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Daily Current Affairs | 15th May 2020
Major states staring at Rs 97,100 crore revenue loss in April
According to estimates from the India Ratings and Research (a credit rating agency), the Covid-19 lockdown has caused 21 major States to suffer a collective revenue loss of about Rs. 97,100 crore for the month of April.
- The lockdown caused disruptions to production, supply-chains, trade and the total washout of activities in aviation, tourism, hotels and hospitality.
- The disruption caused has taken place with such a speed and scale that even if the lockdown is lifted, economic activity is unlikely to normalise in near future.
- Although, during the lockdown,nearly 40% of the economy was functional as economic activities defined as essentials were allowed to operate.
- This means that despite the lockdown some amount of revenue did accrue to the states.But despite this, the states faced significant revenue loss in April.
- The lockdown has a more paralyzing impact on the states,which have a high share of own revenue in the total revenue mix.
- For example, for Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Telangana 65%-76% of their revenue comes from their own sources.
- Both Union government and State governments are struggling due to the dried-up cash inflow.
- But the problems of the States are more precarious because of the actual battle against the Covid-19 and the associated expenditure being incurred by them.
- Under the current circumstance, there is a fair amount of uncertainty regarding the quantum and timings of the states' receivables from the Centre. Their own sources of revenue have also fallen to abysmally low levels.
- This is pushing states to adopt austerity measures and combine it with exploring new/more ways of generating revenues.
- Austerity measures include action by a government to reduce the amount of money it spends.
- The situation may improve somewhat in May 2020 due to the easing of some restrictions–
- Allowing the liquor sale.
- Raising the excise duty on liquor.
- Some states have raised VAT on petrol and diesel.
- The situation may improve somewhat in May 2020 due to the easing of some restrictions–
- Austerity measures include action by a government to reduce the amount of money it spends.
- Sources of State government revenue:
- States’ Own Tax Revenue (SOTR),
- Share in central taxes,
- States’ Own Non-Tax Revenue (SONTR)
- Grants from the Centre.
- States’ own revenue mainly comes from seven heads–
- State Goods and Services Tax (SGST),State Value Added Tax (VAT)- mostly on petroleum products, State excise-mostly on liquor, stamps and registration fees, vehicle tax, tax and duty on electricity, and own non-tax revenue.
- IBGs are brigade sized agile self-sufficient combat formations which can swiftly launch strikes against adversaries.
- IBGs can be mobilised within 12-48 hoursbased on the location.
- Each IBG would be organised on the basis of Threat, Terrain and Taskand resources to each battle group will be allocated on the basis of
- For example, the composition of every IBG would differ on the basis of the terrain where it is located i.e. an IBG operating in a desert needs to be constituted differently from one operating in the mountains.
- Each IBGwill be headed by a Major General.
- The integrated units for the border will be all-encompassing, with artillery, armoured, combat engineers and signal units.
- IBGshave been classified into- Defensive and Offensive.
- Defensive IBGswould hold ground at vulnerable points or where enemy action is expected.
- Offensive IBGshave the ability to quickly mobilise and make thrust into enemy territory for strikes.
- After years of deliberations, the Army decided to raise the IBGs along the borders with China and Pakistan that will help it carry out swift strikes in case of a war.
- Natural Habitat: Fresh watersof the northern part of India.
- Gharials, sometimes called gavials, are a type of Asian crocodilian distinguished by their long, thin snouts which resembles a pot (gharain Hindi).
- Significance:Population of Gharials are a good indicator of clean river water.
- Gharialsare a type of Crocodilians that also includes crocodiles, alligators, caimans, etc. India has three species of Crocodilians namely:
- Gharial(Gavialis gangeticus): International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)- Critically Endangered.
- Mugger crocodile(Crocodylus palustris): IUCN- Vulnerable
- Saltwater crocodile(Crocodylus porosus): IUCN- Least Concern
- In comparison to Crocodiles, Gharials are very shy and unharmful species.
- Primary Habitat: Chambal river
- The chambal originates at the Singar Chouri peakin the northern slopes of the Vindhya mountains (Indore, Madhya Pradesh).
- It joins the Yamuna River in Etawah District of UP.
- Tributaries:Banas, Kali Sindh, Parbati.
- The National Chambal Sanctuaryis located along river Chambal on the tri-junction of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. It is known for critically endangered gharials, the red-crowned roof turtle, and the endangered Ganges river dolphin.
- Secondary Habitat:Ghaghra and Gandak river, Girwa river (Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh), the Ramganga river in Jim Corbett National Park and the Sone river.
- Status: Gharials are critically endangeredin the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Species.
- Listed under Schedule Iof the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.
- Listed on Appendix Iof Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
- Conservation Efforts:Breeding Centres of Kukrail Gharial Rehabilitation Centre in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, National Chambal Sanctuary (Gharial Eco Park, Madhya Pradesh).
- Threats:
- Gharials prefer sandbanksas suitable habitats. Wild animals as well as humans often destroy their eggs.
- Increased river pollution, dam construction, massive-scale fishing operations and floods.
- Illegal sand mining and poaching.
- It acts as an important aquatic corridor for gharials in Uttar Pradesh.
- Its source is near Gurla Mandhata peak, south of Mansarovarin Tibet.
- It is known as the Karnaili in Western Nepal.
- It's important tributaries are theSarda, the Sarju (Ayodhya is located on its bank) and the Rapti.
- The Ghaghara joins the Ganga a few kilometres downstream of Chhapra in Bihar.
- After reaching the plain area, its stream gets divided into many branches of which, Koriyab and Garwa are important.
- The river bed is sandy and sudden bends start occurring in the stream.
- This is the first such testing machine that has been procured by the Government for testing of Covid-19 cases and is installed at theNational Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
- COBAS 6800 is a fully automated,high end machine for performing Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) testing for Covid-19.
- It will provide quality, high-volume testing as it can test around 1200 samples in 24 hours.
- This will largely increase the testing capacity in the country.
- It is a sophisticated machine enabled with robotics that minimizes the chance of contaminationas well as the risk of infection to the health care workers.
- The machine requires a minimum Biosafety Level 2(BSL2+) containment level for testing, thus it was placed at the NCDC.
- BSL2+ covers laboratories that work with agents associated with human diseases (i.e. pathogenic or infectious organisms) that pose a moderate health hazard.
- The devicecan also detect other pathogens like Viral Hepatitis B & C, HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), Mycobacterium Tuberculosis, Papilloma, Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection, Chlamydia (a bacterial infection), Neisseria (bacteria) etc.
- The National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), formerly the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD),had its origin as the Central Malaria Bureau, established at Kasauli (Himachal Pradesh) in 1909.
- NICD was transformed into the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) with a larger mandate of controlling emerging and re-emerging diseases in
- It functions as the nodal agencyin the country for disease surveillance, facilitating prevention and control of communicable diseases.
- It is also a national level institute for training specialized manpowerfor public health, laboratory sciences and entomological services and is involved in various applied research activities.
- The Institute is under administrative control of the Director General of Health Services,Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
- The Institute has its headquarters in Delhi.
- The contract covers construction of a diversion system, main dam, access bridge and the 21MW Tangir hydropower project.
- The Diamer-Bhasha Dam is located on theIndus River in northern Pakistan between Kohistan district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Diamer district in Gilgit Baltistan.
- The dam will have agross storage capacity of 8.1 Million Acre Feet (MAF) and power generation capacity of 4500 MW.
- With the height of 272 meters,it will be the tallest Roller Compact Concrete (RCC) dam in the world.
- The dam project with a total financial outlay of about 1,406.5 billion Pakistani rupees would be completed in 2028.
- Purpose:
- Fulfil the increasing water and electricity requirements of the country.
- Serve as the main storage dam of the country, besides Mangla and Tarbela dams.
- Help alleviate acute irrigation shortage in the Indus basin irrigation system.
- Reduce intensity, quantum and duration of floods and reduce magnitude and frequency of floods in the River Indus downstream.
- Accelerate development and create job opportunities, besides improving availability of water and clean energy.
- The project was approved in 2010, but it suffered delays because international lending agencies backtracked due to the opposition from India as a major part of the dam is located in Gilgit-Baltistan (one of the disputed territories of India) and it will cause unrest in the region.
- India’s Stand:
- India has opposed the moveon the grounds that Gilgit-Baltistan region is part of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir that was illegally occupied by Pakistan.
- India has consistently conveyed her protest and shared concerns with both China and Pakistanon all such projects in the Indian territories under Pakistan’s illegal occupation.
- In the past too, India has opposed projects jointly taken up by Pakistan and China in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (POK) as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
- Covid KAVACH ELISA has been developed at the National Institute of Virology, Pune,by isolating the virus from patients in India.
- Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA)is a test that detects and measures antibodies in blood.
- The test can be used to determineantibodies related to certain infectious conditions.
- It can be used to diagnose HIV, which causes AIDS, Zika virus
- The ELISA kits will be used in the new nationwide “sero-survey” of the Ministry of Health.
- Sero-survey is meant to detect the prevalence of antibodiesthat appear after a patient has recovered.
- The ICMR will lead the testing of 24,000 individuals in 69 districts at household level as part of this sero-survey.
- According to the ICMR,real-time Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) is still the frontline test for clinical diagnosis of Covid-19, but the antibody tests are critical for surveillance to understand the proportion of population exposed to infection.
- The antibody test forCovid-19 acts as a screening process that gives quick results in a few hours.
- The antibody test detects the body’s response to the virus. It gives an indication that a person has been exposed to the virus.
- If the test is positive, the swab is collected and an Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) test is done using the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) kit.
- ELISA antibody tests are different from the rapid antibody testspreviously used by Indian authorities.
- ELISA kits are more reliable and cheaperthan rapid antibody testing kits.
- The ELISA kit has a sensitivityof 98.7% and a specificity of 100%.
- Sensitivity signifies accurate positive test results, whereas specificity signifies accurate negative test results.
- According to the World Health Organisation (WHO)the kits are suitable for “for testing large numbers of samples per day, as well as in blood banks or for surveillance studies”.
- ELISA has minimal biosafety and biosecurity requirementsas compared to the real-time RT-PCR
- Moreover, ELISA-based testing is easily possible even at the district levelas the test kit has inactivated virus.
- Antibody, also called immunoglobulinis a protective protein produced by the immune system in response to the presence of a foreign substance, called an
- A wide range of substances are regarded by the body as antigens, including disease-causing organisms and toxic materials.
- Antibodies recognize and attack onto antigensin order to remove them from the body.
- Kary Mullis, the American biochemist invented the PCR technique.He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1993.
- Under this, copies of a segment of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) are createdusing an enzyme called Polymerase.
- The‘chain reaction’ signifies how the DNA fragments are copied, exponentially — one is copied into two, the two are copied into four, and so on.
- A fluorescent DNAbinding dye called the “probe” is added to DNA, which shows the presence of the virus on a fluorometer.
- However, coronavirus is made of RNA (ribonucleic acid).
- Therefore to detect coronavirus, RNA is converted into DNA using a technique called reverse transcription.
- A‘reverse transcriptase’ enzyme converts the RNA into DNA.
- Copies of the DNA are then made and amplified.
- Generally, the entire process of PCR test takes 24 hours to deliver the result.
- Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is the apex body in India for the formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research.
- Its mandate is to conduct, coordinate and implement medical researchfor the benefit of the Society; translating medical innovations into products/processes and introducing them into the public health system.
- It is funded by the Government of India through the Department of Health Research, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.
- Also, these institutes are working on several projects. For example, NIPER Guwahati has come up with a“hands-free object” for touch-less opening of doors, drawers & elevators.
- National Institutes of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPERs) are the institutes of national importanceunder the aegis of the Department of Pharmaceutical, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers.
- The seven institutes are functional at Ahmedabad (Gujarat), Hyderabad (Telangana), Hajipur (Bihar), Kolkata (West Bengal), Guwahati (Assam), Mohali (Punjab), and Raebareli (Uttar Pradesh).
- The Institute is conceived to provide leadership in pharmaceutical sciencesand related areas not only within the country, but also to the countries in South East Asia, South Asia and Africa.
- NIPER, Mohali is a member of Association of Indian Universities and Association of Commonwealth Universities.
- Association of Indian Universities (AIU),formed in 1925 as Inter-University Board (IUB), is an association of all universities in India. It is actively engaged in the growth and development of higher education.
- The Association of Commonwealth Universitiesis an international organisation dedicated to building a better world through higher education in over 50 countries across the Commonwealth.
- Thrust Areas of Research:
- Tuberculosis
- Malaria
- Diabetes
- Leishmaniasis (disease caused by the protozoan Leishmania parasites)
- Immunomodulation (therapeutic interventions aimed at modifying the immune response)
- It is a Public Private Partnership (PPP)hosted and led by the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP).
- It is a‘Make in India’ initiative for biomedical research and innovative products, towards promoting import substitution and exports.
- It aims to establish a nation-wide collaborative platform for convergence of research, product resources and services towards developing reagents, diagnostics, vaccines, and therapeutics across India.
- It identifies providers/manufacturing enterprisesof crucial bio-medical resources and connects them with policy makers as well as with other stakeholders from public and private sectors.
- Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP) is one of the centers for technology-based innovation and entrepreneurship in the field of life sciences under the Department of Biotechnology (DBT).
- It intends to develop state-of-the-art technologies and to provide training on these technologies to academia and industry.
- River Nila is also known as Bharathapuzha and Ponnani.
- Origin: Amaravathipuzhaoriginating from Thrimoorthy Hills of Anamalais in Tamil Nadu joins with Kalpathipuzha at Parali in Palakkad District and forms Nila.
- Drainage Area:Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
- It flows westward through Palakkad Gap (most prominent discontinuity in the western ghats) and drains into the Arabian Sea.
- Main Tributaries:Kannadipuzha (Chitturpuzha), Kalpathipuzha (Korapuzha), Gayathripuzha and Thuthapuzha
- Malampuzha damis the largest among the reservoirs built across Bharathapuzha.
POSTED ON 15-05-2020 BY ADMIN
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