Daily Current Affairs : 14th, 15th & 16th December 2020

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Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE

Topics Covered

  1. MPLADS
  2. National Family Health Survey
  3. CAATSA
  4. Himalayan Serow
  5. Issues with monoculture
  6. How Height of the mountain is measured
  7. Facts for Prelims

1 . MPLADS

Context : At a meeting of the Standing Committee on MP Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) funds of the Rajya Sabha headed by Deputy Chairman Harivansh, members of all parties unanimously asked the government to release funds for the projects sanctioned in 2018 and 2019, which were under way before the funds were suspended due the COVID-19 pandemic.

About MPLADS

  • Under the scheme, each MP has the choice to suggest to the District Collector for works to the tune of Rs.5 Crores per annum to be taken up in his/her constituency.
  • The Rajya Sabha Members of Parliament can recommend works in one or more districts in the State from where he/she has been elected.
  • The Nominated Members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha may select any one or more Districts from any one State in the Country for implementation of their choice of work under the scheme.
  • The objective of the MPLAD scheme is to enable Members of Parliament to recommend works of developmental nature with emphasis on the creation of durable community assets based on the locally felt needs to be taken up in their Constituencies. A list of sectors which are permissible to get funds under Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme is provided in the ‘Guidelines on Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS)’
  • In addition, certain special items of works and works of non durable nature are also permitted under the ‘Guidelines on MPLADS’, such as convergence with, MGNREGA, Khelo India and for welfare of differently abled persons, Purchase of Computers, Ambulances/Herse Vans, Books for Schools, Colleges and Public Libraries, New Borings in place of Hand Pumps, Railway Halt Station, Shelters for imparting training for skill development etc.
  • The ‘Guidelines on MPLADS’ provides for utilizing the funds in the areas affected by the Natural and Man-made calamities for rehabilitation work as may be recommended by Members of Parliament.

2 . National Family Health Survey

Context : Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, released the Factsheets of key indicators on population, reproductive and child health, family welfare, nutrition and others for 22 States/UTs of the first Phase of the 2019-20 National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) on Universal Health Coverage Day on 12th December, 2020.

About NFHS

  • The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) is a large-scale, multi-round survey conducted in a representative sample of households throughout India.
  • All National Family Health Surveys have been conducted under the stewardship of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, with the International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, serving as the nodal agency. ICF International (formerly Macro International), Maryland, USA, provided technical assistance for all four surveys conducted as on date
  • The main objective of successive rounds of the NFHS is to provide reliable and comparable datasets on health, family welfare and other emerging issues. 
  • Four rounds of NFHS (1992–93, 1998–99, 2005–06 and 2015–16) have been successfully completed in India.  All the rounds of NFHS have been conducted by the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai, as the national nodal agency.
  • Earlier the Health Ministry itself used to conduct District Level Health Survey (DLHS) and Annual Health Survey (AHS). 
  • MoHFW has decided to conduct integrated NFHS with a periodicity of three years in lieu of different surveys from 2015-16 onwards to meet the evolving requirements for frequent, timely and appropriate data at the National, State and District levels. 
  • The NFHS-5 is being conducted in around 6.1 lakh sample households to provide disaggregated data up to district levels. And this data so generated when completed would be comparable with NFHS-4 without any loss of information.

About the State Factsheet

  • The state factsheet released include information on 131 key indicators.
  • The district level factsheets constituting 342 districts of theses Phase I States/UTs that have been uploaded on 14th December, 2020 on the website of the Ministry and has information on 104 key indicators.
  • These important indicators on population, health and family welfare, nutrition and others will help track progress of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the country.
  • Many indicators of NFHS-5 are similar to those of NFHS-4, carried out in 2015-16 to make possible comparisons over time.
  • However, NFHS-5 that includes new focal areas such as expanded domains of child immunization, components of micro-nutrients to children, menstrual hygiene, frequency of alcohol and tobacco use, additional components of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), expanded age ranges for measuring hypertension and diabetes among all, aged 15 years and above, will give requisite input for strengthening existing programmes and evolving new strategies for policy intervention.

The key results from the State/UT factsheets

  • The Total Fertility Rates (TFR) has further declined since NFHS-4 in almost all the Phase-1 States and UTs. The replacement level of fertility (2.1) has been achieved in 19 out of the 22 States/UTs and only 3 states viz. Manipur (2.2), Meghalaya (2.9) and Bihar (3.0) have TFR above replacement levels now.
  • Overall Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) has increased substantially in most States/UTs and it is the highest in HP and WB (74%). Use of modern methods of contraception has also increased in almost all States/UTs.
  • Unmet needs of family planning have witnessed a declining trend in most of the Phase-1 States/UTs. The unmet need for spacing which remained a major issue in India in the past has come down to less than 10 per cent in all the States except Meghalaya and Mizoram.
  • Full immunization drive among children aged 12-23 months has recorded substantial improvement across States/UTs/districts. More than two-third of children are fully immunized in all the States and UTs except Nagaland, Meghalaya and Assam.  In almost three-fourths of districts, 70% or more children aged 12-23 months are fully immunized against childhood diseases.
  • There is increase in the per cent of women receiving the recommended four or more ANC visits by health providers in many States/UTs. This percentage has increased in 13 States/UTs between 2015-16 to 2019-20.
  • Institutional births have increased substantially with over four-fifth of the women delivering in institutions in 19 States and UTs.  Institutional delivery is over 90 per cent in 14 out of the total 22 Sates and UTs. Almost 91% of districts recorded over 70% institutional deliveries of births in the 5 years preceding the survey.
  • Along with an increase in institutional births, there has also been a substantial increase in C-section deliveries in many States/UTs especially in private health facilities.
  • Sex ratio at birth has remained unchanged or increased in most States/UTs. Majority of the states are in normal sex ratio of 952 or above. SRB is below 900 in Telangana, Himachal Pradesh, Goa, DNH & DD.
  • Child nutrition indicators show a mixed pattern across states. While the situation improved in many States/UTs, there has been minor deterioration in others. Drastic changes in respect of stunting and wasting are unlikely in a short period.
  • Anaemia among women and children continues to be a cause of concern. More than half of the children and women are anaemic in 13 of the 22 States/UTs. It has also been observed that aanaemia among pregnant women has increased in half of the States/UTs compared to NFHS-4, in spite of substantial increase in the consumption of IFA tablets by pregnant women for 180 days or more.
  • For both women and men, there is a lot of variation in the high or very high random blood glucose levels across States/UTs. Men are more likely to have slightly higher blood glucose levels in the range of high or very high compared to women. The percentage of men with high or very high blood glucose is highest in Kerala (27%) followed by Goa (24%). Prevalence of elevated blood pressure (hypertension) among men is somewhat higher than in women.
  • The percentage of households with improved sanitation facility and clean fuel for cooking has increased in almost all the 22 States/UTs over the last four years (from  2015-16  to  2019-20). The Government of India has made concerted efforts to provide toilet facilities to maximum households through Swachh Bharat Mission, and improved household environment through Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana in the country. For instance, the use of cooking fuel has increased more than 10 percentage point in all the States and UTs during the last 4 years with over 25 percentage point increase in states of Karnataka and Telangana.
  • Women’s empowerment indicators portray considerable improvement across all the States/UTs included in Phase 1. Considerable progress has been recorded between NFHS-4 and NFHS-5 in regard to women operating bank accounts.  For instance, in the case of Bihar the increase was to the tune of 51 percentage point from 26 per cent to 77 per cent. More than 60 per cent of women in every state and UTs in the first phase have operational bank accounts.

3 . Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA).

Context : The U.S. has imposed sanctions on NATO-ally Turkey for its purchase of Russia’s S-400 missile defence system, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Monday.

About the News

  • The issue of sanctions under Section 231 of the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) for purchase of Russian arms is of particular interest to New Delhi, which is also in the process of buying the S-400 from Moscow.
  • Sanctions were imposed on Turkey’s main defence procurement agency, the Presidency of Defense Industries (SSB) for “knowingly engaging in a significant transaction with Rosoboronexport (ROE), Russia’s main arms export entity

Background

  • US has urged all its allies and partners including India to forgo transactions with Russia as that might trigger sanctions under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA).
  • This has come in the background of the recent approval by Defence Acquisition Council for the procurement of 21 MiG-29 fighter jets for the Indian Air Force (IAF), an upgrade for 59 of these Russian aircraft and the acquisition of 12 Su-30 MKI aircraft.

What is CAATSA?

  • Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, CAATSA is a United States federal law
  • Ultimate goal of the act is to prevent revenue from flowing to the adversary countries.
  • Countries included under the act are Iran, North Korea, and Russia hence the Act aims at taking punitive measures against Russia, Iran, and North Korea

Sanctions

  • Section 235 of the CAATSA legislation stipulates 12 kinds of punitive sanctions that the U.S. could place on a country conducting significant transactions in defence, energy, oil pipelines and cybersecurity technology with any of the U.S.’s “adversaries”, and according to the Act, the U.S. President may impose “five or more of the sanctions described”.
  • These measures include export sanctions, cancellation of loans from U.S. and international financial institutions, ban on investments and procurement, restrictions on foreign exchange and banking transactions, and a visa and travel ban on officials associated with any entity carrying out the sanctioned transactions.

Sanction Waiver / Exit clause

  • There is also and exit clause in CAATSA, which states that “The [US] President may waive the application of [CAATSA] sanctions if the President determines that such a waiver is in the national security interest of the United States.”
  • In August 2018, the U.S. Congress also modified the waiver clause to allow the President to certify that a country is “cooperating with the United States Government on other matters that are critical to United States’ strategic national security interests”.

Can India be considered for the waiver

  • US may consider providing a waiver for India as a militarily stronger India is in the U.S.’s interests, and that India cannot completely drop its traditional dependence on Russian defence equipment without being weakened.
  • In addition, it is no secret that U.S. President Donald Trump has misgivings about the CAATSA sanctions, which he said were meant to curtail his own powers to deal with Russia, and the other countries included in the act — Iran and North Korea.

4 . Himalayan Serow

Context : A Himalayan serow has been sighted for the first time in the Himalayan cold desert region.

What kind of an animal is the Himalayan serow?

  • A biologist has decribed a Himalayan serow as resembling a cross between a goat, a donkey, a cow, and a pig. It’s a medium-sized mammal with a large head, thick neck, short limbs, long, mule-like ears, and a coat of dark hair.
  • There are several species of serows, and all of them are found in Asia. The Himalayan serow, or Capricornis sumatraensis thar, is restricted to the Himalayan region.
  • Himalayan serows are herbivores, and are typically found at altitudes between 2,000 metres and 4,000 metres (6,500 to 13,000 feet).
  • They are known to be found in eastern, central, and western Himalayas, but not in the Trans Himalayan region.

So where has this serow been sighted?

  • The animal was spotted by locals and wildlife officials at a riverside rocky wall near Hurling village in Spiti, Himachal Pradesh.
  • This is the first recorded human sighting of the serow in Himachal Pradesh. The animal has been spotted a few times earlier in the state, but that has always been through camera traps.

Why is the sighting of the serow unusual?

  • Spiti lies in the cold mountain desert region of the western Himalaya, and its valley floor has an average elevation of 4,270 metres above sea level.
  • Serows are generally not found at this altitude, and never before has a serow been seen in the Himalayan cold desert. Wildlife officials believe this particular animal may have strayed into the Spiti valley from the Rupi Bhaba Wildlife Sanctuary in adjoining Kinnaur.

Is the serow a threatened or endangered species?

  • According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Himalayan serows have experienced significant declines in population size, range size and habitat in the last decade, and this is expected to continue due to intensive human impact.
  • Previously assessed as ‘near threatened’, the Himalayan serow is now been categorised as ‘vulnerable’ in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
  • It is listed under Schedule I of The Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, which provides absolute protection.

5 . Issues with monoculture

About Monoculture

  • Cultivation of a single crop in a given area is called as monoculture

Why is monoculture such a problem?

  • Growing the same crops year after year on the same land increases vulnerability to pest and disease attacks. The more the crop and genetic diversity, the more difficult it is for insects and pathogens to device way to pierce through plant resistance.
  • Wheat and paddy cannot also, unlike pulses and legumes, fix nitrogen from the atmosphere. Their continuous cultivation sans any crop rotation, then, leads to depletion of soil nutrients and growing dependence on chemical fertilisers and pesticides.

6 . How Height of the mountain is measured

Context : In a new measurement, China and Nepal have announced Mount Everest is 86 cm taller than the 8,848 m accepted globally so far

How is the height of any mountain measured?

  • The basic principle that was used earlier is very simple, and uses only trigonometry. There are three sides and three angles in any triangle. If we know any three of these quantities, provided one of them is a side, all the others can be calculated. In a right-angled triangle, one of the angles is already known, so if we know any other angle and one of the sides, the others can be found out.
  • This principle can be applied for measuring the height of any object that does not offer the convenience of dropping a measuring tape from top to bottom, or if you can’t climb to the top to use sophisticated instruments. Measurement with angles: When direct measurement of height is not possible, a surveyor resorts to trigonometry
  • Let’s say, we have to measure the height of a pole, or a building. We can mark any arbitrary point on the ground some distance from the building. This can be our point of observation. We now need two things — the distance of the building from the point of observation, and the angle of elevation that the top of the building makes with the point of observation on the ground. The distance is not difficult to get. The angle of elevation is the angle that an imaginary line would make if it was joining the point of observation on the ground to the top of the building. There are simple instruments with the help of which this angle can be measured.
  • So, if the distance from the point of observation to the building is d and the angle of elevation is E, then the height of the building would be d × tan

About Survey of India

  • It is the responsibility of the Survey of India to prepare authoritative maps, and its work involves carrying out extensive land surveys and mapping topographical features. Starting in 1952, the Survey of India undertook an exercise to measure the height of Mount Everest (then known as Peak XV). That exercise measures the height at 8,848 m (29,028 feet), which remained the globally accepted standard, until now.

7 . Facts for Prelims

Himgiri & Saksham

  • Himgiri is the first of the three stealth frigates being built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE), Kolkata, under Project 17A for the Navy, was launched into water. P17A ships with a displacement of around 6,670 tonnes will be the most advanced state-of-the-art guided missile frigates
  • Saksham is the the offshore patrol vessels (OPV)

Hybrid Renewable energy Park

  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi layed the foundation stone for what is billed as the world’s largest hybrid renewable energy park in Gujarat’s Kutch district.
  • The park will generate 30,000 MW power through solar panels and windmills on 72,600 hectares along the India-Pakistan border.
  • It is being set up by the Gujarat government with the participation of private players such as the Adani Group, which is the country’s largest renewable power generator, and Suzlon, a dominant player in wind energy.

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