebreyesus cited the report to highlight the increasing incidence of non-communicable diseases around the world and the toll it takes on human lives, especially during pandemics like COVID-19.

He called upon all nations to join hands to build robust healthcare infrastructure to fight with future pandemics.

Jacinda ardern wins landslide victory in New Zealand general elections

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern won in New Zealand’s general elections. With 87 per cent of the vote counted, Ardern’s Labour Party won a landslide victory with 49 per cent support, heading to its biggest share of the vote since the 1930s. The opposition National Party slumped to 27per cent.

•With this, Ardern led centre-left Labour Party secures a second term after her success in tackling the Coronavirus situation in the country. JacindaArdern's victory is regarded as voters' reward for her decisive response to COVID-19.

•Ardern has captured the hallowed center ground in New Zealand politics with a blend of empathetic leadership and skilled crisis management that has also won her fame abroad.

•Ardern came out of her home in Auckland, waved and hugged gathered supporters. Opposition National Party leader Judith Collins called the result outstanding and said she congratulated Ardern over the call.

Finance ministry participates in World Bank Development Committee Plenary.

Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman participated in 102nd meeting of the World Bank Development Committee Plenary through video conference.

In her intervention at this session, Sitharaman said that COVID -19 Pandemic continues to impact the developing and developed countries till date and the hard fought gains in reducing the level of poverty, achieved over a number of years, are at risk of being lost.

She said, the Government of India has taken several measures to contain the spread of pandemic, and also to mitigate its social and economic impact. Mrs Sitharaman shared that the Government has announced the first stimulus of 23 billion dollar to provide direct cash transfers and food security measures to the poor.

She also mentioned that the Government has committed 2.03 Billion dollar for strengthening health infrastructure in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.

The Finance Minister stated that collective action is the key for effective response to the pandemic and welcomed the strong performance in quarter - 4 of financial year 2020 wherein World Bank Group has committed 45 billion dollar for COVID-19 response.

Startups in country to get access to science & technology infrastructure .

Startups and industries will soon have access to equipment and science and technology infrastructure in different institutions, Universities, and Colleges spread all over the country to carry out experiments and tests they require for their Research and Development.

The Science and Technology Ministry said, restructuring will help them carry out experiments and tests required for their Research and Development, technology and product development.

The Department of Science and Technology is restructuring its FIST (Fund for Improvement of Science and Technology Infrastructure in Universities and Higher Educational institutions) programme under which it supports scaling up of the network of infrastructural facilities for teaching and research in Universities and higher educational institutions.

The BepiColombo Space Craft crosses past Venus.

The BepiColombo Space Craft has crossed the Venus in its journey towards Mercury. The spacecraft was launched jointly by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and European Space Agency to explore planet Mercury.

BepiColombo was launched on the Ariane 5 rocket and will arrive Mercury in 2025. This Mission is a part of the Horizon 2000+ Programme by the European Space Agency. This was the last spacecraft of the programme.

 The BepiColombo spacecraft consists of two satellites launched namely, Mercury Planetary Orbiter and Mercury MagnetosphericOrbiter. These two satellites were launched together. They will separate once they arrive Mercury.

This spacecraft mission has been launched to explore and study the mercury. The spacecraft would be studying the characterisation of magnetosphere and the external and surface magnetic field of the mercury. It will study the solid and liquid cores of mercury and perform magnetic and gravitational field mappings there.

Mount Kilimanjaro fire brakeout.

A Fire that has recently broken out on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa. Its causes is not clear but strong winds and dry weather have caused it to spread fast.

Highlights:

• It is located in Tanzania, Mount Kilimanjaro is Africa’s tallest mountain at about 5,895 Meters. It is also the largest free-standing mountain rise in the world, meaning it is not part of a mountain range. It is a strato volcano or composite volcano a term for a very large volcano made of layers of ash, lava, and rock, and is made up of three cones Kibo,Mawenzi, and Shira.

• Kibo is the summit of the mountain and the tallest of the three volcanic formations. While Mawenzi and Shira are extinct, Kibo is dormant and could possibly erupt again. Scientists estimate that the last time it erupted was 3,60,000 years ago.

• It is also known for its snow-capped peak which might disappear within the next 20 years or so as per the warnings by the scientists. The mountain and its six surrounding forest corridors were named Kilimanjaro National Park in order to protect its unique environment. The park was named a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage site in 1987. It is a popular tourist destination and tens of thousands of people Climb it Every Year.

Comprehensive Current affairs 18 October 2020

Stay on civil/criminal proceedi not exceed beyond 6 months,claims SC

Any stay on civil or criminal proceedings is valid for a period of six months, beyond which the trial will resume, the Supreme Court held in an order on Friday.

“Whatever stay has been granted by any court, including the High Court, automatically expires within a period of six months,” a Bench led by Justice Rohinton F. Nariman said.

An extension of the stay has to be granted only for a “good reason.”The Bench was reiterating a 2013 judgment in the Asian Resurfacing of Road Agency Pvt. Ltd case.

“The speaking order must show that the case was of such exceptional nature that continuing the stay was more important than having the trial finalised,” the court said.

The judgment was concerned with the case of refusal of a magistrate court in Pune to resume trial as the Bombay High Court had previously stayed the proceedings.

 “We must remind the magistrates all over the country that in our pyramidical structure under the Constitution of India, the Supreme Court is at the apex, and the High Courts, though not subordinate administratively, are certainly subordinate judicially. This kind of orders fly in the face of our judgment . We expect that the magistrates all over the country will follow our order in letter and spirit,” the Supreme Court observed.

Government aims to make country free from transfat by 2022.

Indian Health Minister Harsh said that the aim of the government is to make India Trans Fat free by 2022, a year ahead of target set by World Health Organization .

Chairing the event on World Food Day organized by FSSAI, Harsh Vardhan said, due to the unprecedented challenges faced by the world on account of the Covid pandemic, there has been a renewed focus on food, nutrition, health, immunity and sustainability. He said, focus this year is on elimination of Trans Fats from the food supply chain.

The Minister said, Trans Fat, a food toxin present in Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils, baked and fried foods, is a major contributor to the rise in non-communicable diseases in India.

Digital Education in Kerala .

Recently, Kerala has become the first state in the country to have high-tech classrooms or high-tech labs in all government-run and aided schools.

Highlights:

• It is a part of this flagship project of the government, high-tech labs have been set up in primary and upper primary schools and 40,000 classrooms in high school and higher secondary schools have been converted into smart classrooms.

• The High-speed broadband internet has been ensured in 12,678 schools. The high-tech classroom project was implemented by Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE), the nodal agency for ICT education in schools.

 • The government has also started digital classrooms known as ‘First bell’ to impart education to 41 lakh students in the state after schools shut due to the lockdown

• It is also carrying out a unique programme called “Namath Basai”of teaching tribal children in their mother tongue.

• The programme is being implemented by the Samagra Shiksha Kerala (SSK).

• The Central government has proposed long-term measures to address social inequities in online education, as highlighted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

• The digital education in India still faces many challenges like lack of internet penetration, economic inequality, lack of trained teachers etc.

Israeli parliament back peace deal with UAE.

Israel’s Parliament voted on Thursday in favour of normalisation of ties with the United Arab Emirates after a marathon debate with over 100 speeches lasting more than eight hours.

A total of 80 lawmakers voted to approve the U.S.-brokered agreement, with 13 from the Arab-led Joint List against.

“This historic agreement will bring us closer to other countries in the region to sign other peace agreements,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

He said Israel had contact with another country in the region for the first time, but did not reveal its name.

The UAE in August became the first Arab state to establish relations with Israel since Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994. It was quickly followed by Bahrain.

The U.S.-brokered deals were formalised at the White House on September 15.The West Asia agreements were condemned by the Palestinians as a “betrayal”.

 India-Chile holds joint commission meeting for the first time.

India and Chile held their first joint commission meeting yesterday and agreed to add new momentum to their relations in a wide range of fields including trade and commerce, agriculture, health and social security, defence and space.

The meeting held virtually was co-chaired by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Chilean counterpart Andres Allamand Zavala. Both sides noted that the Joint Commission was a significant development in India - Chile relations, being the first institutionalized dialogue between the two countries at the level of Foreign Ministers.

India welcomed Chile's decision to designate India as a priority country in its foreign policy. Chile will also be opening its Consulate General in Mumbai.

Based on their convergence of views on many global and regional issues, both sides agreed to coordinate closely at the multilateral fora.

The External Affairs Minister underlined Prime Minister NarendraModi's vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat for enhancing resilience through self-reliance and human-centric globalization as the basis for India's economic revival. He invited Chile to take advantage of India's new economic capacities and growing market.

Atal Beemit Vyakti Kalyan Yojana (ABVKY) to ensure wages to those who became unemployed due to lockdown.

The government is launching a campaign, AtalBeemitVyaktiKalyanYojana (ABVKY), to ensure that Employees’ State Insurance Corporation-registered workers who had lost their jobs during the lockdown can claim of 50% of their wages for up to three months as unemployment relief even if they have resumed work.

The move is seen as an outreach to those displaced by the lockdown and blunt the criticism that the government did not take care of migrant and factory workers, who were the worst hit. Sourcessaid that the documents will need to be submitted physically as the beneficiaries are not linked to Aadhaar.

Ministry sources said the scheme has started to receive nearly 400 claims daily since the labour ministry and ESIC decided to extend ABVKY last month, when it also decided to bump up the rate of unemployment relief from the existing 25% of wages to 50% of wages.

While unemployment benefits could only be available following submissions through employers, the labour ministry has now permitted claims to be made directly to designated ESIC branch office. ESIC services nearly 3.4 crore families through medical insurance cover and cash benefits to almost 13.5 crore beneficiaries.

Under the new social security code law, the government has also decided on extending ESIC services to all 740 districts of the country, for which labour ministry officials said they have tied up with hospitals empanelled under the Ayushman Bharat scheme and 3rdparty service providers.

India-International food and agri week inaugurated.

Indian Food Processing Industries Minister virtually inaugurated the India - International Food and Agri Week. According to reports Indian food processing sector is 32 per cent of India’s food market.

Proper marketing and latest technology can lead to greater development of the agriculture sector and significant steps have been taken in this direction. He added that with 3.4 per cent GDP growth rate agriculture sector has contributed hugely to India’s economic growth even during Covid times.

Food Processing Ministry has started an awareness campaign named ‘Anna DevoBhava’ to mark this occasion. Minister stressed that along with increasing awareness about the value of food we must also focus on reducing food wastage.

Study finds global climate events in 3200 years may have impacted Indian monsoons.

 Global climatic events like the Roman Warm Period, Medieval Climate Anomaly, and the Little Ice Age may have had significant impacts on India's landscape, vegetation, and socio-economic growth, with abrupt shifts in the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) coinciding with these climatic events, a study by Indian researchers has found.

The study by the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, an institute of the Department of Science & Technology, shows wet monsoon conditions in the North-Western Himalaya between 1200 and 550 BCE.

This condition prevailed till 450 AD, coinciding with the Roman Warm Period. It was followed by reduced precipitation and a weak ISM till 950 AD and then strengthened during the Medieval Climate Anomaly between 950 and 1350 AD.

In a recent study published in the journal 'Quaternary International', researchers obtained grain size data, stable isotope ratios of carbon and nitrogen, total organic carbon (TOC), and total nitrogen data from the sediments of the lake.

The findings pointed out a revival of wet climatic conditions with a strong ISM around 1600 AD following the Little Ice Age, which prevails in present times.

The variability of ISM in the historical past needs to be ascertained to understand present, and future behaviour of ISM as climate shifts and water supply has dictated the flourish and demise of ancient civilisations, the study said.

Biological Plant-Virus Arms Race Uncovered.

A recent study with researchers from National Centre of Biological Sciences (NCBS-TIFR), Bengaluru, has discovered that a virus called Synedrella Yellow Vein Clearing Virus and the plants it attacks.

• The virus was isolated by the researchers from a plant named Synedrella nodiflora, and it was able to infect tobacco and tomato plant in their studies.

Synedrella Yellow Vein Clearing Virus:

 • Synedrella Yellow Vein Clearing Virus is a representative of the Begomovirus family of viruses.

• Begomoviruses are a large family with about 400 members.

• They infect economically important plants and are a major reason for crop loss.

Arms Race:

• The virus first attacks the plant, and the plant has defences that are actually counter-attacks – mechanisms that seek to destroy the virus.

• In turn, the virus develops a counter-counter-attack by trying to escape being destroyed by the plant’s mechanisms.

• In the case of Synedrella Yellow Vein Clearing Virus: When the virus attacks the plant, it produces vein-clearing symptoms which make the plant look beautiful.

• It actually makes it difficult for the plant to produce flowers and fruits.

• In turn, the plant develops defence mechanisms to destroy the virus. It targets the protein called BetaC1 made by the virus which helps in successful infection and intracellular movement within the plant.

• Plants degrade BetaC1 protein of virus by tagging this protein with another smaller protein called ubiquitin.

Focus on Mains:

Government designates single SBI branch for all FCRA accounts

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has asked all NGOs seeking foreign donations to open a designated FCRA account at the State Bank of India’s New Delhi branch by March 31, 2021.

About the News:

• The MHA order reiterated that NGOs registered under FCRA shall not receive any foreign donations in any other bank account from April 1, 2021.

 • In September, the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2020 was amended by Parliament and a new provision that makes it mandatory for all non-government organisations and associations to receive foreign funds in a designated bank account at

SBI’s New Delhi branch was inserted.

• An order specifying the process of opening the FCRA bank account was issued by the MHA recently. As of now there are 22,434 such NGOs and associations active under the FCRA.

What does the Order Say?

• The order said an NGO will have to report the amount and source of foreign remittance received to the authorities.

• The order said the Centre has notified the New Delhi Main Branch (NDMB) of SBI, 11 Sansad Marg, New Delhi-110001 for the purposes of opening the “FCRA account” to receive foreign contribution.

• MHA said to open the account, the applicant need not visit the NDMB in Delhi and they might approach the nearest SBI branch or their SBI branch of choice.

• It said that all persons/associations/NGOs that are already registered under FCRA will get sufficient time to transition to the new system and can open accounts at NDMB till March 31, 2021.

• However, all fresh applicants for certificate of registration or prior permission under the FCRA, 2010, shall have to first open the FCRA account in the NDMB to receive any foreign contribution.

• It is further clarified that the applicant person/NGO/ association has complete liberty to retain its present FCRA account as the FCRA account in any branch of a scheduled bank of its choice. They can link this account with the designated FCRA account opened in NDMB, Delhi. MHA also said adding that NDMB will not levy any fee to transfer the foreign funds to the designated FCRA account.

 Other Amendments Made:

• It seeks to prohibit ‘public servants’ from receiving any Foreign Funding.

• It proposes to reduce the use of foreign funds to meet administrative costs by NGOs from the existing 50 per cent to 20 per cent.

• It seeks to “prohibit any transfer of foreign contribution to any association/person”.

• It proposes to make Aadhaar cards a mandatory identification document for all office-bearers, directors and other key functionaries of NGOs or Associations eligible to receive Foreign Donations.

Controversial Provisions:

• To allow for the central government to hold a summary inquiry to direct bodies with FCRA approval to “not utilise the unutilised foreign contribution or receive the remaining portion of foreign contribution”.

• To limit the use of foreign funds for administrative purposes. This would impact research and advocacy organisations which use the funding to meet their administrative costs.

Main Criticisms:

• The Bill will enhance government power and restrict foreign-funded civil society work in India.

• It can be used as a means to “target those who speak against the government”.

• It will curtail the ease of doing business for civil society organisations.

Why these Amendments are Necessary?

• The need to strengthen the Act has arisen due to several organisations “misutilising or misappropriating” the funds leading to the government cancelling 19,000 such registrations in the past Few Years.

 • The annual inflow of foreign contribution has almost doubled between the years 2010 and 2019, but many recipients of foreign contribution have not utilised the same for the purpose for which they were registered or granted prior permission under the said Act.

• Criminal investigations also had to be initiated against dozens of such non-governmental organisations which indulged in outright misappropriation or mis-utilisation of foreign Contribution.

Comprehensive Current affairs 17 October 2020

 Cengov. approves STARS scheme for reforming education sector.

GoI has approved a project partially funded by the World Bank to carry out a reform agenda in the governance of school education, and improve data and assessment systems at the national level, as well as teaching and learning outcomes in six States, especially for early childhood and vocational education.

The project includes an emergency response component to help the government respond to disaster situations which lead to school closures and loss of learning, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, according to an official statement issued after the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

The Strengthening Teaching-Learning and Results for States (STARS) project will have a total project cost of ?5,718 crore, with the World Bank’s support amounting to about ?3,700 crore ($500 million), said the statement.

 At the State level, the project seeks to improve education outcomes and school-to-work transition strategies for better labour market outcomes in Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and Odisha.

A similar project to be funded by the Asian Development Bank will cover Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Assam and every State will partner with one other State to share best practices, said the statement.

India gets re-elected as president of ISA.

India has been re-elected as the President of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) and France as the Co- President for a term of two years.

This was decided during the virtual meeting of third assembly of the International Solar Alliance attended by 34 ISA members today.Four new Vice-Presidents were also chosen to represent the four regions of ISA.

The assembly also approved the initiatives of the ISA Secretariat in institutionalizing ISA’s engagement with the private and public corporate sector through the Coalition for Sustainable Climate Action.

Speaking in the plenary, President of the ISA assembly and India’s Power and New and Renewable Energy Minister, R.K. Singh appreciated the Alliance Members coming together to work for combating climate change.

He welcomed the seventh initiative on heating and cooling to be introduced for discussion in the Third Assembly.

Mr Singh said solar energy is already contributing around 2.8 percent of global electricity and if trends were to continue, by 2030 solar will become most important source of energy for electricity production in large part of the world.

The President also mentioned about various activities and programmes initiated by ISA since the 2nd Assembly.

Russia reluctant to extend New START pact with U.S.

Moscow has said that it does not see prospects for extending the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Washington.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said this yesterday, while adding that the countries plan to continue talks nonetheless.

The New START accord was signed in 2010. It limits the number of strategic nuclear warheads that Russia and the United States can deploy. It is due to expire in February next year.

Failure to extend the pact would remove the main pillar maintaining the balance of nuclear arms between Moscow and Washington.

IMF claims India’s public debt to rise to almost 90% due to COVID.

India’s public debt ratio, which remarkably remained stable at about 70% of the GDP since 1991, is projected to jump by 17 percentage points to almost 90% because of an increase in public spending due to COVID-19, the IMF said.

“In our projections, the increase in public spending, in response to COVID-19, and the fall in tax revenue and economic activity, will make public debt jump by 17 percentage points to almost 90% of GDP,” Vitor Gaspar, Director of IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department, told the Press Trust of India.

“Going forward, it is projected to stabilise in 2021, before slowly declining up to the end of the projection period, in 2025. Broadly speaking, the pattern of public debt in India is close to the norm around the world,” he said.

According to Mr. Gaspar, in the near-term, additional fiscal action can and should be deployed as needed to support the poor and the vulnerable.

MSME ministry launches AI & ML for champions portal.

Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises- MSME Ministry has introduced Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for strengthening its single window system portal ‘Champions’ to assist the MSMEs in the country.

 Champions Portal was launched by the Prime Minister in June this year.This multi-modal system also comprises technology equipped physical control rooms at around 69 locations in the country.

Appreciating the efforts made by the MSME Ministry, Minister Nitin Gadakari said, the entire conceptualization and scope analysis has been done in the Ministry with the help of NIC and guidance provided by the team of Intel.

Artificial Intelligence and Analytics technology help in understanding the issues on real-time basis based on widely available social media and online data.

MSME Ministry is also aggressively working in the direction of Industry 4.0 to give a boost to the MSME sector.Ministry is also helping the MSMEs for manufacturing the products like sensors, motors, computer displays and other animation technologies.

Health ministry launches Thalassemia BalSewa yojana phase-2.

Health and Family Welfare Minister Harsh Vardhan today virtually launched the second phase of “Thalassemia BalSewaYojna” for the underprivileged Thalassemic patients.

The Minister said that Prime Minister NarendraModi had introduced the Ayushman Bharat-PradhanMantri Jan AarogyaYojana for targeted populace.

He said, beneficiaries of the scheme had expressed their gratitude for this valuable support in midst of the gloom in their lives.

Expressing satisfaction that the scheme has been extended to cover Aplastic Anaemia patients for a total of 200 such patients from this year, Dr. Harsh Vardhan said, such cases can be prevented by using the Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres network.

He said, blood transfusion facilities have been made available in every district hospital while some districts also offer the facility in health centres at sub-district level.

India's first Saviour Sibling experiment.

Recently, doctors successfully conducted India’s first ‘saviour sibling’ experiment.

 The Saviour Sibling named Kavya saved her 6-year-old brother (suffering from Thalassemia).

150- 200 ml bone marrow was harvested from Kavya in an hour-long procedure and then given to her brother Abhijeet through transfusion.

Kavya suffered low haemoglobin for some time but it was corrected with supplements and she also endured some pain in the areas from where the marrow was taken for a few days. Presently, both Kavya and Abhijeet are healthy.

Key Points

‘Saviour Sibling’ refers to babies that are created to serve an older sibling as a donor of organs, bone marrow or cells.

Stem cells from the umbilical cord blood or blood of the saviour sibling are used for treatment of serious blood disorders like thalassemia, sickle cell anaemia.

They are created with In vitro fertilisation (IVF) so that they can undergo pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (or testing) to rule out any genetic disorders and also check bone marrow compatibility.

Pre-implantation Genetic Testing (PGT) refers to the genetic profiling of embryos. It is used to screen embryos for genetic diseases or chromosomal abnormalities.

From each embryo, PGT takes a biopsy of only a few cells and conducts a genetic analysis.

This analysis can search to exclude embryos carrying a genetic variant that causes a hereditary disease, and it can search to find embryos that are an Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) match to a sibling.

HLA is a type of molecule found on the surface of most cells in the body. These play an important part in the body’s immune response to foreign substances.

These make up a person’s tissue type, which varies from person to person.

HLA typing is important in organ transplantation protocols, as they determine the likelihood of rejection.

 The world’s first saviour sibling, Adam Nash, was born in 2000 in the USA.

Need:

For those families with a child that requires a stem cell transplant, often there is a hurdle of finding a donor for the transplant.

A successful transplant requires an HLA match between donor and recipient. However, the probability of finding a suitable match among family members is about 30% overall.

Ethical Considerations and Implications: In a 2004 paper published in the Journal of Medical Ethics, UK researchers debated whether selecting saviour siblings should be banned.

They studied the arguments to ban it:

That saviour siblings would be wrongfully treated as means rather than ends.

They would cause or constitute a slide towards designer babies,

They would suffer physically and/or emotionally.

But the paper found these arguments to be flawed. It concluded that the selection of saviour siblings should be permitted, especially given that prohibiting it would result in the preventable deaths of a number of existing children.

In vitro Fertilisation

IVF is one of the more widely known types of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART).

In vitro comes from the latin word ‘in glass’, i.e. studies are done in a test tube rather than in a human or animal.

The opposite to ‘In-vitro’ is ‘In-vivo’, which comes from the latin word ‘within the living’. In vivo refers to experimentation being done in a living organism.

In vitro means outside the body. Fertilization means the sperm has attached to and entered the egg.

During IVF, mature eggs are collected (retrieved) from the ovaries and fertilized by sperm in a lab. Then the fertilized egg (embryo) or eggs (embryos) are transferred to a uterus.

Way Forward

Currently there is a significant gap between the biotechnology advancements in prenatal testing versus the necessary legal and ethical framework. It is imperative that legal and ethical standards be set for the benefit of both the families and professionals involved in the creation of savior children.

Demand for Gurkha Rights in Assam.

The Gurkha community in Assam has sought gazette notification ensuring that the safeguards according to Clause 6 of the 1985 Assam Accord are also extended to Gurkha people of Assam.

Key Points

The demand for the safeguards by Gurkha community further intensified with the recommendations of the high-level committee formed under the Chairmanship of Biplab Kumar Sharma by the Union Home Ministry on Clause 6 of Assam Accord.

The committee recommended that all Gurkhas of Assam are not indegenous Assamese people as per the definition of Assamese people .

Clause 6 of the Accord envisages constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards for protecting, preserving and promoting the culture, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese people.

Biplab Kumar Sharma Committee Recommendation:

Definition of Assamese: The report proposes 1st January 1951 as the cut-off date for any Indian citizen residing in Assam to be defined as an Assamese for the purpose of implementing Clause 6.

 Reservation for Assamese: It seeks reservation for Assamese in Parliament, state assembly, local bodies. It recommended creating an Upper House (Legislative Council of Assam) whose seats will be reserved for the ‘Assamese people’.

The report also seeks quotas in government jobs.

Regulation of Outsiders: Recommends regulation of entry of people from other states into Assam, which include the implementation of an Inner Line Permit (ILP) regime in the state.

The ILP is a system in which a special permit is required by people from other regions of India to visit the state.

Currently the ILP is applicable in Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram.

Other Rights: It also talks about issues related to land and land rights, linguistic, cultural and social rights and protection of the state’s resources and biodiversity.

Concern: It did not mention anything about the constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards of local Gorkhas.

This means the exclusion from the rights under the Clause 6 of the Accord.

Government Assurance

The Gurkhas in Assam are “one of the old communities”.

The government would treat them “at par with other indigenous communities and protect their constitutional rights while implementing Clause 6”.

Gorkhas in Assam:

There are currently 25 lakh Gurkhas in Assam.

The Gurkhas were permanently settled in the Scheduled Areas in the last part of the 18th century as grazers and cultivators.

They fought for Assam against the Burmese invaders in 1826 resulting in the Treaty of Yandaboo.

It was a peace treaty that resulted in the end of the First Anglo Burmese War. This treaty was signed on February 24, 1826 after two years of the war between British and Burmese.

They were declared as protected class by the British in the tribal belts and blocks according to the Assam Land and Revenue Regulation Act, 1886.

Assam Accord

It was a tripartite accord signed between the Government of India, State Government of Assam and the leaders of the Assam Movement in 1985.

The Accord ended the anti-foreigners Assam Agitation from 1979-1985.

The signing of the Accord led to the conclusion of a six-year agitation that was launched by the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) in 1979, demanding the identification and deportation of illegal immigrants from Assam.

It sets a cut-off of midnight of 24th March 1971, for the detection of illegal foreigners in Assam.

However, the demand was for detection and deportation of migrants who had illegally entered Assam after 1951.

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