Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

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PM Modi, Trump, Abe discuss major issues of global interests on G20 sidelines

News

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi, U.S. President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met for their first trilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit to discuss major issues of global and multilateral interests.

Beyond News

• The meeting assumed importance in the wake of China flexing its muscles in the strategic Indo-Pacific region.
• The meeting was a convergence of vision between the three nations.
• Trump appreciated India’s growth story during the meet.
• The leaders emphasised the importance of cooperation among the three countries on all major issue of global and multilateral interests such as connectivity, sustainable development, counterterrorism and maritime and cyber security.
• They shared their views on progressing a free, open, conclusive and rule-based order in the Indo-Pacific region, based on respect for international law and peaceful resolution of all differences.
• The trilateral meeting took place at a time when China is engaged in hotly contested territorial disputes in the South China Sea, and with Japan in the East China Sea. Both the areas are said to be rich in minerals, oil and other natural resources.
• China claims almost all of the South China Sea. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have overlapping claims in the waterway, which includes vital sea lanes through which about $3 trillion in global trade passes each year.
• The U.S. has been conducting regular patrols in the South China Sea to assert freedom of navigation in the area where Beijing has built up and militarised many of the islands and reefs it controls in the region.
• Modi, Mr. Trump and Mr. Abe also agreed to cooperate in various ways and together with other countries.
• They also agreed on the importance of meeting in “Trilateral Format” at multilateral conferences.

India has highest number of children and adolescents living with HIV in South Asia: UNICEF report

News

• An estimated 120,000 children and adolescents aged 0-19 were living with HIV in India in 2017, the highest number in South Asia, according a report by UNICEF which warned that around 80 adolescents will be dying of AIDS every day globally by 2030 if progress in preventing transmission is not accelerated.

Findings

• The report noted that South Asia has made substantial progress in reducing HIV risks and vulnerability among children, adolescents, pregnant women and mothers.
• In India, an estimated 120,000 children and adolescents aged 0-19 were living with HIV in 2017. In Pakistan, this number was 5,800, followed by Nepal (1,600) and Bangladesh (less than 1,000).
• In 2017, the estimated number of children under 5 years old newly diagnosed with HIV was 43% lower than the comparable estimate in 2010 a decline greater than the 35% recorded globally.
• The estimated share of those aged 0-14 living with HIV who had been initiated on lifesaving antiretroviral therapy (ART) was 73% in 2017, an increase of nearly 50 percentage points from 2010.
• More than half of those children known to be dying of AIDS won’t reach the age of five, the report reveals.
• Prevention and infection treatment efforts, Fore noted, are still missing the mark, specifically when it comes to HIV transmission from mothers to babies.
• The number of mother-to-child infections have fallen by around 40% in the last eight years, but girls still account for two-thirds of all adolescent HIV infections, and rates of infection among older children are the slowest to decline, according to current data.
• Further, the report cites a global target reduction in the number of HIV-infected children by 2030 to 1.4 million, while the projected number today of 1.9 million, shows that the world is off-track by around 500,000.
• Currently, three million persons 19 years and younger, are infected with HIV worldwide. Two million new infections could be averted by 2030, if global targets are met this means providing adequate access to HIV prevention, care and treatment services, and testing and diagnoses.
• The major shortfalls show slow progress in prevention among the young, and a failure to address the key drivers of the epidemic. Many infected children and adolescents are unaware of their illness, and even when tested HIV-positive, rarely adhere to proper treatment.
• The UNICEF vision for an AIDS-free generation entails upscaling family-centered testing to help identify children living with HIV who have not been diagnosed, and greater use of digital platforms to improve education when it comes to HIV and AIDS contraction and prevention.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Less human intervention leads to rich wildlife in Siruvani

News

The 13-odd km road connecting Chadivayal and Siruvani has been remaining unusable due to extensive damages caused due to south west monsoon.

 But less human intervention following the road damages have become a bliss for the wildlife in the area.

Beyond News

• With tarmac swept away due to landslips at several places on the stretch, fresh pug marks of carnivore animals like tiger, leopard and hyena are left in muddy portions of the road.
• Forest Department, pug marks of adult tigers, cubs, leopard, hyena and sloth bear were seen at several parts on the road.
• Though tiger was sighted in Pooluvampatti forest range in the past, the fresh pug marks found on Chadivayal Siruvani road has reaffirmed the presence of the carnivore in the forest.
• Forest Department officials were of the opinion that tigers sighted in Pooluvampatti range in the past were those that had come from the Kerala side. With several pug marks were found on the Chadivayal Siruvani road, Forest Department officials suggest that a tiger territory might be existing in the area.
• The sloppy areas of the forest has abundant population of Sambar deer and barking deer, favourite preys of tiger. There had been sightings of tiger in the area in the past which is very close to Kerala forests. The presence of tiger demands increased surveillance and protection.
• Another road to Siruvani from Kerala side also witnessed large scale damages in the south west monsoon. Thereby preventing entry of intrusion of human beings into the wild.

’Mini human placenta’ may help prevent reproductive disorders

News

• Scientists have successfully created ‘mini-placentas’ that can provide a window into early pregnancy and help transform our understanding of reproductive disorders such as still-birth and miscarriage.
• The placenta supplies all the oxygen and nutrients essential for growth of the foetus. It may also be used for screening the safety of drugs.

51 pilot whales die in another mass stranding in New Zealand

News

• Fifty-one pilot whales died in another mass stranding in New Zealand, less than a week after 145 pilot whales and nine pygmy killer whales perished in two other, unrelated strandings.

Beyond News

• In the latest stranding, up to 90 pilot whales beached themselves at Hanson Bay on the remote Chatham Islands.
• Up to 40 of the whales had refloated themselves but another 50 had died on the beach. The department said one beached whale remained alive, which staff decided to euthanize due to its poor condition.
• The Chatham Islands sit about 800 kilometers (500 miles) east of New Zealand’s main islands and are home to about 600 people.
• Last weekend, 145 pilot whales died on Stewart Island. By the time conservation workers arrived there, about 75 of the whales were already dead and they decided to euthanize the others by shooting them due to their poor condition and remote location.
• They could be caused by the whales navigating incorrectly, trying to escape from predators, or some of them suffering injuries or illness.
• Whale strandings are most common in New Zealand during the Southern Hemisphere spring and summer.

Lioness found dead in Gujarat’s Gir forest

News

• A lioness was found dead in Gujarat’s Gir forest, taking the death toll of big cats since September to 30.

Beyond News

• The carcass of the lioness, aged between 9 and 12 years, was found at the Tulsishyam Range of the forest near the border of Amreli district.
• Prior to this, 29 lions, including cubs, have died in and around the Gir forest during the last three months due to infighting, pneumonia, Canine Distemper Virus (CDV) and Protozoa infection.
• As many as 23 big cats had died in Gir in a short span of three weeks in September.

Wild animals leave farmers a wary lot

News

• Farmers in Wayanad district in Kerala are spending sleepless nights guarding their paddy crop inside, or on the fringes of, the forests of the hill district.

Beyond News

• In the dark, many farmers look for elephants and other wild animals from enclosures set up in their farms or treetops.
• Usual strategies to scare them away are not effective these days. As the animals have grown accustomed to the sight of fire and the sounds of firecrackers and drums, they raid the fields fearlessly.
• A herd of elephants destroyed paddy that was nearing harvest on two acres of my field in a month.
• As many as 153 farmers, including 93 tribal farmers, have cultivated paddy on 200 acres of the 250 acres of land under the Chekadi Padashekharam. Nearly 30 acres of paddy crops have been destroyed by wild animals this season.
• Hundreds of farmers who live near the forests under the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary and the South and North Wayanad Forest Divisions face a similar fate.
• To curb wild animal attacks, the three-tier local administrative bodies and the Forest Department have dug trenches and installed electric fences running to several kilometres on the forest borders. But the animals enter human habitats and farms after destroying them.
• However, the department has submitted a comprehensive project that costs Rs.574 crore to the government to mitigate the man-animal conflict in the district.

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