Daily Current Capsules - 30th June 2020
Health
Project PLATINA

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

• Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray inaugurated 'Project PLATINA world's largest convalescent plasma therapy trial cum treatment of severe COVID-19 patients.

• Project PLATINA -World's Largest convalescent plasma therapy trial cum treatment of severe COVID-19 patients was launched by Maharashtra Medical Education and Drugs Department
• Convalescent plasma therapy is now coming up as one of the most important methods in the treatment of severe COVID-19 patients in the absence of definite treatment or drugs for the same.
• This is the world's largest trial cum treatment project, which is to benefit 500 lives of critically ill COVID-19 patients in Maharashtra
• The trial will be carried out in 17 medical colleges under Medical Education and Drugs Department and 4 medical colleges of BMC in Mumbai (21 centres)
• All critical patients will receive two doses of 200 ml of convalescent plasma.
• The plasma of recovered COVID-19 patients contains antibodies thereby fighting infection and helping critically ill patients recover

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

• The Delhi government will set up a plasma bank within the next two days for coronavirus patients at the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS)
• The creation of the repository is a first-of-its-kind initiative in the entire country and appealed to recovered patients to donate their plasma.
• The state government will issue dedicated helplines for those willing to donate plasma.

Know! all about plasma bank and plasma therapy

• Like in blood banks, where blood is extracted and stored for those who might be in need, the idea is to extract and store plasma from people who have recovered from Covid-19 and give it to someone suffering from the disease.
• Delhi was among the first few states to get ICMR approval to conduct trials with plasma therapy, which is still at trial stage.
• Once a person contracts the virus, the blood produces antibodies and certain cells ‘remember' the antigen and produce antibodies when they come in contact with the same virus again.
• The plasma trial is examining if the plasma containing antibodies from recovered patients is beneficial to others as well.

Social Justice
Tribes India e-Mart
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Tribes India e-Mart ) + Mains ( GS II Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States)
What's the NEWS

• Tribal artisans will soon be able to sell their products at the click of a mouse with the government gearing up to launch a specialised e-marketplace for them this Independence Day.

Know! more about Tribes India e-Mart

• Tribal Ministry will launch the website - Tribes India e-Mart - on Independence Day on August 15.
• It will be similar to selling your products on e-commerce giants Amazon or Flipkart. The difference is just that it will be only for tribals
• The government had set up Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India in 1987 with an aim to provide fair price for products of tribals across the country.
• The agency functions under the Union Tribal Affairs Ministry.
• The tribal artisans will be trained and asked to register themselves as sellers on the website.
• TRIFED will train these tribals and help them get registered,
• The objective is to bring around 5 lakh tribal artisans online, thus connecting them to a larger national and international market, he said.
• Around 5 lakh tribal items across 20,000 categories, including textiles, paintings, home decor items, jewelry, and metal crafts, will be available on the website.
• The products of tribal sellers will undergo a strict quality check and a committee will fix prices for each item.
• There will be local collection centres from where the products will be supplied across the country.
• For every Rs 100, Rs 70 will go to the tribals sellers

Connect to the past (current capsules 29 June 2020)

• Recently the Tribal Affairs Ministry has launched tribal products on Government e-Marketplace (GeM).
• This will help government departments and officers purchase tribal products directly from the website without going through a lengthy process of floating a tender and receiving bids

Governance
Online portal for issue of NOC for power, oil and gas exploration projects launched

Relevance I - Prelims ( about the online NOC and its benefits + about TW and EEZ) + Mains ( GS II Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability, e-governance- applications)
What's the NEWS

• The Defence Minister of India has launched a new web portal for issue of No Objection Certificate (NOC) for power projects and Research Survey Exploration Exploitation (RSEE) activities in the Indian Territorial Waters (TW) and Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

Know! more about the web portal

• To ensure ease of business and transparency in issuing NOC for such projects, the Ministry has developed the online application portal with the assistance of National e-Governance Division (NeGD), Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics (BISAG) and National Informatics Centre (NIC).
• The portal will facilitate the applicants in submitting their proposals online for seeking MoD Security Clearance for undertaking Power Projects/RSEE activities.

The MoD Security clearance

• Ministry of Defence (MoD) accords security clearances to various private/Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs)/Government organisations for power/wind/solar projects in areas nearby defence installations and also RSEE activities in the Indian TW and EEZ for applications received through different Ministries

Know! about TW and EEZ

• United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) 1982, also known as Law of the Sea divides marine areas into five main zones namely- Internal Waters, Territorial Sea, Contiguous Zone, Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and the High Seas.
  
  

• According to rules of UNCLOS, all areas extending up to 12 nautical miles from a country's coastline are its territorial waters (TW). All areas extending up to 200 nautical miles from a country's coastline are its exclusive economic zones (EEZ).

Prelims Factoids
Statistics Day, 2020

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about statistics day + about MoSPI)
What's the NEWS

• The National Statistics Day is celebrated every year on the birth anniversary of Prof. P C Mahalanobis (often referred to as the 'father of Indian statistics') on 29th June, in recognition of his invaluable contribution in establishing the National Statistical System.
• On June 29, 2006, the first Statistics Day was observed.
• The MoSPI pays tribute to Prof PC Mahalanobis for the notable contribution made by him in the field of economic planning and statistical development on his birth anniversary
• The theme of Statistics Day, 2020 was Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)- 3 (Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages) & SDG- 5 (Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls).

Know! about MoSPI

• The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) is a ministry of Government of India concerned with coverage and quality aspects of statistics released. The surveys conducted by the Ministry are based on scientific sampling methods.
• The Ministry has two wings, one relating to Statistics and the other Programme Implementation. The Statistics Wing called the National Statistical Office (NSO) consists of the Central Statistical Office (CSO), the Computer center and the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO).
• The Programme Implementation Wing has three Divisions, namely, (i) Twenty Point Programme (ii) Infrastructure Monitoring and Project Monitoring and (iii) Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme.
• Besides these two wings, there is National Statistical Commission created through a Resolution of Government of India (MOSPI) and one autonomous Institute, viz., Indian Statistical Institute declared as an institute of National importance by an Act of Parliament.

• MoSPI has instituted a new award ‘Prof. P. C. Mahalanobis National Award in Official Statistics' for recognizing outstanding achievement of official statisticians in Central Government, State/UT Governments and institutions.

Education

Strengthening Teaching-Learning and Results for States Program (STARS)
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about STARS programme + about Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan) + Mains ( GS II GS II Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.)
What's the NEWS

• The World Bank announced the approval of project ‘Strengthening Teaching-Learning and Results for States Program (STARS)' for India.
• The approval includes an assistance of $500 million (around ₹3,700 crore).
• The project aims to improve the quality and governance of school education in six States.

Know! all about STARS program

• The project, Strengthening Teaching-Learning and Results for States Program (STARS ), will be implemented through the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, the flagship central scheme, in Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Rajasthan.
• STARS will help improve the learning assessment systems, strengthen classroom instruction, and remediation, facilitate school-to-work transition, and strengthen governance and decentralized management
• It will also address "the ‘learning outcome' challenge and help students better prepare for the jobs of the future
• It will give special attention to students from vulnerable sections - with over 52 per cent (as a weighted average) of children in the government-run schools in the six project States belonging to vulnerable sections
• STARS builds on the partnership between India and the World Bank since 1994 for strengthening the school education system and to support the goal of providing education to all. Before STARS, the World Bank had provided assistance of over $3 billion towards this.

Know! about Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan

• Samagra Shiksha is an overarching programme for the school education sector extending from pre-school to class 12.
• The scheme has been prepared with the broader goal of improving school effectiveness measured in terms of equal opportunities for schooling and equitable learning outcomes.
• It subsumes the three Schemes of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher Education (TE).

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