National Current Affairs – UPSC/IAS Exams- 9th October 2019

Hindu-Kush-Himalayan Region

Topic: Environment and Ecology

In News: The India Meteorological Department (IMD) will collaborate with meteorological agencies in China and Pakistan, among others, to provide climate forecast services to countries in the Hindu-Kush-Himalayan (HKH) region.

More on the Topic:

• It will be under the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and take a few years to take shape.
• Alongside forecasting weather over long periods, the regional centres would provide data services, training and capacity-building, research and development.
• A report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently highlighted the threat to the HKH region from global warming.
• Floods would become more frequent and severe in the mountainous and downstream areas of the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra river basins, because of an increase in extreme precipitation events. The severity of floods was expected to more than double towards the end of the century.

About Hindu Kush Himalayan Region:

• The Hindu-Kush-Himalayan (HKH) region is considered the Third Pole [after the North and South Poles], and has significant implications for climate.
• The HKH region spans Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
• It traverses about 5 million square kilometres and hosts a large and culturally diverse population. The Third Pole, which contains vast cryospheric zones, is also the world’s largest store of snow and ice outside the polar region.

Source: Hindu

Saturn overtakes Jupiter as the planet with most moons

Topic: Science and Technology

In News: Recently the discovery of 20 new moons of Saturn has made Saturn the planet with the highest number of moons (82) against 79 moons of Jupiter.

More on the Topic:

• The discovered moons of planet Saturn may have once comprised a larger moon that was broken apart in the distant past.
• The newly discovered moons are able to continue orbiting Saturn after their parent moons broke apart indicates that these collisions occurred after the planet-formation process was mostly complete.
• These moons are the remnants of the objects that helped for planet formations thus studying the remnants might reveal the origin of the planet.
• Also, studying the orbits of these moons can reveal their origins, as well as information about the conditions surrounding Saturn at the time of its formation.

Source: The Hindu

National Nutrition Survey

Topic: Reports and Indices

In News: The first-ever comprehensive National Nutrition Survey has been conducted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) to measure the level of malnutrition in India.

Highlights of the Report:

• Considering the overall scenario the rural parts of the country face a higher percentage of children suffering from stunting, underweight and wasting compared to urban parts of the country.
• The survey also reveals that Indian children are facing the double burden of malnutrition and rising risk of non-communicable diseases including diabetes, high cholesterol, chronic kidney disease, and hypertension.
• Breastfeeding: 83% of children between 12 and 15 months continued to be breastfed, a higher proportion of children in this age group residing in rural areas are breastfed (85%) compared to children in urban areas (76%).
• The rural children receive meals more frequently (44%) as compared to 37% of urban children. Higher proportion of children residing in urban areas (26.9%) are fed an adequately diverse diet as compared to those in rural areas (19%).
• Iron Deficiency: Children and adolescents residing in urban areas have a higher (40.6%) prevalence of iron deficiency compared to their rural counterparts (29%) due to a better performance of the government’s health programmes in rural areas.
• Vitamin D Deficiency: Higher deficiency of Vitamin D in urban areas (19%) is observed compared to rural areas (12%). This is despite 74% of children living in cities consume dairy products as compared to 58% in rural areas.
• Zinc deficiency: The rural children lag in the intake of zinc which causes diarrhea, growth retardation, loss of appetite and impaired immune function. Among children aged 1-4 years, zinc deficiency is more common in rural areas (20%) compared to urban areas (16%).
• Obesity:5% of children in the age group of 5 to 9 years in urban areas have higher Subscapular Skinfold Thickness (SSFT) than 5.3% in rural areas. Whereas 10.4% of adolescents surveyed in urban areas in the age group of 10-19 had higher SSFT than 4.3% in rural areas. (Subscapular Skinfold Thickness (SSFT) measurement is a reliable, cheap, simple, noninvasive method of body fat estimation at all ages including the neonatal period).
• Stunting: Overall 35 % of Indian children aged 0-4 years were stunted. Rural areas witnesses a higher prevalence of stunting (37% ) versus 27% in urban areas. Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh have a high (37-42 % ) stunting prevalence. The lowest prevalence of stunting (16-21 %) was found in Goa and Jammu and Kashmir.
• Severe Acute Malnutrition:7% in rural areas for children in 5-9 years versus 23.7% in urban areas. 32.4%in rural areas for adolescents in 10-19 years versus 27.4% in urban areas.

Source: Hindu

National Action Plan on Human Rights (NAPHR)

Topic: Polity and Governance

In News: A task force to prepare a National Action Plan on Human Rights (NAPHR) as mandated under the UN Human Rights Council’s (UNHRC) Universal Periodic Review (UPR) to improve India’s human rights record.

More on the Topic:

• The task force will involve the Union home ministry and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and have representatives from ministries such as social justice and healt.
• Civil society organisations will also be consulted as part of the process at a later stage.
• UPR is a state-driven process under UNHRC’s auspices and provides opportunities to member states to declare what actions they have taken to improve human rights and to fulfil their obligations.
• A review cycle lasts four-and-half years, during which records of member states are reviewed.
• In the third UPR of UN in 2017, India accepted 152 out of 250 recommendations on human rights. These pertain to sustainable development goals related to eliminating poverty, access to safe drinking water, sanitation and improving protection for women and children.
• However, India refused to accept some recommendations, including those related to the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act.
• NAPHR, once implemented, will help mitigate the criticism India faces at international level when it comes to its human rights record as well as strengthen the social justice system.
• It will also lead to stronger administration of justice, strengthening of human rights institutions, and linking of rights with development.

Source: Hindu

First World report on vision

Topic: Reports and Indices

In News: WHO has launched it’s first World report on vision.

Highlights of the Report:

• At least 2.2 billion people have vision impairment or blindness, of which over 1 billion cases could have been prevented or have yet to be addressed.
• The burden of eye conditions and vision impairment is not borne equally: it is often far greater in people living in rural areas, those with low incomes, women, older people, people with disabilities, ethnic minorities and indigenous populations.
• The unmet need of distance vision impairment in low- and middle-income regions is estimated to be four times higher than in high-income regions.
• Low- and middle-income regions of western and eastern sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia have rates of blindness that are eight times higher than in all high-income countries. Rates of cataract and trachomatous trichiasis are higher among women, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.
• US$14.3 billion is needed to address the backlog of 1 billion people living with vision impairment or blindness due to short and far sightedness, and cataracts.
• Myopia (near-sightedness): Increased time spent indoors and increased “near work” activities are leading to more people suffering from myopia. Increased outdoor time can reduce this risk.
• Diabetic retinopathy: Increasing numbers of people are living with diabetes, particularly Type 2, which can impact vision if not detected and treated. Nearly all people with diabetes will have some form of retinopathy in their lifetimes. Routine eye checks and good diabetes control can protect people’s vision from this condition.
• Late detection: Due to weak or poorly integrated eye care services, many people lack access to routine checks that can detect conditions and lead to the delivery of appropriate preventive care or treatment.

Source: Down to Earth

Nobel Prize in Physics

Topic: Science and Technology

In News: Three scientists- Canadian-American cosmologist James Peebles and Swiss astronomers Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz- have jointly been awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in physics for encouraging the growth of the “understanding of our place in the Universe”.

More on the Topic:

• James Peebles: He won one-half of the prize” for theoretical discoveries that have contributed to our understanding of “how the Universe evolved after the Big Bang“.
• Using theoretical tools and calculations, he drew a link between the temperature of the radiation emitted after the Big Bang and the amount of matter it created.
• His work showed that the matter such as stars, planets, and ourselves only makes up five percent, while the other 95 percent is made up of “unknown dark matter and dark energy”.
• Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz: They shared the prize for their discovery of an exoplanet outside our solar system orbiting a solar-type star in the Milky Way.
• They were able to detect a gaseous ball similar in size to Jupiter, orbiting a star 50 light years from our own Sun.
• Harnessing the Doppler effect, the pair proved the planet, known as 51 Pegasus b, was orbiting its star.
• Doppler Effect: An increase (or decrease) in the frequency of sound, light, or other waves as the source and observer move towards (or away from) each other. The effect causes the sudden change in pitch noticeable in a passing siren, as well as the red shift seen by astronomers.

About Dark Matter :

• Dark matter is a hypothetical invisible mass thought to be responsible for adding gravity to galaxies and other bodies.
• According to NASA, Dark matter seems to outweigh visible matter roughly six to one, making up about 27% of the universe.
• Roughly 68% of the universe is dark energy. Dark matter makes up about 27%. The rest visible matter is 5% of the universe.
• Why called dark matter? It is called so because unlike normal matter (i.e. stars and galaxies), dark matter does not interact with the electromagnetic force.
• Detection: As it does not interact with the electromagnetic force, thus it does not absorb, reflect or emit light or electromagnetic radiation of any kind. And this makes it extremely hard to spot/detect. It can be detected only through its gravitational effects.
• Importance: Its gravitational force prevents stars in our Milky Way from flying apart.

Source: Indian Express

Global Competitiveness Index

Topic: Reports and Indices

In News: GCI 2019 has been released.

More on the Topic:

• Compared to last year, India has moved down 10 places to rank 68th. India was ranked 58th last year.
• It is among the worst-performing BRICS nations along with Brazil (ranked even lower than India at 71st this year).
• India ranks high in terms of macroeconomic stability and market size, while its financial sector is relatively deep and stable despite the high delinquency rate, which contributes to weakening the soundness of its banking system.
• In innovation, India is well ahead of most emerging economies and on par with several advanced economies.

Bottlenecks affected Indian Performance:

• Limited ICT (information, communications and technology) adoption, poor health conditions and low healthy life expectancy.
• The healthy life expectancy, where India has been ranked 109th out of total the 141 countries surveyed for the index, is one of the shortest outside Africa and significantly below the South Asian average.
• With a ratio of female workers to male workers of 0.26, India has been ranked very low at 128th place.

Performance of other countries:

• Asia-Pacific is the most competitive region in the world, followed closely by Europe and North America.
• The United States may have lost out to Singapore overall, but it remains an innovation powerhouse.
• Nordic countries are among the world’s most technologically advanced, innovative and dynamic while also providing better living conditions and social protection.

Concerns World Wide:

• Subdued growth, rising inequalities and accelerating climate change provide the context for a backlash against capitalism, globalization, technology, and elites.
• There is gridlock in the international governance system and escalating trade and geopolitical tensions are fuelling uncertainty.
• This holds back investment and increases the risk of supply shocks: disruptions to global supply chains, sudden price spikes or interruptions in the availability of key resources.
• Ten years on from the global financial crisis, the world economy remains locked in a cycle of low or flat productivity growth despite the injection of more than $10 trillion by central banks.

About GCI:

• The Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) was launched in 1979, maps the competitiveness landscape of 141 economies through 103 indicators organised in to 12 pillars.
• The pillars, which cover broad socio-economic elements are: institutions, infrastructure, ICT adoption, macroeconomic stability, health, skills, product market, labour market, the financial system, market size, business dynamism and innovation capability.

Source: Hindu