Eastern Economic Forum

Russia has conveyed to India that it has not invited Pakistan’s Prime Minister to the Eastern Economic Forum, to be held from 4^th- 6^th September, 2019 in Vladivostok, where Indian Prime Minister has been invited as the chief guest.

• In a build up to the Prime Minister’s Vladivostok visit, both the countries held a Strategic Economic Dialogue in New Delhi on 10^th July, 2019.

Eastern Economic Forum

• The Eastern Economic Forum was established by the decree of the President of the Russian Federation in the year 2015.
• It takes place each year in Vladivostok, a city in Russia.
• It serves as a platform for the discussion of key issues in the world economy, regional integration, and the development of new industrial and technological sectors, as well as of the global challenges facing Russia and other nations.
• The Forum business programme includes a number of business dialogues with leading partner countries in the Asia-Pacific region, and with ASEAN, a key integration organization of dynamically developing nations in Southeast Asia.
• Over the years, it has emerged as an international platform for discussing the strategy for developing political, economic and cultural ties between Russia and Asia Pacific.

India-Russia Strategic Economic Dialogue

• The India-Russia Strategic Economic Dialogue (IRSED) was established following a bilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the NITI Aayog and the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation during the 19^th edition of the annual India-Russia Bilateral Summit in the year 2018.
• The First India-Russia Strategic Economic Dialogue was held in St. Petersburg in the year 2018.
• The recent one is the second such dialogue and focusses on six core areas of cooperation, namely,
  
  • Development of transport infrastructure and technologies;
  • Development of Agriculture and Agro-Processing sector;
  • Small and medium business support;
  • Digital transformation and frontier technologies;
  • Cooperation in trade, banking, finance, and Industry;
  • Tourism & Connectivity.

India-Russia Relations

• India-Russia cooperation is based on the solid foundations of the 1971 Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation between the Republic of India and the USSR, 1993 Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between the Republic of India and the Russian Federation, 2000 Declaration on Strategic Partnership between the Republic of India and the Russian Federation and 2010 Joint Statement elevating the Partnership to a Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership. 
• Cooperation between India and Russia spans across the whole gamut of sectors and rests on the fundamental pillars of political and strategic cooperation, military and security cooperation, cooperation in the spheres of economy, energy, industry, science and technology, and cultural and humanitarian cooperation.

Global Report on Income Inequality

International Labour Organisation in its Labour Income Share and Distribution dataset has revealed that top 10% earners in India made over 69% of the country’s labour income in 2017, in contrast to 0.25% made by the bottom 10% earners.

• Labour Income Share and Distribution dataset developed by ILO offers two new indicators for major trends in the world of work, at national, regional and global levels:
  
  • One provides the first internationally comparable figures of the share of Gross Domestic Product that goes to workers rather than capital through wages and earnings.
  • The second looks at how labour income is distributed.

Key Findings

• The share of national income going to workers is declining, from 53.7% in 2004 to 51.4% in 2017.
• Worldwide, the income share of the middle 60% workers grew to 30.2% in 2017 from 23.6% in 2004, while the share of the richest 20% of workers came down by 6.8 percentage points.
• Countries where top earners saw their share of national pay rise by at least one percentage point include Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Pakistan, the United Kingdom and the United States
• Poorer countries tend to have much higher levels of pay inequality, something that exacerbates the hardships of vulnerable populations.
  
  • In Sub-Saharan Africa, the bottom 50% of workers earn only 3.3% of labour income, compared to the European Union, where the same group receives 22.9% of the total income paid to workers.

Income Inequality in India

• Pay inequality has remained consistent in India since 2004, although it has reduced at the global workplace in the last 13 years.
• ILO report has found that between 2000 and 2017, income inequality rose six times.
• India’s richest 10% own as much as 80.7% of the country’s total wealth, while 90% own only 19.3% of its total wealth

Mission Raksha Gyan Shakti

In a major boost to Mission Raksha Gyan Shakti, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between the Intellectual Property Facilitation Cell (IPFC), Ministry of Defence (MoD) and National Research Development Corporation (NRDC), Ministry of Science and Technology to provide a major fillip to the ongoing efforts towards promoting a culture of Innovation and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in Indian Defence industry.

• Mission Raksha Gyan Shakti was launched in the year 2018 with the aim to inculcate IP culture in Indian defence manufacturing ecosystem.
• Under this mission, an Intellectual Property Facilitation Cell (IPFC) was established under the aegis of Directorate General Quality Assurance (DGQA).
• The centre, within a short span of a year, has achieved the challenging target of training more than 12,000 personnel on IPR and facilitating filing of more than 1000 new IPR applications.
• The Action Plan 2019-20 of MRGS includes training of additional 20,000 personnel from Public / Private Sector Industry and Armed Forces on relevance of IP Culture to Indian Defence manufacturing industry and to institute a framework which enables full utilization of new ideas and innovation towards achieving self-reliance in defence sector.

National Research Development Corporation

• The National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) was established in the year 1953 by the Government of India, with the primary objective to promote, develop and commercialise the technologies / know-how / inventions / patents / processes emanating from various national R&D institutions / Universities

Directorate General Quality Assurance

• The Directorate General of Quality Assurance (DGQA) is under the Department Of Defence Production , Ministry of Defence. The organisation provides Quality Assurance (QA) cover for the entire range of Arms, Ammunitions, Equipments and Stores supplied to Armed Forces.

Saubhagya Scheme

The Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana (PM Saubhagya) lapsed on March 31, 2019, but its target of 100% electrification nationwide is yet to be achieved.

• The scheme was launched in September 2017 with a target to electrify all households by December 2018.
  
  • This target was moved forward to March 31, 2019, and eventually the Centre declared that all ‘willing’ homes have been provided with electricity connections.
• Since the Saubhagya Scheme has no allocation in the latest Budget, these connections will be funded through the Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS) and Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY).

Concerns

• The Rajasthan government has informed that around 1.56 lakh households are un-electrified and are willing to take electric connections.
• Owing to regions hit by Left-wing extremism, even in Chhattisgarh number of villages are yet to be provided with electricity connections.
• The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to request the Centre to reopen the Saubhagya Scheme, in the state to give another chance to the poor to get free electricity connection in case they did not get one earlier.
  
  • The families that refused to take power connections had apprehensions of getting inflated bills or were already using electricity illegally through ‘katias’.

Power Sector in India

• The Ministry of Power which started functioning independently in 1992 is primarily responsible for the development of electrical energy in the country.
• India ranks third globally in terms of electricity production.
• As per the Paris Accord on Climate Change, India made a pledge that by 2030, 40% of installed power generation capacity shall be based on clean sources, it was determined that 175 GW of renewable energy capacity will be installed by 2022.
  
  • This includes 100 GW from solar, 60 GW from wind, 10 GW from bio-power and 5 GW from small hydro power.
• India has 5th Global position for overall installed renewable energy capacity, 4th position for wind power and 5th position for solar power.
• As of October, 2018, a total of around 73.35 GW of renewable energy capacity has been installed in the country, which includes around 34.98 GW from Wind, 24.33 GW from solar, 4.5 GW from Small Hydro Power and 9.54 GW from Bio-power.
• Power sector has a 100% foreign direct investment (FDI) permit, which boosted FDI inflows in the sector.

Recent Initiatives

• Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY): The rural electrification scheme provides for (a) separation of agriculture and non-agriculture feeders; (b) strengthening and augmentation of sub-transmission and distribution infrastructure in rural areas including metering at distribution transformers, feeders and consumers end.
• Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS): The scheme provides for (a) strengthening of sub-transmission and distribution networks in urban areas; (b) metering of distribution transformers/feeders/consumers in urban areas; and (c) IT enablement of distribution sector and strengthening of distribution network.
• Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY): The scheme has been launched for operational and financial turnaround of Discoms.
• ‘4 Es’ in the revised Tariff Policy: The 4Es include Electricity for all, Efficiency to ensure affordable tariffs, Environment for a sustainable future, Ease of doing business to attract investments and ensure financial viability.
• GARV (Grameen Vidyutikaran) App: To monitor transparency in implementation of the electrification schemes, Grameen Vidyut Abhiyantas (GVAs) have been appointed by the government to report progress through GARV app.

• According to the government data, with 100% electrification target being achieved, the government's focus is now to provide consistent electricity at affordable rates, power tariff reforms, last-mile connectivity and electricity connections to all households in rural and urban areas . Therefore, "One Nation, One Grid" initiative was announced in the budget to bring affordable power to all states.

Immune Thrombocytopenia

Intas Pharmaceuticals (Indian drug maker) has launched an affordable drug Romiplostim (Romy) at one-fifth of the price of the currently available drugs for the treatment of Immune Thrombocytopenia (a chronic autoimmune blood disorder).

• Romiplostim represents the standard of care but has been available only internationally since 2008.

Immune Thrombocytopenia

• Immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is an autoimmune bleeding disorder characterized by abnormally low levels of platelets.
  
  • Platelets are specialized blood cells that maintain the integrity of our blood vessel walls and help prevent and stop bleeding by accelerating clotting.
• As the platelet count falls, the risk of developing bleeding symptoms increases.
• In ITP, an abnormal immune reaction leads to destruction of the individual’s own platelets.

Symptoms

A child or adult with immune thrombocytopenia may display no symptoms (asymptomatic) or the symptoms may not appear until the platelet count is extremely low.

• Skin that bruises very easily and even spontaneously.
• A rash consisting of small red dots (petechiae) that represent small hemorrhages caused by broken blood vessels or leaks in a capillary wall.
• Bleeding from the gums, nose or any area of the body, e.g. in urine or feces
• Blood blisters on the inside of cheeks.
• Excessive and prolonged menstrual bleeding.

Causes

• The genetic cause of immune thrombocytopenia is unclear but this condition occurs when the body's own immune system malfunctions and attacks the body's tissues and organs (autoimmunity).
  
  • Normally, the immune system produces proteins called antibodies, which attach to specific foreign particles and germs, marking them for destruction.

Immune Thrombocytopenia in India

• It is estimated that around 42,000 patients are diagnosed with ITP in India every year.
• Less than 10% of patients have access to the treatment, which is required to maintain adequate platelet counts for a longer duration.

World Population Day

11 July is celebrated as World Population Day

• In 1989, the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme recommended that 11 July be observed by the international community as World Population Day, a day to focus attention on the urgency and importance of population issues.
• The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) seeks to create awareness about the issues associated with population.

United Nations Population Fund

• The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), formerly the United Nations Fund for Population Activities, is a UN organization. It was created in 1969.
• UNFPA works to support family planning by ensuring a steady, reliable supply of quality contraceptives; strengthening national health systems; advocating for policies supportive of family planning; and gathering data to support this work.
• UNFPA also provides global leadership in increasing access to family planning, by convening partners – including governments – to develop evidence and policies, and by offering programmatic, technical and financial assistance to developing countries.

Present Population Trends

• Current estimates indicate that roughly 83 million people are being added to the world’s population every year.
• Even assuming that fertility levels will continue to decline, the global population is expected to reach 8.6 billion in 2030, 9.8 billion in 2050 and 11.2 billion in 2100
• According to ‘The World Population Prospects 2019’ published by the Population Division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, India is projected to surpass China as the world’s most populous country by 2027.
• But according to the Economic Survey 2018-19, India’s population growth rate will decline faster than assumed as the fertility rate in many states has reached the replacement rate.

Agent Smith Malware

A study by Check point research (a cybersecurity services provider) has revealed that “Agent Smith”, a new variant of smartphone malware, has infected around 25 million Android devices globally, including 15 million mobile devices in India.

• Agent smith malware exploits known android vulnerabilities and automatically replaces installed apps with malicious versions without the user's knowledge or interaction.
• Malware currently uses its broad access to the resources of the mobile device to show fraudulent ads for financial gain, and could easily be used for far more intrusive and harmful cyber attacks such as banking credential theft and eavesdropping.
• Check Point Research notes that the activity of Agent Smith resembles how other malware like CopyCat, Gooligan, and HummingBad have operated in the past.
  
  • All three malware campaigns have generated huge revenue through fraudulent ads on virus infected android devices.
• “Agent Smith” was originally downloaded from the widely used third-party app store, 9Apps and targeted mostly Hindi, Arabic, Russian and Indonesian-speaking users.
• Primary victims of malware are based in India though other Asian countries such as Pakistan and Bangladesh and the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States have also been impacted by the malware.

Rising Sea Level

According to the data from Ministry of Earth Sciences, the four ports — Diamond Harbour, Kandla, Haldia and Port Blair — recorded a higher sea-level rise than the global average.

• While recent studies reveal that sea-level rise in the country has been estimated to be 1.3 mm/year along India’s coasts during the last 40-50 years, at Diamond Harbour the rise was almost five times higher at 5.16 mm per year.
• The sea-level rise is higher in West Bengal, particularly in the Sunderbans delta because of the deltaic sediment deposition as a result of the mixing of freshwater and saline water.
• According to the fifth assessment report of the International Panel on Climate Change
  
  • Sea level rise is said to be linked with global warming
  • The global sea level was rising at an average rate of 1.8 mm per year over the last century.
• Rising sea levels may increase coastal hazards such as storm surge, tsunami, coastal floods, high waves and coastal erosion in the low lying coastal areas in addition to causing a gradual loss of coastal land to sea
• Studies over Indian region have shown a warming trend of 0.6°C on all India average basis.