Events of National & International Importance -
Kisan Vikas Patra scheme relaunched; Aims to encourage small savings
1.
The Government today re-launched Kisan Vikas Patra scheme in New Delhi to
encourage the habit of small savings among the citizens.
2.
The scheme will provide facility of unlimited investment by way of
purchase of certificate from post office in various denominations.
3. It will soon be made available through designated
branches of nationalized banks all across the country.
4.
The re-launched KVP will be available to the investors in the
denomination of 1000, 5,000, 10,000 and 50,000 rupees with no upper ceiling on
investment.
5.
The certificates can also be issued in single or joint names and can be
transferred from one person to any other person.
India,
Australia establish framework for security cooperation
1.
India and Australia on Tuesday established a framework for
bilateral security cooperation
2.
They (Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian
counterpart Tony Abbott) stepped up their defence collaboration for advancing
regional peace and combating terrorism among other challenges.
3.
They established the framework to intensify cooperation and
consultation between Australia and India in areas of mutual interest.
4.
Mr. Modi and Mr. Abbott decided that the framework will be
implemented in accordance with an action plan.
5.
The action plan states that there will be an annual summit
and foreign policy exchanges and coordination.
35.8
million slaves across the world
1.
Almost 36 million people are living as slaves across the
globe with an index on Monday listing Mauritania, Uzbekistan, Haiti, Qatar and
India as the nations where modern-day slavery is most prevalent.
2.
The Walk Free Foundation, an Australian-based human rights group,
estimated in its inaugural slavery index last year that 29.8 million people
were born into servitude, trafficked for sex work, trapped in debt bondage or
exploited for forced labour.
3.
For the second year, the index of 167 countries found India
had by far the greatest number of slaves. Up to 14.3 million people in its population
of 1.25 billion were victims of slavery.
4.
For the first time, the index rated governments on their
response to slavery. It found the Netherlands, followed by Sweden, the United
States and Australia as some of the countries that had the strongest response.
5.
At the opposite end of the scale, North Korea, Iran, Syria
and Eritrea had the worst responses.
Economy -
Church
of England allows female bishops
1.
The Church of England has broken with a centuries-old
tradition by paving the way for the appointment of female bishops.
2.
The vote at the general synod meeting at Westminster's Church
House in central London yesterday gave the final seal of approval to a
legislation passed through UK Parliament in October.
3.
Women priests were ordained in 1994 but to date they have not
been able to take on the Church's most senior roles.
Australia’s FTA Balancing Act
1. Australia has made some
significant trade news following its hosting of the G20 summit last weekend.
2. It announced the
finalization of a free trade agreement (FTA) with China on Monday, and now with
India.
3. While the trade deal with
China is reaching its final phases, the proposal with India is still very new.
4. Meanwhile, India’s Adani
mining company signed a memorandum of understanding for a $1 billion loan to
develop a coal mine in Queensland State.
Science and Technology -
NASA installs first
zero-gravity 3D printer on ISS
1.
NASA successfully installed the
world’s first zero-gravity 3D printer on the International Space Station (ISS)
2.
To help out astronauts experiment with additive
manufacturing in microgravity.
3. NASA
astronaut Barry Wilmore installed the 3D printer, designed and built by Made In
Space, inside the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) on the ISS.
4. The printer
was launched in September aboard the SpaceX 4 resupply mission to the ISS.
Public Health -
India can dramatically reduce
stunting in children, says World Bank report
1.
Just 1 per cent of children in
the country receive adequate food
2.
India can drastically reduce
the number of children with stunted growth, suggests a new report by World Bank
3.
Healthcare and environmental
health can reduce the number of stunted children (6 to 24 months of age) by
half.
4. The report, Nutrition in India, is based on data from the National
Family Health Survey 2005-06 and the HUNGaMA
Survey 2011.
5.
In the 100 worst performing
rural districts surveyed The HUNGaMA 2011.
6.
Stunting among those who have
adequate feeding, care and sanitation is 20 per cent as compared to 52 per cent
among those who were adequate in none.
7.
National data shows that
stunting in children from households in middle and upper wealth quintiles is
also quite high – about 50 and 25 per cent respectively.
8.
The situation is not much
better among the wealthiest Indians—only 7 per cent children between 6 and 24
months receive adequate feeding, health care and environmental health.
9.
This indicates that under
nutrition in India is not poverty or food insecurity issue alone, and that
child care and feeding information and awareness play an important role.
10.
Annually, India loses over $12
billion in GDP to vitamin and mineral deficiencies.
11.
There are also significant
direct and indirect economic losses associated with under nutrition with direct
productivity losses estimated at more than 10 per cent of lifetime individual
earnings, and about a 2-3 per cent loss to GDP.
12.
Indirect losses are associated
with deficits in cognitive development and schooling, and increased costs of
health care.
13.
Innovations within the Integrated Child Development Services
(ICDS), India’s flagship nutrition programme
14.
It focused on the critical ‘window of
opportunity’ – pregnant, nursing mothers and children under three – has helped
improve nutrition, and ensured improved quality and coverage of key nutrition
services in several pilot districts.
Key determinants critical for good
nutrition
Food care:
1.
Minimum acceptable diet as
defined by WHO (0-6 months: be exclusively breastfed, not fed even water.
2.
Between 6-8 months along with breast
milk is fed at least twice a day with foods from three or more food groups.
3.
Between 9-24 months: be fed at
least three times a day with foods from four or more food groups)
Health care
1.
Regular and timely antenatal
visits, age appropriate immunizations, birth through skilled attendant,
mother’s body mass index (BMI) being greater than the threshold.
Environmental health
1.
Good hygiene with proper water
and sanitation practices.
Single shot cure for kala-azar
launched in Bihar
1.
The Bihar government, in a low
key ceremony on Monday, launched one-shot treatment for kala-azar or black
fever.
2.
The introduction of injection,
named liposomal amphotericin B (AmBisome)
It is
being considered a milestone in treatment of the disease as under the present
treatment.
Environment & Climate Change -
Montreal Protocol meets
1.
The 26th Meeting of Parties to
the Montreal Protocol in Paris was marked with hope offered by India on the
debate on hydro fluorocarbons (HFCs).
2.
The Montreal Protocol regulates substances that deplete the ozone
layer. These include aerosols, refrigerants and solvents.
3.
HFCs pose no harm to ozone and
were, therefore, proposed as substitutes for ozone-depleting gases like
chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydro chlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs).
4.
But then HFCs are harmful in
another way—they are super greenhouse gases that cause global warming several
hundred times more than carbon dioxide.
5.
In climate parlance they have
high global warming potential (GWP).
6.
As the demand for refrigeration
and cooling rises, the urgency to regulate these super green house gases is
also growing.
7.
Since 2009, several
industrialized countries have been pushing for phasing them down.
8.
But India has been previously
known to block all efforts to form a contact group for discussing HFCs
(greenhouse gases) under the Montreal Protocol.
Editorial -
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