DNA – Aug 18 , 2018


CHROME IAS ACADEMY
Daily News Analytica-The Hindu and Indian Express
18th August


  • Page 1: Mullaperiyar Dam
  • The dam was built with the intention of diverting the West-flowing Periyar river eastwards to the arid rain shadow region of Madurai (Tamil Nadu). 
  • It is located in Idukki district of Kerala.
  • Kerala and Tamil Nadu are in a constant tussle regarding the strength of the dam and hence the level of water that should be maintained in the dam.

  • Page 1: Asian Games 2018 (18th Edition)
  • Indonesia is hosting the Games for the second time.
  • But it would be the first time the event will be held in two cities: Jakarta and Palembang.
  • India’s best haul in Asian Games (in short called Asiad) came in Guangzhou (2010) with 65 medals.
  • In the 1951 games, India finished second behind Japan.
  • In 1982 (New Delhi) and 2014 (Incheon), India finished with 57 medals, its second best performance in terms of overall medals.
  • Neeraj Chopra, the 20-year old javelin thrower, has been named the flag-bearer.
  • In an ongoing burst of sporting diplomacy, South Korean and North Korean athletes will march behind a common flag in Indonesia.
  • Esports will make a debut this summer as demonstration sports of the 2018 Asian Games, recognized by the Olympic Council of Asia.
  • demonstration sportis a sport which is played to promote it, most commonly during the Olympic Games, but also at other sporting
  • League of Legends, Pro Evolution Soccer, Arena of Valor, Starcraft II, Hearthstone and Clash Royale will be among the games played at the Asian Games, according to the Asian Electronic Sports Federation (AESF).
  • V. Sindhu and Saina Nehwal – Badminton
  • Neeraj Chopra – Javelin-thrower
  • Manu Bhaker and Elavenil Valarivan – Shooting
  • Hima Das – Sprinter

  • Page 3: Proposed water aerodrome in Chilika Lake likely to face green hurdle
  • The Airports Authority of India has proposed to set up a water aerodrome in Chilika Lake for starting amphibious aircraft operations in Odisha, which may not take off due to ecological consequences of the project.
  • Chilika Lake:
  • Chilika Lake is a lagoonin Odisha.
  • The Daya and Bhargavi rivers feed the lake.
  • It is the largest wintering ground for migratory waterfowl found anywhere on the Indian sub-continent.
  • The endangered Irrawaddy dolphins are also found in the lake, which is the single largest habitat of this species in the world.
  • Lagoon, area of relatively shallow, quiet water situated in a coastal environment and having access to the sea but separated from the open marine conditions by a barrier.
  • Pulicat Lake is the second largest brackish water lake or lagoonin India, after Chilika Lake.

  • Page 8: Global Nutrition Report 2017
  • The Global Nutrition Report is a report card on the world’s nutrition—globally, regionally, and country by country—and on efforts to improve it.
  • The Global Nutrition Report is an independently produced annual stock-take of the state of the world’s nutrition.
  • The World Health Organization is a Global Nutrition Report Partner.
  • The report tracks global nutrition targets on maternal, infant and young child nutrition and on diet related Non-Communicable Diseases adopted by member states of the World Health Organization as well as governments’ delivery against their commitments.
  • At least 41 million children under five are overweight, with the problem affecting high and lower income countries alike.
  • Rates of undernutrition in children are
  • Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) target 2.2 is to end all forms of malnutrition by 2030.
  • GNR 2017 – India profile
  • 38% of children under-5 are affected by stunting and 21% of under-5s are defined as ‘wasted’ or ‘severely wasted’.
  • In India, 16 per cent of adult men and 22 per cent of adult women are overweight.
  • Globally, 614 million women aged 15–49 years were affected by anaemia. India had the largest number of women impacted.
  • The rate of exclusive breastfeeding of infants under 6 months in India is 65 %.

  • Page 8: Global Hunger Index (GHI)
  • The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a tool designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger at the global, regional, and national levels. 
  • The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) calculates GHI scores each year to assess progress and setbacks in combating hunger.
  • The GHI is designed to:
  • raise awareness and understanding of the struggle against hunger;
  • provide a means to compare the levels of hunger between countries and regions; and
  • call attention to the areas of the world in greatest need of additional resources to eliminate hunger.
  • To capture the multidimensional nature of hunger, GHI scores are based on four indicators:
  • UNDERNOURISHMENT:the share of the population that is undernourished (that is, whose caloric intake is insufficient);
  • CHILD WASTING:the share of children under the age of five who are wasted (that is, who have low weight for their height, reflecting acute undernutrition);
  • CHILD STUNTING:the share of children under the age of five who are stunted (that is, who have low height for their age, reflecting chronic undernutrition); and
  • CHILD MORTALITY:the mortality rate of children under the age of five.
  • GHI scores are not calculated for some high-income countries where the prevalence of hunger is very low.
  • Even within certain high-income countries, however, hunger and undernutrition are serious concerns for segments of the population.
  • Unfortunately, nationally representative data for three of the four GHI indicators—undernourishment, child stunting, and child wasting—are not regularly collected in most high-income countries.
  • While data on the fourth GHI indicator, child mortality, are usually available for these countries, child mortality does not reflect undernutrition in the high-income countries to the same extent as it does in low- and middle-income countries.
  • For these reasons, GHI scores are not calculated for most high-income countries.
  • In addition, GHI scores are not calculated for certain countries with small populations.

  • Page 8: National Nutrition Mission (Poshan Abhiyaan)
  • Background:
  • There are a number of schemes directly/indirectly affecting the nutritional status of children (0-6 years age) and pregnant women and lactating mothers.
  • Despite of these, level of malnutrition and related problems in the country is high.
  • There is no dearth of schemes but lack of creating synergy and linking the schemes with each other to achieve common goal.
  • NNM through robust convergence mechanism and other components would strive to create the synergy.
  • NNM targets to reduce stunting, under-nutrition, anaemia (among young children, women and adolescent girls) and reduce low birth weight by 2%, 2%, 3% and 2% per annum respectively.
  • Although the target to reduce Stunting is atleast 2% p.a., the Mission would strive to achieve reduction in Stunting from 38.4% (NFHS-4) to 25% by 2022 (Mission 25 by 2022).
  • A low weight-for-height is called wasting and a low height-for-age is called stunting.
  • The Mission is being implemented by the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
  • Features:
  • Mapping of various Schemes contributing towards addressing malnutrition.
  • Introducing a very robust convergence mechanism.
  • ICT based Real Time Monitoring system.
  • Incentivizing States/UTs for meeting the targets.
  • Incentivizing Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) for using IT based tools.
  • Eliminating registers used by AWWs.
  • Introducing measurement of height of children at the Anganwadi Centres (AWCs).
  • Social Audits.
  • Setting-up Nutrition Resource Centres, involving masses through Jan Andolan for their participation on nutrition through various activities, among others.
  • All the States and districts will be covered in a phased manner (315 districts in 2017-18, 235 districts in 2018-19 and remaining districts in 2019-20).
  • This will be funded by Government Budgetary Support (50%) and 50% by IBRD or other multilateral development bank (MDB).
  • Recently (May 2018), it received $200 mn loan from the World Bank.
  • Government budgetary support would be 60:40 between Centre and States/UTs, 90:10 for NER and Himalayan States and 100% for UTs without legislature.
  • A multilateral development bank (MDB) is an international financial institution chartered by two or more countries for the purpose of encouraging economic development.
  • International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD)
  • IBRD is a global development cooperative owned by 189 member countries.
  • As the largest development bank in the world, it supports the World Bank Group’s mission by providing loans, guarantees, risk management products, and advisory services to middle-income and creditworthy low-income countries, as well as by coordinating responses to regional and global challenges.
  • Created in 1944 to help Europe rebuild after World War II, IBRD joins with International Development Agency, to form the World Bank.
  • They work closely with all institutions of the World Bank Group and the public and private sectors in developing countries to reduce poverty and build shared prosperity.
  • The International Development Association (IDA)
  • IDA is the part of the World Bank that helps the world’s poorest countries.
  • Overseen by 173 shareholder nations, IDA aims to reduce poverty by providing loans (called “credits”) and grants for programs that boost economic growth, reduce inequalities, and improve people’s living conditions.
  • IDA complements the World Bank’s original lending arm—the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD).
  • IBRD was established to function as a self-sustaining business and provides loans and advice to middle-income and credit-worthy poor countries.
  • IBRD and IDA share the same staff and headquarters and evaluate projects with the same rigorous standards.
  • IDA lends money on concessional terms. This means that IDA credits have a zero or very low interest charge and repayments are stretched over 25 to 40 years, including a 5- to 10-year grace period. IDA also provides grants to countries at risk of debt distress.
  • In addition to concessional loans and grants, IDA provides significant levels of debt relief through the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative and the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI).

  • Page 8: National Nutrition Strategy (NNS)
  • National Nutrition Strategy (NNS) has been published by NITI Aayog in 2017. The salient features of the National Nutrition Strategy are as follows:
  • Vision 2022: “Kuposhan Mukt Bharat”.
  • Objectives and targets:
  • 3 point percentage/year reduction in underweight prevalence in children (0-3 years) by 2022 from NFHS-4 levels.
  • 1/3rd reduction in anaemia in children, adolescent & Women of Reproductive Age (WRA).
  • Key strategic areas of action:
  • Governance reform
  • Leading by example
  • Convergence
  • Prioritise action
  • Intensification of Counselling to reach the critical age group
  • Continuum of care
  • Innovative service delivery models
  • Community based monitoring
  • Enabling actions
  • Funding (leveraging):
  • National Health Mission
  • National Nutrition Mission
  • Integrated Child Development Scheme
  • Swachh Bharat Mission
  • Increased provision of 25% flexi funds for States in Centrally sponsored schemes
  • Under the National Nutrition Strategy (NNS), NITI Aayog has isolated the 100 most backward districts for stunting and prioritised those for interventions.
  • Three existing programmes dealing with nutrition:
  • Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) – reaching almost 100 million beneficiaries who include pregnant and nursing mothers and children up to 6 years;
  • Mid-day meals (MDM) – reaching almost 120 million children in schools;
  • Public Distribution System (PDS) – reaching over 800 million people under the National Food Security Act.
  • Micro-nutrient deficiencies is also known as “hidden hunger”.

  • Page 11: Definition: Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
  • The Government of India has enacted the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development (MSMED) Act, 2006 in terms of which the definition of micro, small and medium enterprises is as under:
  • Enterprises engaged in the manufacture or production, processing or preservation of goods as specified below:
  • A micro enterprise is an enterprise where investment in plant and machinery does not exceed Rs. 25 lakh;
  • A small enterprise is an enterprise where the investment in plant and machinery is more than Rs. 25 lakh but does not exceed Rs. 5 crore;
  • A medium enterprise is an enterprise where the investment in plant and machinery is more than Rs.5 crore but does not exceed Rs.10 crore.
  • Enterprises engaged in providing or rendering of services as specified below:
  • A micro enterprise is an enterprise where the investment in equipment does not exceed Rs. 10 lakh;
  • A small enterprise is an enterprise where the investment in equipment is more than Rs.10 lakh but does not exceed Rs. 2 crore;
  • A medium enterprise is an enterprise where the investment in equipment is more than Rs. 2 crore but does not exceed Rs. 5 crore.
  • In case of the above enterprises, investment in plant and machinery is the original cost excluding land and building and the some other items specified by the Ministry of Small Scale Industries.
  • The share of MSMEs in GDP is about 30%, with the sector accounting for about 45% of manufacturing output and about 40% of India’s total exports.
  • MSMEs largely operate in the informal sector and comprise a large number of micro enterprises and daily wage earners.

  • Page 12: Carmichael coal mine is located in the Galilee Basin, a 2,47,000 square-kilometre (95,000 square mile) expanse that has the potential to become Australia’s largest coal-producing region. 

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