Daily Current Affairs : 20th April

Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE

Topics Covered

1. Pharmacy
2. Banks Board Bureau
3. Unique Properties of Ganga
4. Facts for Prelims – Belt & Road Initiative, Royal Society, Index of Cancer Preparedness

1 . Pharmacy

Context : First coined in 1945, the words ‘chemist’ and ‘druggist’ are headed for a change, with the Union Health Ministry replacing them with ‘pharmacy’.

Why there is a name change

• Chemists and druggists’ was coined over seven decades ago, is quite old, and has lost its relevance in the current scenario.
• At present, the word ‘drug’ is looked upon as more clandestine, and as addiction to chemicals, and thus it’s not suitable while referring to a professional pharmacist
• Change was deliberated and recommended by the 55th Drug Consultative Committee meeting held in January and March this year.
• The matter was deliberated upon by the Drugs Technical Advisory Board (DTAB), after repeated requests were made to amend the rules so that medical shops can be called a ‘pharmacy’.
• This is now also in concurrence with the international practice of calling a medical shop selling medicines by this name [‘pharmacy’] and to also provide an identity and sense of value to the practising pharmacist at the outlets

2 . Banks Board Bureau

Context : The Banks Board Bureau (BBB), the apex body for selection of whole-time directors of state-owned lenders, has identified 75 senior management personnel of public sector lenders to take over leadership roles in the future.

About Banks Board Bureau

• Banks Board Bureau (BBB) is an autonomous recommendatory body of the Government of India tasked to improve the governance of Public Sector Banks, recommend selection of chiefs of government owned banks and financial institutions and to help banks in developing strategies and capital raising plans.
• The BBB works as step towards governance reforms in Public Sector Banks (PSBs) as recommended by P.J. Nayak Committee
• The Bureau will recommend for selection of heads – Public Sector Banks and Financial Institutions and help Banks in developing strategies and capital raising plans.
• Banks Board Bureau will have three ex-officio members and three expert members in addition to Chairman. All the Members and Chairman will be part time.

3 . Unique Properties of Ganga

Context : A study commissioned by the Union Water Resources Ministry to probe the “unique properties” of the Ganga found that the river water contains a significantly higher proportion of organisms with antibacterial properties.

Background

• The Ganga may contain unique microbial life, which makes it relatively more resilient to putrefaction, was suggested by British colonial scientists about 200 years ago.
• Study was commissioned to test these properties using the latest scientific techniques and knowledge

About the Findings

• The study, ‘ Assessment of Water Quality and Sediment To Understand Special Properties of River Ganga ,’ began in 2016 and was conducted by the Nagpur-based National Environmental Engineering and Research Institute (NEERI), a CSIR lab.
• The NEERI team was tasked with assessing the water quality for “radiological, microbiological and biological” parameters in the Bhagirathi (a feeder river of the Ganga) and the Ganga at 20 sampling stations.
• As part of the assessment, five pathogenic species of bacteria (Escherichia, Enterobacter, Salmonella, Shigella, Vibrio) were selected and isolated from the Ganga, Yamuna and the Narmada and their numbers compared with the bacteriophages present in the river water.
• Bacteriophages are a kind of virus that kill bacteria, they are frequently found in proximity to each other.
• In the river Ganga, the bacteriophages were detected to be approximately 3 times more in proportion than bacterial isolates
• Though it isn’t evident that there are bacteriophage species unique to the Ganga, the study suggests there are many more of them in the Ganga than in other rivers.

About Phage Therapy

• As per the report the super-phage isolated from Ganga and decoded for its lysine gene and cloned to produce lysine protein at IIT Roorkee holds great potential as an antibacterial pharmaceutical.
• Bacteriophages or “phage” are viruses that invade bacterial cells and, in the case of lytic phages, disrupt bacterial metabolism and cause the bacterium to lyse [destruct]. Phage Therapy is the therapeutic use of lytic bacteriophages to treat pathogenic bacterial infections.

4 . Facts for Prelims

Belt and Road Initiative

• The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is an ambitious effort to improve regional cooperation and connectivity on a trans-continental scale. 
• The initiative aims to strengthen infrastructure, trade, and investment links between China and some 65 other countries that account collectively for over 30 percent of global GDP, 62 percent of population, and 75 percent of known energy reserves.
• The BRI consists primarily of the Silk Road Economic Belt, linking China to Central and South Asia and onward to Europe, and the New Maritime Silk Road, linking China to the nations of South East Asia, the Gulf Countries, North Africa, and on to Europe. Six other economic corridors have been identified to link other countries to the Belt and the Road.
• The scope of the initiative is still taking shape—more recently the initiative has been interpreted to be open to all countries as well as international and regional organizations.
• The Belt and Road Initiative can transform the economic environment in which economies in the region operate. 
• Regional cooperation on the new and improved transport infrastructure and policy reforms could substantially reduce trade costs and improve connectivity, leading to higher cross-border trade and investment and improved growth in the region

Royal Society

• The Royal Society is an independent scientific academy of the U.K. and the Commonwealth, dedicated to promoting excellence in science.
• Among the Indian-origin scientists elected as fellows this year are Cipla Chairman Yusuf Hamied microbiologist Gurdyal Besra, mathematicians Manjul Bhargava and Akshay Venkatesh and health experts Gagandeep Kang and Anant Parekh.

Index of Cancer Preparedness

• The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has created the Index of Cancer Preparedness (ICP). It draws on a wide range of data relevant to cancer policy and control from 28 countries. The aims of the ICP are to allow benchmarking of national efforts and identify best practice in addressing the cancer challenge.
• Australia tops the ICP, followed by the Netherlands and Germany. Saudi Arabia, Romania and Egypt face the largest room for improvement. India is ranked 19 out of 28 countries.
• The ICP explores the issue of cancer preparedness through three broad domains: 1) policy and planning; 2) care delivery; and 3) health systems and governance. The index found the biggest gaps in the health system domain, especially in middle- and low-income countries.
• The study accompanying the ICP identifies the four essentials of cancer preparedness: essential investment (appropriate spending and resources), roadmap (effective planning), foundation (functioning health systems) and intelligence (availability and quality of cancer-related data).