Current affairs- May 16, 2016
Centre sets into motion
second phase of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana
The Centre has launched the
second phase of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) for three states —
Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Earlier on May 1the government had
launched the scheme at Balia in Uttar Pradesh.
The scheme is designed to
provide 5 crore free LPG connections to Below Poverty Line (BPL) families in
the next three financial years.
Aim of the scheme:
Who is implementing it?
- The scheme is being implemented by
the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. This is the first time in the
history of the country that the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas
would implement a welfare scheme benefitting crores of women belonging to
the poorest households.
Details:
- Under the scheme, Rs 8000 crore
has been earmarked for providing five crore LPG connections to BPL
households. This Scheme would be implemented over three years, namely, the
FY 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19.
- The Scheme provides a financial
support of Rs 1600 for each LPG connection to the BPL households.
- The identification of eligible BPL
families will be made in consultation with the State Governments and the
Union Territories.
- The scheme is being partly funded
from the savings of the GiveItUp initiative.Centre sets into motion second
phase of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana
______________________________________________________________
India and WHO sign a landmark
agreement for Global promotion of Traditional Systems of Medicine
Ministry of AYUSH,
Government of India and the World Health Organization (WHO) have signed an
historic Project Collaboration Agreement (PCA) for cooperation on promoting the
quality, safety and effectiveness of service provision in traditional and
complementary medicine.
Details:
- The PCA is titled as ‘Co-operation
on promoting the quality, safety and effectiveness of service provision in
traditional and complementary medicine between WHO and AYUSH, India,
2016-2020’.
- It aims to support WHO in the
development and implementation of the ‘WHO Traditional and Complementary
Medicine Strategy: 2014-2023’ and will contribute to the global promotion
of traditional Indian Systems of Medicine.
The PCA for the period
2016-2020 will deliver for the first time WHO benchmark document for training
in Yoga, and WHO benchmarks for practice in Ayurveda, Unani and Panchakarma.
Benefits of the
agreement:
- These will contribute
significantly to the strengthening of national capacities in ensuring the
quality, safety and effectiveness of traditional medicine.
- They will also help in
establishing regulatory frameworks for traditional medicine products and
practice and promote their integration in national healthcare systems.
- This PCA is a further recognition
of India’s rich experience in the development and governance of
traditional medicine.
It will also pave the way
for India’s long-term collaboration with the WHO in fostering the global
promotion and integration of AYUSH systems of medicine including through the
inclusion of Ayurveda and Unani in the International Classification of diseases
and the International Classification of Health interventions.
_______________________________________________________________
Inter-Governmental Agreement
between India and Mauritius on cooperation in cooperatives and related fields
The Union Cabinet has given
its approval for signing of an Inter-Governmental Agreement between India and
Mauritius on cooperation in cooperatives and related fields.
Details:
- The Agreement between the two
countries will be for a duration of five years after which it will be
automatically extended for another five years.
- The Agreement provides for
promoting cooperation through short and medium term programmes within the
framework of the joint activities mentioned in the Agreement.
- A work plan will be drawn up by
mutual Agreement between the two parties to give effect to the objectives
of this Agreement.
_______________________________________________________________
Government inks MoU with NDTV
Ethnic Retail Ltd. to popularize India Handloom products
A Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) has been signed between The Development Commissioner
(Handlooms), Ministry of Textiles, Government of India and NDTV Ethnic Retail
Ltd. for popularizing India Handloom textiles as a fashionable product for
youth. The MoU is valid for three years.
Details:
·
The joint endeavour will
endorse and launch a project, Indianroots Fashion Accelerator (IFA), a project
by NDTV to support fresh talent and to support new and innovative ventures in
fashion industry. Government will support the project with incubation and
production support.
·
India Handloom Brand will
also provide an interface where fashion professionals will be able to accesses
facilities such as Weavers Service Centres and handloom clusters. The
initiative will connect fashion designers with Handloom sector in an organized
manner.
About ‘India Handloom’
Brand:
- The India Handloom Brand was
launched in August, 2015, the first National Handloom Day, to endorse the
quality of handloom products in terms of raw material, processing,
embellishment, weaving, design and other parameters, besides social and
environmental compliance.
- The main objective is to promote
the production of quality products with new designs for winning the trust
and confidence of customers by giving particular attention to defect free,
hand woven, authentic niche products with zero defect and zero impact on
environment.
- The registration under the brand
is given after stringent testing of samples in Govt. of India
laboratories.
- As on 1st April, 2016, 170 handloom
producing agencies/enterprises have been given registration under the
brand, in 41 product categories.
Several e-commerce
platforms and leading retail stores have been engaged for marketing of India
Handloom branded products.
_______________________________________________________________
Wildlife Institute of India
to relocate endangered ‘dancing deer’ of Manipur
The scientists of Wildlife
Institute of India (WII) have been assigned the task to provide second home to
110 Sangai , brow-antlered and one of the most endangered species under
Centre’s Endangered Species Recovery Project.
Details:
- The sangai is an endemic, rare and
endangered subspecies of brow-antlered deer. It is also state animal of
Manipur.
- The Sangai is now restricted to
the Keibul Lamjao National Park (KLNP) in the Southeastern fringe of
Loktak Lake in Manipur. Phumdis, floating vegetation occupy about
two-third of the surface area of the lake. They feed, live and breed on
this 9 km area of Phumdis.
- It is classified as “Endangered”
by the IUCN.
Why it is called “dancing
deer”?
- While walking on the floating
biomass, Sangai often balances itself which looks as if it is dancing on
the green grassland and therefore popularly called as “dancing deer” of
Manipur.
_______________________________________________________________
Asian waterbird census data
causes mixed feelings
Evaluation of the bird data
picked up from the Asian Water bird Census (AWC) held between 1987 and 2014 was
recently carried out by the Kerala scientists.
The annual census,
coordinated by Wetlands International, also happens to be the first
country-wide citizen science activity on natural history in India.
Researchers focused their
attention on the data generated from the four Ramsar sites of Kerala-
Sasthamkotta Lake, Ashtamudi Lake, Vembanad Lake and Kole Wetlands – and also
the other important wetland habitats to get a bird’s eye view of the population
trends of wetland avian fauna.
Highlights:
- The brightly coloured purple
swamphen is one species that have thrived amidst widespread destruction of
its habitats. Its population trend analysis demonstrated that the species
has increased in Kerala during the last decade.
- The painted stork, earlier
evaluated as a vagrant visitor to wetlands of Malabar and south Kerala has
spread beyond the region they are generally found.
- The population of Asian Openbill,
extremely rare during the 1970s, has remarkably increased since 2001, with
at least four census reporting the presence of more than 3,000 birds. So
is the case of Eurasian spoonbill as there have been several reports of sighting
of large flocks from Kole Wetlands, Vembanad Lake and Kuttanad Wetlands.
Same is the case with black headed Ibis.
- Indian spotbilled duck, glossy
ibis, oriental darter, Asian woollyneck and spot billed pelican recorded
increased presence whereas the population of the river terns and
cormorants remained stable.
- But the bird group of terns
underwent a steady decline over the years. From the nearly 30,000-strong
population in 1993-94, it had plummeted to just near 10,000 in the last
decade. The loss of estuarine habitat like Purathur in Malappuram district
and disturbances in other estuaries might have contributed to this
decline. The decline was evident in the relatively stable sites such as
Kole Wetlands, rued the ornithologists.
- The population of whiskered tern,
which form the major chunk of the population of the terns in the State,
too has fallen significantly. Gulls too painted a gloomy picture as they
were sighted in lesser number during the past few censuses.
- The BirdLife International has
recorded that 11 water bird species of Kerala come under the IUCN Red list
threatened categories with the black bellied tern being one of the
‘Endangered’ waterbird species in Kerala. The only report of black bellied
tern during AWC was from the Kole Wetlands.
- Great knot, a ‘vulnerable,’
trans-continental migrant, has been reported from four sites whereas the
Asian woolly neck stork (another vulnerable species), has been reported
from 44 wetlands across the State.
- An influx of Eurasian coot, which
was an added to the list of Kerala birds during the late 1980s, has been
reported in the State during winter season.
The report has identified
the following threats:
Demographic pressure,
industrial development, pollution, urbanisation, agriculture and aquaculture
and water transport have been adding pressure on the wetlands of the State.
Reclamation of wetlands and
the aquatic ecosystems, which are often considered as wastelands, is spelling
trouble to several taxa. The stake nets used for fishing removes a wide array
of non-target organisms, which are functionally important to the aquatic
environment. Destructive fishing practise are also taking a toll on the bird
population, it was reported.
Unregulated fishing,
reclamation of wetlands, dumping of solid waste and domestic sewage too posed
threats to the wetlands of Kerala, according to ornithologists.
About AWC:
Asian Waterbird Census is
an annual event in which thousands of volunteers across Asia and Australasia
count waterbirds in the wetlands of their country. This event happens every
January. This event is coordinated by wetalands International and forms part of
global waterbird monitoring programme called the International Waterbird Census
(IWC).
- Asian Waterbird Census (AWC) was
started in the year 1987. Its main focus is to monitor the status of
waterbirds and the wetlands. AWC also aims to create public awareness on
various issues concerning wetlands and waterbird conservation. Each year
the census is carried out as a voluntary activity.
- 2016 marks the 50th global
International Waterbird Census (IWC). With this, it has become the world’s
longest running biodiversity monitoring programme. 2016 also marks the
30th year of AWC.
- In India, the AWC is annually
coordinated by the Bombay Natural history Society (BNHS) and Wetlands
International.
What are waterbirds?
According to Wetlands
International (WI), waterbirds are defined as species of birds that are
ecologically dependent on wetlands. These birds are considered to be an
important health indicator of wetlands of a region.
_______________________________________________________________
Foreign firms can now fund
parties
The government has admitted
that the amended Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), 2010, which they
brought in through the Finance Bill route, will not only help foreign-origin
companies to fund NGOs here but has also cleared the way for them to give
“donations to political parties.”
Details:
- The amendment, which was cleared
by the Lok Sabha in the recently concluded Budget session, will ensure
that “donations made by such [foreign shareholding] companies to entities
including political parties will not attract provisions of the FCRA,
2010.”
- The government has brought the
changes with retrospective effect.
Background:
The statement assumes
significance as such funding from foreign donors will bypass government
scrutiny. The Representation of the People Act bars political parties from
receiving foreign funds.
_______________________________________________________________
Facts
- The Union Cabinet has given its
approval for signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and Financial
Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA), Abu Dhabi for
mutual co-operation and technical assistance between the two regulators.
The MoU will promote further development of economic links and cooperation
between the two signatories and will help create conditions for
development of securities markets in the two countries. It would also
contribute towards strengthening the information sharing framework between
the two regulators.
- An Indian Air Force (IAF) team has
successfully concluded ‘Red
Flag Alaska 16-1’, an advanced aerial combat
training exercise at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska, United States of
America.
- China has successfully launched a
remote sensing satellite to carry out land surveys and disaster relief.
The satellite named Yaogan-30 was
launched from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwestern China’s Gobi
Desert. The satellite will be used for experiments, land surveys, crop
yield estimates and disaster relief. Yaogan-30 was carried by a Long
March-2D rocket, the 227th mission for the Long March rocket family. China
launched the first “Yaogan” series satellite, Yaogan-1, in 2006.
- Ministry of New and Renewable
Energy (MNRE) has selected Aryans
College of Engineering, Rajpura near
Chandigarh for developing it as a green campus under its scheme on
development of Solar Cities. With this, under the scheme 12 organizations
have been sanctioned a grant of Rs 5,00,000 each for preparing the master
plan which should be done within 12 months as per the guidelines in order
to develop their campuses as green campuses.
- A US congressional panel has
issued a report warning of the dangers of the China’s “Guam killer” missile. The
missile is capable of hitting targets 3,400 miles away. It has raised new
fears of a growing Chinese threat to major U.S. military installations and
stability in the Pacific Rim.
- Scientists at the University of
Sheffield have identified a protein, involved in the development of the
human placenta. The study shows that a protein called Syncytin-1, which was the
result of a viral infection of our primate ancestors 25 million years ago,
is first secreted on the surface of a developing embryo even before it
implants in the womb. This means the protein is likely to play a major
role in helping embryos stick to the womb as well as the formation of the
placenta. This fundamental understanding of the earliest stages of human
embryo development is crucial for improving current treatments for a
variety of stressful complications during pregnancy such as recurrent
miscarriages, fetal growth restriction syndrome and pre-eclampsia — a
life-threatening condition of elevated maternal blood pressure during
pregnancy.
- The India Meteorological
Department (IMD) has said that the arrival of the southwest monsoon in
Kerala will be delayed by at least a week beyond the
normal of June 1. Though this could lead to reduced rainfall in June, it
would not affect the overall quantum of rains across the country. The
IMD’s model has an inbuilt error of four days which means the monsoon
rains could set in as early as the June 3 or as late as June 11. According
to IMD, the delay in onset over Kerala is because of the El Nino, which,
though waning, is still strong, and the waters of the Indian Ocean being
warmer than usual for this time of the year.
- India has successfully test-fired Advanced Air Defence (AAD) supersonic interceptor missile
from the integrated test range (ITR) of Abdul Kalam Island, formerly known
as Wheeler Island, in Balasore. It was engaged against the naval version
of Prithvi missile launched from a ship anchored inside Bay of Bengal. The
indigenously developed interceptor missile is capable of destroying any
incoming hostile ballistic missile. The AAD interceptor is a 7.5 metre
single-stage solid fuel rocket equippe
