Heat Stress
Category: Sc/tech
- To study the impact that summer heat has on the body in inducing stress, The Centre for Atmospheric Sciences (CAS) at IIT-Delhi is conducting a study to develop India-specific heat stress tolerance thresholds.
- Heat stress is the stress felt by the body when exposed to heat in the summer and the project will help in formulating a better and efficient heat management plan across the country as heat stress is expected to rise due to global warming.
- The study is part of a project, Heat Stress Index for India: projection for near future, undertaken by IIT-Delhi in partnership with five other institutes in the country.
- The study will include a population-based survey through which the Centre will collect data about the people’s perception of heat exposure along with direct measurement of stress condition and thermal imaging of human physiology under heat stress.
Gaganyaan
Category: Sc/tech
- The Indian Air Force and the Indian Space Research Organisation signed an MoU for imparting training to Indian astronauts for the ISRO’s Gaganyaan programme.
- The ₹10,000-crore Gaganyaan is planned for 2022, the 75th year of Independence.
- ISRO has suggested that eventually 10 candidates be trained for the space travel.
- But only three astronauts will be involved in circling the Earth for about seven days from a distance of 400 km.
Currency Monitoring List
Category: International
- The U.S. removed India from its currency monitoring list of major trading partners.
- Switzerland is the other nation that was removed from the list.
- India has been removed from the monitoring list in this report, having met only one out of three criteria — a significant bilateral surplus with the United States — for two consecutive reports.
RBI Task Force
Category: Economy
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) constituted a task force to suggest policy and regulatory interventions required for development of secondary market in corporate loans, including loan transaction platform for stressed assets.
- The six-member body, headed by Canara Bank chairman T. N. Manoharan, has been set up to review the existing state of the market for loan sale/transfer in India as well as international experience in loan trading.
- Secondary loan market in India is largely restricted to asset reconstruction companies (ARCs) and ad hoc sale to other lenders, including banks, and no formalised mechanism has been developed to deepen the market.
- A well-developed secondary market for debt will also aid in the transparent price discovery of the inherent riskiness of the debt being traded, the Reserve Bank of India said while announcing the task force.
Health Workers in India
Category: Social sector
- India has 20.6 health workers per 10,000 people.
- While it is less than the World Health Organisation’s minimum threshold of 22.8, the numbers have increased from 19 health workers per 10,000 people in 2012.
- Rural areas with nearly 71% of India’s population have only 36% of the country’s health workers.
- Delhi has the highest concentration of health workers followed by Kerala, Punjab, and Haryana.
