Kerala Health department has suspected a viral infection similar to West Nile in a woman from Kozhikode district.
West Nile Virus (WNV), typically spread by mosquitoes, can cause neurological disease and death in people.
It is a member of the flavivirus genus and belongs to the same family of Japanese encephalitis - Flaviviridae.
Its transmission cycle, by nature, revolves between birds and mosquitoes. Humans, horses and other mammals can be infected.
Mosquitoes become infected when they feed on infected birds, which circulate the virus in their blood for a few days.
Human infection is most often the result of bites from infected mosquitoes.
To date, no human-to-human transmission of WNV through casual contact has been documented.
It may be transmitted through contact with other infected animals, their blood or other tissues.
No vaccine is available for humans.
It is commonly found in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, North America and West Asia.
It was first isolated in a woman in the West Nile district of Uganda in 1937. In India, it was first noticed in 1956 and it had its presence in Kerala in 1973.
Sports University
The National Sports University Bill, 2018 was recently passed by Lok Sabha.
The bill seeks to establish a National Sports University headquartered in Manipur.
The university, first of its kind, aims to promote sports education in the areas of sports sciences, sports technology, sports management and sports coaching.
It will undertake research on physical education, strengthen sports training programmes, and collaborate internationally in the field of physical education.
As per the bill, key powers of the university includes,
Prescribing courses of study and conducting training programmes,
Granting degrees, diplomas, and certificates,
Providing facilities through a distance education system, and
Conferring autonomous status on a college or an institution.
The central government will review and inspect the functioning of the University.
It will maintain a fund which is contributed by the central, state governments, UGC, income from fees and others sources.
The government has signed an agreement with two Australian Universities to make the sports university a world-class institution.
Purchasing Managers' Index - Service
PMI is an indicator of the economic health and investor sentiments about the manufacturing sector (Manufacturing PMI) and services sector (Services PMI)
Its purpose is to provide information about current business conditions to company decision makers, analysts and purchasing managers.
For India, the PMI Data is published by Japanese firm Nikkei but compiled and constructed by Markit Economics.
In a PMI survey, a standard questionnaire is administered to business entities.
The respondents can either give a “Positive, Neutral or Negative” response and each response is marked as “1, 0.5 or 0” on the score card respectively.
In adding up the response, a reading above 50 indicates economic expansion, while a reading below 50 points shows contraction of economic activities.
According to the recent PMI survey, service sector business activity witnessed the strongest growth since October 2016, amid improved demand conditions.
Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana
The scheme, launched in 2016, aims to provide free LPG connections to women from BPL households by providing financial support of Rs 1600 for each new LPG connection.
Target - Initially, 5 crore BPL households were targeted to be given free LPG connections by 31st March, 2019.
But, in a record time of 28 months for its launch, it achieved the initial target of providing 5 crores LPG connection to BPL households.
It is implemented by Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas through its Oil Marketing Companies.
The identification of eligible BPL families will be made in consultation with the State/ UT based on the socio-economic and caste census data.
Providing LPG connections to BPL households will ensure universal coverage of cooking gas in the country which will empower women and protect their health.
It will also provide employment for rural youth in the supply chain of cooking gas.
Bandipur National Park
Bandipur National Park was formed from the forest areas of the then Venugopala wildlife park in 1941.
Subsequently some adjacent reserve forest areas were added to the Bandipur reserve.
This reserve was brought under Project Tiger in 1973.
The Bandipur, Nagarahole, Wayanad, Mudumalai and Sathyamangalam Tiger Landscape is spread across the states of Karnataka (Bandipur-Nagarahole), Tamil Nadu (Mudumalai-Sathyamangalam) and Kerala (Wayanad).
It is a fine example of managing inter-state Tiger Reserves for the long term Conservation of Tiger Source Population.
Presently, there is a ban on vehicle movement during night in the reserve forest areas.
Union Road Transport ministry has recently asked the state government to lift the ban.
The ministry has also mooted a flyover in the reserve area to avoid the consumption of fuel because of the ban in vehicle movement on NH 766 during night.
However, the state government has asserted that the ban will continue, citing the highest density of elephants in the reserve area.
