Current Affairs 1st June 2023 for UPSC Prelims Exam

Centralized Laboratory Network (CLN)

Context: India has recently joined the Centralized Laboratory Network (CLN).

About the Centralized Laboratory Network (CLN)

The CLN is a global network consisting of 15 partner facilities in 13 countries.
It operates under the umbrella of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).
The primary objective of the CLN is to test vaccines that can be utilized during pandemics and epidemic disease outbreaks.
It plays a crucial role in evaluating the safety, efficacy, and quality of potential vaccine candidates. By employing standardized methods and materials for testing, the network ensures consistency and reliability in the evaluation process.
Furthermore, the CLN is actively involved in supporting the establishment of sustainable regional outbreak preparedness infrastructure.

What is Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI)?

CEPI is a global public-private alliance to finance and coordinate the development of new vaccines to prevent and contain infectious disease epidemics.
It was launched in 2017 in response to the global Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which highlighted the need for a coordinated and proactive approach to epidemic preparedness.
CEPI was founded in Davos (Switzerland) by the governments of Norway and India, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, and the World Economic Forum.
CEPI is headquartered in Oslo, Norway.
CEPI brings together governments, philanthropic organizations, and private sector entities to provide funding and support to vaccine development projects.

Current Affairs 31st May 2023 for UPSC Prelims Exam

City Investments to Innovate, Integrate and Sustain (CITIIS) 2.0 Project

Context: The Union government approved the second phase of the City Investments to Innovate, Integrate and Sustain (CITIIS) project.

About CITIIS 2.0 Project

It is a programme under the ambit of the Smart Cities Mission, which aims to promote integrated waste management and climate-oriented reform actions.
The CITIIS 2.0 will be implemented in 18 cities which would be selected based on a competition.
Objective: To support competitively selected projects promoting circular economy with a focus on integrated waste management at the city level, climate-oriented reform actions at the State level, and institutional strengthening and knowledge dissemination at the national level.
Three components of CITIIS 2.0 Project:
- Financial and technical support for developing projects focused on building climate resilience,
- Adaptation and mitigation in up to 18 smart cities, and
- Interventions at centre, State and city levels to further climate governance.
It would span over a period of four years from 2023-2027 and would be implemented in partnership with the French Development Agency (AFD), Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), the European Union (EU), and National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA).
The funding for CITIIS 2.0 would include a loan of ₹1,760 crore from AFD and KfW, split equally, and a technical assistance grant of ₹106 crore from the European Union.

About the Smart Cities Mission

It was launched in 2015 as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme by the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry.
The main objective of the Mission is to promote cities that provide core infrastructure, clean and sustainable environment and give a decent quality of life to their citizens through the application of ‘smart solutions’.
The Mission aims to drive economic growth and improve quality of life through comprehensive work on social, economic, physical and institutional pillars of the city.
The focus is on sustainable and inclusive development by creation of replicable models which act as lighthouses to other aspiring cities.
100 cities have been selected to be developed as Smart Cities through a two-stage competition.
Central Government will give financial support to the extent of Rs. 48,000 crores over 5 years i.e., on an average Rs.100 crore per city per year. (Later the deadline was extended till June 2024).
Six fundamental principles on which the concept of Smart Cities is based are:

Ahilyabai Holkar

Context: Recently, Maharashtra Chief Minister announced that Ahmednagar city would be renamed ‘Ahilya Nagar’ after the 18th century Maratha queen Ahilyabai Holkar.

About Ahilyabai Holkar (1725 –1795)

Ahilyabai was born in Chondi village of Ahmednagar to the village head Mankoji Shinde.
It is believed that Malhar Rao Holkar, the army commander to Peshwa Bajirao, spotted eight-year-old Ahilyabai at a temple service in Chondi.
- Impressed by her devotion and character, he decided to get his son, Khande Rao, married to her.
After her husband’s death in the Battle of Kumbher against the king of Bharatpur in 1754, Ahilyabai took control of Malwa.
She excelled at administrative and military strategies under the guidance of her father-in-law, who believed she should lead her people, and not die by Sati after Khande Rao passed away.
After the death of her father-in-law and son a few years later, she petitioned the Peshwa to become the ruler, backed by the support of her army.
In 1767, Ahilyabai was crowned queen of Indore.
Ahilyabai died in the year 1795 at the age of 70.

Role in Administration

She vested the military power in Tukoji Holkar, a confidante of her father-in-law though not related.
She separated the state’s revenue from the personal use of the ruling family. Her personal expenses were met from inherited wealth and the land holdings she had.

Role in Temple-building

Hindu architecture was greatly advanced by Ahilya Bai, who built hundreds of temples and Dharmashalas across India.
She is particularly well-known for restoring and rededicating some of the holiest Hindu pilgrimage sites that the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb had desecrated and destroyed a century earlier.
- In 1780, she had the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi rebuilt, nearly a century after Mughal king Aurangzeb ordered its destruction.
- Somnath temple was rebuilt by Holkar in 1783.
Holy sites like Badrinath, Dwarka, Omkareshwari, Gaya, and Rameswaram, Holkar also supported the construction of resting lodges for travellers, and of public ghats.

Kanger Valley National Park

Context: A mouse deer has been captured in a camera trap in Kanger Valley National Park.

About Kanger Valley National Park

Location: It is located in Bastar region of Chhattisgarh and was declared a national park in 1982.
It is well known for its biodiversity, landscape, waterfalls, and subterranean geomorphologic limestone caves, and is the home of the Bastar hill myna.
The national park derives its name from the Kanger River, which flows through it. It is a tributary of Godavari River.
Topography: it is made up of low, flat areas to steep slopes, plateaus, valleys, and stream courses.
Flora: Majority of flora is mixed moist deciduous type of forests with predominance of sal, teak and bamboo trees.
Fauna: Major fauna are tigers, leopards, mouse deer, wild cat, chital, sambar, barking deer, jackals, langurs, sloth bear, flying squirrel, wild boar, striped hyena, crocodiles, monitor lizards etc.

Indian Mouse deer

The Indian mouse deer (Moschiola Indica) is found mainly in rainforests of South Asia and Southeast Asia.
It is smallest of the 12 deer species found in India.
IUCN: Least Concern; Indian Wildlife Act, 1972: Schedule I

Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY)

Context: Centre’s Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (ABPM-JAY) has reached a milestone of 50 million hospital admissions amounting to Rs 61,501 crore worth free treatment of people, as per data released by the Health Ministry.

Key findings of the data by the Ministry of Health

The AB PM-JAY is being implemented in 33 States and Union Territories except Delhi, Odisha, and West Bengal. Till date, 23.39 crore beneficiaries have been verified and issued Ayushman cards for availing free treatment under the scheme.
The PM-JAY empanelled hospital network consists of 28,351 hospitals, including 12,824 private hospitals, across the country.
PM-JAY beneficiaries can avail treatment corresponding to a total of 1,949 procedures under 27 different specialities.
Approximately 49% of Ayushman card recipients are women and over 48% of total authorised hospital admissions under the AB PM-JAY scheme have been availed by women, noted the data.

About the ABPM-JAY

PM-JAY is the world’s largest health insurance/ assurance scheme fully financed by the government.
Launched in February 2018, it offers a sum insured of Rs.5 lakh per family for secondary care (which doesn’t involve a super specialist) as well as tertiary care (which involves a super specialist).
Nodal Agency: The National Health Authority (NHA) has been constituted as an autonomous entity under the Society Registration Act, 1860 for effective implementation of PM-JAY in alliance with state governments.
The State Health Agency (SHA) is the apex body of the State Government responsible for the implementation of AB PM-JAY in the State.
Funding: The funding for the scheme is shared – 60:40 for all states and UTs with their own legislature, 90:10 in Northeast states and Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal and Uttarakhand and 100% Central funding for UTs without legislature.
Key features of ABPM-JAY:
- Under PMJAY, cashless and paperless access to services is provided to the beneficiaries at the point of service, that is, hospital.
- Health Benefit Packages covers surgery, medical and day care treatments, cost of medicines and diagnostics.
- Packaged rates (Rates that include everything so that each product or service is not charged for separately). These are flexible but the hospitals can’t charge the beneficiary more once fixed.
- The scheme also has prescribed a daily limit for medical management.