UPSC Daily Current Affairs | Prelim Bits 02-10-2020

Decade of Healthy Ageing

• Union Ministry for Health & Family Welfare has launched Decade of Healthy Ageing (2020-2030).
• It is aimed at mainstreaming issues related to elderly and to deliberate upon ways to ensure better and effective delivery of services, making full use of convergence mechanisms.
• The broad aims of the initiatives will include evolving convergence within various national health programs and also promoting inter-sectoral coordination with other line Departments/Ministries.
• Community based organizations, NGOs and multinational agencies will also be involved for developing an implementation framework for multi-sectoral engagement on healthy aging.

International Day of Older Persons

• International Day of Older Persons is observed on 1st October every year.
• It is designated in 1990 by the United Nations General Assembly.
• The 2019 theme is aligned with Sustainable Development Goal 10 (SDG 10) and focuses on pathways of coping with existing and preventing future old age inequalities.
• SDG 10 has the target to reduce inequality within and among countries and ensure equal opportunities for all.

Longitudinal Aging Study of India (LASI)

• Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has launched the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI) in 2016.
• It will assess the needs of its elderly people and frame policies accordingly.
• The survey will take into account study on 60,000 elderly people over 25 years plan and will be the largest survey of its kind.
• LASI project will be jointly funded by the Union Health Ministry, United Nation’s Population Fund-India and United States National Institute on Ageing.
• The survey would be undertaken by the Mumbai based International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), in collaboration with Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and University of Southern California (USC).
• It will provide Union Health Ministry sufficient data on older population in the country that in turn would be used to develop a scientifically validated data needed for their health, economic and social analysis of the older population.
• It will investigate various health structures, and impact of social determinants on health of the elderly.
• It will provide scientific data for framing evidence-based policy for elderly citizens and help in expanding the scope of health and social security policy and programmes for older population.

RAISE 2020

• Union government has announced the mega event, RAISE 2020- ‘Responsible AI for Social Empowerment 2020,’ in April 2020.
• It is organized by Government of India along with Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and NITI Aayog.
• RAISE 2020 is India’s first Artificial Intelligence summit to be organized by the Government in partnership with Industry & Academia.
• The summit would be a global meeting of minds to exchange ideas and charter a course to use AI for social empowerment, inclusion, and transformation in key areas like Healthcare, Agriculture, Education and Smart Mobility amongst other sectors.
• The RAISE 2020 Summit will feature some of the most exciting global startups working in Artificial Intelligence related fields.
• It will be a chance for startups to showcase ideas that present great potential in accelerating social transformation, inclusion, and empowerment.

BRAHMOS Supersonic Cruise Missile

• BRAHMOS is a joint venture between the Defence Research and Development Organization of India (DRDO) and the NPOM of Russia.
• Brahmos is named on the rivers Brahmaputra and Moskva.
• It is a two-stage (solid propellant engine in the first stage and liquid ramjet in second) air to surface missile with a flight range of around 300 km.
• India's entry into the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) has extended the range of the BRAHMOS missile to reach 450 km-600km, a shade above its current MTCR capped range of 300 km.
• Brahmos is the heaviest weapon to be deployed on Su-30 MKI fighter aircraft, with a weight of 2.5 tonnes.
• Brahmos is a multiplatform i.e it can be launched from land, air, and sea and multi capability missile with pinpoint accuracy that works in both day and night irrespective of the weather conditions.
• It operates on the "Fire and Forgets" principle i.e it does not require further guidance after launch.
• Brahmos is one of the fastest cruise missile currently operationally deployed with speed of Mach 2.8, which is 3 times more than the speed of sound.

Source: PIB, AIR