• The Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 was amended by the Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Act, 2015 in order to make arbitration process user-friendly, cost-effective and ensure speedy disposal and neutrality of arbitrators.
• The Amendment Act seeks to a new Part to the Act of 1996 for the establishment and incorporation of an independent body namely, the Arbitration Council of India (ACI) for the purpose of grading of arbitral institutions and accreditation of arbitrators, etc.
• As per the Act, ACI will be headed by a Chairperson, who has been a Judge of the Supreme Court or a Chief Justice or Judge of a High Court or an eminent person, having special knowledge and experience in the conduct or administration of arbitration, to be appointed by the Centre in consultation with the Chief Justice of India.
• Besides, it will also have two Full-time Members from amongst eminent arbitration practitioners and academicians.
• In addition, one representative of a recognized body of commerce and industry shall be nominated on a rotational basis as a Part-time Member.
• The Secretary, Department of Legal Affairs, Secretary Department of Expenditure and Chief Executive Officer, ACI will be ex-officio Members.

• Union Government had recently launched a School Health Programme under Ayushman Bharat-Health & Wellness Centres that will teach skills ranging from emotional wellbeing, mental health, inter-personal relationships to values and maintaining healthy lifestyle.
• The program has been jointly rolled out by Ministries of Health & Family Welfare and Human Resource Development.
• This initiative will be effectively linked with other government initiatives such as Fit India movement, Eat Right campaign, Poshan Abhiyaan for an all-round and holistic development model of health for the school children etc,. said Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare.
• While the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) developed 24-hour curriculum, training materials for training of nodal teachers, facilitators guide were developed in consultation with union health ministry.

• A recent study links climate change to drop in bumble bee numbers.

Bumble bees

• They are large fuzzy insects belonging to the bee family.
• They are much larger than honey bees, but produce less amount of honey.
• Bumble bees are important pollinators of certain types of plants including blueberries and cranberries.
• They are mostly found in the Northern Hemisphere, although they can are also scattered in small numbers across tropical regions.
• There are as many as 46 species of bumbe bees in North America.
• Bumble bees are social insects and form colonies with a single queen.
• Only the female bees are equipped with stingers.
• They can survive extreme cold temperatures, as low as zero degree celsius.
• They stay warm by vibrating their flight muscles to generate heat.
• They play a crucial role in the ecosystem.

• Koala's habitat was severely damaged by the recent Australian bushfires.

Influenza

• It is commonly known as the “Flu”.
• It is a viral infection.
• There are four types of flu viruses: A, B, C and D. 
• Influenza A viruses are the only influenza viruses known to cause flu pandemics, i.e., global epidemics of flu disease.
• A pandemic can occur when a new and very different influenza A virus emerges that both infects people and has the ability to spread efficiently between people.
• Unlike type A flu viruses, type B flu is found only in humans.
• Influenza type C infections generally cause mild illness and are not thought to cause human flu epidemics.
• Influenza D viruses primarily affect cattle and are not known to infect or cause illness in people.
• Gastroenteritis is a nonspecific term for various inflammatory problems in the gastrointestinal tract with the most common symptoms and signs being diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pains.
• Gastroenteritis is often referred to as the "stomach flu," however, it is not related to the influenza virus.

• The 33rd Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union recently started at the African Union (AU) Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
• African leaders meet in Addis Ababa for the annual African Union (AU) summit.
• This year’s theme is “Silencing the Guns”, reflecting the continental body’s earlier aspirations to end conflicts and prevent genocide in Africa.
• The African Union (AU) is a continental body consisting of the 55 member states that make up the countries of the African Continent.
• It was officially launched in 2002 as a successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU, 1963-1999).
• The AU is made up of 55 Member States which represent all the countries on the African continent.
• AU Member States are divided into 5 geographic regions.
• The most important decisions of the AU are made by the Assembly of the African Union, a semi-annual meeting of the heads of state and government of its member states.

Agenda 2063 is Africa’s blueprint and master plan for transforming Africa into the global powerhouse of the future.

• A new research suggests that up to one-fifth of the Amazon rainforest is emitting more CO2 than it absorbs.
• Deforested parts of Amazon is emitting more CO2 than they absorb.
• While trees are growing they absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere; dead trees release it again.
• Millions of trees have been lost forest fires in recent years.
• The Amazon Rainforest spreads across 9 countries namely Brazil, Ecuador, Venezuela, Suriname, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Guyana, and French Guiana.
• The landscape contains:

1. 1 in 10 known species on Earth
2. 1.4 billion acres of dense forests
3. Half of the planet's remaining tropical forests
4. 4,100 miles of winding rivers
5. Amazon basin is about 40% of South America.

• The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare notified changes in the Medical Devices Rules, 2017.
• It is to regulate medical devices on the same lines as drugs under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940.
• The Medical equipment would qualify as ‘drugs’ under Section 3 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 from April, 2020.
• It is called the Medical Devices (Amendment) Rules, 2020, these are applicable to devices intended for “internal or external use” in the diagnosis, treatment, mitigation or prevention of disease or disorder in human beings or animals.
• The move comes in the wake of years of controversy about faulty hip implants of Johnson & Johnson (J&J).
• It requires online registration of these devices with the Central Licensing Authority through an identified online portal established by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSO) for this purpose.
• The manufacturer has to upload,

1. Name & address of the company or firm or any other entity manufacturing the medical device
2. Name and address of manufacturing site of medical device
3. Certificate of compliance with respect to ISO 13485 standard accredited by National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies or International Accreditation Forum in respect of such medical device.

• Every medical device, either manufactured in India or imported, will have to have quality assurance before they can be sold anywhere in the country.

• In a lake in Brazil, researchers have discovered a virus that they find unusual and intriguing, called Yaravirus.
• It is a new lineage of Amoebal virus which infects amoeba and has genes that have not been described before, something that could challenge how DNA viruses are classified.
• According to the researchers over 90% of the Yaravirus’s genome has not been observed before.
• The amount of unknown proteins composing the Yaravirus particles reflects the variability existing in the viral world and how much potential of new viral genomes are still to be discovered.

• India's Industrial production growth turned negative in December, contracting by 0.3%, mainly on account of a decline in manufacturing sector output.
• According to the National Statistical Office (NSO) data, the manufacturing sector output contracted by 1.2% in December 2019 as against a growth 2.9% in the same month last year.
• IIP is a composite indicator measuring changes in the volume of production of a basket of industrial products over a period of time, with respect to a chosen base period.
• It is compiled and published on a “monthly basis” by the CSO under the National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI).
• IIP is the only measure on the physical volume of production.
• The all-India IIP provides a single representative figure to measure the general level of industrial activity in the economy.
• It is used by government agencies including the Ministry of Finance, the Reserve Bank of India etc, for policy purposes.
• It forms a crucial input for compilation of Gross Value Added (GVA) of the manufacturing sector in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on a quarterly basis..
• It is also used extensively by financial intermediaries, policy analysts and private companies for various analytical purposes.
• In the sectoral classification,

1. Manufacturing has the highest weight of 77.6%,
2. Mining has 14.4% share and
3. Electricity has 8% weight.