National Current Affairs – UPSC/KAS Exams- 12th October 2019

Surakshit Matritva Aashwasan (Suman)

Topic: Government Schemes

In News: The Union Government has launched Surakshit Matritva Aashwasan (SUMAN) to provide quality healthcare at zero cost to pregnant women, new mothers and newborns.

More on the Topic:

• It aims to provide dignified and quality health care at no cost to every woman and new born visiting a public health facility.
• Under the scheme, the beneficiaries visiting public health facilities are entitled to several free services.
• These include at least four ante natal check-ups that also includes one checkup during the 1st trimester, at least one checkup under Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan, Iron Folic Acid supplementation, Tetanus diptheria injection.

Features of the Scheme:

• The scheme will enable zero expense access to the identification and management of complications during and after the pregnancy.
• The government will also provide free transport to pregnant women from home to the health facility and drop back after discharge (minimum 48 hrs).
• The pregnant women will be able to avail a zero expense delivery and C-section facility in case of complications at public health facilities.
• The scheme will ensure that there is zero-tolerance for denial of services to such patients.

Source: Hindu

Asia Environmental Enforcement Award

Topic: Awards and Honours

In News: Senior Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer Ramesh Pandey has been selected by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) for prestigious Asia Environmental Enforcement Award.

More on the Topic:

• Ramesh Pandey is recognised for combating trans-boundary environmental crime.
• Pandey also introduced M-Stripes (Monitoring System for Tigers Intensive Protection & Ecological Status), a novel software-based patrolling in Dudhwa Tiger Reserve on the recommendation of National Tiger Conservation Authority.
• The purpose of the Awards are to publicly recognise outstanding achievements by public organisations and individuals in Asia to combat transboundary environmental crime.

Source: The Hindu

C40 World Mayors’ Summit

Topic: International Affairs

 In News: The C40 World Mayors’ Summit is being held in Copenhagen, Denmark.

More on the Topic:

• It is a conference where city leaders from around the world share ideas on green urban development, and on ways to get national governments to act on climate issues.
• Apart from Mayors and Deputy Mayors, the Summit is being attended by climate experts, influencers, business leaders, innovators, changemakers, and citizens.
• The cities from India that are part of the C40 are Delhi NCT, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Kolkata.
• The C40 group was started in 2005 by the then Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, and got its name in 2006, since it had 40 members that year.
• It has 96 members at present, representing over 70 crore people, and one-quarter of the global economy.
• The group is committed to delivering on climate targets set under the 2016 Paris Agreement, and sets the bar for cities to develop and implement local level plans that comply with those targets.

Source: Hindu

IMF Chief on Global Economy

Topic: Economy

In News: The new managing director of IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, made some observations on how to revive the faltering global economy.

More on the Topic:

• Georgieva singled out India, along with Brazil, as witnessing a “pronounced” growth slowdown. The IMF expects growth to slow down in nearly 90% of the world this year.
• This stands in contrast to the condition 2 years ago when nearly 75% of the world witnessed accelerated growth.
• In fact, global growth is expected to hit its lowest rate since the beginning of the current decade.
• In July 2019, the IMF cut its FY 2020 growth forecast for the Indian economy by 30 basis points to 7%.

Causes for the slowdown:

• The slowing growth was blamed on various factors.
• These include the trade war between the U.S. and China, which is expected to shave off 0.8% from global GDP by 2020. Ms. Georgieva warned that almost “everyone loses” in a trade war.
• She also called for a synchronised global policy action to arrest the “synchronised slowdown in global growth”.

Way Ahead:

• The global economy has been helped by a whole decade of historically low interest rates.
• However, the recovery that ensued after the global financial crisis was the slowest in history and seems to be in trouble already.
• Even worse, this time around, as the global economy slows, interest rates are near or below zero in much of the developed world.
• Also, corporations and governments are burdened with unsustainable amounts of debt.
• The IMF chief emphasized on the need for structural reforms to boost growth, particularly in the emerging market economies like India.

Source: Hindu

UNICEF Cryptocurrency Fund

Topic: Economy

In News: UNICEF becomes first UN organisation to hold and make transactions in cryptocurrencies ether and bitcoin.

More on the Topic:

• UNICEF will use cryptocurrencies to fund open source technology benefiting children and young people around the world.
• Under the structure of the fund, contributions will be held in their cryptocurrency of contribution, and granted out in the same cryptocurrency.
• The first contributions to the Fund will benefit UNICEF Innovation Fund and GIGA initiative to connect schools across the world to the internet.

About Crypto Currency:

• A cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency that uses cryptography for security. A cryptocurrency is difficult to counterfeit because of this security feature.
• Many cryptocurrencies are decentralized systems based on blockchain technology, a distributed ledger enforced by a disparate network of computers.
• A defining feature of a cryptocurrency, and arguably its biggest allure, is its organic nature; it is not issued by any central authority, rendering it theoretically immune to government interference or manipulation.

Source: Hindu

ICON Satellite

Topic: Science and Technology

In News: NASA has recently launched Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON).

More on the Topic:

• It is designed to probe Earth’s upper atmosphere (Ionosphere), a massive layer that overlaps with the boundary of space.
• Its measurements will help scientists better understand the link between space weather and terrestrial weather, and how the two interact in the ionosphere.
• It is the region where strange and unique phenomena, such as the auroras and geomagnetic storms are created.

Source: Hindu

Green Crackers

Topic: Environment and Ecology

In News: CSIR has signed agreements with 230 companies to manufacture green crackers and make them available for sale.

More on the Topic:

• Green Crackers have been developed by the National Environmental and Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), a Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) lab.
• As per the CSIR’s assessment, green crackers would reduce particulate matter pollution by 30%.
• Green logo as well as a Quick Response (QR) coding system has been developed for differentiation of green crackers from conventional crackers.
• Green crackers has NO barium nitrate one of the key ingredients of traditional firecrackers.
• These crackers have been named “safe water releaser (SWAS)”, “safe minimal aluminium (SAFAL)” and “safe thermite cracker (STAR)”.
• The three crackers release water vapour or air as a dust suppressant and diluent for gaseous emissions.

Source: PIB