IASNOVA
1.Swayam Prabha
- SWAYAM Prabha is an initiative of the Ministry of Human Resources Development to provide 32 High Quality Educational Channels through DTH (Direct to Home) across the length and breadth of the country on 24X7 basis.
- It has curriculum-based course content covering diverse disciplines. This is primarily aimed at making quality learning resources accessible to remote areas where internet availability is still a challenge.
- The DTH channels are using the GSAT-15 satellite for programme telecasts.
The DTH channels cover the following :
- Higher Education
- School Education (9-12)
- Curriculum-based courses
- Assist students (class11-12th)
2. PM eVIDYA
A programme for multi-mode access to digital/online education to be launched immediately; consisting of:
DIKSHA for school education in states/UTs: e-content and QR coded Energized Textbooks for all grades (one nation, one digital platform)
• One earmarked TV channel per class from 1 to 12 (one class, one channel)
• Extensive use of Radio, Community radio and Podcasts
• Special e-content for visually and hearing impaired.
• Top 100 universities will be permitted to automatically start online courses by 30th May, 2020.
Manodarpan
An initiative for psychosocial support of students, teachers and families for mental health and emotional wellbeing to be launched immediately.
3. National Digital Health Blueprint
National Health Stack (NHS)
Unveiled by the NITI Aayog last year, NHS is digital infrastructure built with the aim of making the health insurance system more transparent and robust.
There are five components of NHS:
- Electronic national health registry that would serve as a single source of health data for the nation;
- Coverage and claims platform that would serve as the building blocks for large health protection schemes, allow for the horizontal and vertical expansion of schemes like Ayushman Bharat by states, and enable a robust system of fraud detection;
- Federated personal health records (PHR) framework that would serve the twin purposes of access to their own health data by patients, and the availability of health data for medical research, which is critical for advancing the understanding of human health;
- National health analytics platform that would provide a holistic view combining information on multiple health initiatives, and feed into smart policymaking, for instance, through improved predictive analytics; and
- Other horizontal components including a unique digital health ID, health data dictionaries and supply chain management for drugs, payment gateways, etc., shared across all health programmes.
National Digital Health Blueprint (NDHB)
- The NDHB is the architectural document for the implementation of the NHS.
- Its vision is to create a national digital health ecosystem that supports universal health coverage in an efficient, accessible, inclusive, affordable, timely and safe manner, through provision of a wide range of data, information, and infrastructure services.
- NDHB recognizes the need to establish a specialised organisation, called the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) that can drive the implementation of the blueprint, and promote and facilitate the evolution of a national digital health ecosystem.
Features
- The key features of the blueprint include a federated architecture, a set of architectural principles, a five-layered system of architectural building blocks, a unique health ID (UHID), privacy and consent management, national portability, electronic health records, applicable standards and regulations, health analytics.
4. Viability Gap Funding
- Viability Gap Finance means a grant to support projects that are economically justified but not financially viable.
- The scheme is designed as a Plan Scheme to be administered by the Ministry of Finance and amount in the budget are made on a year-to- year basis.
- Such a grant under VGF is provided as a capital subsidy to attract the private sector players to participate in PPP projects that are otherwise financially unviable.
- Projects may not be commercially viable because of long gestation period and small revenue flows in future.
- VGF grants will be available only for infrastructure projects where private sector sponsors are selected through a process of competitive bidding.
- Government will enhance the quantum of Viability Gap Funding upto 30% each of Total Project Cost as VGF by Centre and State/Statutory Bodies.- in Social Infrastructure Projects.
- For other projects it will remains 20 %.
5. Agri Infrastructure Fund
- The Centre will immediately create a Rs 1 lakh crore Agri-Infrastructure Fund for farm- gate infrastructure for small and medium farmers, most of whom are marginalised.
- Financing facility of Rs 1,00,000 crore will be provided for funding Agriculture Infrastructure Projects at farm-gate and aggregation points which will include primary agricultural co-operative societies, farmer producer organizations, agricultural entrepreneurs and start-ups. The fund will be created immediately.
6. Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY)
Cabinet approves ‘Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana – A scheme to bring about Blue Revolution through sustainable and responsible development of fisheries section in India.
The Scheme will be implemented during a period of 5 years from FY 2020-21 to FY 2024-25.
The PMMSY will be implemented as an umbrella scheme with two separate Components namely (a) Central Sector Scheme (CS) and (b) Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS).
Benefits:
i. Address the critical gaps in the fisheries sector and realize its potential.
ii. Augmenting fish production and productivity at a sustained average annual growth rate of about 9% to achieve a target of 22 million metric tons by 2024-25 through sustainable and responsible fishing practices.
iii. Improving availability of certified quality fish seed and feed, traceability in fish and including effective aquatic health management.
iv. Creation of critical infrastructure including modernisation and strengthening of value chain.
v. Creation of direct gainful employment opportunities to about 15 lakh fishers, fish farmers, fish workers, fish vendors and other rural/urban populations in fishing and allied activities and about thrice this number as indirect employment opportunities including enhancement of their incomes.
vi. Boost to investments in fisheries sector and increase of competitiveness of fish and fisheries products.
vii. Doubling of fishers, fish farmers and fish workers incomes by 2024
viii. Social, physical and economic security for fishers and fish workers.
Additional Info-asked in Previous Prelims
- Inland capture fisheries accounted for 8.9 mt, the share of marine fisheries was 3.69 mt.Inland is almost thrice more than marine.
- India is currently the second largest producer of fisheries after China.
7. Solar Panels
- Solar panels are usually made from a few key components: silicon, metal, and glass
- Standard panels are either made from monocrystalline or polycrystalline silicon.
- Solar photovoltaics are made with a number of parts, the most important of which are silicon cells. Silicon, atomic number 14 on the periodic table, is a nonmetal with conductive properties that give it the ability to convert sunlight into electricity. When light interacts with a silicon cell, it causes electrons to be set into motion, which initiates a flow of electricity. This is known as the “photovoltaic effect.”
- Mono-crystalline silicon cells are more efficient than polycrystalline or amorphous solar cells.
8. National Animal Disease Control Programme (NADCP)
The following are the aims of NADCP programme:
- 100 % vaccination of cattle.
- To vaccinate over 600 million cattle in the country in an effort to mitigate the two diseases namely, the Foot & Mouth Disease, & brucellosis.
- The programme also aims at vaccinating 36 million female bovine calves annually in its fight against the brucellosis disease.
- To control the livestock diseases by 2025, and eradicate them by 2030.
- The livestock that will be covered under the programme includes cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats, and pigs against the FMD.
- The project will be fully funded by the Central Government.
9. Foot and Mouth Disease
Foot and mouth disease (FMD) is a severe, highly contagious viral disease of livestock that has a significant economic impact.
- The disease affects cattle, swine, sheep, goats and other cloven-hoofed ruminants.
- FMD virus belongs to (risk group 4 as per World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) Aphthovirus genus of the picornaviridae family.
- FMD can spread when infected animals bring the virus into physical contact with susceptible animals.
- Virus contaminated facilities, contaminated vehicles, raw or improperly cooked garbage containing infected meat or animal products can also spread the virus of FMD.
- In rare cases, humans are also susceptible.
10. Brucellosis
- Brucellosis is a bacterial disease caused by various Brucella species, which mainly infect cattle, swine, goats, sheep and dogs.
- Humans generally acquire the disease through direct contact with infected animals, by eating or drinking contaminated animal products, or by inhaling airborne agents.
- The majority of cases are caused by ingesting unpasteurized milk or cheese from infected goats or sheep.
- The disease causes flu-like symptoms, including fever, weakness, malaise and weight loss.
11. Dibru-Saikhowa Biosphere Reserve
- National park in Assam located in Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts.
- Brahmaputra and Lohit Rivers in the north and Dibru river in the south.
- Moist mixed semi-evergreen forests, moist mixed deciduous forests, canebrakes and grasslands.
- Largest salix swamp forest in north-eastern India.
- Rare white-winged wood duck, water buffalo, black-breasted parrotbill, tiger and capped langur.
12.Great Rann of Kutch Biosphere Reserve
- A salt marsh in the Thar Desert in the Kutch District of Gujarat, India.
- One of the largest salt deserts in the world.
- Inhabited by the Kutchi people.
- Little Rann of Kutch and the Banni grasslands are situated on its southern edge.
- Luni River, which originates in Rajasthan, drains into the desert in the northeast corner of the Rann.
- Other Rivers- Rupen and West Banas.
- Breeding ground for some of the largest flocks of greater and lesser Flamingos.
- Indian wild ass, shelter on islands of higher ground, called bets, during the flooding.
- Conservation Areas in and around Kutchh-
Indian Wild Ass Sanctuary, Kutch Desert Wildlife Sanctuary, Narayan Sarovar Sanctuary, Kutch Bustard Sanctuary , Banni Grasslands Reserve and Chari-Dhand Wetland Conservation Reserve.
13. Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve
(2 questions related to this reserve have come in recent years Prelims )
- includes as core areas the Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers National Parks, which are one World Heritage site.
- The Valley of Flowers National Park is renowned for its meadows of endemic alpine flowers and outstanding natural beauty.
- They encompass a unique transition zone between the mountain ranges of the Zanskar and Great Himalaya.
- Seven endangered mammal species find refuge in the area such as the snow leopard , Himalayan black bear , brown bear , musk deer and bharal/blue sheep .
- The alpine vegetation mainly comprises herbaceous species and scrub communities such as Rhododendron campanulatum, R. anthopogon and Salix denticulata.
- Rhododendrons-key word here.
- drained by the Rishi Ganga.
- Fir, birch , rhododendron and juniper are the main flora.
- UNESCO World Heritage Site
14. Khangchendzonga Biosphere Reserve
(Question has come in previous Prelims )
- one of the highest ecosystems in the world.
- The site is one of the world’s 34 biodiversity hotspots.
- located in Sikkim, India.
- Mixed-criteria UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- Kangchenjunga peak, the third-highest peak in the world.
- Few Lepcha tribal settlements in the transition zone.
- Tholung Monastery, a gompa located in the park’s buffer zone.
- The biosphere reserve is a trans-boundary bio-diversity hotspot conservation area- it adjoins the Qomolangma National Nature Preserve in Tibet, and in the west the Kanchenjunga Conservation Area in Nepal.
15. Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve
- in the Western Ghats and Nilgiri Hills ranges of South India.
- UNESCO World Heritage Site
- It includes the Aralam, Mudumalai, Mukurthi, Nagarhole, Bandipur and Silent Valley national parks
- Wayanad and Sathyamangalam wildlife sanctuaries
- 3 States– Tamil Nadu,Karnataka and Kerala
- It is one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots and provides habitat for the probably largest South Indian populations of tiger (Panthera tigris), elephant (Elephas maximus) and other large mammals.
- Several ethnic groups inhabit the area, including the only surviving hunter-gatherers of the Indian subcontinent, the Cholanaikans who concentrate in the Nilambur area.
- The reserve encompasses three ecoregions, the South Western Ghats moist deciduous forests, South Western Ghats montane rain forests, and South Deccan Plateau dry deciduous forests.
16. Regulatory Sandbox
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued the final framework for regulatory sandbox in order to enable innovations in financial technology (fintech) space.
- A regulatory sandbox usually refers to live testing of new products or services in a controlled/test regulatory environment for which regulators may permit certain regulatory relaxations for the limited purpose of the testing.
- The objective of the sandbox is to foster responsible innovation in financial services, promote efficiency and bring benefits to consumers.
- The framework will likely be a positive step for financial technology start-ups and companies looking to innovate in the fast changing and highly regulated sector.
- Also, it will enable authorities to take a considered view on the regulatory changes or new regulations that may be needed to support useful innovation, while containing the attendant risks.
Norms
- RBI will launch the sandbox for entities that meet the criteria of minimum net worth of ₹25 lakh as per their latest audited balance sheet.
- The entity should either be a company incorporated and registered in the country or banks licensed to operate in India.
- While money transfer services, digital know-your customer, financial inclusion and cybersecurity products are included, crypto currency, credit registry and credit information have been left out.
- The proposed FinTech solution should highlight an existing gap in the financial ecosystem and the proposal should demonstrate how it would address the problem, and bring benefits to consumers or the industry and/or perform the same work more efficiently.
17. Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package
Features
- Insurance cover of Rs 50 Lakh per health worker
- 80 crore poor people given benefit of 5 kg wheat or rice per person for next 3 months
- 1 kg pulses for each household for free every month for the next 3 months
- 20 crore women Jan Dhan account holders get Rs 500 per month for next 3 months
- Gas cylinders, free of cost, provided to 8 crore poor families for the next 3 months
- Increase in MNREGA wage to Rs 202 a day from Rs 182 to benefit 13.62 crore families
- Ex-gratia of Rs 1,000 to 3 crore poor senior citizen, poor widows and poor Divyang.
- Front-loaded Rs 2,000 paid to farmers under existing PM-KISAN to benefit 8.7 crore farmers
- Building and Construction Workers Welfare Fund allowed to be used to provide relief to workers
- 24% of monthly wages to be credited into their PF accounts for next three months for wage-earners below Rs 15,000 p.m. in businesses having less than 100 workers
- Five crore workers registered under Employee Provident Fund EPF to get non-refundable advance of 75% of the amount or three months of the wages, whichever is lower, from their accounts
- Limit of collateral free lending to be increased from Rs 10 to Rs 20 lakhs for Women Self Help Groups supporting 6.85 crore households.
- District Mineral Fund (DMF) to be used for supplementing and augmenting facilities of medical testing, screening etc..
18. Axone
Axone or fermented soya bean has become popular, which is eaten by many tribal communities in different parts of Northeast India especially in Nagaland.
- Axone — also called as akhuni — is a fermented soya bean of Nagaland, known for its distinctive flavour and smell.
- It is a condiment (a spice, sauce, or preparation that is added to food) used to make pickles, chutney or curries.
- It is prepared and eaten across Nagaland mainly by the Sumi (also Sema) tribe.
19. Ousteri Lake Bird Sanctuary
- Union environment ministry has notified a buffer zone of 9.068sqkm around the boundary of Ousteri lake bird sanctuary in Villupuram district in Tamil Nadu as an eco-sensitive zone, banning both new and expansion of polluting industries like mining, stone quarrying and crushing units.
- Ousteri Lake is a lake in the union territory of Puducherry and state of Tamil Nadu. This lake is also called as Ossudu Lake as it is located in the village named Ossudu.
- Ousteri Lake is a man-made lake, which is considered as one of the important wetlands in Asia .
- It is recognized as one of the important wetlands of Asia by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN).
20. Kigali Agreement
- Agreement to amend the Montreal Protocol in Kigali, a capital city of Rwanda .
- As per the agreement, these countries are expected to reduce the manufacture and use of Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) by roughly 80-85% from their respective baselines, till 2045.
- This phase down is expected to arrest the global average temperature rise up to 0.5o C by 2100.
- Kigali agreement is an amendment to Montreal Protocol.
Montreal Protocol
- The Montreal Protocol is a most effective international environmental treaty to phase out the Ozone Depleting Substances (ODSs) from the atmosphere.
- It came into force in 1989.
- It has 197 member parties to the protocol and become a first international treaty with complete ratification.
- It has undergone several amendments and Kigali amendment is the eighth amendment to this protocol.
- It has successfully curbed the 98% production of chlorofluorocarbons and other ODSs and significantly contributed to the repair of the ozone hole.
21. Cartosat-3 / PSLV-C47
- Cartosat-3 satellite is a third-generation agile advanced satellite having high resolution imaging capability.
- Cartosat-3 will address the increased user’s demands for large scale urban planning, rural resource and infrastructure development, coastal land use and land cover etc.
- Orbit Type: SSPO
22. E-textiles
- Electronic textiles or e-textiles (often confounded with smart textiles) are fabrics that enable digital components such as a battery and a light (including small computers), and electronics to be embedded in them.
- “Smart textiles” are fabrics that have been developed with new technologies that provide added value to the wearer.
Last year there was question related to wearable technologies.
23. Haptic Technology
- Haptic technology, also known as kinaesthetic communication or 3D touch,refers to any technology that can create an experience of touch by applying forces, vibrations, or motions to the user. These technologies can be used to create virtual objects in a computer simulation, to control virtual objects, and to enhance remote control of machines and devices (telerobotics). Haptic devices may incorporate tactile sensors that measure forces exerted by the user on the interface. Simple haptic devices are common in the form of game controllers, joysticks, and steering wheels.
24. Tyler Prize
2020 Tyler Prize for the environment awarded to Indian economist who formulated Green Economy
- The Tyler Prize 2020 has been awarded to two pioneers who quantified the economic value of our natural environment.
- Pavan Sukhdev (currently President of WWF), an international banker by training, was the lead expert on the first report of The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) published in 2008 as an initiative the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). TEEB has since become a leading global initiative focussed on “making nature’s values visible”.
25. Rare Diseases
- Ministry of Health and Family Welfare recently released the draft National Policy for Rare Diseases.
- World Health Organization defines rare disease as a condition with a prevalence of one or less per 1,000 people.
- These diseases are known as Orphan Diseases as the market for its drug development is not economically viable.
They include genetic diseases, rare cancers, infectious tropical diseases and degenerative diseases. 80% of rare diseases are genetic in origin and hence disproportionately impact children.
The policy states, rare diseases will be grouped into three broad categories.
- In the first group are disorders amenable to one-time curative treatment (such as haematopoietic stem cell transplantation or organ transplantation), which shall receive financial support of up to Rs 15 lakh under the Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi and extended to people eligible under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana.
- For a second group of diseases requiring lifelong treatment such as phenylketonuria but at relatively lower cost, or other forms of therapy such as for cystic fibrosis, it says state governments can consider supporting the patients.
- For the third category—diseases requiring prohibitively expensive and lifelong therapy such as Gaucher disease, SMA and Pompe disease—the draft policy talks of setting up a digital platform for voluntary individual and corporate donors to contribute to the treatment cost.
Rare Diseases
- The most commonly reported diseases include Haemophilia, Thalassemia, Sickle-cell Anaemia and Primary Immuno Deficiency in children, auto-immune diseases, Lysosomal storage disorders such as Pompe disease, Hirschsprung disease, Gaucher’s disease, Cystic Fibrosis, Hemangiomas and certain forms of muscular dystrophies.
