Global Innovation Index

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

Context :

Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Railways, Piyush Goyal will launch the Global Innovation Index (GII) on 24th July, 2019.

Global Innovation Index - 2019 :

The launch of GII will reveal the innovation rankings of economies and the findings for this year.
It will be the 12th edition of GII with 129 countries under its observation.
The GII measures how innovation friendly the environments of global economies are based on 80 detailed metrics.
Theme : “Evaluating the Medical Innovation Scenario of the Next Decade”.

Global Innovation Index :

It aims to highlight the role and dynamics of medical innovation in order to understand how it can form the future of healthcare and the potential impact this may have on economic growth.
The Global Innovation Index has been a charter for assessing the innovation capabilities of national economies worldwide.
The initiative to understand how countries facilitate innovation was espoused by INSEAD and World Business in 2007.
Since its genesis the GII has become a credible authority on providing insight into the multi-dimensional aspects of innovation-driven growth.
The GII is a valuable benchmarking tool that can help in gauging as well as encouraging public-private dialogue and where policy-makers, entrepreneurial leaders and other stakeholders can assess innovation progress on an annual basis.

Source :- PIB

WHO declares Ebola outbreak in Congo a global health emergency

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

Context :

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared Ebola outbreak in Congo a global health emergency and demanded that the world redouble its efforts to control it.

More in the news:

WHO defines a global emergency as an “extraordinary event” which constitutes a risk to other countries and requires a coordinated international response.
A declaration of a global health emergency brings greater international attention and aid (both financial and technical) but should not be used to stigmatise or penalise the people by imposing travel or trade restrictions as those restrictions actually restrict the flow of goods and health care workers into affected countries and turn counter-productive.
It can be noted that recently, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has released a list of “Ten threats to global health in 2019” which also included Ebola.

Ebola Virus :

Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is a rare but severe, often fatal illness in humans.
Transmission: Fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family are natural Ebola virus hosts.

Animal to human transmission: Ebola is introduced into the human population through close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected animals such as fruit bats, chimpanzees, gorillas, monkeys, forest antelope or porcupines found ill or dead or in the rainforest.
Human-to-human transmission: Ebola spreads via direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes) with:
- Blood or body fluids of a person who is sick with or has died from Ebola.
- Objects that have been contaminated with body fluids (like blood, feces, vomit) from a person sick with Ebola or the body of a person who died from Ebola

Diagnosis :

It can be difficult to clinically distinguish Ebola from other infectious diseases such as malaria, typhoid fever,and meningitis but confirmation that symptoms are caused by Ebola virus infection are made using the following diagnostic methods:
- ELISA (antibody-capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay)
- Antigen-capture detection tests
- Serum neutralization test
- Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay
- Electron microscopy
- Virus isolation by cell culture.

Source :- The Hindu ; Down To Earth

Atal Bimit Vyakti Kalyan Yojana

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes

Context :

The ESI Corporation has launched a scheme named ‘Atal Bimit Vyakti Kalyan Yojana’ (ABVKY)

Atal Bimit Vyakti Kalyan Yojana’ (ABVKY) :

In the scheme in case the Insured Person (IP) is rendered unemployed, provides relief to the extent of 25% of the average per day earning during the previous four contribution periods, to be paid up to a maximum 90 days of unemployment once in lifetime.

Features :

The Insured Person should have been rendered unemployed during the period the relief is claimed.
The Insured Person should have been in insurable employment for a minimum period of two years.
The Insured Person should have contributed not less than 78 days during each of the preceding four contribution periods.
The contribution in respect of him should have been paid or payable by the employer.
The contingency of the unemployment should not have been as a result of any punishment for misconduct or superannuation or voluntary retirement.
Aadhar and Bank Account of the Insured Person should be linked with insured person data base.
In case the IP is working for more than one employers and is covered under the ESI scheme he will be considered unemployed only in case he is rendered unemployed with all employers.
As specified in Section 65 of the ESI Act, an IP shall not be entitled to any other cash compensation and the Relief under ABVKY simultaneously for the same period. However, periodical payments of Permanent Disability Benefit (PDB) under ESI Act and Regulations shall continue.
As specified under Section 61 of the ESI Act, an IP who is in receipt of Relief under ABVKY shall not be entitled to receive any similar benefit admissible under the provisions of any other enactment.
The IP will be eligible for Medical benefit as provided under the Act for the period he is availing this relief.
The claim for Relief under ABVKY may be submitted by the claimant any time after rendering unemployed, but not later than one year from the date of unemployment to the appropriate Branch Office in form of affidavit in prescribed Form. No prospective claim i.e. claim for relief under ABVKY for any future period will be allowed.
The IP will submit his claim online through the ESIC Portal.

Source :- PIB

Review Jadhav sentence, grant consular access, ICJ tells Pak.

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

Context :

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has directed Pakistan to review conviction order of Kulbhushan Jadhav and, until then, put his death sentence on hold. ICJ has also asked Pakistan to allow India consular access at earliest.

Key Highlights :

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague pointed out in its verdict that Pakistan violated the Vienna Convention by not granting consular access to the former Indian Navy official who had been given the death sentence by a Pakistani military court in 2017.

The International Court of Justice :

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the principal judicial body of the UN.
Established in 1946 to replace the Permanent Court of International Justice, the ICJ mainly operates under the statute of its predecessor, which is included in the UN Charter.
It has two primary functions: to settle legal disputes submitted by States in accordance with established international laws, and to act as an advisory board on issues submitted to it by authorized international organizations.

Members of the court :

The International Court of Justice is composed of 15 judges elected to nine-year terms of office by the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council.
In order to be elected, a candidate must receive an absolute majority of the votes in both bodies.
In order to ensure a measure of continuity, one third of the Court is elected every three years. Judges are eligible for re-election.

Source :- The Hindu

Remnants of Iron Age in Malampuzha

GS PAPER - 01 HISTORY - Indian culture will cover the salient aspects of Art Forms, Literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times.

Context :

Explorers from Government Victoria College have discovered iron implements from the catchment area of the Malampuzha dam in the Palakkad district.

Key Findings :

The iron implements were unearthed from a cist burial found in the area. They belong to the Iron Age in Kerala.
The iron implement included a nail, a chisel, a wedge, a knife and a dagger. The broken pieces of the dagger were recovered from a cist burial found at the location.
the knife was found beside another cist burial, the nail, chisel, wedge and two other tools were recovered from the top of a broken urn near a stone circle at South Malampuzha.

Source :- The Hindu

Incredible India Campaign Wins Pata Gold Award 2019

GS PAPER - 03 GOVERNANCE - Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Context :

The Ministry of Tourism's campaign, "Find the Incredible you" has been declared the winner of PATA (Pacific Asia Travel Association) Gold Award 2019.

Incredible India :

The ‘Incredible India 2.0’ was launched in September 2017.
The campaign focusses on digital and social media and the promotion of niche tourism products of the country.
As part of the 2.0 campaign, five new television commercials were produced by the ministry, which were aired globally on television and social media. These were :
- Yoga : “The Yogi of the Racetrack”
- Wellness : “The Reincarnation of Mr. and Mrs. Jones”
- Luxury : “The Maharani of Manhattan”
- Cuisine : “The Masala MasterChef”
- Wildlife : “The Sanctuary in Paris”
The campaign strategy was to shift the focus from the external experience of tourist destinations to the internal experience of travellers themselves.
The transformative experiences was brought out in form of films in the format of autobiographies of travellers, with the tagline “Find the Incredible You”.

PATA :

It was founded in 1951, its headquarters is in Bangkok, Thailand.
PATA is a not-for-profit membership association that acts as a catalyst for the responsible development of travel and tourism to, from and within the Asia Pacific region.
The Association provides aligned advocacy, insightful research and innovative events to its more than 800 member organisations, including 95 government, state and city tourism bodies, 20 international airlines and airports, 102 hospitality organisations and 70 educational institutions, as well as over a hundred young tourism professional (YTP) members across the world.

Source :- PIB

Hawaii to begin construction of mega-telescope on July 15

GS PAPER - 03 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY - science & technology; developing new technology.

Context :

Hawaii is set to begin the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT).

Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) :

Thirty Meter Telescope(TMT) is a proposed astronomical observatory with an extremely large telescope (ELT).
It has a primary mirror with an effective diameter of 30 meters.It is getting built at Mauna Kea,Hawaii, USA.
TMT will enable astronomers to study the Universe with exceptional detail right up to the first formation of stars and galaxies.
- It will also give finer details of not-so-far-away objects such as undiscovered planets and other objects in the Solar System and planets around other stars.
The telescope will be built and operated by a consortium of institutions from the USA, Japan,China, India and Canada.India will contribute about 10% of the cost of building the telescope and observatory.
The Indian participation will be funded by the Department of Science and Technology(DST) and the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE).The DST will be the coordinating department for the project.

Background :

The project was first launched in 2015 but the construction was halted as protesters claimed damage to the mountain.However,Hawaii’s top court has ruled that observatory’s construction permit is valid paving the way for work to restart on Mauna Kea.

Source :- Down To Earth

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18th JULY 2019 DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS

Global Innovation Index

WHO declares Ebola outbreak in Congo a global health emergency

Atal Bimit Vyakti Kalyan Yojana

Review Jadhav sentence, grant consular access, ICJ tells Pak.

Remnants of Iron Age in Malampuzha

Incredible India Campaign Wins Pata Gold Award 2019

Hawaii to begin construction of mega-telescope on July 15

Global Innovation Index

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

Context :

Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Railways, Piyush Goyal will launch the Global Innovation Index (GII) on 24th July, 2019.

Global Innovation Index - 2019 :

The launch of GII will reveal the innovation rankings of economies and the findings for this year.

It will be the 12th edition of GII with 129 countries under its observation.

The GII measures how innovation friendly the environments of global economies are based on 80 detailed metrics.

Theme : “Evaluating the Medical Innovation Scenario of the Next Decade”.

Global Innovation Index :

It aims to highlight the role and dynamics of medical innovation in order to understand how it can form the future of healthcare and the potential impact this may have on economic growth.

The Global Innovation Index has been a charter for assessing the innovation capabilities of national economies worldwide.

The initiative to understand how countries facilitate innovation was espoused by INSEAD and World Business in 2007.

Since its genesis the GII has become a credible authority on providing insight into the multi-dimensional aspects of innovation-driven growth.

The GII is a valuable benchmarking tool that can help in gauging as well as encouraging public-private dialogue and where policy-makers, entrepreneurial leaders and other stakeholders can assess innovation progress on an annual basis.

Source :- PIB

WHO declares Ebola outbreak in Congo a global health emergency

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

Context :

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared Ebola outbreak in Congo a global health emergency and demanded that the world redouble its efforts to control it.

More in the news:

WHO defines a global emergency as an “extraordinary event” which constitutes a risk to other countries and requires a coordinated international response.

It can be noted that recently, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has released a list of “Ten threats to global health in 2019” which also included Ebola.

Ebola Virus :

Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is a rare but severe, often fatal illness in humans.

Transmission: Fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family are natural Ebola virus hosts.

Animal to human transmission: Ebola is introduced into the human population through close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected animals such as fruit bats, chimpanzees, gorillas, monkeys, forest antelope or porcupines found ill or dead or in the rainforest.

Human-to-human transmission: Ebola spreads via direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes) with:

Blood or body fluids of a person who is sick with or has died from Ebola.

Objects that have been contaminated with body fluids (like blood, feces, vomit) from a person sick with Ebola or the body of a person who died from Ebola

Diagnosis :

It can be difficult to clinically distinguish Ebola from other infectious diseases such as malaria, typhoid fever,and meningitis but confirmation that symptoms are caused by Ebola virus infection are made using the following diagnostic methods:

ELISA (antibody-capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay)

Antigen-capture detection tests

Serum neutralization test

Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay

Electron microscopy

Virus isolation by cell culture.

Source :- The Hindu ; Down To Earth

Atal Bimit Vyakti Kalyan Yojana

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes

Context :

The ESI Corporation has launched a scheme named ‘Atal Bimit Vyakti Kalyan Yojana’ (ABVKY)

Atal Bimit Vyakti Kalyan Yojana’ (ABVKY) :

In the scheme in case the Insured Person (IP) is rendered unemployed, provides relief to the extent of 25% of the average per day earning during the previous four contribution periods, to be paid up to a maximum 90 days of unemployment once in lifetime.

Features :

The Insured Person should have been rendered unemployed during the period the relief is claimed.

The Insured Person should have been in insurable employment for a minimum period of two years.

The Insured Person should have contributed not less than 78 days during each of the preceding four contribution periods.

The contribution in respect of him should have been paid or payable by the employer.

The contingency of the unemployment should not have been as a result of any punishment for misconduct or superannuation or voluntary retirement.

Aadhar and Bank Account of the Insured Person should be linked with insured person data base.

In case the IP is working for more than one employers and is covered under the ESI scheme he will be considered unemployed only in case he is rendered unemployed with all employers.

As specified in Section 65 of the ESI Act, an IP shall not be entitled to any other cash compensation and the Relief under ABVKY simultaneously for the same period. However, periodical payments of Permanent Disability Benefit (PDB) under ESI Act and Regulations shall continue.

As specified under Section 61 of the ESI Act, an IP who is in receipt of Relief under ABVKY shall not be entitled to receive any similar benefit admissible under the provisions of any other enactment.

The IP will be eligible for Medical benefit as provided under the Act for the period he is availing this relief.

The IP will submit his claim online through the ESIC Portal.

Source :- PIB

Review Jadhav sentence, grant consular access, ICJ tells Pak.

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

Context :

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has directed Pakistan to review conviction order of Kulbhushan Jadhav and, until then, put his death sentence on hold. ICJ has also asked Pakistan to allow India consular access at earliest.

Key Highlights :

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague pointed out in its verdict that Pakistan violated the Vienna Convention by not granting consular access to the former Indian Navy official who had been given the death sentence by a Pakistani military court in 2017.

The International Court of Justice :

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the principal judicial body of the UN.

Established in 1946 to replace the Permanent Court of International Justice, the ICJ mainly operates under the statute of its predecessor, which is included in the UN Charter.

It has two primary functions: to settle legal disputes submitted by States in accordance with established international laws, and to act as an advisory board on issues submitted to it by authorized international organizations.

Members of the court :

The International Court of Justice is composed of 15 judges elected to nine-year terms of office by the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council.

In order to be elected, a candidate must receive an absolute majority of the votes in both bodies.

In order to ensure a measure of continuity, one third of the Court is elected every three years. Judges are eligible for re-election.

18^th JULY 2019 DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS