Current Affairs - September 2014 - Page 13

1. A new Global Standard on Automatic Information Exchange to control tax evasion.

2. Base Erosion and Profit Sharing Project

3. Undertrial Priosoners - Section 436A of CrPC



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anthropology questions for upsc 15,16

        15. Describe any chalcolithic site in India with particular reference to Industry and town planning

 




  16. 'Neolithic is a self-sufficient food producing economy’ critically examine this expression.

ANSWER-15                                                                                            ANSWER-16

Current Affairs - September 2014 - Page 12

1. Achievements of Tourism Ministry

2. Comprehensive Sustainable Tourism Criteria for India.

3. Niche Tourism

4. Real Estate Regulation Bill.

5. Gas Cracker.

6. Suicides in India - Gatekeeper Programme.


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Anthropology questions for UPSC

13. Copper - Bronze age

1    14.    Discuss the relationship of anthropology with psychology and medicine.

                                                         

                                                    ANSWERS

Current Affairs - September 2014 - Page 11

1. Indo-US relations - Some issues of concern

2. Indo-China relations - recent agreements, Co-operation in Railways and infrastructure.

3. Indian Newborn  Action Plan and Every Newborn Action Plan.

4. Pusa Hydrogel



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Anthropology question and answers

1. Neanderthals

2. Erect posture

                              Read more

Current Affairs - September 2014 - Page 10

1. BCIM economic corridor

2. New silk road economic belt

3. 21st century Maritime silk road

4. NJAC Bill - criticism


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Current Affairs - September 2014 - Page 9

1. FASTag

2. National Livestock Mission.

3. Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA)

4. National Agroforestry policy 2014


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Anthropology articles

1. Neolithic Period

2. Homo erectus



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Current Affaris - September 2014 - Page 8

1. Coal bed Methane - Sources in India - Applications

2. Need for repeal of archaic citizenship laws of India

3. India-Vietnamese relations

4. Comparison between Persons of Indian Origin and Overseas Citizenship of India

5. Differences between Shale gas and Coal bed Methane


                                                                            Read More

Sep 15 - Mains answer writing practice

1. Underground Coalbed methane is a hazard for mining and environment. But if CBM extracted and efficiently used it will be not only environment friendly but also reduces risks involved in coal mining. Comment ? What are the measures taken by government of India to promote commercial exploration and production of coalbed methane in India ?

2. Bring out the differences between Shale gas and Coalbed Methane.

3. Critically analyse Indo-Vietnamese relations with special emphasis on energy and air connectivity sectors.



                                                                                    Read More

Mains Answer Writing Practice

1. Explain the objectives of the Draft Road Transport and Safety bill, 2014 and Critically examine if the provisions of the draft bill could serve the objectives ?

2. Comment on the objectives and components of Digital India programme with special emphasis on thrust areas for digital empowerment of citizens. Explain how Digital India programme brings transparency, accountability, citizen participation in governance.

3. Critically analyse on the present state of domestic electronics manufacturing and suggest measures to strengthen it while explaining government measures to support ESDM sector.

4. What is National Digital Literacy Mission ?

                                                                                                  Read More

Current Affairs - September 2014 - Page 7

1. Draft Road Transport and Safety Bill 2014

2. Digital India Program

3. Skill India Initiative


                                                                           Read More

International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale

What is International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES) ?

   INES is a tool for promptly and consistently communicating to the public the safety significance of events associated with sources of ionizing radiation.

What is the purpose of INES?

  The primary purpose of INES is to facilitate communication and understanding between the technical community, the media and the public on the safety significance of events. The aim is to keep the public as well as nuclear authorities accurately informed on the occurrence and consequences of reported events.

What is the Scope of INES ?

  The INES scale applies to any event associated with the use, storage and transport of radioactive material and radiation sources, whether or not the event occurs at a facility; this includes events involving the loss or theft of radioactive sources or packages and the discovery of orphan sources, such as sources being discovered in scrap metal.
  INES is also used for the rating of events resulting in actual exposure of workers and the public in medical, research and educational institutions. The scale does not cover the actual or potential consequences for patients exposed as part of a medical procedure. INES is intended for use in civil, i.e. non-military applications and only relates to the safety aspects of an event. It is not appropriate to use INES to assess or to compare safety performance between facilities, organizations or countries.

Description of INES:

  INES uses a numerical rating to explain the significance of events associated with sources of ionizing radiation. Events are rated at seven levels: Levels 1–3 are “incidents” and Levels 4–7 “accidents”. The scale is designed such that the severity of an event is approximately ten times greater for each increase in level of the scale. These levels consider 3 areas of impact:

1. People and the environment
2. Radiological barriers and control
3. Defense in depth

  Events without safety significance are rated as Below Scale/Level 0. Events that have no safety relevance with respect to radiation or nuclear safety are not rated on the scale.

Science and Technology - September 2014

September 2014


July 2014

Mains Answer writing practice - Sep 14

1. Critically analyse the state of ancient manuscripts in India and the measures taken by government. Suggest measures to strengthen preserving of ancient manuscripts.

2. Examine the significance of social networking tools to enhance security of vulnerable sections of people with special emphasis on women security.

   
                                                  Read More

Daily Current Affairs - September 2014 - page 6

1. Importance of SCO

2. Quantum tunnelling

3. NAMAMI initiative of government of India

4. Sigappi Rice variety


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Daily Current Affairs - September 2014 - Page 5

Sep 11:
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Comprehensive Telecom Development Plan for North-Eastern Region:

Source: pib.nic.in

Finance for the plan:
   The plan will be funded from the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF). The USOF would fund Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) and Operational Expenditure (OPEX) net of revenue for a period of 5 years.

Objectives of the plan:
1. The project will also increase the reliability of District and State Headquarters connectivity by providing alternative optical fibre connectivity. It will also ensure that notwithstanding any problem in one route, the voice and data transfer through other route will keep the district and State headquarters connected.
2. This project is aimed to cover the uncovered villages in the North-Eastern Region as also to keep seamless connectivity on national highways in this region. At present, there are 43,200 villages in this region out of which 9190 (21 percent) of the villages are unconnected to any mobile network. This project will cover out of the 9190 unconnected villages, 8621 villages (20 percent) by 6673 towers. The project will also give seamless connectivity to national highways through 321 mobile towers.

                                                                                                                      Read More

Daily Current Affairs

September

August

Questions for Mains 2014 for Sep 1st to 3rd

1. Critically comment on the efficacy of recent initiatives in agriculture sector with special emphasis on Soil Health Card Scheme, 'Chaman', 'Kisan Mandi'.

2. Discuss salient features of National Agroforestry Policy 2014 and do you think implementing this policy would increase forest cover in India ?

3. Explain the salient features of National Blue Revolution with special emphasis on new technologies like 'Cage Culture' and 're-circulatory aquacirculatory Systems'.

                                                                                                      Read More

Mains answer writing practice of topics from July 14th 15th 16th 2014

1. Google Glass

Wikipedia

Hindu

2. Financial sector legislative reforms commission:

Hindu

3. Indra-14

Hindu

                                See complete list

Science & Technology July 2014

Food Irradiation

    Source

Gene Therapy

    Wikipedia

Genome Editing

    Wikipedia

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft

     Source

Mapathon 2013 - A Google's competition accused of violating Indian laws

     Source

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Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project for Low Income States (RWSSP-LIS)

 The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved the implementation of the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project for Low Income States (RWSSP-LIS) of Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh with World Bank assistance over a period of six years (from 2013-14 to 2019-20).

The key features of the project are: 
(i)      Strengthening   and   empowering   of  Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs)   as  well   as   ensuring direct involvement of beneficiary communities in the scheme implementation.  Schemes   will   be   implemented   with   integral   involvement   of   GPs.
(ii)     Sanitation   in   conjoint  approach  with  water  is  conceptualized   as  an integrated component of the proposed project,
(iii)     The project will implement pilot programs such as 24/7 water supply provision in select areas, and new technologies such as use of solar energy, 
(iv)   There   shall   be   an   intensive   Capacity   Building   programme   for   all stakeholders down to the GP level, 
(v)    Intensive    Information,    Education    and    Communication    (IEC) and Behavioural Change Communication (BCC) programs will be carried out.    Read More

PARAM Yuva II Super Computer

The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) has achieved a significant milestone with PARAM Yuva II supercomputer being ranked 1st in India, 9th in the Asia Pacific Region and 44th in the world among the most power efficient computer systems as per the Green500 List announced at the Supercomputing Conference (SC`2013) in Denver, Colorado, USA. PARAM Yuva – II uses hybrid technology – processor, co-processor and hardware accelerators - to provide the peak compute power of 520.4 Teraflop/s using 210 kiloWatt power. The interconnect network comprises of homegrown PARAMNet-III and Infiniband FDR System Area Network. This system is designed to solve large and complex computational problems. The system has 200 Terabytes of high performance storage, and requisite system software and utilities for parallel applications development. Read full article

Rogi Kalyan Samiti

 

Source

Public Health is a state subject. Under the National Health Mission, Rogi Kalyan Samitis (RKSs)/Hospital Management Committees (HMCs) are envisaged to be constituted at public health facilities at the level of Primary Health Centres (PHCs),  Community Health Centres (CHCs), Sub-District Hospitals and District Hospitals.

The RKS/HMC is required to be registered under the Societies Registration Act and have an account  in a commercial bank.  It is to be set up at all the Public Health Facilities starting from Primary Health Centre level and above. It consists of members of Local Self-Government Institutions, Non- Governmental Organizations (NGOs), elected public representatives and State Government officials. RKS acts as trustees for the hospitals to manage the affairs of the hospital and is responsible for upkeep of the facilities and ensure provision of better facilities to the patients in the hospital. It would have the authority to raise its own resources by way of user fee and utilize the same for improvement of services rendered in the facility.

Population Control Measures

Population Control Measures

Source


As per World Population Prospects – The 2012 Revision, the population of India will cross the population of China by 2028. The projected population for India in 2028 will be 1.454 billion, while that of China will be 1.452 billion. The projection of population of India by the year 2060 is not available.

The Government has been focussing on family planning activities as one of the many measures for achieving population stabilization. As a result of the efforts of Government the decadal growth rate of the country has declined significantly from 21.54% for the period 1991-2000 to 17.64% during 2001-11. The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) also declined from 3.6 in 1991 to 2.4 in 2012 as per Sample Registration System (SRS). 23 states/UTs have achieved the replacement TFR of 2.1 or less. Various measures taken by Government of India under Family Planning is given below:-

Strategies for attaining population stabilization:

Interventions under family planning program:

1.      Scheme for Home delivery of contraceptives by ASHAs at doorstep of beneficiaries: The govt. has launched a scheme to utilize the services of ASHA to deliver contraceptives at the doorstep of beneficiaries. 8.85 ASHAs are now distributing contraceptives at the door step.
2.      Scheme for ASHAs to ensure spacing in births: The scheme is operational from 16th May, 2012. Under this scheme, services of ASHAs are being utilised for counselling of newly married couples to ensure delay of 2 years in birth after marriage and couples with 1 child to have spacing of 3 years after the birth of 1st child.
3.      Pregnancy testing kits have been made an integral part of ASHA kit and are being used to diagnose pregnancy early, so as to ensure early registration of pregnancy/safe abortion services.

4.      A new family planning method, i.e. post-partum IUCD (PPIUCD) has been introduced in the program. PPIUCD services are being provided by trained health providers in government hospitals, within 48 hours after the delivery.

5.      Basket of choice has been expanded with introduction of a new IUCD-375 of 5 years effectivity, in addition to the already existing IUCD–380A of 10 years effectivity.

6.      Dedicated counselors (RMNCH counsellors) are placed at high case load facilities for providing family planning counseling to clients.

7.      Celebration of World Population Day 11th July & Fortnight: The event is observed over a month long period, split into fortnight of mobilization/sensitization followed by a fortnight of assured family planning service delivery and has been made a mandatory activity from 2012-13 and starts from 27th June each year.

8.      Other On-going interventions:
·        Assured delivery of family planning services for both IUCD and sterilisation.
·        National Family Planning Indemnity Scheme’ (NFPIS) under which clients are insured in the eventualities of deaths, complications and failures following sterilization and the providers/ accredited institutions are indemnified against litigations in those eventualities.
·        Compensation scheme for sterilization acceptors - under the scheme MoHFW provides compensation for loss of wages to the beneficiary and also to the service provider (& team) for conducting sterilisations.
·        More emphasis on Spacing methods like IUCD.
·        Availability of Fixed Day Static Services at all facilities.
·        Quality care in Family Planning services by establishing Quality Assurance Committees at state and district levels.
·        Contraceptives supply management up to peripheral facilities.
·        Demand generation activities in the form of display of posters, billboards and other audio and video materials in the various facilities.


Following stretagies have been taken by Jansankhya Sthirata Kosh/National Population Stabilization Fund as population control measures:

Advocacy & IEC activities:-
JSK as a part of its awareness and advocacy efforts on population stabilization, has established networks and partnerships with other ministries, development partners, private sectors, corporate and professional bodies for  spreading its activities at the national, state, district and block level.

Prerna Strategy:-
JSK has launched this strategy for helping to push up the age of marriage of girls and delay in first child and spacing in second child the birth of children in the interest of health of young mothers and infants. The couple who adopt this strategy awarded suitably. This helps to change the mindsets of the community.

Santushti Strategy:-
Under this strategy, Jansankhya Sthirata Kosh, invites private sector gynaecologists and vasectomy surgeons to conduct sterilization operations in Public Private Partnership mode. The private hospitals/nursing home who achieved target to 10 or more are suitably awarded as per strategy

Outdoor Air Pollution in India

         

What is the gravity of the problem ?

      Outdoor air pollution has become the fifth largest killer in India after high blood pressure, indoor air pollution, tobacco smoking, and poor nutrition, says a new set of findings of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) report. The report says that about 620,000 premature deaths occur in India from air pollution-related diseases each year. This is up from 100,000 in 2000—a six-fold increase.

What could be the impact ?

   There is hard evidence now to act urgently to reduce the public health risks to all, particularly children, elderly, and poor. No one can escape toxic air. India will have to take aggressive action to reverse the trend of short-term respiratory and cardiac effects as well as long-term cancer and other metabolic and cellular effects.

What India needs to do ?

1. Make National Ambient Air Quality Standards legally binding in all regions. The national air quality planning and city action plans need a roadmap for each source of pollution and aggressive measures. Penalty should be imposed on cities if air quality standards are violated.

2. Prepare stringent vehicle technology and fuel quality roadmap, encourage in-use vehicle management. The terms of reference of the new committee that has been set up to propose the next Auto Fuel Policy Roadmap does not even include public health in its agenda. Make urgent timelines for Euro V and Euro VI emissions standards. Contain dieselization.

3. Control and cut increase in vehicle numbers by scaling up public transport, non-motorised transport, compact city planning and car restraint measures.

4. Strengthen implementation plans for critically polluted notified areas Account for health cost in decision making. Valuation of acute and chronic illnesses must be linked to decision on air pollution control measures.

5. Put in place a public information system on daily air quality with health advisories and implement smog alert and pollution emergencies measures.

Source