Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 29 July 2018

::NATIONAL::

National Viral Hepatitis Control Program launched

Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare as he launched the National Viral Hepatitis Control Program to mark the World Hepatitis Day, 2018.
It marks the beginning of the nation’s journey to control viral hepatitis thereby reducing mortality and morbidity attributed to it. It is envisaged that this program will reach large number of people possibly harbouring the infection.
MoHFW has launched the ‘National Viral Hepatitis Control Program’, with the goal of ending viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030 in the country. The aim of the initiative is to reduce morbidity and mortality due to viral hepatitis.
This exemplifies India’s commitment to providing universal health coverage and meeting SDG targets for the country.
Speaking at the function, Shri Manoj Sinha stated that the Department of Posts (DoP) has released several stamps to generate awareness about various programme of the Government.

MoEF says traditional taxonomy is under threat of extinction

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, in response to a question in the LokSabha in April 2018, admitted that this traditional science is on the verge of extinction.
It is mainly due to lack of interest among students in the discipline and significantly lower career prospects. The science of taxonomy has been declining for several years now, with very few qualified practising taxonomists and teachers in lndia.
Interestingly, India is a mega biodiversity country. So far, 1,01,167 faunal species have been recorded in the country, which is about 6.45 % of faunal species found in the world. Similarly, about 49,003 floral species, which is 11.4 % of the world flora, is found in India.
Conferred the E. K. JanakiAmmal award for Animal Taxonomy, the highest award in the field of taxonomy by the government earlier this month, Dr.Cherian is credited with the discovery of about 700 new species, 20 new genera from the Chloropidae, a family from Diptera, in his career spanning five decades.
The solution is that universities, other than the Zoological Survey of India and the Botanical Survey of India, will have to come forward to train taxonomists by encouraging students to take up field work.

::ECONOMY::

Companies claim that new data protection bill may hurt business

While the draft Bill for protection of personal data of Indian citizens has been welcomed as a positive start, it is not without loopholes, according to various stakeholders who have called for an in-depth consultative process before the Bill becomes a law.
This draft bill is a strong start, but to truly protect the privacy of all Indians, we can’t afford loopholes such as the Bill’s broad exceptions for government use of data and data localisation requirements,” said Mitchell Baker, chairwoman of Mozilla, the company behind Firefox browsers.
The National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) pointed out policies that govern data protection, storage and classification need to be carefully crafted given the global footprint of the IT-BPM sector.
Likewise, another committee member Prof. Rishikesha T. Krishnan, director, IIM, Indore has said, “The requirement that every data fiduciary should store one live, serving copy of personal data in India is against the basic philosophy of the Internet and imposes additional costs on data fiduciaries without a proportional benefit in advancing the cause of data protection.”

Government plans to bring in BIS hallmarked solar pumps

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is soon expected to release quality standards for solar pumps and pumping systems.
Currently, there are no uniform standards or specifications followed even in government tenders for solar pumps. The pumpset manufacturers mostly sell pumps to farmers or integrators, who install the solar energy systems and the pumps together.
The cost of solar pumps is high and is not attractive, especially in States where there is subsidised or free power supply for agriculture.With the introduction of standards, product quality and specifications would be regulated.
The government wants to reduce the load on the grid. Hence, there are several efforts to tap solar energy. If a solar pumpset now runs for seven hours a day, with improved efficiency it can operate for longer hours during day time.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

Russian hackers aiming U.S power grids: says U.S intelligence

State-sponsored Russian hackers appear far more interested this year in demonstrating that they can disrupt the U.S. electric utility grid than the midterm elections, according to U.S. intelligence officials and technology company executives.
By comparison, according to intelligence officials and executives of the companies that oversee the world’s computer networks, there is surprisingly far more effort directed at implanting malware in the electrical grid.
President Donald Trump was briefed on government efforts to protect the coming midterm elections from what a White House statement described as “malign foreign actors”.
Microsoft announced at a security conference last week that it stopped an attack last fall aimed at Senate staff offices. While the company did not identify who was targeted, Sen. Claire McCaskill, who faces a tight race for re-election, said on Thursday night that her office had been struck in what she called an unsuccessful attack.

Imran khan begins coalition talks

Imran Khan’s party said it has begun talks with Independents and small parties to form a coalition government after a resounding triumph in Pakistan’s general election, as rival parties planned protests over alleged vote rigging.
Mr. Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party (PTI) won 116 seats in Wednesday’s ballot, short of the 137 needed for a simple majority but a surprisingly strong showing that helped fuel suspicion of rigging.
The latest tally, which was updated on Saturday afternoon following long delays, showed the outgoing Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party in distant second place with 64 seats.
A PTI representative later added that the party was hoping to form a government within two weeks, before Pakistan’s Independence Day celebrations on August 14.
However more than a dozen parties, calling themselves the All Parties Conference (APC), promised to protest over the results.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Army receives indigenously built battle tanks

Defence Minister NirmalaSitharaman handed over two fully indigenous battle tank engines produced by the Engine Factory Avadi (EFA), a unit of Ordnance Factory Board, to Vice-Chief of Army Staff Lt. Gen. DevrajAnbu on Saturday.
The engines, V-46-6 and V92S2, power the T-72 Ajeya and the T-90 Bhishmatanks.Ms. Sitharaman also underlined the importance of manufacturing defence products used by the armed forces.
She said the “indigenisation of two of the three types of tanks used by the Army, had made the Army battle-ready”. The effort has resulted in savings for the exchequer to the tune of Rs. 33 lakh for the T-90 engine and Rs. 9.75 lakh for the T-72 engine.

::SPORTS::

Indian players shine at Asian chess championship

Indian women won silver while the men took bronze in the rapid section of the Asian Nations Cup chess here.
The women’s team, comprising DronavalliHarika, Padmini Rout, EeshaKarvade, R. Vaishali and AakankshaHagawane, finished with 10 points, four behind champion China. Iran Green was third.
The men’s team, featuring Surya ShekharGanguly, B. Adhiban, K. Sasikiran, Abhijeet Gupta and S.P. Sethuraman, also scored 10 points, same as China which finished second thanks to a better tie-break core.

IAAF says Russian suspension could be revoked in December

Russia could be provisionally reinstated to worldwide track and field competition in December if it meets certain conditions, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) said Friday.
Track and field’s governing body suspended Russia in November 2015 after a World Anti-Doping Agency report detailed widespread, state-sponsored doping in the sport.
The WADA must also reinstate the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA), which depends on the country acknowledging the findings that officials at the Russian ministry of sports orchestrated the doping of its athletes, and its cover-up. Finally, Russian authorities have to give access to data from doping tests carried out at RUSADA’s laboratory from 2011-15.