SAFE CITY IMPLEMENTATION MONITORING PORTAL

• The Government had brought in the Safe City Implementation Monitoring Portal to Monitor the safe city Project introduced in the eight cities which are: Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow and Mumbai.
• The Portal will aid in online tracking of deployment of assets and infrastructure.
• The Safe City Project funded through the Nirbhaya Fund is a joint endeavor of city’s police and municipal bodies.
• The Project Involves identifying crime hotspots and saturating them with CCTV cameras, drone – based surveillance and deployment of automated number plate reading (ANPR) equipment through an integrated smart control room.

KAN SIKUL, KAN HUAN (MY SCHOOL, MY FARM) INITIATIVE

• It is a new initiative of District Administration of Lawngtlai, Mizoram.
• It is aimed at making every school, Anganwadi, Child care institution and hostel in Lawngtlai, self-sufficient in local variety of fruits and vegetables by March 2020.
• By doing so the initiative seeks to reduce malnutrition among children.
• The initiative is a convergence of Centre’s Poshan Abhiyan with regular activities of departments such as Agriculture and Horticulture.
• The Poshan Abhiyan is a multi-ministerial convergence mission with the vision to ensure attainment of malnutrition free India by 2022.

CHANDIPURA VIRUS

Context: Medical officers are on high alert after a 5-year-old died of Chandipura Virus in Gujarat.

• The Chandipura virus was discovered by 2 Pune-based virologists of the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in 1965.
• Named after the town in Maharashtra where the discovery was made and isolated, Chandipura virus is known to cause inflammation of the brain, progress rapidly from an influenza-like illness to coma and death.
• The Chandipura Vesiculovirus (CHPV) predominantly affects children aged below 14 years.
• The virus spreads mainly through the bite of sand flies and sometimes through mosquitoes.
• The symptoms include sudden high fever accompanied by headache, convulsions and vomiting, sometimes leading to unconsciousness.
• Cases have mostly been reported during monsoon and pre-monsoon, when sand flies breed

BIPLAB KUMAR SARMA COMMITTEE

• Context: Union Government has notified a high-level committee headed by retired Guwahati High Court judge Biplab Kumar Sarma to look into the implementation of Assam Accord clause on Social, Cultural Identity

Mandate of the Committee:

• To review the Implementation of Clause 6 of the Assam Accord which provides for constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards to protect preserve and promote the cultural, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese People.
• To Examine the effectiveness of actions taken since 1985 to implement clause 6
• To Look into the need for reservation in government jobs for Assamese People, besides recommending measures required to preserve the culture and identity of the local people.
• To Suggest measures to be taken to protect Assamese and other indigenous languages of Assam.
• To Suggest any other measures as may be necessary to protect, preserve and promote the cultural, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese People.

INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE (ICJ)

• Context: ICJ ruled that Pakistan must review the death sentence for Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav and affirmed his right to consular access under the Vienna Convention.

About ICJ:

• The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the Principal judicial organ and a judicial arm of the United Nations (UN).
• It was established in June 1945 by the Charter of the United Nations and began work in April 1946.
• The seat of the Court is at the Peace Palace in The Hague (Netherlands).
• Of the six principal organs of the United Nations, it is the only one not located in New York.
• Composition: The Court is composed of 15 judges, who are elected for terms of office of nine years by the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council.
• Functions: The Court’s role is to settle, in accordance with international law, legal disputes submitted to it by States and to give advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by authorized United Nations organs and specialized agencies.
• Subject Matter: Sovereignty, boundary disputes, maritime disputes, trade, natural resources, human rights, treaty violations, treaty interpretation, and more.
• States that ratify the U.N. Charter become parties to the ICJ Statute under Article 93.
• Non-UN member states can also become parties to the ICJ by ratifying the ICJ Statute.
• Each state must provide consent to any contentious case by explicit agreement, declaration, or treaty clause.
• Appeals: None. The ICJ decision in a contentious case is binding upon the parties.
• If a State fails to comply with the judgment, the issue may be taken to the UN Security Council, which has the authority to review, recommend, and decide upon enforcement.

EBOLA: AN INTERNATIONAL HEALTH EMERGENCY

• Context: World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the deadly Ebola virus outbreak in Congo as an international health emergency.

About Ebola Disease:

• The Ebola virus causes viral hemorrhagic fever.
• Symptoms: Early symptoms include sudden onset of fever, weakness, muscle pain, headaches and a sore throat.
• The early symptoms progress to vomiting, diarrhea, impaired kidney and liver function and sometimes internal and external bleeding.
  It kills between 25 and 90 percent of those infected, with an average of about 50 percent.

How does Ebola virus spread?

• Humans contract Ebola through contact with the bodily fluids of infected animals or the bodily fluids of infected humans.

FINANCE COMMISSION (FC)

• Context: The Union Cabinet has approved expanding the terms of reference of the Fifteenth Finance Commission to address funding requirements for defence and internal security.

About Finance Commission:

• Article 280 of the Constitution provides for a FC as a quasi-judicial body.
• It is constituted by the President every 5th year or at such earlier time as he considers necessary.
• The FC makes recommendations to the President on following matters:
• The distribution of the net proceeds of taxes between the centre and the states, and the allocation between the states of the respective shares of such proceeds.
• The principle that should govern the grants-in-aid to the states by the centre (out of the Consolidated Fund of India).
• The measures to augment the Consolidated Fund of a state to supplement the resources of local governments on the basis of recommendations made by the state finance commission. Any other matter referred to it by the President.
• Recommendations made by the FC are only advisory in nature.
• The Constitution empowers the FC to go beyond the core issues of how to divide taxes vertically between centre and the states on the one hand and horizontally between states on the other.
• It also allows FC to make broader recommendations in the interests of sound finance.

BACTERIA WOLBACHIA

• Wolbachia is a tiny bacterium that is present in up to 60% of all species of insects, including several mosquito species.
• But it is usually not present in the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the primary species responsible for transmitting dengue, chikungunya and Zika.
  Wolbachia is one of the world’s most common parasitic microbes and possibly the most common reproductive parasite in the biosphere.
• When present in the mosquito, the viruses cannot replicate and hence small numbers of Wolbachia-carrying mosquitoes are released in target areas.
• The World Mosquito Program introduces Wolbachia into Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.
• Once Wolbachia carrying mosquitoes are released, they breed with wild mosquitoes and over time, the majority of mosquitoes carry Wolbachia.
  This new method provides bio-control approach to handle these diseases.
• The new method of introducing Wolbachia bacteria in mosquitoes is being tried by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) scientists to tackle dengue and chikungunya in the country.

“FIND THE INCREDIBLE YOU” CAMPAIGN

Context:

• The “Find the Incredible You” campaign of the Tourism Ministry, has won the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Gold Award, 2019.

About the Campaign:

• The campaign focuses on digital and social media and the promotion of niche tourism products of the country.
• The campaign won the award under the “Marketing – Primary Government Destination” category.
• The Ministry of Tourism, as part of its promotional initiatives, annually releases Global Media Campaigns under the ‘Incredible India‘ brand-line in the television, print, digital and social media platforms, in key and potential source markets overseas.
• To take the campaigns to the next level, the ‘Incredible India 2.0’ campaign was launched in September 2017.
• PATA Gold Awards are given to tourism industry organizations and individuals making an outstanding contribution towards the successful promotion of the travel industry throughout the Asia Pacific Region.

BROADBAND READINESS INDEX (BRI)

• The Department of Telecom (DoT) and the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to develop a Broadband Readiness Index (BRI) for Indian States and Union Territories (UT).
• This index will appraise the condition of the underlying digital infrastructure and related factors at the State/UT level.
• Such an exercise will provide useful insights into strategic choices made by States for investment allocations in ICT programmes.
• In the spirit of competitive federalism, the index will encourage states to cross learn and jointly participate in achieving the overall objective of digital inclusion and development in India.
• This will be a first of its kind exercise that will comprehensively measure the development of telecom infrastructure at the sub national level.