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17th Nov 2021
100 YEARS OF INSULIN
Recently, a research report found that there have been a surge in Type 2 diabetes among children.
Finding of Report:
Balance of Payments:
- Children with sub-optimal growth in the womb carry high levels of risk for diabetes.
- India has an estimated 7 per cent diabetic population in the age group 20-70.
- Almost 1 in 10 children are pre-diabetic.
- 6 % of those below 30were either overweight or obese.
- Diabetes is a chronic disease.
- It occurs either when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces.
- Insulin is a hormone that regulates blood sugar.
- Type I diabetes:
- Also known as juvenile diabetes,
- This type occurs when the body fails to produce insulin.
- The body attacks and destroys insulin-producing cells in the pancreas
- People with type I diabetes are insulin-dependent, which means they must take artificial insulin daily to stay alive.
- Type 2 diabetes:
- The body’s cells don't allow insulin to work.
- The body's cells have become resistant to insulin.
- Gestational diabetes:
- This type occurs in women during pregnancy when the body can become less sensitive to insulin.
- Gestational diabetes does not occur in all women and usually resolves after giving birth.
- Being overweight
- A family history of diabetes
- Having a high-density cholesterol level
- A history of high blood pressure
- A history of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)
- Rapid urbanisation,
- Sedentary lifestyle,
- Unhealthy diet,
- Tobacco use,
- Increasing life expectancy.
- Increased thirst.
- Fatigue
- Blurred vision.
- Numbness or tingling in the hands or feet.
- Slow-healing sores or cuts.
- weight loss.
- Frequent urination.
- Dry mouth.
- Published by: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
- Aim: To monitor the humanitarian plight of the displaced refugees.
- Trend of rising forced displacement continued into 2021, with global numbers exceeding 84 million, an increase from 82.4 million at the end of 2020.
- In the first half of 2021, 126,700 refugees returned to 23 countries of origin from 41 countries of asylum.
- More than 3 million new displacements were reported by 18 countries.
- In the first half of 2021, millions more people were forced to flee their homes due to armed conflicts, generalized violence or human rights violations.
- Much of the new internal displacement was in Africa:
- Africa accounted for 80 percent of the most neglected displacement crises across the globe.
- The Democratic Republic of the Congo (1.3 million), Ethiopia (1.2 million), Central African Republic (202,500), South Sudan (170,400), Nigeria (164,600), Mozambique and Burkina Faso.
- Internal and cross-border mobility in the East and Horn of Africa contributed to around 6.5 million internally displaced persons (IDP) and 3.5 million refugees and asylum seekers in 2020 alone.
- By mid-2021, due to conflict and violence, the number of internally displaced persons had risen to nearly 9 million.
- Intensifying violence led to significant new displacements in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Myanmar, South Sudan and countries in the Sahel region, among other locations.
- India’s National Statistical Office (NSO) data showed that retail inflation rose to 4.5 per cent for the same month.
- It is the rate at which prices increase over a given period.
- India, where the inflation rate is calculated on a year-on-year basis, has adopted an inflation target of 4% (+/-2).
- The Federal Reserve (or Fed), the US central bank, targets an inflation rate of just 2 per cent.
- Hence, the rise of inflation to 6.2%, is a matter of concern.
- The rapid rollout of Covid-19 vaccine created unexpectedly fast recovery in all-round demand from consumers.
- This recovery was further fueled by money pumped by the US government to provide relief to consumers and those who lost their jobs and to stimulate demand.
- The pace of economic recovery has been much faster than the supply chain recovery, and this has worsened the mismatch between demand and supply, thus triggering a sustained price rise.
- High inflation in the advanced economies, will likely force their central banks, to abandon their loose monetary policy.
- A tight money policy would imply higher interest rates.
- That will affect the Indian economy in three broad ways.
- One, Indian firms trying to raise money outside India will find it costlier to do so.
- Two, the Reserve Bank India (RBI) will have to align its monetary policy at home by raising interest rates domestically.
- Three, reduction in carry trade.
- It basically means that one borrows in a country that has low interest rate and invests in a country with higher rates and the spread is the profit subject to currency fluctuations.
- Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) use this strategy to bring money from their country to invest in Indian stocks.
- If the US’ central bank raises rates to counter high inflation—and other central banks follow suit—the spread would shrink and could impact the foreign flows coming to India.
- Retail inflation had frequently been above the comfort zone of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) — between 2 per cent and 6 per cent — for an extended period since late 2019.
- The pandemic made matters worse because of supply constraints even when in India demand has not yet recovered to pre-Covid levels.
- The RBI has not lowered its benchmark interest rates since May 2020.
- That’s because India’s retail inflation has stayed worrying above or near the RBI’s upper limit for the better part of the last two years.
- After the recommendation of Urjit Patel Committee, Consumer Price Index (combined) is used as nominal anchor for RBI’s monetary policies, instead of Wholesale Price Index (WPI).
- CPI (combined) gives weightage to food that is consumed by masses; hence it gives ground reality of the inflation.
- India's widening current account deficit (CAD) is driven by the massive spike in commodity prices led by crude oil.
- Another force driving down the foreign exchange is gold imports.
Balance of Payments:
- Balance Of Payment (BOP)is a statement which records all the monetary transactions made between residents of a country and the rest of the world during any given period.
- This statement includes all the transactions made by/to individuals, corporates and the government and helps in monitoring the flow of funds to develop the economy.
- A BOP statement of a country indicates whether the country has a surplus or a deficit of funds.
- When a country’s export is more than its import, its BOP is said to be in surplus.
- On the other hand, the BOP deficit indicates that a country’s imports are more than its exports.
- The BOP of a country reveals its financial and economic status.
- A BOP statement can be used as an indicator to determine whether the country’s currency value is appreciating or depreciating.
- The BOP statement helps the Government to decide on fiscal and trade policies.
- It provides important information to analyze and understand the economic dealings of a country with other countries.
- The current account is used to monitor the inflow and outflow of goods and services between countries.
- This account covers all the receipts and payments made with respect to raw materials, manufactured goods and services.
- When all the goods and services are combined, together they make up to a country’s Balance of Trade (BOT).
- There are various categories of trade and transfers which happen across countries.
- It could be visible or invisible trading, unilateral transfers or other payments/receipts.
- Trading in goods between countries are referred to as visible items and import/export of services (banking, information technology etc.) are referred to as invisible items.
- Unilateral transfers refer to money sent as gifts or donations to residents of foreign countries.
- All capital transactions between the countries are monitored through the capital account.
- Capital transactions include the purchase and sale of assets(non-financial) like land and properties.
- The capital account also includes the flow of taxes, purchase and sale of fixed assets by migrants moving out/into a different country.
- The deficit or surplus in the current account is managed through the finance from the capital account and vice versa.
- There are 3 major elements of a capital account:
- Loans and borrowings– It include all types of loans from both the private and public sectors located in foreign countries.
- Investments – These are funds invested in the corporate stocks by non-residents.
- Foreign exchange reserves– Foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank of a country to monitor and control the exchange rate does impact the capital account.
- The flow of funds from and to foreign countries through various investments in real estates, business ventures, foreign direct investments etc. is monitored through the financial account.
- This account measures the changes in the foreign ownership of domestic assets and domestic ownership of foreign assets.
- On analyzing these changes, it can be understood if the country is selling or acquiring more assets (like gold, stocks, equity etc.).
- The Glasgow meeting was the 26thsession of the Conference of Parties (CoP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP 26.
- It is conducted every year to construct a global response to climate change.
- These meetings earlier delivered two international agreements, the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 and the Paris Agreement in 2015
- The Paris Agreement is now the active instrument to fight climate change.
- Aim of the pact: Avert dangerous climate change.
- The pact has:
- Focused over the failure of the developed countries to deliver on their $100 billion promise.
- Initiated discussions on setting the new target for climate finance, beyond $100 billion for the post-2025 period.
- Asked the developed countries to provide transparent information about the money they plan to provide.
- The frequency of climate disasters has been rising rapidly, and many of these causes’ largescale devastation.
- The worst affected are the poor and small countries, and the island states.
- There is no institutional mechanism to compensate these nations for the losses, or provide them help in the form of relief and rehabilitation.
- Carbon markets are effective instrument to reduce overall emissions.
- They facilitate the trading of emission reductions.
- It allows countries, or industries, to earn carbon credits for the emission reductions they make in excess of their targets.
- These carbon credits can be traded to the highest bidder in exchange of money.
- The Glasgow Pact has allowed these carbon credits to be used in meeting countries’ first nationally-determined contributions (NDC) targets.
- Asked countries to strengthen their 2030 climate action plans, or NDCs by 2022.
- Established a work programme to urgently scale-up mitigation ambition and implementation.
- To convene an annual meeting of ministers to raise ambition of 2030 climate actions.
- To convene a meeting of world leaders in 2023 to scale-up ambition of climate action.
- Asked countries to make efforts to reduce usage of coal as a source of fuel, and abolish “inefficient” subsidies on fossil fuels.
- It called on all parties to accelerate phase-out of coal and fossil fuel subsidies.
- These countries, due to their lower capacities, are facing the worst impacts of climate change and require immediate technology and capacity building for their adaptation activities.
- Asked the developed countries to double the money being provided for adaptation by 2025 from the 2019 levels.
- In 2019, about $15 billion was made available for adaptation that was less than 20 per cent of the total climate finance flows.
- Created a two-year work programme to define a global goal on adaptation.
- The Paris Agreement has a global goal on mitigation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to keep the temperature rise within 2 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial times.
- A similar global goal on adaptation has been missing, primarily because of the difficulty in defining such a target.
- Developed countries will provide finance and technology to the developing nations to help them deal with climate change.
- In 2009, developed countries had promised to mobilize at least $100 billionevery year from 2020.
- It was reaffirmed during the Paris Agreement, which asked the developed countries to scale up this amount from 2025.
- However, the 2020 deadline passed but the $100 billion promise has not fulfilled yet.
- India announced a Panchamrit (a mixture of five elements) of climate actions.
- It raised the targets for two of its existing climate targets, and promised to turn net-zero by the year 2070.
- These targets are:
- By 2030, to increase non-fossil energy capacity to 500 GW.
- By 2070, India will achieve net-zero emissions.
- It will fulfil 50 per cent of its energy requirement through renewable energy by 2030.
- To bring economy's carbon intensity down to 45% by 2030.
- To reduce 1 billion tonnes of carbon emissions from the total projected emissions by 2030.
- Brazil, would advance its net-zero target year from 2060 to 2050.
- China come out with a roadmap for its commitment to let emissions peak in 2030, and for its 2060 net-zero target.
- Israel announced a net zero target for 2050.
- Over 100 countries pledged to reduce methane emissions by at least 30 per cent from present levels by 2030.
- If achieved, it is estimated to avoid about 0.2-degree Celsius temperature rise by the middle of the century.
- Some countries promised to arrest and reverse deforestation by 2030.
- Over 30 countries signed a declaration to work towards a transition to 100 per cent zero-emission cars by the year 2040.
- It is a rare species of swallowtail butterfly found from Nepal and north India east to north Vietnam.
- Its name means "emperor of India".
- It is a local and rare butterfly that is protected by Indian and Nepalese law.
- It would be a keystone species for conservation of high-altitude forest.
- It is also known as Pakhui Tiger Reserve.
- It is a Project Tiger reserve in the Pakke Kessang district of Arunachal Pradesh in northeastern India.
- Established: 1966
- Location: It lies in the undulating and hilly foothills of the Eastern Himalayas in Arunachal Pradesh's Pakke Kessang
- It is bounded by Bhareli or Kameng River in the west and north, and by Pakke River in the east.
- Area: Total Area of the tiger reserve is 862 km2.
- Flora:
- It contains lowland semi-evergreen, evergreen forests and Eastern Himalayan broadleaf forests.
- A total of 343 woodyspecies of flowering plants (angiosperms) have been recorded from the lowland areas of the park.
- It has a high representation of species from the families Euphorbiaceae and Lauraceae.
- A total of 1500 species of vascular plants are found.
- Vascular plants are defined as land plants with lignified tissues for conducting water and minerals throughout the plant.
- Fauna
- Large cats: The Bengal tiger, Indian leopard, and clouded leopard.
- Canids: Wild dogs and Asiatic jackal.
- Monkeys: The Rhesus macaque, Assamese macaque, and the capped langur.
- At least 296 bird species have been recorded in the Tiger reserve.
- She was the Gond queen of the region in the 18th century.
- She was one of Nizam Shah's seven wives and daughter of Chaudhari Kirpa-Ramchandra.
- Gond king Nizam Shah's reign was from 1600 to the year 1715, the Ginnaurgarh fort was under the Gond kings, and Bhopal too was ruled by him.
- She was the last Hindu queen of Bhopal, who did great work in the area of water management and set up parks and temples.
- She built the seven-story 'Kamlapati Palace', which presently serves as a protected monument.
- Rani Kamlapati Palace is a secular architecture of the 18th century built of Lakhauri bricks, cusped arches over crumpled pillars.
- They are a Dravidian ethnolinguistic
- They are one of the largest groups in India.
- They are spread over the states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, and Odisha.
- The Gond tribe has painted and carved art on the walls of caves which all belong to the Mesolithic Period.
- The Gonds believe that viewing good images brought in good luck. Thus, traditionally, they painted motifs, tattoos, and images on the floors and walls of their houses.
- The name of the native Gond religion is Koyapunem, which was founded by Pari Kupar Lingo.
- Gond diet has two staple millets as kodo and kutki.
- Keslapur Jathra is the important festival of the Gonds.
POSTED ON 17-11-2021 BY ADMIN
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