Daily CURRENT AFFAIRS

Daily Current Affair - UPSC/KAS Exams - 24th September 2021

Quacquarelli Symonds (QS): It is a leading global career and education network for ambitious professionals looking to further their personal and professional development.

What is in news : The Indian Institute of Science (IISc.), Bengaluru, and six Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are among 12 Indian institutions that have figured in the top 500 universities in QS Graduate Employability Rankings 2022

Details :

• Indicators and weightings : Employer reputation (30 per cent), alumni outcomes (25 per cent), partnerships with employers per faculty (25 per cent), employer-student connections (10 per cent) and graduate employment rate (10 per cent).
• While three central universities - Delhi University, University of Mumbai and University of Calcutta have made it to the list, among the private universities in the list are OP Jindal Global University, Sonepat and BITS Pilani.
• As per the Times Higher Education (THE) employability ranking 2020, India had increased in employability quotient which means, the graduates produced by Indian varsities have skills to be hired.
• India was ranked as the 15th most employable countries

About :

• Pension cum investment scheme
• Provide old age security to Citizens of India
• Brings an attractive long term saving avenue to effectively plan your retirement through safe and regulated market-based return.
• Regulated by Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA).
• National Pension System Trust (NPST) is the registered owner of all assets under NPS.

What is in news : The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) will be observing 1st October 2021 as the National Pension System Diwas (NPS Diwas) to promote pension and retirement planning for a carefree ‘azad’ retirement.

Aim : The pension regulator aims to encourage every citizen (working professionals and self-employed professionals) to plan towards creating a financial cushion to ensure for onself a financially sound future after retirement.

About PFRDA

• Regulatory body for overall supervision and regulation of pension in India
• Under - Ministry of Finance, Government of India
• The Pension Fund Regulatory & Development Authority Act was passed on 19 September 2013 and the same was notified on 1 February 2014.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

What :

• Most harmful type of fats which can have much more adverse effects on our body than any other dietary constituent.
• Largely produced artificially but a small amount also occurs naturally. Thus in our diet, these may be present as Artificial TFAs and/ or Natural TFAs.
• Formed when hydrogen is made to react with the oil to produce fats resembling pure ghee/butter.
• Sources –
  • Artificial : Partially hydrogenated vegetable oils (PHVO)/vanaspati/ margarine
  • Natural : Meats and dairy products
• Harmful effects:
  • Higher risk of heart disease . Not only raise total cholesterol levels but also reduce the good cholesterol (HDL), which fights against heart disease.
  • Increases the risk of developing heart disease and stroke.
  • Higher risk of developing obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, infertility, certain types of cancers and can also lead to compromised fetal development causing harm to the yet to be born baby

What is in news :  As per Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) study, India is all set and is on the right track to become industrial trans fat-free by 2022

DELIRIUM

What :

• Disturbance in mental state
• Person is confused, agitated and unable to think clearly.
• Start is usually rapid that is within hours or a few day
• Traced to one or more contributing factors like a severe or chronic illness; changes in metabolic balance like low sodium; infection, medication, surgery, alcohol or drug intoxication or withdrawal.

Symptoms :

• Similar to dementia
• fluctuate throughout the day
• Periods of no symptoms as well
• Some of the major signs and symptoms include:
  • Inability to stay focused on single topic or to switch topics
  • Getting stuck on an idea rather than responding
  • Being easily distracted by unimportant things

Causes :

• Certain medications or drug toxicity
• Alcohol or drug intoxication
• Medical condition, like stroke, heart attack, lung or liver disease,
• Metabolic imbalances, low sodium or low calcium
• Malnutrition or dehydration

What is in news : According to a study, published in the journal BMJ Open, out of 150 patients hospitalised for Covid in the United States in the initial phase of the pandemic, 73 per cent had delirium.

Disease surveillance is an information-based activity involving the collection, analysis and interpretation of large volumes of data originating from a variety of sources. This is the basic premise of EPIDEMIOLOGY

What is Epidemiology : Scientific study of the spread and control of diseases

SIGNIFICANCE :

• John Snow is often referred to as the father of modern epidemiology and William Farr as founder of the modern concept of disease surveillance system.

• In the years to follow, epidemiology became a key discipline to prevent and control infectious diseases (and in present context for non communicable diseases as well).

• The application of principles of epidemiology is possible through systematic collection and timely analysis, and dissemination of data on the diseases. This is to initiate action to either prevent or stop further spread, a process termed as disease surveillance.

Historical success :

• In 1854, when a deadly outbreak of cholera affected Soho area of London, John Snow (1813-1858), a British doctor and epidemiologist, used the health statistics and death registration data from the General Registrar Office (GRO) in London, to plot on a map of the area, the distribution of cholera cases and deaths. He observed that a majority of cases and deaths were in the Broad Street area, which received supply from a common water pump, supporting his theory that cholera was a waterborne, contagious disease.
• The collection of health data and vital statistics by the GRO had improved over the previous decade-and-a-half due to untiring efforts put in by another medical doctor, William Farr (1807-1883). Based upon the data on the time, place and person distribution of cholera cases and deaths, supplemented by a map, Snow, on September 7, 1854, could convince the local authorities in London to remove the handle of the water pump, which they reluctantly did. The cholera outbreak was controlled in a few weeks. It started the beginning of a new era in epidemiology.

IN INDIA

• A major cholera outbreak in Delhi in 1988 and the Surat plague outbreak of 1994
• Government of India launched the National Surveillance Programme for Communicable Diseases in 1997.
• In wake of the SARS outbreak, in 2004, India launched the Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDSP).
• Focus - Increase government funding for disease surveillance, strengthen laboratory capacity, train the health workforce and have at least one trained epidemiologist in every district of India.
• With that, between 2004 and 2019, nearly every passing year, more outbreaks were detected and investigated than the previous year. It was on this foundation of the IDSP (which now has become a full fledged programme) that when COVID-19 pandemic struck, India could rapidly deploy the teams of epidemiologists and public health experts to respond to and guide the response, coordinate the contact tracing and rapidly scale up testing capacity.
• The disease surveillance system and health data recording and reporting systems are key tools in epidemiology; however, these have performed variably in Indian States, be it seroprevalence-survey findings or the analysis of excess COVID-19 deaths.
• As per data from the fourth round of sero-survey, Kerala and Maharashtra States could identify one in every six and 12 infections, respectively; while in States such as Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, only one in every 100 COVID-19 infections could be detected, pointing towards a weak disease surveillance system.
• The estimated excess deaths are also higher in those States which have weak disease surveillance systems and the civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems.

ISSUES

• In a well-functioning disease surveillance system, an increase in cases of any illness would be identified very quickly. An example is Kerala, arguably the best performing disease surveillance system amongst the India States, as it is picking the maximum COVID-19 cases; it could pick the first case of the Nipah virus in early September 2021.
• On the contrary, cases of dengue, malaria, leptospirosis and scrub typhus received attention only when more than three dozen deaths were reported and health facilities in multiple districts of Uttar Pradesh, began to be overwhelmed. The situation is not very different in States such as Madhya Pradesh and Haryana, where viral illnesses, most likely dengue, are causing hospitalisation but not being correctly identified or are being reported as mystery fever.

WAY FORWARD

• A review of the IDSP by joint monitoring mission was conducted in 2015
• Steps suggested : Increasing financial resource allocation, ensuring adequate number of trained human resources, strengthening laboratories, and zoonosis, influenza and vaccine-preventable diseases surveillance.
• Government resources allocated to preventive and promotive health services and disease surveillance need to be increased by the Union and State governments.
• Workforce in the primary health-care system in both rural and urban areas needs to be retrained in disease surveillance and public health actions. The vacancies of surveillance staff at all levels need to be urgently filled in.
• Laboratory capacity for COVID-19, developed in the last 18 months, needs to be planned and repurposed to increase the ability to conduct testing for other public health challenges and infections. This should be linked to create a system in which samples collected are quickly transported and tested and the reports are available in real time.
• Emerging outbreaks of zoonotic diseases, be it the Nipah virus in Kerala or avian flu in other States as well as scrub typhus in Uttar Pradesh, are a reminder of the interconnectedness of human and animal health. The ‘One Health’ approach has to be promoted beyond policy discourses and made functional on the ground.
• Dedicated focus on strengthening the civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems and medical certification of cause of deaths (MCCD). These are complementary to disease surveillance systems and often where one is weak, the other is also functioning sub-optimally.
• Ensure coordinated actions between the State government and municipal corporation to develop joint action plans and assume responsibility for public health and disease surveillance. The allocation made by the 15th Finance Commission to corporations for health should be used to activate this process.

PERSONS IN NEWS

What is in news : Prime Minister Narendra Modi has paid tributes to Rashtrakavi Ramdhari Singh Dinkar on his birth anniversary.

About:

• Ramdhari Singh (1908 –1974), known by his nom de plume Dinkar, is considered as one of the most important modern Hindi poets.
• His poetry exuded veer rasa, and he has been hailed as a Rashtrakavi ("national poet") on account of his inspiring patriotic compositions in the days before Indian independence.
• However, he used to call himself a "Bad Gandhian" because he supported the feelings of indignation and revenge among the youth.
• Dinkar was elected three times to the Rajya Sabha, and he was the member of this house from 3 April 1952 to 26 January 1964, and was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1959.
• He was also the Vice-Chancellor of Bhagalpur University (Bhagalpur, Bihar) in the early 1960s.
• During The Emergency, Jayaprakash Narayan had attracted a gathering of one lakh people at the Ramlila grounds and recited Dinkar's famous poem: Singhasan Khaali Karo Ke Janata Aaati Hai ("Vacate the throne, for the people are coming").

Who :

• Explorer , Skilled carpenter , Craftsman
• Stood at the front lines of almost a dozen Arctic expeditions that were organized by Robert Peary over the period of 18 years, including the one that reached the North Pole.
• One of the first people who stand at the very top of the world, in 1909.

In news : The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has named a Lunar crater at the south pole of the moon after the Arctic explorer Matthew Henson

ALSO IN NEWS : Artemis Programme was launched by NASA which aims to land the next slate of lunar explorers on the Henson Crater.

MAHITI FOR PRELIMS

IAU

• Is a body of professional astronomers, at the PhD level and beyond, active in professional education and research in astronomy.
• Founded: 1919
• HQ : Paris, France
• Objective:
  • Promote and safeguard the science of astronomy in all its aspects through international cooperation.
  • It is an internationally recognized authority for assigning designations (names) to celestial bodies (stars, planets, asteroids, etc.) and any surface features on them.

SNIPPETS

• CSIR-CMERI has handed over the “CSIR-CMERI developed Solar DC Cooking System” to Asansol Braille Academy in West Bengal.This Solar DC Cooking System is a “Solar Energy based Cooking System” that comprises of solar PV panel, battery bank, charge controller and cooking oven.It has a potential to save 1 ton Carbon Dioxide emissions per year per household.
• Leh is all set to host the first edition of the Himalayan Film Festival.This festival is being organised by Leh in association with the Directorate of Film Festivals with the aim of creating an interactive and exposure platform in order to promote aspiring local filmmakers as well as to showcase Ladakh as an attractive film destination.
• According to India’s federal cyber security agency, CERT-In, a banking Trojan malware has been detected in Indian cyberspace. This trojan is lurking to attack bank customers using Android phones

• A Trojan horse or Trojan is a type of malware that is often disguised as legitimate software.
• Trojans can be employed by cyber-thieves and hackers trying to gain access to users' systems.
• Users are typically tricked by some form of social engineering into loading and executing Trojans on their systems.
• Once activated, Trojans can enable cyber-criminals to spy on you, steal your sensitive data, and gain backdoor access to your system.
• The term “Trojan” derives from the ancient Greek story about the deceptive Trojan horse which led to the fall of the city of Troy.