Current Affairs - 2019-20

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PfKelch13 C580Y is a mutant of P. falciparum Kelch13. It was recently making news as a potential Malaria superbug spreading in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar. 

Notes:
Chandrayaan was launched on October 22nd 2008 and successfully reached the lunar surface on November 14, 2008. The ISRO lost communication with Chandrayaan-1 on August 29, 2009, almost a year after it was launched on October 22, 2008. It operated for 312 days.
In 2017 NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have found India’s first lunar probe, Chandrayaan-1 which was considered lost, is still orbiting the moon.

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The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the North East Industrial Development Scheme (NEIDS), 2017 with financial outlay of Rs.3000 crores upto March, 2020. Government will provide necessary allocations for remaining period of scheme after assessment before March 2020. NEIDS is a combination of the incentives covered under the earlier two schemes with a much larger outlay. In order to promote employment in the North East States, Government is incentivising primarily the MSME Sector through this scheme and is also providing specific incentive through it to generate employment. The newly introduced scheme will promote industrialization in the States of the North Eastern Region and will boost employment and income generation. All eligible industrial units which are getting benefits of one or more components of other schemes of the government will also be considered for benefits of other components of this scheme. The overall cap for benefits under all components of incentives will be of Rs 200 crores per unit.

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Alliance 8.7 is for a world without forced labour, modern slavery, human trafficking and child labour. It is an initiative under the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It calls for effective measures to end forced labour, modern slavery, and human trafficking, as well as child labour in all its forms.

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The Mankidia tribe has been recognised as one of the 13 particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs) in the State. They are known for collection of Siali fibre, from which they build small huts and offer worship to their deities. This tribal group was in news for filing a claim for habitat rights in the Similipal Tiger Reserve (STR). However, their claim was recently denied since the Forest Department thought that the indigenous people might face life threat from wildlife or even come in way of their free movement due to grant of habitat rights in the Tiger Reserve.

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India has declared 2010-20 as the “Decade of Innovation”. The Government has stressed the need to enunciate innovation in the diverse field and has taken several steps in order to fulfil the same.

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The Indian scientists have finally started their research on “Dark Matter” in the special underground lab set up at Jaduguda mines in Jharkhand. The lab’s primary aim will be to join the hunt for dark matter, the mysterious stuff whose gravity holds galaxies together. The laboratory is located deep underground almost half-a-kilometre below the earth’s surface. To search for dark matter, scientists need to dive deep underground, so their experiments are shielded from intruders like cosmic rays and other radiations. The rock overhead is expected to absorb these unwelcome rays that interfere with the experiments. The Jaduguda mines are located nearly 260 km from Kolkata and 150 km from state capital Ranchi. It was set up at a cost of a mere Rs. 20 lakh. This is India’s second foray in underground lab experiments. Before this, in 1992, a similar facility was started in Karnataka’s Kolar gold field but was shut down after the mine got flooded due to disuse.

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Recently, based on the recommendations of Kokate committee, the Union Health Ministry had imposed the ban on 344 FDC drugs under Section 26A of Drugs and Cosmetics Act in March 2016. The ban was imposed because of FDC being unsafe and not having a therapeutic justification. India is one of the world’s largest markets for FDC drugs that make up almost half the market share. It was imposed over fears that these drugs cause anti-microbial resistance and might even cause organ-failure because of high toxicity. It also aimed at curbing the misuse of medicines.

Notes:
The Triffin dilemma, or Triffin paradox, is the idea that a national currency can create conflicts between short-term domestic and long-term international economic goals. The dilemma arises when a national currency also serves as an international reserve currency.
The dilemma was discovered in the 1960s by Belgian economist Robert Triffin. He argued that domestic and international policy goals don’t usually match. For example, if the United States stopped running balance of payments deficits, the international community would lose its largest source of reserves. This could cause a shortage of liquidity, which could lead to instability.
The dilemma points to the conflicts that can arise when a national currency plays a role as an international public good. The global reserve currency issuer issues the safest and most widely used global currency. Domestic monetary policy can have unintended consequences for both the domestic and global economies.

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The Venezuelan government withdrew its largest banknote 100-bolivar from circulation in its latest attempt to tackle the world’s worst inflation crisis.