Lingaraja Temple

• Lingaraja Temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva and is one of the oldest temples in Bhubaneswar.

• The Lingaraja temple is the largest temple in Bhubaneswar.
• The temple represents the quintessence of Kalinga architecture.
• The temple is believed to be built by the kings of the Somavamsi dynasty, with later additions from the Ganga rulers.
• Lingaraj is referred to as ‘Swayambhu” – self-originated Shivling.
• Another important aspect of the temple is that it signifies the synchronisation of Shaivism and Vaishnavism sects in Odisha.
• Perhaps the rising cult of Lord Jagannath (considered an incarnation of Lord Vishnu) which coincided with the completion of the Lingaraja Temple had a role to play.
• The presiding deity in the Temple is known as Hari-Hara; Hari denotes Lord Vishnu and Hara meaning Lord Shiva.
• The temple is out of bounds for non-Hindus.
• The other attraction of the temple is the Bindusagar Lake, located in the north side of the temple.
• On the western banks of Bindusagar, lies the garden of Ekamra Van named after the Hindu mythological texts where Bhubaneswar the capital city of Odisha was referred as Ekamra Van or a forest of a single mango tree.

Components of Lingaraj temple

• The temple is built in the Deula style that has four components namely, vimana (structure containing the sanctum), jagamohana (assembly hall), Nata Mandira (festival hall) and bhoga-mandapa (hall of offerings), each increasing in the height to its predecessor.

Lunar Polar Exploration mission (LUPEX)

• The Lunar Polar Exploration mission (LUPEX) is a robotic lunar mission concept by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) that would send a lunar rover and lander to explore the south pole region of the Moon in 2024.
• JAXA is likely to provide the under-development H3 launch vehicle and the rover, while ISRO would be responsible for the lander.
• The mission concept has not yet been formally proposed for funding and planning
• The Lunar Polar Exploration mission would demonstrate new surface exploration technologies related to vehicular transport and lunar night survival for sustainable lunar exploration in polar regions.
• For precision landing, it would utilize a feature matching algorithm and navigational equipment derived from JAXA's Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) mission.

Details of Rover and lander

• The lander's payload capacity would be 350 kg (770 lb) at a minimum.
• The rover would carry multiple instruments by JAXA and ISRO including a drill to collect sub-surface samples from 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) depth.
• Water prospecting and analysis are likely to be mission objectives.

Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Nidhi

The Union Cabinet approves the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Nidhi (PMSSN).

About Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Nidhi(PMSSN):

• This program will ensure access to universal & affordable health care through a fund that does not lapse at the end of the financial year.

Features:

• It has been set up as a single non-lapsable reserve fund for a share of Health.
• It will be made from the share of health in the proceeds of Health and Education Cess.
• The fund will be administered and maintained by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare
• Finance Minister announced the 4% Health and Education Cess during the Budget 2018-19.
• It replaced the existing 3% Education Cess.

How will the fund be utilised?

• The fund will be utilized for the following flagship schemes of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare:
  • Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY)
  • Ayushman Bharat – Health and Wellness Centres (AB-HWCs)
  • National Health Mission
  • Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY)
  • Emergency & disaster preparedness and responses during health emergencies
  • Any future programme/scheme that targets to achieve progress towards SDGs and the targets set out in the National Health Policy (NHP) 2017.

Ayushman Bharat–PM Jan Arogya Yojana

• Ayushman Bharat - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme having a central sector component under the Ayushman Bharat Mission anchored in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).
• It is an umbrella of two major health initiatives, namely Health and wellness Centres and National Health Protection Scheme.

National Health Protection Mission (AB-PMJAY)

• AB-PMJAY provides a defined benefit cover of Rs. 5 lakh per family per year.
• This cover will take care of almost all secondary care and most of the tertiary care procedures.
• To ensure that nobody is left out (especially women, children and the elderly) there will be no cap on family size and age in the scheme.
• The benefit cover will also include pre and post-hospitalisation expenses.
• All pre-existing conditions will be covered from day one of the policy.
• A defined transport allowance per hospitalization will also be paid to the beneficiary.
• Benefits of the scheme are portable across the country and a beneficiary covered under the scheme will be allowed to take cashless benefits from any public/private empanelled hospitals across the country.
• All public hospitals in the States implementing AB-PMJAY, will be deemed empanelled for the Scheme.
• As for private hospitals, they will be empanelled online based on defined criteria.
• States/ UTs will have the flexibility to modify these rates within a limited bandwidth.

Key components of AB-HWC:

• A new cadre of health care professionals- referred to as the Mid-Level Health Provider- who is a nurse or an Ayurvedic Practitioner trained and accredited for a set of competencies related to primary health care and public health.
• Mid-Level Health Provider will lead the team of MPWs and ASHAs at SHC level
• Multiskilling/ Training of existing service providers - upgrading skills to provide an expanded package of services
• Efficient logistics system to ensure availability of a wide range of drugs and point-of-care diagnostics.
• Robust IT system to create unique health id and longitudinal health record of all individuals and provision of teleconsultation services
• Provision of services related to the indigenous health system and yoga etc for promotion of wellness
• Linkages with schools to train Health and Wellness Ambassadors to enable creating healthy habits in schools

The package of services envisaged at AB-HWC are:

• Care in pregnancy and childbirth.
• Neonatal and infant health care services
• Childhood and adolescent health care services
• Family planning, Contraceptive services and other Reproductive Health Care services
• Management of Communicable diseases including National Health Programmes
• Outpatient care for acute simple illness and minor ailments.
• Screening, Prevention, Control and Management of non-communicable diseases.
• Care for Common Ophthalmic and ENT problems
• Basic Oral health care
• Elderly and palliative health care services
• Emergency Medical Services
• Screening and Basic management of Mental health ailments

Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana

• The Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) aims at correcting the imbalances in the availability of affordable healthcare facilities in the different parts of the country.
• The first phase in the PMSSY has two components - the setting up of six institutions in the line of AIIMS.

National Health Mission

• National Health Mission (NHM) was launched by the government of India in 2013 subsuming the National Rural Health Mission and the National Urban Health Mission.
• The main programmatic components include Health System Strengthening in rural and urban areas.
  • (RMNCH+A), and Communicable and Non-Communicable Diseases.
• The National Health Mission seeks to ensure the achievement of the following indicators:
  • Reduce MMR to 1/1000 live births
  • Reduce IMR to 25/1000 live births
  • Reduce TFR to 2.1
  • Prevention and reduction of anaemia in women aged 15–49 years
  • Prevent and reduce mortality & morbidity from communicable, non-communicable; injuries and emerging diseases
  • Reduce household out-of-pocket expenditure on total health care expenditure
  • Reduce annual incidence and mortality from Tuberculosis by half
  • Reduce the prevalence of Leprosy to <1/10000 population and incidence to zero in all districts
  • Annual Malaria Incidence to be <1/1000
  • Less than 1 per cent microfilaria prevalence in all districts
  • Kala-azar Elimination by 2015, <1 case per 10000 population in all blocks

National Health Policy -2017

Objectives

• Improve health status through concerted policy action in all sectors and expand preventive, promotive, curative, palliative and rehabilitative services provided through the public health sector with a focus on quality.
• Increase Life Expectancy at birth from 67.5 to 70 by 2025.
• Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALY) Index as a measure of the burden of disease and its trends by major categories by 2022.
• Reduction of TFR to 2.1 at the national and sub-national level by 2025.
• Reduce Under Five Mortality to 23 by 2025 and MMR from current levels to 100 by 2020.
• Reduce infant mortality rate to 28 by 2019.
• Reduce neonatal mortality to 16 and the stillbirth rate to “single-digit” by 2025.
• Achieve the global target of 2020 which is also termed as the target of 90:90:90, for HIV/AIDS i. e,- 90% of all people living with HIV know their HIV status, – 90% of all people diagnosed with HIV infection receive sustained antiretroviral therapy and 90% of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy will have viral suppression.
• To achieve and maintain a cure rate of >85% in new sputum-positive patients for TB and reduce the incidence of new cases, to reach elimination status by 2025.
• To reduce the prevalence of blindness to 0.25/ 1000 by 2025 and disease burden by 1/3 from current levels.
• To reduce premature mortality from cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes or chronic respiratory diseases by 25% by 2025.
• Increase utilization of public health facilities by 50% from current levels by 2025.
• Antenatal care coverage to be sustained above 90% and skilled attendance at birth above 90% by 2025.
• More than 90% of newborn are fully immunized by one year of age by 2025.
• Meet the need for family planning above 90% at the national and sub-national levels by 2025.
• The relative reduction in the prevalence of current tobacco use by 15% by 2020 and 30% by 2025.
• Reduction of 40% in the prevalence of stunting of under-five children by 2025.
• Reduction of occupational injury by half from current levels of 334 per lakh agricultural workers by 2020.
• Increase health expenditure by Government as a percentage of GDP from the existing 1.15% to 2.5 % by 2025.
• Increase state sector health spending to > 8% of their budget by 2020.
• Ensure availability of paramedics and doctors as per the Indian Public Health Standard (IPHS) norm in high-priority districts by 2020.
• Increase community health volunteers to population ratio as per IPHS norm, in high priority districts by 2025.
• Establish primary and secondary care facilities as per norms in high-priority districts (population as well as time to reach norms) by 2025.
• Ensure the district-level electronic database of information on health system components by 2020.
• Establish federated integrated health information architecture, Health Information Exchanges and National Health Information Network by 2025.

Green Bonds

• India has announced its intention to achieve all the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) by 2030.
• The first green bond was issued in 2015.
• This is an alternative to the Kuznets hypothesis that is used by developed countries to achieve SDG goals
• A green bond is a fixed-income instrument designed specifically to support specific climate-related or environmental projects.

The green bond market in India includes:

• Corporates issue green bonds for a period of 3-5 years. Banks opt for a longer tenure.
• The US dollar and Indian Rupee are two preferred currencies.
• The National Thermal Power Corporation and the International Finance Corporation started the overseas ‘Masala Bond’ market.

Environmental Kuznets Curve:

As per the Environmental Kuznets Curve, the environment of a country degrades in the initial stages of industrial growth.

• After a certain level of economic growth, the society begins to improve its relationship with the environment and levels of environmental degradation reduces.
• The pollution reduces with greater protection of the environment, technological improvements, diversification of the economy from manufacturing to services, and increasing scarcity and prices of environmental resources.

What is a Bond?

• A Bond is a fixed income instrument that represents a loan made by an investor to a borrower.
• It acts as a contract between the investor and the borrower.
• Most companies and governments issue bonds and investors buy those bonds as a savings and security option.
• These bonds have a maturity date and when once that is attained, the issuing company needs to pay back the amount to the investor along with a part of the profit.

Dumping Inert Waste in Bhatti Mines

SDMC is seeking permission to dump material in 3 former mining pits in the sanctuary and one outside it.

Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary

• It is located on the Southern Ridge of Aravalli Hills, one of the oldest mountain systems in the world.
• It is part of the Northern Aravalli leopard wildlife corridor.
• It is the green lung & carbon sink for New Delhi.
• It provides a potential shelterbelt for arresting the shifting of sand dunes & protecting from desert storms.
• As it is located on the Delhi-Haryana border, both governments had defined certain areas around the forests as Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ).

Miyawaki Technique

In a year, a patch of land in Mumbai’s eastern suburbs has become a testament to creating the “urban forests” through the Miyawaki technique.

• Miyawaki is an afforestation technique to create urban forests based on the work of Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki in the 1980s.
• Miyawaki forests are tiny forests grown on small plots of land in 2 to 3 years and are self-sustaining, like how a forest is.
• Three layers of greens - shrubs and undergrowth, medium-height trees and taller canopies - are integral components of the Miyawaki forests.
• Before plantation, local agro-climatic conditions are studied.
• Mulching, natural water retention and perforation material like rice husk and the use of organic compost, cow dung support their growth.

IDBI Bank out of Prompt Corrective Action Framework

Reserve Bank of India(RBI) has taken out IDBI Bank from the prompt corrective action(PCA) framework subject to certain conditions.

Prompt corrective action Framework:

• Banks with weak financial metrics are put under the PCA framework by the Reserve Bank of India
• It aims to check the problem of Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) in the Indian banking sector.

When was the PCA framework introduced?

• The RBI introduced the PCA framework in 2002.
• It is a structured early-intervention mechanism for banks that become undercapitalised due to poor asset quality, or vulnerable due to loss of profitability.

When does RBI invoke PCA?

• The PCA framework is invoked when banks breach any of the 3 key regulatory triggers
  • Capital to risk-weighted assets ratio
  • Net non-performing assets(NPA) and
  • Return on assets(RoA).

What are the restrictions on Banks when PCA is invoked?

• There are two types of restrictions:
  • Mandatory Restrictions: It includes:
    • Restrictions on Dividends
    • Restrictions on Branch expansion
    • Restrictions on Management compensation among others
    • Discretionary Restrictions: It includes
      • Curbs on lending and deposits.
      • Recommending the bank owner to bring new management and board among others.

Stand Up India Scheme

The government has informed the Lok Sabha that 81% of the accounts under the Stand Up India Scheme belong to women entrepreneurs.

Stand Up India Scheme:

• Launched in 2016 by the Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance.
• The Stand-Up India Scheme facilitates bank loans for setting up a new enterprise in manufacturing, services, agri-allied activities, or the trading sector by SC/ST/Women entrepreneurs.
• It provides bank loans between Rs 10 lakh and up to 1 crore.
• The government does not allocate funds for loans under the Scheme.
• They are extended by Scheduled Commercial Banks(SCBs).

Eligibility:

• SC/ST and/or woman entrepreneurs above 18 years of age.
• Loans under the scheme are available only for greenfield projects.
• Greenfield signifies the first-time venture of the beneficiary in the manufacturing, services, agri-allied activities or trading sector.
• In the case of non-individual enterprises, 51% of the shareholding and controlling stake should be held by either SC/ST and/or Women Entrepreneur.
• Borrowers should not be in default to any bank/financial institution.
• The loan is repayable in 7 years with a maximum moratorium period of 18 months.
• The Stand-Up India Scheme has been extended up to the year 2025

India Not Part of Troika-plus-Pakistan Conference

Russia has planned to hold a Troika-plus-Pakistan conference on Afghanistan in Moscow, Russia.

About the Troika-plus-Pakistan Conference:

• Troika-plus-Pakistan meeting involves consultations between the US, Russia, China, Pakistan along with the representatives of the Afghanistan government, Taliban, and other senior Afghan leaders.
• The meeting is expected to discuss ways to assist in advancing the intra-Afghan talks in Doha.
• It aims to reduce the level of violence and to end the armed conflict in Afghanistan.

Why was India excluded from the conference?

• Troika process is an already established mechanism.
• There was no deliberate attempt to leave India out of the proposed talks on Afghanistan.

Doha Peace Accord:

• Taliban has made a commitment to not allow terrorists to use Afghan territory to mount attacks on the US and its allies.
• The US has made an agreement to pull out troops.
• But this is only if the Taliban agrees to a permanent ceasefire.
• Russia's strategy included regional players such as Iran, China and several Central Asian states.