Relevance IN - Prelims (about CPGRAMS + about Public Grievances Redressal) + Mains ( GS II Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability, e-governance- applications)

What's the NEWS

• DARPG has launched the "Feedback Call Centres on Public Grievances" and interacted live with citizens whose grievances have been successfully redressed on the COVID-19 National Monitor for Public Grievances.
• The DARPG has in collaboration with BSNL operationalized Feed Back Call Centers in Bhubaneshwar, Guwhati, Jamshedpur, Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Ajmer, Guntur, Coimbatore and Guntakal with 1406 call centre operators.
• The Feedback Call Centres would seek feedback from individual citizens on citizen satisfaction on 1.28 lac COVID-19 Public Grievances that have been filed on CPGRAMS

Know! about CPGRAMS

• CPGRAMS (Central Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System) is a standardized web based solution and an integrated application to register and to redress the grievances received online, by post and by hand.
• The Centralized Public Grievance Redress And Monitoring System, is an online web-enabled. system over NICNET developed by NIC in association with the Department of Administrative. Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) with an objective of speedy redress and effective.

Public Grievances Redressal

• It was created in June 2007 by the Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances.
• Under the public grievance mechanism any citizen of India can raise their problems, grievance or pleas to the central govt and state government Ministries and Departments.
• The system has been designed in-house by the National Informatics Centre team. It has a telephonic feedback feature also.
• Prime Minister is the supreme head of the public grievances.

Prelims Factoids
Hydroxychloroquine does not reduce mortality, RECOVERY trial finds
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about RECOVERY trial + about Solidarity Trial)
What's the NEWS

• The RECOVERY trial, a large randomised controlled trial in the U.K. to test five drugs, including hydroxychloroquine, has found no clinical benefit from use of hydroxychloroquine in hospitalised patients with COVID-19.
• The trial investigators found that there was no significant benefit in mortality reduction in the intervention group, which was the primary objective.

Know! about the RECOVERY trial

• The RECOVERY trial began in March. It is a dynamic trial assessing five candidate drugs and convalescent plasma therapy for treating COVID-19 in patients in U.K. hospitals.

Know! also about Solidarity Trial

• Solidarity" is an international initiative for clinical trials launched by the WHO, along with partners, to help find an effective treatment for Covid-19.
• It was originally supposed to look at four drugs or drug combinations: remdesivir, HCQ, ritonavir/lopinavir and lopinavir/ritonavir/interferon beta 1a.
• Now with HCQ trial enrolment stalled for at least the next few weeks, the Solidarity trial will proceed with the other three arms.

International
India looks to deploy naval liaisons at Madagascar, Abu Dhabi for information exchange

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about IOC + about RMIFC+EMASOH+IFC-IOR) + Mains ( GS II Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India's interests
What's the NEWS

• After joining the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) as Observer in March, India is looking to post Navy Liaison Officers at the Regional Maritime Information Fusion Centre (RMIFC) in Madagascar and at the European Maritime Awareness in the Strait of Hormuz (EMASOH) in Abu Dhabi for improved Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA).

Know! about RMIFC+EMASOH+IFC-IOR

• These two navy liaisons will be in the overall realm of improving linkages of the Navy's Information Fusion Centre for Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR) in Gurugram with other IFCs and become the repository for all maritime data in the IOR
• The RMFIC functions under the aegis of the IOC of which India became an Observer in March 2020 along with Japan and the United Nations.
• The IOC is a regional forum in the southwest Indian Ocean, comprising five nations - Comoros, France (Reunion), Madagascar, Mauritius and Seychelles.
• China and the European Union (EU) have been Observers in the IOC since 2016 and 2017, respectively.
• The Navy LO is expected to be posted at EMASOH by July and at the RMIFC by September or October
• India has an LO at the IFC in Singapore for over four years now.

EMASOH

• The EMASOH headquarters is composed of Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and French officers and based at the French naval base in Abu Dhabi.
• The aim is "to monitor maritime activity and guarantee freedom of navigation in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.

Information Fusion Centre for Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR)

• IFC-IOR is established with the vision of strengthening maritime security in the region and beyond, by building a common coherent maritime situation picture and acting as a maritime information hub for the region.
• Establishment of IFC- IOR would ensure that the entire region is benefitted by mutual collaboration and exchange of information and understanding the concerns and threats which are prevalent in the region.
• The information Exchange at the IFC-IOR would be initially undertaken by virtual means, using telephone calls, faxes, emails and video conferencing over internet.
• Subsequently, to enable better interconnection, quicker analysis of information and provide timely inputs, the IFC-IOR would host Liaison Officers from partner countries.
• France became the first country to deploy a Liaison Officer at the IFC-IOR followed by the U.S. and several other countries including Australia, Japan and the United Kingdom have announced their intention to post LOs.

Space Awareness
Lunar Polar Exploration Mission
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the joint lunar mission ) + Mains ( GS III awareness in the field of space)
What's the NEWS

• Japanese space agency JAXA will be launching a joint lunar mission with India - Lunar Polar Exploration (LPE) - that hopes to put a lander and rover on Moon's surface

Know! about the mission

• The mission will be launched after 2023 - ISRO currently has its human spaceflight programme (Gaganyaan)scheduled for 2022 - and will involve a lander and a rover.
  
  
• The Japanese would be building the overall landing module and the rover, while ISRO would develop the lander system.
• The mission will be launched from Japan, and the designated launch vehicle is the H3 rocket, manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

Know! the objective of the mission

• Analysis of observational data suggests the existence of water in the polar regions of Moon.
• JAXA is working with ISRO to plan an international collaborative mission to obtain data on the quantity and forms of water resources present, in order to determine the feasibility of utilizing such resources for sustainable space exploration activities in the future
• The mission's aim is to obtain actual data regarding the quantity of water from in-situ observations of areas where water is anticipated to exist, based on the available past observational data.
• It also seeks to understand the distribution, conditions, form and other parameters of the lunar water resources in the polar regions.
• The lander will land at a location near the investigation area that has long sunlit hours, and deploy the rover.
• During operation, the rover will observe up to 2m underground, allowing the detection of possible water resources in the area. The rover will simultaneously observe the Moon surface.

Prelims Factoids
India and China increased their nuclear weapons stockpile over last year

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about SIPRI and its report takeaways)
What's the NEWS

• India and China have both increased their nuclear weapons stockpile over the last year but New Delhi's overall numbers are less than half of Beijing's and also slightly lower than what Pakistan possesses.

Know! the highlights of the report

• In its Yearbook 2020, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), a Swedish think tank, has pegged the number of nuclear warheads in the Chinese arsenal at 320, while Pakistan and India are estimated to have 160 and 150 weapons, respectively.
• In its 2019 report, SIPRI had calculated China's nuclear arsenal at 290 and India's at 130-140. Pakistan's nuclear arsenal was calculated at 150-160, a number which remains constant in the latest assessment too.
• The report states that there has been a decrease in the overall number of nuclear weapons in the world in 2019.
• This was largely due to Russia and the US - which together still possess over 90 per cent of global nuclear weapons - dismantling retired nuclear weapons.
• The nine nuclear-armed states - the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) - together possessed an estimated 13,400 nuclear weapons at the start of 2020,
• SIPRI had identified India as the third largest military spender in the world, just behind the US and China.

Know! about SIPRI

• It is an international institute based in Sweden, dedicated to research into conflict, armaments, arms control and disarmament.
• Established in 1966, SIPRI provides data, analysis and recommendations, based on open sources, to policymakers, researchers, media and the interested public. SIPRI is based in Stockholm.
  
  

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