Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

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Narendra Modi meets South African President, discusses ways to boost bilateral ties

News

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi met South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and the two leaders discussed ways to expand the bilateral ties in a number of sectors, including trade and investment, IT and defense.

Beyond News

• Following the delegation-level talks, three MoUs were signed on cooperation in exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes, setting up of Gandhi-Mandela Centre of specialisation for artisan skills and agricultural research and education.
• Modi, who arrived in Johannesburg, met Mr. Ramaphosa on the sidelines of the two-day BRICS summit whose theme this year is ‘BRICS in Africa’.
• India and South Africaare celebrating 21 years of strategic partnership.
• Later, Foreign Secretary said both the nations expressed satisfaction at the growth in trade and investment, besides improvement in the people-to-people relation.
• Gokhale said Prime Minister Modi entirely agreed with the South African leader on this, and noted a “very positive” trend on investments and trade.
• Modi on Thursday also held bilateral talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Summit and said the friendship between India and Russia is deep-rooted.
• The two leaders had a comprehensive discussion on bilateral issues of mutual interest, especially in trade, investment, energy, defence and tourism, Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson said.
• BRICS is a grouping of five major emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Originally the first four were grouped as “BRIC”, before the induction of South Africa in 2010.
• India’s relations with South Africa date back several centuries. India was at the forefront of the international community in its support to the anti-apartheid movement.
• The South African Indian-origin community numbers around 1.5 million and constitutes about three per cent of South Africa’s total population.

NGT constitutes monitoring panel for Yamuna rejuvenation

News

• The National Green Tribunal (NGT) constituted a monitoring committee to oversee the Yamuna rejuvenation project. The committee has been directed to submit the first action plan by September.

Beyond News

• A Bench directed the committee, comprising former Delhi Chief Secretary Shailaja Chandra and retired NGT expert member Bikram Singh Sajwan, to submit a report by December.
• The green panel also directed the Haryana and Uttar Pradesh governments to assist the committee on the project.
• The Delhi Development Authority and the Delhi Jal Board have also been asked to hold a meeting on July 30 to identify land where sewage treatment plant for a drain under phase-II can be installed.
• While phase-I of the project deals with cleaning of the Najafgarh drain, phase-II deals with all other drains in the Capital.
• The green panel come down heavily on the DJB for not making any substantial progress on cleaning of the river despite a lapse of three years since the initial orders were passed.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Maharashtra to pump in ₹124 cr. to develop areas around tiger reserves

News

• The Maharashtra government has allotted ₹124 crore for the development of areas around the State’s large tiger reserves.

Beyond News

• The funds will be used for development of villages and land around Melghat, Tadoba, Pench, Sahyadri, Nawegaon-Nagriza and Bor, officials said.
• Of these, five reserves are located in the backward Vidarbha region, where sustainable development of villages would ensure the human-animal conflict is reduced, senior officials said.
• The allotment was made under the Dr. Shyamaprasad Mukherjee Jan Van Vikas Scheme, passed by the State Cabinet for the development of villages around tiger reserves in 2015.
• The objective of the scheme is to develop buffer zones of the reserves, which struggle with a lot of human-animal conflict.
• Officials said that the development of villages around the tiger reserves will reduce their dependence on the forest produce and move them towards agriculture.
• Last year, the government widened the scope of the scheme to include villages located on the periphery of the reserve and not just within the buffer.

Translocated trees in Bengaluru spring back to life

News

• The translocation of 135 trees from Bannerghatta Road earlier this year to make way for the Gottigere-Nagawara metro line was one of the biggest undertakings by the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRCL).

Beyond News

• However, the transport corporation, which often comes under attack for axing trees, has an update that will make citizens happy: it claims that more than 95% of the trees that were transplanted have sprung back to life.
• The trees are getting acclimatised to their new homes on the campus of the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, Arekere lake, and public parks in Shantiniketan and Bande that are maintained by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).
• Arborator S. Prabhakaran and his 20-member team were behind the endeavour. They have been taking care of the trees since then. Of the 135 trees translocated, 130 trees have revived. The result after six months of constant treatment and maintenance has been beyond our expectations, as we had promised BMRCL a survival rate of 80%.
• The translocation process took six months and included specialised treatment and maintenance of the trees. A majority of the trees are indigenous ornamental trees, such as Tabebuia Rosea, Mahogany and Peltophorum.
• The BMRCL had spent around Rs. 12,000 per tree for translocation and maintenance.
• According to Chief Public Relations Officer of BMRCL, this is ‘probably the first time in Bengaluru that translocation of trees has achieved such a successful outcome. It has been done with utmost care by the professionals.
• 50 more trees will be translocated
• The BMRCL is has identified 50 trees on Bannerghatta Road for translocation. The agency has started work on shifting the trees, which are located on the median. They will be shifted to BBMP parks in and around Puttenahalli.

New Alzheimer’s drug shows early promise

News

• The long quest for a medication that works to treat Alzheimer’s reached a potentially promising milestone. For the first time in a large clinical trial, a drug was able to both reduce the plaques in the brains of patients and slow the progression of dementia.

Beyond News

• More extensive trials will be needed to know if the drug is truly effective. Other drugs have shown early promise only to disappoint in larger studies.
• But if the results, presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Chicago, are borne out, the drug may be the first to successfully attack both the brain changes and the symptoms of Alzheimer’s.
• Aside from a couple of medications that can slow memory decline for a few months, there is no effective treatment for Alzheimer’s, which affects about 44 million people worldwide, including 5.5 million Americans. It is estimated that those numbers will triple by 2050.
• The trial involved 856 patients from the U.S., Europe and Japan with early symptoms of cognitive decline. They were diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment or mild Alzheimer’s dementia, and all had significant accumulations of the amyloid protein that clumps into plaques in people with the disease, said chief medical officer of Eisai, a Japan-based company that developed the drug, known as BAN2401, along with Biogen, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
• In the data presented, the highest of the five doses of the new drug an injection every two weeks of 10 mg per kg of a patient’s weight  reduced amyloid levels and slowed cognitive decline when compared with patients who received placebo.

 

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