1. The Mizoram Maintenance of Household Registers Bill, 2019
• The Mizoram Assembly has unanimously passed the Mizoram Maintenance of Household Registers Bill, 2019.
• As per the Bill, it shall be the responsibility of every householder as well as every member of household in the state to furnish all such information, particulars and passport-size photographs of the members of the household as may be required by the registering authorities,”.
• It aims to create registers containing the names, details and photographs of every resident of the state, on a household basis, in an effort to detect illegal foreigners staying and “eating away” benefits of development schemes.
• Once the information prescribed by the state government is received, the concerned registering authority will compile the details in two distinct registers- one for the citizen residents and another for non-citizen residents of a village/area/town.
• The Bill says that all government departments and police may use the household registers for administrative purposes, during implementation of development schemes and law enforcement.
• It defines “citizens” as a person registered as such, or having requisite qualification as prescribed under the Citizenship Act, 1955.
• Influx of foreigners into Mizoram through its porous borders has remained a serious concern for several decades. In many cases the benefit of development and welfare programmes are found eaten away to a large extent by such foreigners who clandestinely stayed back and got assimilated in the people of the state by taking advantage of the mistaken identity and of difficulties in detecting them.
• Large scale influx of foreigners and their malafide assimilation with the permanent residents in the villages of Mizoram has led to an “abnormal increase in the population” and poses a law and order threat.
2. Indian Forest Act amendment
• The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) has finalised the first draft of the comprehensive amendments to the Indian Forest Act, 1927 (IFA). The 123-page draft provides definitions to important terms that were missing from the law.
• The amendment defines community as “a group of persons specified on the basis of government records living in a specific locality and in joint possession and enjoyment of common property resources, without regard to race, religion, caste, language and culture”.
• Forest is defined to include “any government or private or institutional land recorded or notified as forest/forest land in any government record and the lands managed by government/community as forest and mangroves, and also any land which the central or state government may by notification declare to be forest for the purpose of this Act.”
• The amendment also introduces a new category of forests — production forest. These will be forests with specific objectives for production of timber, pulp, pulpwood, firewood, non-timber forest produce, medicinal plants or any forest species to increase production in the country for a specified period.
3. India achieves 84 % reduction in TB deaths among HIV patients: UN
• India has achieved an 84 per cent reduction in tuberculosis deaths among people living with HIV by 2017.
• According to the Joint United Nations Programme on the UNAIDS, it is the highest recorded decline among over 20 nations and it is also three years ahead of the 2020 deadline.
• UNAIDS has urged countries to step up action to meet the 2020 target of reducing TB deaths among people living with HIV by 75 per cent, as outlined in the 2016 United Nations Political Declaration on Ending AIDS.
• World Health Organisation estimates show that globally, TB deaths among people living with HIV have fallen by 42 per cent since 2010.
4. Indira Gandhi International Airport
• The national capital`s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) has now become the world`s 12th busiest airport, moving up four places from the 16th spot in 2017.
• The preliminary world airport traffic rankings for 2018 has been released by the Airports Council International (ACI).
• The ACI report said the IGI airport saw 6.9 crore domestic and international flyers in 2018, which is 10.2% points higher than the combined passengers of 2017.
• Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in the US was named the busiest airport in the world.
• Indira Gandhi International Airport serves as the primary civilian aviation hub for the National Capital Region of Delhi, India.
• The airport, spread over an area of 5,106 acres (2,066 ha),[4] is situated in Palam, 15 km (9.3 mi) south-west of the New Delhi railway station and 16 km (9.9 mi) from New Delhi city centre.
• Named after former Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi, it is the busiest airport in India in terms of passenger traffic since 2009.
• It is also the busiest airport in the country in terms of cargo traffic, overtaking Mumbai during late 2015.
• In the calendar year 2018, it was the 12th busiest airport in the world and 6th busiest airport in Asia by passenger traffic handling over 63.4 million passengers.
• It is the world`s busiest airport for Airbus A320 aircraft.
• The planned expansion program will increase the airport`s capacity to handle 100 million passengers by 2030.
5. India ranks 76th (among 115 countries) on a global energy transition index
• India ranks 76th (among 115 countries) on a global energy transition index which was compiled by Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF), based on their energy system performance and affordability.
• The top three performers are Sweden, followed by Switzerland and Norway.
• In the second edition of the Energy Transition Index, India improved its rank by two points from last year (2018) higher than China (82nd).
• Despite the fact that India has high pollution levels and high CO2 intensity amongst these 115 countries, it has made a significant improvement in its energy access and regulations in recent years.
• In the BRICS block of emerging economies, After Brazil (rank 46th) India ranked second best. Among the major economies, UK ranked 7th, Singapore ranked 13th, Germany ranked 17th, Japan ranked 18th and the US ranked 27th in this index.
• India scored low in terms of system performance (ranking 97 and 86, respectively), but it ranks considerably higher in terms of readiness to adapt to future energy needs (45 and 61 respectively).
6. Energy Transition index
• India has moved up two places to rank 76th on a global energy transition index.
• The index has ranked 115 economies on how well they are able to balance energy security and access with environmental sustainability and affordability.
• Sweden remains on the top on this annual list compiled by Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF).
• Sweden is followed by Switzerland and Norway in the top three.
• It said India is amongst the countries with high pollution levels and has a relatively high CO2 intensity in its energy system.
• The WEF said energy systems have globally become less affordable and less environmentally sustainable than they were five years ago, though access to energy has improved with less than 1 billion now living without access to electricity.
• India is amongst the countries with high pollution levels and has a relatively high CO2 intensity in its energy system.
• Despite this, India has made significant strides to improve energy access in recent years, and currently scores well in the area of regulation and political commitment towards energy transition.
7. Pakistan approved Sharada Peeth Corridor proposal for Hindu Pilgrims from India
• After Kartarpur Corridor, now Government of Pakistan has given its consent to the proposal of opening Sharada Peeth Corridor for Hindu pilgrims to visit Sharada Peeth located in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (POK).
• The 5000 years old Sharada Peeth is an ancient Hindu temple and cultural site in PoK.
• It is also an ancient centre of learning, dedicated to the Hindu goddess of learning.
• After Partition in 1947, the temple went under the control of Pakistan.
• It is about 130km from Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu & Kashmir.
• Kashmiri Pandits consider Sharada as their “kuldevi” or principal deity.
8. India, Bangladesh to start cruise service
• India and Bangladesh will start a cruise service that would take passengers through the Sunderbans to Dhaka.
• The move aims to strengthen inland waterway routes between the two countries.
• Other than road and rail, India and Bangladesh also have very strong power connectivity through waterways.
• As the movement of goods starts using inland waterways, goods from India can go in the cheapest possible form up to Narayanganj and Dhaka in Bangladesh.
• Apart from it, people would have the option to travel through the Sunderbans on luxury vessels up to Dhaka.
9. Government notifies Drugs and Clinical Trials Rules 2019
• Health and Family Welfare Ministry have notified the Drugs and Clinical Trials Rules, 2019 with an aim to promote clinical research in the country.
• The new rules will change the regulatory landscape for the approval of new drugs and conduct of clinical trials in the country.
• These rules will apply to all new drugs, investigational new drugs for human use, clinical trial, bioequivalence study and Ethics Committee.
• It has reduced the time for approving applications to 30 days for drugs manufactured in India and 90 days for those developed outside the country.
• The ethics committee will monitor the trials and decide on the amount of compensation in cases of adverse events.
10. CBSE to introduce artificial intelligence, yoga as new subjects
• The CBSE will introduce artificial intelligence (AI), early childhood care education and yoga as new subjects in the school curriculum from the upcoming academic session.
• A decision to introduce the three subjects was taken at a recent meeting of the board`s governing body.
• The CBSE is introducing artificial intelligence as an optional 6th subject at Class IX from the session 2019-2020 onwards.
• The board has also decided to introduce yoga and early childhood education as elective subjects at senior secondary level.
• As per norms, a skill subject, at the secondary level, may be offered as additional sixth subject along with the existing five compulsory subjects.