IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-01

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Sea level along Indian coast rose by 8.5 cm in last 50 years: Environment Minister

News

• Sea level along the Indian coast has risen by 8.5 cm in the last five decades, Union Minister Babul Supriyo said in the Rajya Sabha.

Rising Sea level

• The rate of increase of sea level due to climate change cannot be attributed with certainty.
• On an average, the sea level along the Indian coast is considered to be rising at about 1.70 mm/year meaning thereby that during the past 50 years, the sea level along the Indian coasts has risen by 8.5 cm.
• Further, satellite altimetry and model simulations showed that the North Indian Ocean (NIO) also exhibits decadal variability. During the last decade (2003-2013) it experienced sea level rise at a rate of 6.1 mm/year.
• The Minister further said that the rising sea levels can exacerbate the coastal inundation along the low lying areas during extreme events such as tsunami, storm surge, coastal flooding and coastal erosion.
• Recently, a report of the UN’s Inter Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had warned that global sea levels are set to rise by at least 1m by 2100 if carbon emissions go unchecked, submerging hundreds of cities, including Mumbai and Kolkata, and in some cases entire countries.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

Discussing joint patrols with India in Indian Ocean: French Navy chief

News

• In a first, India and France are in discussions for joint patrols in the Indian Ocean, said visiting French Navy Chief Admiral Christophe Prazuck.
• India has undertaken Coordinated Patrols (CORPAT) only with its maritime neighbours.

Joint patrols

• Adm Prazuck said when there is a very large Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) one has to patrol there and know what’s going on, but the spaces are huge.
• Currently, under the ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy and broader maritime cooperation, Indian Navy undertakes Joint EEZ surveillance with the Maldives, Seychelles and Mauritius and CORPATs with Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand and Indonesia.
• In the past, several senior U.S. military officers had raised the prospect of joint patrols with the Navy which was declined by India.

Puducherry’s Paradise Beach declared ‘no plastic’ zone

News

• The government has declared the famous and pristine Paradise Beach near Chunnambar boathouse a ‘no plastic’ zone.

Threat to marine ecology

• District Collector in an order directed Managing Director of Pondicherry Tourism Development Corporation to restrict the use and sale of plastic items.
• The beach has become one of the most sough- after tourist spots in the Union Territory.
• The increasing use of plastic on the beach has become a threat to marine ecology, besides affecting the aesthetic environment of the surrounding, the order said.
• Any person found violating the order will be prosecuted under section 188 of the Indian Penal Code.

Chief Minister’s health insurance scheme in Tamil Nadu to cover mental illnesses too

News

• The Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme (CMCHIS) is all set to cover mental illnesses.
• To start with, it will be rolled out for patients requiring admission for treatment of various psychiatric disorders in government hospitals.

CMCHIS

• CMCHIS, that was launched in 2012, was integrated with the Central government’s flagship health insurance scheme Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) in September, 2018.
• The move to bring mental health under CMCHIS comes after the integration, as PMJAY has a package covering a list of mental illnesses including schizophrenia and mental retardation, according to officials.
• In fact, the Mental Healthcare Act 2017 laid down the need to extend insurance cover for treatment of mental illness as part of right to equality and non-discrimination: Every insurer shall make provision for medical insurance for treatment of mental illness on the same basis as is available for treatment of physical illness.
• PMJAY consisted of a package for patients requiring admission in the general ward or intensive care unit for any psychiatric illnesses.
• As per the AB-PMJAY, the following conditions are covered in packages: organic, including symptomatic, mental disorders; mental and behavioural disorders due to psychoactive substance use; schizophrenia, schizotypal and delusional disorders; mood (affective) disorders; neurotic, stress-related and somatoform disorders, behavioural syndromes associated with physiological disturbance and physical factors, and mental retardation.
• It also includes pre-electro convulsive therapy and pre-transcranial magnetic stimulation package for investigations and electro convulsive therapy (per session) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (per session).

‘Maternity scheme reaches only one-third of beneficiaries’

News

• A vital programme to support lactating mothers and pregnant women by compensating them for loss of wages during their pregnancy has been able to reach less than a third of the eligible beneficiaries, researchers who extrapolated from data obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) Act said.

Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana

• Almost 61% of beneficiaries registered under the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) between April 2018 and July 2019 (38.3 lakh out of the total 62.8 lakh enrolled) received the full amount of ₹6,000 promised under the scheme, according to an RTI reply.
• The PMMVY is targeted only at women delivering their first child. A cash amount of ₹6,000 is transferred to the bank account of the beneficiary in three instalments upon meeting certain conditions including early registration of pregnancy, having at least one ante-natal check-up and registration of child birth.
• Given the stipulated conditions, the scheme brings under its ambit 23% of all births and pays full benefits to a mere 14% of all births, which was at 270.5 lakh for 2017. The meagre reach calculated is also an overestimate.
• The study found that only 50% of pregnant women and 57% of nursing women surveyed were eligible for the scheme.
• It also throws light on the need for higher awareness among the pool of beneficiaries only 66% of pregnant women and 69% of nursing women knew about the scheme. Only 8% of pregnant women and 23% of nursing mothers received some benefits.
• Several factors impeded proper implementation of the programme that aims to fight malnutrition among children.
• These include an application form of about 23 pages, a slew of documents such as mother-child protection card, Aadhaar card, husband’s Aadhaar card and bank passbook aside from linking their bank accounts with Aadhaar.
• Odisha, which decided to not implement PMMVY because it has its own State-sponsored scheme called
• The survey findings also highlight the need to pay greater attention to the special needs of pregnancy good food, extra rest and health care.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

Poll bonds won’t fix issue of black money, RBI had told govt.

News

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) advised the government that the electoral bonds it had proposed in 2017 would not solve the problem of unaccounted-for money since the donor’s identity will be never be known.

Electoral bonds

• • Former finance minister Arun Jaitley first announced the idea of electoral bonds in his Budget (2017-18) speech made on February 1, 2017 and the scheme was notified by the government in January 2018.
  • A person can buy these bonds from a know your customer compliant account from designated branches of the State Bank of India. These bonds are valid for 15 days.
  • According to central banking sources, the problem with these instruments is that, while the information of the person who is buying bond is known (to the bank), the donors’ identity is not known. This is because these are bearer bonds.
  • A person who buys the bond, can give to it to another person who actually donates it to a political party, and there is no record of the person who takes it from the person who buys it.
  • The RBI had told the government these bonds will not solve the problem of black money in electoral funding. More importantly cash donations to the political parties have not stopped since there is no disincentive.
  • However, at this point in time these bonds are unlikely to be a reason for concern so far as financial stability is concerned since the volumes are not very high.

Brazil says Amazon deforestation is worst since 2008

News

• Deforestation in Brazil Amazon rainforest is at its worst in more than a decade, a government report said, undermining officials claims that concerns by environmentalists have been overblown.

Deforestation

• Deforestation between August 2018 and July 2019 reached 9,762 square km, a 30% increase over the previous year.
• The area of deforestation is the largest recorded since 2008 and is about the size of the U.S. states of Delaware and Rhode Island combined.
• The annual data published by the space research agency confirms the institute earlier reports that deforestation was on the rise. The latest data is actually 42% higher than what was previously reported.
• In July and August, fires in the Amazon region spread at a pace unseen since 2010, before slowing in September. Farmers, developers and others often use fire to clear deforested land for soy production or pastures.
• According to report, the Brazilian state of Para accounted for nearly 40% of all deforestation during the 2018-19 period, but illegal logging increased markedly in the states of Roraima and Amazonas.

Pakistan successfully test-fires nuclear-capable missile

News

• Pakistan successfully test-fired a nuclear-capable surface-to-surface ballistic missile which can strike targets up to 650 km, bringing many Indian cities under its range.

Nuclear-capable missile

• The launch of the Shaheen-I missile was held as part of a training exercise “aimed at testing the operational readiness of Army Strategic Forces Command”.
• The Shaheen-1 missile is capable of delivering all types of warheads up to range of 650 km, the Inter-Services Public Relations tweeted.

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