Relevance IN - Prelims (about Exercise AJEYA WARRIOR)
What's the NEWS

• Fifth edition of Joint Military Exercise AJEYA WARRIOR-2020 between India and United Kingdom will be conducted at Salisbury Plains, United Kingdom from 13 to 26 February 2020.

• The exercise will comprise of 120 soldiers each from Indian and United Kingdom Army who would be sharing their experiences gained during conduct of various counter insurgency and counter terrorist operations in the past.
• The aim of this exercise is to conduct company level joint training with emphasis on counter terrorists operation in Urban and Semi Urban areas.
• Training on modern weapon systems, equipment and simulator training have also been planned.
• Exercise AJEYA WARRIOR with United Kingdom is an important exercise in terms of the security challenges faced by both the nations in the realm of changing facets of global terrorism. The exercise is conducted alternatively in United Kingdom and India.
• Exercise AJEYA WARRIOR will promote defence cooperation and enhance interoperability while sharing experiences between both the armies.

Relevance IN - Prelims (about the annual meeting of AU leaders and the takeaways + about AU) + Mains ( GS II International Organisations)
What's the NEWS

• The African leaders are meeting in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa for the annual meeting of the African Union (AU) leaders.

• The 33^rd summit of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government is being held under the theme of Silencing the Guns: Creating Conducive Conditions for Africa's Development.
• Silencing the Guns is a commitment that the leaders vowed seven years ago to end all wars and conflicts by 2020, but failed.
• The two-day leaders' summit is being attended by more than 35 heads of state and government, as well as representatives of regional and international organizations.
• Issues deliberated during the summit include sustainable funding of Africa's development agenda, specifically addressing the scale of assessment and contributions to the AU's budget; progress made in the implementation of the 2063 agenda; operationalization of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA); African candidatures in the international system, the International Criminal Court, and Africa's digital transformation strategy.

• The African Union (AU) is a continental body consisting of the 55 member states that make up the countries of the African Continent. It was officially launched in 2002 as a successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU, 1963-1999).
• The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, calling for the establishment of the African Union.
• The bloc was founded on 26 May 2001 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and launched on 9 July 2002 in Durban, South Africa.
• The intention of the AU was to replace the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), established on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa by 32 signatory governments
• The most important decisions of the AU are made by the Assembly of the African Union, a semi-annual meeting of the heads of state and government of its member states.
• The AU's secretariat, the African Union Commission, is based in Addis Ababa. The largest city in the AU is Lagos, Nigeria, while the largest urban agglomeration is Cairo, Egypt.
• Morocco is the newest member state, having joined in January 2017.
• The AU spans the entirety of the African continent, with the exception of Ceuta, Melilla, and the plazas de soberanía. Also excluded are offshore islands that are integral parts of the transcontinental countries of France, Portugal, Spain and Yemen.

• It is Africa's blueprint and master plan for transforming Africa into the global powerhouse of the future.
• It is the continent's strategic framework that aims to deliver on its goal for inclusive and sustainable development and is a concrete manifestation of the pan-African drive for unity, self-determination, freedom, progress and collective prosperity pursued under Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance

What's the NEWS

• In order to promote green, safe and sustainable mining practices using technology as a tool, Ministry of Coal (MoC) has launched a web portal for star rating of coal mines.

Know! more about the portal

• The Portal has been launched which enables all operational coal mines across India for self-rating, their subsequent validation by Coal Controller's Organization (CCO), further evaluation and finally award of star rating.
• Based on the star ratings obtained through a well-defined mechanism on this web portal, the highest scoring mines in the country will be awarded in a public ceremony.
• The mines that score from 91 to 100% will get 5 star, 81 to 90% 4 star, 71 to 80% 3 star, 61 to 70% 2 star, 41 to 60% 1 star and mines that score from 0 to 40% will get No star on the portal as per laid down procedures of the Star Rating Policy for Coal Mines in India.
• The portal will provide a login to each coal mine for self-evaluation along with necessary documents for testimonials.

e-Governance
DGT Proposes to Issue Digital 'E-Credentials/E-Certificates'

Relevance IN - Prelims (about the digital e-credentials + about e-certificates)
What's the NEWS

• The Government is developing the Electronic Skill Credential Standard (ESCS) Specification.

Know! more about it

• Directorate General of Training (DGT), Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship proposes to issue digital ‘e-Credentials / e-Certificates' which are freely portable for candidates and easily verifiable at scale by employers and job matching platforms but continue to allow print and other visual forms for human consumption.
• This would enable candidates to verifiably state their skill levels with a high degree of trust in authenticity to aggregators, matchers, and employers.
• Now in the DGT ecosystem, all the certificates are ‘e-Certificates', digitally signed.
• e-Credentials are an electronic scheme-based standard for describing credentials data in a machine-readable format (JSON-LDrepresentation of RDFa- Resource Description Framework, a web standard) along with its printable human-friendly version to make credential exchange between digital agents open and reliable.

Social Issues
National Deworming Day (NDD)

Relevance IN - Prelims (about NDD) + Mains (GS II Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources
What's the NEWS

• The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) conducted the tenth round of National Deworming Day (NDD)
• As part of this campaign, children and adolescents aged 1-19 years are being administered Albendazole (400 mg) across government, government-aided schools, anganwadis, private schools and other educational institutions.

National Deworming Day (NDD)

• The NDD is implemented with an objective to reduce the prevalence of Soil Transmitted Helminths (STH), commonly called the parasitic intestinal worms, among all children and adolescents.
• Infections with the main STH - roundworm, whipworm and hookworms - contribute to 50.1 lakh disability adjusted life-years (DALYs) worldwide (WHO, 2010).
• One DALY can be thought of as one lost "healthy" year from a life. In India, over 22 crore children under 14 years are at risk of STH infections (WHO, 2017).
• Launched in 2015, the NDD is the largest public health program implemented on a single day reaching crores of children and adolescents through two NDD rounds every year.
• Implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Women and Child Development and Ministry of Human Resource Development, NDD is a key intervention of Anemia Mukt Bharat.

Deworming through Albendazole

• Deworming through Albendazole is an evidence-based, globally-accepted, effective solution used to control worm infections in all children
• Albendazole and Mebendazole are the names of the deworming drugs used by the Government of India and is a safe treatment for intestinal worms.

Know! about National Deworming Day (NDD)

• With an aim to intensify efforts towards STH control among children in India, the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India (GoI) observes the National Deworming Day (NDD) bi-annually on 10th February and 10th August in all states and UTs followed by mop-up activities.
• Target audience - All children (both boys and girls) in the age group of 1-19 years.
• The NDD is being implemented through the combined efforts of Department of School Education and Literacy under Ministry of Human Resource and Development, Ministry of Women and Child Development and Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation.

Economy
Digital Payments Index (DPI)
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about DPI)
What's the NEWS

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced a Digital Payments Index (DPI) to assess and capture the extent of digitalisation of payments effectively.

Know! more about it

• The DPI would be based on multiple parameters and shall reflect accurately the penetration and deepening of various digital payment modes.
• The DPI will be made available from July 2020 onwards

Steps taken to promote cashless transactions

• The banking regulator and the government have been working on facilitating adoption of cashless payment systems like digital wallets, internet banking, credit and debt cards.
• The government recently scrapped merchant discount rates (MDR) on payments made through Rupay debit cards and the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
• There are reports of the government planning to scrap MDR on all debit cards.

Know! about Merchandise discount rate (MDR)

• MDR is the cost paid by a merchant to a bank for accepting payment from their customers via digital means. The merchant discount rate is expressed in percentage of the transaction amount. It is also applicable for online transactions and QR-based transactions.
• The amount that the merchant pays for every transaction gets distributed among three stakeholders--the bank that enables the transaction, vendor that installs the point of sale (PoS) machine and the card network provider such as Visa, MasterCard, RuPay.
• Payments via digital modes are expected to make transactions more transparent and thereby prevent tax evasion.
• The announcement on the DPI was made along with the RBI's monetary policy statement released
• The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) unanimously decided to leave the key lending rate unchanged for the second consecutive bi-monthly policy at 5.15% and maintained its accommodative stance.

State Specific
Arsenic-resistant rice cultivated in West Bengal
Relevance IN - Prelims (about Arsenic and about the new variety of rice)
What's the NEWS

• Researchers have developed and commercialised a rice variety that is resistant to arsenic.

Know! more about it

• West Bengal is among the States with the highest concentration of arsenic in groundwater, with as many as 83 blocks across seven districts having higher arsenic levels than permissible limits.
• The new rice variety, Muktoshri - also called IET 21845 -, was developed jointly by the Rice Research Station at Chinsurah coming under West Bengal's Agriculture Department and the National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow, over several years.
• This variety uptakes very less amount of arsenic from soil and water in comparison to other varieties of rice.
• According to the World Health Organization, long-term exposure to arsenic, mainly through drinking water and food, can lead to poisoning. Skin lesions and skin cancer are the most characteristic effects.

Know! about Arsenic

• Arsenic is a naturally occurring element that is widely distributed in the Earth's crust. It is found in water, air, food, and soil.
• Several studies have shown that arsenic from groundwater and the soil can enter the food chain through paddy.
• Arsenic in groundwater is a widespread problem. Arsenic levels tend to be higher in drinking water that comes from ground sources, such as wells, than from water from surface sources, such as lakes or reservoirs.
  
  

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