Daily Current Affairs 4 February 2020

Current Affairs Of Today Are

1) A Mukti Caravan

• A Mukti Caravan, flagged off here last week, is mobilizing people against child trafficking with the focus on generating awareness about preventive procedures in place to combat forced labor, exploitation and sexual abuse of children. The caravan will travel to eight districts of Rajasthan during the next two months.
• Led by the child labor survivors, the caravan will reach out to villages and towns prone to human trafficking. The participants will distribute pamphlets hold discussions with the people at public places and organize activities such as skits, poem recitation, and screening of short films with an appeal to take action against trafficking.
• The National Crime Records Bureau’s latest report has placed Rajasthan in the sixth position in 2018 in terms of victims of trafficking being found. Mr. Tingal congratulated the police for rescuing 137 children of the State from Surat, Gujarat, in December 2019 and said the caravan would serve the purpose of eradicating children’s exploitation.
• The caravan will cover Jaipur, Tonk, Bhilwara, Udaipur, Rajsamand, Chittorgarh, Pratapgarh and Banswara districts, which are prone to human trafficking. Activists will provide a helpline number to the people for quick action to deal with the instances of child trafficking.

Source The Hindu

2) National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

• The highest number of women and children who go missing in the country are from Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh respectively, according to a study by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). The two States recorded the highest number of cases of missing children and women among all other States in the years 2016, 2017 and 2018.
• In 2019, the Supreme Court had directed the NCRB to “analyze the data on missing persons [especially on women and children], so that areas prone to persons being trafficked can be identified”. The NCRB study was based on the annual Crime in India Report compiled by the agency for the years 2016, 2017 and 2018.

Aim of it

• The NCRB said that the study aims to identify the areas where registered cases of missing persons, specifically women, and children, are higher than in other areas.
• The need for the study arises because of the fact that incidents of missing women and children are not uniform across the country. Some parts of the country report higher incidents and such areas could be one of the sources, transit or destination for child /women trafficking

State Condition

• According to the report, the States where the highest number of women went missing in the three years are Maharashtra, West Bengal, and Madhya Pradesh. In 2016, as many as 28,316 women went missing in Maharashtra, followed by 29,279 in 2017, and 33,964 in 2018.
• In West Bengal, the number of missing women in 2016, 2017 and 2018 was 24,937, 28,133 and 31,299, respectively. Madhya Pradesh recorded 21,435, 26,587 and 29,761 missing reports of women in the three years.
• In 2016­18, a total of 63,407, 63,349 and 67,134 children were reported missing across the country. The maximum number of missing reports were recorded in Maharashtra and West Bengal in 2016, 2017 and 2018. The study said that in Madhya Pradesh, Indore reported the highest number of missing children, with 596 in 2017 and 823 in 2018

Source The Hindu

3) RO systems will be banned, If tap water meets BIS norms

• The Union Environment Ministry has published a draft notification that effectively prohibits users from installing membrane­based water purification, mainly reverse osmosis, systems in their homes if the water has been sourced from a supply that meets the Bureau of Indian Standards’ (BIS) drinking water norms
• Installation or use of MWPS [Membrane­based Water Purification System] shall be prohibited, at the point of use or at the point of entry for purification of supplied water which is subjected to conventional flocculation, filtration, and disinfection processor is from any sources which are in compliance with acceptable limit for drinking water prescribed by Bureau of Indian Standard 10500:2012,” the Ministry said in the notification
• The proposed regulation is not the final word and the Ministry will await comments from the public for 30 days, after which it may incorporate the changes before it becomes a law. 
• The Ministry has issued this order to comply with an order of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), which has prohibited the use of reverse osmosis (RO) purifiers in places where total dissolved solids (TDS) in the supplied water are below 500 mg per liter
• Current BIS regulations consider 500 mg/litre—1,200 mg/l of total dissolved solids, which consists of salts and some organic matter, as acceptable though there is no lower limit. 

Source: The Hindu

4) Manufacturing Sector Rises

• The country’s manufacturing sector activity climbed to a near eight­year high in January, driven by a sharp rise in new business orders amid a rebound in demand conditions that led to a rise in production and hiring activity, a monthly survey said
• Following a sharp improvement in demand, January saw growth of the new business, output, exports, input buying, and employment. At the same time, business sentiment strengthened and there were softer rises in both input costs and output charges. The IHS Markit India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index rose from 52.7 in December to 55.3 in January, its highest level in just under eight years. 
• Manufacturing sector growth in India continued to strengthen in January, with operating conditions improving at a pace not seen in close to eight years
• This is the 30th consecutive month the index has remained above the 50­point mark.  A print above 50 means expansion, while a score below that denotes contraction. Companies noted the strongest upturn in new business intakes for over five years, which they attributed to better underlying demand and greater client requirements. 
• The rise in total sales was supported by strengthening demand from external markets, evident from the fastest increase in new export orders since November 2018.
• Hiring activity also rose, with firms increasing employment at the quickest rate in close to seven-­and­a-half years.  Manufacturers were more upbeat about the year­ahead outlook for production. 

Source: The Hindu

5) IVRI releases Live attenuated Classical Swine Fever (CSF) cell culture vaccine (Indigenous strain)

• Secretary, Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE) and Director General, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra and Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying (DAHD), Shri Atul Chaturvedi here today released the Live attenuated Classical Swine Fever Vaccine (IVRI-CSF-BS) Technology developed by ICAR -Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI), Izatnagar.
• CSF is one of the most important diseases of pigs causing high mortality with an annual loss of approx. Rs.4.299 billion. A lapinized CSF vaccine (Weybridge strain, UK) is being used in India since 1964 for controlling the disease. The vaccine is produced by sacrificing large numbers of rabbits for each batch.  
• the country’s total requirements are 22 million doses per year and hardly 1.2 million doses are produced per year by the lapinized vaccine, as only 50 doses are produced from a single rabbit spleen. 
•  IVRI had earlier developed a cell culture CSF vaccine by adapting the lapinized vaccine virus in cell culture. The technology has been transferred to M/s Indian Immunologicals, Hyderabad and Government of Punjab during 2016 and 2018, respectively. 
• The new vaccine is ready for release and commercial production will be completed in less than a year. The vaccine would be the best choice for use in the CSF Control Programme (CSF-CP) already launched by DAHD (CSF-CP). Shri Chaturvedi said the new vaccine will be part of the Government’s One Health Initiative and result in huge savings as it will nip the spread of the virus at the animal stage so that it does not pass on to the human population. '
• The vaccine is safe, potent, does not revert to virulence and provides protective immunity from day 14 of the vaccination until 24 months studied so far. The vaccine has been tested on around 500 pigs at multiple locations.

Source: PIB 

6) Creation of Post of Air Defence command

• A study team is preparing the road map for the creation of an Air Defence Command.
• The purpose of the road map is to come up with a proposal of integrating the Air Defence resources of the different services under a single agency, to ensure jointness and optimization of resources, procedures and communication arrangements.
• Three Joint Logistic Nodes (JLNs) are being established at Mumbai, Guwahati and Port Blair for Logistics Integration between the three services.
• This information was given by Raksha Rajya Mantri Shri Shripad Naik in a written reply to Kumari Seljain Rajya Sabha today.

Source: PIB

7) DST launches SATHI Initiative

• To address the need for building shared, professionally managed and strong Science and Technology infrastructure in the country which is readily accessible to academia, start-ups, manufacturing, industry and R&D labs, the Department of Science & Technology has launched a unique scheme called “Sophisticated Analytical & Technical Help Institutes (SATHI)”.
• These Centres are expected to house major analytical instruments to provide common services of high-end analytical testing, thus avoiding duplication and reduced dependency on foreign sources. These would be operated with a transparent, open access policy.
• DST has already set up three such centers in the country, one each at IIT Kharagpur, IIT Delhi and BHU at a total cost of Rs 375 Cores. It is planned to set up five SATHI Centres every year for the next four years. SATHI will address the problems of accessibility, maintenance, redundancy and duplication of expensive equipment in our Institutions, while reaching out to the less endowed organizations in need, e.g., industry, MSMEs, startups and State Universities. This will also foster a strong culture of collaboration between institutions and across disciplines to take advantage of developments, innovations, and expertise in diverse areas.
• Besides the SATHI initiative, support to 100 top-performing departments in universities and IITs, etc will be provided this year with an investment of Rs. 500 crores for augmentation of their research facilities to global benchmarks. The research profile of the supported Departments will align with the national priorities of excellence in manufacturing, waste processing, clean energy and water, and Start-up India, etc. This will empower our Scientific Community to gain global leadership in select frontier areas of Science.

Source: PIB

8) Launch of Portal Santusht

• ‘Santusht’ - Implementation Monitoring Cell (IMC) has been constituted in the Office of Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Labour and Employment in January 2020. The objective of ‘Santusht’ is to promote transparency, accountability, effective delivery of public services and implementation of policies, schemes of Ministry of Labour and Employment at grass-root level through constant monitoring.
• For public grievances, Centralized Public Grievance Redressal and Monitoring System (CPGRAM) portal are already functional. Besides, written grievances as received from stakeholders are also disposed of by the Ministry. Further, the online portal under ‘Santusht’ for public grievances has not been started so far.

Source: PIB

9) Khelo India Programme

The Khelo India Scheme aims at promoting the culture of sports as well as attaining excellence in sports. The scheme in its present form was started in October 2017 for a period of three years with a financial outlay of Rs. 1428.09 crore. So far Rs. 1358.31 crore has been spent and Rs. 69.78 crore is presently available for the remaining period of the third and last year of the Scheme. The revised Khelo India Scheme beyond the financial year 2019-20 is under preparation. Society for Economic Development and Environmental Management (SEDEM) has been appointed for 3rd party assessment of the Khelo India Scheme. Presently, 2747 athletes are benefiting under the Khelo India Scheme of which 1335 are benefiting from residential training facilities. The number of training athletes and supporting events are likely to go up with the proposed revision of the Scheme. The Government is committed to expand Khelo India Scheme and provide all necessary financial support.

Source: PIB

10) Kisan Rail for seamless National Cold Supply Chain for perishables

Prosperity to farmers can be ensured by making farming competitive. For this, the purchase of farm produce, logistics and agri‐services need copious investments. Farmers desire integrated solutions covering storage, financing, processing, and marketing. 

Towards fulfillment of the budget proposals, following are the major initiatives which have already been taken by Indian Railways regarding Development of Cold Chain for Transportation of Perishable Traffic

• Refrigerated Parcel Vans:    New design of Refrigerated Parcel Vans (VPR, carrying capacity of 17 tonnes) for transportation of highly perishable parcel traffic was developed, and procured through Rail Coach Factory Kapurthala. At present, the Indian Railway has a fleet of nine (09) Refrigerated    Parcel Vans available.
• These Refrigerated Parcel Vans are booked on a round-trip basis and are charged at 1.5 times the freight of normal VP as per the category of the train.
• Reefer (Ventilated Insulated) Rail Containers: 98 Ventilated Insulated Containers (Carrying capacity 12 Tonnes per container, rake composition 80 containers)  have been procured, through CONCOR, for movement of fruits and vegetables to different parts of the country.
• Cold Storage Facilities for Perishables:      ‘Temperature controlled perishable cargo centers’ have been commissioned at Ghazipur Ghat (U.P), New Azadpur (Adarsh Nagar, Delhi) and Raja ka Talab (U.P) as a pilot project under Kisan Vision Project by CONCOR under CSR initiative. Another project is under construction at Lasalgaon, Nasik (Maharashtra).
• Approval has been granted to Central Railside Warehousing Corporation (CRWC) to develop temperature controlled storages at Fatuha and Mancheswar.

Source: PIB

11) Skill India Campaign

• Under Skill India Mission, about 20 Central Ministries/Departments including the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) are involved in the implementation of more than 40 schemes for various skill development programs for youth across the country. Major schemes include Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), Scheme of Jan Shikshan Sansthan (JSS) for Skill Development, Scheme for Creation/Improvement of Training Infrastructure (ITIs), National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS), Rural Self Employment and Training Institutes (RSETI), Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY), etc.
• Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship is implementing a flagship scheme PMKVY. PMKVY was launched as a pilot in 2015 (approved by Cabinet on 20.03.2015). Owing to the successful implementation of the pilot phase of PMKVY 2015-16, the Union Cabinet approved the continuation of the PMKVY scheme up to 2020. PMKVY (2016-20) is implemented with an objective to provide skilling to one crore people across the country in four years i.e. 2016-2020. As on 17.01.2020, 93.33 lakh candidates have been trained/oriented across the country inclusive of 19.85 lakh trained/oriented under pilot PMKVY (2015-16).

Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (2016 - 2020) 

• Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (2016 - 2020) is the flagship outcome-based Skill Training Scheme of the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE) which aims to train 10 million youths by 2020 pan India both in Rural and Urban areas. MSDE does not maintain any segregated data for rural and urban areas. There are three training routes under the scheme: Short term Training for fresh skilling of school/college dropouts and unemployed youth, Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) to recognize the existing skills and Special Projects to address skilling requirements of groups which are under-represented or require special initiatives and efforts. RPL only provides an orientation to the already skilled workforce and does not mandate placements.
• Under PMKVY 2016-2020, Training Centres make all efforts to facilitate placements of certified candidates through multiple initiatives like Rojgar Melas and collaboration with industries and Sector Skill Council. Also, candidates can avail the benefit of placement through the ‘Yuva Sampark’ portal which brings both candidate and potential employer on the IT platform to find a potential match between two (employer and candidate).
• Ministry of Rural Development is implementing Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY), a placement linked skill development program for rural poor youth under National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) all over the country. Every candidate undergoing training under DDU-GKY is given mandatory basic training in Information Technology for 80 Hours. During the year 2019-20 (up to  October 31st, 2019) 1,27,918 candidates have been provided training.

Source: PIB