Important Facts for Prelims (14th February 2019)

• 14 Feb 2019

Awareness Campaign on Trans Fatty Acids

• The Kerala Health Department has drawn up an action plan to generate public awareness on the harmful effects of trans fatty acids (TFA) in commercially available food items and to encourage the local food industry to meet the current statutory limits set for TFA.
• This initiative is being supported by the World Bank, World Health Organisation (WHO), the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), and the State Food Safety wing.

National Board for Wildlife

• National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) which is charged with allowing forest land in Protected Areas to be diverted for industry cleared 682 of the 687 projects (99.82%) that came up for scrutiny.
• Moreover, only five projects were rejected since August 2014.
• Few experts have criticised it as a mere “clearance house.” While, Officials state following reason for increased clearances:
  • Streamlined processes,
  • Regular meetings since 2014,
  • Online filling of applications, and
  • Projects coming to  NBWL are one which has already passed scrutiny of respective state governments.

National Board for Wildlife (NBWL)

• National Board for Wildlife is a statutory Board constituted officially in 2003 under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.
• The NBWL is chaired by the Prime Minister and is responsible for promotion of conservation and development of wildlife and forests.
• The board is ‘advisory’ in nature and can only advise the Government on policy making for conservation of wildlife.
• It is an important body because it serves as an apex body for the review of all wildlife-related matters and for the approval of projects in and around national parks and sanctuaries

e-AUSHADHI Portal

• Recently the Government has launched the e-AUSHADHI portal, for online licensing of Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Homoeopathy drugs and related matters.
• The portal is intended for increased transparency, improved information management facility, improved data usability and increased accountability.
• This new e-portal is an acronym for Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy Automated Drug Help Initiative.
• The timelines is fixed for processing of applications with text message and e-mail status updates at each step of the process.
• It will provide real time information of the licensed manufactures and their products, cancelled and spurious drugs, contact details of the concerned authority for specific grievances, and thereby aid the licensing authority , manufactures and consumers.
• It can be noted that recently the Cabinet also approved the draft National Commission for Indian Systems of Medicine (NCIM) Bill, 2018 which seeks to enhance transparency.

Hindi Becomes Third Official Language in UAE

• United Arab Emirates (UAE) has included Hindi as the third official language in their judicial system alongside Arabic and English to make justice delivery system simpler and more accessible to Indians.
• Indians form the largest immigrant community in the UAE, with more than three million living in Dubai.
• The landmark decision undertaken by the judicial department will benefit a major chunk of workers, who mostly come from Hindi speaking regions of central and north India.
• The Indian workforce in UAE can now file their complaints to the labour counts in the country in their own mother-tongue.

Note: Hindi is popular in many other countries, including Nepal, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Fiji and Mauritius. Hindi and Nepalese share the same script- Devnagari.