The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration has been formally adopted by UN member states at a conference in Marrakesh, Morocco.
It is the first intergovernmental negotiated agreement under the auspices of UN to cover all dimensions of migration.
It aims to protect the human rights of migrants, help them resettle and ensure they have access to education.
The agreement was signed in the UNGA by adopting a political declaration “New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants” in 2016.
It is a non-binding political accord on member countries.
Under the agenda, member States committed to cooperate internationally to facilitate safe, orderly and regular migration.
Few countries have refused to sign or withdrawn from the agreement – USA, Australia, Hungary, Australia, Israel, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Latvia, Italy, Switzerland and Chile.
Vaccine for Multiple Pathogens
A global coalition set up to develop a synthetic vaccine system that could be tailor-made to fight multiple pathogens such as flu, Ebola, Marburg and Rabies.
Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and Britain scientists is developing a “vaccine platform” to fight disease epidemics.
Vaccine platform is using synthetic self-amplifying RNA (saRNA) approach.
SaRNA aims to harness the body’s own cell machinery to make an antigen rather than injecting the antigen itself directly into the body.
It can be adapted to immunize against different diseases by inserting new genetic sequences.
The other advantage of this approach is that it’s very rapid to manufacture.
Antigen – A foreign substance which induces an immune response in the body.
Antibodies - also called immunoglobulins, are proteins manufactured by the body that help fight against foreign substances called antigens.
CEPI, set up in 2017, aims to dramatically speed up the development of vaccines against new and unknown diseases, collectively known as “Disease X”.
National Pension Scheme
It is a pension cum investment scheme launched to provide old age security.
The scheme was introduced for central government employees who joined service on or after January 1, 2004 and later extended to all citizens (18-65 years) in 2009.
The minimum employee contribution in NPS is 10 per cent of basic pay. An equal contribution is made by the government.
It offers two kinds of accounts – Tier 1 and Tier 2.
Tier 1 account is non-withdrawable till the person reaches the age of 60.
The Tier II NPS account works like a savings account from where the subscriber is free to withdraw money as and when required.
The subscribers could withdraw 60% of the corpus, with 40% of mandatory being deposited in annuity schemes.
Of the 60%, one-third was taxable and two-third was tax exempt. 40% of the fund deposited in annuities is totally tax exempted.
Recent developments – The government has recently announced few changes in the scheme.
The government increased its share of contribution from the current 10% to 14%.
The tax exemption limit when withdrawing funds from corpus has also been increased.
Following the changes, the entire 60% of the fund withdrawn from the corpus is tax-exempted.
Taken in combination with 40% deposited in annuities, the change means that the entire withdrawal from NPS will now be tax free.
Contribution by the Government employees under Tier-II of NPS will now be covered for tax exemption up to Rs. 1.5 lakh.
Kaiga Nuclear Power Plant
Kaiga plant in Karnataka has recently created a world record for the longest uninterrupted operation for 941 days.
It breaks the earlier record of 940 days by the Heysham – 2 reactor of United Kingdom.
Kaiga is an indigenously built Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR) run by domestic fuel (Uranium).
It began commercial operation in 2016.
While Kaiga is a PHWR and Heysham-2 Unit-8 is an Advanced Gas Cooled Reactor (AGR).
Agni – V
Agni – V was successfully test fired from a canister on a road mobile launcher from Dr. Abdul Kalam Island, off the coast of Odisha.
It is India’s longest-range ballistic missile which will be inducted into the nuclear arsenal soon.
It is an Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) with a range of over 5,000 km and can reach most parts of China.
It is powered by three stage solid fuelled missiles.
It can carry a payload of 1.5 tonnes.
It is a part of Integrated Guided Missile Development Program (IGMDP).
Earlier variants of the Agni family of long-range missiles have already been deployed.
International Conference on Sustainable Water Management
The first International conference on sustainable water management was recently organized in India.
It was organized under the aegis of national hydrology project, Union Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.
National hydrology project is a central sector scheme, helps in gathering hydro-meteorological data which will be stored and analysed on a real time basis.
