National Current Affairs – UPSC/KAS Exams – 24th May 2018

India Ranks 145th Among 195 Countries In Healthcare Access, Quality

• The recently conducted Global Burden Of Disease Study reinforced once again the fact that India is still has a lot of catching up to do with its neighbours in terms of health care.
• The study published in a medical journal, The Lancet, ranks India at a lowly 145th place out of 195 countries in terms of healthcare access and quality (HAQ).
• The recently conducted Global Burden Of Disease Study reinforced once again the fact that India is still has a lot of catching up to do with its neighbours in terms of health care.
• The study published in a medical journal, The Lancet, ranks India at a lowly 145th place out of 195 countries in terms of healthcare access and quality (HAQ).
• This was also the first time when the study conducted research across regions within seven countries: Brazil, China, England, India, Japan, Mexico, and the US.
• These results emphasise the urgent need to improve both access to and quality of health care across service areas and for all populations; otherwise, health systems could face widening gaps between the health services they provide and the disease burden experienced by local communities

India-Netherlands-Sweden to collaborate for research programme on HIV/AIDS

• The Governments of India and The Netherlands on 23rd May announced the launch of the first-of-its-kind collaborative research programme on HIV/AIDS, between India, The Netherlands and Sweden.
• The programme is aimed at harnessing complementary research strengths and diverse expertise across the three nations to catalyze the development of better tools to understand and address the burgeoning global epidemic of HIV.
• This unique collaboration will enable a multitude of cross-learning opportunities in HIV/AIDS research to address current unmet needs and emerging challenges such as drug resistance, viral diversity, and coinfections and comorbidities.
• It will focus on accessing relevant populations of research interest, and leveraging next-generation technologies and advanced predictive analytics to better understand the geographic diversity and different clades of the virus, as well as the divergent human immune responses based on genetic, immunological and behavioural determinants.
• This information will be key in developing new and improved tools for prevention, treatment and possible cure for HIV in the near future.
• The endeavour brings together various Government and non-Government institutions in India including the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) and International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), along with Centers of Research Excellence such as Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), Institute of Bioinformatics (IOB), Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), and Y. R. Gaitonde Centre for AIDS Research and Education (YRGCARE) in India; Erasmus Medical Centre in The Netherlands, and Karolinska Institute in Sweden.

NITI Aayog and ABB India partner to make India AI-Ready

• The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog) and ABB India have signed a Statement of Intent (SoI) to support the government’s vision of “Make in India” through advanced manufacturing technologies that incorporate the latest developments in robotics and artificial intelligence.
• NITI Aayog will work with ABB to prepare key sectors of the economy, such as the power and water utilities sector, industries like food as well as the heavy industries sector; and the transport (rail and metro) and infrastructure sectors for digitalization, the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
• The initiative also covers the fast growing segment of electric mobility. Jointly, NITI Aayog and ABB will work with government ministries, solicit feedback for areas critical to them and discuss solutions using industrial automation, and digitalization technologies.
• Through this SoI, NITI Aayog will facilitate policymakers and government functionaries’ participation in workshops and training programs organized by ABB India. Such programs will feature subject matter experts and will aim to sensitize policymakers and government officials about relevant AI capabilities, and explore ways they can be used for revolutionizing manufacturing productivity.
• The first workshop for senior government officials, under this collaboration, would be organised in June, 2018, at the ABB Ability Innovation Center in Bengaluru.
• Given the importance of the Indian food processing sector, the workshop will focus on digital and automation technologies for this sector.  Senior officials from the Central and State Governments as well as autonomous bodies will be nominated for this workshop. Similar workshops will be organized for other sectors such as power, urban development and transport in the near future.
• NITI Aayog and all stakeholders will experience hands-on experience of ABB Ability, the company’s comprehensive digital portfolio of solutions that deliver value of industrial digitalization to utilities, industries and transportation & infrastructure.
• ABB Ability integrates all of ABB’s services and domain expertise to turn data into analytic insights and direct action to drive competitiveness of Indian and global customers.
• The workshops and training programs will be held at ABB Ability Innovation Center (ABB AIC).
• As the company’s biggest research and development center in the world, located in Bengaluru, it develops technologies in areas such as AI, cyber security, automation engineering, data analytics, augmented and virtual reality and industrial software. ABB AIC also collaborates with premier academic institutes to pool expertise and funnel synergies for the benefit of society.

Nepal first country in south-east Asia to eliminate trachoma: WHO

• Nepal has become the first country in south-east Asia to eliminate trachoma, world’s leading cause of preventable blindness of infectious origin, the World Health Organisation (WHO)
• Nepal’s achievement is commendable and results from a strong political commitment, intense community engagement and impressive leadership demonstrated by civil society
• Trachoma was the second leading cause of preventable blindness in the Himalayan nation in the 1980s.
• It is a big step towards the health of everyone and comes at a time when Nepal accelerates its fight against other neglected tropical diseases as well
• A letter acknowledging the validation was presented to Nepal’s Minister of State for Health and Population, Padma Kumari Aryal by Singh and Ghebreyesus at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, where the World Health Assembly is in session.
• In 2002, the Government of Nepal had stepped up the efforts to eliminate trachoma with the establishment of a national trachoma programme.
• The prevalence of active (inflammatory) trachoma in the country fell by 40 per cent following the implementation of sustained control activities from 2002 to 2005
• The Nepal government, through the ministry of water supply and sanitation, provided incentives to local communities and districts to build and maintain latrines, measures that were crucial to improve sanitation and reduce the disease carrying flies.
• The national trachoma programme in that country also collaborated with the ministry of education to include a module on trachoma in the school curriculum, the statement said.
• In 1998, the World Health Assembly had resolved to eliminate trachoma as a public health problem.