Prelim Bits 19-04-2018

National Council on India's Nutrition Challenges

The first meeting of the National Council on India's Nutrition Challenges was held recently in New Delhi.
The Council was set up under POSHAN Abhiyaan which is the apex body to formulate overall policies, guide and monitor all nutrition based schemes.
The mandate of the Council is:

To provide policy directions to address India’s Nutrition Challenges through coordinated inter-sectoral action
To coordinate and review convergence among ministries
To review programmes for nutrition on a quarterly basis

National Clean Air Program (NCAP)

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) released a concept note on the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) recently.
The NCAP aspires to overcome the deficits of the ongoing government initiatives targeted towards air pollution control.
The NCAP was conceived as a detailed strategy to ensure that cities across the country meet specified air quality norms.
It lays down a comprehensive strategy framework for enhanced management of air quality.
It also, for the first time, plans to set up pollution-monitoring stations in rural areas.
It envisions setting up 1,000 manual air-quality-monitoring stations and automatic stations.
The document highlights lack of indigenous studies establishing the correlation between exposure to air pollution and human health.
A high-level apex committee and working group has, therefore, been constituted under the Indian Council of Medical Research and the MoEFCC to overcome this deficit.

Star rating of Garbage-Free Cities

The 1st regional workshop on star rating of garbage- free cities was inaugurated recently.
It was organized by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) in collaboration with the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC)
Along with the annual Swachh Survekshan activity, the star rating of garbage free cities will create a healthy competition among the cities to achieve the goals of cleanliness and 100% solid waste management.
The 7-star rating is innovatively designed on a SMART (Single metric, Measurable, Achievable, Rigorous verification and Targeted towards outcomes) approach.
It is the first-of-its kind rating tool for assessing cleanliness of cities and towns in India.
The system, based on 12 parameters, builds on the spirit of healthy competition among cities and the aspirations of cities to progress towards higher standards of “Swachhata” and its sustainability.
Strengths of star rating protocol -

Outcome-based tool rather than process based
Designed to enable cities to gradually evolve into a model (7-star) city
At the 7-star level, components of 3R (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) are incorporated.

Hope spots

In 2013 Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep islands were named as the "hope spots".
This recognition was given by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Mission Blue, an organization involved in the study of oceans.
A Hope Spot is any special place that is critical to the health of the ocean—Earth‘s blue heart.
It is an area of an ocean that needs special protection because of its wildlife and significant underwater habitats.
The two groups of islands are the first places in India to have been added in the list of global hope spots.

Advanced Landing Grounds (ALG)

Fighters, helicopters and transport assets have been deployed at the Advanced Landing Grounds (ALG) as part of the ongoing IAF exercise ‘Gaganshakti-2018'.
ALGs are short prepared or unprepared airstrips close to the borders in the valleys, which have limited rail or road connectivity due to challenging terrain.
ALGs located strategically offer an opportunity for swift mobility of troops and equipment close to our Northern and North Eastern borders.
The challenges faced by pilots in landing at these ALGs are unpredictable weather, undulating terrain, narrow corridor of maneuvering and short runway lengths.
A large number of ALGs have been operationalized and are being utilized for conducting Inter Valley Troop Transfers (IVTT), Special Heliborne Operations, Air Landed operations and Special Operations.

Groundswell Report

World Bank released the Groundswell: Preparing for Internal Climate Migration report recently.
It examines the impacts of internal or in-country migration due to slow onset climate change events.
Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Latin America could see more than 140 million people move within their countries’ borders by 2050 due to climate change impact.
The report is the first to look at such possible population distributions within countries.
It estimates that up to 86 million people could be displaced in Sub-Saharan Africa, 40 million in South Asia, and 17 million in Latin America.
These regions are the major climate “hot spots” and account for 55% of the developing world’s population.
The shift will likely involve the poorest people from the poorest countries moving in large numbers from rural regions to increasingly overburdened urban areas.
The report says that without prior planning, such dramatic swells of migration could lead to major disruption and instability.
The World Bank urged cities to prepare infrastructure, social services and employment opportunities ahead of the predicted influx.

Source: PIB, The Hindu, Business Standard