State Energy Efficiency Preparedness Index (SEEPI)
- The 1st edition of the SEEPI was recently released jointly by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) and NITI Aayog.
- The index accessed state policies and programmes aimed at improving energy efficiency in five key sectors.
- The sectors are buildings, industries, municipalities, transportation, agriculture and electricity distribution.
- The criteria taken into account includes,
- Sector-wise energy consumption,
- Energy saving potential
- States’ influence in implementing energy efficiency
- It has classified states in to four categories - front runner, achiever, contender and aspirant, based upon their efforts towards energy efficiency.
- Kerala topped the list followed by Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh. These states are categorized as front runners.
- Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Haryana have been categorised in the second best category of ‘achiever’ states.
Commercial Courts Bill
- The Lok Sabha has passed the Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2018.
- It will designate some courts as commercial courts for speedy disposal of commercial disputes.
- It allows adjudication of commercial disputes with a value of at least Rs. 3 lakh. Previously the value was Rs. 1 crore.
- It allows state governments to establish commercial courts at the district level in the following territories where high courts have ordinary original civil jurisdiction
- In areas where High courts do not have original jurisdiction, it allows state governments to set up Commercial appellate courts to consider appeals from commercial courts below the level of a district judge.
- The above amendments were aimed at improving the ease of doing business in India.
- It is also argued that the transfer of all commercial disputes above Rs. 3 lakh may overburden the commercial courts and defeat the objective with which they were established.
Tagline for Geographical Indicators
- Ministry of Commerce and Industry has recently launched a logo and tagline for Geographical Indications (GI).
- It is to increase awareness about intellectual property rights (IPRs) in the country.
- A GI product is primarily an agricultural, natural or a manufactured product (handicraft and industrial goods) originating from a definite geographical territory.
- It is a community right rather than individual or company.
- It is protected under Geographical indications of goods (registration and protection) act, 1999.
- GI for a product is valid for 10 years and it can be renewed for any time.
- It is managed by Cell for IPR promotion and Management (CIPAM) under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
- At the International level, GI is governed by WTO's Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).
- Tamil Nadu is the first among the states in India with regard to the number of GI tags for its products, while Uttar Pradesh comes second.
- The first product in India to be accorded with GI tag was Darjeeling tea in the year 2004-05.
- Some of the recently accorded GIs are,
- Hand-crafted stone sculptures of Mamallapuram;
- Rasgulla of West Bengal;
- Pochampally Ikat of Telangana;
- Gobindobhog Rice of West Bengal;
- Etikoppaka Toys of Andhra Pradesh; and
- Chakshesang Shawl of Nagaland.
Polio
- Recently, 28 children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) were paralyzed by the circulating vaccine-derived polio virus Type 2 (cVDPV).
- WHO termed the health risk at national level to be very high and the risk of international spread to be high.
- Immunisation using Oral Polio Vaccination (OPV) reduced the outbreak caused by wild polio virus by 99.9% since 1988.
- OPV contains weakened but live polio virus, which can cause paralytic polio.
- The vaccine-virus is excreted by immunized children, it can move from one person to another.
- On the one hand, a vaccinated person protects unvaccinated people she comes in contact with by spreading immunity through faeces.
- But on the other, such circulation allows the virus to stick around and mutate to a more virulent form, raising the spectre of vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV).
- VDPV, like imported wild polio, can cause outbreaks in under-immunised population.
- It is for this reason that the eradication of polio worldwide requires OPV to be stopped and replaced with the Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV).
- IPV is an injectable form of polio vaccine administered alone or in combination with other vaccines including the OPV (oral polio vaccine).
- IPV does not cause VDPV but protects children equally well against polio.
Agricultural Scientists' Recruitment Board (ASRB)
- Union Cabinet has recently approved the proposal of restructuring of ASRB.
- ASRB is an independent recruitment agency to various scientific positions in Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR), the premier agency for agricultural research and education in the country.
- After the recent restructuring, the budget head ASRB would be delinked from ICAR and be attached with Department of Agricultural Research & Education (DARE).
- It will now be a 4-member body and have its own cadre of administrative staff.
- It will be done to ensure the autonomy and efficient functioning of the institutions.
Source: The Hindu, PIB, BusinessLine
