UNICEF lauds India for a sharp decline of 20 per cent in child marriages during the last decade.
According to UNICEF, India saw a sharp decline in child marriages over the last ten years with 27% of girls getting married before their 18th birthday as against 47% a decade ago.
Globally, the proportion of girls who were married as children decreased by 15% in the last decade, from 1 in 4 to approximately 1in 5.
Also 25 million child marriages were prevented globally in the decade of 2005-06 to 2015-16.
The largest reduction was seen in South Asia with India being at the forefront.
The UN children's agency stated the following reasons for the decline
Increasing rates of girls’ education
Proactive government investments in adolescent girls
Strong public awareness about the illegality of child marriage and the harm it causes
CIMON (Crew Interactive MObile CompanioN)
CMON is a 3D-printed artificial intelligence system, described by its creators as a “flying brain”.
The entire structure of CIMON is made up of plastic and metal, created using 3D printing.
CIMON will be the first AI-based mission and flight assistance system.
It will soon join the crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS) to assist astronauts.
Airbus, an aeronautics company based in Netherlands, is developing CIMON.
CIMON is designed to support astronauts in performing routine work thereby increasing efficiency, facilitating mission success and improving security, as it can also serve as an early warning system for technical problems.
Monitoring of Cyber Space
The Ministry of Home Affairs has recently set up a Cyber & Information Security Division to look into matters relating to cyber-crime & information security.
Ministry of Home Affairs is implementing the ‘Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children (CCPWC)’ scheme from NIRBHAYA funds during the period 2017-2020.
The home ministry will train 27,500 police personnel across the country to tackle cyber crimes against women and children under the scheme.
It also aims at setting up an online cyber-crime reporting platform to allow public to report complaints of cyber crime including child pornography and facilitate removal of child pornographic content in coordination with concerned ministries.
Northern White male Rhino ‘Sudan’
A global team of scientists and conservationists is making effort to save the Northern White male Rhino from extinction with the help of the two surviving females.
‘Sudan’ rhino attracts thousands of visitors to the Ol Pejeta Conservancy,Kenya and became “The Most Eligible Bachelor in the World” on Tinder dating app last year in a fundraising effort.
Ol Pejeta, in Kenya, is the largest black rhino sanctuary in east Africa, and home to three of the world’s last remaining northern white rhino.
Northern White rhino and Southern White rhino are the two subspecies of white rhino.
White rhinoceros is taken from the Afrikaans word describing its mouth: “wyd”, meaning "wide", which was misinterpreted by English settlers as "wyd" for "white".
It is also sometimes called the square-lipped rhinoceros.
Elimination of Malaria
As per the World Malaria Report 2017 of World Health Organization (WHO), the estimated malaria cases from India are 87% in South East Asia region.
The estimation of the malaria cases is based on mathematical modeling and projected cases of malaria are not the actual cases reported in the country.
Malaria is mainly concentrated in the states of Orissa, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura because of the inaccessible terrain.
However, in the year 2017, reported malaria cases have declined by 23% as compared to 2016 and the incidence of malaria in India is 0.66 cases per one thousand populations (2017).
The Government has unveiled a plan to eliminate Malaria by 2030.
The National Framework for Malaria Elimination (NFME) 2016-2030 document was launched to achieve the target of malaria elimination by 2030 synchronizing with the Global Technical Strategy (GTS) for Malaria 2016-2030 of World Health Organization (WHO).
The Government has drafted National Strategic Plan for malaria elimination (2017-2020) wherein the country has been stratified based on the malaria burden into four categories – category 0 to category 3.
Some of the interventions that are being strengthened are as follows:
Early diagnosis and complete treatment
Integrated Vector Management
Indoor Residual Spray (IRS)
Long Lasting Insecticidal Nets (LLINs)/ Insecticide-treated Nets (ITNs)
Larval Source Management (LSM)
Behavior Change Communication (BCC) and Community Mobilization
Microfiber Pollution
Microfibers are tiny threads shed from fabric that have been found in abundance on shorelines where waste water is released.
Microfibers are too small to be caught in conventional filters, so they eventually pass through sewage plants, wash out to waterways, and can be eaten or absorbed by marine animals.
Synthetic microfibers are particularly dangerous because they have the potential to poison the food chain.
The fibers’ size also allows them to be readily consumed by fish and other wildlife.
These plastic fibers have the potential to bioaccumulate, concentrating toxins in the bodies of larger animals, higher up the food chain.
Map of the Day
Central America
Isthmus is a narrow piece of land with water on both sides that connects two larger areas of land.
Gulf is a large area of sea partly enclosed by land.
Bay is a part of the sea that is partly enclosed by a curve in the land
Cape is a large piece of land surrounded on three sides by water
Fjords are a narrow area of sea between high cliffs, especially in Norway. They are submerged U-shaped glacial troughs.
