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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 02 October 2018

::NATIONAL::

Health ministry orders enquiry into type -2 polio contamination

• The Union Health Ministry has ordered an inquiry into the type-2 polio virus contamination detected in the vials used for immunisation in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Telangana, and has ordered additional immunisation in three States.

• India eliminated the type-2 strain in 2016, and the type-2 containing poliovirus vaccine (ToPV) was phased out in April 2016. Children born after April 2016 in India have no immunity to type-2 polio virus.

• There are three serotypes of poliovirus, each of which causes poliomyelitis. The vaccine used by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in the global eradication effort is a trivalent preparation comprising all three serotypes.

• Traces of polio type-2 virus were found in some batches of oral polio vaccine (OPV) manufactured by a Ghaziabad-based pharmaceutical company, even as the firm’s Managing Director (MD) was arrested this past week.

• The MD of Biomed Private Limited, which was supplying polio vaccines for only government-run immunisation programmes, was arrested after the Central Drug Regulator filed anFIRin the case. Four of its Directors are absconding and the Drugs Controller General has issued it a showcause notice, asking it to stop manufacturing the vaccine.

India ready for direct talks with Taliban

• India on Monday expressed “readiness” to work towards implementing the Tashkent Declaration of March 2018 that called for direct talks with the Taliban without preconditions.

• Uzbek President ShavkatMirziyoyev during his official speech delivered here suggested a political dialogue between Kabul and the fighters to put an end to the conflict in Afghanistan and to restore regional stability.

• They expressed full readiness to a close partnership for the implementation of the Tashkent Declaration adopted at the end of the International Conference on Afghanistan on the theme ‘Peace process, cooperation in the field of security and regional cooperation’ in Uzbekistan on March 26-27, 2018,” the statement declared.

• The Tashkent Declaration had called for “direct negotiation with the Taliban without any preconditions.”

• The Uzbek leader who is visiting India soon after the visit by his Afghan counterpart Ashraf Ghani is one of the tallest regional leaders to speak on dialogue between Kabul and the Taliban fighters who are challenging President Ghani’s government in large parts of Afghanistan.

• The visiting dignitary said India and Uzbekistan agree on key regional security issues and highlighted the defence cooperation.

• President Mirziyoyev and Prime Minister NarendraModi presided over a ceremony where 17 agreements were signed and exchanged at the Hyderabad House on Monday.

::ECONOMY::

India’s airsafety oversight score a cause of concern

• The Air Passengers Association of India (APAI) has expressed concern over India’s low ‘air safety oversight score’, which is lower than that of Myanmar, Bangladesh, Maldives, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and North Korea in the Asia-Pacific region.

• The report prepared by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) shows that the only countries that rank below India are Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, Vanuatu and Samoa.

• The ICAO Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme seeks to identify if countries have consistently implemented a safety-oversight system. India is one of the 15 countries that are below the minimum target rates.

• “One of the consequences of a low score is a potential downgrading by US aviation regulator Federal Aviation Administration. This development does not come as welcome news for Indian airlines that have been trying to expand globally,” APAI president Sudhakara Reddy observed.

• The APAI also demanded that there be more clarity in the expected number of aircraft India will press into service in the next five years.

ADB assists India to improve regional connectivity

• The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of lndia signed here today a $150 Million Loan to finance continued improvements to road connectivity and efficiency of the International Trade Corridor in West Bengal and North-Eastern Region of lndia.

• Approved in 20'14, the Program aims to expand about 500 kilometers of roads in lndia's North Bengal and North-Eastern Region that will enable efficient and safe transport within lndia and regionally with other SASEC member countries.

• After signing the loan agreement, Mr.Khare (sectydept.ofecon.affairs) said that the Program is an important initiative in Regional Connectivity aimed at increasing domestic and regional trade through North Bengal-North East Region International Trade corridor by upgrading key roads. He said that it will give a boost to lndia's efforts to promote regional connectivity in the South Asia.

• The Tranche 2 Project will upgrade about 65 kilometers of lmphal-Moreh Section of National Highway in Manipur, construction of about 1.5 km of an international bridge between lndia and Nepal, and completion of about 103 km of a State Highway in Manipur between lmphal and Tamenglong under Project-I.

• The Project will reduce transaction costs along the targeted cross-border corridors substantially, creating economies of scale and commercial prosperity.

• ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

U.S – Canada to move forward with free trade pact

• Canada and the U.S. reached a deadline deal on a new free trade pact that will include Mexico, the governments announced late on Sunday, after more than a year of talks to revamp a pact President Donald Trump had labelled a disaster.

• The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) updates and replaces the nearly 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which Trump had threatened to cancel. The rewrite “will result in freer markets, fairer trade and robust economic growth in our region,” said a joint statement from U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland.

• Sunday’s announcement capped six weeks of intense talks. In the end, Canada and the U.S. overcame their differences after both sides conceded some ground, hailing an agreement that covers a region of 500 million residents and conducts about $1 trillion in trade a year.

• Ottawa will now open its dairy market further to U.S. producers, and — in return — Washington left unchanged the dispute settlement provisions. Under Canada’s supply-managed dairy system, Ottawa effectively sets production quotas and the price of milk, which raises prices to consumers but provides farmers with a stable income. Tariffs of up to 275% have kept most foreign milk out of the Canadian market.

• Canada had opposed U.S. demands to weaken or eliminate NAFTA'S dispute resolution mechanism, whose arbitration panels Ottawa used to resolve trade conflicts, and to defend against US anti-dumping and countervailing duties, notably against its important lumber industry.

China to reach out to new Maldivian leadership

• President Xi spotlighted that “China and the Maldives share a longstanding friendship and China is committed to developing relations with the Maldives on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence” — a reference to Beijing’s stated intent to build ties based on “equality” and “mutual benefit”.

• Mr. Xi’s offer of continuity in ties with Male comes at a time when it is widely perceived that unlike its predecessor, the Solih administration is more favourably inclined towards India. Some Chinese academics say the situation in the Maldives will test the robustness of the “Wuhan spirit” — a reference to the India-China diplomatic reset achieved during the summit between President Xi and Prime Minister NarendraModi in April at Wuhan.

• “After the Wuhan summit, mutual confidence between China and India was promoted. Maybe China and India can cooperate under two-plus-one formula not only in the Maldives but also in Afghanistan and Nepal,” Long Xingchun, Director for Indian Studies at the China West Normal University, told.

• The Chinese academic was referring to mechanism proposed by China at Wuhan, where New Delhi and Beijing would coordinate their responses while engaging a third country in South Asia.

• “But the results would depend on how India interprets the Chinese two-plus-one proposal. This is important not only for the two countries but will also benefit the third country,” Mr. Long observed. Separately in an article that he wrote for the state-run Global Times ,Mr. Long said the two-plus one mechanism “can not only enhance mutual trust between China and India, but prevent other South Asian countries from being caught in between”.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

UN scientific report on climate change underscores the failure of their governments

• Diplomats gathering in South Korea on Monday found themselves in the awkward position of vetting and validating a major UN scientific report that underscores the failure of their governments to take stronger action on climate.

• The special report on global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels began as a request from the 195 nations that inked the Paris Agreement in 2015.

• That landmark pact called for capping the rise in global temperature to “well-below” 2 degrees Celsius, and invited countries to submit voluntary national plans for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

• To the surprise of many — especially scientists, who had based nearly a decade of research on the assumption that 2 degrees Celsius was the politically acceptable guardrail for a climate-safe world — the treaty also called for a good-faith effort to cap warming at the lower threshold.

• At the same time, countries asked the IPCC to detail what a “1.5 degrees Celsius” world would look like, and how hard it might be to prevent a further rise in temperature.

• With only a single degree Celsius of warming so far, the world has seen a climate-enhanced crescendo of deadly heatwaves, wild fires and floods, along with superstorms swollen by rising seas.

::SPORTS::

Finally BCCI comes under the RTI act

• The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is covered under the RTI Act and answerable to the people of the country under its mechanism, the Central Information Commission ruled on Monday.

• The commission, the top appellate body in RTI matters, went through the law, orders of the Supreme Court, the Law Commission of India report, submissions of the Central Public Information Officer in the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports to conclude that the status, nature and functional characteristics of the BCCI fulfil required conditions of Section 2(h) of the RTI Act.

• “The SC has also reaffirmed that the BCCI is the ‘approved’ national-level body holding virtually monopoly rights to organise cricketing events in the country,” Information Commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu said in a 37-page long order.

• The matter came before him as the sports ministry did not give a satisfactory response to an RTI applicant, Geeta Rani, who had sought to know the provisions and guidelines under which the BCCI has been representing India and selecting players for the country.

• The Act should be made applicable to the BCCI and its associations, provided they fulfil the criteria, as discussed in the Law Commission’s report, he said.

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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 02 October 2018