UPSC Daily Current Affairs | Prelim Bits 01-10-2020

Green Strategic Partnership

• India and the Kingdom of Denmark have launched the Green Strategic Partnership for delivering sustainable solutions to India.
• The Partnership will focus on expanding economic ties, green growth, and cooperation on global challenges such as climate change.
• Green growth is a term to describe a path of economic growth that uses natural resources in a sustainable manner.
• Highlights of the deal are as follows

1. Danish companies with niche technologies and expertise have offered to help India in meeting its air pollution control targets, including in the key area of tackling the problem of burning crop stubble.
2. Other key points under the partnership include dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic and cooperation in water efficiency and water loss.
3. The creation of India-Denmark energy parks in areas with large numbers of Danish firms and an India-Denmark skill institute to train Indian manpower has been proposed.
4. The Green Strategic Partnership will build on an existing Joint Commission for Cooperation and existing joint working groups.

Intellectual Property Cooperation

• Ministry of Commerce and Industry has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for Intellectual Property (IP) Cooperation with Denmark.
• The MoU aims at increasing IP co-operation between the two countries by way of, exchange of information and best practices on processes for disposal of applications for patents, trademarks, industrial designs, and Geographical Indications, and cooperation in the field of protection of Traditional Knowledge.
• It will be a landmark step forward in India’s journey towards becoming a major player in global innovation and further the objectives of the National Intellectual Property Rights Policy, 2016.

Ambedkar Social Innovation & Incubation Mission

• Union Social Justice Minister launched the Ambedkar Social Innovation and Incubation Mission
• The mission is launched under Venture Capital Fund for SCs, with a view to promoting innovation and enterprise among SC students studying in higher educational institutions.
• The objective of this fund is to provide concessional finance to the entities of the SC entrepreneurs.
• Under this fund, 117 companies promoted by SC entrepreneurs have been sanctioned financial assistance to set up business ventures.
• Under the initiative, one thousand SC youth will be identified in the next four years with start-up ideas through the Technology Business Incubators in various higher educational institutions.
• They will be funded 30 lakh rupees in three years as equity funding to translate their start-up ideas into commercial ventures.
• Successful ventures would further qualify for venture funding of up to five Crore rupees from the Venture Capital Fund for SCs.

PMNCH Accountability Breakfast

• The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH) is a global health partnership founded in 2005.
• It is hosted at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland which joins the maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) communities into an alliance.
• The Accountability Breakfast aims to convert talk into action for the health and rights of women, children and adolescents.
• Recently Union Ministry for Health and Family Welfare participated in the PMNCH ‘Accountability Breakfast’ (an annual event) to discuss the issues of maternal and child health.
• The event was co-hosted by the White Ribbon Alliance (WRA) and Every Woman Every Child (EWEC).

White Ribbon Alliance

• WRA is a nonpartisan, non-profit and non-governmental membership organization that aims to decrease maternal and newborn death globally.
• It was founded in 1999 and same year it came to India as WRA India
• It is headquartered in Washington, D.C., USA

Every Woman Every Child’ (EWEC) Movement

• It was launched by the United Nations during the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Summit in September 2010.
• Every Woman Every Child is an unprecedented global movement that mobilizes and intensifies international and national action by governments, the private sector, and civil society to address the major health challenges facing women, children, and adolescents around the world.

Cat Que virus (CQV)

• CQV belongs to the Simbu serogroup virus of the genus Orthobunyavirus.
• It was first isolated in 2004 from mosquitoes in northern Vietnam.
• It has also been reported in China.
• CQV comes under the category of Arthropod-borne viruses.
• Arthropods are a group of invertebrate animals including insects, spiders etc.
• It is found in pigs and Culex mosquitoes. Birds such as the Jungle Myna may also act as a host.
• Mosquitoes of Culex species also cause Japanese Encephalitis.
• It infects both humans and livestock species, where Humans are infected through mosquito bites.
• Recently Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)-National Institute of Virology has noted the presence of antibodies against the Cat Que virus (CQV) in two human serum samples.
• This indicates that the CQV virus may become a public health pathogen and may lead to a pandemic if it spreads.
• The positivity in human serum samples and the replication capability of CQV in mosquitoes points towards a possible disease-causing potential in the Indian scenario.

Source: PIB, Indian Express, the Hindu