COVID-19 and Zoonotic diseases

Part of: GS-III- Health (PT-MAINS-PERSONALITY TEST)

It is found that the coronavirus outbreak certainly comes from the animal world. However, it is said that humans are to be blamed for the pandemic.

Concerns:

• “The emergence of zoonotic diseases is often associated with environmental changes or ecological disturbances, such as agricultural intensification and human settlement, or encroachments into forests and other habitats,” says a UNEP report.
  • According to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), 60% of human infectious diseases originate from animals.
  • This figure climbs to 75% for “emerging” diseases such as Ebola, HIV, avian flu, Zika, or SARS, another type of coronavirus. The list goes on.
• It is human activity that enabled the virus to jump to people, and specialists are warning that if nothing changes, many other pandemics of this nature will follow.
• A key area of concern is deforestation to make way for agriculture and intensive livestock farming.
• In terms of endangered wildlife, a study by American researchers shows that those who share the most viruses with humans are precisely populations declining due to exploitation and loss of habitat.

Note:

• The name given to diseases transmitted from animals to humans is zoonoses, based on the Greek words for “animal” and “sickness”.
• Tuberculosis, rabies, toxoplasmosis, malaria, are all zoonoses.

For COVID-19: https://www.aspireias.com/current-affairs/RRB-and-COVID-19/26-03-2020

Zoonoses or Zoonotic diseases are infectious diseases that can naturally be transmitted/spread between animals (usually vertebrates) and humans. These diseases can be caused by viruses, fungi, parasites, and bacteria.

What are Zoonotic Diseases?

Zoonosis refers to the transmission of diseases between animals and humans. Such diseases are termed as Zoonotic Diseases. Zoonotic diseases range from mild to severe, while in extreme cases can even be fatal.

• Zoonoses may be bacterial, viral, or parasitic, or may even involve unconventional agents for the transmission of the disease.
• WHO in 1959 defined Zoonoses as “those diseases and infections which are naturally transmitted between vertebrate animals and man.”
• The World Zoonoses Day is observed every year on July 6 to create awareness on zoonotic diseases, how to prevent them and what actions to take when exposed.

Classification of Zoonotic diseases

The classification of diseases is usually done on the basis of the pathogen causing the disease. With the advancement in science, scientists and medical professionals have been able to identify and study in detail the etiological agents causing the diseases. Etiological agents usually refer to the causative agent of a diseased condition. The zoonoses are classified on the basis of three factors:

1. According to the etiological agents
2. According to the mode of transmission
3. According to the reservoir host

• According to the etiological agents- there is a further classification under this as:
  • Bacterial zoonoses: e.g. anthrax
  • Viral zoonoses: e.g. rabies
  • Rickettsial zoonoses: e.g. Q-fever
  • Protozoal zoonoses: e.g. toxoplasmosis
  • Helminthic zoonoses: e.g. echinococcosis
  • Fungal zoonoses: e.g. cryptococcosis
  • Ectoparasites: e.g. scabies
• According to the reservoir host: A reservoir is usually a living host of a certain species, such as an animal or a plant, inside of which a pathogen survives, often (though not always) without causing disease for the reservoir itself. A cascading effect is caused by the extinction of a species, leading to an increase in the population of the reservoir species.
  • Anthropozoonoses– Infections transmitted to men from lower vertebrate animals e.g. rabies.
• • Zooanthroponoses- Infections transmitted from man to lower vertebrate animals e.g.diphtheria
  • Amphixenoses- Infections maintained in both man and lower vertebrate animals and transmitted in either direction e.g. salmonellosis

Transmission of Zoonotic Diseases

Zoonotic diseases are transmitted through various means. The chances of diseases getting transmitted increase due to the expansion of transition zones between adjacent ecosystems when forests are cleared off for agricultural purposes. This is because the environment is overlapped for wild and domesticated animals. Some of the most common ways of transmission of the diseases are:

• Direct zoonoses-These are transmitted from an infected vertebrate host to a susceptible host (man) by direct contact, by contact with a fomite or by a mechanical vector. E.g. Rabies

• Cyclozoonoses– These require more than one vertebrate host species, but no invertebrate host for the completion of the life cycle of the agent. E.g. echinococcosis.

• Metazoonosis- These are transmitted biologically by invertebrate vectors, in which the agent multiplies and/or develops and there is always an extrinsic incubation (prepatent) period before transmission to another vertebrate host. E.g. plague
• Saprozoonosis- These require a vertebrate host and a non-animal developmental site like soil, and plant for the development of the infectious agent e.g. cryptococcosis

Note:

• Pathogens are the organisms responsible for causing the disease. These are of five main types: viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and worms.
• Vectors are organisms that do not cause the disease in itself but spread infection by conveying pathogens from one host to another. E.g. bats in the case of NIPAH virus and mosquitoes in the case of Malaria.

Causes of Zoonotic Diseases

The zoonotic diseases can be transmitted from animals to humans in multiple ways, most often, people with a weakened immune system are at risk. A few of the factors responsible for causing zoonotic diseases are:

• Deforestation could be the primary reason as it increases the contact between humans and wild animals.
• Through direct contact with bodily fluids such as blood, saliva, etc. of an infected animal or human.
• The disease can also be transmitted through the intake of infected or contaminated food.
• Global climate change, the overuse of antimicrobials in medicine, and more intensified farm settings can also contribute to the spread of Zoonotic diseases.

Covid-19 and Economic shocks

Part of: GS-III- Economy (PT-MAINS-PERSONALITY TEST)

Steep fall in crude oil prices. Recently, May futures for the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) U.S. crude has plunged below zero and Brent crude futures have also witnessed a steep decline. A negative price implies that a seller would have to pay the buyer to hold the oil to be supplied.

Causes:

• The unprecedented plunge in the particular futures contract could be partly as a technical anomaly given the way future contracts work.
• However, there has also been a constant and steep fall in the oil prices.
  • The price war between the key producers Saudi Arabia and Russia saw them ramp up output which has caused a supply glut.
  • The demand has continued to contract on account of the COVID-19 outbreak. The lockdown has destroyed demand on an unprecedented scale. The international energy agency has observed that the confinement measures instituted worldwide have resulted in a dramatic decline in transportation activity which is a major demand sector for oil.
• The storage facility for crude on land or offshore in supertankers is nearing capacity or becoming prohibitively expensive.

Indian scenario:

Positives:

• India has been using the sharp fall in both crude prices to accelerate the build-up of its strategic reserve.
• The sliding oil prices would help significantly reduce India’s energy import bill and hence contain the current account deficit.

Challenges:

• The protracted demand drought for oil would end up hurting the government’s tax revenues severely, especially at a time when it badly needs financial resources in its fight against COVID-19.
• The low oil prices would damage the economies of producer countries including those in West Asia. This, apart from hurting inward remittances for India, could also lead to a reverse migration to India.

Way forward:

• Oil producers will have to consider considerably curtailing output.
• After the lockdown, the Central Government of India ought to consider using the low prices opportunity to cut retail fuel prices sharply by foregoing some excise revenue for a while in order to incentivize momentum into the wider economy.

Jio partnership with Facebook

In a major boost to Reliance Jio, social media giant Facebook is investing $5.7 billion (Rs 43,574) in it, making Facebook its largest minority shareholder. The deal has been announced this morning, with Jio putting out a media note and Facebook talking about it on its official blog post.

Jio said that the Facebook investment that it is receiving is the “largest investment for a minority stake by a technology company anywhere in the world and the largest FDI in the technology sector in India.

• Facebook is investing $5.7 billion (Rs 43,574 crore) in Jio platforms.
• The investment gives Facebook 9.99 percent share in Jio.
• The investment also means that Jio is right now valued at around $65.95 billion.

Reasons for the partnership :

• The primary motivation for Facebook seems to be JioMart. Keeping the huge user base in mind, Facebook wants to bring small Jio’s small business platform JioMart -- to its messaging app-WhatsApp.
• The payments ecosystem in India includes Alibaba-backed Paytm, Walmart-owned-PhonePe as well as global players such as WhatsApp Payment, Google Pay, and Amazon Pay. These platforms are leveraging the highly engaged user base to drive the payments business
• Whatsapp had run into problems when the Indian government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) expressed concerns over some of WhatsApp's features. Now between Facebook and Jio, they will own a large chunk of the hyperlocal, eCommerce, payments, telco provider and advertising ecosystem.
• Jio now eyes 60 million small businesses across the country which are the fabric of the unorganised retail economy. With communities around the world in lockdown, many of these entrepreneurs need digital tools they can use to find and communicate with customers to grow their businesses.
• The clear gap that the likes of Facebook and Google faced with their Marketplace or Neighbourly models was the offline connection and Jio-Reliance Retail presence offers that scale

Integrated Child Development Service (ICDS)

The Integrated Child Development Service (ICDS) Scheme providing for supplementary nutrition, immunization and pre-school education to the children is a popular flagship programme of the government. Launched in 1975, it is one of the world’s largest programmes providing for an integrated package of services for the holistic development of the child. ICDS is a centrally sponsored scheme implemented by state governments and union territories. The scheme is universal covering all the districts of the country.

The Scheme has been renamed as Anganwadi Services.

Objectives

• To improve the nutritional and health status of children in the age-group 0-6 years;
• To lay the foundation for proper psychological, physical and social development of the child;
• To reduce the incidence of mortality, morbidity, malnutrition and school dropout;
• To achieve effective co-ordination of policy and implementation amongst the various departments to promote child development; and
• To enhance the capability of the mother to look after the normal health and nutritional needs of the child through proper nutrition and health education.

Beneficiaries

1. Children in the age group of 0-6 years
2. Pregnant women and
3. Lactating mothers

Services under ICDS

The ICDS Scheme offers a package of six services, viz.

1. Supplementary Nutrition
2. Pre-school non-formal education
3. Nutrition & health education
4. Immunization
5. Health check-up and
6. Referral services

Three of the six services viz. immunization, health check-up and referral services are related to health and are provided through National Health Mission and Public Health Infrastructure. The services are offered at Anganwadi Centres through Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) and Anganwadi Helpers (AWHS) at grassroots level.

All components of ICDS except Supplementary Nutrition Programme (SNP) are financed through a 60:40 ratio (central : state). The Supplementary Nutrition Programme (SNP) component was funded through a 50:50 ratio. The North East states have a 90:10 ratio.

Under SNP, beneficiaries are given hot meals along with take-home rations. For children, the quantum of rations and meals received depends on their malnutrition levels. SNP is provided for 300 days at the rate of Rs 8 per day for children and Rs 9.50 per day for pregnant and lactating mothers. Severely malnourished children are allocated Rs 12 per day. Adolescent Girls (11-14 years out of school) are allocated Rs 9.50 per day.

ICDS Systems Strengthening and Nutrition Improvement Project (ISSNIP)

The overall goal of the project is to improve nutritional and early childhood development outcomes of children in India. Key objectives of Phase 1 are to support the GoI and the selected States to strengthen the ICDS policy framework, systems and capacities, and facilitate community engagement, to ensure greater focus on children under three years of age in the project districts; and strengthen convergent actions for improved nutrition outcomes in the stipulated districts.

The project will be implemented in identified 162 districts having higher proportion of child under - nutrition across eight States, viz. Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh . Besides, urban pilots will be undertaken in and around NCR of Delhi and convergent nutrition actions pilots in some selected districts in two non - project States viz., Odisha and Uttarakhand.

ANGANWADI

• Anganwadi is a type of rural mother and child care centre in India.

• They were started by the Indian government in 1975 as part of the Integrated Child Development Services program to combat child hunger and malnutrition.

• A typical Anganwadi centre provides basic health care in Indian villages.

• It is a part of the Indian public health care system. Basic health care activities include contraceptive counseling and supply, nutrition education and supplementation, as well as pre-school activities.

• The centres may be used as depots for oral rehydration salts, basic medicines and contraceptives.

Anganwadi Worker responsibilities:

• The Ministry of Women and Child Development has laid down guidelines for the responsibilities of Anganwadi workers (AWW).

These include:

1. Showing community support and active participation in executing this programme.

2. To conduct regular quick surveys of all families.

3. Organize pre-school activities.

4. Provide health and nutrition education to families especially pregnant women on how to breastfeed, etc.

5. Motivating families to adopt family planning.

6. Educating parents about child growth and development.

7. Assist in the implementation and execution of Kishori Shakti Yojana (KSY) to educate teenage girls and parents by organizing social awareness programmes etc.

8. Identify disabilities in children, and so on.

Anganwadi Worker functions:

• They need to provide care for newborn babies and ensure that all children below the age of 6 are immunized.

• They are expected to provide antenatal care for pregnant women and ensuring that they are immunized against tetanus. In addition to this they provide post-natal care to nursing mothers.

• Since they primarily focus on poor and malnourished groups, they provide supplementary nutrition to children below the age of 6 and nursing and pregnant women.

• They ensure that regular health and medical check-ups for women 15- to 49-years-old take place and that all women and children have access to these check-ups.

• They work toward providing pre-school education to children who are between 3 and 5 years old.

• Anganwadi Worker (AWW) guides ASHA in performing activities such as organising Health Day once/twice a month at Anganwadi Centre and orientating women on health related issues such as importance of nutritious food, personal hygiene, care during pregnancy, importance of immunisation etc. Anganwadi worker is a depot holder for drug kits and will be issuing it to ASHA.

Supervision:

• Every 40 to 65 Anganwadi workers are supervised by one Mukhya Sevika. They provide on-the-job training.

• In addition to performing the responsibilities with the Anganwadi workers, they have other duties such as:

1. Keeping track of who are benefiting from the programme from low economic status — specifically those who belong to the malnourished category.

2. Guide the Anganwadi workers in assessing the age and weight of children and how to plot their weights.

3. Demonstrate effective methods, for example, in providing health and nutrition education to mothers.

4. Maintain statistics of Anganwadis and the workers to determine what can be improved.

• The Mukhya Sevika then reports to the Child development Projects Officer (CDPO).

Earth Day

• Every year on April 22nd we celebrate Earth Day. The Earth day is conducted in more than 192 countries around the world. The Earth Day is expected to display backing for conserving the environment.
• UNESCO Conference held in 1969 recommended selecting March 21st, 1970 as the first Earth Day. The United States chose to celebrate a separate Earth Day on April 22nd annually. Later this date became the internationally accepted Earth Day in 1990. There are also several communities that backing environmental issues by celebrating Earth Week.
• The first Earth Day in 1970 launched a wave of action, including the passage of landmark environmental laws in the United States. The Clean Air, Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts were created in response to the first Earth Day in 1970, as well as the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Many countries soon adopted similar laws.
• Earth Day continues to hold major international significance: In 2016, the United Nations chose Earth Day as the day when the historic Paris Agreement on climate change was signed into force.

History of Earth Day:

Earth Day was a unified response to an environment in crisis — oil spills, smog, rivers so polluted they literally caught fire.

On April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans — 10% of the U.S. population at the time — took to the streets, college campuses and hundreds of cities to protest environmental ignorance and demand a new way forward for our planet.

The first Earth Day is credited with launching the modern environmental movement, and is now recognized as the planet’s largest civic event.

Facts:

• Gaylord Nelson founded Earth Day while he was working as a US senator.
• The maiden Earth Day was observed on April 22, 1970.
• On the first Earth Day, 20 million people assembled in the streets of the USA to protest against the industrial revolution. As a result of it, an environmental movement originated.
• Earth Day celebrated in the United States but later became acknowledged universally by 1990.
• Disney released a documentary film called Earth that trailed the relocation paths of four animal families On Earth Day 2009.
• Annually on April 22, people all over the world clean up garbage, plant many trees, clean up coral reefs, display movies, sign petitions, and plan processes and policies for an improved future for our planet.
• Earth Day was retitled officially by the United Nations in 2009 as International Mother Earth Day.
• In 2011, Afghanistan saw 28 million trees being planted.
• On Earth Day 2012, over a hundred thousand people rode bicycles in China to diminish carbon dioxide emissions and save fuel.
• 100 endangered species of orchids were planted and preserved to prevent their extinction in respect of Earth Day in Panama.

Earth Day Network:

To build the world’s largest environmental movement to drive transformative change for people and planet.

Earth Day Network’s mission is to diversify, educate and activate the environmental movement worldwide. Growing out of the first Earth Day in 1970, Earth Day Network is the world’s largest recruiter to the environmental movement, working with more than 75,000 partners in over 190 countries to drive positive action for our planet.

Theme of Earth Day 2020:

The theme for Earth Day 2020 is climate action. The enormous challenge — but also the vast opportunities — of action on climate change have distinguished the issue as the most pressing topic for the 50th anniversary.

Climate change represents the biggest challenge to the future of humanity and the life-support systems that make our world habitable.

e-Raktkosh Portal

Recently, the Union Health minister urged the use of the e-Raktkosh portal as a single point for maintaining real-time information on the status of stocks of each blood group.

• The Health Minister has termed the availability of blood in blood banks as 'essential'.
• In several blood disorders like thalassemia and haemophilia regular transfusion of the blood is necessary.

Blood Disorder

• A blood disorder is any condition that impacts one or more parts of the blood, usually interfering with its ability to work correctly.
• Blood disorder can be categorised as Common Blood Disorder like anaemia and Rare Blood Disorder like thalassemia.
• Types of Blood Disorder
  • Blood Disorders Affecting Red Blood Cells like Anemia, Pernicious anemia (B12 deficiency), Aplastic anemia, Autoimmune hemolytic anemia etc.
  • Blood disorders that affect White Blood Cells like Lymphoma, Leukemia, Multiple myeloma.
  • Blood Disorders Affecting Blood Plasma like hemophilia
  • Blood Disorders Affecting Platelets like thrombocytopenia.

e-Raktkosh portal is a Centralized Blood Bank Management System. It is a comprehensive IT solution to standardize and streamline the standard operating procedures, guidelines and workflow of blood banks across the nation. It was inaugurated on 7^th April 2016 by then Minister of Health and Family Welfare (MoHWFW)

It enforces Drug & Cosmetic Act, National blood policy standards and guidelines ensuring proper management of blood. e-Rakt Kosh has components for management of the blood donation life cycle which includes :

• • The biometric Donor Management System
  • Blood grouping,
  • TTI screening,
  • antibody screening,
  • A centralized Blood Inventory Management System
  • Bio-Medical Waste Management System for disposal of discarded blood

Global remittances will see a sharp fall: World Bank

• The World Bank has predicted global remittances, the money sent home from people working abroad, will fall by around 20% in 2020 as economic activity grinds to a halt due to the coronavirus pandemic and labour migrants lose wages and access to remittance services.
• The Bank, which released a report on the issue today, recommends making remittances cheaper and classifying them as “essential” services to prevent families falling over the edge into severe poverty.
• According to World Bank report, Migrant remittances provide an economic lifeline to poor households in many countries.
• The bank said this decline is “unprecedented,” with the closest comparison being the Global Financial Crisis.
• The ongoing economic recession caused by COVID-19 is taking a severe toll on the ability to send money home and makes it all the more vital that we shorten the time to recovery for advanced economies

Data:

• In 2019, low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), commonly known as developing countries, received around $554 billion in remittance flows, a larger amount than all the foreign direct investment (FDI) flowing into those countries that year (excluding China).
• World Bank predicts remittances will decline 19.7% in 2020, to $445 billion.
• Families in developing countries are often reliant on the income generated by remittances, with some 800 million people living in households that receive them
• In India, remittances for 2020 are projected to fall by 23% to $64 billion.
• Remittances to low- and middle-income countries reached a record high in 2018.
• Among countries, the top remittance recipients were India with $79 billion, followed by China ($67 billion), Mexico ($36 billion), the Philippines ($34 billion), and Egypt ($29 billion).

Remittances and SDGs:

• In 2015, Member States of the United Nations issued a call to action to eradicate global poverty, reduce economic inequality and place the world on a more sustainable pathway: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This comprehensive undertaking affirms the need to reach 17 specific Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and proposes several ways to mobilize the additional resources required to realize this ambitious – but achievable – agenda. Of these, SDG 10 specifically refers to safe migration.
• For more than a century, people have been moving from rural to urban areas, and across national borders in search of better opportunities. Of the 250 million people currently living outside their countries of origin, approximately 200 million migrant workers leave home in order to send remittances, with the aim of giving their families the chance to remain home and addressing the root causes of their own migration.
• Therefore, helping remittance families leverage the development impact of their own resources is vital to reach the SDGs. The international community may now recognize migrant workers and their families as agents of change and key partners in this effort.
• The potential for synergy in connecting the scale of remittances to reach the SDGs is clear: one billion senders and receivers and a projected US$6.5 trillion in international remittances will be sent to developing countries between 2015 and 2030.
• Over the last decade, attention has focused primarily on the “sending side” of remittances, particularly the aggregate volumes and transaction costs of sending family remittances, essentially from developed to developing countries. The global dimension of this phenomenon is impressive: US$481 billion were sent in 2017 to developing countries and remittance-reliant European countries, more than three times official development assistance (ODA).
• It is estimated that 75 per cent of remittance flows go towards immediate needs, but the other 25 per cent – over US$100 billion per year – is available for other purposes
• Despite the focus on the aggregate flows of remittances, the amount that matters the most is not measured in millions or billions, but in the individual US$200 or US$300 sent home regularly. This amount represents 60 per cent of total household income and, if leveraged, it can most effectively improve the living standards of migrants and their communities back home.
• With these apparently small funds, most remittance families commit to reaching “their own SDGs” – reduced poverty, better health and nutrition, education opportunities, improved housing and sanitation, entrepreneurship, financial inclusion and reduced inequality, and the ability to deal with the uncertainty in their lives by increasing their savings and building assets to ensure a more stable future.
• In this regard, the SDGs provide a unique opportunity to create a convergence between the goals of remittance families, government development objectives, private sector strategies to tap underserved markets, and the traditional role of civil society to promote positive change. In particular:
• Financial inclusion and literacy for remittance recipient families can increase opportunities for formal savings and investment. In turn, these mechanisms can build the human capital of remittance families and improve their living standards through better education, health and housing.
• Migrant investments beyond remittances can change the development landscape of local communities, if given appropriate options.

Importance of remittances for India:

• It is a vital source of income for financing household and family expenses.
• Higher remittances improve nutritional outcomes by increasing investments in higher education.
• It is important to address poverty and hunger in the country.
• India is the highest recipient of global remittances.
• To achieve its SDGs particularly SDG-1,2,5,6,10.

Lessons learnt during COVID19 for sustainable environmental and livelihood practices: (Solutions for Sustainable development-Mains)

• Privileging of mental over manual labour, but the inequities and disparities are starker now and in more brutal circumstances than ever before.
• Any person whose livelihood is directly connected with their physical labour has been left with zero options unless they are somehow connected with health care, food or sanitation.
• The drastic reduction in flights, for instance, has affected the airline industry adversely but also highlighted the fact that many flight trips during ‘normal’ times are in fact unnecessary.
• The lockdown has shown that up to half of these trips are dispensable, especially if commuting and education trips can be cut down severely.
• Before the pandemic, business meetings, including international conferences and climate change meetings, were responsible for a bulk of flight travel. For example, a return flight, economy class, from Delhi to New York releases about 0.9 tonnes of carbon dioxide (it is twice as much in premium economy).
• It should be the norm in many sectors and people could work from home at least half the time, thus reducing travel needs, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and simplifying child care and other domestic services.
• It should be the norm in many sectors and people could work from home at least half the time, thus reducing travel needs, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and simplifying child care and other domestic services.
• Develop open access schools and universities, the scam of high admissions fees can be altogether eliminated.
• Public hospitals need to be improved and have the capacity to respond to pandemics and related crises. Access to care in the emergency and beyond should be equally available to all.

Trump set to sign immigration order

Context:

• President Donald Trump confirmed he would sign an order later on Wednesday partially blocking immigration to the U.S., in a move he argues would protect workers from the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Immigration is a key issue for Mr. Trump's conservative base, which he is keen to energise ahead of the November election.

News:

• Issuing of green cards — permanent residency permits — would be stopped for 60 days, but would exempt temporary workers such as seasonal farm labourers.
• It will help put unemployed Americans first in line for jobs as America reopens.
• About 22 million Americans have lost their jobs since the outbreak forced a global shutdown.
• The U.S. is the world’s hardest-hit country, and health care infrastructure in hotspots such as New York has struggled to cope.
• The executive order on immigration will likely spark court action to reverse it, and has raised hackles among his Democratic opponents.

Green Card Definition

Green Card is the unofficial nickname for the permit allowing immigrants to permanently live and work in the United States of America.

• The official name of the US Green Card is “Lawful Permanent Resident Card”.
• It even has a more bureaucratic name: Form I-551.
• Green Card holders are known as “Permanent Residents”.

Those who have a Green Card are allowed to emigrate to the USA and stay there for as long as they like. Owning a Green Card is the basic requirement for moving to the USA. That means that anyone who would like to permanently live and work in the USA requires, firstly, a Green Card.

A person with a nonimmigrant visa is dependent on their job or the purpose of their stay in the USA, but a Green Card differs in that it gives the holder total freedom. Green Card holders can choose their place of work or where they want to live in the USA without limits and for however long they want.

US H1B Visa:

• H1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ graduate level workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise in specialized fields such as in IT, finance, accounting, architecture, engineering, mathematics, science, medicine, etc.
• Any professional level job that usually requires you to have a bachelors degree or higher can come under the H-1B visa for specialty occupations. If you do not have a bachelors degree or higher you may be able to show degree equivalence through work experience and/or other qualifications.
• The US employer petitions for the H-1B Visa in the US which has a duration of up to 6 years.

Context:

• For reliable antibody testing kits, India will have to make its own, according to independent epidemiologists and biotechnologists.
• A day after the Rajasthan government said that it would stop antibody tests because they were returning inaccurate results, the Indian Council of Medical Research announced that it had advised putting such tests on hold because it was generating widely varying results.
• The ICMR on Wednesday said it had forwarded a “protocol” for rapid antibody tests to all States, but did not specify the details.
• At present, polymerise chain reaction (PCR) and antibody testing are the dominant ways that global healthcare systems are testing citizens for Covid-19.

Importance of Antibody kits:

• Much like home-based pregnancy tests, antibody tests are valuable because they give results quickly and only needs a pinprick’s worth of blood.

Drawbacks of Antibody kits:

• They can only detect antibodies produced by the immune system in response to the virus and this can take as many as 7-14 days to manifest.
• An antibody test only tells you whether a person has ever been infected by the virus. These antibodies that are produced are not necessarily specific to SARS COV-2 and could even be generated by a variety of other pathogens.
• There are other 4 other common coronaviruses and antibodies could be generated to that too. So far, nobody has found a protein that’s specific to SARS COV-2.

What is Rapid Test-Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test?

• The PCR technology is confirmatory because it identifies the SARS COV-2 based on genes, whereas the presence of viruses have usually been detected via antibody kits by the proteins produced by the virus’s genes.
• They detect the genetic information of the virus, the RNA. That’s only possible if the virus is there and someone is actively infected.
• PCR tests are used to directly detect the presence of an antigen, rather than the presence of the body’s immune response, or antibodies. By detecting viral RNA, which will be present in the body before antibodies form or symptoms of the disease are present, the tests can tell whether or not someone has the virus very early on.

Steps taken by ICMR:

• The ICMR’s current recommendation is to test those who show symptoms such cough, fever and breathlessness and even a sore throat. After quarantining for 14 days, an antibody test is to be done and if positive, the person ought to be tested by RT-PCR.
• The ICMR has underlined that tests are a surveillance tool. The utility of the test was evolving and its value was dependent on field conditions. They were not a replacement for RT-PCR tests.
• However, with the accuracy widely ranging from 5% to 71%, there are questions on whether they can reliably help indicate the spread of the infection.
• All kits need to be validated by the National Institute of Virology, Pune

Context:

• The Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute (JNTBGRI) here is gearing up to play a key role in a nationwide project to decode the genetic information of all known species of plants and animals in the country.

Indian Initiative on Earth BioGenome Sequencing (IIEBS)

• The Institute has been selected as one of the Biological Knowledge and Resource Centres of the Indian Initiative on Earth BioGenome Sequencing (IIEBS). It will join hands with other premier research institutes to utilise cutting edge technologies for genome sequencing
• The whole genome sequencing of 1,000 species of plants and animals will be taken up in the initial phase of IIEBS to be completed over a period of five years at an estimated cost of ?440 crore. The National Institute of Plant Genome Research, New Delhi is the coordinating centre for the nationwide project involving a total of 24 institutes.
• The digital repository of genome sequences is expected to provide the critical infrastructure for better understanding of ecosystems and conservation of biodiversity as well as the development of new treatments for infectious and inherited diseases, agricultural products, biomaterials and biological fuels

What is the Genome India Project?

• The Genome India Project, a collaboration of 20 institutions including the Indian Institute of Science and some IITs, will enable new efficiencies in medicine, agriculture and the life sciences.
• Its aim is to ultimately build a grid of the Indian “reference genome”, to fully understand the type and nature of diseases and traits that comprise the diverse Indian population.
• The mega project hopes to form a grid after collecting 10,000 samples in the first phase from across India, to arrive at a representative Indian genome.

About Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute:

• KSCSTE-Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute (KSCSTE - JNTBGRI) was found in 1979 with the objective of establishing a Conservatory Botanic Garden of tropical plant resources in general and of the country and the Kerala state in particular.
• It is established in Trivandrum.
• It also undertakes research programmes for the sustainable utilization of the resources. The idea of establishing the institute was conceived soon after the first United Nations Conference on human Environment, held in Stockholm in 1972 by the Founder Director, the late Professor A. Abraham and its became his commitment to conserve the waning tropical plant species of India. Consequently, the institute was established as an autonomous R & D organization by the Government of Kerala in 1979.
• KSCSTE - JNTBGRI is the only organization in India, which maintains a 300 acre conservatory garden for the wild tropical plant genetic resources of the country, besides a well integrated multidisciplinary R & D system dealing with conservation, management and sustainable utilization of tropical plant resources.
• During the past 30 years, it has flourished into one of the premier R & D organization in Asia, devoted to conservation and sustainable utilization of tropical plant diversity. The institute is recognized as a ‘National Centre of Excellence in ex situ conservation and sustainable utilization of tropical plants

SEBI eases norms on IPO, rights issues

What’s in News?

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has relaxed certain regulatory requirements related to rights issues and initial public offers (IPOs) to make it easier for companies to raise funds at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has made the secondary markets increasingly volatile.

Details:

• SEBI has said that any listed entity with a market capitalisation of at least? 100 crore can use the fast-track route for the rights issues.
  • Earlier, the base limit was set at? 250 crore for such offerings.
• Any company that has been listed for 18 months can raise funds through a fast track rights issue.
  • The earlier eligibility was set at three years.
• The minimum subscription requirement to make the issue successful has been lowered from the earlier 90% of the offered size to 75% of the issuance.
• Issuers have been allowed to amend the issue size by up to 50%, up from the current 20% — without the requirement of filing a fresh draft offer document.
• SEBI has also extended the validity of its observations issued on draft documents by six months for issuers whose observations have expired or will expire between March 1 and September 30.
  • SEBI issues final observations on IPO draft documents after which the company has one year to launch the public issue.

COVID India Seva launched

The Union Health Minister has launched the ‘COVID India Seva’, an interactive platform to establish a direct channel of communication during the pandemic.

About the COVID India Seva:

• This is a Twitter handle which can serve as an interactive platform to establish a direct channel of communication with millions of Indians amid the pandemic.
• This initiative is aimed at enabling transparent e-governance delivery in real-time and answering citizen queries swiftly, at scale, especially in crisis situations like the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
• Through this, people can pose queries @CovidIndiaSeva and get them responded to in almost real-time.
• @CovidIndiaSeva works off a dashboard at the backend that helps process large volumes of tweets, converts them into resolvable tickets, and assigns them to the relevant authority for real-time resolution.
• As these responses are transparent and public, everyone can benefit from the responses received around common queries.
• It is important to note that the Ministry will respond to broader queries and public health information. This does not require the public to share personal contact details or health record details.

World Earth Day

Context:

Vice President greets people on the occasion of World Earth Day.

About the World Earth Day:

• April 22 is observed as ‘World Earth Day’ every year.
• 2020 is the 50^th anniversary of this celebration.
• The theme for World Earth Day 2020 is “Climate Action”.
• The first Earth Day, observed in 1970, was a unified response to an environment in crisis — oil spills, smog, and rivers so polluted they literally caught fire.
• The first observance launched a wave of action, including the passage of landmark environmental laws in the United States.
• Many other countries also followed suit.

Denied alcohol, many take to ‘arishtams’

• Ayurveda pharmacy stores across the State of Kerala have of late found a surge in demand for arishtams and saves, which have alcohol content up to 10%.
  • ‘arishtams’ and ‘asavams’ have self-generated alcohol.
• Staff in some Ayurveda pharmacy stores in Kozhikode claimed that the sale of such medicines had gone up by around 30% after the enforcement of the lockdown.
• According to rules, individuals cannot store ‘arishtams’ and ‘asavams’ beyond a certain limit. As excessive consumption may affect the body parts.

Brent and WTI

• Brent crude oil originates from oil fields in the North Sea between the Shetland Islands and Norway, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) is sourced from US oil fields, primarily in Texas, Louisiana, and North Dakota.
• WTI with a lower sulphur content (0.24%) than Brent (0.37%), is considered "sweeter".
• Both oils are relatively light, but Brent has a slightly higher API gravity, making WTI the lighter of the two.
  • American Petroleum Institute (API) gravity is an indicator of the density of crude oil or refined products.
• Brent crude price is the international benchmark price used by OPEC while WTI crude price is a benchmark for US oil prices.
  • Since India imports primarily from OPEC countries, Brent is the benchmark for oil prices in India.
• The cost of shipping for Brent crude is typically lower since it is produced near the sea and can be put on ships immediately. Shipping of WTI is priced higher since it is produced in landlocked areas like Cushing, Oklahoma where the storage facilities are limited.

Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services-IPBES

• IPBES is an independent intergovernmental body established to strengthen the science-policy interface for biodiversity and ecosystem services for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, long-term human well-being and sustainable development.
• It was established in Panama City (US), in April 2012.
• It is not a United Nations body.

Earth Day Network

• Earth Day Network is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to diversify, educate and activate the environmental movement worldwide.
• EDN's main office is located in Washington DC, USA.

Note

• 22 March: World Water Day
• 22 April: Earth Day
• 22 May: World Biodiversity Day
• Recently Earth Hour was observed on 28^th March 2020. It encourages people to switch off the lights from 8.30 pm to 9.30 pm as per their local time.

Iran says it launched a military satellite into orbit

Amidst tension with the US, Iran today said that it had successfully launched its first military satellite into orbit. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) reported that the first military satellite “Noor”, which means the light was successfully put into orbit. The satellite was launched from a three-stage carrier Ghased and was placed in 425-km orbit.

Usha Ganguly, a veteran theatre actor passes away

Ganguly was an eminent theatre personality who is most known for her work in Hindi theatre in Kolkata in the period between the 1970s and 1980s. She founded the theatre group, Rangakarmee, in 1976. The theatre group produced many plans such as Rudali, Mahabhoj, Himmat Mai, Antaryatra and Court Martial.
Ganguly started acting in the same year with Sangit Kala Mandir and started work on her first play Mitti Ki Gadi, where she essayed the role of Vasantsena. The play was based on Mrichchakatikam by Shudrak, 1970.

Usha Ganguly was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Direction in 1998. The award was conferred by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, which is India's National Academy of Music, Dance & Drama.