Goaltide Daily Current Affairs 2020
Current Affair 1:
Pneumonia and Diarrhoea Progress Report 2020: IVAC
Recently, the annual Pneumonia and Diarrhoea Progress Report has been released by the International Vaccine Access Centre (IVAC).
Each year, this report tracks progress towards 10 key indicators in the 15 countries with the highest mortality burden of pneumonia and diarrhea in children under 5.
These 10 indicators are evaluated and summarized into an Overall GAPPD (GAPPD — The Integrated Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia and Diarrhea) score.
Current Affair 2:
Arunachal records best sex ratio, Manipur the worst
“Vital statistics of India based on the Civil Registration System
- The requirement for a complete and up to date Vital Statistical System to yield reliable data on vital events hardly needs any emphasis.
- These data are essential for socio-economic planning and development and also to evaluate the effective implementation of various public schemes and programs.
- The main sources of data on vital events in India are Civil Registration System (CRS), Sample Registration System (SRS) and Population Census.
- Though the Population Census is the main source of information on population and its characteristics; however, being a decennial exercise, it does not provide the measure of changes in population from year to year. The measures of fertility and mortality derived from Census are centered on the midpoint of the decade and as such do not provide yearly change in the population.
- Robust estimates of vital rates at District level on an annual basis through sample survey are difficult to obtain on account of prohibitively large sample size and variety of resultant factors such as controlling of non-sampling errors etc.
- CRS is thus the only source for providing vital rates at district level. Rather, a complete CRS can provide these rates at all administrative level.
- The Civil Registration System (CRS) may be defined as a unified process of continuous, permanent, compulsory and universal recording of the vital events and characteristics thereof, as per legal requirements in the country.
- In India, the Civil Registration System covers registration of births and deaths.
- The Civil Registration data acquires paramount importance in the wake of 73rd and 74th amendments to the constitution of India, as it can provide data at local level for micro level planning, monitoring and evaluation of schemes.
- At national level, the vital 4 statistics data generated through Civil Registration is also quite useful for medical research and in the study of sex ratio, mortality and morbidity rates and also in the study of causes of deaths.
Sex ratio at birth – Sex ratio at birth is the number of females born per 1,000 males.
- Arunachal Pradesh recorded 1,084 females born per thousand males, followed by Nagaland (965) Mizoram (964), Kerala (963) and Karnataka (957).
- The worst was reported in Manipur (757), Lakshadweep (839) and Daman & Diu (877), Punjab (896) and Gujarat (897).
- Delhi recorded a sex ratio of 929, Haryana 914 and Jammu and Kashmir 952.
- The number of registered births increased to 2.33 crore in 2018 from 2.21 crore registered births the previous year.
- The level of registration of births has increased to 89.3% in 2018 from 81.3% in 2009.
Current Affair 3:
Worst air quality on Deepavali in four years
The Met Department said that under the influence of fresh western disturbance the wind speed went up to around 25 km per hour. In this context let us understand this important topic from the perspective of prelims as well as mains examination.
What are western disturbances?
The atmospheric process that triggers the birth of WDs is a complex one. But in simple terms, WDs are caused by pronounced temperature differences between higher and lower latitudes. The transfer and interaction of warm and cold air creates an area of low pressure in the mid-latitudes, usually over the Mediterranean Sea.
How are they Formed?
Western disturbances originate in the Mediterranean region. A high-pressure area over Ukraine and neighborhood consolidates, causing the intrusion of cold air from polar regions towards an area of relatively warmer air with high moisture.
This generates favourable conditions for cyclogenesis (the development or strengthening of an area of low pressure in the atmosphere in the upper atmosphere), which promotes the formation of an eastward-moving extratropical depression.
Traveling at speeds up to 12 m/s (43 km/h; 27 mph), the disturbance moves towards the Indian subcontinent until the Himalayas inhibits its development, upon which the depression rapidly weakens.
Impact of western Disturbances on Indian climate
- Western disturbances are usually associated with cloudy sky, higher night temperatures and unusual rain.
- Western disturbances, specifically the ones in winter, bring moderate to heavy rain in low-lying areas and heavy snow to mountainous areas of the Indian Subcontinent.
- They are the cause of most winter and pre-monsoon season rainfall across northwest India.
- Precipitation during the winter season has great importance in agriculture, particularly for the rabi crops.
- Wheat among them is one of the most important crops, which helps to meet India's food security. An average of four to five western disturbances form during the winter season.
Are there any ill-effects of Western Disturbances?
- Excessive precipitation due to western disturbances can cause crop damage, landslides, floods and avalanches.
- Over the Indo-Gangetic plains, they occasionally bring cold wave conditions and dense fog. These conditions remain stable until disturbed by another western disturbance.
- When western disturbances move across northwest India before the onset of monsoon, a temporary advancement of monsoon current appears over the region.
Why are strong WDs important for India?
India is a rain-dependent country. And while the southwest monsoon covers most of India, some parts of north India don’t get much rain from it. Instead, these regions depend on snow and rain from western disturbances during the Indian winter season from November to March.
Precipitation from western disturbances replenishes the Himalayan glaciers, preserves the natural ecosystem, helps crops like wheat, and assists hydropower generation. Occasionally, however, strong WDs can also push further east into parts of the Indo-Gangetic plains.
Current Affair 4:
World leaders join forces to fight the accelerating crisis of antimicrobial resistance
The heads of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), and the World Health Organization (WHO) launched the new ‘One Health Global Leaders Group on Antimicrobial Resistance’.
The group will harness the leadership and influence of these world-renowned figures to catalyze global attention and action to preserve antimicrobial medicines and avert the disastrous consequences of antimicrobial resistance.
The Tripartite organizations launched the group during World Antimicrobial Awareness Week 2020 (18-24 November), as part of their shared call for united action to preserve and protect antimicrobial medicines.
The group has to monitor the global response to antimicrobial resistance; maintain public momentum; provide regular reports on the science and evidence related to AMR to the UN member states, advocate for the inclusion of AMR ‘lens' in investments on agriculture, health, development, food and feed production; and push for multi-stakeholder engagement on the issue.
The group will meet twice a year.
Growing problem of AMR. Few examples:
Current Affair 5:
Science Based Targets Network (SBTN)
The Science Based Targets Network (SBTN), an initiative of the Global Commons Alliance (GCA), recently launched a corporate engagement program to help companies, consultancies and industry coalitions set science-based targets that could help protect all aspects of nature, including biodiversity, land, ocean, water, as well as climate.
What is the Science Based Targets Network?
The Science Based Targets Network (SBTN) is a collaboration of leading global non-profits and mission driven organizations working together to equip companies as well as cities with the guidance to set science-based targets for all of Earth’s systems. This will help them define a clear pathway to ensure they are doing enough across their value chain to address their impacts and dependencies on nature.
The SBTN is part of the Global Commons Alliance, which brings together powerful leadership, technology, science, innovation, and communication to transform the world’s economic systems and protect the global commons.
The SBTN builds on the momentum of the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). It is a network of 45+ organizations - including the same organizations behind the SBTi - developing methods and resources for science-based targets for nature for companies, and science-based targets for both climate and nature for cities. Its goal is for the world’s major companies and cities to have adopted science-based targets and taken action for climate, which companies will continue to do through the SBTi, alongside water, land, ocean, and biodiversity by 2025. This will form a key part of progress towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and global policy milestones.
ABOUT Global Commons Alliance (GCA)
