ART AND CULTURE                                                                           

1. Kittur Utsav                                                                                     

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE                                                             

1. Prompt and Accurate Dissemination                                                  

2. Data on Police Organizations (DoPO 2018)                                       

3. 2 out of 3 wild poliovirus strains have been eradicated, says WHO     

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS                                                          

1. Antarctic ocean sanctuary                                                                

2. Global Bio-India Summit,2019                                                           

ECONOMY                                                                                             

1. Defence ministry eases rules for exporting components to select nations                                                                                            

2. Odisha Integrated Irrigation Project for Climate Resilient Agriculture   

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY                                                          

1. Guidelines Released for Evaluation of Nanopharmaceuticals in India   

ART AND CULTURE

Kittur Utsav

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

Context :

• Chief Minister of Karnataka has inaugurated the Kittur Utsav festival.

Kittur Utsav:

• Kittur Utsav is a three-day festival which celebrates the Queen Rani Channamma’s victory over East India’s company in 1824.

• The festival organizes sports, cultural programmes and lectures by resource persons on the kingdom of Rani Channamma.

                                                                                                                                               Source :- The Hindu

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

Prompt and Accurate Dissemination

GS PAPER - 02 POLITY - Salient features of the Representation of People's Act.

Context :

• New arrangements made by the Election Commission of India for prompt and accurate dissemination of results of Haryana and Maharashtra assembly elections and bye-elections to 51 ACs.

More in the news:

• In a first, the EC has deployed an integrated ICT counting application which gives freedom to Returning Officers spread across the country to directly compute and enter the result data on the ECI’s new counting application.

• This application allows the Returning Officers to enter table-wise data in the software, thereby considerably reducing the time and makes the results and trends data error-free.

• The counting software developed by the IT team of the ECI called ENCORE (Enabling Communications on Real-time Environment) allows generation of various types of statutory reports during counting process which are mandatory for Returning Officers.

• The Returning Officer can download these system-generated reports after the counting is over and complete the statutory requirements in a hassle-free environment.

                                                                                                                                                               Source :- PIB

Data on Police Organizations (DoPO 2018)

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

Context :

• The Union Minister of State for Home Affairs releases the Bureau of Police Research and Development’s (BPRD) flagship publication Data on Police Organizations (DoPO 2018).

Data on Police Organizations:

• The Data on Police Organisation in India is an important compilation of information on police infrastructure, manpower and other resources from all States, Union Territories, CAPFs and CPOs.

• This publication has proved very useful for various policy analyses and resource allocation decisions at both the Ministry of Home Affairs as well as the State level. The publication is also widely cited in several researches on police topics.

• The Data intends to present to all the stakeholders in the criminal justice system in general and police officials in particular, such basic information and vital statistics that will give insights into the police administration all over India.

• The Data on Police Organizations is an annual report.

Key Highlights :

• Since 2017, there has been an increase of 19,686 Police personnel in the sanctioned strength of the State Police and 16,051 in the strength of CAPFs.

• There has been 20.95% increase in the strength of Woman Police which pushed up the total number of women personnel in the State Police Forces to 1,69,550. It brings the total percentage of women in the Indian Police to 8.73%.

• During this period, 1,24,429 Police personnel were recruited in the different ranks.

• An increase of 20.41% is noticed in the training expenditure on Police personnel during this period.

• The overall Police Population Ratio (PPR) at the state level stood at 95 policemen per lakh population, which shows marginal increase.

  • Point to note here is that the UN-mandated number is 222 policemen per lakh population.

• During this period, about 20,149 family quarters of different types were constructed for police personnel.

• Police Stations have increased from 15579 to 16422. This includes Cyber Police Stations whose number has risen from 84 to 120.

• Electronic surveillance has improved, as there has been an addition of 2,10,278 CCTV Cameras. Now this number, as per the latest count, is 2,75,468.

                                                                                                                                                                   Source :- PIB

2 out of 3 wild poliovirus strains have been eradicated, says WHO

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

Context :

• In an announcement by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on World Polio Day (24th of October), an independent commission of experts declared that wild poliovirus type 3 (WPV3) has been eradicated worldwide.

• The development follows eradication of smallpox and wild poliovirus type 2.

POLIO :

• Polio is an acute infectious disease caused by polio virus.The virus is a human enterovirus of the Picornaviridae.

• It is transmitted from one person to another by oral contact with secretions or faecal material from an infected person.

• It attacks the central nervous system through the bloodstream and damage the cells and paralyse the victim.

• Polio mainly affects children under 5 years of age.There is no cure for polio, it can only be prevented.

• The strategy to eradicate polio is therefore based on preventing infection by immunizing every child until transmission stops.

• India was declared polio free in 2014 and the last case was reported in January 2011.

Types of POLIO Virus :

• There are three individual and immunologically distinct wild poliovirus strains namely (a)wild poliovirus type 1(WPV1) (b)wild poliovirus type 2 (WPV2) and (c)wild poliovirus type 3 (WPV3).

• Symptomatically,all three strains are identical, in that they cause irreversible paralysis or even death.

• But there are genetic and virological differences, which make these three strains three separate viruses that must each be eradicated individually.

• The WPV2 and WPV3 have been eradicated globally but WPV1 remains in circulation in just two countries namely Afghanistan and Pakistan.

                                                                                                                                                     Source :- The Hindu

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Antarctic ocean sanctuary

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

Context :

• The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), is considering the proposal of creating the East Antarctic marine park, in its 38th meeting starting from 21st October 2019.

Antarctic Marine Park :

• The proposed East Antarctic marine park would protect one million square kilometres of ocean, but has repeatedly been struck down at meetings of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR)

• China and Russia have been key in blocking the proposal, which was first floated by Australia, France and the European Union in 2010 before being scaled down in 2017.
   

  • Both China and Russia have fishing interests in the region.

•  The consent of all 26 members of the CCAMLR is required for the creation of marine park.

• CCAMLR has previously established other major ocean Antarctic sanctuaries — including the world’s largest spanning 1.55 million square kilometres in the Ross Sea.           

                                                                                                            Source :- Business Standard

Global Bio-India Summit,2019

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

Context :

• The Global Bio-India summit is going to be held for the first time in India between November 21 and November 23, 2019.

Global Bio - India Summit :

• It is a mega international congregation of biotechnology stakeholders.

• The purpose of the summit is to attract investments, showcase the country’s indigenous strengths and aspirations in the domain of biotechnology.

• It is being conducted by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT, Ministry of Science & Technology, GOI) and BIRAC.           

                                                                                                                                  Source :- PIB

ECONOMY

Defence ministry eases rules for exporting components to select nations

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY - Effects of liberalization on the economy

Context :

• The Defence Minister approves two Open General Export Licences (OGEL) in a major push for defence exports.

Open General Export Licences (OGEL):

• The OGEL is a one-time export licence to be granted to a company for a specific period (two years initially).

• The current OGEL have been approved for the export of certain parts and components and intra-company transfer of technology to select countries.

• It is expected to give a boost to defence exports and enhance ease of doing business.

• The application for grant of OGEL will be considered by the Department of Defence Production (DPP) on a case-to-case basis.

• The countries allowed under the OGELs are: Belgium, France, Germany, Japan, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, UK, USA, Canada, Italy, Poland and Mexico.

• For acquiring the licences, the applicant is mandatory to have Import-Export certificate. The quarterly & end of the year reports on all the transactions done under OGELs should be submitted to DPP for examination and post-export verification.

• The items permitted under OGEL include components of ammunition & fuse setting device without energetic and explosive material; firing control & related alerting and warning equipment & related system; and body protective items.

• Complete aircraft or complete unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and any components specially designed or modified for UAVs are excluded under this licence.

• The transfer of technology to the countries is subject to the condition that the export is an intra-company transfer from an Indian subsidiary (applicant exporter) to its foreign parent company and/or to subsidiaries of the foreign parent company.

                                                                                                                             Source  :- PIB

Odisha Integrated Irrigation Project for Climate Resilient Agriculture

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY - Major crops cropping patterns in various parts of the country, different types of irrigation and irrigation systems storage, transport and marketing of agricultural produce and issues and related constraints

Context :

• Government of India, Government of Odisha and the World Bank has signed a $165 million loan agreement for the Odisha’s Integrated Irrigation Project for Climate Resilient Agriculture.

Odisha’s Integrated Irrigation Project for Climate Resilient Agriculture :

• The aim of the project is to strengthen the resilience of the small holder farmers against adverse climate.

• The project will be implemented in rural areas that are vulnerable to droughts and are largely dependent on rainfed agriculture.

• It will benefit around 125,000 smallholder farmers from 15 districts of Odisha.

• This project is under the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) of the government so as to achieve the sustainable agriculture-related targets of the SDGs by 2030.

Objective :

• improve access to resilient seed varieties and diversify towards climate resilient crops.

• improve access to better water management and irrigation services.

• support farmers to reduce the current emphasis on food grains, especially paddy and wheat.

• provide marketing support to farmers who are able to generate a marketable surplus.

• support the rehabilitation of 532 water tanks thereby promoting productivity improvements at the farm level.

Need :

• Since 2009, the frequency of droughts in Odisha has increased from 1 in 5 years to 1 in 2 years.

• About 70% of the total cultivated area is prone to droughts as compared to 40% in the 1970s.

• In Odisha, agriculture is also a major source of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions and is responsible for about 25% of the GHG emissions in the state.

• Such erratic and extreme weather are responsible for declining yields and falling incomes of the farmers.

                                                                                                                                   Source :- PIB

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Guidelines Released for Evaluation of Nanopharmaceuticals in India

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

Context :

• The Union Minister for Science & Technology, Earth Sciences and Health & Family Welfare, released “Guidelines for Evaluation of Nanopharmaceuticals in India”.

Key Highlights :

• The guidelines are for delineating quality, safety and efficacy assessment of nanoformulations.

• They are intended to provide transparent, consistent and predictable regulatory pathways for nanopharmaceuticals in India.

• The guidelines apply to the nanopharmaceuticals in the form of finished formulation as well as Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) of a new molecule or an already approved molecule with altered nanoscale dimensions.

• They also apply to properties or phenomenon associated with the application of nanotechnology intended to be used for treatment, in vivo diagnosis, mitigation, cure or prevention of diseases and disorders in humans.

• The guidelines would facilitate translational research in line with regulatory requirements.

• Guidelines will also facilitate the decision making by regulator during clearances to newer products based on nanotechnology and similarly to researchers to get clearance for their products to launch in market.

• The Guidelines are developed by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science and Technology, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.           

 Advantages of guidelines :

• The regulatory system for Nanoformulations is expected to be strengthened as the result of released guidelines.

• Indian researchers and industry would be facilitated to undertake research in nanopharmaceuticals product development and commercialization.

• The guidelines will pave the way for significant benefits through such cutting edge technology and contribute to the mission of “Affordable Health Care for All”.

                                                                                                                            Source :- PIB

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