UPSC Daily Current Affairs | Prelim Bits 13-03-2021

Defeating Meningitis by 2030: A Global Roadmap

• In 2020, the World Health Organization’s World Health Assembly endorsed the first-ever resolution on meningitis prevention and control and approved Defeating Meningitis by 2030: A Global Road Map.
• Developed with input from PATH and other global health leaders, the road map outlines goals and provides a framework to achieve them.

• This first global road map on meningitis sets out three visionary goals to:
  1. Eliminate epidemics of acute bacterial meningitis(meningococcus, pneumococcus, Haemophilus influenzae and group B streptococcus);
  2. Reduce cases of and deaths from vaccine-preventable bacterial meningitis;
  3. Reduce disability and improve quality of life after any meningitis.
• To achieve these goals, the road map identifies goals across 5 pillars - Prevention and epidemic control; diagnosis and treatment; disease surveillance; support & care for the affected; advocacy and engagement.

Meningitis

• Meningitis is a serious infection or inflammation of meninges, the three-membrane thin lining that lie over the brain and spinal cord.
• It can be caused by a viral, bacterial, or fungal infection, but bacterial cases are the most dangerous.
• Types of meningitis and their causal agents are:
  1. Bacterial meningitis - Streptococcus pneumoniae, Listeria monocytogenes, Haemophilus influenzae, Neisseria meningitides
  2. Viral meningitis - Herpes simplex virus and HIV
  3. Fungal meningitis - Cryptococcal meningitis is a fungal form
• It could trigger headache, brain fever and a person suffering from meningitis may also experience stiffness in neck.
• Survivors frequently suffer deafness, cognitive impairment, and limb amputation due to sepsis.

NISAR

• Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) signed a partnership in 2014, to collaborate on and launch NISAR (NASA-ISRO SAR) by 2022.
  1. NASA is providing L-band SAR, a high-rate communication subsystem for science data, etc.,
  2. ISRO is providing the S-band radar, and launch services.
• NISAR is a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) that can produce extremely high-resolution images for a joint earth observation satellite mission.
• It will be the first satellite mission to use two radar frequencies (L-band and S-band) to measure changes in Earth’s surface less than a centimetre across.
• NISAR will observe Earth’s land and ice-covered surfaces with 12-day regularity on ascending and descending passes, sampling Earth on average every 6 days for a baseline 3-year mission.
• Radar penetrates clouds and darkness, enabling NISAR to collect data day and night in any weather.
• It would provide a means of disentangling highly spatial and temporally complex processes like ecosystem disturbances, natural hazards, etc.

UN Report on COVID-19 Recovery

• This report is based on the analysis by Oxford’s Economic Recovery Project and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
• It says that only 18% of recovery spending announced by 50 largest economies to tackle the effect of the pandemic in 2020 was green.
• Only $368 billion of the total $14.6 trillion in fiscal measures announced was green, which undermines the efforts to build back sustainably.
• A green recovery would be a win for the economy as well as the climate.

Fire in Similipal Tiger Reserve

• As there is forest fire in Similipal Tiger Reserve, the Mankidias and Khadias tribes of Odisha have lost their livelihoods.
• Situated in the northern part of Orissa’s Mayurbhanj district, Similipal serve as a life-support system for the tribals and Royal Bengal tigers.
• Hilly areas of Similipal are the original home of many ethnic groups such as Birhors, Hill Khadias and Mankidias.
• Other tribal communities - Santal, Kolha, Bathudi, Mahali, Bhuyan, etc.
• Apart from tiger, there are leopards, hyenas, sambars, chitals, elephants, baring deer, avifauna, herpeto-fauna and amphibians.

Mankidias and Khadias

• Mankidias and Khadias are the two of the 13 particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTG) in Odisha.

• These tribals collect siali fibre and wild honey, which are seasonal, from Similipal forest. Due to the recent forest fire, they couldn’t collect them.
• Nearly 250 people from the tribe live in 9 villages located on the fringes of Similipal.
• Their rights should be recognised under The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006.

E3 Certification Programme

• Energy Efficiency Enterprise (E3) Certifications Programme for Brick manufacturing Sector was launched to kick-start a series of events from Ministry of Power, under 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav'.
• The E3 Certificate will be awarded to those enterprises whose specific energy consumption will be 25% lower than the national baseline.
• Enterprises can qualify for E3 by shifting to energy efficient brick manufacturing technology and Production of lower density bricks with better thermal insulation (hollow, perforated or porous bricks).
• It will lead to cost savings to builders and energy savings to occupiers of buildings due to better thermal comfort and improved insulation properties.
• The bricks produced by E3 Certified brick units would comply with the requirements of Energy Conservation Buildings Code (ECBC).
• India is the world's 2^nd largest producer of bricks. This demand would multiply 3 to 4 times over the next 20 years, through E3 Certification.

Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav

• ‘AzadiKaAmritMahotsav’, is the Government's initiative to mark 75 years of India's Independence.
• It starts the celebration of 75 years of India's Independence 75 weeks before 15th August, 2022 and extends up to Independence Day 2023.
• The idea behind is to showcase accomplishments since 1947 so as to instil a sense of pride and to create a vision for 'India@2047'.
• The commemorations will include 75 events for 75 weeks with one prominent event every week.

BRICS Contact Group on Economic and Trade Issues

• The BRICS Contact Group on Economic and Trade Issues (CGETI) leads held their first meeting under India’s Chairship.
• The theme of BRICS this year is -"BRICS@15: Intra BRICS Cooperation for Continuity, Consolidation, and Consensus”.
• The deliverables proposed in the meeting are on
  1. Action plan based on the document “Strategy for BRICS Economic Partnership 2025” adopted during Russian Presidency in 2020
  2. BRICS Cooperation on Multilateral Trading system including cooperation for the TRIPS Waiver proposal at WTO
  3. Framework for Consumer Protection in E-Commerce
  4. Non-Tariff Measures (NTM) Resolution Mechanism;
  5. Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary (SPS) Working Mechanism;
  6. Co-operation framework for protection of Genetic Resources and Traditional Knowledge;
  7. BRICS Framework on Co-operation in Professional Services.

Source: PIB, The Hindu, Down To Earth, Times of India