Daily CURRENT AFFAIRS

Daily Current Affair - UPSC/KAS Exams - 19th Oct 2021

What is in news : Karnataka will allow monetisation of a treasure trove of citizen data available at its disposal by anonymising personal details under its new open data policy.

Details:

• What this means : any organisation, institution (educational or research), corporate body, the private agency registered in India and operational for 24 months can ink an agreement with the government, including a non-disclosure pact, buy data to make business decisions
• With its own policy, Karnataka joins a select club of states — Telangana, Odisha, Sikkim and Punjab — in having an open data regime.
• In Karnataka, we know where schools and hospitals are located, We also know the literacy rates, disease and patient details. So, data on an area with a high population but low literacy where there aren’t good schools may be purchased to identify where a school or hospital can be opened
• The state government is sitting on a vast collection of citizen data. The new policy classifies data based on its intended usage: shareable data, sensitive data (that can be disclosed only on a need-to-know basis) and restricted data (that can cause a threat to life or loss of public assets, accessible only through a prescribed process of registration and authorisation)

What is in News : Rashtriya Gokul Mission and National Livestock Missions were revamped recently

Rashtriya Gokul Mission :

• Initiated in 2014 with a focus on the genetic upgradation of the bovine population through widespread initiatives on artificial insemination, sex-sorted semen, and in vitro fertilization.
• Livestock breeding in India has been largely unorganised because of which there have been gaps in forward and backward integration across the value chain. Such a scenario impacts the quality of livestock that is produced and in turn negatively impacts the return on investment for livestock farmers.
• Approximately 200 million Indians are involved in livestock farming, including around 100 million dairy farmers. Roughly 80% bovines in the country are low on productivity and are reared by small and marginal farmers.
• The revised version proposes to bring focus on entrepreneurship development and breed improvement in cattle, buffalo, poultry, sheep, goat, and piggery by providing incentives to individual entrepreneurs, farmer producer organisations, farmer cooperatives, joint liability groups, self-help groups, Section 8 companies for entrepreneurship development and State governments for breed improvement infrastructure.
• The breed multiplication farm component is going to provide for capital subsidy up to ₹200 lakh for setting up breeding farm with at least 200 milch cows/ buffalo using latest breeding technology.
• The entrepreneur
  • Will be responsible for the arrangement of and would be able to sell at least 116 elite female calves every year out of this farm from the third year.
  • Will also start generating income out of the sale of 15 kg of milk per animal per day for around 180 animals from the first year. This breeding farm will break even from the first year of the project after induction of milk in animals. Moreover, the strategy of incentivising breed multiplication farm will result in the employment of 1 lakh farmers.
• The grassroots initiatives in this sphere will be further amplified by web applications like e-Gopala that provide real-time information to livestock farmers on the availability of disease-free germplasm in relevant centres, veterinary care, etc.

National Livestock Missions

• The poultry entrepreneurship programme of the NLM will provide for capital subsidy up to ₹25 lakh for setting up of a parent farm with a capacity to rear 1,000 chicks. Under this model, the hatchery is expected to produce at least 500 eggs daily, followed by the birth of chicks that are in turn reared for four weeks. Thereafter, the chicks can be supplied to local farmers for rearing. Under this model, the rural entrepreneur running the hatchery will be supplying chicks to the farmers.
• An entrepreneur will be able to break even within 18 months after launching the business. This is expected to provide employment to at least 14 lakh people.
• In the context of sheep and goat entrepreneurship, there is a provision of capital subsidy of 50% up to 50 lakh. An entrepreneur under this model shall set up a breeder farm, develop the whole chain will eventually sell the animals to the farmers or in the open market. Each entrepreneur can avail assistance for a breeder farm with 500 does/ewe and 25 buck/ram animals with high genetic merit from the Central/State government university farms. This model is projected to generate a net profit of more than ₹33 lakh for the entrepreneur per year.
• For piggery, the NLM will provide 50% capital subsidy of up to ₹30 lakh. Each entrepreneur will be aided with establishment of breeder farms with 100 sows and 10 boars, expected to produce 2,400 piglets in a year. A new batch of piglets will be ready for sale every six months. This model is expected to generate a profit of ₹1.37 crore after 16 months and 1.5 lakh jobs.

What is in news : A plant discovered in Uttarakhand in 2019 has been newly confirmed as a new species of Allium — the genus that includes many staple foods such as onion and garlic, among 1,100 species worldwide.

About :

• Discovered by , Principal Scientist at ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources in New Delhi
• In the border area of Malari village, in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand.
• Grows at 3,000 to 4,800 m above sea level and can be found along open grassy meadows, sandy soils along rivers, and streams forming in snow pasture lands along alpine meadows, where the melting snow helps carry its seeds to more favourable areas.
• With a narrow distribution, this newly described species is restricted to the region of western Himalayas and hasn’t yet been reported from anywhere else in the world

HISTORY – ART - CULTURE

What is in news : Kushinagar Airport in Uttar Pradesh  to be declared as an international airport .

About Kushinagar :

• Located in the north-eastern part of Uttar Pradesh about 50 km east of Gorakhpur and is one of the important Buddhist pilgrimage sites.
• Pilgrimage town in the Kushinagar district of Uttar Pradesh.
• It is an important Buddhist pilgrimage site, where Buddhists believe Gautama Buddha attained Parinirvana after his death. It is an international Buddhist pilgrimage centre.

Other Details :

• The ceremony will be attended by sizeable Sri Lankan contingent, led by a member of the first family
• The airport is expected to provide seamless connectivity to tourists from Sri Lanka, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore and so on. Kushinagar is the centre of the Buddhist circuit, which consists of pilgrimage sites at Lumbini, Sarnath and Gaya
• To mark the occasion, Sri Lanka will present to India photographs of two murals painted by renowned Sri Lankan artist Solias Mendis at the Kelaniya Rajamaha Vihara, a popular Buddhist temple near Colombo
• One of the murals depicts ‘Arahat Bhikkhu’ Mahinda, son of Emperor Ashoka delivering the message of the Buddha to King Devanampiyatissa of Sri Lanka. The other shows the arrival of ‘Theri Bhikkhuni’ Sanghamitta, the daughter of the Emperor, in Sri Lanka, bearing a sapling of the ‘sacred Bodhi tree’ under which Siddhārtha Gautama is believed to have obtained enlightenment.

What is in news : New Delhi suggested that the World Trade Organization (WTO) consider 'escape clause' for countries, relying on flexibilities in trade agreements, to avoid disputes while tackling the current pandemic and any other in future under TRIPS

Details :

• The proposal, floated last year by India and South Africa, is now sponsored by 64 members and seeks to facilitate access to Covid medicines.
• At a meeting of the General Council of the organisation a few days ago, India suggested that the WTO Secretariat catalogue the flexibilities under the existing pacts and rules that could be relaxed, to enable members to respond effectively to pandemics and natural disasters.

About TRIPS

• Came into force in 1995
• Part of the agreement that established the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
• Establishes minimum standards for the availability, scope, and use of seven forms of intellectual property namely, trademarks, copyrights, geographical indications, patents, industrial designs, layout designs for integrated circuits, and undisclosed information or trade secrets.
• Lays down the permissible exceptions and limitations for balancing the interests of intellectual property with the interests of public health and economic development.
• Most comprehensive international agreement on IP and it has a major role in enabling trade in creativity and knowledge, in resolving trade disputes over intellectual property, and in assuring WTO members the latitude to achieve their domestic policy objectives.
• Frames the IP system in terms of innovation, technology transfer and public welfare.
• TRIPS Council is responsible for administering and monitoring the operation of the TRIPS Agreement.
• Negotiated during the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1986–1994.
• The TRIPS Agreement is also described as a “Berne and Paris-plus” Agreement.

SNIPPETS

With a view to orienting its officers and men posted along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Tibetan culture and also preparing them to better understand the information warfare, the Army has begun a course in Tibetology in a tie-up with the Central Institute of Himalayan Cultural Studies in Arunachal Pradesh

Tibetology - refers to the study of things related to Tibet, including its history, religion, language, culture, politics and the collection of Tibetan articles of historical, cultural and religious significance. The last may mean a collection of Tibetan statues, shrines, Buddhist icons and holy scripts, Thangka embroideries, paintings and tapestries, jewellery, masks and other objects of fine Tibetan art and craftsmanship.