World AIDS Day
Why in news?
- World AIDS Day 2019 is being observed on the 1st of December with this year theme of “Communities make the difference.”
News summary
- World AIDS Day is observed on the 1st of December, every year, since 1988. World AIDS Day was the first global health day to be celebrated.
- AIDS is the abbreviation for Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. It is a chronic illness, which can also be potentially life-threatening. The disease is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus, HIV which affects the human immune system.
- According to the WHO, at the end of 2018, about 37.9 million people were living with HIV. Data suggests that about 75 million people have been infected with the virus until now, out of which 32 million lives have been lost because of HIV.
$400 million line of credit for infrastructure in Sri Lanka
Why in news?
- Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s paid a two-day visit to India. This was Mr Gotabaya’s first overseas visit since assuming office.
Important Highlights of the visit:
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced a 400 million dollar Line of Credit of to Sri Lanka to boost the island nation’s development. India will also extend a 50 million dollars Line of Credit to Sri Lanka to fight terrorism.
- The Prime Minister also said that the two leaders had decided to utilise the $100 million credit line earlier announced for setting up solar projects in the country.
- The two sides also discussed a range of bilateral and regional issues, including fulfilling the aspirations of the Tamil community in Sri Lanka, situation in the Indian Ocean region and steps to boost trade and investment ties.
Spike LR missile
Why in news?
- In Madhya Pradesh, the Indian Army successfully test-fired two newly-acquired Israeli Spike LR anti-tank guided missile (ATGM).
News summary
- Spike is a fourth generation missile which can engage any target with precision at ranges up to 4 kilo metres.
- In addition to fire and forget capability, the missile also has the ability to fire, observe and update, providing substantial flexibility to the firer to pinpoint the impact point, as also the ability to switch to a different target mid-flight, should he want to do so.
- The missile has an inbuilt seeker, which gives the firer the flexibility to use any of two modes: Day (CCD) and Night (IIR). The dual seeker adds to the missile’s reliability.
- India became the 33rd country to have the Spike missile as part of its inventory.
2+2 ministerial dialogue
Why in news?
- Defence Minister of India Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister of India S. Jaishankar, met Foreign Affairs Minister of Japan and Minister of Defense of Japan on 30 November 2019 in New Delhi for the first India-Japan 2+2 Foreign and Defence Ministerial Meeting.
Key highlights:
- THE Ministers welcomed the recently conducted exercises namely the second “Dharma Guardian-2019” and the second “SHINYUU Maitri-2019”. The Ministers also concurred to proceed with coordination for the first India-Japan joint fighter aircraft exercise in Japan.
- The Ministers welcomed the progress made in the negotiations of Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA) since the announcement to commence the negotiations in October 2018. The Ministers expressed their desire for early conclusion of the negotiations.
- The Ministers welcomed the setting up of Information Fusion Centre – Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR) by India in December 2018. The Indian side looked forward to Japanese side dispatching a liaison officer at the IFC-IOR in the near future.
- The Ministers emphasized the need to further strengthen the defence equipment and technology cooperation and looked forward to productive discussions in the fifth Joint Working Group on Defence Equipment and Technology Cooperation (JWG-DETC).
- The Ministers welcomed the progress on cooperative research in the area of Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV)/ Robotics.
- The Ministers expressed their satisfaction at trilateral cooperation with the US represented by the “MALABAR 2019” held from September-October 2019 off the coast of Japan, mine-countermeasures exercise (MINEX) held in Japan in July 2019 and “Cope India 2018” in which Japan participated as an observer in December 2018.
- The Ministers reaffirmed the importance of supporting ASEAN centrality and unity for promoting peace and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific. The Ministers welcomed the adoption of “ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP)” during the 34th ASEAN Summit in Thailand in June 2019.
National Startup Awards 2020
Why in news?
- The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has announced institution of the first ever National Startup Awards.
Key highlights:
- The National Startup Awards seek to recognize outstanding startups and ecosystem enablers that are building innovative solutions and scalable enterprises, with high potential of employment generation or wealth creation, demonstrating measurable social impact.
- The awards for startups will be given in 35 areas, classified into 12 broad sectors like agriculture, education, enterprise technology, energy, finance, food, health, Industry 4.0, space, security, tourism, and urban services. In addition, there are three special awards for startups from educational institutions, making impact in rural areas and women entrepreneurs.
- A cash prize of Rs 5 lakh each will be awarded to the winning startup in each area. A cash prize of Rs 15 lakh each will be awarded to one winning Incubator and one winning Accelerator as well.
- The applications for the awards are open till 31st December 2019.
Indian Navy commissions sixth Dornier aircraft squadron
Why in news?
- Indian Naval Air Squadron 314, the sixth Dornier aircraft squadron was commissioned at Naval Air Enclave- Porbandar on Gujarat coast.
Key highlights:
- The INAS 314 derives its name Raptors from the Bird of Prey family. The insignia of the squadron depicts a Raptor bird searching over the vast blue expanse of the sea.
- Raptors are large birds of prey known for excellent sensory capabilities, powerful and sharp talons and strong wings symbolizing the capabilities of the aircraft and envisaged roles of the squadron.
- This squadron will operate the Dornier aircraft, a multi-role SRMR aircraft, with twin turboprop engine manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautical Limited, Kanpur. The aircraft can be used for electronic warfare missions, maritime surveillance, search and rescue and to provide targeting data to weapon platform.
- Navy is procuring 12 new Dornier aircraft from HAL with state-of-the-art sensors and equipment including glass cockpit, advanced surveillance radar, optical sensors and networking features.
Loktak Inland Water ways
Why in news?
- Shipping Ministry today gave approval for the development of Loktak Inland Water ways improvement project in Manipur under the central sector scheme.
- The estimated cost of the project is over 25 crore rupees.
- The Loktak Lake is the largest fresh water lake in North east located at Moirang in Manipur.
News summary
- The lake is located near Moirang in Manipur state, India.
- Loktak Lake is the largest freshwater lake in Northeast India.
- It is famous for the phumdis floating over it. Phumdis are a series of floating islands, exclusive to the Loktak Lake in Manipur. They are heterogeneous masses of vegetation, soil and organic matter, in different stages of decay.
- It has been designated as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention in 1990.
- It is also listed under the Montreux Record in 1993, “a record of Ramsar sites where changes in ecological character have occurred, are occurring or are likely to occur”.
Antibiotic prescription rate
Why in news?
- According to a new study by researchers at the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), antibiotic prescription rate high in private sector.
About:
- The study is the first ever estimate of outpatient antibiotic prescription rates and patterns in the private sector.
- It has been published this in PLOS One titled — “Outpatient antibiotic prescription rate and pattern in the private sector in India”.
- The authors used the 12-month period (May 2013-April 2014) medical audit data set.
Key highlights of the report:
- The private sector clocked high levels of antibiotic prescription rates (412 per 1,000 persons per year).
- The highest rate was seen among children aged 0–4 years (636 per 1,000 persons) and the lowest in the age group 10–19 years (280 per 1,000 persons).
- Percentage of prescriptions for wide-spectrum antibiotics like cephalosporins and quinolones (38.2% and 16.3%) was significantly higher than the U.S. (14.0% and 12.7%) and Greece (32.9% and 0.5%).
- India is considered to be one of the top users of antibiotics and there is a growing problem of antimicrobial resistance. Per capita antibiotic consumption in the retail sector has increased by around 22% in five years from 2012 to 2016.
- Of the 519 million antibiotic prescriptions, the majority were dispensed for the diseases of the respiratory system (55%).