Comprehensive News Analysis - 20 March 2016

Table of Contents:

A. GS1 Related:
B. GS2 Related:

1. More Power to the vaccine arsenal

C. GS3 Related:

1. Govt. allows 49% FDI in insurance under automatic route

2. Indian delegation to visit Egypt for boosting tea exports

D. GS4 Related:
E.Important Editorials: A Quick Glance
Others:
The Indian Express

1. An emerging partner for India

2. From the lab: A uniform nano world

Business Standard

1. India aims to capture 20% market share in IoT: Nasscom

2. Small, micro firms turn to peer-to-peer lending platforms

F.Fun with Practice Questions
G.Concepts-in-News: Related Concepts to Revise/Learn:
A.Archives:

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Useful News Articles

A. GS1 Related

Nothing here for today folks!

 

B. GS2 Related

1. More Power to the vaccine arsenal

Topic: Social Justice

Category: Health

Location: The Hindu, Page 8

Key Points:

  • India has made huge strides as far as public health achievements are concerned, made possible by the use of safe and effective vaccines delivered through quality programmes

Good Figures 🙂

  • small pox eliminated in 1975
  • polio in 2014
  • maternal and neonatal tetanus (MNT) in August 2015

Four new vaccines as part of India’s Universal Immunization Programme (UIP) :

1. vaccines against rotavirus

2. rubella

3. polio (injectable)

4. an adult vaccine against Japanese encephalitis

India’s UIP will now be able to provide free vaccines against 13 life-threatening diseases to 27 million children annually, the largest birth cohort in the world.

The India Newborn Action Plan (INAP) :

  • launched in September 2014
  • Aim : reducing preventable newborn deaths and stillbirths and the goal to attain single digit neonatal mortality and stillbirth rate by 2030

Priority vaccines
1. Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine

India has the world’s highest number of deaths caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae, the bacteria most commonly associated with pneumonias

2. Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine

Cervical cancer is one of the top three cancers affecting women in the world

3. Influenza vaccine

Immunising mothers during pregnancy against vaccine-preventable diseases has the potential to improve health outcomes in mothers and their children
neonatal mortality in particular accounts for almost half of the under-five mortality

4. Cholera vaccine

Cholera remains an important cause of morbidity and mortality Though the oral vaccine is available in India, there has been limited use

Mission Indradhanush

to cover, by 2020, children who are either unvaccinated, or are partially vaccinated against

a. Diphtheria

b. Whooping cough

c. Tetanus

d. Polio

e. Tuberculosis

f. Measles

g. Hepatitis B

Drawbacks in India’s Vaccination Policies

  • Routine immunisation coverage, which stands at 65 per cent remains low
  • The immunisation schedule lacks important vaccines that are already in use in most countries

 

C. GS3 Related

1. Govt. allows 49% FDI in insurance under automatic route

Topic: Economic Development

Category: Investment

Location: The Hindu, Page 13

Key Points:

  • FDI norms relaxed for the insurance sector by permitting overseas companies to buy 49 per cent stake in domestic insurers without prior approval
  • Currently, up to 26 per cent FDI is permitted through the automatic approval route. For FDI up to 49 per cent, the approval of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board is required

What are the ways by which FDI may be received by an Indian company?

i. Automatic Route

FDI is allowed under the automatic route without prior approval either of the Government or the Reserve Bank of India in all activities/sectors as specified in the consolidated FDI Policy, issued by the Government of India from time to time.

ii. Government Route

FDI in activities not covered under the automatic route requires prior approval of the Government which are considered by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance.

Source : RBI

Note: Find out the sectors under which FDI is allowed through the automatic route.

2. Indian delegation to visit Egypt for boosting tea exports

Topic: Economic Development (Also read with International Relations)

Category: Trade

Location: The Hindu, Page 13
Key Points:

  • The turmoil in Egypt has contributed to India slipping in exports
  • African exporters like Kenya have location advantages and duty preferences which India is aiming to surmount
  • India’s exports stood at 217.67 million kg against 207.40 million kg a year ago. This is the most significant rise since 2005
  • South India is the major exporter

The countries which helped boost tea exports from India:

a.Russia

b.Iran

c. Pakistan

India’s competitors:

a.Kenya

b.Sri Lanka

  • Russia is India’s single-largest market
  • The programme called KRUCIAL include:

– Kazakhstan

– Russia

– U.S.

– China

– Iran

– Arab Republic of Egypt

– Latin America.

D. GS4 Related

Nothing here for today folks!

E. Important Editorials : A Quick Glance

Others:

1. An emerging partner for India

Topic: International Relations

Category: India-Tunisia

Location: The Hindu, Page 12

Key Points:

  • Tunisia is celebrating 60th year of its independence

India-Tunisia :

❏ Joint working groups exist in fields such as biotechnology, Science & Technology, Pharmaceuticals, Oil and Natural Gas etc.

❏ The bilateral trade has reached an average of $0.7 Billion

❏ Tunisia is set to produce 3.6 lakh tonnes of Phosphoric acid exclusively for the Indian market

❏ Phosphate is a primary component of the India fertiliser industry

❏ Tunisia’s Geographical location makes it a very attractive destination not only for investment, but also for trade and production

❏ Tunisia ranked 60th out of 189 countries in ‘The Ease of Doing Business’ Report by the World Bank

❏ Tunisia is world’s second largest exporter of Olive oil in the world

❏ Tunisia is one of the world’s largest exporter of high quality dates

Note: Read about TIFERT

2. From the lab: A uniform nano world

Topic: Science & Technology

Category: Nanotechnology

Key Points:

  • Possibilities of Nanoscience applications in diverse fields:

– health

– drug delivery

– food processing

– water purification

– Electronics, etc

  • A nanoparticle (or nanopowder or nanocluster or nanocrystal) is a microscopic particle with at least one of its dimensions less than 100 nanometres (nm)
  • The reason why nanoparticles become special, and therefore have been attracting so much scientific interest, is the fact that these materials exhibit very different properties when they are reduced to nano-sizes
  • At nano-sizes, particles also start exhibiting some quantum properties, like super-paramagnetism
  • Such special properties open up a variety of possibilities for use of known materials for novel applications
  • Scientists for long have been trying to develop methods that produce nanoparticles of a specific size, or to achieve monodispersity to use the specfic properties of the nanoparticles

 

Business Standard

1. India aims to capture 20% market share in IoT: Nasscom

Topic: Science & Technology
Category: ICT
Key Points:

  • India aims to capture 20 per cent market share in Internet of Things (IoT), an emerging sector which would be worth $300 billion by 2020
  • The IoT is driving the fourth wave of industrial revolution alerting manufacturing, energy, transportation, medical and other industrial sectors

2. Small, micro firms turn to peer-to-peer lending platforms

Topic: Economic Development
Category: Inclusive Growth
Key Points:

    • Banks are squeezing funding to micro, small and medium enterprises due to

– Prolonged slowdown in the corporate sector

– rising bad loans has forced

    • As a result these small businesses are increasingly turning to online platforms to raise funds
    • These online portals works in the space of peer-to-peer lending (P2PL) arrangements
    • It allows an individual to lend money to other unrelated individuals without assistance from any financial intermediary
    • As per the Reserve Bank of India data, credit to small industries between January 23, 2015-January 22, 2016 grew at 2.4% as compared to 12.7% a year ago
    • According to RBI guidelines, micro and small enterprises are those in which the loan size is up to Rs 5 crore
    • E-commerce has been a big driver

– this is because new players are scouting for funds

– several small entrepreneurs are getting to sell their products online which in turn are leading to an increased demand for capital

  • Currently, it does not come under the ambit of the banking regulator
  • Several online portals have sprung up in India to facilitate such lending and some have also secured private funding from investors, but it is still at a nascent stage compared with countries such as the US and China

 

F.Fun with Practice Questions

Nothing here for today folks!

G. Concepts-in-News: Related Concepts to Revise/Learn:

I. TIFERT

II. VACCINATION

III. FDI

IV. Tea Board of India

V. Nanotechnology

VI. MSME sector of India

VII. Internet of Things

IAS General Studies Notes Links
Founder Of Jainism Reformation (1517-1648)
Article 32 Jagadish Chandra Bose
UPSC Optional Subjects Chandrasekhar Azad
NCERT Political Science Class 11 For UPSC Littoral Meaning
Gef First Woman Speaker Of Lok Sabha

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