Daily Current Affairs 21 December 2019

Current Affairs of Today are

1)  Society of Biotechnology of India (SBPI)

• Biotechnologists and technocrats several of whom were once part of the Union Department of Biotechnology launched a nonprofit organization called the Society of Biotechnology of India (SBPI) 
• The organization said it would promote transformation changes and approaches towards core research in modern biotechnology so that the outcome could lead to more products and technologies for economic and social gain. And looked forward to ideas from it on how to better engage with individuals and industry to advance biotechnology in the country
• The founding members of SBPI include Dr. P.K. Ghosh, president; Dr. George John, vice­president; Divya Rajput, treasurer; Dr. Bindu Dey, general secretary; Dr. B.M. Gandhi, SL Govindwar and T.V. Ramanaiah.

2) Jammu and Kashmir Global Investors Summit­-2020

The J&K administration has embarked on massive preparations to organize the ‘J&K Global Investors Summit­2020’ next year to attract investors to the Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh, where buying land was restricted before the revocation of Article 370 and 35A.

Positive Points

• The investors Summit will provide an opportunity to allay fears and apprehensions from the minds of the outside business communities about investment in J&K. It will present immense opportunities to develop contacts between the local and outside business community and will provide not only primary employment but also generate secondary and ancillary employment opportunities for youth
• The J&K administration has described the summit as a mega event. It will see strategic sectoral sessions, round table deliberations, technical presentations, partnerships, one­to­one business meetings and signing of the memorandum of understanding
• Around 15,000 kanals of land have been identified so far and it will be open for outside investors soon. 

Locals Fear

The Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industries, however, has expressed fears. “The first claim on the resources of Kashmir should lie with the locals. Decisions having any impact on their future should be taken only by them. So far the thrust seems to be on non­local investors and investments

3) Haryana Narcotics Bureau

• Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij announced that a separate “Haryana Narcotics Bureau” would be set up within a year in an attempt to curb drug menace in the State.
• Operation Prahar is a Haryana police drive, started a month ago, to fight organized crime and growing drug menace in the State. Under this operation, the police have so far registered 281 cases and arrested 319 people

Aim

The government's aim is to completely curb the drug trade. And are also contemplating to bring

about a change in the law to take stern action against those involved in the smuggling of drugs and also attach their property besides impounding the vehicles involved in the illegal trade.

4) Army to sign deal for six Apache attack helicopters 

• The deal for six AH-­64E Apache attack helicopters for the Indian Army, estimated to cost around $930 million, is likely to be signed early next year, Army sources said on Friday. These are in addition to 22 Apaches being inducted by the Indian Air Force (IAF)
•  August 2017, the Defence Acquisition Council, chaired by the then Defence Minister Arun Jaitley, approved the purchase of six Apache attack helicopters from the U.S. for the Army. 
• For this, India is exercising the optional clause in the original deal for 22 Apaches, which has a provision for 11 helicopters. The Army had made a pitch for all of them, but the government had limited it to six.
• The IAF has recently inducted the first batch of eight Apaches based in Pathankot. All the 22 Apaches are expected to be delivered by 2020 and will replace the aging Russian Mi­35 attack helicopters in service.
• Currently, the Army Aviation Corps operates only smaller Cheetah and ALH (Advanced Light Helicopters) that weigh less than five tonnes. 
• All the bigger helicopters, including the Mi­35s and fixed-wing aircraft, are operated by the IAF

5) A strong earthquake in Afghanistan and Pakistan

• A strong earthquake rattled Afghanistan and Pakistan on Friday afternoon, the U.S. Geological Survey said, forcing residents into the streets in Kabul and Islamabad
• The 6.1­magnitude quake hit around 50 km southwest of Jurm in northern Afghanistan and was over 200 km deep
• The quake could be felt as far away as Delhi, residents there reported, while in Lahore, panicked people came onto the streets and got out of their cars. The quake’s epicenter was in a sparsely populated, a remote mountain area in Badakhshan province in Afghanistan.
• The USGS estimated there would be few economic losses from the quake, with “a low likelihood of casualties and damage.”

6) Brexit deal 

• Prime Minister Boris Johnson won approval for his Brexit deal in Parliament on Friday, the first step towards fulfilling his election pledge to deliver Britain’s departure from the European Union by January 31 after his landslide victory.
• Lawmakers voted by 358 to 234 a majority of 124 passes the second reading of Withdrawal Agreement Bill, underlining Mr. Johnson’s large majority in Parliament that should ensure smooth ratification of the divorce deal to implement Britain’s biggest policy shift in more than 40 years.
• More than three years since Britain voted to exit the EU in a 2016 referendum, the deep uncertainty over Brexit has now been replaced by the firm deadline of the end of January. Only after that will the Prime Minister face talks to secure a trade deal with the bloc by the end of next year
• The final stages of ratification will take place after Christmas, with the lower house of Parliament has until January 9 to approve the legislation, giving it just over three weeks to then pass through the upper house and receive Royal Assent.
• After leaving, Britain will need to secure new trading arrangements with the EU a future friendship, the Prime Minister said, that would see the country agree on a trade deal with no alignment with the bloc’s rules.
• This deal does not bring certainty for communities or for business or for the workforce, in fact, it does the opposite and hardwires the risk of a no­deal Brexit next year

7) Afghanistan first country to recognize Indian Pharmacopoeia

The Indian Pharmacopoeia (IP) has been recognized formally by the National Department of Regulation of Medicines and Health Products of the Ministry of Public Health of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. It will also be used based on the requirement as reputable pharmacopeia in the laboratory of medicines and health products quality. With this, a new beginning has been made and Afghanistan has become the first country to recognize IP under the efforts of the Department of Commerce and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

About IP

• IP is an officially recognized book of standards as per the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 and Rules 1945 thereunder. The IP specifies the standards of drugs manufactured and marketed in India in terms of their identity, purity, and strength.
• The quality, efficacy, and safety of the medicines are important from a healthcare perspective. To ensure the quality of medicinal products, the legal and scientific standards are provided by the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC) in the form of Indian Pharmacopoeia (IP). As per, the Second Schedule of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, IP is designated as the official book of standards for drugs imported and/or manufactured for sale, stock or exhibition for sale or distribution in India.
• The IP Commission’s mission is to promote public and animal health in India by bringing out authoritative and officially accepted standards for quality of drugs including active pharmaceutical ingredients, excipients, and dosage forms, used by health professionals, patients and consumers. This is achieved by developing the standards for medicines and supporting their implementation. Also, IPC develops IP Reference Substances (IPRS) that act as a fingerprint for identification of an article under test and its purity as prescribed in the IP monographs. Standards prescribed in the IP are authoritative in nature and are enforced by the regulatory authorities for quality control of medicines in India.

8) EChO Network launched 

EChO Network, a national program to provide a template for cross-disciplinary leadership in India with the specific focus of increasing research, knowledge, and awareness of Indian ecology and the environment was launched yesterday in New Delhi

About EChO

• India faces unprecedented threats to its human environmental and ecosystems, solving which requires a confluence of India’s strong technical expertise and knowledge of the natural world itself. EChO Network would develop a national network to catalyze a new generation of Indians who can synthesize interdisciplinary concepts and tackle real-world problems in medicine, agriculture, ecology, and technology. With no precedent for such a network anywhere in the world, EChO Network establishes a new platform to change how science is embedded in our modern society.
• Through interactive sessions with citizens, industry, academia, and the government, the Network will identify gaps in knowledge regarding selected topics in human and environmental ecosystems. The program will then train postdoctoral leaders in research and outreach on these topics, while also incorporating current public and private efforts into a national network. It would then go on to establishing nation-wide awareness in these issues through public discourse and education for citizens, industry, and government with information exchange at all educational levels. Over time EChO Network intends to create an international distributed institute comprising individuals housed within the industry, government, private, and academic sectors, combining their expertise and resources collectively to tackle large scale problems.

9) ADB, India Sign $ 490 Million Loan for PPP to Upgrade Madhya Pradesh Roads

• The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of India today signed a $490 million loan for public-private partnership (PPP) project to upgrade about 1,600 km of state highways and major district roads (MDRs) from single-lane to two-lane widths in the state of Madhya Pradesh. An additional $286 million investment will be mobilized through private sector participation under the PPP modality.
• This will open a new partnership by introducing PPP through the hybrid annuity model (HAM), thereby leveraging government financing and improving the sustainability of capital investments.

About HAM

The HAM is a mix of engineering, procurement, construction, and build-operate-transfer. This passes the responsibility of design, implementation, and operation and maintenance obligations to the private sector while attracting some private sector financing. Under this model, the government will release 60% of the total project cost during construction, to be paid to the concessionaire in tranches linked to completion milestones. The remaining 40% is arranged by the concessionaire in the form of equity and commercial debt. Once the project is completed, the government will repay the concessionaire’s financial investment over 10 years.

About Project

The project will upgrade 750 km of state highways and 850 km of MDRs to two-lane and all-weather standards with road safety features. It will also develop an e-maintenance system, which can record defects or required maintenance, along with a training program to develop capacity on contract implementation and project finance in the Madhya Pradesh Road Development Corporation. Since 2002, ADB has provided the state government with five loans to develop its road network, improving about 7,300 km of roads or about 11% of the total network.

10) The outcome of COP-25 balanced

The 25th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 25) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was held under the Presidency of Chile in Madrid, Spain on 02nd – 15th December 2018. The conference, which was expected to conclude on 13th December, was extended till 15th December 2019 to arrive at a consensus on a range of issues, particularly Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage associated with Climate Change Impacts and climate finance.

Some of the key issues discussed at COP25 are enlisted below

1. Pre-2020 implementation and ambition gaps: On the matter of Pre-2020 gaps in commitments and actions of developed countries under the Kyoto Protocol, India, along with other developing countries, was successful in ensuring further work on it. The COP 25 decision provides for assessing the pre-2020 gaps through round tables at COP 26 in Glasgow, with written submissions from Parties. UNFCCC secretariat will prepare a summary report of the pre-2020 gaps in mitigation action and means of implementation support by developed country parties that had commitments under the Kyoto Protocol.
2. Article 6 under the Paris Agreement: the guidance for Article 6 for market and non-market mechanisms could not be agreed due to divergences among Parties. However, India was successful in protecting its key positions in the last draft decision text presented including on transition of Clean Development Mechanism under Kyoto Protocol to the post-2020 period and provision of the share of proceeds from market mechanisms as well as cooperative approaches, for adaptation fund to address the climate change adaptation needs of developing countries. India insisted that fundamental principles of market reliability and parity between Article 6.2 and Article 6.4 must be preserved. India’s concerns are reflected in the draft texts that will be negotiated in further meetings of the COP. India argued for incentivizing the private sector through Article 6.4 with adequate returns without the requirement of adjusting Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) that are country-driven.
3. Enhanced Transparency Framework (Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification): in the discussions on technical elements under transparency, India argued for a robust transparency framework for both action and support provided by developed to developing countries. Further, the common formats should operationalize flexibility for developing countries to reflect the principle of differentiation. Discussion on this matter will continue in the next COP26.
4. Warsaw International Mechanism (WIM) for Loss and Damage: under the review of WIM for loss and damage associated with Climate Change Impacts, the decision recognizes urgency of scaling-up of action and support, as appropriate, including finance, technology, and capacity-building, for developing countries for averting, minimizing and addressing loss and damage, including from Green Climate Fund (GCF). The decision also established the Santiago network for catalyzing technical assistance for the implementation of relevant approaches in developing countries.
5. Adaptation: On adaptation-related matters, India has been stressing on parity between mitigation and adaptation. The COP 25 decision recalls that the provision of scaled-up financial resources should aim to achieve a balance between adaptation and mitigation, taking into account country-driven strategies, and the priorities and needs of developing country Parties, considering the need for public and grant-based resources for adaptation.
6. Technology development and transfer: On technology-related matters, the adopted decision requests the Technology Executive Committee (TEC) and the Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN) to continue to implement their mandates with strengthened efforts on all themes of the technology framework. GCF has also been requested to collaborate with CTCN and TEC for strengthening cooperative action on technology development and transfer at different stages of the technology cycle.