Prelim Bits 17-04-2018

World Bank Report

• The WB released its bi-annual South Asia Economic Focus report for 2018 titled ‘Jobless Growth?’ recently.
• In its previous South Asia economic focus reports, it had focused on backlash of globalization, tepid investment growth, and fading global tailwinds in the South Asian context.
• The WB report said there is an addition of 750,000 jobs in India per percentage point of GDP growth.
• Female employment rate dropped by 5 per cent per year in India in 2005-2015, whereas male employment rate decreased very little.
• Exports growth is the key to employment growth in India.
• Though India has grown faster than before past 2005, the report says that job growth has rather reduced in the reference period 2005-2015.
• The WB has put 2017-18 growth estimates for India at 6.7 %.

Albania’s Wetlands and Pelicans

• The Dalmatian pelican is back with a flourish in the Divjaka Lagoon in western Albania.
• It is one of the most important wetlands in the Adriatic basin that is key for migratory wildlife and is a breeding area for the pelican.

• The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has included the Dalmatian pelican (Pelecanus crispus) on its red list
• About 80 % of its breeding sites in Europe have disappeared.
• The basic feed of the Pelicans depleted by the night time fishermen with their nets and electric lamps.

All India Tiger Estimation 2018

• All India Tiger Estimation, which is conducted every four years since 2006, is underway.
• The exercise will be hi-tech, and also will more accurate and precise than ever before.
• The estimation will be conducted by National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and Wildlife Institute of India.
• The assessment will use Android phone-based application and desktop version of M-STrIPES (Monitoring System for Tigers-Intensive Protection and Ecological Status) for collecting, archiving and analyzing data.
• The Tiger Estimation exercise is the world’s largest wildlife survey effort in terms of coverage, intensity of sampling and quantum of camera trapping.
• Camera trap and Pugmark tracing are the common survey methods used.
• Visibility of animals, Type and state of habitat, Animal behavior are the factors that affect the accuracy of the process.

World Haemophilia Day 2018

• Qutub Minar will be lit up with red lights to raise awareness about an inherited bleeding disorder called haemophilia.
• World Hemophilia Day is an international observance held annually on April 17 by the World Federation of Haemophilia.
• This year theme is  "Sharing Knowledge Makes us Stronger"
• Haemophilia is a genetic disease where the body’s ability to make blood clots is impaired.
• In this case blood does not clot automatically when they get injured or even during a surgery leading to excessive bleeding.
• The only treatment is to give the missing clotting factor to the patients, which can be extremely expensive.

Plastic Waste Management (amendment) rules

• The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has notified the Plastic Waste Management (Amendment) Rules 2018.
• The rules lay down the phasing out of Multilayered Plastic (MLP), which are “non-recyclable, or non-energy recoverable, or with no alternate use.”
• Multi-layered plastics (MLP) are the shiny cover in which many ready-to-eat snacks and chips, as well as mouth-fresheners and tobacco products are sold.
• The amended Rules also prescribe a central registration system for the registration of the producer or importer or brand owner.
• The centralized registration system will be evolved by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) for the registration of the producer, importer and brand owner.

Small Hydro power Projects

• The Ministry of New and Renewal Energy (MNRE) is the nodal agency for promoting small hydro power projects.
• A major roadblock in converting the hydro power potential (an estimate of 20,000 MW of power in the country) to reality has been in terms of testing of the hydro turbines that generate the electricity.
• The turbines can be tested for their efficiency in real conditions only after they are installed.
• Even if there is a need for improvement it can’t be done once the machine is installed.
• In order to overcome this hurdle, the Ministry has set up a dedicated fully automatic SCADA-based hydraulic turbine research and development laboratory at the Alternate Hydro Energy Centre (AHEC) at the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee.
• The laboratory will act as a design and validation facility.
• It also can conduct research on hydro turbines and other hydro mechanical equipment conforming to national and international standards.

Source: PIB, The Hindu, Business Standard