UPSC Daily Current Affairs | Prelim Bits 04-12-2020

AIPA

India has constituted the Apex Committee for the Implementation of the Paris Agreement (AIPA).
The AIPA will have the secretary, Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change as the chairperson.
AIPA has been constituted with the purpose of ensuring a coordinated response on climate change matters that protects the country’s interests.
It will also ensure that India is on track towards meeting its climate change obligations under the Paris Agreement.
It has the responsibility of regularly communicating and reporting the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
It will define the responsibilities of the ministries that would be crucial in achieving the country’s climate change mitigation and adaptation goals.
The AIPA will also act as a national authority for the regulation of carbon markets in India under the Paris Agreement.

NDCs

NDCs are the accounts of the voluntary efforts to be made by countries as a part of Paris Agreement, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the impacts of anthropogenic climate change.
The three quantitative goals in the Indian NDCs are:

A 33-35% reduction in the gross domestic product emissions intensity by 2030 from 2005 levels
A 40% share of non-fossil fuel based electricity by 2030
Creating a carbon sink of 2.5-3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide through afforestation programmes

Apart from these, there are 5 non-quantitive goals in the Indian NDCs.
The NDCs are to be implemented in the post-2020 period. India had submitted its NDCs in 2015.
Now, the AIPA, with its 17 members, has the responsibility of formulating policies and programmes for implementing them.

World Malaria Report

This report was released by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Nineteen countries in sub-Saharan Africa and India accounted for 85% of the global malaria burden in 2018.
While Africa and India saw the maximum dip in malaria cases between 2017 and 2018, they still accounted for 85% deaths.
India also has one of the lowest funding per person at risk of being inflicted with malaria at just US$0.2.
Despite being the highest burden country in the South-East Asia region, India showed a reduction in reported cases of 51% compared to 2017.
In the South-East Asia region, the major challenges remain decreased funding, treatment failures and vector resistance to pyrethroids, the insectides used against the vectors.

BSE Municipal Bond Listing

Bonds issued by the Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC) listed on the BSE, raising a capital of Rs 200 crore for Uttar Pradesh's capital.
It’s the ninth city in India to raise capital through municipal bonds.
LMC’s bond issuance offered coupon of 8.5% and had tenure of 10 years.
The issuance had garnered 4.5 times subscription.
LMC bond were rated AA and AA (CE) Stable by Brickwork Ratings.
The money raised using such bonds is typically used for infra projects such as roads, water and housing.
Among the key eligibility criteria for issuing these bonds is that,
1. The local body shouldn’t have negative net worth in any of the three preceding financial years and
2. The local body shouldn’t have defaulted on payments in the last one year.

USCC Report

The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) report says that the Chinese government planned the Galwan Valley clash with ‘fatalities’ on the Indian side in mind.
It told that just weeks before the June 15 faceoff, China had signalled its intent to escalate tensions with India along the Line of Actual Control.
The report says that the exact motivations behind the China’s behaviour on the LAC this year remain unclear.
But, it said that the close cause of the clash appeared to be India’s construction of a strategic access road to support troops stationed in the border.
The report also says that the Chinese forces have secured access and potential naval basing facilities in Pakistan.

USCC

The USCC was formed in 2000.
It investigates national security and trade issues between China and US.
It also provides recommendations to US Congress for legislative and administrative action on Beijing.

NMR Test for Honey

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) can ascertain the composition of a product at the molecular level.
The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) researchers subjected 13 brands of raw and processed honey to NMR tests, only 3 passed.
The NMR test, a key test of purity, is not required by Indian law for honey that is being marketed locally but is needed for export.
The CSE also said some Indian companies were importing synthetic sugar syrups from China to adulterate honey.
These were capable of passing off as honey, even up to half of which were mixed with sugar, as ‘pure honey’.
Now, among the tests employed as per Indian regulations is one to check whether the honey is adulterated with C4 sugar (cane sugar) or C3 sugar (rice sugar).

Nisarg Gram

Ministry of AYUSH will develop Nisarg Gram campus at Pune as the 21st Century abode of Naturopathy.
“Nisarg Gram” will be the name of the upcoming new campus of National Institute of Naturopathy (NIN) at Pune.
This will invoke recollections of Mahatma Gandhi’s Nature Cure campaign of 1946 at the “Nisarg Upchar” Ashram a village near Pune.
Nisarg Gram will have many innovations and novelties incorporated in the project per se and the curriculum of the Naturopathy course.
It is a future-orientated institute which has a science-based approach, Gandhian spirit and social relevance.

NIN

NIN, Pune is an Autonomous Body under the Ministry of AYUSH.
It is the inheritor of a Gandhian heritage, having been developed out of a Nature Cure institution of which the Mahatma was one of the founders.
The institution was called All India Nature Cure Foundation.
It was set up under Gandhi’s leadership in 1945 at the same premises where the NIN presently functions.
It was subsequently taken over by the Central Government and structured into the present National Institute of Naturopathy.

Source: The Hindu, PIB, Down To Earth, Business Standard, Economic Times