Daily CURRENT AFFAIRS

Daily Current Affair - UPSC/KAS Exams - 15th Feb 2022

NEWS

The Indian Institute of Science (IISc.) in Bengaluru has received its single largest private donation of ₹425 crore, which will be used to set up a postgraduate medical school along with a multispeciality 800-bed hospital on its Bengaluru campus.

DETAILS

• Will be in line with global examples of integrating science, engineering and medicine under a single institution, creating “physician-scientists.”
• New venture would be named IISc. Medical School and Bagchi-Parthasarathy Hospital.
• Initiative will be an integrated dual degree MD-PhD programme aimed at creating a new breed of physician-scientists, who will pursue a career in clinical research to develop new treatments and healthcare solutions, driven by a bench-to-bedside philosophy
• Aspirants will be trained simultaneously in the hospital as well as in the science and engineering laboratories at IISc
• Building of the 800-bed multispeciality hospital, catering to clinical training and research activities of the academic programme, has been designed by Archi Medes (I) Consultants Pvt. Ltd.
• Work on the project will start in June 2022, and the hospital will be operational by the end of 2024.
• Hospital will also implement advanced digital technologies and solutions, such as integrated Electronic Medical Record systems and a comprehensive telemedicine suite with haptics interfaces, the director explained.

NEWS

Camp for free Assistive Devices distribution organized for Divyangjan and Senior Citizens in Tikamgarh (M.P) under ‘Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana’ (RVY Scheme) of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment

RASHTRIYA VAYOSHRI YOJANA

• Launched in 2017
• Central sector scheme funded from the Senior Citizens’ Welfare Fund(notified in the year 2016). All unclaimed amounts from small savings accounts, PPF and EPF are transferred to this fund

AIM –

• Provide aids and assistive living devices to senior citizens belonging to Below Poverty Line (BPL) category who suffer from age-related disabilities such as low vision, hearing impairment, loss of teeth and locomotor disabilities.
• The aids and assistive devices, viz walking sticks, elbow crutches, walkers/crutches, tripods/quad pods, hearing aids, wheelchairs, artificial dentures and spectacles are provided to eligible beneficiaries.

IMPLEMENTED BY - Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India (ALIMCO), {public sector undertaking under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment}

ALSO - Indigenously developed “Sugamya” Cane for Visually Impaired and ‘Swavlamban Kendra Container’ for skill development training and repairing centre launched

NEWS

India’s retail inflation accelerated past the 6% mark in January to hit 6.01%, breaching the central bank’s tolerance threshold for consumer price inflation for the first time since June 2021.

INFO

WHAT IS INFLATION - Situation where there is sustained, unchecked increase in the general price level and a fall in the purchasing power of money

WHAT CAUSES INFLATION - (1) Increase in demand (2) Reduced supply

HOW IS IT DETERMINED – There are different indices in India like Wholesale Price Index(WPI), Consumer Price Index(CPI) etc which measure inflation rates in India.

WHO DETERMINES INFLATION IN INDIA – Reserve Bank of India through Monetary Policy Committee ( MPC )

HOW IS INFLATION TACKLED –

IN GENERAL

• Both government and central bank (Reserve Bank) try to tackle inflation with their policies which are known as Fiscal and Monetary Policies respectively.
• Fiscal policies correspond to tax related measures taken by government to control inflation (money supply).
• RBI through its various monetary policies limit the money supply by altering rates like CRR, Repo, Reverse Repo etc
• Administrative measures taken by government like strengthening of Public Distribution System also plays a crucial role in curbing inflation.

INFLATION TARGETING BY MPC

• WHAT IS INFLATION TARGETING - Monetary policy framework wherein the Central Bank of a country focuses only on maintaining the rate of Inflation within a targeted range.
• Inflation targeting was first adopted by New Zeeland
  • In case of India
  • Inflation targeting was introduced through the Monetary Policy Framework Agreement signed between the RBI and Government in 2015.
  • As per terms of the agreement, RBI’s primary objective would be to maintain price stability, while keeping in mind the objective of growth.
  • The RBI is required to maintain rate of inflation of 4% with a deviation of 2% i.e. inflation has to be maintained between 2% to 6%

NEWS

One of the three persons diagnosed with Lassa fever in the UK has died as per recent repports

LASSA FEVER

• Caused by virus, That is found in West Africa
• First discovered in 1969 in Lassa, Nigeria
• Primarily found in countries in West Africa including Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, and Nigeria where it is endemic.

HOW DOES IT SPREAD

• Spread by rats
• A person can become infected if they come in contact with household items of food that is contaminated with the urine or feces of an infected rat
• Can also be spread, though rarely, if a person comes in contact with a sick person’s infected bodily fluids or through mucous membranes such as the eyes, nose or the mouth
• Person-to-person transmission is more common in healthcare settings.

SYMPTOMS

• People don’t usually become contagious before symptoms appear and cannot transmit the infection through casual contact such as through hugging, shaking hands or sitting near someone who is infected
• Symptoms typically appear 1-3 weeks after exposure
• Mild symptoms include slight fever, fatigue, weakness and headache and more serious symptoms include bleeding, difficulty breathing, vomiting, facial swelling, pain in the chest, back, and abdomen and shock
• Most common complication associated with the fever is deafness. In many such cases, the hearing loss can be permanent.
• According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, about 80 per cent of the cases are asymptomatic and therefore remain undiagnosed
• Some patients may need to be hospitalised and develop severe multi-system disease

DEATH RATE

• Death can occur from two weeks of the onset of symptoms, usually as a result of multi-organ failure
• The death rate associated with this disease is low, at around one per cent. But the death rate is higher for certain individuals, such as pregnant women in their third trimester
• Fifteen per cent of the hospitalised patients may die

PRECAUTIONS

• Avoid contact with rats
• Maintaining hygiene in other areas to prevent rats from entering the house

WHAT IS A STRAIT

Thin channel of waterways i.e. narrow passage of water that connects two seas or two other large areas of water.

WHERE IS PALK STRAIT

• Between the Tamil Nadu state of India and the Jaffna District of the Northern Province of the island nation of Sri Lanka
• Connects the Bay of Bengal in the northeast with Palk Bay in the southwest

WHAT IS THE BACKSTORY

• Fishermen of India and Sri Lanka have been unable to agree on how to share the fishes in the narrow Palk Strait separating the two countries
• The Strait  is known to be a breeding ground for rich marine resources, especially shrimp
• Although India and Sri Lanka agreed to divide the Strait with an imaginary boundary line in the 1970s —the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) – Indian fishermen, from the coastal districts of Tamil Nadu, and from Puducherry, are frequently arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy for “poaching” or engaging in “illegal” fishing activity in Sri Lankan waters.
• Several rounds of bilateral negotiations between the two governments and talks between fishing community leaders from both sides have been held over the years, but a solution remains elusive.

WHAT IS THE CONFLICT, AND BETWEEN WHOM:

• Territorial rights - historically both sides have amicably shared marine resources in the stretch
• Use of “bottom trawling”, the fishing method used by fishermen from Tamil Nadu, the practice scoops out eggs, young fishes, and other marine organisms that eventually die and are thrown back into the sea.
• After Sri Lanka’s civil war ended in 2009, Sri Lankan fishermen started voicing concern about depleting catches, owing to incessant trawling by the Indian fishermen. With the Indian side of the IMBL already ravaged by decades of high profit-yielding bottom trawling, they flock to the Sri Lankan side, with relatively less damage and therefore, more marine resources.
• Clash now is essentially over competing livelihoods of two Tamil-speaking fisher communities, with a glaring asymmetry in power and resources. The Tamil Nadu fishing community, especially the trawler owners, are not only wealthier but also very politically influential.
• The northern Sri Lankan fishermen, on the other hand, are coming out of a brutal war, braving enormous losses and destruction. They use modest boats to practice traditional fishing and get little state support to resurrect their livelihoods.

WHY IS IT YET TO BE RESOLVED:

• Five Indian fishermen returned home dead last year after the Sri Lankan Navy allegedly attacked them mid-sea
• More recently, the death of the two Jaffna fishermen has aggravated the anger on the Sri Lankan side as well.
• India has urged Sri Lanka to adopt a humanitarian approach when it deters Indian fishermen. However, when fishermen deaths occur, apart from customary condemnations and denials, there is little effort from authorities on either side to ensure investigations are completed and perpetrators brought to book.
• New Delhi tried diverting Tamil Nadu fishermen to deep sea fishing methods to wean them away from bottom trawling in the Palk Strait. But the initiative did not take off as planned , and the fishermen still resort to trawling, and often get caught by Sri Lankan authorities.
• Tamil Nadu is yet to agree to the chief demand of northern Tamil fishermen — to stop bottom trawling to restore trust between the fishermen on both sides, and provide a real opportunity to re-commence talks, which they prefer over confrontation.
• The northern Tamil fishermen repeatedly acknowledge Tamil Nadu’s solidarity and support extended to Sri Lankan Tamils during the years of war and later. But they also remind their brothers across the Palk Strait that solidarity does not justify exploitation of resources on which their lives and livelihoods depend.

PALK BAY SCHEME

• Launched in July 2017 under the Blue Revolution programme.
• The scheme is financed by the Union and the State Governments with beneficiary participation.
• It had envisaged the provision of 2,000 vessels in three years to the fishermen of the State and motivate them to abandon bottom trawling.

SNIPPETS

• High Court of Karnataka declared as unconstitutional certain provisions of the Karnataka Police (Amendment) Act, 2021, which prohibited and criminalised the activities of offering and playing online games, by risking money or otherwise.
• With a view to check any further rise in the prices of domestic edible oils due to rise in the prices of edible oils globally, the Government of India has reduced the agri-cess for Crude Palm Oil (CPO) from 7.5% to 5%