Daily Current Affairs 20 November 2019

Current Affairs of Today are

1) National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID)

National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) project will be operational by December 31, 2020, the Lok Sabha was informed

About National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID)

• The NATGRID will enable multiple security and intelligence agencies to access a database related to immigration entry and exit, banking and telephone details, among others, from a common platform.
• The project initially started in 2009 with a budget of ₹2,800 crores, is an online database for collating scattered pieces of information and putting them together on one platform.
• At least 10 Central government agencies, such as the Intelligence Bureau, the Research and Analysis Wing and others, will have access to the data on a secured platform. 
• NATGRID has developed application software for proof of technology (POT), which is yet to be fully rolled out. NATGRID solution is planned to go live by 31.12.2020
• The progress was reviewed from time to time, and during the current financial year, ₹84.80 crore had been allocated to the project.
• Central agencies will have access to the data on the NATGRID platform in the first phase
• The 10 user agencies will be linked independently with certain databases which will be procured from 21 providing organizations including telecom, tax records, bank, immigration, etc. to generate intelligence inputs. 
• NATGRID was exempted from the Right to Information Act, 2005 undersub­section (2) of Section 24.

What is Proof of Technology (PoT)?

In software development "proof of technology" (often abbreviated to PoT) is used interchangeably with "proof of concept" (PoC) or "pilot project".

2) Drought prediction survey 2019-­20, prepared by the Ground-water Surveys and Development Agency (GSDA)

• According to the drought prediction survey 2019­20, prepared by the Groundwater Surveys and Development Agency (GSDA) of the State government, around 689 villages in 14 tehsils of the State could face water scarcity in 2020. Of these 359 villages may face the problem from January while the rest from April 2020.
• The GSDA survey for 2018­-19 had estimated that 11,487 villages from 167 tehsils would face water scarcity due to rainfall deficit. For this year’s survey, the GSDA had set up 32,769 observation wells where the water levels were measured till October-­end. 

Rainfall in Different regions

According to the survey, 

• Entire Konkan region including Mumbai, Kolhapur, Bhandara, Gondia, and Gadchiroli fall in the region which received more than 1200 mm rainfall 
• While Pune, Satara, Nasik, Nandurbar, Latur, Parbhani, Hingoli, Nanded, Amaravati, Washim, Yavatmal, Nagpur, Wardha, and Chandrapur receive around 1200 mm to 700 mm rainfall. 
• The rest of the State falls in the less than 700 mm rainfall category. 

Drawback Of Maharashtra Geography for holding water

• 82% of the State consists of balsamic rock which can store merely 1 to 3% water. Metamorphic rock covers 10% region which too does not hold water. Of the remaining 8%, around 5.5% is sedimentary rock while rest is alluvium where water storage is considerably good, around 5 to 10%. 
• 28% area is a highly dissected plateau, which includes Konkan, western ghats and other hilly regions. At least 44% area is moderately dissected plateau with medium water seepage capacity. The rest of the 28% area is an undissected plateau and/or valley fill where groundwater availability is higher. 

3) Rajya Sabha passes Jallianwala Trust Bill

• The Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial Trust will no longer have the Congress president as a member, and the Central government will have the power to end any member’s five­year term before its expiry, according to an amendment passed by the Rajya Sabha
• The Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial (Amendment) Act, 2019, which was passed by the Lok Sabha on August 2, replaced the Congress president as a member of the Trust with the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, or the leader of the single largest Opposition party in case there is no Leader of Opposition.
• The Trust was first set up by then Congress president Motilal Nehru in 1920

4) Cultivation of Medicinal Plants along the Banks of River Ganga

• The Ministry of AYUSH, Government of India is implementing the “Medicinal Plants” component under “Centrally Sponsored Scheme of National AYUSH Mission” (NAM) since 2015-16 throughout the country. As per the operational NAM scheme guidelines, the cultivation of medicinal plants is supported in different States based on the State Annual Action Plan (SAAP) submitted by concerned State and approved by the NAM Directorate of Ministry of AYUSH. Under the NAM scheme, the Ministry of AYUSH has supported the cultivation of medicinal plants in the state of Bihar, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal through which the river Ganga flows.
•  the Ministry of AYUSH under its “Central Sector Scheme on Conservation, Development and Sustainable Management of Medicinal Plants” has also supported a project titled “Dissemination of Vetiver (Chrysopogon zizanioides) agrotechnology in flood-prone contaminated area of Ganga river of Uttar Pradesh” to Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP), Lucknow. Under the project, Vetiver plantation has been done in the catchment area of river Ganga in different locations of Kanpur and Varanasi districts.

5) Elimination of TB

• India has committed to ending tuberculosis by 2025. The National Strategic Plan 2017-25 for ending TB by 2025 was developed in 2017 and included various interventions through multi-stakeholder engagement to reduce the burden of TB. These interventions are being implemented from 2017 onwards and the impact of these would be evident in the subsequent years.
• Globally, the average rate of decline in the TB incidence rate was 1.8% between 2016 and 2017. In India, the rate of decline in TB incidence rate was 3.3% between 2016 and 2017 as compared to 2.3% between 2015 and 2016. TB incidence further reduced by 2.5% between 2017 and 2018.
• There are various types of TB tests. When a skin test is positive, it is not always a cause of worry, as the person might only have an infection and not have the disease. When sputum microscopy or molecular test is positive, a diagnosis of TB is confirmed and although a cause for concern, the patient should be promptly started on Anti-TB treatment.

6) Ministry of Road Transport and Highways Releases ‘Road Accidents in India-2018’

Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has released the ‘Road Accidents in India, 2018’. It is an annual publication brought out by the Transport Research Wing of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways which reports on accidents, related deaths and injuries, calendar year-wise, based on information supplied by the Police Department of States and UTs.

The major findings of the Report are as follows

• As per the Report, Road accidents in the country have increased marginally by 0.46 % during 2018 with the year seeing 4,67,044 road accidents as against 4,64,910 in 2017. The fatalities during the same period have also risen by about 2.37% and 151471 persons were killed in 2018 as against 1,47,913 in 2017. Road accident injuries have however shown a decrease of 0.33% in 2018 as compared to 2017.   
• The report also brings out that while accidents, deaths, and injuries registered a steep rise till 2010, they somewhat stabilized after that, with only marginal year to year fluctuations. Further, the Compound annual growth rate of accidents as well as accident-related deaths in the period 2010-2018 dropped drastically and was the least when compared with the previous decades, despite the very high rate of growth of automobiles.
• National Highways which comprise of 1.94 percent of the total road network, accounted for 30.2 percent of total road accidents and 35.7 percent of deaths in 2018. State Highways which account for 2.97% of the road length accounted for 25.2 percent and 26.8 percent of accidents and deaths respectively. Other Roads which constitute about 95.1% of the total roads were responsible for the balance of 45 % of accidents and 38% deaths respectively.
• In terms of accident-related killings by type of road user, the number of Pedestrians killed accounted for 15%, the share of cyclists was 2.4% and that of Two-wheelers was 36.5%. Together these categories explain 53.9% of the accident-related killings and are the most vulnerable category quite in line with global trends.
• During 2018, like the previous two years, young adults in the age group of 18 - 45 years accounted for nearly 69.6 percent of road accident victims. The working-age group of 18 – 60 accounted for a share of 84.7 percent in the total road accident deaths.
• The number of hit and run cases in 2018 accounted for 18.9% of the deaths compared to 17.5% in 2017. Head-on collision, followed by Hit and run cases followed by Hit from the back accounted for almost 56% of persons killed in 2018.  The category which registered the maximum increase in terms of persons killed in 2018 was the collision with parked vehicles.
• The share of males in a number of total accident deaths was 86% while the share o females hovered around 14% in 2018.
• Road accidents are multi-causal and are often the result of an interplay of various factors.
• human error
• road environment
• vehicular condition
• The information received from the States/UTs on the causes of road accidents brings out inter-alia the following
• Under the category of Traffic Rule Violations, over speeding is a major killer, accounting for 64.4% of the persons killed followed by driving on the wrong side of the road which accounted for 5.8% of the accident-related deaths. The use of mobile phones accounted for 2.4% of the deaths with drunken driving accounting for 2.8% of the persons killed.
• Driving without valid license/learner license accounts for 13% of accidents.
• About 29% of deaths can be attributed to non-use of helmets and 16% of deaths can be attributed to non-use of seat belts.
• Vehicles more than 10 years accounted for 41% of accident-related deaths.
• Overloaded vehicles accounted for about 12% of deaths.
• As in 2017, the State of Tamil Nadu recorded the highest number of road accidents in 2018. Similarly, as in 2017, the number of persons killed in a road accident was the highest in Uttar Pradesh in 2018.

7) STEPS BEING TAKEN BY THE GOVERNMENT TO CONTROL POPULATION GROWTH

• Mission Parivar Vikas- The Government has launched Mission Parivar Vikas for substantially increasing access to contraceptives and family planning services in146 high fertility districts with Total Fertility Rate (TFR) of 3 and above in seven high focus states. These districts are from the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, and Assam that itself constitutes 44% of the country’s population.
• New Contraceptive Choices- New contraceptives viz. Injectable contraceptives and Centchroman have been added to the existing basket of choices.
• A new method of IUCD insertion immediately after delivery i.e. post-partum IUCD (PPIUCD) has been introduced.
• Redesigned Contraceptive Packaging - The packaging for Condoms, OCPs and ECPs has now been improved and redesigned so as to increase the demand for these commodities.
• Compensation scheme for sterilization acceptors - Under the scheme, MoHFW provides compensation for loss of wages to the beneficiary and also to the service provider (& team) for conducting sterilizations.
• Clinical Outreach Teams (COT) Scheme - The scheme has been launched in 146 Mission ParivarVikas districts for providing Family planning services through mobile teams from accredited organizations in far-flung, underserved and geographically difficult areas.
• Scheme for Home delivery of contraceptives by ASHAs at the doorstep of beneficiaries.
• Scheme for ASHAs to Ensure spacing in births.
• Scheme for provision of Pregnancy Testing Kits in the drug kits of ASHAs for use in communities.
• Family Planning Logistic Management and Information System (FP-LMIS): A dedicated software to ensure smooth forecasting, procurement, and distribution of family planning commodities across all the levels of health facilities.
• National Family Planning Indemnity Scheme (NFPIS) under which clients are insured in the eventualities of death, complication, and failure following sterilization.
• Ensuring quality of care in Family Planning services by establishing Quality Assurance Committees in all states and districts.
• Appointment of dedicated RMNCH+A counselors at high caseload facilities.
• Improved Demand generation activities through a 360-degree media campaign.

8) Census 2021 to be conducted in 16 languages

• Census 2021, a mixed-mode approach is being adopted for data collection.  Census will be conducted in two phases, viz., House-listing & Housing Census from April to September 2020 and Population Enumeration during February 09-28, 2021.
• The Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) has recommended an amount of Rs. 8754.23 crore for conducting Census 2021 in 16 languages.
• Enumerators can collect and submit data directly through Mobile App using his /her smartphone or they can use the paper schedule to collect data and submit the same through Mobile App. Alternatively, the enumerators can also use a paper schedule only to collect and submit the data. The State Government appointed enumerators will only be able to use the App for the collection of data.