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In its 30th session of IMO held in London, India has been re-elected to the council of IMO under “Category B”.
The IMO council consists of 40 members in which category A consists of 10 members, category B – 10 members and category C – 20 members.
The council plays a crucial role to play in deciding various important matters in relation to the global shipping industry.
India has had the privilege of being elected to and serving the council of the IMO, ever since it started functioning, except for two years during 1983-1984.
India is a party to 34 IMO Conventions and protocols.
It is currently in the advanced stage of ratifying Ballast Water Convention and Bunker Convention.
Ballast Water Convention
Ballast water management convention was adopted in IMO in 2004.
It came into force in September, 2017.
The convention aims to prevent the spread of harmful aquatic organisms from one region to another.
It establishes standards and procedures for the management and control of ships' ballast water and sediments.
All ships in international traffic are required to manage their ballast water and sediments to a certain standard according to the management plan.
Bunker Convention
The convention was adopted in 2001 and came into force in 2008.
Its aim is to ensure that adequate, prompt, and effective compensation is available to persons who suffer damage caused by spills of oil, when carried as fuel in ships' bunkers.
It applies to damage caused on the territory, including the territorial sea, and in exclusive economic zones of States Parties.
It is modeled on the International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage, 1969.
Upon ratification, it applies to an Indian vessel, wherever it is situated, and to a foreign flag vessel while it is within Indian jurisdiction.
Kapu Reservation Bill
The Kapu community, with 27 per cent population in the state of Andhra Pradesh, has been demanding reservations for decades.
In 2016, Manjunath Commission was set up to recommend quota for Kapus and it has submitted its report.
The Kapu reservation bill was recently passed by the assembly, providing 5% quota in education and employment in the state.
The kapu, Telaga, Balija and ontari communities would get the quota under the new cateogory ‘F’.
There will be no political quota, meaning no reservation in political posts or positions.
With this reservation, it will take the total quota in the state to 55 per cent, which is more than 50 per cent limit restricted by the Supreme Court.
Thus it makes the central government nod necessary for inclusion in the Schedule IX of the constitution.
The existing quota for Backward Communities remains unaffected.
Womb Transplant
The first birth as a result of a womb transplant in the United States has occurred recently.
A doctor in Sweden, Mats Brannstrom, is the first in the world to deliver a baby as a result of a uterus transplant.
The transplant helps women who had been born without uterus to bear children.
Firstly, in vitro fertilization to retrieve and fertilize their eggs will take place to produce embryos.
Then the embryos will be in frozen condition until they are ready to attempt pregnancy.
After the uterus transplant, the embryos can be thawed and implanted.
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)
It is a viral respiratory disease of zoonotic origin caused by the SARS coronavirus.
It leads to shortness of breath and/or pneumonia.
The only symptom common to all patients appears to be a fever above 38 °C (100 °F).
There is no vaccine for SARS and no cases have been reported worldwide since 2004.
According to WHO, SARS affected regions include China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Canada.
Recently, Chinese virologists have found the origins of the SARS outbreak in 2003.
A single population of horseshoe bats in a cave in Yunnan province in China caused the outbreak.
