9 PM Current Affairs Brief – October 10th, 2019

Pradhan Mantri Innovative Learning Programme (PMILP)- ‘DHRUV’

News:Union Human Resource Development Minister will launch the Pradhan Mantri Innovative Learning Programme- ‘DHRUV’ from Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO) on 10th October,2019.

Facts:

About the Pradhan Mantri Innovative Learning Programme- ‘DHRUV’:

• The programme is named DHRUV after the Pole Star with the same name.Every student selected under this programme will be called as ‘Dhruv Tara’.
• The programme aims at identifying and encouraging talented children to enrich their skills and knowledge.
• Under this programme, the identified children will be mentored and nurtured by renowned experts in centres of excellence across the country in different areas so that they can reach their full potential.

Features of the programme:

• The program will cover two areas namely (a)Science and (b)Performing Arts.
• There will be 60 students selected under this programme.
• The students will be broadly from classes 9 to 12 from all schools including government and private.
• This is only the first phase of the programme which will be expanded gradually to other fields like creative writing among others.

Mahatma Gandhi National Fellowship(MGNF) Programme

News:The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) has signed a contract with Indian Institute of Management(IIM)-Bangalore to launch a new programme ‘Mahatma Gandhi National Fellowship (MGNF)’.

Facts:

About Mahatma Gandhi National Fellowship(MGNF):

• Aim:The program aims to address the challenge of non-availability of personnel for implementation of various programmes at national, state and district levels.
• Implementation:The two-year Fellowship programme will be delivered by IIMB’s Centre of Public Policy(CPP).
• CPP is an independent public interest-oriented policy think-tank engaged in research, teaching, training, and capacity-building.
• Eligibility:Those who have a graduate degree from a recognised university and are citizens of India in the age group of 21-30 years will be eligible to apply for it.

Features of the programme:

• The programme will identify and train a group of young, committed and dynamic individuals who will use the IIMB ecosystem to work with the district administration in strengthening the process of skilling to create a vibrant local district economy.
• It will be launched on a pilot basis in 75 districts in 6 states including Gujarat, Karnataka, Meghalaya, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
• It has been designed under Skills Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion(SANKALP).

Additional information:

About SANKALP:

• SANKALP is an outcome-oriented programme of Ministry of Skills Development & Entrepreneurship(MSDE) with a special focus on decentralised planning and quality improvement.
• The project is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme and is implemented in mission mode through World Bank support.
• The project aims to implement the mandate of the National Skill Development Mission(NSDM).
• The main objectives of SANKALP include (a)Institutional Strengthening (at National, State & District level) (b) Quality Assurance of skill development programs (c) Inclusion of marginalised population in skill development and (d) Expanding Skills through Public Private Partnerships(PPPs).

Saturn

News:Saturn has overtaken Jupiter as the planet with the most number of moons.

Facts:

• The discovery of 20 new moons of Saturn has made Saturn the planet with the highest number of moons (82) against 79 moons of Jupiter.
• The moons were discovered using the Subaru telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii.
• The discovery have been released by the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Centre.
• Out of the 20 moons discovered,17 of them orbit Saturn backwards.This is known as a retrograde direction. 
• The other three moons orbit in a prograde direction which is the same direction as Saturn rotates.

About moons in the Solar system:

• A count of the moons listed on the NASA website shows that our Solar System’s planets together have 205 confirmed moons now.
• Saturn and Jupiter with 161 between them accounts for nearly 80% of these. 
• Another 20% are orbiting Uranus (27) and Neptune (14). Of the remaining three moons,one is Earth’s own while the other two are with Mars. 

Why Mercury and Venus does not have a moon?

• Mercury is so close to the Sun and its gravity that it wouldn’t be able to hold on to its own moon.Any moon would most likely crash into Mercury or maybe go into orbit around the Sun and eventually get pulled into it.
• However,it is not yet clear why Venus does not have a moon.

Additional information:

Subaru Telescope:

• Subaru Telescope is the telescope of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.
• It is located at the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii.

International Astronomical Union:

• It is an international association of professional astronomers.
• Its mission is to promote and safeguard the science of astronomy in all its aspects, including research, communication, education and development, through international cooperation.
• It was founded in 1919. It is headquartered in Paris, France.

GEMINI

News:Union Minister for Earth Sciences launched the Gagan Enabled Mariner’s Instrument for Navigation and Information (GEMINI) device.

Facts:

About GEMINI:

• GEMINI stands for Gagan Enabled Mariner’s Instrument for Navigation and Information. 
• The device has been developed by Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) and Airports Authority of India (AAI).
• It is electronically designed and manufactured by a private industry M/S Acord,Bangalore under Make in India Program.
• The device will disseminate information about emergency situations, communication on disaster warnings, potential fishing zones and ocean states forecasts to the fishermen.
• The device is exclusively designed for fishermen about disasters when they are 10 to 12 km away from the coast.
• The GEMINI device receives and transfers the data received from GAGAN satellite to a mobile through Bluetooth communication. 
• A mobile application developed by INCOIS decodes and displays the information in nine regional languages.

Additional information:

About GAGAN:

• GPS Aided GEO Augmented Navigation(GAGAN) is a step by the Indian Government towards initial Satellite-based Navigation Services in India. 
• It is a system to improve the accuracy of a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receiver by providing reference signals. 
• The Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) have collaborated to develop GAGAN as a regional Satellite Based Augmentation System(SBAS). 
• GAGAN’s goal is to provide a navigation system to assist aircraft in accurate landing over the Indian airspace and in the adjoining area and applicable to safety-to-life civil operations.
• GAGAN covers the area from Africa to Australia and has expansion capability for seamless navigation services across the region.

Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services(INCOIS):

• INCOIS is an autonomous organization under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES).
• It is located in Hyderabad & was established in 1999 under the MoES and is a unit of the Earth System Science Organization (ESSO).
• It is mandated to provide the best possible ocean information and advisory services to society, industry, government agencies and the scientific community.

Airport authority of India(AAI):

• The Airports Authority of India or AAI is a statutory body (created through the Airports Authority of India Act, 1994) working under the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
• It is responsible for creating, upgrading, maintaining and managing civil aviation infrastructure in India.
• It provides Communication Navigation Surveillance / Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) services over Indian airspace and adjoining oceanic areas.

Dengue

News:Delhi government has said that the government’s campaign to get people to invest 10 minutes every week to stop dengue mosquitoes from breeding has led to just 356 cases of Dengue compared to 650 in 2018.

Facts:

About Dengue:

• According to the World Health Organisation, Dengue is a vector-borne disease transmitted by the bite of an infected female Aedes Aegypti mosquito.
• The mosquito becomes infected when it feeds on the blood of a person infected with the virus.After about one week,the mosquito can then transmit the virus while biting a healthy person.
• The dengue virus (DEN) comprises four distinct serotypes (DEN-1, DEN-2, DEN-3 and DEN-4) which belongs to the genus Flavivirus of the family Flaviviridae.
• The most cases of dengue occur in tropical areas of the world including the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, Southern China, Taiwan among others.
• Dengue is a notifiable disease but a case is required to be notified only when the confirmatory test has been done in the lab.
• However,there is no vaccine or specific medication for dengue fever. Patients should seek medical advice, rest and drink plenty of fluids.

Additional information:

Notifiable disease:

• A notifiable disease is any disease that is required by law to be reported to government authorities. 
• This will allow authorities to gather information to monitor the disease, and provides early warning of possible outbreaks. 
• The process will also help the government to keep track and formulate a plan for elimination and control.In less infectious conditions,it improves information about the burden and distribution of disease. 
• The Centre has notified several diseases such as cholera, diphtheria, encephalitis, leprosy, meningitis, pertussis (whooping cough), plague, tuberculosis, AIDS, hepatitis, measles among others.

The Lord as a juristic person:What legal rights do deities enjoy?

News:Among the parties in the Ayodhya title suit appeals, Lord Ram is considered as a litigant in court since he is considered as a juristic person.

Facts:

Who is a juristic person?

• A juristic person as opposed to a natural person(human being) is an entity whom the law vests with a personality.
• In the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee vs Som Nath Dass and Others (2000) order, the apex court had stated that the very words Juristic Person connote recognition of an entity to be in law a person which otherwise it is not.
• In other words, it is not an individual natural person but an artificially created person which is to be recognised in law as such.
• Gods, corporations, rivers, and animals have all been treated as juristic persons by courts.

Practise of deities:

• The practise of deities was started under the British, where British administrators held that the legal owner of the wealth of the temple was the deity.
• In 1887,the Bombay High Court held in the Dakor Temple case said that Hindu idol is a juridical subject and the pious idea that it embodies is given the status of a legal person.
• This was reinforced in the 1921 order in Vidya Varuthi Thirtha vs Balusamy Ayyar where the court had said that under the Hindu law,the image of a deity is a juristic entity vested with the capacity of receiving gifts and holding property.

Are all deities juristic person?

• The God as an abstract concept is not a juristic entity.But the deities in Hindu law have been conferred personhood as capable of being bestowed with property or leading it out or suing to take back possession.
• Hence, the installed deities at Hindu places of worship have been treated like other real persons for the purpose of law.
• However, not every deity is a legal person.This status is given to an idol only after its public consecration, or pran pratishtha.
• Further, a mosque or Church has never been held as a juristic person, because it’s a place where people gather to worship and its not an object of worship itself. 

Rights of duties:

• The deities have the right of owning property, paying taxes,suing and being sued.
• But they don’t enjoy fundamental rights or other constitutional rights as said by the Supreme Court in the Sabarimala judgment.

Recent judgements by Courts:

• In May 2019,the Punjab and Haryana High Court had held that the entire animal kingdom has a distinct legal persona with corresponding rights, duties and liabilities of a living person.
• In March 2017,the Uttarakhand High Court had declared that the Ganga and Yamuna would be legally treated as living people. The order was stayed by the Supreme Court because it raised several legal questions and administrative issues.

World Vision Report

News:The World Health Organization (WHO) has released the first World Vision Report.

Facts:

Key takeaways from the report:

• The report has warned that population ageing will lead to a dramatic increase in the number of people with vision impairment and blindness.
• It said that more than a quarter of the world’s population which is around 2.2 billion people suffer from vision impairment.
• The report has said that the prevalence of vision impairment in low- and middle-income regions was estimated by the report to be four times higher than in high-income regions.
• It also said that the rural populations face greater barriers to accessing eye care due to them having to travel greater distances and poor road quality, among other factors.
• It also highlighted that there was a gender disparity in accessibility to eye care services, with women standing a lesser chance of availing them.

Causes of rise in vision impairment:

• The various reasons for the increase in numbers of people living with vision impairment are (a) Ageing populations (b)changing lifestyles and (c)limited access to eye care, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.

Common vision impairments listed in the report:

• Presbyopia which is a condition in which it is difficult to see nearby objects has affected 1.8 billion people.This condition occurs with advancing age.
• The common refractive error called myopia, which is a condition in which it is difficult to see objects at a distance has affected 2.6 billion with 312 million being under the age of 19 years.
• Diabetic retinopathy has affected 3 million.It occurs to people who are living with diabetes, particularly Type 2 diabetes.It can impact vision if not detected and treated.
• Cataracts which is a clouding of the lens in the eye which leads to a decrease in vision has affected around 65 million people.
• Further,the trachoma has affected 2 million and several other vision impairments were also listed in the report.
• Trachoma is caused due to bacterial infection in the eye.Many countries have eliminated it including India.

India and vision impairment:

• The report has praised India for its National Programme for Control of Blindness (NPCB).
• According to the report, in 2016-17,the NPCB has provided cataract surgery to a total 6.5 million people in India,achieving a cataract surgical rate of over 6,000 per million population.
• During this period, the school screening was also provided to nearly 32 million children and approximately 750,000 spectacles were distributed.

Effects of global slowdown more pronounced in India: IMF chief

News:The International Monetary Fund(IMF) President has said that the world economy is experiencing a synchronized slowdown and emerging economies such as India and Brazil are the most affected by the slowdown.

Facts:

• The IMF chief said that she expects slower growth in nearly 90% of the world this year.
• She said that trade tensions had substantially weakened the manufacturing and investment activities worldwide.
• The services and consumption could soon be affected as global trade growth has come to a near standstill.
• Further,she said that the trade conflicts could impact around $700 billion reduction in global gross domestic product (GDP) output by 2020 or around 0.8%.

Additional information:

International Monetary Fund

• The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an organization of 189 countries. It was established in 1945.
• The main goal of IMF is to ensure the stability of the international monetary system. 
• It also seeks to facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world.

Advanced Air Quality Early Warning System

News: The Union Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) has launched an advanced Air Quality Early Warning System.

Facts:

About the advanced Air Quality Early Warning System:

• It has been developed by Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, under MoES.
• The system uses data of stubble burning incidents from the past 15 years to predict the date and place of the next burning. It is the first time that stubble burning is being forecast.
• Using the data, the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), under the aegis of the Central Pollution Control Board, will create probability maps to alert government agencies about areas where the chances of stubble burning is going to be high.
• The system can also track pollution load from stubble burning in places neighbouring Delhi NCR, using satellite data.
• It can predict the air pollution level for next 72 hours. It can also forecast the level of pollutants like particulate matter (PM) 2.5, PM10, and dust, coming from sources other than stubble burning.
• Significance: The system would help authorities to take preventive steps to control pollution levels from stubble burning as well as mitigate pollution from existing sources.

Additional Information:

Stubble Burning:

• Stubble burning is the practice of intentionally setting fire to residues which remains after the harvest of a crop. It is usually done to clear the field quickly for the next season and to burn off weeds and other pests.
• Stubble burning is pan-Indian problem. However, it is most acute in Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh. It contributes significantly to air pollution in Delhi-NCR region when in autumn, paddy stubbles are burned to prepare field for wheat cultivation.
• In 2013, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) issued a directive to Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to take immediate steps to curb stubble burning. The Centre and states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have declared “zero tolerance policy” on stubble burning.
• Further, in 2018, the Punjab government drafted an action plan to deal with stubble burning. Under the plan, the state has decided to provide straw management machinery at 80% subsidy to the cooperative societies and other groups and at 50% subsidy to individual farmers. The state has also signed MoUs with major companies to set up Bio-CNG, ethanol and biogas plants using crop residue.

Jal Jeevan Mission

News: Jal Sakti Ministry has said that States, aside from those in the North East and the Himalayan region, will have to bear half the fiscal burden of the Jal Jeevan Mission

Facts:

About Jal Jeevan Mission:

• Aim: It seeks to provide safe and adequate drinking water through individual household tap connections (HarGharJal) to all rural households by 2024.
• Implementing Agency: It will be implemented by Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation under the Jal Shakti Ministry.
• Finance:
  • The project is estimated to cost Rs 3.60 lakh crore, with the Union government and non-Northeast and non-Himalayan states sharing the expenses 50:50.
  • However, in the case of N-E and Himalayan states, the funding pattern will be 90:10.
  • In Union Territories, the Centre will bear the full cost of the programme
• Features:
• It will focus on integrated demand and supply-side management of water at the local level.
• It will implement source sustainability measures recharge and reuse through grey water management, water conservation, rain water harvesting.
• It will converge with other Central and State Government Schemes to achieve its objectives of sustainable water supply management across India.
• It seeks to generate maximum community participation in the form of ‘jan andolan’ to achieve the target of functional household tap connection by 2024.
• Need: According to the Jal Shakti Ministry, only 18% of India’s rural households have access to piped water. Thus to improve coverage of households with piped safe drinking water the mission has been initiated.

WHO India Country Cooperation Strategy 2019–2023

(WHO) India Country Cooperation Strategy (CCS) 2019–2023: A Time of Transition”

Facts:

About Country Cooperation Strategy (CCS):

• It provides a strategic roadmap for WHO to work with the Government of India towards achieving its health sector goals, in improving the health of its population and bringing in transformative changes in the health sector.
• Focus Areas: Four areas have been identified for strategic cooperation of WHO with India:
  • To accelerate progress on Universal Healthcare
  • To promote health and wellness by addressing determinants of health;
  • To protect the population better against health emergencies; and
  • To enhance India’s global leadership in health.