IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-01

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India faces higher mortality from cardiovascular diseases

News

• Cardiovascular disease (CVD) continues to be the leading cause of death across the world, but there are significant variations between rich and poor nations.
• In high income countries, death from cancer is twice that of CVD, in low income countries, including India, death from cardiac disease was three times that of cancer.

Cardiovascular disease

• Indoor or household air pollution has been identified as a key cause of CVD.
• The study tracked over 1,62,000 individuals, aged 35-70 years, living in 21 countries across five continents, over about 9.5 years.
• The mortality was highest in the Low Income Countries (LIC) despite lower risk factors, and lowest in the High Income Countries (HIC).
• The high mortality in poorer countries is not due to a higher burden of risk factors, but likely other factors including lower quality and less health care.
• The HIC in the study were Canada, Saudi Arabia, Sweden and United Arab Emirates. The middle-income countries (MIC) were Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Columbia, Iran, Malaysia, Palestine, Philippines, Poland, Turkey and South Africa.
• The LIC were Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

Kartarpur corridor: India, Pakistan agree on visa-free travel of Indian pilgrims to gurdwara

News

• India and Pakistan reached an understanding on visa-free travel of Indian pilgrims based on their faith but no formal agreement could be signed.

Kartarpur corridor

• The third round of talks on the modalities for operationalisation of the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor was held at Attari checkpoint in Punjab.
• Persons of Indian origin holding OCI card too can visit Holy Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib using the corridor. 5,000 pilgrims can visit Holy Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib using the corridor every day.
• Additional pilgrims, over and above the figure of 5,000, can visit on special occasions, subject to capacity expansion by Pakistan side. Pakistan has conveyed its solemn commitment to increase this number to the maximum possible.
• The corridor will be operational throughout the year, seven days a week, an understanding was reach and pilgrims will have a choice to visit as individuals or in groups, and on foot.
• Both sides agreed to build the bridge at Budhi Ravi Channel. Pending the construction of the bridge on the Pakistan side, both sides agreed to the crossing point coordinates of the temporary service road being built.
• Both sides agreed upon emergency evacuation procedures, especially medical emergencies. A direct line of communication between Border Security Force and Pakistan Rangers will be used for the same.
• Both sides agreed to ensure safe and secure environment for the movement of pilgrims.
• The Pakistan side has agreed to make sufficient provision for preparation and distribution of ‘Langar’ and ‘Prasad’ for the pilgrims.
• All the facilities on Indian side would be ready for the pilgrimage through Kartarpur Corridor on the auspicious occasion of the 550th Birth Anniversary of Guru Nanak.

India, Russia ink proposal on developing Chennai-Vladivostok sea route

News

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed ways to bolster cooperation in trade and investment, oil and gas, nuclear energy, defence, space and maritime connectivity.
• The two leaders held the delegation-level talks at the India-Russia 20th Annual Summit after a two-hour tete-a-tete on board a ship, aimed at strengthening the special and privileged relationship between the two sides.

        Maritime route between Chennai and Vladivostok

• A proposal had been made to have a full-fledged maritime route between Chennai and Vladivostok. A Memorandum of Intent was signed in this regard.

Train Indian astronauts

• Russia, would help train Indian astronauts for the manned space mission the Gaganyaan project.
• The two sides signed 15 agreements/MoUs in areas such as defence, air, and maritime connectivity, energy, natural gas, petroleum and trade.
• It was the common goal of the two sides to reach an agreement to establish a free trade area between India and the Eurasian economic union.
• The flagship joint project was the cooperation in the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant.

Russia to launch special stamp to commemorate Mahatma Gandhi: official

News

• Russia will launch a special stamp to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
• On the occasion of the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the Russian Government has taken a decision to issue a special commemorative stamp.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

Chandrayaan-2 lander homing in on moon

News

• Chandrayaan-2’s mission handlers have further honed moon lander Vikram’s orbit to as close as 35 km from the lunar surface, sharply priming it to the descent.

The mission objective of Chandrayaan-2:  to develop and demonstrate the key technologies for end-to-end lunar mission capability, including soft-landing and roving on the lunar surface.

Aim: to further expand the knowledge about the moon through a detailed study of its topography, mineralogy, surface chemical composition, thermo-physical characteristics and atmosphere, leading to a better understanding of the origin and evolution of the moon.

Closer to moon

• The second and probably the last manoeuvre on the lander before it reaches the lunar surface took place.
• After the nine-second operation, the lander now goes around moon in its new orbit of 35 km x 101 km. Before this its orbit was set at 109 km x 120 km.
• With this manoeuvre, the required orbit for the Vikram lander to commence its descent towards the surface of moon is achieved.
• Both the orbiter and the lander are healthy, it said. The primary Chandrayaan-2 orbiter continues to orbit the moon at a distance of 96 km x 125 km.
• The orbiter carries eight scientific payloads for mapping the lunar surface and study the exosphere (outer atmosphere) of the Moon while the lander carries three scientific payloads to conduct surface and subsurface science experiments.
• The rover carries two payloads to enhance the understanding of the lunar surface.
• India’s second lunar expedition would shed light on a completely unexplored section of the Moon, its South Polar region.
• On successful completion, it will make India the fourth country after Russia, the U.S. and China to pull off a soft landing on the moon.

Giraffes close to being classified as ‘critically endangered’

News

• In Africa, the population of the world’s tallest mammals are quietly, yet sharply, in decline.

Population decline

• Giraffe numbers across the continent fell 40% between 1985 and 2015, to just under 100,000 animals, according to the best figures available to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
• The rate of decline is much higher in central and eastern regions, with poaching, habitat destruction and conflict the main drivers blamed for thinning herds of these gentle creatures.

Hacking of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s account highlights dangers of ‘SIM swap’ fraud

News

• Even with considerable security precautions in place, Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey became the victim of an embarrassing compromise when attackers took control of his account on the platform by hijacking his phone number.

SIM swap fraud 

• Twitter chief executive became the latest target of so-called “SIM swap” fraud which enables a fraudster to trick a mobile carrier into transferring a number potentially causing people to lose control not only of social media, but bank accounts and other sensitive information.
• This type of attack targets a weakness in “two factor authentication” via text message to validate access to an account, which has become a popular break-in method in recent years.
• Analysts say hackers have found ways to easily get enough information to get a telecom carrier to transfer a number to a fraudster’s account, especially after hacks of large databases which result in personal data sold on the so-called “dark web”.
• Thousands of these attacks have been reported in countries where mobile payments are common, including in Brazil, Mozambique, India and Spain.

The new reality called climate medicine

News

• The socio-economic burden of chronic kidney disease (CKD) has been growing in Kerala as in the rest of the country.
• Over the past five years or more, a significant increase in young patients with CKD of undetermined cause a fairly new entity, ‘CKD of unknown aetiology (CKDu)’ has been confounding nephrologists.

Chronic kidney disease

• The disease is still poorly understood but there is international consensus that there is an inexorable link between CKDu, heat exposure, dehydration, and other environmental stressors.
• Sparked by climate change, a new era of climate medicine has indeed dawned, wherein new diseases triggered by heat extremes and environmental degradation could be on the rise, CKDu being one such.
• In India, similar disease patterns have been reported from Uddanam in Andhra Pradesh, parts of Odisha, and Tamil Nadu.
• The fact that CKDu could be a form of heat-stress nephropathy, possibly because of the rapidly changing global temperature and environment conditions.
• There is increasing evidence on how extreme exposure to heat and poor hydration can cause daily subclinical acute kidney injury.
• Also consider the fact that all geographical regions where CKDu has been reported have undergone substantial climatic and environmental changes in recent times.

Masood Azhar, Hafiz Saeed, Lakhvi, Dawood Ibrahim declared terrorists under new anti-terror law

News

• Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar, Lashkar-e-Taiba’s Hafiz Saeed, his deputy Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and underworld don Dawood Ibrahim who planned and executed the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts are among the first four individuals to be designated as “terrorists” under the new anti-terror law passed by Parliament.

Anti-terror law

• The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued a gazette notification declaring the four individuals as ‘terrorists’ under clause (a) of sub-section (1) of section 35 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
• To designate Azhar, the MHA mentioned five terror cases, including the February 14 Pulwama attack where 40 CRPF personnel were killed.
• Hafiz Saeed has been designated as a terrorist for his involvement in four cases Red Fort attack (2000), Rampur attack (2008), 26/11 Mumbai attack (2008) and attack on a BSF convoy at Udhampur in Jammu & Kashmir (2015).
• Lakhvi has been designated as a terrorist for his involvement in four cases, including 26/11 Mumbai terror attack.
• The government had said that the first ones to be designated on priority basis would be the Pakistan-based terrorists. The designations are in alignment with laws in European Union (EU) countries, the U.S.A., China, Israel and even Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

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