Essential Facts (Prelims) – April 20 , 2019


International Fleet Review

Category: International

  • The Indian Navy has sent two ships to take part in the International Fleet Review to be held in Qingdao, China.
  • International Fleet Review is being held later as part of the 70th anniversary celebrations of the People’s Liberation Army Navy.
  • The Indian Navy had last held an International Fleet Review in February 2016, in which 50 navies of different countries took part with nearly 100 warships.

Antibacterial Agents in Ganga

Category: Sc & tech

  • 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, ‘Assessment of Water Quality and Sediment To Understand Special Properties of River Ganga,’ began in 2016 and was conducted by the Nagpur-based National Environmental Engineering and Research Institute (NEERI), a CSIR lab.
  • Because bacteriophages are a kind of virus that kill bacteria, they are frequently found in proximity to each other.
  • In the river Ganga, the bacteriophages were detected to be approximately 3 times more in proportion than bacterial isolates.
  • Though it isn’t evident that there are bacteriophage species unique to the Ganga, the study suggests there are many more of them in the Ganga than in other rivers.
  • That the Ganga may contain unique microbial life, which makes it relatively more resilient to putrefaction, was suggested by British colonial scientists about 200 years ago.

Gold Imports

Category: Economy

  • The country’s gold imports dipped about 3% in value terms to $32.8 billion during 2018-19.
  • This is expected to keep a lid on the current account deficit.
  • Total imports of the precious metal in 2017-18 had stood at $33.7 billion.
  • Softening prices of the yellow metal in the global markets could be the reason for the contraction in the value of imports.
  • India is one of the largest gold importers in the world, and the imports mainly take care of demand from the jewellery industry.
  • The country’s current account deficit (CAD), or the difference between outflow and inflow of foreign exchange in the current account, widened to 2.5% of gross domestic product (GDP).
  • The government had introduced several measures to restrict the import of gold. Import of the yellow metal attracts 10% duty.

Measles

Category: Sc & tech

  • The number of cases of measles — one of the world’s most contagious diseases — is climbing, warned the World Health Organisation (WHO).
  • In 2017, the most recent year for which estimates are available, it caused close to 1,10,000 deaths.
  • As of this time last year, there were 28,124 measles cases from 163 countries. Globally, this is almost a 300% increase.
  • Countries with the most reported cases include Madagascar, Ukraine, India, Nigeria, Kazakhstan, Chad, Myanmar, Thailand, the Philippines and Democratic Republic of the Congo.
  • In India, measles is still one of the leading causes of death in young children. About 15% of vaccinated children fail to develop immunity from the first dose, meaning that if only 80% are fully immunised, an outbreak is likely.
  • The disease is almost entirely preventable through two doses of a safe and effective vaccine.

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