Source: The Hindu, Live Mint and Indian Express
EMERGENCY RESPONSE SUPPORT SYSTEM
Context: Twenty States and Union Territories have so far joined a pan-India network of single emergency helpline number ‘112’ on which immediate assistance can be sought by anyone in distress.
Essentials:
- Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) is a Pan-India single number (112) based emergency response system for citizens in different emergencies.
- Each State/ UT is required to designate a dedicated Emergency Response Centres (ERC) to handle emergency requests.
- It is an initiative of Govt. of India under the Nirbhaya funds scheme for ensuring safety of women and children.
- In case of women and children, you can use 112 India mobile App to activate SHOUT feature, which alerts registered volunteers in vicinity for immediate assistance apart from activating ERC.
- ERSS is designed to address all emergency signals received from citizens through voice call, SMS, e-mail, panic SOS signal, ERSS web portal etc.
- The automated facility being setup for this purpose in the capital cities of all States and UTs, called Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP), will handle all these emergency signals and provide assistance available to the people in distress within the best possible time with the help of Police, Fire & Rescue, Health services etc.
- ERSS tracks the rescue and service vehicles of all services (Police, Fire , Health etc) in real-time on a digital map of the State/UT and hence it will be possible to direct the right vehicle(s) to reach the service requestor and provide necessary support immediately.
- Henceforth, all the existing emergency numbers like 100 (police), 101 (Fire and Rescue) and 108 (ambulance), 181 (Woman and Child Care) etc. will be integrated to unified number 112.
- Himachal Pradesh was the first state to launch pan-India single emergency number ‘112’ under ERSS.
Frequently Asked Questions What is 112
- What is 112 ?
- “112” is the Single Emergency number, people in distress can call 24h/7 in all 36 states/UTs of India to get immediate assistance from the fire brigade, a medical team or the police.
- We can call the number 112 with a fixed or mobile phone.
- The Single emergency number is free Even when the mobile operator network is not available, you can call the emergency number 112 with your mobile phone.
- Why 112 ? When dial 100 was already in use?
- 112 is a globally recognized single emergency number, adopted by most of European countries, common wealth nations and mapped to emergency numbers in USA and Canada.
- Most of Phone handsets are manufactured with pre-programmed 112 as emergency number to be dialled with single key press.
- Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) allotted this number for the purpose of single emergency number in India in May 2015.
MEASLES CASES SPIKE GLOBALLY DUE TO GAPS IN VACCINATION COVERAGE
Context: The number of cases of measles rose by 300% in the first three months of 2019, compared to the same period in 2018, noted WHO. WHO’s African region has recorded a 700% increase.
Essentials:
- Countries with the most reported cases include Madagascar, Ukraine, India, Nigeria, Kazakhstan, Chad, Myanmar, Thailand, the Philippines and Democratic Republic of the Congo.
- The disease is almost entirely preventable through two doses of a safe and effective vaccine.
- For several years, however, global coverage with the first dose of measles vaccine has stalled at 85%. This is still short of the 95% needed to prevent outbreaks, and leaves many people, in many communities, at risk.
- Second dose coverage, while increasing, stands at 67%.
Vaccination in India
Universal Immunization Programme (UIP)
- Full immunization against preventable childhood diseases is the right of every child.
- With a view to provide this right to every child, the Government of India launched the Universal Immunization Program (UIP) in 1985.
- India’s Universal Immunisation Programme (U.I.P.) is one of the largest in the world in terms of:
- quantities of vaccine used,
- the number of beneficiaries,
- the number of Immunisation session organised,
- the geographical spread and diversity of areas covered.
- The UIP provides free of cost vaccines to all children across the country to protect them against 12 life threatening diseases.
- These twelve vaccine preventable diseases are Tuberculosis, Pertussis, Diphtheria, Tetanus, Hepatitis B, Polio, Pneumonia and Meningitis due to Haemophilus Influenzae type b (Hib), Measles, Rubella, Rotavirus diarrhoea and Japanese Encephalitis (JE).
- Rubella, JE and Rotavirus vaccine are given in select states and districts.
- Despite being operational for over 30 years, UIP has been able to fully immunize only 65% children in the first year of their life and the increase in coverage was stagnated in the past 5 years (before 2014) to an average of 1% every year.
Mission Indradhanush
- To accelerate the process of immunization by covering 5% and more children every year, Indradhanush mission was adopted.
- Mission Indradhanush aims to ensure that at least 90% of the children under the age of two years and pregnant women, who are either unvaccinated, or are partially vaccinated against vaccine preventable diseases, are fully immunized with all available vaccines by 2020.
- Mission Indradhanush does not target to reduce post natal death rate but targets to reduce diseases and death due to vaccine preventable diseases.
Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI)
- It is a supplemental aggressive action plan to cover all left outs and drop outs in select districts and urban areas with low routine immunization coverage to achieve the target of more than 90% coverage in a specific time-frame (December 2018).
- Mission Indradhanush is under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Measles-Rubella Vaccination Campaign India, 2017
- Measles and Rubella are highly contagious viral diseases that are spread by contact with an infected person through coughing and sneezing.
- Measles weakens the immune system of the body.
- Hence infection with Measles often leads to serious complications that include blindness, encephalitis, severe diarrhoea and severe respiratory infections such as pneumonia.
- Most measles-related deaths are caused by complications associated with the disease.
- Children below five years are prone to the infection and one-third of all measles-related deaths worldwide occur in India.
BANKS BOARD BUREAU
Context: The Banks Board Bureau (BBB), the apex body for selection of whole-time directors of state-owned lenders, has identified 75 senior management personnel of public sector lenders to take over leadership roles in the future.
Essentials:
- BBB is an autonomous body of Union Government of India tasked to improve the governance of Public Sector Banks.
- It recommends selection of chiefs of government-owned banks and financial institutions.
- It also helps banks in developing strategies and capital raising plans.
- BBB also advises banks on strategies for consolidation among them including mergers and acquisitions.
- It also infuses efficiency and transparency in the Banking sector.
- The bureau was announced as part of the seven-point Indradhanush plan to revamp public sector banks.
- BBB have three ex-officio members (government) and three expert members, two of which are from the private sector, in addition to Chairman.
- The members of the board are appointed for two years.
- BBB is not funded from the Consolidated Fund of India.
- It is situated at RBI’s Central Office in Mumbai.
ASIAN TEA ALLIANCE LAUNCHED
Contest: The Asian Tea Alliance (ATA), a union of five tea-growing and consuming countries, was launched in Guizhou in China.
- The members of the alliance are:
- Indian Tea Association,
- China Tea Marketing Association,
- Indonesian Tea Marketing Association,
- Sri Lanka Tea Board and
- Japan Tea Association.
- ATA plans to work towards enhancing tea trade, cultural exchanges, technology exchanges as well as globally promoting tea.
GANGA HAS HIGHER PROPORTION OF ANTIBACTERIAL AGENTS: STUDY
- Context: A study to probe the “unique properties” of the Ganga found that the river water contains a significantly higher proportion of organisms with antibacterial properties.
- Other Indian rivers also contain these organisms but the Ganga — particularly in its upper Himalayan stretches — has more of them, the study suggests. Bacteriophages are a kind of virus that kill bacteria, hence, they are frequently found in proximity to to pathogenic bacteria.
- In the river Ganga, the bacteriophages were detected to be approximately 3 times more in proportion than bacterial isolates.
DISQUALIFICATION ON THE BASIS OF CRIMINAL CHARGES
- The constitution does not specify what disqualifies an individual have criminal cases pending against him from contesting in an election to a legislature.
- It is the Representation of People Act which specifies what can disqualify an individual from contesting an election.
- The law does not bar individuals who have criminal cases pending against them from contesting elections.
- An individual punished with a jail term of more than two years cannot stand in an election for six years after the jail term has ended.
- If a lower court has convicted an individual, he cannot contest an election unless a higher court has overturned his conviction.
- Simply filing an appeal against the judgment of the lower court is not enough.
- In 2013, the apex court ruled that a sitting MP and MLA convicted of a jail term of two years or more would lose their seat in the legislature immediately.
