Tuesday, April 27, 2021

What is an Oxygen Concentrator?

An oxygen concentrator concentrates oxygen from the atmosphere.

Working of Oxygen Concentrator

The atmospheric air has 78% of nitrogen and 21% of oxygen. The Oxygen Concentrator accumulates air, filters through a sieve sending the nitrogen back in to the air and collects oxygen alone.
The oxygen in the oxygen concentrator is compressed and dispensed through a cannula.
The oxygen is 90% to 95% pure.
A pressure valve in the concentrators help to regulate the supply of oxygen from 1 to 10 litres per minute.

How is oxygen from Oxygen Concentrator different from Medical Oxygen?

The Oxygen from the concentrators is not as pure as the Liquid Medical Oxygen. However, it is pure enough for mild and moderate COVID-19 patients. It is suitable for patients who require oxygen saturation levels of 85% or above. The Oxygen Concentrators are not advisable for ICU patients.
The Oxygen Concentrators will provide only five to ten litres per minute. The critical patients will need 40 to 50 litres of oxygen per minute.
The Oxygen Concentrators are portable. On the other hand, the Liquid Medical Oxygen needs to be stored and transported in cryogenic tankers.
The Oxygen Concentrators only require a power source to draw in ambient air. On the other hand, the Liquid Medial Oxygen needs refilling.
The Oxygen Concentrators are largely one-time investment. They require Rs 40,000 to Rs 90,000. The cylinders costs Rs 8,000 to Rs 20,000.
The concentrators require minimal operating cost that includes electricity and routine maintenance. On the other hand, cylinders involve refilling costs and transportation costs.

Current Affairs : April 27, 2021

India

Election Commission ‘most irresponsible institution’ in country: Madras HC on Covid surge
Armed forces recall retired medical staff to work to battle COVID-19 pandemic
Waman Bhonsle, national award-winning film editor who worked on over 230 movies, passes away at 87

Economy & corporate

‘Not more than 15 years’: RBI’s new guidelines for tenure of bank MDs, CEOs
US govt lifts export ban on essential raw materials required for manufacturing COVID vaccine in India
Oxford Economics lowers India’s 2021 GDP growth forecast to 10.2%
DRDO develops critical crystal blade technology for aero engines
Former Maruti Suzuki MD Jagdish Khattar passes away at 79

Academy awards

Best Picture: Nomadland
Best Director: Chloe Zhao for ‘Nomadland’
Best Actor: Anthony Hopkins for ‘The Father’
Best Actress: Frances McDormand for ‘Nomadland’
Best International Feature Film: Another Round (Denmark) in Danish

World

World Intellectual Property Day celebrated on April 26, theme: ‘IP & SMEs: Taking your ideas to the market’
International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day observed on April 26
Indonesian brigadier general killed in in restive Papua province
Global military spending rises 2.6% in 2020: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute

Sports

India finished with three gold medals and one bronze at Archery World Cup Stage 1 in Guatemala City; Deepika Kumari and Atanu Das won gold medals in women’s and men’s recurve individual events respectively
Australian swimming great John Konrads dies at age 78; won 1,500-meter freestyle gold at 1960 Olympics in Rome

Economic & Political Weekly: Table of Contents

Vol. 56, Issue No. 17, 24 Apr, 2021

Commentary

Review of Women's Studies

An Unfettered Freefall - Taking Stock of the Gendered Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Prabha Kotiswaran, V Geetha

The Continuing Saga of Women’s Work during COVID-19

Sirisha C Naidu

COVID-19 and Women’s Labour Crisis: Reiterating an Inclusive Policy Response

Sona Mitra, Dipa Sinha

Will COVID-19 Hamper Strides towards Gender Equality in Ireland?

Nata Duvvury, Caroline Forde, Stacey Scriver

Occupational Hazards in Healthcare Settings - A Study of Invisibilised Frontline Workers in Bengaluru

Sylvia Karpagam, Jerald Dsouza

The Macro Frames of Microwork - Indian Women Workers on AMT in the Post-pandemic Moment

Anita Gurumurthy, Khawla Zainab, Sadhana Sanjay

An Ongoing Pandemic - Domestic Violence during COVID-19

Anuradha Kapoor

University of Dundee to offer special scholarships to South Asian students

The University of Dundee is offering South Asia Scholarships worth 5000 GBP/year for undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) students commencing September 2021 and January 2022. The scholarship is to support students from South Asia during these challenging times, which includes students from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. To know more about the eligibility criteria and inclusions, visit https://www.dundee.ac.uk/scholarships/.

This scholarship announced by the university is for the bachelor degree programme students and for postgraduate degree programme students across a number of subjects such as Anatomy / Forensic Anthropology / Forensic and Medical Art, Architecture and Urban Planning, Art and Design, Biological/Biomedical Sciences, Biomedical Engineering / Medical Imaging, Business (Accountancy / Economics / Finance / International Business), Civil Engineering / Structural Engineering, Computing / Applied Computing / Data Science / Data Engineering, Education, Electronic Engineering, Energy Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy, English, Geography / Environmental Science, History, Law, Liberal Arts, Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering / Industrial Engineering, Nursing and Health Sciences, Philosophy, Physics, Politics and International Relations, Psychology, Social Work.

There is no separate application form for this scholarship and the student’s eligibility will be assessed as part of the programme application. The university will notify the candidates in writing if they have received a scholarship.

The eligibility criteria for the undergraduate programme is that the student must be studying a full-time undergraduate programme excluding programmes in the School of Medicine or the School of Dentistry, should be domiciled in South Asia and have international fee status.

For postgraduate programme scholarship, the student must be studying a full time, 180 credit PG programme over the course of 1 year. If you are studying a 2-year full-time programme, you may be eligible for the awards in both years. The applicant must be domiciled in South Asia and have an international fee status.

Source: Indian Express, 25/04/21

Women are key to financial inclusion

The government’s focus on women and their inclusion in the financial sector can have a transformative impact in boosting household economic resilience. For a long time, financial service providers have focused on high net-worth individuals, salaried individuals and business owners to increase their profitability.

This is attributed mainly to two factors. One, a lot is known about these segments because they leave large financial footprints and rich data. This enables financial service providers to make accurate decisions, create targeted products and manage Know Your Customer (KYC) risks. Two, the cost of customer acquisition, maintenance and service costs in retail banking business is high.

However, digitisation is enabling inclusion of customer segments, which have been historically excluded from the financial service provider gamut. Effective implementation of Aadhaar-based eKYC collection and authentication lowered barriers of entry to the formal financial system. It has allowed the Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile (JAM) trinity to lay the foundation to bring 230 million unserved and underserved women into the formal financial services ecosystem. Women Jan Dhan customers constitute a cumulative ₹61,000-plus crores of deposits in these accounts.

We worked with a leading public sector bank to look at ways of increasing savings adoption by Jan Dhan customers, and found that when engaged effectively, they are an important and economically valuable consumer segment for banks for the following set of reasons.

First, women are decision-makers for spending and savings in most low-income households. They are thus more committed and disciplined savers than men. In our pilot project, we found 32% of women who were committed to saving versus 25% of men. These women grew their balances by 36% during the project period of five months (versus 24% by men). This showed that when given the opportunity, women save and by doing so build financial resilience.

Two, women value relationships over deals, special offers and rates. As their interaction with the bank improves, women can be encouraged to avail overdraft loans and micro-insurance, which enable them to invest in their families and create revenue opportunities for financial services. Thus, the bank will see better cross-sell and larger lifetime value in serving women customers.Three, the Government of India sent ₹500 as direct benefit transfer (DBT), each month between April to June 2020, directly to women Jan Dhan accounts as Covid-19 relief. This has led to the activation of dormant women accounts and a spate of new accounts being opened by women. Families now want women to have and use their accounts, since they want to receive government benefits being sent to women. We saw a 15% increase in the number of women’s accounts since March 2020, compared to a 4% increase of men’s accounts in the same period.

Despite digital technologies and government initiatives, hurdles to serve women Jan Dhan customers have not been eliminated. A challenge in engaging women is the lack of gender-disaggregated data.Financial service providers need to deploy strategies that focus on the Jan Dhan women segment by using sex-disaggregated data. For instance, target and communicate with women and design products and processes to be women-centric. At a policy-level, collecting and analysing gender-disaggregated data is vital for the creation of products and services for low-income women.

Women’s engagement with financial institutions and their ability to access participation in work and credit from such institutions can increase their social capital. Thus, empowering 230 million women Jan Dhan customers financially leads to the potential upliftment of 920 million lives, at an average family of four. It is economically viable for banks to target women, while contributing to such social good. The second wave of the pandemic has intensified the need for economic support. Our research shows that the government’s continued focus on women and their inclusion in the financial sector can have a transformative impact in boosting household economic resilience, expanding women’s access to credit and work opportunities, aiding empowerment and equity.

Sriraman Jagannathan is executive vice president, Asia, and Bhargavi Ramadugu is specialist, advisory services, Women’s World Banking

Source: Hindustant Times, 24/04/21

Friday, April 23, 2021

Quote of the Day April 23, 2021

“The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, they must be felt with the heart.”
Helen Keller

“विश्व की सबसे सुन्दरतम वस्तुओं को देखा या छुआ भी नहीं जा सकता है, उन्हें केवल दिल से महसूस किया जा सकता है।”
हेलन केलर

Little Guru: World’s First Gamified Sanskrit Learning Application

The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) tied up with the Gamapp Sportswizz Tech Private Limited to launch “LITTLE GURU” application. It is a specialized mobile application for learning Sanskrit.

About “Little Guru”

Little Guru is a gamified application.
It teaches Sanskrit in an interactive platform. This makes learning easier.
The app was launched during the celebrations of the 71^st Foundation Day of ICCR.
It is world’s first Gamified Sanskrit learning application.
It will help people to learn Sanskrit in an easy manner based on competition, games, peer to peer interactions, etc.

Significance of the Application

The application is of great help to the Indian Diaspora wishing to stay connected with their roots.
It will also help number of students and faculties associated with Sanskrit Universities located all over the world.

ICCR role in India-China relations

The ICCR has provided scholarships to more than three hundred Chinese students. The aim of these scholarships is to promote cultural, intellectual, and academic exchanges between India and China.
There are several Chinese kids learning Indian culture in the country. During the 71^st foundation celebrations of ICCR, Chinese kids of age 6-7 years who are learning Indian dance forms in India performed Indian dances. Their dance performances were based on the theme “Azadi ka Amrit”.

Azadi ka Amrut

The idea of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav was launched by PM Modi in March 2021. It is a series of events organized by the Government of India to commemorate the 75^th anniversary of independence. It was launched 75 weeks ahead of the 75^th anniversary. It was launched on March 12, 2021 to commemorate 91 years of Dandi March.

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