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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 18 February 2022

::NATIONAL::

The government has appointed Vice Admiral (retd) G Ashok Kumar as India’s first national maritime security coordinator to strengthen the country’s maritime security.
The significant move comes with a mandate to ensure cohesion among various key stakeholders with an overall objective to secure the country.

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The appointment is seen as part of the country’s attempt to bolster its maritime security following the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack 14 years back when a group of sea-borne terrorists struck at the heart of the country’s financial capital.
The people familiar with the developments said the government has appointed the country’s first national maritime security coordinator (NMSC).
The NMSC works in coordination with the National Security Council Secretariat headed by NSA Ajit Doval.
NMSC is tasked to coordinate among the Indian Navy, the Coast Guard, security agencies involved in coastal and maritime security and 13 coastal states and Union Territories.
The government has been focusing on ensuring cooperation among all maritime stakeholders to enhance India’s maritime security and surveillance in view of multiple security challenges.
India has a coastline of around 7,500-kilometres.

Two people were killed and several others injured when a portion of a flat on the 6th floor collapsed at Chintels Paradiso housing complex in Gurgaon’s Sector 109. The incident has raised apprehensions regarding safety standards of multi-story residential buildings.

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Every state has building bylaws that have to be followed during the time of construction and it is the role of the authorities to ensure that.
These bylaws cover aspects like ground coverage, floor area ratio, material used as per the soil requirement, tensile strength, beam and column strength, height restrictions as per the seismic zone.
There after, one can check whether National Building Code of India (NBC), a comprehensive building code for regulating the building construction activities across the country, has been followed or not.
The National Building Code of India (NBC of India) is a comprehensive building code, formulated and published by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).
It serves as a Model Code for adoption by all agencies involved in building construction works, be they Public Works Departments, other government construction departments, local bodies or private construction agencies.

A U.S. patient with leukemia has become the first woman and the third person to date to be cured of HIV after receiving a stem cell transplant from a donor who was naturally resistant to the virus that causes AIDS(acquired immunodeficiency syndrome).
The HIV is a virus that attacks the body’s immune system. If EHIV is not treated, it can lead to AIDS.
Stem cell transplantation (SCT), sometimes referred to as bone marrow transplant, is a procedure in which a patient receives healthy stem cells to replace damaged stem cells.

Types of Stem Cell Transplantation

The main types of SCT are:

Autologous transplantation uses the patient’s own stem cells. These cells are removed, treated and returned to his or her own body after a conditioning regimen.
Allogeneic transplantation uses stem cells from a donor. A donor may be a family member or someone who is not related to the patient.
Reduced-intensity stem cell transplantation. Like allogeneic transplant, the stem cells are from a healthy person (the donor), but the chemotherapy given is less intensive.
A syngeneic transplantation is much less common. Syngeneic transplantation is rare for the simple reason that it’s only used on identical twins. In addition, the donor twin and the recipient twin must have identical genetic makeup and tissue type.

Three main types of stem cells:

Embryonic stem cells (supply new cells for an embryo as it grows and develops into a baby);
Adult stem cells (supply new cells as an organism grows and to replace cells that get damaged);
Induced pluripotent stem cells, or‘iPS cells’ (stem cells that scientists make in laboratory).

According to a report, the Indo-Bangladesh protocol route will use NW-1 as well as NW-2 on the Indian side.
The maiden voyage of barges with a consignment of finished steel products of from Haldia (in WestBengal) to Pandu (in Assam) through Indo-Bangladesh Protocol Route (IBP Route) was flagged off.

About Indo-Bangladesh Protocolon Inland Water Transit & Trade:

It was first signed in 1972.
Last renewed in 2015 for five years with a provision for its automatic renewal for a further duration of five years.
Under it, inland vessels of one country can transit through the specified routes.

Government has approved the continuation of the Capacity Development (CD) Scheme till 31st of March, 2026.
Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation informed that the outlay approved for the continuation of the Scheme during 15th Finance Commission cycle is 3 thousand 179 crore rupees.

About CD scheme

It is a Central Sector Scheme of Ministry of Statistics and ProgrammeImplementation.
Objective is to augment infrastructural, technical as well as manpower resources for enabling availability of credible and timely official statistics.

It comprises of two sub schemes:

Support for Statistical Strengthening: aims to improve statistical capacity and operations of State Statistical Systems for collecting, compiling and disseminating reliable official statistics.
Economic Census: Gives complete count of all non-farm economic establishments located within the geographical boundary of India.

Pluto’s atmospheric pressure on its surface is 80,000 times less than that on Earth, a study by a team of researchers from India, Brazil, and France has revealed.

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It was calculated from data obtained by observation of stellar occupation by Pluto.
An occupation happens when a celestial object gets hidden from the view of the observer due to another celestial object passing in between them.
Data was calculated using 3.6-m Devasthal optical telescope (DOT) (India’s largest optical telescope)and 1.3-m Devasthal Fast Optical Telescope (DFOT) telescopes located at Devasthal, Nainital.
The atmospheric pressure of Pluto was found to be 12.23 μbar, which is over 80,000 times less than the pressure present on Earth.