Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 14 October 2018

::NATIONAL::

Manipur women march to end mob justice

For many nights over the past month, Manipur has been witnessing torchlight processions in the valley districts, with the mostly women marchers demanding, among other things, an end to mob violence directed at those accused of crimes.
Over the last few years, at least three persons in Manipur, and two in neighbouring Nagaland, have been victims of mob lynchings.
The apprehension of local mobs rendering vigilante justice has even forced the police to spirit away a woman and a man from Manipur. The duo, who are accused of killing a police inspector in order to steal his vehicle, have been placed in the custody of the police in Nagaland, at an undisclosed location, while they await trial.
On September 21, 2011, a highly decomposed body of a young girl was found by the Bishnupur district police at Ithai barrage. Kunjarani Konthoujam, the ‘missing’ Naobi’s mother, promptly “identified” the body as that of her daughter.
The angry villagers brought the mortal remains to the ransacked remnant of Chaoba’s house, piled up wood from the demolished structure and cremated the body in the courtyard.
A. Romenkumar, a retired IPS officer who is now a High Court lawyer, told The Hindu that mob violence had reached even into court precincts. He referred to increasing incidents of persons accused of rape or murder and other heinous crimes being thrashed in the court premises, acts which he said amounted to contempt of court.

Safai karamchari community enroute to mechanisation

When Maya’s husband died in a sewer in the north-western Delhi suburb of Rohini in 2002, she was left with four small children and no means of livelihood. After years of scrounging, odd jobs, and dependence on relatives, she is now prepared to become an independent businesswoman in the same line of business that cost her husband’s life.
“I want to make sure no one else has to go through what I went through. We have started Safai Karamchari Enterprises so that no one else will die in the sewers,” she told on the sidelines of the India SaniTech Forum on Saturday.
With governments and municipalities slow to move toward mechanised cleaning of the sewage system even in the face of rising death rates — an average of one person has died cleaning sewers or septic tanks every five days since January 2017 —the safai karamchari community is taking the initiative to provide alternatives.
Sanitation workers have joined hands with family members of those killed while cleaning sewers and septic tanks to set up limited liability partnership companies in Delhi and Hyderabad, backed by the Safai Karamchari Andolan (SKA) movement. Other groups are in the process of registering companies in Haryana, Uttarakhand and Punjab.
The Delhi enterprise has started talks with the Delhi Jal Board on the possibility of a sanitation contract, says SKA convenor Bezwada Wilson, who adds that the capital’s municipalities have no machines apart from suckers. Workers are still required to manually clean sewer lines and manholes daily, he says.

::ECONOMY::

India International Silk Fair begins in New Delhi

Union Minister of Textiles, Smriti Zubin Irani, will inaugurate the 6th edition of India International Silk Fair (IISF) in New Delhi on October 16, 2018.
Over 108 exhibitors of silk and blended silk products manufactured in different parts of the country will display their produce during the three-day event, organised by the Indian Silk Export Promotion Council (ISEPC) at Pragati Maidan.
India is the 2nd largest producer of silk in the world. The silk industry is agriculture based and labour intensive and provides gainful employment to around 8 million artisans and weavers in rural areas.
The fair will give a platform to exporters to display their products and to overseas buyers an opportunity to place orders and source their merchandize. The IISF-2018 is expected to generate business of over USD 20 million for the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) engaged in producing silk and blended silk garments, fabrics, accessories and floor covering.
The Central Silk Board is putting up a Theme Pavilion showcasing the future vision of Indian Silk Industry. The fair is open for buyers and sellers and invited visitors only.

Helath ministry releases Analytical Report of the National Health Profile-2018

Shri Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare released an Analytical Report of the National Health Profile-2018 prepared by the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence (CBHI), under the aegis of the Directorate General of Health Services at Patna, today.
The National Health Profile covers demographic, socio-economic, health status and health finance indicators, along with comprehensive information on health infrastructure and human resources in health. CBHI has been publishing National Health Profile every year since 2005.
The vision of the NHRR project is to strengthen evidence-based decision making and develop a platform for citizen and provider-centric services by creating a robust, standardized and secured IT-enabled repository of India’s healthcare resources.
NHRR will be the ultimate platform for comprehensive information of both, Private and Public healthcare establishments including Railways, ESIC, Defense and Petroleum healthcare establishments.
NHRR will cohesively work with Ayushman Bharat - National Health Protection Mission (AB-NHPM) and Central TB Division (CTD) on an integrated plan for the larger benefit of ensuing Hospital empanelment and private sector engagement.
The key expected outcomes of the NHRR project are to provide comprehensive data on all health resources including private doctors, health facilities, chemists, and diagnostics labs, establish a National Health Resource Repository for evidence based decision making aligned with Digital India mission.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

RCEP trade minsters urge conclusion of negotiations

Trade ministers of 16-member RCEP bloc, including India and China, have urged all participating countries to continue to exert all efforts for early conclusion of negotiations , the commerce ministry said.
Trade ministers and senior officials of RCEP member countries, including India and China, will hold series of meetings in October to iron out issues hampering negotiations over the proposed mega trade deal, an official said.
Ministers from Asia-Pacific countries hammering out a proposed free trade deal have agreed to meet again to try and achieve a "substantial conclusion" to the pact by yearend.
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP, brings together 16 nations, including Japan, China, India and the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
And the statement said the trade ministers will meet again -- to prepare for a RCEP leaders' summit next month, on the sidelines of the annual gathering of leaders of the 10-member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit and regional powers.
Prior to Saturday's meeting, Norazman Ayob, deputy secretary general in charge of trade of the Malaysian Ministry of International Trade and Industry, was quoted by The Star newspaper there as saying the severe trade friction between China and the United States was an impetus to conclude the RCEP free trade pact.

India elected to UN Human Rights Coucil

India was elected to United Nations’ Human Rights Council’, the main body of UN charged with promoting and monitoring human rights for period of three years.
From Asia-Pacific region category, Fiji with 187 and Bangladesh 178 votes were also elected along with India. This was fifth time India has been elected to UNHRC.
UNHRC is an inter-governmental body within United Nations system. It is responsible for strengthening promotion and protection of human rights around the globe and for addressing situations of human rights violations and make recommendations on them.
Members of the council work to engage countries on improving human rights. They make decisions ranging from exposing violations to recommending that UN Security Council make referral to International Criminal Court (ICC).
United States under President Donald Trump Administration had withdrawn from UNHRC earlier this year after it questioned legitimacy of the council because of presence of several dictatorial regimes violating human rights on it.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Superior scaffold for cartilage repair developed by researchers

Implanting cartilage alone or injecting cells found in healthy cartilage (chondrocytes) at the site of injury to heal the damaged cartilage in patients with osteoarthritis does not produce favourable results. Similarly, implanting two different scaffolds joined together to simultaneously regenerate the cartilage and reconstruct the bone too has many limitations.
The problem arises because the interface between the cartilage and bone scaffolds, which are made of different materials, is not connected but has a distinct boundary. As a result, the interface tends to delaminate and degrade.
Now, researchers from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati have addressed this shortcoming by fabricating a silk scaffold where the junction between the cartilage and bone scaffold is continuous and seamless and hence less prone to damage under load-bearing environment of the joint.
The researchers made scaffolds using both wild silkworm (Antheraea assamensis) and mulberry silk (Bombyx mori) and found scaffolds made of non-mulberry silk were superior to the one made of mulberry silk in all respects.
The compatibility and ability of the scaffold to regenerate cartilage and bone was then tested in rabbits. The scaffolds were studied eight weeks after implantation. “The fibre-reinforced scaffold allowed more bone formation, while regeneration and complete repair of the cartilage was seen.

::SPORTS::

BCCI rule change irks state cricket authorities

On Friday the BCCI members received a circular from Saba Karim, General Manager Cricket Operations, informing them that the Committee of Administrators (CoA) has relaxed the eligibility rules for wards of government employees, to enable them to be considered as a local player.
The response from some members was the same: They asked: “Why change rules mid-way through the season. The domestic season has already started. In normal times, these decisions are taken by the Technical Committee.
The note from Karim with regard to the players who are not born in their (BCCI member’s) jurisdiction said: “Under the instructions of the CoA, the BCCI, from this season onwards, has decided to relax the one-year rule laid down by the BCCI for a cricketer to be considered as a local player.
“Hence wards of Government employees on transfer are eligible to play as a local player of that association, where the Government employee has been transferred/posted subject to submission of parent’s transfer order and the Aadhar card of the player bearing the new address.”