Daily Current Affairs 19th March 2020

Daily Current Affairs 19th March 2020 Today’s Important Topic’s For UPSC Preparation

1. PANDEMIC COULD MAKE ANOTHER 25 MILLION JOBLESS.

2. NEW BILL HALVES TERMS OF PRESIDENTS, VPs OF LOCAL BODIES.

3. NOD FOR 83 LCA TEJAS MK-1A.

4. THE IMPORTANCE OF ‘CONTACT TRACING’.

5. HERD IMMUNITY.

6. INDIA IS SET TO SWITCH TO WORLD’S CLEANEST PETROL, DIESEL FROM APRIL.

PANDEMIC COULD MAKE ANOTHER 25 MILLION JOBLESS International Labour Organization: It is the only tripartite U.N. agency.It brings together governments, employers and workers of 187 member States, to set labour standards, develop policies and devise programmes promoting decent work for all women and men.

Established in 1919 by the Treaty of Versaillesas an affiliated agency of the League of Nations.

Became the first affiliated specialized agency of the United Nations in 1946.

Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland Founding Mission: social justice is essential to universal and lasting peace.

Promotes internationally recognized human and labour rights.

Received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1969.

1. For improving peace among classes 2.Pursuing decent work and justice for workers 3.Providing technical assistance to other developing nations.

The organization has played a key role in.

1.Ensuring labour rights during the Great Depression 2.Decolonization process 3.The creation of Solidarność ( trade union) in Poland 4.The victory over apartheid in South Africa Today it is providing substantial support in the building of an ethical and productive framework for fair globalization.

Mission and impact of the ILO: The International Labour Organization (ILO) is devoted to promoting social justice and internationally recognized human and labour rights, pursuing its founding mission that social justice is essential to universal and lasting peace.

Only tripartite U.N. agency, the ILO brings together governments, employers and workers representatives of 187 member States , to set labour standards, develop policies and devise programmes promoting decent work for all women and men.

The ILO’s Decent Work agenda helps advance the economic and working conditions that give all workers, employers and governments a stake in lasting peace, prosperity and progress.

Objectives: Set and promote standards and fundamental principles and rights at work.

Create greater opportunities for women and men to decent employment and income.

Enhance the coverage and effectiveness of social protection for all.

Strengthen tripartism and social dialogue. sustainable development goals

The ILO and the 2030 development agenda: The 2030 Agenda embraces three dimensions of sustainability – economic, social and environmental.

It has 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that put people and planet at its centre, giving the international community a framework for tackling the many challenges confronting humanity, including those in the world of work.

The importance of decent work in achieving sustainable development is highlighted by Goal 8 which aims to “promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all”.

India & ILO: Ministry: Ministry of Labour and Employment India is a founder member of the International Labour Organization, which came into existence in 1919.

A unique feature of the ILO is its tripartite character.

The membership of the ILO ensures the growth of tripartite system in the Member countries.

At every level in the Organization, Governments are associated with the two other social partners, namely the workers and employers.

All the three groups are represented on almost all the deliberative organs of the ILO and share responsibility in conducting its work.

The three organs of the ILO are: International Labour Conferences: – General Assembly of the ILO – Meets every year in the month of June.

Governing Body: – Executive Council of the ILO. Meets three times in a year in the months of March, June and November.

International Labour Office: – A permanent secretariat.

Core Conventions of the ILO: The eight Core Conventions of the ILO (also called fundamental/human rights conventions) are: Forced Labour Convention (No. 29) Abolition of Forced Labour Convention (No.105)

Equal Remuneration Convention (No.100) Discrimination (Employment Occupation) Convention (No.111) Minimum Age Convention (No.138) Worst forms of Child Labour Convention (No.182) (The above Six have been ratified by India)

Freedom of Association and Protection of Right to Organised Convention (No.87) Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention (No.98) (These two have not been ratified by India)

Tripartite structure of the ILO

Why in News?

The International Labour Organization warned that the economic and labour crisis sparked by the coronavirus will have “far-reaching impacts on labour market outcomes”.

“This is no longer a global health crisis, it is also a major labour market and economic crisis that is having a huge impact on people”.

At the high end meanwhile, 24.7 million more will become jobless, on top of the 188 million registered as unemployed in 2019.

ILO in India

NEW BILL HALVES TERMS OF PRESIDENTS ,VPs OF LOCAL BODIES Panchayati Raj in India: In India, the Panchayati Rajgenerally refers to the local self-government of villages in rural India as opposed to urban and suburban municipalities, this system was introduced by a constitutional amendment in 1992.

In India, the Panchayati Raj now functions as a system of governance in which gram panchayats are the basic units of local administration.

The system has three levels: Gram Panchayat (village level), Mandal Parishad or Block Samitior Panchayat Samiti (block level), and Zila Parishad(district level).

It was formalized in 1992 by the 73rd amendment to the Indian Constitution.

Currently, the Panchayati Raj system exists in all states except Nagaland, Meghalaya, and Mizoram, and in all Union Territories except Delhi.

History: Mahatma Gandhi advocated Panchayati Raj as the foundation of India’s political system, as a decentralized form of government in which each village would be responsible for its own affairs.

The Panchayat Raj system was first adopted by the state of Rajasthan in Nagaur district on 2 Oct 1959.

The second state was Andhra Pradesh, while Maharashtra was the ninth state.

In the history of Panchayati Raj, in India, on 24 April 1993, the Constitutional (73rd amendment) Act 1992 came into force to provide constitutional status to the Panchayati Raj institutions.

This amendment was extended to Panchayats in the tribal areas of eight states, namely: Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and Rajasthan beginning on 24 December 1996.

Functions of Panchayati Raj

Gram panchayatis a village level administrative body, with a Sarpanch as its elected head. The members of the gram panchayat are elected for a period of five years by the members of Gram Sabha.

The National Panchayati Raj Daywas observed on April 24.

The Ministry of Panchayati Raj has been celebrating the National Panchayati Raj Day (NPRD) on 24 April since 2010, as on this day, the 73rd Constitutional Amendment came into force in 1993.

E-Panchayat: E-panchayat is one of the Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) under National e-Governance Programme (NeGP).

It aimed at making Panchayats more efficient, transparent and symbols of modernity.

E panchayat

Panchayats Extension to the Scheduled Areas (PESA): The Parliament passed Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 to extend the provisions of the 73rd Constitutional Amendment to the Schedule V Areas of the country.

The Fifth Schedule covers Tribal areas (scheduled areas) in 9 states of India namely Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Orissa and Rajasthan.

Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Yojana: The Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Yojanais a Centrally Sponsored Scheme being implemented with the objective of assisting efforts of the State Governments for training and capacity building of elected representatives of PRIs. The scheme focuses primarily on providing financial assistance to the States/UTs for Training & Capacity Building of elected representatives (ERs) and PRIs. Why in News?

In an attempt to bring about major changes in the functioning of the rural local bodies in Karnataka, the government tabled a new Bill to reduce the term of the offices of presidents and vice-presidents of gram panchayats, taluk panchayats, and zilla panchayats from five years to 30 months.

The Karnataka Gram Swaraj and Panchayat Raj (Amendment) Bill, 2020, tabled in the Assembly

by Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister K.S. Eshwarappa said no-confidence motion could not be moved against the presidents and vice-presidents of all three-tiers of local bodies before 15 months from the date of election.

The Bill has rationalised property tax collection that GPs can do with respect to industries and vacant lands.

It has proposed no tax on vacant land in airport or industrial area or industrial areas where plantations are grown.

It proposes to levy 0.10% tax on the capital value of the property on runway area of an airport.

NOD FOR 83 LCA TEJAS MK-1A

About the Aircraft: The Light Combat Aircraft LCA-Tejas was designed by the Aircraft Development Agency (ADA).

The ADA operates under DRDO (Defence Research Development Organization).

It was manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

These aircrafts are expected to be the backbone of Indian Air Force.

It is to be noted that India lost the 1962 war with China due to lack of sufficient fighter jets.

HAL Tejas is an Indian single-engine, delta wing, multirole light fighter .

It came from the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) programme, which began in the 1980s to replace India’s ageing MiG-21 In 2003, the LCA was officially named “Tejas“.

The Tejas is designed to carry a veritable plethora of air-to-air, air-to- surface, precision guided and standoff weaponry.

Tejas

Why in News?

The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh accorded approval for the procurement of 83 indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas Mk-1A from the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) by “finalising the contractual and other issues”.

The proposal will now be placed for consideration of the Cabinet Committee on Security [CCS].

The 83 jets are in addition to the 40 LCA already ordered by the IAF in two batches of 20 each in the Initial Operational Clearance and the Final Operational Clearance (FOC) configurations.

THE IMPORTANCE OF ‘CONTACT TRACING’ Contact tracing

What is contact tracing?

Contract tracing is the process of identifying, assessing, and managing people who have been exposed to a disease to prevent transmission.

As per ICMR guidelines, which are also directions that have sound public health sense behind

them, people who may have been exposed to the virus are to be followed for 28 days from the date of the probable last exposure/arrival from affected countries.

Any person who has had contact with the index patient under investigation/treatment for suspected, probable or confirmed case of SARS-COV-2, should be monitored for the appearance of symptoms.

Who is a contact?

Anyone who provided care for the suspect or confirmed case, including a health care worker (including those involved in cleaning, waste management, laboratory technicians, doctors) or family member, or anyone who had close physical contact; anyone who stayed at the same place (lived with, or visited) while the index patient was symptomatic.

If symptoms appear within the first 28 days following the contact, the individual should be considered a ‘probable’ case and reported through the Integrated Diseases Surveillance Programme network to the National Centre for Disease Control.

Tracing contacts: As soon as the single event (confirmed SARS-CoV-2) is detected, contact tracing must be aggressively implemented, and preferably to be completed within 48 hours.

The contact tracing shall preferably be done by visiting the local residence of the contact(s) by a member of the health services team. In certain circumstances or for follow-up, phone calls may be made too, as per the rules.

On meeting the ‘contact person’, the visiting health worker should explain the purpose of contact tracing and collect data in a prescribed format. It is important to identify the social networks of the first patient and travel history during the 28 days after the onset of illness.

The patient, his or her family members, colleagues, school or college mates are sources of information about the contacts, as are others with knowledge of the patient’s recent travel and activities.

Contacts should be traced and monitored for at least 28 days after the last exposure to the case patient for evidence of COVID-19 symptoms to emerge. Case-wise line listing of all exposed contacts will be maintained, with the following information: demographic information, date of last exposure or date of contact with the case patient, and date of onset of fever or other symptoms, if any.

Symptomatic contacts: Persons who have fever and cough and a history of contact with a confirmed case within the last 28 days should be referwred for isolation for strict infection control.

Samples must be collected and sent to the designated laboratory for testing, and appropriate wmedical management must begin.

If contacts show symptoms, they may be isolated at a health care facility or at home until the results come in. Once confirmed as positive for SARS-CoV-2, they must be shifted to a proper health facility.

Asymptomatic contacts: They must remain at home (home quarantine) for at least 28 days after the last exposure with the patient.

The contacts should start monitoring their health and watch for symptoms of fever and cough, within 28 days of the last exposure to the patient, and maintain a list of people they are in contact with, on a daily basis.

If he or she develops symptoms, as defined, the contact must wear a mask, self-isolate at home, and inform the local health authority.

For 28 days after this, health officials will do an active monitoring of these people.

Health workers: The rules also require the health officials to follow certain precautions while they meet contacts.

They are required to maintain a distance of at least two metres from the contact, wear masks, and maintain standard infection prevention and control measures, especially hand-washing.

Contact tracing covid-19

HERD IMMUNITY What is Herd Immunity?

Herd immunity refers to preventing an infectious disease from spreading by immunising a certain percentage of the population.

While the concept is most commonly used in the context of vaccination, herd community can also be achieved after enough people have become immune after being infected.

The premise is that if a certain percentage of the population is immune, members of that group can no longer infect another person.

This breaks the chain of infection through the community (“herd�), and prevents it from reaching those who are the most vulnerable.

How does herd immunity work?

The scientific principle is that the presence of a large number of immune persons in the community, who will interrupt the transmission, provides indirect protection to those who are not immune.

To estimate the extent of spread and immunity, epidemiologists use a measure called the ‘basic reproductive number’ (R0).

This indicates how many persons will be infected when exposed to an single case; an R0 of more than 1 indicates one person can spread the infection to multiple persons.

Scientific evidence shows that a person with measles can infect around 12-18 persons; and a person with influenza can infect around 1.2-4.5 persons, depending on the season.

On the basis of the available evidence from China, and according to various experts, R0 COVID19 ranges between 2 and 3.

Why is herd immunity as a strategy against COVID-19 questionable?

It is very risky to seek herd immunity by allowing a large proportion of the population to get infected.

Such a strategy at this stage, experts have underlined, would be based on many unknowns and variables. Such a strategy at this stage, experts have underlined, would be based on many unknowns and variables. To begin with, much about the behaviour of the pathogen is still unclear.

There isn’t enough statistically significant data to estimate conclusively how many persons can get the virus from a single infected person. Second, it can take months, or even longer, to build group immunity to COVID-19.

During that time, the need is to protect people who are at greater risk; the numbers so far indicate that people above 55, especially those with co-morbidities like cardiovascular disease and hypertension, are the most vulnerable.

Why in News?

Last week, the UK’s Government Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance hinted at a strategy that would allow the novel coronavirus to infect 60% of the country’s population so that a degree of “herd immunity” could be achieved.

Herd Immunity

INDIA SET TO SWITCH TO WORLD’S CLEANEST PETROL, DIESEL FROM APRIL

Indian Oil Corp (IOC), the nation’s biggest oil firm, has begun the supply of the world’s cleanest petrol and diesel across the country with all its 28,000 petrol pumps dispensing ultra-low sulphur fuel a good two weeks before the April 1 deadline.

All our 28,000 petrol pumps across the country are dispensing BS-VI grade fuel for more than a week now.

Other fuel retailers, Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL), are also progressively supplying BS-VI grade fuel and the entire country will switch to the cleanest fuel within this week.

The government had set April 1 as the deadline for starting supply of Euro-VI emission compliant fuels.

With this India joins the select league of nations using petrol and diesel containing just 10 parts per million of sulphur in an attempt to cut vehicular emissions that are said to be one of the reasons for the choking pollution in major cities.

“We have leapfrogged from BS-IV (equivalent to Euro-VI grade fuel) straight to BS-VI in just three years,” the IOC chairman said adding this is an achievement not seen in any large economies around the globe.

India adopted Euro-III equivalent (or Bharat Stage-III) fuel with a sulphur content of 350 ppm in 2010 and then took seven years to move to BS-IV that had a sulphur content of 50 ppm. From BS-IV to BS-VI it took just three years.

“It was a conscious decision to leapfrog to BS-VI as first upgrading to BS-V and then shifting to BS-VI would have prolonged the journey to 4 to 6 years.

Besides, oil refineries, as well as automobile manufacturers, would have had to make investments twice – first to producing BS-V grade fuel and engines and then BS-VI ones,” he said.

The new fuel will result in a reduction in NOx in BS-VI compliant vehicles by 25 per cent in petrol cars and by 70 per cent in diesel cars.