PERIYAR IAS ACADEMY Current Affairs, 19 Aug 2017
PERIYAR IAS
ACADEMY Current Affairs, 19 Aug 2017
Paper 2:
Topic: Statutory, regulatory and various quasi-judicial bodies.
TRIFED celebrates World
Honey Bee Day
To create awareness about Beekeeping and uses of its products
including Honey, Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India
Limited (TRIFED) is celebrating World Honey Bee Day (WHBD) on August 19 across
the Country.
The main theme of
celebrating WHBD is to save Indian honey bee.
Benefits of beekeeping:
Beekeeping has been useful in pollination of crops, thereby,
increasing income of the farmers/beekeepers by way of increasing crop yield and
providing honey and other beehive products, viz. royal jelly, bee pollen,
propolis, bees wax, etc. that serves a source of livelihood for rural poor.
Therefore, honeybees/ beekeeping has been recognised as one of the important
inputs for sustainable development of agriculture/ horticulture.
Significance of honey and honey bees for tribal people:
Honey is an important Minor Forest Produce. About 90% of the
Scheduled Tribes of the country live in and around forest areas and the forests
provide 60% of the food & medicinal needs of tribals and 40% of their
income from Minor Forest Produce (MFP) mostly of which come from Honey.
Way ahead:
TRIFED is playing and lead role in protecting, promoting and
multiplication of Honey Bees by Scientific, Non-destructive collection
practices, thereby increasing the livelihood of tribal people living in various
forest areas of the country, contributing to the growth of Honey Bees
population and reducing the mortality rate of Honey Bees drastically.
About TRIFED:
TRIFED is an apex organisation at National Level and functioning under the
administrative control of Ministry of Tribal Affairs. TRIFED is serving the interests of Tribals, who are engaged in
collection of NTFP and making of Tribal Art & Handicraft Products for their
livelihood so as to ensure better remunerative price for their products as well
as for the socio-economic betterment through Self Help Groups, Empanelled NGOs,
State level Tribal Development Corporations, Forest Development Corporations
for undertaking marketing development of the tribal products.
Sources: pib.
Topic:
Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or
affecting India’s interests.
India, US to establish
new ministerial dialogue
India and US have resolved to enhance peace across the
Indo-Pacific region by establishing a new 2-by-2 ministerial dialogue that will elevate their strategic consultation.
Key facts:
§
The India-US Strategic and
Commercial Dialogue, once described by the US State Department as the
“signature mechanism for advancing the United States’ and India’s shared
priorities,” will now be replaced by the new dialogue in which the foreign and
defence ministers will participate.
§
Composition: The
new dialogue format will involve the Indian foreign minister and the US
secretary of state as well as the Indian defence minister and the US defence
secretary.
§
The shared priorities include
job creation, improving the business and investment climate and sustaining a
rules-based global order.
§
The US has strategic
consultations in this format with key partners and allies including Australia,
Japan and the Philippines. India has had a dialogue in the two-plus-two format
with Japan with secretaries or senior-most bureaucrats from the foreign and defence
ministries engaging each other.
Background:
Till last year, trade and commercial issues were discussed in the
Strategic and Commercial Dialogue and the Trade Policy Forum. The first
Strategic and Commercial Dialogue was held in 2015 in Washington and the second
in New Delhi last year. It was seen as an elevation of the US-India Strategic
Dialogue in place since 2009 and which focused on regional security, economic
cooperation, defence, trade and climate challenges.
Sources: the hindu.
Paper 3:
Topic:
Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in
everyday life Achievements of Indians in science & technology;
indigenization of technology and developing new technology.
Artificial womb raises
hope for premature babies
An artificial womb has been successfully used to incubate healthy
baby lambs for a period of one week, and researchers hope the technology will
one day be able to do the same for extremely premature babies.
Key facts:
§
Researchers have shown that
preterm lambs were successfully maintained in a healthy, infection-free
condition with significant growth, for a period of one week using ex-vivo uterine
environment (EVE) therapy.
§
What is the artificial womb made up of? The artificial womb is a high-tech amniotic fluid bath
combined with an artificial placenta.
How it works?
EVE (Ex-vivo uterine environment) therapy allows for oxygenation
of the extremely preterm infant using the umbilical vasculature, and is not
dependent on the highly immature fetal lung. Briefly, the infant is connected
to a parallelised circuit comprised of artificial veins and arteries that
supply blood to two membranous oxygenation devices, and submerged in a
carefully controlled bath of artificial amniotic fluid. The membranous
oxygenators allow gas exchange (removal of CO2 and addition of oxygen) before
the blood returns via the circuit to the fetus. Nutrients and other medications
are delivered directly to the fetus, which is under round-the-clock monitoring.
Significance of this technology:
Designing treatment strategies for extremely preterm infants is a
challenge. Because, at this gestational age the lungs are often too
structurally and functionally under-developed for the baby to breathe easily.
Therefore, EVF therapy can be an effective treatment strategy for extremely
preterm infants born at the border of viability (22-23 weeks).
Background:
Those born at the earliest gestational ages may suffer from severe
and life-long problems such as cerebral palsy, developmental delay or
blindness. For those born at a later gestation, even approaching full-term,
there may be behavioural and learning problems. Preterm birth is the single
greatest cause of death and disability in children up to five years of age in
the developed world. Worldwide, an estimated 15 million babies are born preterm
each year. In 2015, preterm birth was responsible for nearly 1 million deaths.
Sources: science daily.
Topic:
Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology,
bio-technology and issues relating to intellectual property rights.
NASA successfully places
next generation tracking and data relay satellite TDRS-M into orbit
NASA’s third and final in a series of next generation
communications satellites has successfully been placed into orbit. The Tracking
and Data Relay Satellite-M (TDRS-M) was launched aboard a United Launch
Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket.
Background:
The Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System, or TDRSS, is a fleet of
geosynchronous communications satellites that form part of NASA’s Space Network. Introduced in the
1980s to support the Space Shuttle, TDRSS continues in service today, providing
a relay for communications, scientific data, telemetry and commands between
operators on the ground and spacecraft in Earth orbit.
Key facts:
§
When ready, TDRS-M will become
part of NASA’s Space Network providing navigation and high-data-rate
communications to the International Space Station, NASA’s Hubble Space
Telescope, rockets and a host of other spacecraft.
§
The TDRS fleet is a critical
connection delivering science and human spaceflight data to those who can use
it here on Earth.
§
TDRS-M will expand the
capabilities and extend the lifespan of the Space Network, allowing researchers
to continue receiving and transmitting mission data well into the next decade.
Sources: et.
Topic:
Disaster and disaster management.
No data from China on
Brahmaputra this year
Hinting at China’s responsibility for the current spate of floods
across the northeastern States, India has accused Beijing of not sharing any
water-related data about the Himalayan rivers in the current year.
Background:
The Brahmaputra and the Sutlej are the two major trans-border
rivers that enter India directly from China. There is an existing mechanism
named India-China Expert-Level mechanism started in 2006 to share hydrological
data during the flood season for Brahmaputra and Satluj rivers. Under the MoUs,
the hydrological data is to be shared between May 15 to October 15 every year.
However, the same has not been shared this year.
Concerns:
§
China’s refusal so far to share
the data with India this year comes amid a two-month-long stand-off between
Indian and Chinese troops on the Himalayan plateau of Doklam, which is claimed
by both Thimphu and Beijing. The face-off is the longest at the border between
India and China in three decades.
§
The breakdown of the mechanism for
sharing river water data is the latest in a series of sparks threatening to set
alight a carefully managed relationship that has allowed India and China to
simultaneously emerge economic powerhouses despite a border dispute they once
warred over.
This highlights the need for Regional cooperation to control
floods.
Background:
According to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red
Crescent Societies (IFRC), over 16 million people have been affected by monsoon
flooding across India, Nepal and Bangladesh. This is fast becoming one of the
most serious humanitarian crises this region has seen in many years and urgent
action is needed to meet the growing needs of millions of people affected by
these devastating floods. In India over 11 million people are affected by
floods in four states across the north of the country.
Sources: the hindu.
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