CURRENT AFFAIRS 8 NOVEMBER 2019

CURRENT AFFAIRS 

8 NOVEMBER 2019

1. 10TH ASIAN CONFERENCE ON EMERGENCY MEDICINE (ACEM 2019)(gs-2,3)

• Context:Venkaiah Naidu inaugurates 10th Asian Conference of Emergency Medicine
• Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu has stressed on the urgent need to attach high priority to emergency medicine and services in the country. Inaugurating 10th Asian Conference of Emergency Medicine in New Delhi today, Mr Naidu said, there is a need to develop programs and manuals to train citizens in emergency first aid procedures such as Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation as it will help in saving a life while waiting for emergency services. He also stressed on the need to invest in providing timely and high-quality Emergency Health Services in India.
• The Vice President expressed happiness that the Government of India has made it mandatory for all medical college hospitals to have full-fledged Emergency Departments by 2022 with an aim to improve trauma care.

ACEM 2019 :

• The theme of the Conference “Affordable Care, Bridging Gaps, Creating Impact” will underpin the need for collaboration and cooperation of our global family of emergency medicine.
• ACEM 2019 will provide a wonderful forum for you to refresh your knowledge base and explore the innovations in emergency medicine. The conference will feature some of the giants of emergency medicine, people you’ve heard and met before and some young guns too who are climbing the ladder to success very quickly!
• The Conference will strive to offer plenty of networking opportunities, providing you with the opportunity to meet and interact with the leading emergency physicians, administrators, leaders, innovators, friends and colleagues as well as sponsors and exhibitors.

2.Cyclone Bulbul(gs-1,3)

• Context:Principal Secretary to PM holds meeting on Cyclone Bulbul with States of Odisha, WB, Andaman and Nicobar
• The Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Dr. P. K. Mishra, held a high-level meeting with the Chief Secretaries and representatives of Odisha, West Bengal and Andaman and Nicobar Islands on Thursday to review their preparedness to deal with the situation arising out of cyclonic storm Bulbul. Dr Mishra advised officials to take all possible measures to ensure that there is no human casualty, and loss to property is minimised. He also assured of all necessary Central assistance. 



Cyclone Bulbul seen over the Bay of Bengal (Photo: Google Earth)


• The Director General of India Meteorological Department gave a detailed forecast on cyclone Bulbul. He informed that coastal Odisha is likely to witness a wind speed of 70 to 80 kilometres per hour gusting upto 90 kilometres per hour tomorrow accompanied by heavy to very heavy rain. Similar situation is likely to prevail in coastal West Bengal on Saturday. He said sea conditions will be very rough and advised fishing operation to be completely suspended.

Cyclone Bulbul:
7TH NAMED STORM

• Cyclone Bulbul is the seventh named storm of the unusually active 2019 North Indian Ocean cyclone season. The season has seen Cyclone Pabuk (South China Sea-Andaman Sea), Cyclone Fani (Bay of Bengal), Cyclone Vayu (Arabian Sea), Cyclone Hikka (Arabian Sea), Cyclone Kyarr (Arabian Sea) and Cyclone Maha (Arabian Sea).
• Bulbul, whose name was contributed by Pakistan, is the seventh the series of named cyclones of this season. If IMD's predictions hold true, Bulbul will also be the sixth storm to reach an intensity of very severe cyclonic storm.
• Cyclone Bulbul comes around seven months after Cyclone Fani struck Odisha. Cyclone Fani was the strongest storm to hit the state since the devastating 1999 Super Cyclone that killed thousands of people

3.Financial Stability and Development Council(gs-3)Context:FM Sitharaman reviews macro-economic situation and financial stability

• Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman reviewed the present global and domestic macro-economic situation, financial stability and issues related to Non-Banking Financial Companies and Credit Rating Agencies. 
• Ms Sitharaman chaired the 21st meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) in New Delhi on Thursday.
• The Council reviewed the earlier actions taken by the members and held discussions on the proposals related to cyber security of the financial sector

Financial Stability and Development Council:

• Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) is an apex-level body constituted by the government of India. The idea to create such a super regulatory body was first mooted by the Raghuram Rajan Committee in 2008.
•  Finally in 2010, the then Finance Minister of India, Pranab Mukherjee, decided to set up such an autonomous body dealing with macro prudential and financial regularities in the entire financial sector of India. 
• An apex-level FSDC is not a statutory body. The recent global economic meltdown has put pressure on governments and institutions across the globe to regulate their economic assets. This council is seen as India's initiative to be better conditioned to prevent such incidents in future. 
• The new body envisages to strengthen and institutionalise the mechanism of maintaining financial stability, financial sector development, inter-regulatory coordination along with monitoring macro-prudential regulation of economy. 
• No funds are separately allocated to the council for undertaking its activities.

4.BRICS summit(gs-2,3)

• Context:PM Modi to visit Brazil on November 13-14 for BRICS summit
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Brazil from Nov 13-14 to attend an annual summit of BRICS, a grouping of five countries, the external affairs ministry said on Thursday.
• The BRICS comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
• Secretary (Economic Relations) in the Ministry of External Affairs T S Tirumurti told reporters that the leaders at the summit will deliberate on boosting overall cooperation among the member nations.

• Brazil is the current chair of the grouping which represents over 3.6 billion people or half of the world population and they have a combined nominal GDP of USD 16.6 trillion.

BRICS:

• BRICS is an acronym for the grouping of the world’s leading emerging economies, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
• The BRICS Leaders’ Summit is convened annually.

Structure

• BRICS does not exist in form of organization, but it is an annual summit between the supreme leaders of five nations.
• The Chairmanship of the forum is rotated annually among the members, in accordance with the acronym B-R-I-C-S.
• BRICS cooperation in the past decade has expanded to include an annual programme of over 100 sectoral meetings.

Salient Features

• Together, BRICS accounts for about 40% of the world’s population and about 30% of the GDP (Gross Domestic Product), making it a critical economic engine.
• It’s an emerging investment market and global power bloc.

Genesis

• The acronym "BRICS" was initially formulated in 2001 by economist Jim O'Neill, of Goldman Sachs, in a report on growth prospects for the economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China – which together represented a significant share of the world's production and population.
• In 2006, the four countries initiated a regular informal diplomatic coordination, with annual meetings of Foreign Ministers at the margins of the General Debate of the UN General Assembly (UNGA).
• This successful interaction led to the decision that the dialogue was to be carried out at the level of Heads of State and Government in annual Summits.

• Timeline

• The first BRIC Summit took place in 2009 in the Russian Federation and focused on issues such as reform of the global financial architecture.
• South Africa was invited to join BRIC in December 2010, after which the group adopted the acronym BRICS. South Africa subsequently attended the Third BRICS Summit in Sanya, China, in March 2011.

Objectives

• The BRICS seeks to deepen, broaden and intensify cooperation within the grouping and among the individual countries for more sustainable, equitable and mutually beneficial development.
• BRICS takes into consideration each member’s growth, development and poverty objectives to ensure relations are built on the respective country’s economic strengths and to avoid competition where possible.
• BRICS is emerging as a new and promising political-diplomatic entity with diverse objectives, far beyond the original objective of reforming global financial institutions.

Areas of Cooperation

1. Economic Cooperation

There are rapidly growing trade and investment flows between BRICS countries as well as economic cooperation activities across a range of sectors.
Agreements have been concluded in the areas of Economic and Trade Cooperation; Innovation Cooperation, Customs Cooperation; strategic cooperation between the BRICS Business Council , Contingent Reserve Agreement and the New Development Bank.
These agreements contribute to realisation of the shared objectives of deepening economic cooperation and fostering integrated trade and investment markets.

2. People-to-People exchange

BRICS members have recognised the need for strengthening People-to-People exchanges and to foster closer cooperation in the areas of culture, sport, education, film and youth.
People-to-People exchanges seek to forge new friendships; deepen relations and mutual understanding between BRICS peoples in the spirit of openness, inclusiveness, diversity and mutual learning.
Such People to people exchanges include the Young Diplomats Forum, Parliamentarian Forum, Trade Union Forum, Civil BRICS as well as the Media Forum.

3. Political and Security Cooperation

BRICS member political and security cooperation is aimed at achieving peace, security, development and cooperation for a more equitable and fair world.
BRICS provides opportunities for sharing policy advice and exchanges of best practices in terms of domestic and regional challenges as well as advancing the restructuring of the global political architecture so that it is more balanced, resting on the pillar of multilateralism.
BRICS is utilised as a driver for South Africa’s foreign policy priorities including the pursuit of the African Agenda and South-South Cooperation.

4. Cooperation Mechanism

Cooperation among members is achieved through:

• Track I: Formal diplomatic engagement between the national governments.
• Track II: Engagement through government-affiliated institutions, e.g. state-owned enterprises and business councils.
• Track III: Civil society and People-to-People engagement.

Impacts of BRICS on global institutional reforms

• The main reason for co-operation to start among the BRICs nation was the financial crises of 2008. The crises raised doubts over sustainability of the dollar-dominated monetary system.
• The BRICs called for the “the reform of multilateral institutions in order that they reflect the structural changes in the world economy and the increasingly central role that emerging markets now play”.
• BRICs managed to push for institutional reform which led to International Monetary Fund (IMF) quota reform in 2010. Thus the financial crises had momentarily reduced western legitimacy and briefly let the BRICs countries become “agenda setters” in multilateral institutions.

5.The System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR)(gs-3)

• Context:AQI worsens from ‘poor’ to ‘very poor’ due to light showers
• The Capital’s air quality worsened from ‘poor’ to ‘very poor’ on Thursday mainly due to light showers witnessed during the day. The city’s Air Quality Index (AQI) on Thursday was 309, up from 214 (poor) on Wednesday, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). The air quality is expected to improve on Friday if the Capital gets more rainfall as predicted. “It only drizzled in Delhi on Thursday and this increased the humidity. Due to free water molecules in the air, chemical reactions took place leading to the formation of secondary aerosols, which increased the PM2.5 [deadly respirable particles] level in the air,” said an offi??cial of the government­run monitoring agency SAFAR (System of Air Quality and Weather)

SAFAR (System of Air Quality and Weather):

• The System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) is a national initiative introduced by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) to measure the air quality of a metropolitan city, by measuring the overall pollution level and the location-specific air quality of the city.
• The system is indigenously developed by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune and is operationalized by the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
• It has a giant true color LED display that gives out real-time air quality index on a 24x7 basis with color-coding (along with 72 hours advance forecast).
• The ultimate objective of the project is to increase awareness among the general public regarding the air quality in their city so that appropriate mitigation measures and systematic action can be taken up.
• It organizes awareness drive by educating the public (prompting self-mitigation), and
• It also helps the policy-makers to develop mitigation strategies keeping in mind the nation’s economic development.
• SAFAR is an integral part of India’s first Air Quality Early Warning System operational in Delhi. 
• It monitors all weather parameters like temperature, rainfall, humidity, wind speed, and wind direction, UV radiation, and solar radiation.
• Pollutants monitored: PM2.5, PM10, Ozone, Carbon Monoxide (CO), Nitrogen Oxides (NOx), Sulfur Dioxide (SO2), Benzene, Toluene, Xylene, and Mercury.
• The World Meteorological Organization has recognized SAFAR as a prototype activity on the basis of the high-quality control and standards maintained in its implementation.
• SAFAR system would benefit cost savings to several other sectors like agriculture, aviation, infrastructure, disaster management, tourism, etc. which directly or indirectly gets affected by air quality and weather.

Air Quality Index (AQI)

• The AQI is an index for reporting daily air quality.
• It focuses on health effects one might experience within a few hours or days after breathing polluted air.
• AQI is calculated for eight major air pollutants:
• Ground-level ozone,
• PM10,
• PM2.5,
• Carbon monoxide,
• Sulfur dioxide,
• Nitrogen dioxide,
• Ammonia,
• Lead,
• Ground-level ozone and airborne particles are the two pollutants that pose the greatest threat to human health in India.

6.India Justice Report 2019(gs-1,2)

• Context:Maharashtra tops in justice delivery 
• Report brings to light key issues across four pillars: police, 
• judiciary, prisons and legal aid
• Maharashtra has topped the list of 18 large­medium States in the overall first­ever ranking of Indian States on justice delivery, followed by Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Haryana. In this category, Jharkhand, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are at the bottom, while among seven smaller States, Goa leads the group. This is according to the India Justice Report 2019, released on Thursday by the Tata Trusts in collaboration with Centre for Social Justice, Common Cause, and Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, among others.

7.Internet and Mobile Association of India(gs-3)

• Context:Kerala on its way to achieve 100% Internet penetration
• Finance Minister of Kerala Thomas Isaac on Thursday tweeted that the Kerala Fibre Optic Network project, pegged at ₹1,548 crore, would provide Internet to every household in the State. "For 20 lakh BPL households it will be free," the tweet read.
• The project has an ambitious timeline — it is slated for completion by December 2020.
• However, going by data in a recent report by the Internet And Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), Kerala is already halfway to its goal of 100% coverage
• internet penetration rate (defined as number of individuals aged above 12 per 100 population who accessed the Internet in the last month; survey period January-March 2019).

Internet and Mobile Association of India:

• Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) is a not-for-profit industry body registered under the Societies Act, 1896. Its mandate is to expand and enhance the online and mobile value added services sectors. IAMAI also put forward the problems and requirements of the businesses to the consumers, shareholders, investors and the government of India. The main purpose of the Internet and Mobile Association of India is to improve and expand the value added services pertaining to mobiles and several online services.
• IAMAI is a specialized industry body in India representing the interests of online and mobile value added services industry.

8.Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant(gs-2,3)

• Context:Iran resumes uranium enrichment at Fordow plant This marks Tehran’s fourth step away from the 2015 nuclear agreement
• Iran resumed uranium enrichment at its underground Fordow plant south of Tehran on Thursday in a new step back from its commitments under a landmark 2015 nuclear deal, raising alarm from Western powers. Engineers began feeding uranium hexafl??uoride gas into the plant’s mothballed enrichment centrifuges in “the first minutes of Thursday”, the Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation said.

Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant:

• Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP) is an Iranian underground uranium enrichment facility located 20 miles (32 km) northeast of the Iranian city of Qom, near Fordow village, at a former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps base.The site is under the control of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI). It is the second Iranian uranium enrichment facility, the other one being that of Natanz. According to the Institute for Science and International Security,

Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI):

• The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) is the main Iranian government agency responsible for operating nuclear energy and nuclear fuel cycle installations in Iran. AEOI was involved in formerly undeclared nuclear activities including enrichment facilities at Fordow and Natanz.

• AEOI's headquarters are in the northern Amir Abad district in Tehran, but it has facilities throughout the country. The current head of AEOI is Ali Akbar Salehi, who replaced Fereydoon Abbasi on 15 August 2013

9.Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (gs-3)

• Context:IRDAI cracks down on Reliance Health
• The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has directed Reliance Health Insurance Company (RHICL) to stop selling new policies. It also directed the insurer to transfer the entire policyholders’ liabilities along with financial assets to Reliance General Insurance Co. (RGICL) with effect from November 15

Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) :

• Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India or the IRDAI is the apex body responsible for regulating and developing the insurance industry in India. It is an autonomous body. It was established by an act of Parliament known as the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 1999. IRDAI is headquartered in Hyderabad in Telangana. Prior to 2001, it was headquartered in New Delhi. The organization fought for an increase in the FDI limit in the insurance sector to 49% from the previous 26%. The FDI cap was hiked to 49% in July of 2014.
• Its primary purpose is to protect the rights of the policyholders in India. 
• It gives the registration certificate to insurance companies in the country.

10.The EAT-Lancet Commission on Food, Planet, Health
Context:‘EAT-Lancet diet too costly for 1.58 billion people’ Researchers say that at $2.84 per day, meal expenses would exceed daily per capita income in many low-income nations

• A diet meant to improve both human and planetary health would be unaffordable for at least 1.58 billion people, mostly in sub­Saharan Africa and South Asia, estimates a new study from researchers at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University in the U.S. Earlier this year, the EATLancet Commission on Food, Planet, Health published recommendations for a universal diet that addresses both human and planetary health. 
• The Commission suggested that adherence to this diet could ensure that our future food systems can sustainably and nutritiously feed the estimated population of 10 billion people in 2050. The new study, titled ‘Affordability of the EAT–Lancet reference diet: a global analysis’ and published on Thursday in The Lancet Global Health, sought to address what many felt was one of the main components lacking in the creation of the recommended diet, namely affordability.
•  “When formulating this pioneering benchmark diet — addressing individual health outcomes as well as the health of the planet — the Commission deliberately did not take its cost into account,” said senior author William Masters, an economist at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at the Tufts University. 
• The research team also found that the EAT­Lancet diet was 64% more costly than the lowest­cost combination of foods that would provide a balanced mix of 20 essential nutrients. The EATLancet diet has higher quantities of animal­source foods and fruits and vegetables than the minimum required for nutrient adequacy, and much higher quantities than are now consumed in low­income countries

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