School Nursery initiative is proposed to be launched soon                                    

Work on Economic Census -2019 gathers momentum                                            

2nd Global Disability Summit                                                                                      

PM Modi to head two new Cabinet committees on economy, employment           

Imperative to test all pregnant women for gestational diabetes                             

EC to review penalty for ‘false plaint’                                                                         

Nirmala to attend G-20 meeting in Japan                                                                   

Centre wants all States to join PMJAY                                                                       

School Nursery initiative is proposed to be launched soon

GS PAPER - 03 ENVIRONMENT - Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment

Context :

• Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change and for the Ministry of Information will soon launch an initiative called School Nursery across the country.

School Nursery :

• school kids will plant a seed, nurture the sapling and on his/her annual result would take the plant to be a trophy.

• In this initiative, the local forest department will provide the necessary support, and through this initiative we want to nurture a perpetual bond between school kids and plants.

World Environment Day :

• The World Environment Day (WED) urges governments, industries, communities and individuals to come together to explore renewable energy, green technologies and improve air quality in cities and regions across the world.

• The celebration of this day provides us with an opportunity to broaden the basis for an enlightened opinion in preserving and enhancing the environment.

• World Environment Day is the biggest annual event for positive environmental action and takes place every year on 5th June.

• World Environment Day 2019 is being hosted by China this year with a theme of “Air Pollution”.

Air Pollution :

• 92 percent of people worldwide do not breathe clean air.

• Air pollution costs the global economy $5 trillion every year in welfare costs

• Ground-level ozone pollution is expected to reduce staple crop yields by 26 percent by 2030.

Steps Taken by India :

• India has formulated and launched the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP).

  • This is a long term  and time bound national level strategy to tackle the increasing pollution problem across the country.

  • The objective of NCAP is comprehensive plan for prevention, control and abatement of air pollution besides augmenting the air quality monitoring network.

  • The tentative national level target is reduction of PM2.5 and PM10 concentration by 20% – 30% by 2024.

  • The focus of this year WED is on the identified 102 Non attainment cities across the country.

                                                                                                                                                               Source :- PIB

Work on Economic Census -2019 gathers momentum

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY - Growth, development and employment. Inclusive growth and issues arising from it.

Context :

• Preparations for 7th Economic Census are underway.

Economic Census :

• Economic Census is the complete count of all establishment located within the geographical boundary of India.

• The Economic Census provides disaggregated information on various operational and structural variables of all establishments of the country.

• Economic Census also provides valuable insight into geographical spread/clusters of economic activities, ownership pattern, persons engaged, etc. of all economic establishments in the country.

• The information collected during Economic Census are useful for socio-economic developmental planning at state and district levels.

• Economic Census provides an updated sampling frame for follow- up enterprise surveys undertaken for detailed and comprehensive analysis of all establishments in the country.

• Six Economic Censuses, (EC) have been conducted by the Union Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation. till date.

• The first Economic Census was undertaken in 1977.

Economic Census 2019 :

• The Seventh Economic Census (7th EC) is being conducted by Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI)

• Economic Census will cover all establishments including household enterprises, engaged in production or distribution of goods/services (other than for the sole purpose of own consumption) in non-farm agricultural and non-agricultural sector will be counted.

                                                                                                                                                                Source :- PIB

2nd Global Disability Summit

GS PAPER - 02 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS - Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate.

Context :

• Union Social Justice and Empowerment minister has left for Buenos Aires to participate in the 2nd Global Disability Summit to be held during 6-8 June,2019.

2 Global Disability Summit :

• The summit is hosted by the Government of Argentina Republic,the International Alliance Disability(IDA) and the Latin American Network of Non-Governmental Organizations of Persons with Disabilities and their Families(RIADIS).

• The objective of the summit is to deliberate on issues across the world concerning empowerment and inclusion of Persons with Disabilities (PwDs).It also seeks to work out a mechanism for enabling them to live an independent and dignified life.

• Mandate : The Global leaders attending the summit express their commitments towards eliminating stigma and discrimination against PwDs and to work towards promoting inclusive education, economic empowerment, technology and innovation in assistive devices, data desegregation etc. for them.

                                                                                                                                Source :- PIB

PM Modi to head two new Cabinet committees on economy, employment

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY - Growth, development and employment.

Context :

• To address the challenges of slowing economic growth and inadequate job creation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday constituted two Cabinet committees - one on investment and growth and another on employment and skill development. The PM will chair both the committees.

More about the news:

• The five-member Committee on Investment and Growth consists of Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister for Road Transport and Highways and MSME Nitin Gadkari and Railways Minister Piyush Goyal.

• This committee will be a focussed group to take measures to bring investments and spur growth in the critical sectors including infrastructure, manufacturing and agriculture, as the economy is passing through a highly volatile period.

• The government also set up a 10-member Cabinet committee for Employment and Skill Development.

Why such a move?

• Sagging economic growth is a major concern for the Narendra Modi government. The GDP growth for the January-March quarter was 5.8 percent, the lowest in the five years of the NDA government. The GDP growth for 2018-19 was 6.8 percent, against the target of 7.2 percent set by the government.

• Another concern for the government is a dip in the performance of the core sectors of the economy. - coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity — recorded a growth of just 2.6 % in April, compared with 4.6% in the same month last year.

• Similarly, employment data for 2017-18, brought out that India’s unemployment rate rose to 6.1% in the said period, which is the highest in 45 years.

                                                                                                                      Source :- The Hindu

Imperative to test all pregnant women for gestational diabetes

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

Context :

• A recent paper published in the Journal of the Association of Physicians of India has highlighted the need to screen every pregnant woman for gestational diabetes even if no symptoms are exhibited.

Key Findings :

• Arguing that primordial prevention or, in this case, at the earliest stage of development of the foetus, is essential to prevent children from becoming predisposed to diabetes or other non-communicable diseases (NCD), the paper makes a case for testing all pregnant women.

• The paper states that while several reasons have been ascribed for the rising trend of NCD, the concept of intrauterine programming has not received adequate attention.

• Quoting David Barker’s ‘Fetal Origin of Adult Diseases’ theory, it says the body’s susceptibility to lifestyle diseases was programmed in the intrauterine period.

• Higher glucose transfer to the foetus, when the mother has high blood sugar, stimulates the foetal pancreatic cells to start secreting insulin earlier and in higher quantities. Once initiated, it becomes self-perpetuating.

National guidelines :

• The Ministry of Health has developed national guidelines for testing, diagnosis and management of hyperglycemia in pregnancy, and they recommend early testing at the time of contact (during the first trimester) and if the test is negative, yet another test should be done between 24-28 weeks.

• Uttar Pradesh has implemented this programme extremely well. They are even using advanced testing equipment not seen in other parts of the country.

• Testing all pregnant women has become the norm across the world. The common test is the single dose oral glucose, because it is simple and economical.

• A single reading of blood sugar two hours after the ingestion of 75 gm oral glucose solution is taken. A value of 140 mg/dl or more indicates GDM.

                                                                                                                        Source :- The Hindu

EC to review penalty for ‘false plaint’

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability, e-governance- applications, models, successes, limitations, and potential;

Context :

• The Election Commission has decided to re-examine the Rule 49MA which prosecutes a voter for making a false complaint of malfunction of an electronic voting machine(EVM) or voter verifiable paper audit trail machine(VVPAT).

Rule 49 :

• Rule 49MA of the Conduct of Elections Rules was inserted to prescribe the procedure to be followed in case of complaint made by the elector about alleged wrong particulars of a candidate, symbol on paper slip generated by the printer on casting votes using the EVM.

• Any person making a claim about the malfunction after casting his vote has to make a declaration, after which the person is allowed to cast a “test” vote under Rule 49 MA.

• If the allegation is found true, the presiding officer shall report the facts immediately to the returning officer, stop further recording of votes in that voting machine and act as per the direction that may be given by the Returning Officer.

• If the allegation is false, a case under Section 177 of the IPC is made out for giving a false submission.

• It prescribes simple imprisonment for a term extending to six months, or with fine of Rs.1,000, or both.

 Background :

• In April, during the 17th Lok Sabha elections, the Supreme Court had sought a response from the poll panel on a plea seeking to revoke the rule.

• The plea alleged that putting the onus on the elector in cases of arbitrary deviant behaviour of machines used in election process infringes upon a citizen’s right to freedom of expression under the Constitution.

• This could have the impact of terrifying a voter into not complaining and thus impacting negatively on a free and fair election process, it said.

• The rule infringed upon a citizen’s right to freedom of expression, which is a fundamental right of free expression guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution, the petition said.

• The petition explained the various forms of deviant behaviour the EVMs and VVPATs could possibly have, including an unsolicited programme by ballots cast for one candidate may be transferred, not sequentially, but rather intermittently (at pre-programmed intervals or otherwise) to another candidate.

                                                                                                                                                          Source :- The Hindu

Nirmala to attend G-20 meeting in Japan

GS PAPER - 02 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS - Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India's interests

Context :

• Finance Minister will attend the two-day meeting of G-20 Finance Ministers and central bank governors in Japan.

More about the news:

• The deliberations at the meeting would be followed by the G-20 Leaders’ Summit scheduled on June 28-29 at Osaka.

• The meeting would also deliberate on issues such as increasing protectionism and its implication on global growth and trade.

• The International Monetary Fund has cut its forecast for global growth from 3.6% last year to 3.3% in 2019.

• In this context, the deliberations would focus on surveillance of global economic risks, global imbalances, ageing population and its policy implications, addressing financial market fragmentation and opportunities and challenges in financial innovation.

• The other issues which would figure are international taxation in the context of digitised economy, issues concerning shifting of tax liability to low tax jurisdiction and real time exchange of tax-related information, are likely to come up during the discussion.

G - 20 :

• G-20, which is a group of developing and developed nations, include India, the U.S., the U.K., China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, France and Australia.

• The G20 meetings are convened annually since 1999.

• It provides a forum for key countries in the international financial system to discuss major international economic issues and to coordinate to achieve the stable and sustainable growth of the global economy.

                                                                                                                           Source :- The Hindu

Centre wants all States to join PMJAY

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Issues related to Health

Context :

• Union Health and Family Welfare Minister, has urged the Chief Ministers of Delhi, Odisha, Telangana and West Bengal, urging them to join the Centre’s flagship health protection scheme, Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY).

More about the news:

• It is important that the benefits of a scheme like Ayushman Bharat should reach all deprived and vulnerable people in the country, the Minister said.

• “Financial resources will be made available to the States with adequate flexibility in the spirit of cooperative federalism. The ultimate beneficiary of this collaboration will be poor and vulnerable people. Due to the portability of services, the States will gain from the nationwide network of hospitals and will also help provide services in their own State to those from outside their States,” added the Minister.

• Full support and cooperation to States in aligning their own schemes with Ayushman Bharat was also assured.

• The states will also benefit from a well-proven fraud monitoring and control system and exchange of key learning and best practices of other States towards equitable healthcare, he added.

                                                                                                                                                              Source :- The Hindu

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