UPSC Daily Current Affairs | Prelim Bits 09-07-2020
iasparliament
July 09, 2020
Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (AHRCs)
Recently, the Union Cabinet has given its approval for Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (AHRCs) for urban migrants and poor.
AHRC will be as a sub-scheme under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U).
The existing vacant government funded housing complexes will be converted in ARHCs through Concession Agreements for 25 years.
The States/UTs will select concessionaire through transparent bidding.
It will make the complexes livable by repair/retrofit and maintenance of rooms and filling up infrastructure gaps like water, sewer/ septage, sanitation, road etc.
The special incentives like use permission, concessional loan at priority sector lending rate, tax reliefs at par with affordable housing etc. will be offered to private/public entities to develop ARHCs on their own available vacant land for 25 years.
Target Beneficiaries - A large part of workforce in manufacturing industries, service providers in hospitality, and construction or other sectors, laborers, students etc. who come from rural areas or small towns.
Agriculture Infrastructure Fund
Union Cabinet has given approval to Agriculture Infrastructure Fund.
It is a pan India central sector scheme.
It aims to inject formal credit into farm and farm-processing based activities.
It is a part of the over Rs. 20 lakh crore stimulus package announced in response to the Covid-19 crisis.
It will provide medium - long term debt financing facility for investment in viable projects for post-harvest management Infrastructure and community farming assets.
The funds will be provided for setting up of cold stores and chains, warehousing, silos, assaying, grading and packaging units, e-marketing points linked to e-trading platforms and ripening chambers, besides PPP projects for crop aggregation sponsored by central/state/local bodies.
Duration of the scheme is FY 2020 to 2029.
Open Sky Agreements
Open Sky Agreements are bilateral agreements that the two countries negotiate to provide rights for airlines to offer international passenger and cargo services.
It expands international passenger and cargo flights.
The National Civil Aviation Policy (2016) allows the government to enter into an 'open sky' air services agreement on a reciprocal basis with SAARC nations as well as countries beyond a 5,000 kilometre radius from New Delhi.
It implies that nations within 5,000 kilometer of distance need to enter into a bilateral agreement and mutually determine the number of flights that their airlines can operate between the two countries.
India has Air Service Agreements (ASA) with 109 countries including UAE covering aspects relating to the number of flights, seats, landing points and code-share.
But does not allow unlimited number of flights between two countries.
Recently, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has expressed interest to have an Open Sky Agreement with India.
Open skies between India and UAE will allow unlimited number of flights to the selected cities of each other's countries.
Fifth and Sixth Freedom of Air
The freedoms of the air are a set of commercial aviation rights granting a country's airlines the privilege to enter and land in another country's airspace.
The Freedom of air was formulated in the Convention on International Civil Aviation of 1944, known as the Chicago Convention.
The fifth freedom of air includes the right to fly between two foreign countries on a flight originating or ending in one's own country.
The sixth freedom of air includes the right to fly from a foreign country to another while stopping in one's own country for non-technical reasons.
Measles and Rubella Elimination
Recently, the Maldives and Sri Lanka have become the first two countries in the World Health Organisation’s South-East Asian Region (WHO SEAR) to have eliminated both measles and rubella ahead of the 2023 deadline.
The Maldives reported its last endemic case of measles in 2009 and of rubella in October 2015.
Sri Lanka reported the last endemic case of measles in May 2016 and of rubella in March 2017.
In September 2019, member countries of WHO SEAR set 2023 as the target for the elimination of measles and rubella.
Earlier Bhutan, DPR Korea and Timor-Leste are countries in the region which have eliminated measles.
Earlier Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Timor-Leste have controlled Rubella.
A country is verified as having eliminated measles and rubella when there is no evidence of endemic transmission of the respective viruses for over three years in the presence of a well-performing surveillance system.
Measles
It is a highly contagious viral disease and is a cause of death among young children globally.
It is particularly dangerous for children from the economically weaker background, as it attacks malnourished children and those with reduced immunity.
It can cause serious complications, including blindness, encephalitis, severe diarrhoea, ear infection and pneumonia.
Rubella
Rubella is a contagious, generally mild viral infection that occurs most often in children and young adults.
It is also called German measles.
Rubella infection in pregnant women may cause death or congenital defects known as Congenital Rubella Syndrome (CRS) which causes irreversible birth defects.
Lithium
Lithium, a light element commonly used today in communication device technology.
It was first produced in the Big Bang, around 13.7 billion years ago when the universe came into being, along with other elements.
The present abundance of lithium in the universe is only four times the original (Big Bang) value.
It is actually destroyed in the stars.
The Sun, for instance, has about a factor of 100 lower amount of lithium than the Earth.
Helium Flash in Stars
A forty-year-old puzzle regarding the production of lithium in stars has been solved by Indian researchers.
Stars, as per known mechanisms of evolution, actually destroy lithium as they evolve into red giants.
Planets were known to have more lithium than their stars as is the case with the Earth-Sun pair.
However, leading to a contradiction, some stars were found that were lithium-rich.
When stars grow beyond their Red Giant stage into what is known as the Red Clump stage, they produce lithium in what is known as a Helium Flash and this is what enriches them with lithium.
