Current Affairs – December 18, 2020

 

India and Bangladesh hold bilateral submit

On December 17, 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina held a virtual Summit. During the Summit the leaders find 7 agreements to expand cooperation in in different areas.

100 page e-booklet “Putting Farmers First” released by Government of India

On December 17, 2020, the Government of India released a hundred page e-booklet called “Putting Farmers First”. The booklet highlights the success stories of farmers who have benefited from contract farming.

SC proposes committee of farmer leaders

On December 16, 2020, Supreme Court said that the talks between the Government of India and the farmer leaders on the three controversial agricultural laws have bound to fail. The apex court has thus recommended to set up a committee of farmers leaders to resolve the issue.

PSLV-C50 launches CMS-01 successfully

On December 17, 2020, the Indian Space Research Organisation successfully launched the CMS-01 satellite. The life of the satellite is seven years.

Exempt IITs from reservation: Education Ministry

The committee constituted by the Ministry of Education has suggested measures for effective implementation of reservation policies in in IIT. The committee has suggested that these premier institutions should be included in the list of Institutes of Excellence.

Union culture ministry to commemorate Netaji 125th birth anniversary in 2022

The union Ministry of culture is to open a museum of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in Kolkata to commemorate his 25th birth anniversary in 2022.

Economy and Corporate

Cabinet clears 3500 crores of rupees subsidy for sugar exports

The Union Cabinet recently approved 3500 crores of subsidies two sugar mills in order to incentivize them to export 60 lakh tonnes of sugar.

Defence acquisition Council approves 27000 crores of rupees proposals

On December 17, 2020, the  Defence Acquisition Council headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh approved proposals to procure equipment worth 27000 crores of Rupees from the domestic industry.

World

India ranked 131 in Human Development Index

The United Nations Development Programme recently released the Human Development Report. According to the report, India ranked 131 on Human Development Index.

Young Champions of the Earth 2020 prize by United Nations Environment Programme

United Nations Environment Programme has announced seven winners of The Young champions of the earth 2020 price. The prizes are awarded to 7 entrepreneurs every year under the age of 30.

US Treasury puts India on currency manipulators monitoring list

On December 16, 2020, the United States treasury labelled Vietnam and Switzerland as currency manipulators. It also added 3 new names including India towards watch list of countries.

Siddhartha Chatterjee appointed as UN President coordinator in China

Siddharth Chatterjee of India was appointed as the United Nations resident coordinator in China. Resident coordinators are the representatives of the United Nations Secretary General for development at country level.

Chinese spacecraft returns to earth with debris from moon

Chinese lunar capsule Chang’e 5 has returned to the earth with fresh samples of Rock and Debris from moon.

Chemical Castration of rapists in Pakistan

The Pakistan Government recently approved chemical castration of rapists under its new Anti-Rape Law.

Sports

Russia banned from using its flag and name at next two Olympics

The Geneva based Court of arbitration for sports has banned Russia from using its flag, name and national anthem at the next two Olympics or at any world championships for the next two years. The Russian authorities are alleged to have tampered with the database from Moscow testing laboratory before handing it over to World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) investigators in 2019.

Yogasana recognised as a competitive sport by the sports ministry

On December 17, 2020, the sports ministry formally recognised Yogasana as a competitive sport.

International Migrants Day: December 18

 Every year, the International Migrants Day is celebrated on December 18 by the United Nations and several other international organizations. This year, the International Migrants Day is celebrated under the following theme

Background

The resolution to celebrate International Migrants Day was adopted in 1990 during the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their families. The day is celebrated by the United Nations to highlight the contributions made by the migrants. According to UN, there are roughly around 272 million migrants in the world. This includes 41 million internally displaced persons.

Why was December 18 chosen?

December 18 was chosen because on this date, the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their families was adopted.

Migration in India

With the COVID-19 crisis, the migration in India has increased. According to Census 2011, there were 45.6 crores of migrants. This is roughly 38% of the country’s population. In 2001, the migrant population was 31.5 crores. The migrant population between 2001 and 2011 has increased by 18%.

In India, the major reasons of intra-state migration were marriage and family. The female migration was higher as compared to that of the males. 83% of females moved for marriage and family as compared to 39% males.

Challenges faced by migrants

• The migration in the world is increasing due to ethnic violence, natural disasters and employment. The increase in violence against migrants is accelerated by social media. In urban areas, migrants lack access to basic amenities such as clean drinking water, electricity, safe houses, etc.
• Because of the unstable nature of their jobs, the migrants are often declared as illegal residents.
• The Climate Changes have triggered large mass of migration lately.
• Recently, fake messages were triggered against a mass exodus of labourers from the North East

Quote of the Day December 17, 2020

 

“An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

“एक रत्ती भर कर्म एक मन बात के बराबर है।”
राल्फ वाल्डो इमर्सन

Human Development Index

 India has ranked 131 in the recently released Human Development Index topped the index was released by the United Nations development programme. India scored 0.645 in the ranking.

Vijay Diwas: December 16

 Every year Vijay Diwas is celebrated on December 16. The day is celebrated to mark the victory of Bangladesh over Pakistan. It is marked in India and Bangladesh. On December 16, 1971, the Chief of Pakistani forces Abdullah Khan Niazi surrendered along with 93,000 troops to the allied forces of Mukti Bahini and the Indian Army. Vijay Diwas is observed in Bangladesh as Bijoy Dibos.

The 1971 war resulted in the liberation of East Pakistan.

1971 war

It was a military confrontation between India and Pakistan. The war was first fought between East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and Pakistan. India entered the war after Pakistan conducted premptive aerial strikes on eleven Indian air stations.

The war ended after Pakistan military signed the Instrument of Surrender with the Eastern command of the Indian Army.

What is eSanjeevani Telemedicine?

 The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare recently announced that the eSanjeevani Telemedicine has crossed one million tele-consultations. The eSanjeevani is the first of its kind in delivering health services online.

Progress of eSanjeevani

It uses two streams in 28 states and Union Territories. The eSanjeevani AB-HWC enables doctor to doctor tele consultations. It is currently being used in more than 6,000 health and wellness centres. More than 20,000 doctors, paramedics and specialists have been trained to use eSanjeevani AB-HWC. The second stream eSanjeevani OPD provides remote health services to patients confining them to their homes.

The top two states that have registered the highest number of tele-consultations through eSanjeevani are Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

About eSanjeevani

The doctor-to-doctor telemedicine system under the eSanjeevani is implemented under the Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centre (AB-HWC) scheme. The AB-HWCs were launched to deliver expanded range of primary health care services to the communities.

Under eSanjeevani all the 1,50,000 HWCs are to be connected under a hub by December 2022. Under this model, secondary establishments will be set up under the hub. The centres connected to the hub directly will look after patients requiring intensive care. The secondary establishments will be routing patients who need more intensive care to the hub and will offer limited services.

The eSanjeevani OPD (Out Patient Department) services hosts more than 40 online services. It enables patient to doctor tele-consultations. The services under eSanjeevani OPD are offered at no cost. It is a two-way interaction. The specialties covered under the eSanjeevani OPD are psychiatry, gynaecology, Anti Retro viral Therapy (ART) for AIDS, Non-Communicable diseases, etc.

Way Forward

eSanjeevani can be a gam changer for people in rural areas. It is highly beneficial to people who do not have easy access to medical specialists as those located in cities. These Telemedicine services of Government of India are in line with Digital India.

Pollution: Why every one per cent counts, writes Sunita Narain

 

The source of pollution here is local. Action has to be taken through local agencies. And it has to be systemic. Now that the stubble-burning period is over, but air is still polluted and toxic over vast parts of the country, we need to talk about what needs to be done.

Three kinds of actions are essential — steps against episodic pollution events like stubble-burning; steps against local sources of pollution, which aggravate the problem; and more transformational action that will bring long-term benefits. All three levels of pollution management are critical. And all sources of pollution need to be addressed.

I say this because all contributors to pollution say that they are only one per cent of the problem. So if steps are taken to control diesel from vehicles, car owners will say they are one per cent; when power plants are asked to clean up or shut down, they say they are one per cent.

Or when industry is told that the coal that they burn is contributing to the toxic air in the region, they will cry foul and say, what about action against garbage-burning? So, the net result is to point fingers at some other source, away from the action that needs to be taken.

This is also the favourite ploy of governments — Centre to state, agency to agency. Pass the buck and make the problem go away.

But it won’t. Every winter, we will continue to choke and hurt. Every winter, when the weather turns adverse and pollutants settle close to the ground, even the steps taken in the past few years to reduce pollution will get negated. This is because the sources of pollution will continue to grow — the vehicles on the road will increase; they will get older with each passing year and so more polluting; the numbers of industries will increase.

Let us deal with each source. The first is episodic stubble-burning, which starts around October 15, when winter is settling in and the wind turns to bring pollutants from fires to cities of the region, including Delhi.

Steps are needed from now till next October to ensure that machines for stubble management are available in every village; that small and marginal farmers get free access to these and that farmers have evidence of the benefits to turn the crop residue back into the land and not to burn it.

In addition, there are exciting efforts underway to use the stubble to make compressed natural gas or for power generation. These need to be tracked, prodded, pushed and implemented. What is needed is deliberate steps and careful monitoring — month after month.

What is also clear is that post this stubble-fire period, the quality of air in Delhi and the surrounding region remains foul. It ranges between very poor and severe, depending on what meteorologists call the ventilation index — which determines dispersion of pollutants — and wind speed. According to the National air quality index (AQI), exposure to “poor” levels of air is unhealthy and gets more severe as exposure is prolonged and air quality deteriorates into very unhealthy and hazardous.

To fix this, in the short-term, each pollution hotspot needs to be managed. Currently, there are some 13 hotspots in the region — identified as those with the highest air pollution levels.

The sources of pollution here include construction and road dust, garbage-burning in vacant areas, and industries that spew pollutants from their stacks or congestion points for traffic.

The source of pollution here is local. Action has to be taken through local agencies. And it has to be systemic.

The reason is that garbage removed one day; or a road paved one day, is then filled again with waste or dug up again. This is where we need maximum governance for maximum gain.But all this will not be enough — it will be like putting out small fires in a blazing forest. We need action at speed and scale. The key is to tackle the problem of coal-burning in the region — in power plants and in literally thousands of industrial units scattered across the legal and illegal parts of Delhi and the region.

Delhi’s ban on the use of coal is good. But industries have then moved either to illegal and unauthorised areas in the city or to surrounding states. Here they continue to use coal, for it is the cheapest fuel, as against natural gas, which is doubly and triply taxed so it is unaffordable.

We need a second gas revolution in the region — compressed natural gas (CNG) for vehicles brought us the first-generation change. We now need a fuel-switch in all sources for clean air.

This includes using clean electricity for powering industry and vehicles. But remember, if the power plant is dirty, then electric vehicles will only mean that we shift the problem from us to them. The airshed is one, so the pollutants will come back to our lungs.

This is why air pollution is a great equaliser, and we are all in it together. Every one per cent counts.

Sunita Narain is director-general, Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi

Source: Hindustan Times, 15/12/20