PERIYAR IAS CURRENT AFFAIRS 16-MARCH-2018
Paper 1:
Topic: Women
related issues.
LaQshya
programme
Context: The
Union Health Ministry has announced the launch of LaQshya, a programme aimed at
improving quality of care in labour room and maternity operation theatre.
About the
Programme:
What is it? It
is an initiative to improve the quality of care in the labour rooms, operation
theatres and other mother and child areas in public health facilities across
the country.
Aim: The
programme aims at implementing ‘fast-track’ interventions for achieving
tangible results within 18 months.
Strategy: Under
the initiative, a multipronged strategy has been adopted, including improving
infrastructure upgradation, ensuring availability of essential equipment,
providing adequate human resources, capacity building of healthcare workers and
improving quality processes in the labour room.
Guidelines
include: Ensuring privacy for mothers-to-be, providing a
comfortable position during delivery, no-tolerance policy towards verbal or
physical abuse on women and no demand of gratuitous payment by the staff.
LaQshya
certification: A healthcare facility achieving 70% score on NQAS
will be declared ‘LaQshya’ certified. Facilities scoring over 90, 80 and 70%
will get platinum, gold and silver badges respectively.
Incentives: Facilities
achieving NQAS certification and having 80% satisfied beneficiaries will be
given monetary incentive with medical college hospitals getting Rs 6 lakh and
Rs 3 lakh for district hospitals.
Background:
India has
improved maternal survival as Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) reduced from 301
maternal deaths in 2001-03 to 167 in 2011-13, an impressive decline of 45% in a
decade.
Concerns:
There has
been a substantial increase in the number of the institutional deliveries in
the last decade of implementation of the National Health Mission (NHM).
However, this increase in the numbers has not translated into commensurate
improvements in the key maternal and new-born indicators such as maternal
mortality and morbidity, still birth rates and early initiation of
breastfeeding.
Significance
of the scheme:
The
available evidence shows that the first day of birth is the day of greatest
risk for mothers and newborns. The programme will improve the quality of care
for pregnant women in labour rooms, maternity operation theatres, and
obstetrics Intensive Care Units and High Dependency Units.
What’s
important?
§ For
Prelims: LaQshya programme.
§ For Mains:
Maternal mortality- challenges and solutions.
Sources:
pib.
Paper 2:
Topic: Statutory, regulatory and various
quasi-judicial bodies.
National
Building Construction Corporation (NBCC)
Context: The
government is considering handing the task of maintaining, managing and earning
revenue from immovable properties attached in money laundering cases to the
National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC).
What’s the
proposal? The proposal is to manage the seized land, which can often measure
several thousand acres, as well as numerous factories, flats, buildings and
shops taken over by the ED.
What
necessitated this move?
§ The
proposal to mandate NBCC to do the job was at the behest of the ED and mooted
by the finance ministry about six months ago. It was felt that lack of proper
maintenance led to decay of the properties and the agency had to continuously
spend on their upkeep.
§ As of now,
the ED manages the properties confiscated by it but does not have experience in
how to do so and there is no provision under PMLA for rental to earn revenue.
About NBCC:
§ NBCC
(India) Limited, formerly known as National Buildings Construction Corporation
Ltd., is a blue-chip Government of India Navratna Enterprise under
the Ministry of Urban Development.
§ It engages
in the Real Estate Development & Construction business and also provides
Project Management Consultancy. It is the sole land authorised agency for
central undertakings.
§ The
Company has been notified as a Public Works Organization (PWO) explicitly,
a construction agency, as per which Government Department(s)/ PSUs and
Autonomous Bodies can award the works to NBCC on nomination basis.
§ NBCC is
also designated as the implementing agency for executing projects under
Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), Pradhan Mantri Gram
Sadak Yojna (PMGSY), Solid Waste Management (SWM) and developmental work in
North Eastern Region.
Sources:
the hindu.
Topic:
Statutory, regulatory and various quasi-judicial bodies.
National Commission
for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR)
Context: The
exercise of conducting social audit of Child Care Institutions has been
initiated by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR). This is
in pursuance of the directions of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in the
matter of Exploitation of Children in Orphanages in State of Tamil Nadu vs. UOI
& Ors.
Child care
institutions:
The
Government has enacted the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children)
Act, 2015 in order to further improve and strengthen the condition of
rehabilitation homes.
§ Under the
JJ Act, 2015 several provisions have been included to improve the condition of
Child Care Institutions (CCIs) including those housing children in conflict
with law by providing for inspections of these CCIs by Juvenile Justice Board;
prescribing various rehabilitation and reintegration services including skill
development, recreational facilities, mental health interventions, etc.
Definition:
A child
care institution as defined under the JJ Act,2015, means Children Home, Open
Shelter, Observation Home, Special Home, Place of Safety, Specialised Adoption
Agency and a Fit Facility recognized under the Act for providing care and
protection to children, who are in need of such services. Children in conflict
with law are provided residential care and protection in Observation Homes,
Special Homes and Places of Safety.
About NCPCR:
§ The
National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) is a statutory
body established under the Commission for Protection of Child Rights Act in
December 2005.
§ The commission works
under the aegis of Min. of Women and Child development.
§ Its
Mandate is “to ensure that all Laws, Policies, Programmes, and Administrative
Mechanisms are in consonance with the Child Rights perspective as enshrined in
the Constitution of India and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
§ Definition of
a child: As defined by the commission, child includes those
up to the age of 18 years.
What’s
important?
For
Prelims and Mains: NCPCR.
Sources:
pib.
Topic: Issues
relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to
Health, Education, Human Resources, issues relating to poverty and hunger.
World
Happiness Index
Context: World
Happiness Report for the year 2018 has been released. The World Happiness
Report 2018, ranks 156 countries by their happiness levels, and 117 countries
by the happiness of their immigrants.
Main focus:
The main
focus of this year’s report, in addition to its usual ranking of the levels and
changes in happiness around the world, is on migration
within and between countries.
The report
includes four chapters on migration, both internal (within-country) and
international (cross-country), investigating the happiness of migrants, their
families left behind, and others living in the cities and countries receiving
migrants.
About the
World Happiness Report:
What is
it? The World Happiness Report is a measure of happiness published by the
United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
How are
the countries ranked? The rankings are based on Gallup polls of self-reported
wellbeing, as well as perceptions of corruption, generosity and freedom.
Performance
of various countries:
§ Finland
has been ranked the most stable, the safest and best governed country in the
world. It is also among the least corrupt and the most socially progressive.
Its police are the world’s most trusted and its banks the soundest. Finland’s
immigrants are also the happiest immigrant population in the world.
§ Top ten in
order of overall happiness are Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland,
Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden, and Australia.
§ The United
States came in at 18th, down from 14th place last year. Britain was 19th and
the United Arab Emirates 20th.
§ Burundi in
east Africa, scarred by bouts of ethnic cleansing, civil wars and coup
attempts, is the unhappiest place in the world. Strikingly, there are five
other nations – Rwanda, Yemen, Tanzania, South Sudan and the Central African
Republic – which report happiness levels below that of even Syria.
§ All the
Nordic countries scored highly on income, healthy life expectancy, social
support, freedom, trust and generosity.
Performance
of India and its neighbours:
§ India
ranked 133rd, far behind terror-ravaged Pakistan and poorest-of-poor Nepal.
§ It was
placed 122nd last year, which was a drop from 118th rank the preceding year.
§ Among the
eight Saarc nations, Pakistan was at 75th position, up five spots from last
year.
§ Nepal
stood at 101, Bhutan at 97, Bangladesh at 115 while Sri Lanka was at 116.
§ China is
far ahead at 86th spot.
Sources:
the hindu.
Paper 3:
Topic:
Infrastructure- energy.
WEF energy
transition index
Context: World
Economic Forum (WEF) has released the energy transition index as
part of the report titled Fostering Effective Energy Transition. The index
ranks 114 countries on how well they are able to balance energy security and
access with environmental sustainability and affordability.
Global
performance:
§ The
overall list was topped by Sweden, followed by Norway at the 2nd position and
Switzerland at the 3rd rank.
§ Other
countries on the top 10 include Finland (4th), Denmark (5th), the Netherlands
(6th), the UK (7th), Austria (8th), France (9th) and Iceland (10th).
§ Among its
emerging market peers Brazil stood at the 38th place, Russia at 70th and China
at 76th place.
Performance
of India:
§ India has
been ranked at 78th, lower than its emerging market peers like Brazil and
China.
§ In the
Index, India ranks in the third performance quartile and third readiness
quartile, making it an emerging country that is approaching the leapfrog
category.
§ Concerns:
Energy needs in the country are primarily met by fossil fuels with implications
for environmental sustainability and increasing energy import costs.
Furthermore, a considerable share of India’s population still lacks access to
electricity and clean cooking fuel.
§ Challenges:
The Indian renewable energy landscape shows promise, with subsequent renewable
energy auctions clearing at prices lower than those in long-term thermal power
purchase contracts. However, this has also cast uncertainty on the economic
viability of thermal power plants, which account for 58% of India’s primary
energy supply.
Way ahead:
Worldwide
progress towards environmental sustainability has stalled, while energy prices
have risen in real terms in more than half of the countries surveyed despite an
overall fall in fuel prices.
India has
taken “bold measures” to improve energy access, energy efficiency, and to
improve the deployment of renewable sources of energy. However, energy
transition in the country will require “large investments, and an enabling
environment and robust regulatory frameworks to support the transition”. “India
is at the crossroads in its energy transition journey.
What’s
important?
§ For
Prelims: About the index.
§ For Mains:
Energy needs of the country- opportunities and challenges.
Sources:
the hindu.
Topic:
Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology,
bio-technology.
Antibiotic
resistance
Context: A
study has found that, Escherichia coli, a pathogen seen in over 90% of Egyptian
vultures that migrate to northwest India to spend the winter, tend to show
significant difference in resistance to antibiotics within a single season.
This is due to the environment that the vultures were exposed to — carcasses,
garbage, and domestic animals.
Concerns:
The
vultures that use human-dominated landscapes as part of their life cycle were
likely to act as “reservoirs and melting pots of bacterial resistance.
What is
E.coli?
Escherichia
coli (E. coli) is a bacteria that is surprisingly an important aspect of human
intestinal tract health. Most E.coli are harmless bacteria and assist in
everyday health. However the E.coli that generally make the headlines are
pathogenic, which cause illnesses such as diarrhea, or even things outside the
intestinal functions.
How is it
transferred?
Usually,
the E. coli that causes diarrhea is transferred through food, water, or contact
with animals/people who already have E.coli. The infection usually occurs if
you swallow miniscule amounts of human or animal feces (this amount is often
invisible to the naked eye). These tiny traces of feces usually comes from
contaminated food such as, raw produce, raw milk, soft cheese, unpasteurized
apple cider, or even dealing with a dirty diaper or an employee not thoroughly
washing their hands when preparing food.
What is
antibiotic resistance?
Antibiotics
are medicine used to treat infections caused by bacteria. Antibiotic Resistance
refers to resistance developed by bacteria against antibiotics or the ability
of bacteria to mutate or change so as to resist the effects of antibiotics. The
more we use them, and the more we abuse them, the less effective they become.
Way ahead:
Antibiotic
resistance is a crisis on the level of climate change. It’s already killing
tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands a year. The world needs to be looking more
closely at drugmakers and the governments that choose to protect them. Also,
the global community needs to urgently address the indiscriminate use of
antibiotics in an actionable manner and fast-track research on the next
generation of drugs.
What’s
important?
§ For
Prelims: E. Coli.
§ For Mains:
All about Antibiotic resistance.
Sources:
the hindu.
Facts for
Prelims:
8th Theatre
Olympics:
Context: Jaipur is all
set to be one of the co-hosts of the 8th Theatre Olympics, the
largest international theatre festival to be held for the first time in
India.
Organizers: The
Jaipur chapter of Theatre Olympics 2018 is organised by the National School of
Drama (NSD) under the aegis of Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India in
collaboration with Ravindra Manch Society and Art & Culture Department,
Government of Rajasthan.
About Theatre
Olympics:
§ The
Theatre Olympics was established in 1993 in Delphi, Greece, on the initiative
of the famous Greek theatre director, Theodoros Terzopoulos.
§ It is an international
theatre festival, which is presenting some of the achievements of the greatest
theatre practitioners from around the world.
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