VISION

Thursday, October 22, 2020

Daily Current Affairs, 22nd October 2020

1) International Stuttering Awareness Day: 22 October

•International Stuttering Awareness Day is observed globally on 22nd October every year. The day is intended to raise public awareness of the millions of people who have a speech disorder of stuttering or stammering.

•This year’s theme is “Journey of Words – Resilience and Bouncing Back”.

2) National Police Commemoration Day: 21 October

•In India, the National Police Commemoration Day is observed on 21st October every year. The day is marked to remember and honour the brave policemen who have laid down their lives in the line of duty.

3) Asan Conservation Reserve becomes Uttarakhand’s 1st Ramsar site

•Asan Conservation Reserve has become Uttarakhand’s first Ramsar site, making it a ‘Wetland of International Importance’, announced the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. The Reserve is located on the banks of Yamuna river near Dehradun district in Garhwal region of the Himalayan state.

•“Asan Conservation Reserve cleared five out of the nine criteria needed to be declared as a Ramsar site and get identified as a Wetland of International Importance. It cleared the category on species and ecological communities, one on water-birds and another on fish. Ramsar declares Asan Conservation Reserve as a site of international importance. With this, the number of Ramsar sites in India goes up to 38, the highest in South Asia and Uttarakhand gets its first Ramsar site.

4) ITBP launches cycling expedition from its Pegong base in Sikkim

•The Eleventh Battalion Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) has launched a cycling expedition from its Pegong base in Sikkim to border villages of the state. The Minister of Culture, Road and Bridges Department of Sikkim, Samdup Lepcha flagged off the expedition. Total 218 Kilometers will be covered by the ITBP team in the course of 20 days in difficult terrains.

•The team will generate more awareness among masses of the border villages on Covid 19 related issues, will organize medical and veterinary camps, distribute hygiene and sanitation items. They will also spread awareness about various government missions for the welfare of society at large. The 18 member team of ITBP will cover difficult terrain in the expedition. Most of the members are highly trained mountaineers and rescuers. The expedition will reach Gurudongmar lake at extremely high altitude as its destination before starting the return journey.

5) India participates in 18th meeting of Prosecutors General of SCO

•The 18th meeting of Prosecutors General of SCO was held on 20 October 2020, via video conference. India was represented by the Solicitor General Tushar Mehta. During the meeting, all the prosecutors agreed to strengthen cooperation in preventing and combating corruption, mutual legal assistance and exchange of regulatory legal acts.

•India will host the SCO Prosecutors General Meeting in 2021. SCO is an important regional grouping which gives India an opportunity to engage its extended neighbourhood especially central Asian countries.

6) Uttar Pradesh emerges as top destination in 2019

•Uttar Pradesh has emerged as the top destination for attracting the highest number of domestic tourists visiting the state in 2019 as per the Indian Tourism Statistics (ITS) 2020, released by the Ministry of Tourism. About 53.6 crore domestic tourists visited Uttar Pradesh in 2019, which is 23.1% of the total travellers. Tamil Nadu (21.3%) came second followed by Andhra Pradesh (10.2%).

7) SEBI constitutes committee for market data sharing

•Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has constituted a Standing Committee, Market Data Advisory Committee (MDAC) to recommend appropriate policy for access to securities market data, identify segment-wise data perimeters, data needs and gaps, recommend data privacy and data access regulations applicable to market data. The committee is headed by Madhabi Puri Buch, Whole Time Member, SEBI and has CEOs of stock exchanges and depositories, representatives of various stakeholders and senior officials of SEBI as members.

•“SEBI’s endeavour is to foster a “Data Culture” in the Indian Securities Market i.e. ‘Data for Transparency’, ‘Data for Efficiency’ and ‘Data for Innovation’ along with ‘Respect for Data Privacy’. Thus, MDAC is part of SEBI’s initiatives to make shareable data on the Indian securities market, available for researchers, policymakers, general public alike and to enhance the quality of such data.

The HINDU Notes – 22nd October 2020

the hindu notes

vision cse 13:48

📰 Air pollution now biggest health risk in India, says report

Long-term exposure contributed to over 1.67 million deaths in 2019; 1.16 lakh infants died in first month

•Long-term exposure to outdoor and household air pollution contributed to over 1.67 million annual deaths from stroke, heart attack, diabetes, lung cancer, chronic lung diseases and neonatal diseases in India in 2019, according to the State of Global Air 2020 by the U.S.-based Health Effects Institute. Overall, air pollution was now the largest risk factor for death among all health risks, the report noted.

•Outdoor and household particulate matter pollution also contributed to the deaths of more than 1,16,000 Indian infants in their first month of life last year. More than half of these deaths were associated with outdoor PM2.5 and others were linked to use of solid fuels such as charcoal, wood, and animal dung for cooking.

•For the youngest infants, most deaths were related to complications from low birth weight and preterm birth.

•India faced the highest per capita pollution exposure — or 83.2 μg/cubic metre — in the world, followed by Nepal at 83.1 μg/cubic metre and Niger at 80.1, according to the report which sources its data from publicly available sources. Countries with the least population exposure are below 8 micrograms (μg) per cubic metre.

Marginal decline

•The government has claimed that average pollution levels in India are declining over the past three years but these have been marginal, particularly in the Indo-Gangetic plains which see extremely high particulate matter pollution especially during winter.

•After a decline in pollution due to the nationwide lockdown in late March and the months-long process of reopening, pollution levels are again rising and air quality has dipped to ‘very poor’ category in several cities.

•COVID-19, a disease for which people with heart and lung disease are particularly at risk of infection and death, has claimed more than 1,10,000 lives in India. Although the full links between air pollution and COVID-19 are not yet known, there is clear evidence linking air pollution and increased heart and lung disease, creating a growing concern that exposures to high levels of air pollution during winter months in South Asian countries and East Asia could worsen the effects of COVID-19.

•“This newest evidence suggests an especially high risk for infants born in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa,” said HEI president Dan Greenbaum in a statement. “Although there has been slow and steady reduction in household reliance on poor-quality fuels, the air pollution from these fuels continues to be a key factor in the deaths of these youngest infants.”