Current Affairs 25th September 2018

Current Affairs 25th September 2018 - Important Points

• India conducts successful test of Prithvi Defence Vehicle on - 23rd September 2018
• Nepal to become world's first country to double its tiger population declared on - 23rd September 2018
• Scientists for first time grow miniature human oesophagus in - Lab
• PM launched world’s largest healthcare scheme named - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana
• Odisha government changed norms in food and procurement policy for - KMS
• Political candidates cannot be disqualified on basis of criminal charges - Supreme Court
• Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger resign on - 24th September 2018
• Supreme Court constitutes committee to look into jail reforms on - 25th September 2018

Current Affairs 25th September 2018 - Details

India conducts successful test of Prithvi Defence Vehicle on - 23rd September 2018

India on September 23rd, 2018 completed an effective test of its Indian designed ballistic missile defence system off the coast of Odisha. With the test, India attained a main milestone in evolving a 2 layers Ballistic Missile Defence system.
The mission, known as Prithvi Defence Vehicle mission, focused to involve targets in the exo-atmosphere area at an altitude directly above 50 kilometres of the earth's atmosphere. The test was directed from Abdul Kalam Island, previously known as Wheeler Island of the Integrated Test Range.
More about PDV Mission

• The mission decorative test-firing of an inceptor missile of the coast of Odisha to grab an incoming ballistic missile off the Bay of Bengal.
• The test was effective, because both the Prithvi Defence Vehicle interceptor and the target missile were involved efficaciously.
• In the automatic operation, the radar-based finding and tracking system detected and tracked the enemy's ballistic missile.
• The computer network with the benefit of data received from the radars foretold the trajectory of the incoming ballistic missile. The Prithvi Defence Vehicle that was kept fully ready took-off once the computer system gave the command for lift-off.
• The interceptor directed by high-accuracy Inertial Navigation System supported by a Redundant Micro Navigation System encouraged towards the projected point of the interception.
• Once the missile passed through the atmosphere, the heat shield expelled and the IR Seeker dome unlocked to look at the target location as elected by the mission computer.
• All programmes were monitored in real-time by the Telemetry/Range Stations, at different other locations.

Nepal to become world's first country to double its tiger population declared on - 23rd September 2018

Nepal is ready to become the 1st nation in the world to double fold its tiger population as part of the World Wildlife Foundation's Tx2 programme which focuses to double fold the number of tigers worldwide. The government of Nepal declared on September 23rd, 2018, on the eve of National Conservation Day, that there are now an approximated 235 wild tigers in their country, approximately double the number from around 121 in 2009.
Key highlights

• Nepal had directed a National Tiger Survey between November 2017 and April 2018 in the transboundary Terai Arc Landscape, which is a vast area of varied ecosystems shared with India.
• The survey exposed that Nepal's tiger population increased to 235 from 121 in 2009.
• The past tiger survey in 2013 had approximated the tiger population in the country to be around 198.
• With 4 years outstanding earlier to the 2022 deadline, Nepal seeks set to accomplish its goal of double folding the tiger population.
• However, this only emphasizes the continued necessity to make sure protection and improved and adjoining habitats for the long-term survival of the species.

Significance
The achievement of Nepal in doubling tiger numbers has been mostly attributed to the nation's political promise and the adoption of innovative tools and methods towards tiger conservation.
Nepal was the 1st nation to attain global standards in managing tiger conservation areas, which is an
endorsement scheme governed by the Conservation Assured Tiger Standards.

Scientists for first time grow miniature human oesophagus in - Lab

Scientists for first time have effectively cultured oesophageal organoids, a functional variant of human
food pipe by means of Pluripotent Stem Cells in laboratory. This bioengineered oesophageal organoids
forms way for new ways to study and test drugs against gut complaints. It may also result into personalised diagnostic methods and attentive in part on evolving regenerative tissue therapies to treat
and cure Gastrointestinal disorders. It will assist to study birth defects like oesophageal atresia,
organoids, eosinophilic esophagitis and Barrett’s metaplasia. Moreover, bioengineer genetically
harmonized oesophageal tissue can be also transplanted in patients.
More about Oesophagus

• It is long muscular tube part of digestive system that joins mouth to stomach to vigorously pass food.
• It is also known as gastro-intestinal tract. It is approximately 25cm long in adults. After food is swallowed, walls of oesophagus contract and helps food movement down to the stomach. The area where oesophagus connects stomach is known as gastro-oesophageal junction.
  Oesophagus contains 4 layers:
• Mucosa which is the inner layer, which assist to food pass smoothly into stomach.
• Submucosa which contains glands that produce mucus, which maintains oesophagus moist.
• Muscularis is a muscle layer, which forces food down to stomach.
• Adventitia is outer layer, which connects oesophagus to nearby parts of the body.
  Stem cell 
• Stem cell is undifferentiated cell of multi-cellular creature which is capable of producing indefinitely
  more cells via mitosis and from which certain other variety of cell may be developed by the cellular
  differentiation. There are 2 types of stem cells widely used-
  1. Embryonic stem cells that come from three to five days old human embryos. They are collected during process called in-vitro fertilization. They are called as pluripotent stem cells. These cells can produce virtually any other type of cell in the body.
  2. Induced pluripotent stem cells that can differentiate into all types of specialized cells in body. They can possibly harvest new cells for any organ or tissue.

PM launched world’s largest healthcare scheme named - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana

PM Narendra Modi initiated determined Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, under Ayushman Bharat
parasol at Ranchi, Jharkhand. The scheme goals to deliver yearly health insurance cover of Rupees five
lakh to 10.74 crore beneficiary families across India. It is advertised as world’s largest healthcare scheme that will assist beneficiary population that equals 27-28 European nations and almost equal to
population of Canada, Mexico and United States put together. The scheme will be effective from
September 25th, 2018.
More about Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana

• Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana is government supported health insurance scheme, that will deliver free coverage of equal to Rupees Five lakh per family every year in any government and empanelled private hospitals all over India.
• It will protect beneficiaries’ families identified on the basis of Socio-Economic Caste Survey 2011 in 444 districts of 30 states and UTs.
• Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana will be sponsored with 60 percent contribution from Centre and
  residual from the states.
• NITI Aayog will be working as partner for this scheme for operationalizing robust, modular and interoperable IT platform which will include a paperless and cashless transaction.
  Important Features
• Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana is entitlement-based scheme with entitlement finalised on the
  grounds of deprivation criteria in the Socio-Economic Caste Survey database.
• There will be no cap on the size of family and age under this scheme. The advantages cover under it also comprises pre and post-hospitalisation expenditures.
• It also considers all pre-existing medical conditions and will deliver reimbursement for bed charges and drugs and diagnostics 2 days before, during and fifteen days after hospital admission with transport allowance be also paid.
• The expense for treatment will be paid on package rate which will be well-defined by Government in advance basis. The package rates will consist all costs related with treatment.
• Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana permits national portability at empanelled hospital anywhere in the nation.
• It will fortify healthcare services in India by aiming poor and vulnerable population of the nation.
  ID documentation needed for verifying beneficiary under this scheme may be Aadhaar card/voter
  card/ration card. Aadhaar card is not compulsory.
•  Beneficiaries will have QR codes having applications for authentication via scanning.

Odisha government changed norms in food and procurement policy for - KMS

The Odisha government finalised to help the entry of more small and marginal farmers and sharecroppers into the procurement fold. For this, the standards of Food and Procurement Policy for the Kharif Marketing Season 2018-19 is to be altered. A faltering target to acquire 55 lakh tonnes of paddy from farmers has been finalised which will be approximately 37 lakh tonnes in terms of rice.  Previously, the Cabinet permitted the Food and Procurement Policy for Kharif Marketing Season 2019. As per to the policy for Kharif Marketing Season, the paddy or Kharif crop will be acquired between November 2018 and April 2019. The Rabi crop will be acquired from May to June 2019. 
The Central government has fixed the Minimum Support Price for the farmers as Rupees 1,750/quintal for the common variety of paddy and Rupees 1,770 for Grade-A variety.

RBI shortlisted 5 IT firms for implementation of Centralised information and Management System
Reserve Bank of India shortlisted 5 IT companies for implementation of a Centralised Information and Management System for data collection, on September 23rd, 2018.

Important Points

• The 5 IT companies are Infosys, TCS, Capgemini, IBM, L&T Infotech.
• The Centralised Information and Management System would consist of:
• Unified data collection, System driven information validation and data review,
• Data protection and storage, Providing information dissemination platform.
• Overhauling the Data Warehouse of Reserve Bank of India.
• Centralised analytics podium to ease creation of Reserve Bank of India Data Sciences
  Lab.
• This is in-line with Reserve Bank of India’s decision of data science lab where the data
  analysts from various backgrounds including data analytics, statistics, economics, econometrics and finance would work on data collection from approximately 130 banks and entities.

Political candidates cannot be disqualified on basis of criminal charges - Supreme Court

The Supreme Court governed on September 25th, 2018 that political candidates cannot be prohibited from contesting elections just because of offences been mounted against them in a criminal case.
The governing was passed by a 5-judge bench of the Supreme Court, which was led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra and encompassed Justices R.F.Nariman, A.M.Khanwilkar, D.Y.Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra. 
Important Highlights of the Judgement

• The constitution bench apprehended that candidates cannot be banned just because offences have been framed against them in a criminal case. 
• The bench also governed the legislature to consider framing a law to make sure decriminalisation of politics. 
• All candidates looking for to contest elections must announce their past criminal charges. 
• Political parties must also show the full details of the criminal offences faced by their candidates on their official website. 
• Parliament must make a law to make sure candidates with criminal records don’t enter public life or take part in law making.
• The EC also must make sure that candidates obviously specify the details of their pending cases at the time of filing their recommendations in bold letters. 

Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger resign on - 24th September 2018

The co-founders of the photo-sharing app Instagram, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, on September 24th, 2018 publicized to resign from their respective posts in the social media company.
Mike Krieger is the Chief Technical Officer, while Kevin Systrom is the CEO. They initiated the photo-sharing application in 2010 and traded it to Facebook in 2012 for approximately USD One billion.
Though they did not remark the reason to leave the organisation, however, informed about their plan to take time off to explore their creativity again.
Important Points

• Systrom and Krieger have known each other since 2010, when they met and altered a software project developed by Systrom into most popular Instagram. Instagram app has seen tremendous growth since its founding, with an approximated One billion monthly subscribers and Two million promoters.
• Evolution of Instagram and its prevalence  Instagram was created in 2010 as a location check-in app called “Burbn”, which was a software project constructed by Systrom. 
• Mike Krieger, a passionate handler of Burbn, met Systrom at a Stanford University fellowship programme and they decided to work together. 
• Ultimately, Burbn was reconfigured and renamed as the Instagram.
• Systrom and Krieger worked together to make Instagram famine via photo filters and camera lenses. The duet worked out of a small office in the San Francisco. 
• Instagram ultimately was notified by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who realised the power of Instagram's photo-sharing network. 
• Facebook purchased Instagram for USD One billion in cash and stock. It was Facebook's principal acquisition till date.
• The deal instantly turned Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger into big millionaires.

Supreme Court constitutes committee to look into jail reforms on - 25th September 2018

The Supreme Court on September 25th, 2018 formed a 3 members committee to investigate the problems of jails in India and propose reform measures. The committee led by former Supreme Court judge Justice Amitava Roy will investigate the characteristic of jail reforms around the nation and recommend measures to handle them.
Key Highlights

• The committee, led by Supreme Court judge Amitava Roy, would include 2 officers from the Union
  Government.
• The committee’s duties will comprise investigate the problems of jails around the nation including
  overloading in prisons, human rights issues of prisoners and issues about female prisoners suffering in jail-cells for years.
• After investigating the problems, the committee would be needed to recommend guidelines to deal with them.
• The Supreme Court had on August 27th kept back its order on the matter of creating a committee to tackle with problems relating to jails and propose reforms for prisons around the nation.
  Did you know?

The Supreme Court bench containing Justices M.B.Lokur, S Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta had expressed its annoyance explaining that the government had collected big amount under the orders of the supreme court but the funds were not being used accurately.  The court had also previously passed a slew of guidelines over abnormal deaths in jails and on prison reforms across India.