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Q1 - Which of the following is/are correct regarding National Health Policy, 2017? 1. Reducing Under Five Mortality to 23 by 2020 2. Maternal Mortality Ratio from current levels to 100 by 2020 3. Infant Mortality Rate to 28 by 2020 A. 1,2 only B. 2,3 only C. 2 only D. 1,3 only Q2 - Consider the following statement about VVPAT is/are correct? 1. All elections except local bodies election uses VVPAT 2. VVPAT machine specially designed by the BHEL A. 1 only B. 2 only C. Both D. None Q3 - Which of the following city is not selected for Mobilise Your City (MYC) programme? A. Delhi B. Nagpur C. Ahmedabad D. Kochi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Answer 1-C,2-D,3-A

Agriculture is part of the solution in the fight against climate change—this was the sentiment echoed by various stakeholders gathered at COP 22 in Marrakech. This is established by their respective climate action plans or Intended Nationally Determined Contributions. Almost 95 per cent of countries covered agriculture, and 89 per cent discussed water management in their plans. Most of the countries have considered agriculture among their adaptation or mitigation priorities to help limit global temperature rise, in line with the Paris Climate Change Agreement. Working towards sustainable agriculture also addresses other global challenges: fighting hunger and malnutrition and sustainable management of natural resources and ecosystems. However, the progress made at COP 22 related on agriculture was very slow and the issues related to agriculture will now be discussed in May 2017. Three new initiatives discussed at COP 22 highlight the potential in agricultural adaptation: Adaptati...

In many ways, the Marrakech climate summit was entirely ordinary. As is usually the case, the first week was spent drowning in technical detail while most of the second was dedicated to photo opportunities and political speeches. And as always the negotiations ran over time, finishing early on Saturday morning. But while this latest “Conference of the Parties” (COP) was intended to be an “action COP”, aimed at getting down to the business of implementing the Paris Climate Agreement reached last year, it will mainly be remembered as the “Trump COP”. It was a summit held under the spectre of renewed US climate recalcitrance in the wake of the surprise election result, which dropped like a bombshell on the summit’s third day. The main topic of debate in the first week was the creation of a “Paris Rulebook”, set to be finalised by the end of 2018. The Paris Agreement sets up a loose skeleton for a pledge-and-review system of deepening emissions-reduction targets over the coming decade...

Despite extensive media coverage, campaigns and scientists’ warnings, still the world is not fully aware of what coral bleaching is and why it is happening. Mention bleaching and some think that it is the death of the Great Barrier Reef’s coral, but the problem is much more widespread. The Conversation “Bleaching” is when corals lose the highly productive algae (termed zooxanthellae) from their tissues due to stress from high sea temperatures and solar irradiation. The algae and coral have a symbiotic relationship: the algae remove the coral’s waste products while the coral gives the algae a safe environment to live in, and provides compounds for photosynthesis. Without the algae, the coral no longer has a sufficient source of food, meaning that it essentially starves to death. Due to its iconic status and numerous nearby scientific institutes, the Great Barrier Reef often receives the most attention when it comes to coral bleaching. But there are many other reefs across the globe...

Affordable, quality health care for all requires more human resources and cost control The National Health Policy 2017, which the Centre announced this week after a nudge from the Supreme Court last year, faces the challenging task of ensuring affordable, quality medical care to every citizen. With a fifth of the world’s disease burden, a growing incidence of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, and poor financial arrangements to pay for care, India brings up the rear among the BRICS countries in health sector performance. Against such a laggardly record, the policy now offers an opportunity to systematically rectify well-known deficiencies through a stronger National Health Mission. Among the most glaring lacunae is the lack of capacity to use higher levels of public funding for health. Rectifying this in partnership with the States is crucial if the Central government is to make the best use of the targeted government spending of 2.5% of GDP by 2025, up from 1.15% now. Alth...

Q1 - Which of the following is correct regarding chemical weapons convention? 1. It is administered by United Nations Security council 2. Russia recently decided to remove its chemical weapon stockpiles A. 1 only B. 2 only C. Both Q2 - Which of the following state governments has recently launched e-Prison project? A. Andhra Pradesh B. Karnataka C. Jammu and Kashmir D. Tamil Nadu Q3 - India recently signed Hague code of conduct. What is this code related to? A. It prohibites the illegal trade of animal parts B. It works to improve the banking regulations C. It works to contain the spread of ballistic missiles D. None of the above. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  Answer 1-B,2-B,3-B

Q.1- ‘Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action’, often seen in the news, is (a) a strategy to tackle the regional terrorism, an outcome of a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (b) a plan of action for sustainable economic growth in the Asia-Pacific Region, an outcome of the deliberations of the Asia-Pacific Economic Forum (c) an agenda for women’s empowerment, an outcome of a World Conference convened by the United Nations (d) a strategy to combat wildlife trafficking, a declaration of the East Asia Summit Q.2- Which of the following is part of Indradhanush plan to revamp banks? 1. It is applicable to both public and private sector to make them compatible to Basel III norms 2. An Independent authority Bank Board Bureau would be made under this plan A. 1 only B. 2 only C. Both D. None Q.3- Bajaj commmittee os related to which of the following? A. Tungabhadra water sharing B. Krishna water sharing C. Godavari water sharing D. Relocation if resources...

The big bad wolf will come. This is what has dictated global climate change narrative for so long. The world has tiptoed around actions that need to be taken at a certain speed and scale to curtail emissions; global agreements have been bent out of shape to appease climate deniers. And in Paris, the world literally scraped the bottom of the barrel to tie up a weak and unambitious agreement to control climate change. All this, because it believed that doing anything more would get the opposition, particularly in the US, riled up. As a result, the US has made the multilateral world change rules; reconfigure agreements, mostly to reduce it to the lowest common denominator. Then when the world has stitched together a weak and worthless deal, the US has walked out of it. All this while, its powerful civil society and media has hammered home the point that the world needs to be accommodating and pragmatic. “Our Congress will not accept” or, worse, “Republicans will come” has been the comm...

Tamil Nadu is reeling under severe drought owing to a 62 per cent deficit in the rainfall collectively from the Southwest and Northeast Monsoon. The groundwater table has also gone down. Finance minister D Jayakumar, while presenting his maiden budget in the Tamil Nadu assembly on March 16, acknowledged the challenges that the government is faced with. Stating that the storage in most of the reservoirs supplying water to Chennai is 10 to 20 per cent of their capacity, Jayakumar said that the state government has taken up work like digging up new deep borewells, rejuvenating existing borewells and replacing pump sets at a total cost of Rs 610 crore. The minister proposed the following measures to allay farmers’ concern over water shortage and crop failure Allocate Rs 615 crore to meet drought situation Encourage sugarcane cultivation under the drip irrigation scheme Allocate Rs 300 crore for Tamirabarani-Nambiyar River linking project Use Rs 3,042-crore loan from World Bank fo...

A team of researchers has discovered the first naturally fluorescent frog in Argentina. The discovery was made when Argentine and Brazilian scientists at the Bernardino Rivadaiva Natural Sciences Museum were studying the metabolic origin of pigments in a tree-frog species common in South America. According to the study published on March 13 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, it is the "first scientific record of a fluorescent frog". Under normal light, the South American polka-dot tree frog (Hypsiboas punctatus) has a muted shade of greens, yellows and reds. But once the lights are dimmed, this little amphibian emits a bright blue and green glow. The ability to absorb light at short wavelengths and re-emit it at longer wavelengths, which is called fluorescence, is rare in terrestrial animals. Until now, this feature was unheard of in amphibians. Interestingly, this unique tree frog uses fluorescent molecules that are completely different from those fou...

Scientists at the University of Cambridge have developed a sunlight-powered technology to produce clean fuel from unprocessed biomass. The technology claims producing clean fuel, which is relatively cheap and sustainable, from biomass. The University of Cambridge said in a release that so far, lignocelluloses—the main component in plant biomass—was converted into hydrogen gas through a gasification process, which uses high temperatures for decomposition. However, the technology developed at the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Sustainable SynGas Chemistry uses a rather simple photocatalytic conversion process, said the release. The joint lead author, David Wakerley from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge says, “There's a lot of chemical energy stored in raw biomass, but it is unrefined. So, you cannot expect it to work in complicated machinery such as a car engine.” The new technology converts the long, messy structures that make up biomass into hydro...

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) has issued a notification, giving a six-month window period to project proponents, who have been operating without obtaining a prior environmental clearance (EC), to apply for the same. The notification, issued on March 14, clarifies that this opportunity can only be availed for projects or activities which are observed to be in violation till the date of the notification, thus, making this a one-time opportunity. The Ministry says that the notification has been issued because it is “necessary to bring such projects and activities in compliance with the environmental laws at the earliest point of time, rather than leaving them unregulated and unchecked, which will be more damaging to the environment”. Thus, it is “essential” to grant EC to these projects with adequate safeguards to make them compliant. What prompted such move? The recent move comes in response to certain proposals that the ministry and the Stat...

The Vision 2030 document should formulate a disability-inclusive development agenda The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog) is formulating a Vision 2030 document. This document is coterminous with the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), all 17 of which equally affect persons with disabilities as they do any other citizen. The National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People conducted a seminar in December 2016. The government, the private sector, and leaders from various development fields participated to take stock of the current situation and deliberate on how disability could be integrated in Vision 2030. A starting point was that the government, the NITI Aayog, and all the associated stakeholders should interpret the provisions of the SDGs in line with the requirements and spirit of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). What may a road map for creating a disability-inclusive development agenda loo...

The government is aiming to control women’s fertility rather than uphold their reproductive rights The government is aiming to control women’s fertility rather than uphold their reproductive rights Sulakshana Nandi Instead of putting its efforts into improving the delivery of existing contraceptive methods, the government has recently chosen to introduce the injectable contraceptive, depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA), which is known to have adverse effects on women’s health. Sulakshana Nandijpg The articulation of population as a ‘problem’ or talking in terms of a ‘population explosion’ is deeply problematic, for it brings with it the spectre of ‘control’ and eventually, in a country like ours, control over women’s body and fertility. Countries that have achieved lower fertility rates have done so due to economic and social development and improvements in public services, including health services. Simply put, if a family is convinced that their one child or two childr...

By pointing to gradual rate increases, the Fed reassures markets and policymakers The U.S. Federal Reserve has resumed normal monetary service by raising interest rates for the second time in three months. The Fed’s decision on Wednesday reflects its confidence in the continuing expansion and signals that its efforts to reflate the world’s largest economy are largely on track — with overall inflation seen to be stabilising around its longer-run target of 2% over the next couple of years. Significantly, Chair Janet Yellen stressed that policymakers expect the strengthening economy would warrant “gradual increases” in the benchmark federal funds rate to ensure that the monetary policy stance remains accommodative of growth, even as price stability is ensured. This emphasis on ‘gradual’ provides a degree of policy predictability that markets, for now, can broadly factor in two more rate increases of one quarter of a percentage point each for the rest of 2017 — especially when coupled w...