National Current Affairs – UPSC/KAS Exams- 9th November 2019

Maternal mortality rate declines

Topic: Health

In News: Across the country, the maternal mortality ratio has declined from 130 during 2014-2016 to 122 during 2015-17. This emerges out of the data in a Special Bulletin on Maternal Mortality in India 2015-2017 of the Sample Registration System. This indicates that a loss of 2000 maternal deaths per year has been prevented.

More on the Topic:

• Maternal mortality ratio, measured as the number of maternal deaths per lakh live births, varies among the Indian states from a high of 229 per lakh in Assam to a low of 42 in Kerala.
• The bulletin categorizes the country into three groups: Empowered Action Group (EAG), Southern States and other states.
• Maternal death is the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy.
• It is a key performance indicator for efforts to improve the health and safety of mothers before, during, and after childbirth.

Highlights of the report:

• Kerala secures the first position in MMR reduction (from 46 to 42), followed by Maharashtra (from 61 to 55) and Tamil Nadu (from 66 to 63).
• Karnataka has shown the highest percentage decline in MMR.
• The decline has been most significant in EAG States from 188 to 175. Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Rajasthan, UP, Uttarakhand and Assam fall under EAG States group.
• The independent MMR data of Jharkhand (76), Chhattisgarh (141) and Uttarakhand (89) has been released for the first time in the SRS 2015-2017 bulletin.
• Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have shown an increase by 15 points each in MMR.
• The 11 states have achieved the National Health Policy target of MMR well ahead of 2020. The National Health Policy aims to reduce Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) to 1/1000 live births.

Reasons for Declining MMR:

• Focus on quality and coverage of health services through public health initiatives have contributed majorly to the decline. Some of these initiatives are:
• LaQshya,
• Poshan Abhiyan,
• Janani Suraksha Yojana,
• Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan,
• Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana,
• The implementation of the Aspirational District Programme and inter-sectoral action has helped to reach the most marginalized and vulnerable population.
• Recently launched Surakshit Matritva Aashwasan Initiative (SUMAN) especially focusses on zero preventable maternal and newborn deaths.
• The continuous progress in reducing the MMR will help the country to achieve the SDG 3 target of an MMR below 70 by 2030.

Source: Hindu

Thiruvalluvar

Topic: Art and Culture

In News: Recently, ancient scholar Thiruvalluvar has been in the news because of a political issue in Tamil Nadu.

More on the Topic:

• Thiruvalluvar, also called Valluvar, was a Tamil poet-saint. The period when he lived is debated, as is his religious identity.
• He had contributed the Tirukkural or ‘Kural’ to the Sangam literature.
• Tirukkural is comprised of 133 sections of 10 couplets each is divided into three books: Aram (virtue), Porul (government and society), and Kamam (love).
• Thiruvalluvar is fondly referred to as Valluvar by Tamils.

Source: The Hindu

Ethanol Production

Topic: Economy

In News: The Ministry of Environment and Forests announced that mills would not require separate environmental clearance to produce additional ethanol from B-heavy molasses.

More on the Topic:

• Ethanol, or ethyl alcohol, is a liquid that has several uses. At 95% purity, it is called rectified spirit and is used as the intoxicating ingredient in alcoholic beverages. At 99%-plus purity, ethanol is used for blending with petrol.
• Both products are made from molasses, a byproduct of sugar manufacturing. For making sugar, mills crush sugarcane which typically has a total fermentable sugars (TFS) content of 14%. The TFS component consists of sucrose along with the reducing sugars glucose and fructose. Most of this TFS component gets crystallised into sugar, and the remaining part is called molasses.

Molasses stages:

• The molasses go through three stages — A, B, and C, the last one being where the molasses are most un-crystallised and non-recoverable.
• The ‘C’ molasses roughly constitute 4.5% of the cane, and have a remaining TFS of 40%. After C-molasses are sent to the distillery, ethanol is extracted from them. Every 100 kg of TFS yields 60 litres of ethanol.
• Thus, from one tonne of cane, mills can produce 115 kg of sugar (at 11.5% recovery) and 45 kg of molasses (18 kg TFS) that gives 10.8 litres of ethanol.

How more ethanol can be produced:

• Mills can also produce only ethanol from sugarcane, without producing sugar at all. In this case, the entire 14% TFS in the cane is fermented. Here, a mill can make 84 litres of ethanol and zero kg of sugar.
• In between the two extreme cases, there are intermediate options as well, where the cane juice does not have to be crystallised right till the final ‘C’ molasses stage.
• The molasses can, instead, be diverted after the earlier ‘A’ and ‘B’ stages of sugar crystal formation. Mills, then, would produce some sugar, as opposed to fermenting the whole sugarcane juice into ethanol.
• If ethanol is manufactured using ‘B’ heavy molasses (7.25% of cane and with TFS of 50%), around 21.75 litres will get produced along with 95 kg of sugar from every 1 tonne of cane. The latest move by the government is to waive the environmental clearance required to produce ethanol at this stage. In the press release, it has been explained that this was done since this process does not contribute to the pollution load.

Why focus on more ethanol:

• Mills currently have all-time-high stocks of sugar, and they have been at loggerheads with farmers over non-payment of dues. Mill owners insist that the reason behind their woes is excess production of sugar and fall in its price.
• Under the circumstances, ethanol is the only real saviour both for mills and cane growers.
• Recently, the government approved an increase in the price of ethanol to be procured by public sector oil marketing companies from sugar mills for blending with petrol for the 2019-20 supply year from December 1.
• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs also allowed conversion of old sugar into ethanol, which again is expected to help mills deal with the current overproduction in the sweetener and make timely payments to farmers for the cane delivered by them.
• Ethanol production has been additionally facilitated with the government mandating 10% blending of petrol with ethanol.

Source: Hindu

Steel Scrap Recycling Policy

Topic: Economy

In News: The National Steel Policy that was released on November 8, 2019 aims at developing globally competitive steel industry. It aims at creating 300 million tons of steel per annum by 2030.  The policy was released by Ministry of Steel.

More on the Topic:

• The Policy provides guidelines for collection, shredding and dismantling activities in a safe and sound environment.
• The Policy will envisage a framework to establish metal scrapping centers in the country.
• It will help in setting up environmentally sound ferrous scrap handling systems.
• India is currently importing metal scraps from African countries. Around 70% of the metal scraps comes from these countries. The policy will help reduce dependency on imports.
• It also promotes the ‘6R’ principle. It includes Reduce, Recycle, Reuse, Recover, Remanufacture and Redesign.

Source: Hindu

BIMSTEC Ports’ Conclave

Topic: International Relations

In News: The first ever BIMSTEC Conclave of Ports is being held at Vishakhapatnam recently.

More on the Topic:

• The conclave aims at providing a platform to strengthen maritime interaction, port-led connectivity initiatives and sharing best practices among member countries. Providing Connectivity is one of the key priorities among BIMSTEC countries.
• Three Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) have been signed between Ranong Port (Port Authority of Thailand) and the Port Trusts of Chennai, Vishakhapatnam and Kolkata during the Conclave.These MoUs will enhance economic partnership by cutting down the sea travel time between India and Thailand from 10- 15 days to 7 days.

About BIMSTEC:

• BIMSTEC links five countries from south Asia (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Nepal) and two from South East Asia (Myanmar & Thailand).
• The BIMSTEC region brings together 167 billion people together 22% of world population and a combined GDP of US $3.71 Trillion.

Source: Hindu

Telugu Ganga project

Topic: Infrastructure

In News: Chennai city, which grappled with severe drinking water shortage, can be assured of its full quota of Krishna water from Andhra Pradesh this season, as major reservoirs in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh have comfortable storage.

More on the Topic:

• Telugu Ganga Project is an inter-state Project formulated to irrigate 5.75 lakh acres in drought prone areas of Rayalaseema and uplands of Nellore District in Andhra Pradesh by utilising 29 TMC of Krishna flood flows and 30 TMC of Pennar flood flows.
• Further with a view to provide drinking water to the Chennai city, the three Krishna basin states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra have agreed to spare 5 TMC each from their respective shares of Krishna waters totalling to 15 TMC to meet the requirements.
• This number was revised down to 12 TMC in 1983 after accounting seepage and evaporation loses.
• Water is drawn from the Srisailam reservoir (in AP) and diverted towards Chennai through a series of inter-linked canals, over a distance of about 406 kilometres (252 mi), before it reaches the destination at the Poondi reservoir near Chennai.

Source: PIB