18.07.19 Assam (APSC) Daily Current Affairs

ASSAM

Like Nagaland, Assam may soon get cell to deal with poaching, smuggling

With Assam increasingly becoming a transit point as well as a source for the smuggling of wildlife species, the forest department is mulling setting up a cell exclusively for dealing with wildlife crime in the state. While rhino poaching dominates wildlife crime in Assam, officials said there is a large list of animals and birds that are targeted for illegal trade.

The Nagaland forest department has already set up a cell to deal with wildlife crime. It was decided that the state forest department will also have such a cell.

The state has also emerged as a conduit for supplying exotic animals within India and to other countries. In March 2018, police and forest department officials seized five Gaboon vipers, a pair of albino African pythons and three marmosets among other exotic animals from Guwahati’s Jorabat area, near the inter-state border with Meghalaya. This was the largest seizure of exotic animals in Assam so far and threw light on the fact that Guwahati is being used as a transit point for the illegal trade.

INTERNATIONAL

Nelson Mandela International Day: 18 July

The United Nations observes 18 July every year as Nelson Mandela International Day.

The day was officially declared by the United Nations in November 2009, with the first UN Mandela Day held on 18 July 2010.
Nelson Mandela was born on 18 July 1918 in South Africa.
Mandela passed away in the year 2013, at the age of 95.
He was imprisoned for life for campaigning against the apartheid system of racial segregation established by the National Party’s white-only government.

Palau becomes the 76th country to join International Solar Alliance

Palau, an archipelago of over 500 islands in Oceania, became the 76th signatory country to join the International Solar Alliance.

The agreement was opened for signature during the COP22 at Marrakech on November 15, 2016.
The International Solar Alliance is a group of 121 solar resource-rich countries with headquarters in Gurugram, India.

NATIONAL

Govt’s ”Find the Incredible You” campaign wins PATA award

The “Find the Incredible You” campaign of the Tourism Ministry, has won the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Gold Award, 2019.

The campaign focuses on digital and social media and the promotion of niche tourism products of the country.

This year’s awards attracted 198 entries from 78 organisations and individuals worldwide.

The campaign won the award under the “Marketing – Primary Government Destination” category.

PATA Gold Awards are given to tourism industry organizations and individuals making an outstanding contribution towards the successful promotion of the travel industry throughout the Asia Pacific Region.

Google India’s ‘Internet Saathi’ programme to empower rural women

Google India’s ‘Internet Saathi’ programmeaimed to empower rural women to use the Internet.

They added two more states namely Punjab and Odisha.

The programme reached 2.6 lakh villages in 20 states.

A pilot project in 2015 along with Tata Trusts, ‘Internet Saathi’ programme

The main focus is on on educating women on how to use the Internet.

These women impart training to other women in their community and neighbouring villages.

In the four-year journey, trained 70,000 “Internet Saathis” are using the Internet to drive positive change in their communities already benefited over 2.6 crore fellow women.

There are also those who are driving awareness for issues like girl child education, menstrual hygiene and more.

In Punjab, the programme covers around 5,000 villages.

In Odisha, it will cover over 16,000 villages.

Raman Kalyanakrishnan, Head of Strategy at Tata Trusts

The women in rural India are provided with adequate opportunities and knowledge.
This has been made possible through the Internet Saathi programme.

Govt scholarship to check brain drain

For decades, India has quietly coped with the phenomenon called brain drain — its best young talent, from engineers and scientists to IT graduates and business professionals, moving overseas for higher studies or jobs in search of faster growth opportunities and a better quality of life.

Now, the human resource development (HRD) is planning to start a programme that will offer scholarships to students who want to do their PhD in top international universities. There’s one caveat: the students will have to give an undertaking that they will come back and work in India when they finish their studies.

The plan is the brainchild of the HRD ministry’s Education Quality Upgradation and Inclusion Programme (EQUIP).

The main objective of this scheme will be to facilitate deeper engagement of distinguished faculty and scientists with Indian institutions.

Govt planning water reforms by bringing in new model law

Centre government is drawing up a legislative package for water-sector reforms, including a model law aimed at managing what has become the scarcest resource in over a third of the country’s districts.

The law is likely to be called the model water resources regulatory authority bill and only Maharashtra has such a body functioning since 2005

The government also plans to bring a second model law stipulating legal provisions for re-using and recycling water. Model laws are passed by the central government to offer a framework for states to legislate in areas where they have exclusive control, such as water.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a “Jal Jeevan Mission” in Budget 2019-20 to provide potable water to every rural household by 2024, in step with the government’s larger thrust on water conservation and providing safe drinking water to all parts of the country.

Now, a database of harmful chemicals in everyday items

Ingredients in your everyday items may have an adverse effect on the body.

Chennai-based Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMSc) has created an online database — Database of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals and their Toxicity Profiles (DEDuCT) — of 686 endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), many of which are present in everyday items.

The database contains information on the environmental source of the EDCs, their adverse effects and chemical class.

EDCs, which are largely manmade, are present in cosmetics, pesticides, plastic products, metals, medicine , additives or contaminants in food. Long-term exposure to EDCs can disturb the functioning of the endocrine system, which consists of glands secreting hormones that control development, growth, reproduction, metabolism, immunity and behaviour. Human exposure to EDCs takes place via ingestion of food, dust and water, inhalation of gases and particles in the air, and through the skin.

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