Daily CURRENT AFFAIRS

Daily Current Affair - UPSC/KAS Exams - 8th July 2021

What is in news : There has been a pronounced decline in the number of Influenza A(H1N1) & dengue cases so far this year in Karnataka

MAHITI FOR PRELIMS

Dengue

• Causative agent : Dengue virus
• Spread :
  • Bites of infected Aedes species mosquitoes
  • Mother to Child
  • Infected blood, laboratory, or healthcare setting exposures
• Effects : Sudden high fever, severe headaches, pain behind the eyes, severe bone, joint, and muscle pain, etc.
• Treatment : Symptoms are treated as there is no specific medicine for Dengue

H1N1 INFLUENZA

• Caused by : H1N1 virus
• Spread : Airborne
• Effects : infection of the respiratory tract & flu
• Treatment : Antiviral drugs

What is in news : New members of Parliament were inducted to Union council of ministers

Details :

• How is the appointment done - According to Article 75, Other Ministers of Union shall be appointed by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister
• Tenure - According to constitution, till the pleasure of President
• Can a individual be minister without being member of Parliament- Yes, but he has to get elected to either house from 6 months of appointment

ECONOMY

What : Voluntary organizations controlled by their farmer-members who actively participate in setting their policies and making decisions.

 Benefits :

• All persons will use their services without discrimination
• Operatives provide education and training for their farmer-members 
• Engage farmers in collective farming and address productivity issues emanating from small farm sizes.
• Provide low-cost and quality inputs to member farmers
• Aggregation of produce and bulk transport reduces marketing cost, thus, enhancing net income of the producer
• Regular supply of produce and quality control is possible through proper planning and management
• Access to financial resources against the stock, without collaterals.

Associated Challenges

• Lack of trained manpower who can manage  business professionally
• Not financially strong enough to deliver vibrant products and services to their members and build confidence
• Inadequate Access to Credit
• Inadequate access to basic infrastructure required for aggregation like transport facilities, storage, value addition and processing, brand building and marketing

What is in news : Recently, the government has decided not to impose Anti-Dumping Duty (ADD) on imports of certain copper products, from China, Thailand, Korea and three other countries.

Details

• What is Dumping - Dumping is said to occur when the goods are exported by a country to another country at a price lower than the price it normally charges in its own home market. This is an unfair trade practice which can have a distortive effect on international trade.
• Anti-Dumping Duty - Imposition of Anti-dumping duty is a measure to rectify the situation arising out of the dumping of goods and its trade distortive effect, permitted by the World Trade Organisation.
• What does WTO say-
  • Validity: An anti-dumping duty is valid for a period of five years from the date of imposition unless revoked earlier.
  • Sunset Review: It can be extended for a further period of five years through a sunset or expiry review investigation.
• Who decides in India –

Directorate General of Trade Remedies-

• It is the apex national authority under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry for administering all trade remedial measures including anti-dumping, countervailing duties and safeguard measures.
• It provides trade defence support to the domestic industry and exporters in dealing with increasing instances of trade remedy investigations instituted against them by other countries.

What is in news : According to the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) Annual Report on Implementing the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016, the plastic waste generated in 2018-19 was 3.3 million tonnes per year

Details:

• What is plastic –
  • Material that contains as an essential ingredient an organic substance of large molecular weight
  • Polymers of long carbon chains. Carbon atoms are linked in chains and are produced in long chain molecules
  • Discovered by famous German chemist Christian Schonbein in 1846.
• Marine Plastic-Sources: Land-based, from urban and storm runoff, sewer overflows, beach visitors, inadequate waste disposal and management, industrial activities, construction and illegal dumping
• What is Microplastic : Under the influence of solar UV radiation, wind, currents and other natural factors, plastic fragments into small particles, termed microplastics (particles smaller than 5 mm) or nanoplastics (particles smaller than 100 nm).
• Impacts :
  • Blocks sewers, threatening marine life and generating health risks for residents in landfills
  • High financial costs to tackle
  • Residents of coastal regions suffer from the harmful health impacts of plastic pollution and waste brought in by the tides
  • Abandoned plastic fishing nets and longlines – known as ghost gear – is also a large source, making up about 10% of plastic waste at sea.
• Solutions
  • Alternatives to single-use plastics- Recyclable, or biodegradable materials
  • Developing tools and technology to assist governments and organizations in measuring and monitoring plastic garbage in cities. Example : ‘Closing the loop’ project of the UN
  • Plastic-free workplace
  • Responsibility can be applied in the Retail (packaging) sector
  • Municipal and community actions & Multi-stakeholder collaboration

What is in news : A new report from Greenpeace India revealed that nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution increased in all eight most populous State capitals studied.

What does the data say :

Nitrogen-Di-Oxide

• Group of highly reactive  oxides of nitrogen
• Sources - emissions from cars, trucks and buses, power plants, and off-road equipment.
• Effects :
  • On Health- Irritate Human Airways and cause respiratory diseases like Aashtma
  • Environment - Cause Acid Rain, Smog, Ground level ozones which  harm the environment

Recent development : A nano biomaterial with a stable link between two molecules or a hormone nanoconjugate called hydroxyapatite-Parathyroid synthesized by Inspire Faculty fellow Dr. Geetanjali Tomar from Savitribai Phule Pune University may soon help tissue regeneration.

INSPIRE PROGRAMME

• INSPIRE - Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research
• By - Department of Science & Technology
• Scheme -
  • Communicate to the youth of the country the excitements of creative pursuit of science
  • Attract talent towards science at an early age
  • Build the required critical human resource pool for strengthening and expanding the Science & Technology system and R&D base
  • It does not believe in conducting competitive exams for identification of talent at any level. It believes in and relies on the efficacy of the existing educational structure for identification of talent.
• Components:
  • Scheme for Early Attraction of Talent  (SEATS) -> Awards and internships
  • Scholarship for Higher Education (SHE) and
  • Assured Opportunity for Research Careers (AORC) -> Fellowship and Faculty Scheme

• J&K: Indian Army names firing range in Gulmarg after Vidya Balan
• First commercial shipment of Mishri variety of cherries from Kashmir exported to Duba
• Women and Child Development Department of Delhi Government had constituted a ‘District Task Force’ to assist COVID-19 positive children who are in Child Care Institutes or who lost their parents due covid-19 virus. Department had set up two quarantine centres for children in order to take admissions sent through child welfare committee separately.
• dbGENVOC is a  browsable  online database of GENomic Variants of Oral Cancer and is a free resource. It is created by DBT-National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBMG), Kalyani an Autonomous Institute funded by the Department of Biotechnology,

• Amphibious warfare is the utilisation of naval firepower, logistics and strategy to send troops ashore.
• A well-planned and executed amphibious operation – basically a tri-service operation launched from the sea by carrying soldiers and their weaponry on a ship and affecting a landing on enemy shore – could change the course of a war.
• They resemble the paratroopers in the sea. They carry out sea-based operations in coor.