IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-01

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Malnutrition behind 69% deaths among children below 5 in India: UNICEF report

News

• Malnutrition caused 69% of deaths of children below the age of five in India, according to a UNICEF report released.

Malnutrition

• The State of the World’s Children 2019, UNICEF said that every second child in that age group is affected by some form of malnutrition.
• This includes stunting (35%), wasting (17%) and overweight (%). Only 42% of children (in the age group of 6 to 23 months) are fed at adequate frequency and 21% get adequately diverse diet.
• Timely complementary feeding is initiated for only 53% of infants aged 6-8 months.

Women at a higher risk

• About Indian women’s health, it said every second woman is anaemic. It also said that anaemia is the most prevalent in children under the age of five years. Its prevalence among adolescent girls is twice that of adolescent boys.
• Indian children are being diagnosed with adult diseases such as hypertension, chronic kidney disease and pre-diabetes.
• The data states that children under the age of five years are affected by micronutrient deficiencies. While every fifth child under the age five is vitamin A deficient, one in every third baby has vitamin B12 deficiency and two out of every five children are anemic.
• The report said POSHAN Abhiyaan or the National Nutrition Mission is playing a major role in improving nutrition indicators across India.
• The Anaemia Mukt Bharat programme to fight anaemic prevalence has been recognized as one of the best programmes implemented by governments across the world to address malnutrition.
• The 6X6X6 strategy (six target beneficiary groups, six interventions and six institutional mechanisms) of the programme has been highlighted for using anaemia testing and treatment as the entry point to provide information on healthy diets.
• Overweight and obesity increasingly begin in childhood with a growing threat of non-communicable diseases like diabetes (10%) in school-aged children and adolescents.
• Urban India is moving into an unhealthy food snacking environment, which is influencing children’s food choices and this is spreading to rural areas. Food consumption patterns in India reveal that child diets are largely starved of proteins and micronutrients and are influenced by household (adult) food choices.
• UNICEF’s report said at least one in three children under five years of age or 200 million is either undernourished or overweight.
• The report states that almost two in three children between six months and two years of age are not fed food that supports their rapidly growing bodies and brains. This puts them at risk of poor brain development, weak learning, low immunity, increased infections and, in many cases, death.

Facebook to train 5,000 women in India’s tribal districts

News

• Facebook announced the second phase of its ‘GOAL’ initiative under which the social networking giant is helping tribal girls from across India to become village-level digital young leaders for their communities.
• The second phase of the programme launched by Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda will digitally mentor 5,000 young women in India’s tribal dominated districts.

GOAL initiative

• Going Online as Leaders (GOAL) connects underprivileged young women from tribal areas with senior expert mentors in the areas of business, fashion and arts to learn digital and life skills.
• GOAL programme will provide economically and socially marginalised young women with the tools and guidance they need to succeed, using technology they may otherwise have not had access to.
• The initiative will include weekly one-to-one mentoring sessions that focus on a range of skills such as digital literacy, entrepreneurship and online safety.
• Overall, more than 2,00,000 hours of guidance will be provided using Facebook family of apps including WhatsApp and Messenger. Following the programme, the participants will graduate to the GOAL alumni and will continue to receive support and guidance from the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and Facebook.
• The Ministry of Tribal Affairs will also work with district administration and other government agencies to help secure qualified participants with a fellowship, so they can put their newly learned skills to work.
• More than 125 young women have enrolled for the programme.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

Railways’ Buddhist Circuit train covering sites in India, Nepal to run from October 19-26

News

• The Railways will run its first Buddhist Circuit train covering sites related to Gautam Buddha in India and Nepal.

Buddhist Circuit train

• IRCTC will run the train covering destinations like Lumbini, where Buddha was born; Bodhgaya, where he gained enlightenment; Sarnath, where he gave his first sermon; and Kushinagar, where he attained nirvana.
• The package will cost Indians ₹1,23,900 per couple in AC first class and ₹1,01,430 per couple for AC two tier.
• It will include road transport by AC deluxe coaches for the Nepal tour, visits to monuments and locations, accommodation, meals, services of tour manager, guides, entrance fees and travel insurance.
• The train will have four first AC coaches with 96 seats, two second AC coaches with 60 seats, two exclusive dining cars with a capacity of 64 guest in each and a pantry car.
• It will be covered with unique vinyl wrap promoting Incredible India and is also equipped with personal digital lockers, cubicles shower, foot massagers, separate sitting area with single seated sofas.
• Private security guards will be deployed in each coach.

Madhya Pradesh to exempt e-vehicles from motor vehicle tax

News

• At a Cabinet meeting,the government had approved the Madhya Pradesh Real Estate Policy, 2019, Madhya Pradesh Electric Vehicle Policy, 2019, and Madhya Pradesh MSME Development Policy, 2019, to “attract investment in the State,” said a press note from the State Secretariat.

New policies

• Efforts were being made through digital technology to better coordinate work relating to beneficiaries and develop an applicant-friendly system, it said.
• The government has eliminated the two-hectare limit to prevent illegal colonisation by builders and permitted in three phases the development and completion of a colony. Moreover, for seeking clearances, the number of documents required has been slashed to five from 27.
• It is no longer mandatory for a builder to construct houses for economically-weaker sections (EWS) under a project.
• In a bid to push urban public transport, curb air pollution and promote non-petroleum products, the government has decided to formulate the Madhya Pradesh Electric Vehicle Policy, 2019. There will be an exemption from the motor vehicle and registration taxes on the purchase of electric vehicles.
• Besides, electronic vehicles will be exempted from parking fee levied by urban bodies for the first five years. New employment will be created by imparting training to engineers and technicians.
• As for startups, the government is to offer concessions to sectors such as pharmaceuticals, textiles and powerloom, and additional grant to manufacturing units run by women and Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe entrepreneurs.

IAAF brings in new transgender rules

News

• Female transgender athletes must lower their testosterone levels by half under new regulations introduced by the IAAF, bringing the rules into line with those for hyperandrogenous competitors such as Caster Semenya.
• Under the new eligibility rules announced this week, transgender athletes are no longer required to be recognised by law in their new gender but only need to provide a “signed declaration” that they identify as female.

New eligibility rules

• The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Council, which met in Doha, approved rules that require the concentration of testosterone in a female transgender athlete to be less than five nanomoles per litre continuously for a period of at least 12 months prior to being declared eligible.
• The previous limit was 10 nanomoles.
• Athletes must maintain their testosterone levels below the five-nanomole limit to keep their eligibility to compete in the female category.
• Under the new regulations a transgender female athlete is no longer required to be recognised by law in her new gender but should provide a signed declaration that her gender identity is female.
• She must demonstrate to the satisfaction of the expert panel that the concentration of testosterone in her serum has been less than 5nmol/L continuously for a period of at least 12 months prior to being declared eligible, and must keep her serum testosterone concentration below that level to maintain her eligibility to compete in the female category.

Gujarat, Tamil Nadu top performers under PM-JAY health scheme

News

• Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh have emerged as the top performing States with free secondary and tertiary treatment worth nearly ₹7,901 crore availed under the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY), the flagship health assurance scheme of the Government in just over a year.

Free secondary and tertiary treatment

• Half-a-crore hospital treatments have been provided and there are 9 hospital admissions every minute across India.
• Launched last year, the scheme crossed the 50-lakh treatment mark this week with secondary and tertiary level treatments worth ₹7,901 crore being carried out across 32 States and Union Territories.
• More than 60% of the amount spent has been on tertiary care.
• Cardiology, Orthopaedics, Radiation Oncology, Cardio-thoracic and Vascular Surgery, and Urology have emerged as the top tertiary specialities.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

Possible to grow crops on Mars, Moon for future explorers: Study

News

• Scientists have produced crops in Mars and lunar soil simulant developed by NASA, supporting the idea that it is possible to grow food on the Red Planet and the Moon to feed future settlers.

Crops in Mars and lunar soil

• The researchers suggests that it is also possible to obtain viable seed from crops grown on Mars and the Moon.
• They cultivated ten different crops, including garden cress, tomato, radish, rye, quinoa, spinach, chives, and peas.
• The researchers simulated the properties of Lunar and Martian regolith and “normal” soil potting soil from Earth as a control.
• Total biomass production per tray was the highest for the Earth control and Mars soil simulant that differed significantly from Moon soil simulant.
• The seeds produced by three species radish, rye and garden cress were tested successfully for germination.

A.P. govt. launches Rythu Bharosa scheme that provides ₹13,500 to farmers

News

• P Chief Minister said his ‘farmer-friendly’ government is committed to providing input assistance of ₹13,500 per year to all eligible ones.

Rythu Bharosa scheme

• Input assistance of ₹7,500 would be provided to each farmer before start of the kharif season, another ₹4,000 at the time of harvesting and just before the start of the rabi season, and the last instalment of ₹2,000 at the time of the farmers’ festival of Sankranti.
• The government ensured nine hours power supply to farmers during day time in 60% of power feeders now,the same would be extended to the remaining feeders by upgrading the transmission infrastructure by July 2020 at a cost of ₹1,700 crore.

Delhi’s air quality ‘very poor’ in 18 out of 33 monitoring stations

News

• The city’s air quality was “very poor” in 18 out of the 33 monitoring stations for which data was available.

Air quality

• The air quality is likely to worsen further from the last week of October, according to government-run monitoring agency System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR).
• The Air Quality Index (AQI) was “very poor” at ITO, Siri Fort, DTU, Dwarka Sector 8 and Mundka among other places, according to data from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
• According to the CPCB, prolonged exposure to “very poor” air quality can lead to respiratory illness.
• At 9 a.m., the overall AQI of Delhi was 298, two notches short of “very poor” category. An AQI between 0 and 50 is considered ‘good’, 51 and 100 ‘satisfactory’, 101 and 200 ‘moderate’, 201 and 300 ‘poor’, 301 and 400 ‘very poor’, and 401 and 500 ‘severe’.
• Strict pollution control measures under Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), including a ban on use of diesel generator sets, are in place in Delhi and other NCR towns. GRAP includes a set of guidelines to be followed when air quality deteriorates and it was notified in 2017.

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