Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE
Topics Covered
- Global Status Report on Road Safety
- Dengvaxia
- Fall Army Worm
- Business Reforms Action Plan
- Facts for Prelims – Balukhand Wildlife Sanctuary,Nandankanan Zoological Park, Mujibur Rahman
1 . Global Status Report on Road Safety
Context : Road accidents are the leading cause of death among people in the 5-29 age-group worldwide with more than 1.35 million lives lost each year and 50 million sustaining injuries, according to a World Health Organisation (WHO) report
Details of the Report
- Global Status Report on Road Safety is released by WHO
- Since 2008 India have maintained dubious distinction of being world number one in road crash deaths.
- In 2015, India became a signatory to the Brasilia Declaration on Road Safety, where India committed to halving road crash deaths by 2020.
- As per the data released by the Indian government, road crashes kill close to 1,50,000 people each year. However, the WHO global status report on road safety had challenged the numbers and stated that India might be losing over 2,99,000 people each year.
- Road crashes have emerged as the single biggest killer of people in the age group of 15-45.
- The reasons listed for this trend include — rapid urbanisation, poor safety, lack of enforcement, distracted, influence of drugs or alcohol, speeding and a failure to wear seat-belts or helmets, according to experts.
2 . Dengvaxia
Context : Sanofi Pasteur’s controversial vaccine dengvaxia has been approved by the US Food & Drug Administration, the first dengue vaccine to get the regulatory nod in the US.
About Dengvaxia
- Dengvaxia is basically a live, attenuated dengue virus.
- An attenuated virus is a virus that retains its properties of triggering an immune response in the body but its ability to lead to a disease is compromised.
- Three dengvaxia shots are administered, with the second and third given six and 12 months after the first one.
- It was cleared in three randomised, placebo-controlled studies over approximately 35,000 individuals in dengue-endemic areas, including Puerto Rico, Latin America and the Asia Pacific region. It was found to be about 76% effective in 9-16-year-olds already exposed to the disease.
- In Philippines 10 deaths were reported in the island nation in 2017 in the aftermath of a school vaccination campaign with dengvaxia
- Dengvaxia is the first dengue vaccine to be licensed, Mexico being the first country to clear it in 2015. Subsequently it has been cleared in some 20 countries but what happened in 2017 in Philippines has raised question marks about CYD-TDV, as dengvaxia is known in technical parlance.
Issues with Dengvaxia
- Based on up to six years of clinical data, the analysis confirmed that Dengvaxia provides persistent protective benefit against dengue fever in those who had prior infection.
- For those not previously infected by dengue virus, however, the analysis found that in the longer term, more cases of severe disease could occur following vaccination upon a subsequent dengue infection.
Use of Dengvaxia in India
- Sanofi had submitted published data of Phase III trials from other countries and asked for a waiver
- In May 2017, India turned down a recommendation of the Subject Expert Committee of the Drug Controller General of India and told Sanofi that there could not be a waiver of the requirement that a drug or vaccine, before being allowed to be marketed in India, would have to undergo phase III clinical trials (that establish safety and efficacy of a drug) on Indian subjects.
3 . Fall Army Worm
Context : Agriculture scientists and environmentalists predict that the deadly pest, fall armyworm (FAW), could turn out to be a scourge for farmers in former undivided Adilabad district in the coming crop seasons. The pestilence, which had primarily attacked maize crop in Nirmal and Adilabad districts, had damaged crop to the extent of 90% in some cases and is expected to attack even cotton and soyabean crops.
About Fall Army Worm
- In recent months, fall armyworm infestations were reported in different parts of India, including Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Gujarat.
- It mainly affects the Maize crop.
- The fall army worm is also called as sena (army) worm, as it comes in big groups and attacks crops, particularly maize.
Methods Suggested to overcome fall army worm
- Deep ploughing to expose more soil to the sun and avoid staggered sowing
- If an entire village goes in for sowing within a short time frame, the growth of crop would be uniform and the distribution of the pest will be uniform too, which reduces the crop damage. Also, maize should not be sown until at least 50 mm of rainfall is recorded during the season,
- The scientist also suggested sowing of treated maize seeds and inter-cropping with red gram and use of pheromone traps.
- One of the methods, suggested by Food and Agriculture Organisation, was the use of sand and lime mixture in the whorls of the maize plants
4 . Business Reforms Action Plan
Context : The Congress government in Rajasthan has decided to execute the Business Reforms Action Plan (BRAP) on time this year for facilitating ease of business in order to maintain the State’s ranking as one of the top achievers in the field.
About Business Reforms Action Plan
- Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has spearheaded a dynamic national level exercise that commenced in 2014 to rank all the States/UTs in the country on the reforms undertaken by them on designated parameters.
- The aim of this exercise is to create conducive business environment by streamlining regulatory structures and creating an investor-friendly business climate by cutting down red tape.
- The World Bank has been giving the ranking to the States in consultation with the Union Government since 2015.
- In 2016, DPIIT released a 340-point action plan which was drafted in consultation with all States/UTs. It included recommendations on 58 regulatory processes, policies and process spread across 10 reform areas spanning the lifecycle of a typical business. Such an action plan was the first of its kind in India which promoted both competitive and cooperative federalism among the States/UTs.
- To streamline inspections and set the nation free from ‘inspector raj,’ best practices have been studied across 10 different countries.
- Based on these best practices several reforms were enlisted that were successfully implemented by 18 States/UTs in 2016.
- Final ranking of States/UTs on implementation of the 340 points were released in November, 2016.
- BRAP 2017-18 was updated to 372 action points with addition of new sectors such as Healthcare and Hospitality, Central Inspection system, Trade License, Registration under Legal Metrology, and Registration of Partnership Firms & Societies
- An important addition to methodology under BRAP 2017-18 was the inclusion of feedback exercise where feedback was sought on 78 reform points from actual users of new system.
- DPIIT proposes to undertake a 100% feedback based assessment on all reform points under BRAP 2019.
5 . Facts for Prelims
Balukhand Wildlife Sanctuary
- The Balukhand-Konark Wildlife Sanctuary is a wildlife sanctuary is located in the state of Odisha
- The sanctuary is located along the Bay of Bengal coast, between the towns of Puri and Konark.
- The sanctuary includes sandy beaches, coastal dunes, groves of introduced Casuarina trees planted in 1916-17, and cashew plantations
- The sanctuary is home to a herd of Blackbuck.
- Olive Ridley Sea Turtles nest on the beaches
Nandankanan Zoological Park
- Zoological Park is situated in Odisha
- Nandankanan Zoological Park is a premier large zoo of India. Unlike other zoos in the country, Nandankanan is built right inside the forest and set in a completely natural environment.
- The animals are housed in enclosures with greenery with a feel of real forest and live with no fear or apprehension of becoming the hunter’s prey.
- Nandankanan has been recognized by Central Zoo Authority (CZA) for Conservation breeding of tigers, Indian pangolins and long billed vultures.
- The only Zoo in India to have Orangutan.
- Only zoo in India after which an express train (Nandankanan Express) has been named by Indian Railways.
Mujibur Rahman
- He is the founding father of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh.
- He served as the first President of Bangladesh and later as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh from 17 April 1971 until his assassination on 15 August 1975.
- He is considered to be the driving force behind the independence of Bangladesh.
- He is popularly dubbed with the title of Bangabandhu