PERIYAR IAS Current Affairs, 11 September 2017

PERIYAR IAS ACADEMY Current Affairs, 11 September 2017

Paper 1:

Topic: Role of women and women’s organization, population and associated issues, poverty and developmental issues, urbanization, their problems and their remedies.

Navika Sagar Parikrama

Defence Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman recently flagged-off all-women crew of Navika Sagar Parikrama at the INS Mandovi naval training base near Panaji. The crew of the ‘Sagar Parikrama’ comprises of six-member all women team on board the sailing vessel INSV Tarini and will circumnavigate the globe in approximately 165 days.

Key facts:

• This is the first ever Indian circumnavigation of the globe by an all-women crew. The project is considered essential towards promoting Ocean Sailing activities in the Navy while depicting Government of India’s thrust for ‘Nari Shakti’.
• The expedition has been aptly titled ‘Navika Sagar Parikrama’, aimed at promoting women empowerment in the country and ocean sailing by the Indian Navy.
• Navika Sagar Parikrama would cover the expedition in five legs with stop-overs at four ports (Fremantle, Australia; Lyttleton, New Zealand; Port Stanley, the Falklands; and Cape town, South Africa) for replenishment of ration and repairs as necessary, before returning to Goa in April 2018.

Aims of the Expedition are as follows:

Nari Shakti: In consonance with the National policy to empower women to attain their full potential, the expedition aims to showcase ‘Nari Shakti’ on the world platform. This would also help to discard the societal attitudes and mindset towards women in India by raising visibility of participation by women in challenging environment.

Environment and Climate Change: Sailing encourages the use of environment friendly non-conventional renewable energy resources which affects the life of women. The expedition thereby aims at harnessing the energy to optimise the livelihood of the women onboard.

Make in India: The voyage also aims to show case the ‘Make in India’ initiative by sailing onboard the indigenously built INSV Tarini.

Meteorological/ Ocean/ Wave Data Observation: The crew would also collate and update Meteorological/ Ocean/ Wave data on a daily basis for subsequent analysis by research and development organisations.

Marine Pollution: The crew would monitor and report marine pollution on the high seas.

Sources: the hindu.

Paper 2:

Topic: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

Why infections picked up in hospitals are the big threat today, how world is trying to cope

A Bengaluru firm has become India’s first to receive the international CARB-X grant to develop antibiotics to treat hospital-acquired infections.

What is CARB X?

CARB-X, or Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator, is a public-private international partnership, which was set up in 2016 to focus on innovations to improve diagnosis and treatment of drug-resistant infections. It grew out of President Barack Obama’s 2015 Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria (CARB) initiative, and is funded by the London-based biomedical research charity Wellcome Trust, and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) of the US Department of Health and Human Services.

What is it for?

The partnership provides a new, collaborative approach to speed research, development and delivery of new antibiotics, vaccines, diagnostics, and other innovative products to address the urgent global problem of drug-resistant bacterial infections. CARB-X will provide grants up to $ 455 million (over Rs 2,900 crore) over a five-year period to firms across the globe for antibiotics R&D.

All CARB-X funding so far is focused on projects to address the most resistant “Gram-negative” bacteria.

What are Gram-negative bacteria?

Bacteria are classified as Gram-positive and Gram-negative, based on a structural difference in their cell walls that is detectable through a staining technique developed in 1884 by the Danish bacteriologist Hans Christian Gram. Gram-negative bacteria are responsible for 20-25% of infections, and are multi drug resistant — which is the ability of bacteria to defend themselves against drugs that try to kill them.

Background:

Antibiotic resistance has become a global crisis that threatens the management of infections, both in the community and in hospital practice. The major reasons are the indiscriminate use of antibiotics, including against viral infections, especially in countries like India where they are commonly available over the counter; their prolonged use in patients admitted to hospitals; and their abuse in animal husbandry as growth promoters. Cheaper antibiotics such as penicillin, tetracycline or co-trimoxazole can often no longer cure an infection, and high-end ones like third- and fourth-generation cephalosporin and carbapenem are commonly used, doctors in India believe. In hospital critical care units, more than 50% organisms are now resistant even to these drugs.

 Sources: ie.

Topic: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

All states gain if rivers linked through waterways: Expert

 A lot of water has gone under the bridge since the idea of interlinking of rivers was first mooted during the tenure of first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. The project which has undergone several transformations since then is yet to take shape on ground, with states perennially bickering over their share of water.

Recently, few experts have come out with an alternative method of linking rivers which can be adopted with far better results and zero disputes over the share of water.

Proposed method:

The new method envisages a way in which the two rivers can be linked through a waterway built on an even plane enabling two-way flow between the rivers. It is also known as Smart Waterways.

Benefits of this method:

Linking through waterways will grant several benefits over the traditional interlinking of rivers.

Increased irrigation: It will enable the government to irrigate almost double the size of fields as compared to traditional interlinking.

Use of only excess water: Unlike the traditional interlinking of rivers which involves pumping of water using a lot of electricity, this technology uses only the “excess flood water that goes to seas un-utilised” without any pumping. The new and unique proposal only harnesses the excess flood water that goes to sea unutilised, that too just 25% of flood water and 7% of water still goes to sea.

Other advantages: Bi-directional flow of water, zero pumping, enabling of 15,000 km of navigation, reduction of land acquisition from eight per cent to two per cent, and 40 per cent flood control against four per cent possible under the traditional method are a few other advantages.

Sources: et.

Paper 3:

 Topic: indigenization of technology and developing new technology.

DRDO successfully test fires ‘Fire and Forget’ Nag missile

In a boost to Indian Armed Forces, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) recently successfully tested Nag, the 3rd generation Anti Tank Guided Missile (ATGM).

Significance of these trials:

DRDO has been trying to ramp up country’ military capability in sync changing security dynamics in the region. With the two successful flights, and the flight test conducted earlier in June in the peak of summer, the complete functionality of Nag ATGM along with launcher system NAMICA has been established, and marks the successful completion of development trials of Nag Missile.

About Nag Missile:

• The third-generation Fire and Forget ATGM Nag is equipped with many advanced technologies including IIR Seeker with integrated avionics, a capability possessed by few nations in the world.
• The missile is developed to support both mechanised infantry and airborne forces of the Indian Army.
• The missile incorporates an advanced passive homing guidance system and possesses high single-shot kill probability.
• It is designed to destroy modern main battle tanks and other heavily armoured targets.

Sources: pib. 

Topic: Security challenges and their management in border areas; linkages of organized crime with terrorism.

Refugees go to SC against Article 35A

Some refugees from West Pakistan, who had migrated to India during Partition, have moved the Supreme Court challenging Article 35A of the Constitution relating to special rights and privileges of permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir.

What’s the issue?

Nearly 1.25 lakh WPRs, who migrated from the then West Pakistan after partition of the country in 1947 to settle in Kathua, Samba and Jammu districts of the state, are seeking citizenship rights, employment rights and right to vote and contest the state assembly polls for the past 70 years.

• According to official data 5,764 families comprising 47,915 persons had migrated from West Pakistan in 1947 and settled in the three districts of the state. Today their population increased to nearly 1.25 lakh.
• These refugees are not considered permanent residents of the state, cannot vote in assembly polls and cannot do state government jobs even though they are living in the state for generations. However, they can vote in parliamentary elections.

What you need to know about Article 35A?

It was added through the Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 1954, issued under Article 370. Article 35A protects certain provisions of the J&K Constitution which denies property rights to native women who marry from outside the State. The denial of these rights extend to her children also.

Article 35A also empowers the State’s legislature to frame any law without attracting a challenge on grounds of violating the Right to Equality of people from other States or any other right under the Constitution.

Concerns:

Attempts to undo Article 35A of the Indian Constitution would strike a fatal blow to the nationalists in the state. There is an ongoing case in the Supreme Court challenging the validity of the Article, which prevents non-J&K state subjects from settling and buying property in the state. However, Kashmiris are apprehensive that such a move would open the sluice gates for a demographic transformation of the Valley.

Sources: the hindu.