Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

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India appreciates sanctions waiver

News

• The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) expressed appreciation for the United States’ waiver on India-Iran energy trade and the Chabahar Port project.

Beyond News

• The port would be of importance in helping the situation in Afghanistan, but reiterated that India would continue to import Iranian energy.
• The formal response from India came days after U.S. Secretary of State declared a waiver for India and seven other countries on energy trade. Iraq has also received a waiver for the import of electricity from Tehran.
• S. Secretary of State has urged the exempted countries to reduce their energy import from Iran, but the Indian spokesperson did not provide any indication on this subject.
• S. Secretary of State also expressed India’s appreciation of the waiver for the India-Iran Chabahar Port project, and underlined the importance of the port in regional affairs.
• Sources said the waiver was discussed at the recent ‘2+2’ dialogue between India and the U.S.

Most child deaths due to pneumonia in India

News

• India continues to have the highest burden of pneumonia and diarrhoea child deaths in the world, with 1,58,176 pneumonia and 1, 02,813 diarrhoea deaths in 2016.

Findings

• This was stated in the ‘Pneumonia and Diarrhoea Progress Report’ released by the International Vaccine Access Centre (IVAC) .
• The new report, which looked at progress in fighting pneumonia and diarrhoea in 15 countries with the greatest number of deaths from these illnesses finds health systems are falling woefully short of ensuring the most vulnerable children have access to prevention and treatment services.
• The 15 countries that the report looked at account for 70% of global pneumonia and diarrhoea deaths in children under five.
• Globally, pneumonia and diarrhoea led to nearly one of every four deaths in children under five years of age in 2016. Authors at the IVAC have also called on the global community to collect better data and target communities of greatest need.
• The report analyses how effectively countries are delivering 10 key interventions breastfeeding, vaccination, access to care, use of antibiotics, oral rehydration solution (ORS) and zinc supplementation to help protect against, prevent, and treat, pneumonia and diarrhoea.
• The measures are proven to help prevent death due to these illnesses and could help achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal target of reducing under-five mortality to at least as low as 25 per 1,000 live births by 2030.
• Progress in India home to more under-five pneumonia and diarrhoea deaths than any other country in 2016 has been mixed.
• Increasing coverage of Haemophilus Influenzae Type B (Hib) vaccine, as well as continued scale-up of rotavirus vaccines, first introduced in mid-2016, led to a bump in scoring for these interventions since last year’s report.
• Introduced in 2017, the Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine has been included in only six States to date. Further scale-up of the vaccine to all States should be considered.

India to export sugar to China

News

• In a boost to sugar mills sitting on surplus stocks, India will start raw sugar exports to China in early 2019, and is in talks to finalise exports to Indonesia and Malaysia as well.

Beyond News

• In a statement, the Commerce Ministry said the first contract to export 50,000 tonnes of sugar had been entered into by the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) and Chinese public sector company COFCO.
• The decision to export sugar to China had been taken “at the highest level.” When Prime Minister met Chinese President Xi Jinping in April, they had committed to a volume of sugar exports of about two million tonnes.
• Raw sugar is the second product after non-basmati rice that China will import from India.
• It is a move to reduce the $60 billion trade deficit that China has with India. India’s exports to China in 2017-18 amounted to $33 billion while imports from China stood at $76.2 billion.
• The Ministry official said government delegations were also travelling to Malaysia and Indonesia next week, for talks to finalise sugar exports to those countries as well.
• India is the world’s largest sugar producer with a production of 32 million tonnes in 2018. However, domestic consumption is only around 25 million tonnes.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Star with origins close to Big Bang found

News

• Astronomers have discovered what could be one of the universe’s oldest stars, a 13.5 billion-year-old body almost entirely made of materials spewed from the Big Bang.

Findings

• The discovery of the tiny star means more stars with very low mass and very low metal content are likely out there – perhaps even some of the universe’s very first stars.
• The star is unusual because unlike other stars with very low metal content, it is part of the Milky Way’s “thin disk” – the part of the galaxy in which our own Sun resides.
• Researchers said that it is possible that our galactic neighbourhood is at least 3 billion years older than previously thought.
• The universe’s first stars after the Big Bang would have consisted entirely of elements like hydrogen, helium, and small amounts of lithium.
• Those stars then produced elements heavier than helium in their cores and seeded the universe with them when they exploded as supernovae.
• The next generation of stars formed from clouds of material laced with those metals, incorporating them into their makeup. The metal content, or metallicity, of stars in the universe increased as the cycle of star birth and death continued.
• The newly discovered star system orbits the galaxy on a circular orbit that, like the orbit of the Sun, never gets too far from the plane of the galaxy.
• The discovery of this new ultra metal-poor star, named 2MASS J18082002-5104378 B, opens up the possibility of observing even older stars.

Post floods, call for curbs on construction in hilly regions

News

• In the wake of the floods that occurred in Kerala State during the south-west monsoon, several mitigative measures, including checking the construction of buildings in hilly regions and adopting long-term disaster resilience plans, have been suggested for Kozhikode district.
• A comprehensive report titled ‘Post Disaster Assessment of Great Flood of 2018’ has called for statutory bodies examining building plans in vulnerable zones before construction.

Findings

• About 90% of flood-affected areas are in regions where the slope of the hill is 50 degrees and above.
• The report found that economically-constrained groups were mostly affected and it could be attributed to compromises made on the quality of construction of houses.
• Over 60% of the damaged houses were RCC (Reinforced Cement Concrete) structures and 30% traditionally-built tiled-roof structures. One of the reasons cited by experts is the use of different types of construction materials rather than depending on locally available resources.
• In the case of power outage, the report has suggested power back-up system at the local levels and the introduction of solar units as an alternative. Power shortage also caused disruption of mobile phone connectivity.
• As part of rebuilding the agriculture sector, rejuvenation of existing paddy fields and relooking the use of agricultural land have been recommended.
• The report has suggested that local bodies carry out tree-pruning and desilting of drains before the monsoon.
• During the floods, ring bunds constructed for the underwater works and at the downstream of Chittarikkadavu were washed away. Of the 51.9 kms of canals and drains protected under the Irrigation Department, almost 2 kms were eroded in the flash floods.

Plastics exports rise 31.6% in April-Sept.

News

• India’s plastics exports grew 31.6% to $4.59 billion during April to September 2018 (H1 2018-19) as against $3.48 billion in the same period last year.

Beyond News

• This is a faster pace of growth than the overall merchandise export growth from India, according to the Plastics Export Promotion Council (Plexconcil).
• During H1 2018-19, India reported merchandise exports worth $164.04 billion, an increase of 12.5% from $145.75 billion in H1 2017-18.
• Plastics formed 2.80% of India’s overall merchandise exports in H1 2018-19. The growth in India’s plastics export has been primarily boosted by higher shipment of plastic raw materials, plastic sheet, film, plates, and packaging materials. During H1 2018-19, 23 out of the top 25 destination countries recorded year-on-year growth in plastics export from India.
• Exports to China, Vietnam and Mexico witnessed high growth rates ranging between 70% and 140% during the H1 2018-19 period.
• India’s plastics exports in H1 2018-19 were boosted by higher exports, especially to North-East Asia, Africa, European Union, ASEAN, South Asia, and North America.

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