Automation and Job Market

Recently the International Labour Organization (ILO) released a report titled “Changing Business and Opportunities for Employer and Business Organizations" which dwells on automation and employability.

Findings

• The report lists the percentage of work activities that can be automated using current technology.
  • Over 40% of activities can be automated across the world.
  • In the case of India, 51.8% of activities can be automated. Robotic automation is having the greatest impact, replacing low-skilled jobs and simple assembly tasks.
• Automation will likely impact most jobs involving highly structured physical activity in predictable environments, such as manufacturing and retail, alongside data collection and processing.
• Automation threatens to impact women more than men. This is primarily because automation threatens sectors like retail, business processing outsourcing and textiles/clothing/footwear. where women form a major part of the workforce.
• The report suggests that 66% of Indian businesses are looking for quite a different set of skills among new recruits than they did three years ago. Even in the United States of America (61%), Brazil (70%) and Germany (65%) businesses are looking for quite different skills in new recruits
• India has an unemployment crisis. Over and above that, India also has an employability crisis.
  • Even when firms have jobs on offer, they are unable to find candidates with the right skills who can take on these jobs.

Way Forward

• Firms across all regions are feeling an impact on all aspects of their business, from the strategic and operational to the organizational level, with the fastest-growing companies reporting heightened awareness.
• As the pace of this change accelerates, policymakers, and businesses need to innovate, adjust and become more flexible in order to drive change and remain relevant in the rapidly changing business environment.
• These improvements can only be achieved by adequately managing and investing in capable human capital, generating the skills and capacity to understand and respond to the business needs of today and the future.

State Of Global Air Report 2019

• The State Of Global Air Report 2019, produced by the Boston-based Health Effects Institute (HEI) has revealed that 1.2 million Indians died due to ailments triggered by air pollution in 2017.

Key Findings

• Air pollution ranks fifth among global risk factors for mortality globally, exceeded only by behavioral and metabolic factors: poor diet, high blood pressure, tobacco exposure, and high blood sugar.
  • Globally, air pollution (PM 2.5, household and ozone emissions) is estimated to have contributed to about 4.9 million deaths — 8.7% of all deaths globally and 5.9% of all life years lost to disability, in 2017.
• India and China have the highest health burden from air pollution, followed by Pakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Nigeria.
• In 2017, exposure to PM 2.5 pollution was found to be the third leading risk factor globally for Type 2 diabetes-related deaths and disability after high blood sugar and excessive body weight.
  • Globally, such exposure contributed to about 2.76 lakh deaths and 15.2 million life years lost to disability in 2017.
  • This burden was highest in India followed by China, Indonesia, Mexico and Brazil.

India-Specific findings

• Air pollution is now the third-highest cause of death among all health risks, ranking just above smoking, in India.
  • Over 1.2 million Indians died early due to exposure to unsafe air in 2017.
  • Out of the 1.2 annual premature deaths, 673,100 deaths were due to exposure to outdoor PM2.5, and more than 481,700 deaths were due to exposure to household air pollution in India.
• About 60% of India’s population was exposed to household pollution in 2017. However, the report also recognises that the proportion of households cooking with solid fuels in India has dipped from 76% in 2005 to 60% (846 million) in 2017, due to a major government program of shifting households from solid fuels to liquefied petroleum gas.
• Entire Indian population lives in areas with PM2.5 concentrations above the WHO Air Quality Guideline of 10 µg/m3, and only about 15 % of the population lives in areas with PM2.5 concentrations below the WHO’s least-stringent target of 35 µg/m3.
• Exposure to PM2.5 pollution contributed to 55,000 deaths and 2.7 million life years lost from type 2 diabetes in 2017.
• It can be noted that India has initiated major steps to address pollution sources: the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana Household LPG program, accelerated Bharat Stage VI vehicle standards, and the new National Clean Air Programme.
  • These and future initiatives have the potential, if fully implemented as part of a sustained commitment to air quality, to result in significant health benefits in coming years.

President's Visit to Chile

• Recently, the President of India completed his visit to the Republic of Chile.

India- Chile Relations

• Chile is India’s window to Latin America and to the Pacific Alliance.
• Chile is the fifth largest trading partner of India in the Latin American region.
• India- Chile signed the Preferential Trade Agreement in 2017 to enhance the trade.
• The bilateral trade is growing and stood at US$ 2.8 billion in 2017-18.
• India and Chile are partners in the International Solar Alliance.
• India- Chile signed three Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) in the fields of -mining, culture, disability.
• India- Chile commemorates the 70^th anniversary of the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between Chile and India.

Important Facts For Prelims (3rd April 2019)

Danda Nata festival

• It is a 21-day long seasonal folk dance festival that is celebrated in South Odisha.
• It is celebrated in the month of 'Chaitra'.
• Danda as the name implies, is self-inflicted pain, which the danduas (people who participate in the festival) undergo to pay their obeisance to the lord Kali. It is also a form of worshipping the lord Shiva and his consort Parvati.
• The festival features midday summer dances in the dust and that in the ponds in the evening, besides midnight walk on fire by the ‘danduas’.
• Households and localities also invite Danduas for performance in their areas.
• The origin of the festival is generally traced to 8^th and 9^th AD after the decadence of Buddhism in Orissa.

Ramappa Temple

• Dedicated to Lord Shiva, it is situated in Palampet Village, around 67 km from the city of Warangal (Telangana).
• Also famous as Ramalingeshwara Temple, it was built under the supervision of Chief Commander Recherla Rudra, during the reign of Ganapati Deva from Kakatiya dynasty in 1213 century AD.
  • Kakatiya Dynasty was the South Indian dynasty that ruled Andhra Pradesh in India from 1083 CE to 1323 CE.
• The temple has its name after its sculptor, Ramappa.
• It falls under the protection of the Kakatiya Heritage Trust (KHT), that has been pushing it for the World Heritage tag since 2012.
• For the year 2019, it is the only nomination for the World Heritage Site selection process, from India.

WhatsApp’s Tipline

• Facebook-owned messaging platform WhatsApp, has launched a fact-checking Tipline for users in India ahead of elections in the country.
• People in India, now can submit uncertain information or rumours they have received to the Checkpoint Tipline on WhatsApp +91-9643-000-888.
• WhatsApp is working with India-based media skilling startup PROTO for the helpline.
• When a WhatsApp user will share a suspicious message with the tipline, PROTO’s verification center will seek to respond and inform the user if the claim made in message shared is verified or not.
• The center can review rumours in the form of pictures, video links or text and will cover four regional languages including Hindi, Telugu, Bengali and Malayalam, other than English.

Ways and Means Advances

• Recently the Reserve Bank of India has increased the limits for Ways and Means Advances (WMA) for the first half of financial year 2019-20.
• It is a temporary loan facility provided by RBI to meet temporary mismatches in the receipts and payments of the central and state government.
• It was introduced on April 1, 1997.This facility can be availed by the government if it needs immediate cash from the RBI.
• The WMA is to be vacated after 90 days.
• Interest rate for WMA is charged at the repo rate.
• The limit for WMA are mutually decided by the RBI and the Government of India.

Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology

• Recently, the scientists at the Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology (CCMB) have come up with a way to inhibit the multiplication of bacteria even before the cell wall begins to grow.
• They have discovered a new enzyme which helps in breaking cell walls of bacteria. The finding is significant for it offers a potential for a new drug delivery route to arrest the anti-bacterial resistance through existing antibiotic drugs.
• Regular antibiotics target the machinery that creates the bacterial cell wall — a mesh-like structure that is made up of cross-linked sugars and peptides.
  • However, this experiment shows how to target cell-wall formation at the beginning itself, earlier than when the present set of antibiotics act.
• With rapid rise of antibiotic resistance, researchers across the world are exploring new ways to target bacteria. In this context, the new findings can play a crucial role in fighting the battle against antibiotic resistance.