UPSC Daily Current Affairs | Prelim Bits 23-10-2020

Consumer Price Index-Industrial Workers (CPI-IW)

• The CPI-IW is mainly used for determining dearness allowance (DA) paid to central/state government employees and workers in the industrial sectors besides measuring inflation in retail prices, fixation and revision of minimum wages in scheduled employments.
• CPI-IW is compiled and maintained by the Labour Bureau, an attached office of the Ministry of Labour & Employment.
• Recently, the Ministry of Labour and Employment released the new series of Consumer Price Index for Industrial Worker (CPI-IW) with base year 2016.
• The new series of CPI-IW with base 2016 has replaced the existing series with base 2001.
• Earlier, the series were also revised from 1944 to 1949; 1949 to 1960; 1960 to 1982 and 1982 to 2001.
• The revision in base year will reflect changing consumption pattern of the working-class population over the years.
• Key changes

1. Following the change in base year, the index will give 39% weight to food and beverage consumption of workers now as against 46.2% earlier.
2. In contrast, spending on housing will get almost 17% weight as against 15.2% earlier.
3. Among consumption categories, a segment comprising spending on heads like education, health and transport by workers has been given a sizable jump in weight from 23% earlier to 30% now.

Tubarial Salivary Glands

• Researchers at the Netherlands Cancer Institute have identified a set of salivary glands deep in the upper part of the throat.
• The gland is named as “Tubarial Salivary Glands”.
• The new organ was discovered while scientists were studying prostate cancer cells using PSMA PET-CT technology.
• The discovery may be important for cancer treatment.
• The newly discovered glands are about 1.5 inches (3.9 centimeters) in length on average and are located over a piece of cartilage called the torus tubarius.
• The glands probably lubricate and moisten the upper throat behind the nose and mouth.
• So far, this nasopharynx region behind the nose was not thought to host anything but microscopic, diffuse, salivary glands.
• Until now, there were three known large salivary glands in humans:

1. Under the tongue,
2. Under the jaw and back of the jaw,
3. Behind the cheek.

PSMA PET-CT technology

• It is a combination of CT scans and positron emission tomography (PET) — which is good in detecting salivary gland tissues.
• In this technique, a radioactive “tracer” is injected into the patient that binds to the protein PSMA, which is elevated in prostate cancer cells.

Global Wealth Report 2020

• Recently, Credit Suisse has released the Global Wealth Report 2020.
• The Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date coverage of information on household wealth worldwide.
• Highlights of the report are

1. In 2019, total global wealth rose by USD 36.3 trillion and wealth per adult reached USD 77,309, which is 8.5% more when compared to 2018.
2. As a consequence, the world has been better placed to absorb any losses from Covid-19 during 2020.
3. However, total household wealth dropped by USD 17.5 trillion between January and March 2020, a 4.4% decrease compared to the value at the end of 2019.
4. Household wealth in India is dominated by property and other real assets, although financial assets have grown over time, now forming 22% of gross assets. (Stocks, bonds, bank deposits are some examples of financial assets)
5. The average wealth of Indian adults rose marginally to USD 17,420 at end-June 2020, as against USD 17,300 as of December 2019, showing some growth despite the Covid pandemic and lockdowns.
6. Wealth inequality remains quite high in India.
7. There is considerable poverty reflected in the fact that 73% of the adult population had wealth below USD 10,000 at the end of 2019.
8. Between January and April 2020, unemployment rates approximately tripled in India to 24%.

Lost River of Thar Desert

• Researchers have found the evidence of a "lost" river that ran through the central Thar Desert, near Bikaner.
• The findings represent the oldest directly dated phase of river activity at Nal Quarry in the central Thar Desert.
• The study indicates that Stone Age populations lived in a distinctly different Thar Desert landscape than we encounter today.
• This evidence indicates a river flowed with phases of activity dating to approximately up to 172 thousand years ago, nearby to Bikaner, Rajasthan, which is over 200 kilometres away from the nearest modern river.
• These findings predate evidence for activity in modern river courses across the Thar Desert as well as dried up course of the Ghaggar-Hakra River.
• The results indicated that the strongest river activity at Village of Nal occurred at a time when the monsoon was much weaker than today in the region.
• River activity continued at the site between 95 to 78 thousand years ago.

Thar Desert

• The Thar Desert, also known as the Great Indian Desert.
• It is a large arid region in the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent and forms a natural boundary between India and Pakistan.
• The Thar Desert extends between the Aravalli Hills in the north-east, the Great Rann of Kutch along the coast and the alluvial plains of the Indus River in the west and north-west.
• About 85% of the Thar Desert is located within India, with the remaining 15% in Pakistan.
• More than 60% of the desert lies in the Indian state of Rajasthan, and it extends into the states of Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana.
• Within Pakistan's Punjab province, the Thar continues as the Cholistan Desert.

Regional Raw Drug Repository (RRDR)

• Union Minister for AYUSH inaugurated the Regional Raw Drug Repository (RRDR) at All India Institute of Ayurveda, New Delhi.
• In order to document the diversity in the genetics and chemistry of medicinal plants, eight RRDR and one NRDR have been proposed by Ministry of AYUSH.
• Out of them, three Regional Raw Drug Repositories are ready.
• This RRDR is the second in the series of repositories proposed by National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB), Ministry of AYUSH and will be dedicated to the Trans-Ganga Plain Region.
• RRDR for Trans- Ganga Plain Region covers four states -Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi and Punjab.
• This RRDR would play a stellar role in collection, documentation, and authentication of raw drugs collected largely from the respective agro-climatic region.

World Osteoporosis Day

• World Osteoporosis Day is observed annually on October 20^th.
• It is organized by the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF), a non-governmental organization headquartered in Nyon, Switzerland.
• Osteoporosis, or porous bone, is a disease of progressive bone loss and skeletal deterioration in which bones become fragile and more likely to break, or fracture.
• The disease often develops unnoticed over many years, with no symptoms or discomfort, until a fracture occurs.
• There is no cure for osteoporosis, however early diagnosis, regular exercise and healthy diet are what people should follow to avoid occurrence of the bone disease in later stages of life.
• The exact medical causes of osteoporosis are not completely known.

Source: PIB, The Hindu, Indian Express