Jaishankar to meet Lavrov, Qin during BRICS summit

• External Affairs Minister visit to South Africa and Namibia, beginning with his attendance at the BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Cape Town.
• The FMs will finalise the agenda for the BRICS summit in August, with plans to expand the grouping and discuss a “BRICS currency”, seen as a counter to the U.S. dollar, and meant to circumvent western sanctions against Russia.
• The “Friends of BRICS” or “BRICS Plus” conference on Friday will include 15 Foreign Ministers from Africa and the Global South.

Seeking consensus

• Efforts to bring them on board on a joint statement failed at both the G-20 Finance and Foreign Ministers’ meetings in India earlier this year.
• During the conference, FM is expected to stress on India’s priorities for the Global South, including mitigating the economic impact of the Ukraine war, as well as the importance of territorial sovereignty and cooperation against terrorism.
• As BRICS is mainly an economic engagement, all eyes will be on whether the BRICS FMs agree to move forward with the plan for a BRICS currency initiative that would propose an alternative currency based on gold, commodities and critical minerals.

OTT platforms mandated to show anti-tobacco warnings

It’s now mandatory for over-the-top (OTT) streaming platforms to display anti-tobacco warnings as seen in movies screened in theatres and TV, as per a Union Health Ministry notification amending the rules under the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA), 2004.

Prominent warnings

• Meanwhile, as per the notification released on World No Tobacco Day, publishers of online curated content displaying tobacco products, or their use will be required to display anti-tobacco health spots at the beginning and middle of the programme.
• They shall also be required to exhibit an anti-tobacco health warning as a prominent static message at the bottom of the screen when tobacco products or their use are displayed during the programme.
• It added that the anti-tobacco health warning message as specified in clause(b) of sub-rule (1) shall be legible and readable, with font in black colour on white background and with the warnings ‘Tobacco causes cancer’ or ‘Tobacco kills’.
• Besides warning messages, health spots and audio-visual disclaimers will have to be in the same language as used in the show.
• Additionally, if the publisher of online curated content fails to comply with the provisions, an inter-ministerial committee shall issue notice giving reasonable opportunity to explain such failure and make appropriate modification in the content
• The expression “online curated content” means any curated catalogue of audio-visual content, other than news and current affairs content, which is owned by, licensed to, or contracted to be transmitted by a publisher of online curated content, and made available on demand, including but not limited through subscription, over the internet or computer networks, and includes films, audiovisual programmes, television programmes, serials, series and other such content.

Treatment worth ₹61,501 cr. provided under PM-JAY scheme

• Cancer treatment, emergency care, orthopaedic and urology (kidney-related ailments) top the tertiary care specialities treatment availed by beneficiaries under the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) till date, as per data released by the Health Ministry on Wednesday. The yojana has now recorded five crore hospital admissions amounting to ₹61,501 crore under the scheme.
• Approximately 49% of Ayushman card recipients are women and over 48% of total authorised hospital admissions under the AB PM-JAY scheme have been availed by women, noted the data.
• “Also, over 141 medical procedures under the PM-JAY are exclusively earmarked for women,” it said, adding that AB PM-JAY beneficiaries can avail treatment corresponding to a total of 1,949 procedures under 27 different specialities The flagship scheme being implemented by the National Health Authority (NHA) provides health cover of ₹5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation to 12 crore beneficiary families.
• The AB PM-JAY is being implemented in 33 States and Union Territories except Delhi, Odisha, and West Bengal. Till date, 23.39 crore beneficiaries have been verified and issued Ayushman cards for availing free treatment under the scheme.

Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY

• PM-JAY is the world’s largest health insurance/ assurance scheme fully financed by the government.
• Launched in February 2018, it offers a sum insured of Rs.5 lakh per family for secondary care (which doesn’t involve a super specialist) as well as tertiary care (which involves a super specialist).
• Under PMJAY, cashless and paperless access to services are provided to the beneficiaries at the point of service, that is, hospital.
• Health Benefit Packages covers surgery, medical and day care treatments, cost of medicines and diagnostics.
  • Packaged rates (Rates that include everything so that each product or service is not charged for separately).
  • These are flexible but the hospitals can’t charge the beneficiary more once fixed.
• Beneficiaries:
  • It is an entitlement-based scheme that targets the beneficiaries as identified by latest Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) data.
    • Once identified by the database, the beneficiary is considered insured and can walk into any empaneled hospital.
• Funding:
  • The funding for the scheme is shared – 60:40 for all states and UTs with their own legislature, 90:10 in Northeast states and Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal and Uttarakhand and 100% Central funding for UTs without legislature.
• Nodal Agency:
  • The National Health Authority (NHA) has been constituted as an autonomous entity under the Society Registration Act, 1860 for effective implementation of PM-JAY in alliance with state governments.
  • The State Health Agency (SHA) is the apex body of the State Government responsible for the implementation of AB PM-JAY in the State.

Cabinet nod for second phase of CITIIS programme

• The Union government on Wednesday approved the second phase of the City Investments to Innovate, Integrate and Sustain (CITIIS) project, a programme under the ambit of the Smart Cities Mission, which aims to promote integrated waste management and climate-oriented reform actions.
• The CITIIS 2.0 will be implemented in 18 cities which would be selected based on a competition.
• The programme, which was approved at a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister, aims to support competitively selected projects promoting circular economy with a focus on integrated waste management at the city level, climate-oriented reform actions at the State level, and institutional strengthening and knowledge dissemination at the national level.
• It would span over a period of four years from 2023-2027 and has been conceived and would be implemented in partnership with the French Development Agency (AFD), Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), the European Union (EU), and National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA).
• The funding for CITIIS 2.0 would include a loan of ₹1,760 crore from AFD and KfW, split equally, and a technical assistance grant of ₹106 crore from the European Union.
• The CITIIS 2.0 has three major components which are financial and technical support for developing projects focused on building climate resilience, adaptation and mitigation in up to 18 smart cities, and interventions at centre, State and city levels to further climate governance.

North Korea spy satellite launch fails as Chollima-1 rocket falls into the sea

• North Korea’s attempt to put its first spy satellite into space failed
• After an unusually quick admission of failure, North Korea vowed to conduct a second launch
• South Korea and Japan briefly urged residents to take shelter after the launch.
• The South Korean military said it was salvaging an object presumed to be part of the crashed North Korean rocket in waters 200 km west of the southwestern island of Eocheongdo. Later, the Defence Ministry released photos of a white, metal cylinder it described as a suspected rocket part.
• A satellite launch by North Korea is a violation of UN Security Council resolutions that ban the country from conducting any launch based on ballistic technology.
• The newly developed Chollima-1 rocket was launched at the North’s Sohae Satellite Launching Ground in the northwest, carrying the Malligyong-1 satellite. The rocket crashed off the Korean Peninsula’s western coast after it lost thrust following the separation of its first and second stages.