Cabinet approves
merger / amalgamation of NIMH with ICMR- NIOH:
Context: Cabinet has approved to dissolve National
Institute of Miners’ Health (NIMH) and merge / amalgamate with ICMR-National
Institute of Occupational Health (NIOH), Ahmedabad, Ministry of Health
& Family Welfare (MoH&FW). NIMH, ICMR, NIOH, MoM and Impact:
The merger / amalgamation of NIMH with NIOH will prove beneficial to both the
Institutes in term of enhanced expertise in the field of occupational health
besides the efficient management of public money.
Background:
NIMH was set up by
Government of India in 1990 and registered as a Society under the Karnataka
Societies Registration Act, 1960.
It is an autonomous
Institute under Ministry of Mines (MoM).
Colistin banned in
animal food industry:
Context: Manufacture, sale and distribution of colistin
and its formulations for food-producing animals, poultry, aqua farming and
animal feed supplements have been prohibited in an order issued by Ministry of
Health and Family Welfare.
What is colistin
and why has it been banned?
Colistin is a
valuable, last-resort antibiotic that saves human lives in
critical care units.
Indiscriminate use of colistin has led to rise of anti-microbial
resistance in the country.
If the use of
colistin as a growth factor in animals is cut down and it is limited to
therapeutic usage only, the chances of developing resistance to it goes
down.
American pocket
shark, or Mollisquama mississippiensis:
What is it? It is a new species of pocket-sized pocket
shark found recently in the Gulf of Mexico.
It is only the
third out of more than 500 known shark species that may squirt luminous
liquid.
Dracaena
cambodiana:
Context: A group of researchers has discovered Dracaena
cambodiana, a dragon tree species in the Dongka Sarpo area
of West Karbi Anglong, Assam.
This is for
the first time that a dragon tree species has been reported from India.
The Dracaena seeds
are usually dispersed by birds. But due to the large fruit size, only a few
species of birds are able to swallow the fruits, thus limiting the
scope of its natural conservation.
Dracaena
cambodiana is an important medicinal plant as well as an
ornamental tree.
It is a major
source of dragon’s blood, a precious traditional medicine in China.
Fair and Remunerative Prices for
Sugarcane
The Union Cabinet has cleared a proposal to
create an emergency sugar reserve of 4
million tonne and approved the Fair
and Remunerative Prices for sugarcane for the year
2019-20.
Sugar Industry
§ Sugar industry is
an important agro-based industry that impacts rural livelihood of about 50
million sugarcane farmers and around 5 lakh workers directly employed in sugar
mills.
§ India is
the world’s second
largest sugar producer after Brazil and also the largest consumer.
Price Determination of Sugarcane
§ Sugarcane
prices are determined by:
o
Federal Government
o
State Government
§ The
Federal/Central Government announces Fair and Remunerative Prices which are
determined on the recommendation of the Commission for
Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) and are announced by
the Cabinet Committee
on Economic Affairs, which is chaired by Prime Minister.
§ The State Advised
Prices (SAP) are announced by key sugarcane producing
states which are generally higher than FRP.
Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP)
§ The
Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) is an attached office of
the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India. It came
into existence in January 1965.
§ It is an
advisory body whose recommendations are not binding on Government.
National Data Quality Forum
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)’s National
Institute for Medical Statistics (ICMR-NIMS), in partnership with Population
council (International non profit NGO that conducts research in biomedicine and
social science) has launched the National Data Quality Forum (NDQF).
§ The
National Data Quality Forum (NDQF) is an integrated national-level platform that aims
to improve the quality ofhealth and demographic data by generating meaningful dialogue around
the improvement of data quality in
general, and for health and medical research in particular.
§ NDQF will
bring all relevant stakeholders, subject matter experts, industry leaders,
decision makers, and data scientists/analysts on a common platform for
discussing improvements in the quality of data ecosystem in India.
§ NDQF will
integrate learnings from scientific and evidence-based
initiatives and guide actions through periodic workshops and conferences.
§ NDQF’s
activities will help establish protocols and good practices of data collection,
storage, use and dissemination that can be applied to health and demographic data, as
well as can be replicated across other industries and sectors also.
National Institute for Medical Statistics
§ NIMS is
one of the permanent
institutes of Institutes of Indian Council of Medical
Research (ICMR), New Delhi.
§ The
Institute came into existence in the year 1977 with the mandate to provide technical
expertise on research methodology, programme evaluation, mathematical
modeling, data analysis etc.
§ It is
India’s only institute to coordinate and standardize the collection of medical and health statistics in
the country.
Major Achievements of NIMS
§ Establishment
of India's first
Clinical Trials Registry, in collaboration with the Department
of Science and Technology and World Health
Organisation (WHO).
§ Integrated
Behavioural and Biological Assessment on National Highways (IBBA-NH) among
truckers for HIV epidemic in the country.
§ Identified
as the National
Nodal Agency for the implementation of Integrated Disease
Surveillance Project(IDSP)-Non-Communicable Disease ( IDSP-
NCD) risk factor survey.
Milky Way's Violent Birth Decoded
Based on the Gaia space observatory data, Scientist has observed
that the Milky Way, home to our sun and
billions of other stars, merged with another smaller galaxy in a cosmic
collision roughly 10 billion years ago.
Gaia Space Observatory
§ Gaia is a
mission to chart a three-dimensional map of our Galaxy, the Milky Way, in the
process revealing the composition, formation and evolution of the Galaxy.
§ Gaia will
provide unprecedented positional and radial velocity measurements with the
accuracy needed to produce a census of about one billion stars in our Galaxy.
§ According
to scientists, the union of the Milky Way and the so-called dwarf galaxy
Gaia-Enceladus increased our galaxy’s mass by about a quarter and triggered a
period of accelerated star formation lasting about 2 to 4 billion years.
§ Galaxies
of all types, including the Milky Way, began to form relatively soon after the Big Bang explosion
that marked the beginning of the universe some 13.8 billion years ago, but were
generally smaller than those seen today and were forming stars at a rapid rate.
Subsequent galactic mergers were instrumental in configuring galaxies existing
now.
§ Certain
stars with higher content of elements other than hydrogen or helium arose in
the Milky Way and others with lower such content originated in Gaia-Enceladus,
owing to its smaller mass.
Blood-oozing Tree
A trio of researchers led by Assam forest officer
Jatindra Sarma has discovered Dracaena cambodiana, a
dragon tree species in the Dongka Sarpo area of West Karbi Anglong. This is for
the first time that a dragon tree species has been reported from India.
Properties
§ It is a
plant that yields
dragon’s blood — a bright red resin (a precious
traditional medicine in China) used since ancient times as medicine, body oil,
varnish, incense and dye.
§ Several antifungal and
antibacterial compounds, antioxidants, flavonoids,
etc.have been extracted from various parts of the plant.
Location
§ In India,
the Dracaena genus belonging to the family Asparagaceae is represented by nine species and
two varieties in the Himalayan region, the northeast and Andaman and Nicobar
Islands. But Dracaena cambodiana is the only true dragon tree species, the study said.
Threat
§ Recent overexploitation to
meet the increasing demand for dragon’s blood has resulted in rapid depletion
of the plant. For this reason, the species is already listed in the inventory
of Rare and Endangered
Plants of China.
§ The
population size of the dragon tree species in Assam was estimated to be fewer than 50
mature individuals. The habitat of the plant is severely
fragmented due to open excavation of a stone quarry and there is
continuing decrease in its area of occupancy and number of mature individuals.
§ The Dracaena seeds are
usually dispersed by birds. But due to the large fruit
size, only a few species of birds are able to swallow the fruits, thus limiting
the scope of its natural conservation.
National Institute of Miners Health
The Union Cabinet has approved the merger of National
Institute of Miners Health with Indian Council of Medical Research-National
Institute of Occupational Health.
Background
§ Expenditure
Management Commission established by the
Government of India to review the working and performance of autonomous
institutes, recommended the merger of organisations with similar objectives.
Impact of Merger
§ Enhance
expertise in the field of occupational health.
§ Efficient
management of public resources
National Institute of Miners
Health
§ It was set
up by the Government of India in 1990 and was registered as a Society under the
Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960.
§ It is an
autonomous Institute under Ministry of Mines and located at Kolar Gold
Fields, Karnataka and the Central Laboratory in Nagpur.
§ It
conducts applied research in occupational health and hygiene and specializes in
providing technical support services to mining and mineral based industry with
special reference to metalliferous sector.
§ It has the
state-of-art infrastructural facilities and expertise for conducting Airborne Respirable
Dust, Heat Stress, Vibrations, Noise Monitoring & Mapping, Illumination,
ergonomic, etc. surveys in underground and opencast mines and routine & specialized
health surveillance of persons employed in mines.
National Institute of Occupational
Health
§ It was
established in 1966 as Occupational Health Research Institute (OHRI)
at Ahmedabad and later renamed as National Institute of Occupational Health (NIOH)
in 1970.
§ It works
under the administrative control of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
§ Its
primary responsibility is to support the national policy makers for adopting an
appropriate policy in the field of occupational health which includes
occupational medicine and occupational hygiene.
§ It has two
regional office at Kolkata and Bangalore.
Cuban Revolution
Aleida Guevara’s (Daughter of Ernesto "Che" Guevara )
visit to India coincides with 60 years of the Cuban revolution that was carried
out by Fiedel castro and Ernesto "Che" Guevara.
§ America
had been highly influential in Cuba since the early 1900s. Much of Cuba's
industry was owned by United States business and its main export, sugar, was
controlled by the USA.
§ In the
1950s, Cuba was being led under the corrupt and oppressive military
dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. However he supported US interests on the
island and hence, Washington supported him.
§ The
Batista regime was extremely unpopular with the Cuban people.
§ In 1956,
Fidel Castro and Che Guevara gathered a force of guerrilla fighters and started
a revolutionary war against government forces.
§ By 1958,
the revolution had spread throughout Cuba, culminating in the fall of Havana in
early 1959. Batista fled the country in 1959 and Castro formed a liberal
nationalist government by liberating Cuba from US influence.
