National Current Affairs – UPSC/IAS Exams- 23rd September 2019

by Mentors4ias · September 23, 2019

The Convention On The Rights Of The Child

Topic: International Organizations /Treaties

In News: September 18, 2019 marks the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

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It is an international treaty affirming the world’s commitment to protecting kids’ rights to survive and thrive by UNICEF.

UNICEF identified following challenges as hindrance for the healthy development of world’s children:

Prolonged conflicts are the gravest threat faced by the children. One in four children live in countries affected by violent fighting or disaster. Children and young people’s education is disrupted by conflict and natural disaster.
Climate change and pollution is leading to disasters worldwide. It affects children’s health and healthy development.
Mental illness among adolescents has been on the rise in the years since the adoption of the CRC. Depression is among the leading causes of disability in the young.
Mass Migration and Population Movements affects children the most. When migration is driven by desperation, children often take perilous journeys across deserts, oceans and armed borders, encountering violence, abuse and exploitation on the way. One of the greatest migrations the world has ever seen is happening within borders, with millions migrating internally from rural to urban areas.
Every child has a right to a legal identity, to birth registration and a nationality. It is expected that, almost 1,00,000 babies born today, may never have an official birth certificate, reason being parents are stateless or from a persecuted or marginalized community.
It is seen that young people lack access to an education that will prepare them for contemporary job and business opportunities i.e. giving them the skills and outlook they need for a twenty-first century economy.
Studies indicate that many children and young people spend much time in online and have a hard time distinguishing fact from fiction online and as a consequence, the generation is finding it more difficult to know who and what to trust.

Way Forward:

A digitally inclusive world that allows young people, no matter their situation, to get access to education.
Governments and businesses need to work together to tackle the root causes by reducing greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Paris Agreement.
Rehabilitation for children and young people affected by mental health issues should be prioritized.
It is essential that child migrants have their rights upheld. Governments can protect child migrants by prioritizing the best interests of children in the application of immigration laws.
Registering children at birth is the first step in securing their recognition before the law, safeguarding their rights, and ensuring that any violation of these rights does not go unnoticed.The United Nations has set a goal that every human being on the planet will have a legal identity by 2030.
There is a need to prepare young people to become productive and engaged citizens. Personal information created during childhood may be shared with third parties, traded for profit or used to exploit young people particularly the most vulnerable and marginalized.
The society needs to work harder to prepare savvy young citizens to resist manipulation and retain a trusting connection to reliable and verifiable information and institutional knowledge.

Source: The Hindu

Modi’s Houston Address

Topic: International Relations

In News: Indian Prime Minster and U.S. President Trump addressed the Indian American community in Houston, U.S.

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The political and economic influence of the Indian diaspora is increasing at various parts of the world.
S. – Nowhere is the presence of the Indian diaspora more expansive than in the US.
As a rich and accomplished minority, the Indian-American community has become influential in all walks of life in the US.
Within the US, Texas, California, New York and Illinois are among the states that host large Indian-American communities.
Houston is among the top 10 American cities hosting the Indian-American community.

India’s Approach towards It’s diaspora – The Evolution:

Delhi consciously distanced itself from the diasporic communities in the 1950s and 1960s due to nationalist backlash against the Indian communities in Africa and Asia.
As India turned inwards, it did not pay attention to the “brain drain” happening; many well-trained Indians began to look for opportunities elsewhere.
It was only in the late 1980s that Delhi began to rethink its approach to the diaspora.
PM Rajiv Gandhi was the first to appreciate the potential role diaspora could play in advancing national development and improving India’s ties with the US.
As he launched the reform era, P V Narasimha Rao sought investments from the diaspora. Further, Atal Bihari Vajpayee formalised India’s engagement with the diaspora by institutionalising the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas.

Significance of the Houston gathering:

The political role of the diaspora has been valuable for Delhi in the US. It acted as a pressure group shaping India-US policies.
For Modi, the Houston engagement is a continuation of his political investment in engaging the Indian diaspora.
It is based on the recognition that a large and successful diaspora has widened India’s footprint and can contribute to domestic and international goals.
It is a bidirectional engagement from both the diaspora and Government side. Government ensured its active engagement in diaspora’s needs while the diaspora ensured their participation in India’s development.
India’s diaspora engagement in America could also help elevate the strategic partnership with the US to a higher level.

Source: Indian Express

Global Climate Strike Movement

Topic: Environment and Ecology

In News: Students in more than 2,000 cities across the world are holding demonstrations under the #FridaysforFuture movement. The #FridaysforFuture movement, also known as the ‘Youth Strike for Climate Movement’, started in August 2018.

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It was started by Swedish student ‘Greta Thunberg’, who skipped school to protest outside parliament for more action against climate change.
‘Thunberg’ called for a strike every Friday until the Swedish parliament revised its policies towards climate change.
Gradually, students and adults from across the world started mobilising and demonstrating in front of parliaments and local city halls in their respective countries.
Thousands of events are planed from September 20th to 27th, Millions of students to walk out of classrooms, workplaces and homes, to join together in the streets and demand climate action and climate justice. The strikes are registered to take place in over 2,350 cities.
In India, strikes have been scheduled in New Delhi, Chennai, Pune, Mumbai, Phagwara (Punjab), Nagercoil (Tamil Nadu), Kishangarh (Rajasthan) and several other places.
Students are demanding ‘urgent’, ‘decisive’ action to keep global average temperatures from rising above 1.5 degree Celsius.
The global strikes will commence just as the “UN Climate Action Summit 2019” set to take place in New York on September 23, where Thunberg has been invited.
These global school movements have been supported by scientists as well.
The sentiments behind these school student movements are The “broken promises” of older generations, Members of which continue to extract and use fossil fuels, leading to increased CO2 emissions and subsequently, increasing average global temperatures.

Source: The Hindu

Ganga Data Collector App

Topic: e- Governance

In News: Wildlife Institute of India (WII) has launched a mobile application “Ganga Data Collector” under the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) of Union Ministry of Jal Shakti.

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The app will provide field researchers with a complete data entry solution to monitor the aquatic population in the river.
Ganga Prahari volunteers and staff of the forest department in 11 states of the Ganga Basin will use this application to collect data related to the quality of water, the presence of different species of fishes, amphibians and reptiles, crocodiles and turtles, dolphins, birds, water level and weather.
It will help to improve both data visualization and security.

About National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG):

National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) is the implementation wing of the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA).
The main pillars of the programme include sewerage treatment infrastructure, river-front development, river-surface cleaning, bio-diversity preservation, afforestation, public awareness industrial effluent monitoring, and Ganga gram.

Source: PIB

Sagittarius A*

Topic: Science and Technology

In News: Sagittarius A*, a blackhole which is discovered 24 years ago, has been seen much brighter than usual, indicating some unusual activity.

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Sagittarius A* is a supermassive black hole sits 26,000 light years away from Earth, near the Galactic Centre, or the centre of the Milky Way.
The recent activities may be that the Sagittarius A* has become hungrier, and has been feeding on nearby matter at a markedly faster rate, which one researcher described as a “big feast”.
A black hole does not emit light by itself, but the matter that it consumes can be a source of light.
A large quantity of gas from the S0-2 star, which travelled close to the black hole last year, may now have reached the latter.
Other possibilities of the heightened activity, are that Sagittarius A* could be growing faster than usual in size, or that the current model that measures its level of brightness is inadequate and is in need of an update.

About Black Holes:

A black hole is a region of space time exhibiting gravitational acceleration so strong that nothing no particles or even electromagnetic radiation such as light can escape from it.
A black hole is a location in space with such a strong gravitational field that the escape velocity exceeds the speed of light. What this means is that you require a velocity greater than the speed of light (a physical impossibility) to escape the black hole.

Source: Indian Express

PACE setter Fund Programme

Topic: Government Policies

In News: The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy recently awarded grants to the awardees of the second round of PACE setter fund programme.

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The PACEsetter fund was constituted by India and the USA in 2015 as a joint fund.
The mission of the PACEsetter Fund is to accelerate the commercialization of innovative off-grid clean energy access solutions by providing early-stage grant funding that would allow businesses to develop and test innovative products, business models and systems.
The Fund’s main purpose is to improve the viability of off-grid renewable energy businesses that sell small scale (less than 1 megawatt) clean energy systems to individuals and communities without access to grid-connected power or with limited/intermittent access.

Source: PIB

Vaccine hesitancy’

Topic: Health

In News: The threat from vaccine hesitancy, which is defined as the “reluctance or refusal to vaccinate despite the availability of vaccines”, have grown more dangerous to public health.

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Vaccine hesitancy, which is defined by WHO as a “delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines despite availability of vaccination services”, has been reported in more than 90% of countries in the world.
In many areas, immunisation for measles, a vaccine-preventable disease that was largely eliminated following widespread use of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, has decreased to less than the 95% threshold set by WHO as that required for herd immunity.
Vaccine hesitancy is threatening the historical achievements made in reducing the burden of infectious diseases, which have plagued humanity for centuries.
According to a March 2019 report, only 52% respondents from 28 EU member states agree that vaccines are definitely effective in preventing diseases, while 33% felt they were probably effective.
More alarming is that 48% of the respondents believed that vaccines cause serious side effects and 38% think vaccines actually cause the disease that they are supposed to protect against.
It found younger people (18-34 years) and those with less education are less likely to agree that the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine is safe.
If we fail, the future health of unvaccinated children and their communities will suffer greatly.
India has fourth highest number of measles cases in the world according to WHO
India has taken several initiatives to protect its children and has made significant progress in decreasing measles incidence and related mortality and morbidity.
However, Children under the age of one get infected by the virus the most in India as they have the highest incidence rate of 76.4 per million population, according to WHO.
A 2018 study found low awareness to be the main reason why 45% of children missed different vaccinations in 121 Indian districts that have higher rates of unimmunised children.
While 24% did not get vaccinated due to apprehension about adverse effects, 11% were reluctant to get immunised for reasons other than fear of adverse effects. Thus, much work remains to be done to address misinformation.

Reasons and Way Forward:

Much work remains to be done to address misinformation.
With social media playing a crucial role in spreading vaccine disinformation, the commitment by Facebook to “reduce distribution” of vaccine misinformation will be helpful in winning the war against vaccine deniers.
Vaccines not only provides lifelong protection against the pathogen but also reduces mortality from other childhood infections.
This is because viruses like measles kill immune cells, leaving the child vulnerable to infectious diseases for two to three years.
The awareness generation is the need of the hour and it must be done quicker to protect the children and future generation.

Source: The Hindu