Daily Current Affairs 15 January 2020

Current Affairs Of Today Are

1) Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ): Blue Flag Certification Beaches

• The Environment Ministry has relaxed Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) rules that restrict construction near beaches to help States construct infrastructure and enable them to receive ‘Blue Flag’ certification.
• Last year, the Ministry selected 13 beaches in India to vie for the certificate. This is an international recognition conferred on beaches that meet certain criteria of cleanliness and environmental propriety.

Blue Flag Beaches 

The earmarked beaches are Ghoghala beach (Diu), Shivrajpur beach (Gujarat), Bhogave beach (Maharashtra), Padubidri and Kasarkod beaches (Karnataka), Kappad beach (Kerala), Kovalam beach (Tamil Nadu), Eden beach (Puducherry), Rushikonda beach (Andhra Pradesh), Miramar Beach (Goa), Golden beach (Odisha), Radhanagar Beach (Andaman & Nicobar Islands) and Bangaram beach (Lakshadweep).

Requirements of Blue Flag Beaches

• The Blue Flag certification, however, requires beaches to create certain infrastructure — portable toilet blocks, greywater treatment plants, a solar power plant, seating facilities, CCTV surveillance and the like. However, India’s CRZ laws don’t allow the construction of such infrastructure on beaches and islands. Via an order on January 9, the Environment Ministry eased these restrictions for the “purposes of Blue Flag certification”.
• Central Government hereby declares that for the purpose of Blue Flag Certification in such identified beaches, the following activities and facilities shall be permitted in the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ), including Islands, subject to maintaining a minimum distance of 10 meters from HTL (High Tide Line),” the gazette notification notes

About Blue Flag Beaches

• The certification is accorded by the Denmark-based Foundation for Environment Education, with 33 stringent criteria under four major heads for the beaches, that is, (i) Environmental Education and Information (ii) Bathing Water Quality (iii) Environment Management and Conservation and (iv) Safety and Services. 
• The ‘Blue Flag’ beach is an ‘eco­tourism model’ and marks out beaches as providing tourists and beachgoers clean and hygienic bathing water, facilities/amenities, a safe and healthy environment, and sustainable development of the area.
• The Blue Flag Programme started in France in 1985 and has been implemented in Europe since 1987, and in areas outside Europe since 2001 when South Africa joined. 

2) National Policy for Rare Diseases­-2020

• The National Policy for Rare Diseases­-2020 released recently by the Union Health Ministry,
• The government, in its policy paper, has proposed financial support of up to ₹15 lakh under an umbrella scheme of the Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi for rare diseases that require one­time
• treatment. Beneficiaries for such financial assistance would not be limited to Below the Poverty Line (BPL) families but extended to 40% of the population eligible as per the norms of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, for their treatment in government tertiary hospitals only
• It has also proposed that the Government will “endeavor to create an alternate funding mechanism by setting up a digital platform for voluntary individual and corporate donors to contribute to the treatment cost of patients of rare diseases” 
• For prevention and control, the Ministry has noted that it will work at encouraging people to seek pre­marital genetic counseling, identification of high-risk couples, and create awareness about early detection of rare diseases. “The 2017 policy on rare diseases had proposed a ₹100 crore corpus fund allocation for the treatment of patients with rare diseases, which was a Centre­State partnership of 60:40, with each State forming a technical committee to evaluate patients’ applications. That has come down to ₹15 lakh support for diseases needing one-­time treatment. 

The Lysosomal Storage Disorders Support Society. 

Policy 2020 is far from reality and lacks genuine interest in providing much-needed treatment to ‘treatable’ Rare Diseases

Organization for Rare Diseases India (ORDI)

According to ORDI, the policy is a “plain mockery of the situation of patients”, and that proposed solutions such as the creation of a digital platform for crowdfunding were not reliable. “The policy is just another document without much substance,”

3) Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2019, by NGO Pratham 

• Only 16% of children in Class 1 in 26 surveyed rural districts can read the text at the prescribed level, while almost 40% cannot even recognize letters, according to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2019, released by NGO Pratham
• Only 41% of these children could recognize two-digit numbers
• However, ASER found that the solution is not to spend long hours teaching children the 3Rs. Counter­intuitively, the report argues that a focus on cognitive skills rather than subject learning in the early years can make a big difference to basic literacy and numeracy abilities. ASER surveyors visited almost 37,000 children between 4 and 8 years in 26 rural districts across 24 States.
• They asked each child to do a variety of tasks, testing cognitive skills as well as simple literacy and numeracy tests. 
• The survey shows that among Class 1 children who could correctly do none or only one of the tasks requiring cognitive skills, about 14% could read words, while 19% could do single-digit addition. However, among children who could correctly do all three cognitive tasks, 52% could read words, and 63% could solve the math problem.
• The report says that “permitting underage children into primary grades puts them at a learning disadvantage which is difficult to overcome.” The ASER surveyors found that a primary classroom could include students from a range of age­groups, skewing towards younger children in government schools. More than a quarter of Class 1 students in government schools are only 4 or 5 years old, younger than the recommended age. The ASER data shows that these children struggle more than others in all skills.
• Global research shows that 90% of brain growth occurs by age 5, meaning that the quality of early childhood education has a crucial impact on the development and schooling of a child. 
• The ASER report shows that a large number of factors determine the quality of education received at this stage, including the child’s home background, especially the mother’s education level; the type of school, and the child’s age in Class 1.
• Based on a series of tests administered to the children, the report says, “ASER data shows that children’s performance on tasks requiring cognitive skills is strongly related to their ability to do early language and numeracy tasks.”

4) Wholesale Price Index

The official Wholesale Price Index for 'All Commodities' for December 2019 rose by 0.4 percent to 122.8 (provisional) from 122.3 (provisional) for the previous month.

INFLATION

The annual rate of inflation, based on monthly WPI, stood at 2.59% (provisional) for December 2019 (over December 2018) as compared to 0.58% (provisional) for the previous month and 3.46% during the corresponding month of the previous year. Build up the inflation rate in the financial year so far was 2.42% compared to a build-up rate of 2.92% in the corresponding period of the previous year.

PRIMARY ARTICLES (Weight 22.62%)

The index for this major group rose by 1 percent to 148.8 (provisional) from 147.3 (provisional) for the previous month.

FUEL & POWER (Weight 13.15%)

The index for this major group remained unchanged at its previous month level of 101.3.

MANUFACTURED PRODUCTS (Weight 64.23%)

The index for this major group rose by 0.2 percent to 118.0 (provisional) from 117.8 (provisional) for the previous month. 

WPI FOOD INDEX (Weight 24.38%)

The rate of inflation based on WPI Food Index consisting of ‘Food Articles’ from Primary Articles group and ‘Food Product’ from Manufactured Products group increased from 9.02% in November 2019 to 11.05% in December 2019.

5) India and Bangladesh ink key agreements in the Information & Broadcasting sector.

• India and Bangladesh signed key agreements in the field of Information and Broadcasting at the Information and Broadcasting Minister’s meet 2020, in New Delhi. In the presence of Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Shri Prakash Javadekar and his Bangladeshi counterpart Muhammad H Mahmud a formal co-production agreement was signed on the biopic of “BangaBandhu”, Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, which will be released during the birth centenary year of Bangabandhu. Bangladesh has decided to celebrate the ‘Mujib Year’ from March 17, 2020, to March 17, 2021, to mark the centenary year of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the first President of Bangladesh.
• Deepening India’s engagement with Bangladesh, an airtime exchange program between Prasar Bharati and Bangladesh Radio Betar was also launched. With today’s launch content from Maitree service has started airing in Dhaka and reciprocally content from Bangladesh Radio Betar has started airing on All India Radio in Kolkata.

6) Three Indian cities have been listed as the world’s fastest-growing urban areas

• Three Indian cities have been listed as the world’s fastest-growing urban areas, a survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) revealed.
• Cities are ranked based on “Total % change, 2015-20 forecast”.
• The list is based on data from the United Nations Population Division.
• The Economist has listed the rate at which the populations of the “urban agglomerations” (UA) are expected to increase between 2015 and 2020.
• Malappuram, Kozhikode, and Kollam were the only three cities to make it to the top 10 of the world’s fastest-growing cities.
• Malappuram was ranked No. 1 in the world rankings with a 44.1 percent change between 2015 and 2020.
• While Kozhikode was ranked fourth with 34.5 percent change and Kollam was at number 10 with 31.1 percent.
• These cities are seeing rapid urbanization, and the main reason is the inclusion of new areas in the UA’s limits.
• In 2001, there were two municipal corporations within the UA of Malappuram. In 2011, the number of municipal corporations had doubled to four, and an additional 37 CTs were included within Malappuram. The population of the UA (excluding the residents of the outgrowths) increased almost 10 times in the same period — from 1,70,409 to 16,99,060 — obviously because of the inclusion of existing urban areas in the town.
• Similarly, Kollam UA grew from one municipal corporation in 2001 to 23 CTs, one municipal corporation, and one municipal council in 2011. Its population increased by 130%, even though the population of the original ST of Kollam actually decreased by 4%.

7) ‘8th Wonders of SCO’

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has included the Statue of Unity among the ‘Eight Wonders of the SCO.

About Statue of Unity

• At 182 meters, the statue is 23 meters taller than China’s Spring Temple Buddha statue and almost double the height of the Statue of Liberty (93 meters tall) in the US.
• Located on the Sadhu Bet island, near Rajpipla on the Narmada river, the Statue of Unity is located between the Satpura and the Vindhya mountain ranges.

The Eight Wonders of the SCO are

1. India the Statue of Unity.
2. Kazakhstan the Archaeological Landscape of Tamgaly.
3. China The Daming imperial palace complex.
4. Kyrgyzstan Lake Issyk-Kul.
5. Pakistan The Great Mughals’ heritage at Lahore.
6. Russia The Golden Ring cities.
7. Tajikistan The Palace of Nowruz.
8. Uzbekistan the Poi Kalon complex.

About the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)

• It is a permanent intergovernmental international organization.
• Its creation was announced on 15 June 2001 in Shanghai (China) by the Republic of Kazakhstan, the People’s Republic of China, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan, and the Republic of Uzbekistan.
• It was preceded by the Shanghai Five mechanism.
• The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Charter was signed during the St.Petersburg SCO Heads of State meeting in June 2002 and entered into force on 19 September 2003.

Objective Of SCO

• Strengthening mutual trust and neighborliness among the member states; promoting their effective cooperation in politics, trade, the economy, research, technology, and culture, as well as in education, energy, transport, tourism, environmental protection, and other areas; making joint efforts to maintain and ensure peace, security, and stability in the region; and moving towards the establishment of a democratic, fair and rational new international political and economic order.
• The SCO’s official languages are Russian and Chinese.

SCO comprises eight member states, namely the Republic of India, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the People’s Republic of China, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan, and the Republic of Uzbekistan;

SCO counts four observer states, namely the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the Republic of Belarus, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Mongolia;

SCO has six dialogue partners, namely the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Armenia, the Kingdom of Cambodia, the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, the Republic of Turkey, and the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.