Nov 19th 2015-Current Affairs

>>World is celebrating World Toilet Day(WTD) on 19^th November.

World Toilet Day (WTD) is a campaign to motivate and mobilize millions around the world on issues of sanitation. Originally established by the World Toilet Organization in 2001, this day to draw attention to global sanitation issues is marked each year on November 19. Since 2001, World Toilet Day has grown in scope and recognition by global partners. In 2013, the United Nations (UN) passed a resolution recognizing WTD as an official UN international day.

>> On 18th November 2015, Justice Tirath Singh Thakur was appointed as the Chief Justice of India by the President of India Pranab Mukherjee.

>> World Health Organization (WHO) launched the World Antibiotic Awareness Week today.

The objective of the first World Antibiotics Awareness Week (16 Nov. to 22 Nov. 2015) is to promote and encourage best practices among health workers, physicians, general public, agriculture sector and policy makers so that the further spread of antibiotic resistance is kept in check.

The theme of the multi-year campaign launched by the WHO during the first antibiotics awareness week is “Antibiotics: Handle with care.” As the name suggests, the aim of the campaign is to promote wise use of antibiotics among people.

Misuse or unnecessary use of antibiotics could make bacteria resistant to it, a phenomenon called antimicrobial resistance. Sometimes, antibiotic resistance leads to deadly infections that are hard to treat. It is one of the main reasons behind an increased number of hospital-acquired infections and multi-drug resistant bacteria.

>> 50 of the 75 Uttar Pradesh districts have been declared drought-hit.

The revenue collections in the affected districts would remain suspended till March 31, 2016.

The decision was taken by chief minister Akhilesh Yadav after assessing detailed district-wise report of the drought situation.

Among the districts declared drought-hit are Faizabad, Jhansi, Sant Ravidasnagar, Lucknow, Allahabad, Mirzapur, Ballia and Ghaziabad.

>>The government approved the setting up of a first of its kind National Resource Facility for Bio-medical Research (NARF) for breeding animals required for research and development of various products.

A meeting of the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, endorsed the proposal mooted by Department of Health Research under the Union Health Ministry.

The facility will be set up at Genome Valley in Hyderabad by Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) at an estimated cost of Rs 338.58 crore. The resource centre is expected to be functional by 2018-19.

"The institution will be the first of its kind for quality laboratory animals for basic and applied biomedical research in the country.

"The facility will be developed as a world-class facility for breeding and housing of animals such as primates and transgenic and knockout rodents required for testing of various R&D products,".

The facility will create, develop and provide access to a range of laboratory animals and related technological resources for advancement of biomedical research in the country to facilitate research in medical colleges, research and academic institutions, universities and biotech/bio-pharma companies.

The state government has allotted 102.69 acres of land at Genome Valley in Hyderabad free of cost to ICMR to set up NARF. PTI TDS SC

>>Senior diplomat Vijay Keshav Gokhale, currently the country’s Ambassador to Germany, has been appointed as the Ambassador to China to replace Ashok Kantha, whose term will end in early January.

A 1981 batch IFS officer, Mr. Gokhale is expected to take up the assignment shortly, External Affairs Ministry announced on Wednesday.

He would replace Mr. Kantha, who was appointed as envoy to China in January 2014 for a two-year term.

>>Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) on 17 November 2015 released Global Terrorism Index 2015.

It is a comprehensive summary of the impact of terrorism in 162 countries (covering 99 percent of the world’s population) in terms of lives lost, injuries, property damage and number of incidents.

As per the report, deaths from terrorism increased 80 percent in 2014 to the highest level ever and global economic cost of terrorism reached all-time high at 52.9 US billion dollars.

Out of the 162 countries, India was the sixth most affected by terrorism in 2014. Compared to 2014, India witnessed a slight increase in terror-related deaths to reach a total of 416. It was the highest number of terrorist incidents and deaths since 2010.

Highlights of Global Terrorism Index 2015

• The top 5 countries that were worst effected by terrorism in 2014-Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan and Syria.

• The least affected countries in 2014-Japan, Malawi, Togo, Zambia among others.

• 32658 people were killed by terrorism in 2014 compared to 18,111 in 2013- the largest increase ever recorded.

• Boko Haram and ISIL were jointly responsible for 51 percent of all claimed global fatalities in 2014.

• Countries suffering over 500 deaths increased by 120 percent to 11 countries.

• 78 percent of all deaths and 57 percent of all attacks occurred in just five countries-Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan and Syria.

• Iraq continues to be the country most impacted by terrorism with 9929 terrorist fatalities the highest ever recorded in a single country.

• Nigeria experienced the largest increase in terrorist activity with 7512 deaths in 2014, an increase of over 300 percent since 2013.

About Global Terrorism Index

• First Global Terrorism Index (GTI) was launched by the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP) in 2012.

• It ranks countries by the impact of terrorist activities as well as analysing the economic and social dimensions associated with terrorism.

• It investigates the patterns of terrorism by geographic activity, methods of attack, organisations involved and the national economic and political context.

• The GTI 2015 edition includes further analysis on the drivers of terrorism, the impact of terrorism in the areas international jihadist groups have labelled as the West, as well as estimates of the economic costs of terrorism.

• It will be officially launched on 7 December 2015 in New York, the USA.

>>Y. Bhaskar Rao, Lokayukta of Karnataka, became 1st Lokayukta of India to be removed by Assembly for an alleged extortion racket. 

His son Ashwin Rao was also arrested earlier in related with this incident.

>>Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar on 18 November 2015 announced formation of Indian Resource Panel (InRP) on Resource Efficiency.

 India is the first country to constitute a National Resource Panel.

. The InRP was formed with an aim to promote sustainable development of the country by utilising secondary resources to meet developmental needs.

 The four of the 10 members of the InRP are former environment secretaries and they are Viswanath N Anand, RH Khwaja, Tishyarakshit Chatterjee and Prodipto Ghosh. Other six members are Ashok Khosla from Development Alternatives, Director-General of Bureau of Energy Efficiency Ajay Mathur, Ravi Agarwal of Toxics Link; CSE Director-General Sunita Narain, Seema Arora from CII and Prasad Modak of Environmental Management Centre.

 Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) will partner with relevant ministries of the Union Government, private and public enterprises for creation of a facilitative environment for recycling to promote sustainability and decouple growth from environment degradation.

>>The Delhi Cabinet headed by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on 18 November 2015 approved the Delhi Jan Lokpal Bill, 2015.

The Bill envisages the establishment of an independent authority to investigate offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. It also covers the Chief Minister’s Office.

The bill drafted by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy CM Manish Sisodia largely resembles the provisions contained in Uttarakhand Lokayukta Bill, 2011.

>>India, Brazil and South Africa are set to sign an agreement on IBSA fund for alleviation of poverty and hunger. 

The Union Cabinet approved the signing of the tripartite agreement among the three IBSA countries. 

The IBSA countries contribute USD one million each annually to the Fund, which till January 2015 has accumulated to USD 28.2 million, with total implemented/approved projects commitment of USD 26.2 million, and remaining USD 2.09 million available for programming. 

India on its part has contributed USD 9.1 million so far to the IBSA Fund. 

The IBSA Fund for the alleviation of poverty and hunger was set up in 2004 as one of the three pillars of cooperation under the IBSA dialogue forum. The other two pillars are consultation and coordination on global political issues and trilateral collaboration in concrete areas and projects. 

The IBSA Fund undertakes development projects in third countries. The first project to be financed by the IBSA Fund was in support of agriculture and livestock development. The IBSA Fund was conferred the South-South Partnership Award at the 2006 UN Day event held in New York in December 2006.

            >>China's Tianhe-2 supercomputer has maintained its position as the world's               most powerful system or the sixth consecutive time, according to a                               biannual Top 500 list of supercomputers.

           Tianhe-2 or Milky Way 2, with a performance of 33.86 petaflops per second (Pflop/s),            was developed by China's National University of Defence Technology and deployed              at the National Supercomputer Center in Guangzhou.

           It has held the title since June 2013.