Current Affair 1:

DECLARATION of the 2022 GLOBAL PEOPLE’s ASSEMBLY

 

The Global People’s Assembly is a self-organised space during the United Nations General Assembly high level with the aim of bringing the voices of the people to the forefront, at a time where decision makers engage in high level debate without people’s involvement. The 2022 Global People’s Assembly took place online from Tuesday 20th September – Thursday 22nd September 2022.

A Declaration developed with inputs from over 30 national and regional people’s assemblies, was adopted at the three–day Global People’s Assembly on Tuesday 22 of September, organised by Global call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) and allies, during the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.

We call on the governments of UN member states to:

1. Public Health and People’s Vaccine: Establish a global roadmap for vaccine equality.
2. Social Protection: Invest and recommit to achieve SDG 1.3 and act now to ensure progressive realization of the guarantees of the right to Universal Social Protection for all by 2030.
3. Civic Space and Human Rights: Honour, uphold and respect human rights, civic space and protections for civil society activists and environmental defenders.
4. Gender Equality: Take a human rights-based and gender transformative approach to the implementation of all aspects of the 2030 Agenda and the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and related crises.
5. Climate and Environmental Justice: Meet and exceed the Paris Climate Accords.
6. Debt Justice: Unconditional cancellation of public external debt payments by all lenders – bilateral, multilateral and private lenders – for all countries in need in the face of the health, economic and climate crisis.
7. Economic Justice: Convene a fourth Financing for Development Conference - FfD4 to bring democratic accountability to global finance.
8. UN Reform: Make global institutions more democratic, representative and inclusive by limiting the use of the veto in the UN Security Council.

Current Affair 2:

WHO releases first-ever list of health-threatening fungi

 

News:

WHO today published a report highlighting the first-ever list of fungal "priority pathogens" – a catalogue of the 19 fungi that represent the greatest threat to public health.  The WHO fungal priority pathogens list (FPPL) is the first global effort to systematically prioritize fungal pathogens, considering the unmet research and development (R&D) needs and the perceived public health importance. The WHO FPPL aims to focus and drive further research and policy interventions to strengthen the global response to fungal infections and antifungal resistance.

The FPPL report underscores strategies for policymakers, public health professionals and other stakeholders. The strategies proposed in the report are collectively aimed at generating evidence and improving response to these fungal priority pathogens including preventing the development of antifungal drug resistance. The primary recommended actions are focused on:

(1) strengthening laboratory capacity and surveillance;

(2) sustaining investments in research, development, and innovation; and

(3) enhancing public health interventions for prevention and control.

The WHO FPPL list is divided into three categories: critical, high and medium priority. The fungal pathogens of in each priority category are so ranked primarily due to their public health impact and/or emerging antifungal resistance risk.

Current Affair 3:

Two more Indian Beaches enter the coveted list of Blue Beaches

 

In yet another recognition of India’s commitment to protect and conserve the pristine coastal and marine ecosystems through holistic management of the resources, the globally recognized and the coveted International eco-label "Blue Flag”, has been accorded to two new beaches – Minicoy Thundi Beach and Kadmat Beach- both in Lakshadweep.

The other Indian beaches in the blue list are Shivrajpur-Gujarat, Ghoghla-Diu, Kasarkod and Padubidri-Karnataka, Kappad-Kerala, Rushikonda- Andhra Pradesh, Golden-Odisha, Radhanagar- Andaman and Nicobar, Kovalam in Tamil Nadu and Eden in Puducherry beaches.

This takes the number of beaches certified under the Blue Flag certification to twelve (12).

About certification:

A world-renowned award trusted by millions around the globe, the Blue Flag programme is run by the Foundation for Environmental Education and is headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark.

In order to qualify for this prestigious award, a series of stringent environmental, educational, safety-related and access-related criteria must be met and maintained.

Current Affair 4:

Penalty of Rs. 1.34 thousand crores imposed on Google

 

In another case, CCI held that Google was abusing its dominant position in multiple markets in the Android device ecosystem and has issued a cease-and-desist order against Google. It imposed a penalty of Rs. 1,337.76 crores and also laid down measures which Google must comply with.

The mobile operating system (OS) – Android, was acquired by Google in 2005. CCI in its press release stated that it has studied the various business practices of Google including its licensing of Android mobile OS as well as other proprietary mobile applications like Play Store, Google Search, Google Chrome, and YouTube.

It looked into the substitutability between Google’s Android Play Store and Apple’s iOS AppStore and found that there was no substitutability between them. CCI noted that Google is dominant in all the relevant markets in India, including – licensable Operating Systems (OS) for smart mobile devices, app store for Android smart mobile and general web search services and online video hosting platforms (OVHP) in India.

CCI observed that Google operates and manages Android OS and other proprietary licenses and has entered into multiple agreements with the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to use the Android OS and Google apps in their smart devices.

The commission concluded that these agreements assured that the search app, widget, and chrome browser were pre-installed in on Android devices, which provides a significant competitive edge to Google’s search services. This advantage was extended to its other applications like YouTube.

It noted that, with these agreements in place, the competitors of Google never stood a chance to compete. Further, these agreements have also eliminated the choice for the users. CCI held that the markets should be allowed to compete on merits and the onus lies on the dominant player i.e., Google in this case, to prove that its conduct does not impinge the competition on merits.

Apart from the monetary penalty, CCI has issued certain measures which includes – barring of google from forcing OEMs to pre-install Google’s apps, not to restrain OEMs to choose from Google’s proprietary apps, prohibition of offering any monetary or other incentives to OEMs, barred from entering into any arrangements that ensure exclusivity etc.

 

Current Affair 5:

New technology for retrofitting non-earthquake-resistant buildings can prevent major damage in old settlements

 

News:

Researchers have found a solution for retrofitting old non-earthquake-resistant buildings with a technology that can prevent major damage to such buildings from earthquakes without compromising on their strength.

The technology called semi-confined unreinforced brick masonry (SC-URBM) can resolve the problem of spread of settlements in earthquake-prone areas with constructions that have been built without following earthquake-preventive building codes.

Historically, most buildings, technically called unreinforced masonry (URM), were not built using modern building codes. Thus, they are much more likely to experience damage or collapse during an earthquake. URM buildings have traditionally been widely adopted worldwide due to inexpensive and locally available construction materials.

Just like in most developing countries located in earthquake-prone regions unreinforced brick masonry (URBM) has been a common practice in urban, semi-urban, and rural areas of India. Considering that major parts of India are under seismic zone III or above and most of the URBM buildings are old and structurally deficient, strengthening of URBM buildings located in earthquake-prone areas is extremely important.

<< Previous Next >>