Daily CURRENT AFFAIRS

What : A study was conducted by All Indian Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU) in collaboration with other trade unions on unorganized sector labour conditions in Karnataka.

Observations

Labourers:

• Are reeling under a triple crisis:

1. lack of access to healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic
2. lack of food security
3. depleted earnings

• Live in densely populated slums and colonies with inadequate hygiene, even as most workplaces have failed to provide masks, sanitisers and other aid for COVID-19 prevention.
• Suffered a loss of income, but those working on delivery platforms like Ola, Uber and street vendors have been affected more than monthly wage workers

Recommendations

THE REPORT:

• Recommended that the government carry out regular fumigation of these areas and organise free testing and vaccination camps at these localities. The authors underscored the importance of taking such measures as they found there was hesitation to get tested and vaccinated.
• Made a case for augmentation of public health infrastructure and universal free treatment for COVID-19, while recommending a compensation of ₹10 lakh for families living below the poverty line who have lost a member to COVID-19.
• Recommends that the government announce a COVID-19 compensation package for all labourers and vulnerable groups, including those with a salary of less than ₹15,000, apart from a risk allowance of ₹10,000 for all health and frontline workers. The government must ensure there is no termination of employment, and set up helplines for workers with payment issues, it noted.
• Also found that ration distributed through the Public Distribution System (PDS) was often inadequate, making families in distress unable to completely rely on the State for their food and nutrition needs. Increase in prices of vegetables and fruits have also hit the working class.
• While welcoming free food being distributed by Indira Canteens in the city, argued that it was not enough, and recommends setting up of community kitchens and a hunger helpline like in the previous year. It also recommended that the State government immediately start distributing ration kits and implement Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana to all persons in PDS shops without insisting on ration cards, and ensure provision of 10 kg of rice.

What :

• Mucormycosis (previously called zygomycosis) is a serious but rare fungal infection caused by a group of molds called mucormycetes.
• These molds live throughout the environment, particularly soil.
• It is also called as BLACK FUNGUS.

Who suffer:

• Mucormycosis mainly affects people who have health problems or take medicines that lower the body's ability to fight germs and sickness.
• Spread of Mucormycosis:
• People can spread black fungus on coming in contact with the spores from the environment.
• In case of the lung or sinus infection the person can be infected after inhaling the spores from the air.
• A skin infection can occur after the fungus enters the skin through a scrape, burn, or other type of skin injury.

Recent news : Karnataka to declare BLACK FUNGUS as notifiable disease.

What is a notifiable disease: A notifiable disease is any disease that is required by law to be reported to government authorities. The collation of information allows the authorities to monitor the disease, and provides early warning of possible outbreaks

Recent news: The High Court of Karnataka has upheld the order of the Department of Mines and Geology prohibiting sand extraction from rivers during rainy season. It observed that the ban was incorporated into the law for protecting the environment.

What was the case :

• Court rejected the plea of petitioner who had a lease for sand extraction in Chamarajanagar district for a period of five years
• The petitioner had questioned the decision of the Deputy Director, Department of Mines and Geology, Chamarajanagar, prohibiting sand extraction from June 5 to October 15 every year. The petitioner contended that his mining lease did not contain a condition of sand extraction being prohibited during monsoon.
• However, the Bench agreed with the contention of the government that the Karnataka Minor Mineral Concession Rules, 1994, and the Sustainable Sand Mining Management Guidelines, 2016, clearly prohibit river sand mining during rainy season.
• The court also pointed out that the legislature was conscious of the fact that the period of actual quarrying operations could be affected by rains or floods, and had therefore provided the sand quarrying permission for up to five years, inclusive of the non-quarrying periods such as rainy season, floods, and natural calamities. In Karnataka, the period between June 5 and October 15 is considered rainy season, the Bench noted.

Harmful effects of Mining in monsoon :

Sand regulates a river’s flow, floodplains store water, recharge ground water, filter pollutants, allows aquatic life to thrive. When sand is taken out, water tables sink, rivers dry up, change course, banks collapse, floodplains get pitted with ponds, silt chokes rivers, vegetation and habitats get destroyed, dust pollution kicks in.

What is the news : With nearly 55 per cent of the Covid cases in Odisha being reported from rural areas, there is growing concern in the state regarding the safety of the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs).

Details :

• Current population of PVTG is 2.14 lakh, spread across 11 districts of the state.
• Reason for COVID spread:

1. Lack of awareness
2. Cold and fever when the season changes is considered normal. So tribals refrain from approaching health facilities. But they live in close proximity and as a close-knit group. Spread of infection is more likely in such cases.

PVTG

• A PVTG (earlier, Primitive tribal group) is a Government of India classification for tribes based on their relative physical isolation, stagnant or declining population, low levels of literacy and pre-agricultural stage of economy, such as hunting, food gathering, shifting cultivation and terrace cultivation.
• The classification was adopted by the GOI after the Dhebar Commission (1960-1961) stated that within the Scheduled Tribes there existed an inequality in the rate of development.
• During the fourth Five Year Plan, a sub-category was created within Scheduled Tribes to identify groups at a lower level of development. This sub-category was called “Primitive tribal group”, which is now PVTG.

PVTGs in Odisha

Of the 62 tribal groups in Odisha, 13 are recognised as PVTGs – the highest in the country. At present, Odisha has a population of 2.5 lakh belonging to the PVTGs, residing in nearly 1,429 villages in 11 districts. The PVTGs of the state have been identified as Bonda, Birhor, Chuktia, Bhunjia, Didayi, Dungaria, Kandha, Hill Kharia, Juang, Kutia Kondh, Lanjia Saora, Lodha, Mankirida, Paudi, Bhuyan and Saora

What : Kelps are large brown algae seaweeds that make up the order Laminariales.  The Kelp forest are under water areas with high density of kelp. It covers large part of the world coastline. Also, they are considered as the most productive and dynamic ecosystem on the earth.

Function

• Kelps function underwater in the same way trees do on land. They create habitat and modify the physical environment by shading light and softening waves.
• These forests provide important three-dimensional, underwater habitat that is home to hundreds or thousands of species of invertebrates, fishes, and other algae.
• These forests comprise one of the ocean’s most diverse ecosystems. Many fish species use kelp forests as nurseries for their young, while seabirds and marine mammals like sea lions, sea otters and even gray whales use them as shelter from predators and storms.

Threat to KELP

• Thawing permafrost and crumbling Arctic coasts are dumping sediments into coastal waters at alarming rates, which blocks light and could limit plant growth.
• The run-off from melting glaciers will also lowers salinity and increase turbidity, which impacts young kelp.
• Destructive fishing practices, coastal pollution, and accidental damage caused by boat entanglement are known to negatively affect kelp forests.
• Sea urchins can destroy entire kelp forests at a rate of 30 feet (9 m) per month by moving in herds. Sea otters play a key role in stabilizing sea urchin populations so that kelp forests may thrive

What is the recent issue :

• The Sunflower sea stars were once found in the ocean floor in the north east Pacific. They mainly fed on purple urchins.
• The Sunflower sea stars are extinct in California and are near extinction in other parts of the ocean. Thus, the purple urchins increased in number.
• The purple urchins mainly fed on sea weeds. As their population increased, they started consuming more and more sea weeds.
• This was disastrous to the other marine species such as Abalone that depend on sea weeds.
• Bottomline, the kelp forest cover fell by more than 95% since 2014.
• The near extinction of just one species has such huge impact on the ecosystem. It is simply wiping out the eco system.
• Thus, the plan of repopulating the sunflower sea star has been adopted. This plan is being referred to as the “Jurassic Plan Approach”.

Recent news: The scientists in the United States are breeding the Sunflower sea stars off coast of Washington State.

About sunflower Sea Star

• The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species has listed the Sunflower sea star as Critically Endangered
• It is one of the largest sea stars in the world.
• They have twenty-four limbs.

What : A breakthrough infection is a case of illness in which a vaccinated individual becomes sick from the same illness that the vaccine is meant to prevent.

What is the news : The public health experts recently announced that the increase in “breakthrough infections” in COVID-19 in the country may be due to the mutant varieties.

Details :

• According to Indian Council of Medical Research, around two to three breakthrough infections occur per 10,000 infections.
• In the US, 5,814 COVID-19 breakthrough infections were found out of 75 million vaccinated people.

Causes of Breakthrough infection

• Age: As the age of the person increases, the immune system of the body undergoes a series of changes. The count of naïve B cells and naïve T cells decreases. These naïve cells are the ones that respond to the new pathogens that the immune system has not yet encountered.
• Antibody interference: The maternal antibodies in the infants limits the efficacy of the infant immune system. In an infant, the immune system is not completely activated and it produces less antibodies.
• Virus Evolution: The virus mutations blocks the immune responses generated by the vaccines.
• Poor Quality vaccine: Maintaining vaccine temperatures are highly important. If the vaccine is kept after expiration date or is stored in incorrect temperature, the vaccine loses its potency.
• Appropriate vaccine dosages are essential. The vaccine dosages are fixed based on age and weight. If patients receive lower dose than the recommended then there will be no adequate immune response.
• Vaccines with weaker strains that is of poor quality will fail to ensure future immunity.

What : Machine learning method

Why :  To identify cluster stars-- assembly of stars physically related through common origin, with much greater certainty.

By : Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA)

Other details : Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), an autonomous institute of the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India used European Space Agency (ESA)’s recently released Gaia Early Data Release 3 (EDR3) which gives very accurate information about the brightness, parallax, and proper motion of more than a billion stars with an accuracy of 1 milli-arc-second (equivalent to seeing a person standing on the moon) to pick out the stars that are cluster members.

By : Technology Academy Finland (TAF)

For : Scientific inventions

Recent news: Cambridge University chemists Shankar Balasubramanian and David Klenerman were on Tuesday declared the winners of the 2020 Millennium Technology Prize

Their invention : development of revolutionary sequencing techniques which means DNA can now be read in super-fast times.

Additional details:

• The technology will be a crucial element in promoting sustainable development through personalisation of medicine, understanding and fighting killer diseases, and hence improving the quality of life.
• The 2020 prize marks the first time that the honour has been awarded to more than one recipient for the same innovation, celebrating the significance of collaboration.
• The tech also plays a key role in helping discover the coronavirus's sequence, which in turn enabled the creation of the vaccines, itself a triumph for cross-border collaboration, and helped identify new variants of COVID-19

Recent news: The Government of India recently issued guidelines to contain COVID-19 in rural areas.

Guidelines

• Centres should have a minimum of thirty beds. This should be set up mainly in areas where home isolation is not possible.
• The Rapid Antigen Test kits should be made available in all public health facilities. This includes primary health centres and health and wellness centres as well.
• The COVID Care Centres shall admit suspect or confirmed case. However, it should have separate areas for confirmed and suspected cases.
• Besides urban areas, a large number of cases have increased in tribal areas, rural areas and peri urban areas. Thus, the ministry has released “SOP on COVID-19 Containment and Management in Peri-Urban, Rural and Tribal Areas”.

Standard Operating Procedure

• An active surveillance should be done for Severe Acute Respiratory Infections and Influenza like illness. This should be done periodically by ASHA with the help of Village Health Sanitation and Nutrition Committee.
• Symptomatic cases shall be treated at village level by tele-consultation with the Community Health Officer (CHO). However, cases with low oxygen saturation should be sent to higher centres.
• The CHO and the ANMs should be trained to perform Rapid Antigen Tests.
• Contact tracing should be done according to the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme Guidelines.
• Each village should have adequate number of thermometers and pulse oximeters.
• The COVID Care Centre shall be set up in marriage halls, schools, panchayat buildings.
• The COVID Care Centres should be mapped with one or more dedicated COVID Health Care Centres.

Recent news: The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade recently released Wholesale Price in India for the month of April 2021. The WPI for the month of April 2021 stood at 128.1. The base year in calculating WPI is fixed as 2011-12.

WPI of April 2021

• The annual rate of inflation for the month of April 2021 was 10.49%
• The inflation rate is high in the month mainly because of price rise in crude petroleum which in turn increased the prices of petrol and diesel in the country.
• Also, the price rise is due to increase in cost of manufactured foods.

Wholesale Price Index (WPI)

• Wholesale Price Index, or WPI, measures the changes in the prices of goods sold and traded in bulk by wholesale businesses to other businesses.
• WPI tracks prices at the factory gate level. It thus represents the production side and not the consumption side.
• Analysts use the numbers to track the supply and demand dynamics in industry, manufacturing and construction.
• The numbers are released by the Economic Advisor in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
• While WPI is used as a key measure of inflation in some economies, the RBI no longer uses it for policy purposes, including setting repo rates.
• The central bank currently uses CPI or retail inflation as a key measure of inflation to set the monetary and credit policy.

Calculation of Wholesale Price Index:

• The monthly WPI number shows the average price changes of goods usually expressed in ratios or percentages.
• The index is based on the wholesale prices of a few relevant commodities available.
• The commodities are chosen based on their significance in the region. These represent different strata of the economy and are expected to provide a comprehensive WPI value.
• The advanced base year 2011-12 adopted recently uses 697 items.

Components of WPI:

• Primary articles is a one of the component of WPI, further subdivided into Food Articles and Non-Food Articles.
• Food Articles include items such as Cereals, Paddy, Wheat, Pulses, Vegetables, Fruits, Milk, Eggs, Meat & Fish, etc.
• Non-Food Articles include Oil Seeds, Minerals and Crude Petroleum.
• Another important component in WPI is Fuel & Power, which tracks price movements in Petrol, Diesel and LPG.
• The biggest basket is Manufactured Goods. It spans across a variety of manufactured products such as Textiles, Apparels, Paper, Chemicals, Plastic, Cement, Metals, and more.

WPI Food Index:

WPI has a sub-index called WPI Food Index, which is a combination of the Food Articles from the Primary Articles basket, and the food products from the Manufactured Products basket.

When : May 18th every year(Since 1977)

By : International Council of Museums (ICOM) Advisory Committee

2021 Theme : "The Future of Museums: Recover and Reimagine”

About International Council of Museum (ICOM)

• It is the main organisation of museum professionals with a global scope which is committed to promote and protect the natural and cultural heritage.
• Its headquarters are in Osaka, Japan

In India :The National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), New Delhi, announced  the launch of the NGMA’s Audio-Visual Guide App on the occasion of International Museum Day

• More than 40 doctors of Mysuru origin settled in the United Kingdom have joined the telemedicine initiative launched by the Mysuru district administration for the treatment of COVID-19 patients in home isolation.
• Coelacanth, an extremely rare species of fish, which was once thought to have gone extinct with the dinosaurs millions of years ago, has been found alive in the Indian Ocean.
• Dharwad-based Shilpa Biologicals Pvt. Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Shilpa Medicare, will manufacture Sputnik V, the Russian vaccine for COVID-19. It will be manufactured at Shilpa Biologicals’ Biologics-Research and Development Centre located at Belur Industrial Area in Dharwad. It has entered into a three-year definitive agreement with Dr. Reddy’s to manufacture the vaccine and 50 million doses are planned to be produced in the first 12 months.
• Karnataka has been ranked first in establishing Health and Wellness Centres under Ayushman Bharat Program to provide comprehensive primary health care in rural areas. Karnataka is leading in implementing the project for 2020-2021.
• The Telangana government has selected 16 primary healthcare centres (PHCs) spread around Vikarabad area hospital for pilot testing the ambitious ‘Medicine from the sky’, the first-of- its-kind project involving delivery of medicines through multiple drones.
• On May 17, 2021, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and Microsoft signed a Memorandum of Understanding on joint initiative for Digital Transformation of Tribal Schools
• Iran recently launched its supercomputer called Simorgh. This supercomputer is hundred times more powerful than the previous Iranian supercomputers.
• The Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce Industries and Agriculture and NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development) recently launched the first Agricultural Export Facilitation Centre. About the Centre The Centre will aid in boosting the agricultural and food exports of the state of Maharashtra. The centre will act as a one-stop shop to export agricultural products
• In 2021, the United Nations is celebrating its sixth United Nations Global Road Safety Week between 17th May, 2021 and 23rd May, 2021. This year, in 2021, the Global Road Safety Week is celebrated under the following theme: Theme: Streets for Life The tagline of the theme if #Love30.
• The International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, IDAHOTB is observed on May 17 every year. The day is marked to increase awareness about LGBT rights violations.