Prelim Bits 18-09-2018

World Ozone Day

• 24th World Ozone Day is being celebrated with the theme "Keep Cool and Carry on” : The Montreal Protocol.
• The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer has been recognized as the most successful international environment treaty in history. 
• It is the only environmental treaty which enjoys universal ratification of 197 UN numbers countries. 
• The protocol and its amendments have banned the use of ozone destroying chemicals and the rate of ozone depletion seems to have slowed.
• Its implementation has not only led to the phase-out of around 98% of ozone depleting chemicals, but also averted more than 135 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions. 

India Cooling Action Plan (ICAP)

• Union Environment Ministry has recently released India Cooling Action Plan (ICAP).
• ICAP addresses cooling requirement across sectors and lists out actions which can help reduce the cooling demand.
• India is the first country in world to develop such a document.
• Its goal is to provide sustainable cooling and thermal comfort for all while securing environmental and socio-economic benefits for the society.
• This will help in reducing both direct and indirect emissions.
• The interventions under the action plan includes,

(i) Recognition of “cooling and related areas” as a thrust area 
(ii) Reduction of cooling demand across sectors 
(iii) Reduction of refrigerant demand 
(iv) Reduction of cooling energy requirements 
(v) Training and certification of 100,000 servicing sector technicians by the year 2022-23, in synergy with Skill India Mission.

Hydrogen Powered Train

• Germany has rolled out the world’s first hydrogen-powered train.
• Hydrogen trains are equipped with fuel cells that produce electricity through a combination of hydrogen and oxygen, a process that leaves steam and water as the only emissions.
• Excess energy is stored in ion lithium batteries on board the train.
• Thus, the technology is eco-friendly when compared to polluting diesel trains.

Planet Hunter Telescope

• NASA’s newest planet hunter telescope, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), has recently shared the first science image capturing exoplanets.
• The principal goal of the TESS mission is to detect small planets with bright host stars in the solar neighborhood
• It will survey 200,000 of the brightest stars near the sun to search for transiting exoplanets.
• The spacecraft will be looking for a phenomenon known as a transit, where a planet passes in front of its star, causing a periodic and regular dip in the star’s brightness.
• It will do an all-sky survey from an orbit between the Earth and the moon.
• It is the next step in the search for planets outside of our solar system, including those that could support life. 

Rashtriya Poshan Maah

• Ministry of AYUSH and Central Council of Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS) celebrated Rashtriya Poshan Maah (National Nutrition Month).
• PM’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nourishment (POSHAN) Abhiyan strive to reduce the level of stunting, under-nutrition, anemia and low birth weight babies.
• It targets to reduce stunting, undernutrition, anemia and reduce low birth weight by 2%, 2%, 3% and 2% per annum respectively.
• Mission 25 by 2022 – Although it targets to reduce stunting by 2%, Mission would strive to achieve reduction in Stunting from 38.4% (NFHS-4) to 25% by 2022.
• It may include following nutrition strategies and interventions, 

1.    supplementary nutrition,
2.    IYCF(Infant and Young Child Feeding)immunisation,
3.    food fortification,
4.    adolescent nutrition,
5.    dietary diversification
6.    maternal health

• Behaviour change communication is the key component of POSHAN Abhiyaan for converting it into Jan Andolan (People’s movement).
• All the States and districts will be covered in a phased manner i.e. 315 districts in 2017-18, 235 districts in 2018-19 and remaining districts in 2019-20.
• It will be funded 50% by the Government of India and 50% by World Bank or other Multinational Development Banks.

Source: PIB, The Hindu