Global Press Freedom Index
Context :
India has dropped two places on a global press freedom index to be ranked 140th out of 180 countries in the annual Reporters Without Borders analysis released.
India :
World Press Freedom Index 2020 murders of journalists in India in 2019, as against six in the year 2018 and the security situation for the country’s media might seem on the face.
India dropped two places on a global press freedom index to be ranked 142nd out of 180 countries in the annual Reporters Without Borders analysis.
Reporters Without Borders :
Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF), or Reporters Without Borders, is a non-profit organization that works to document and combat attacks on journalists around the world.
Norway is ranked first in the Index for the fourth year running. China in the 177th position is just three places above North Korea, which is on 180th.
South Asia features poorly on the Index, with Pakistan dropping three places to 145, and Bangladesh dropping one place to 151.
New viper species Discovered
Context :
Indian herpetologists have discovered a new species of viper family in Pakke Tiger Reserve in Arunachal Pradesh, and the green pit viper species was discovered by a team led by Zeeshan Mirza.
Highlights :
- A group of researchers who recorded this serpent has named it Salazar’s pit viper. The name was inspired by Salazar Slytherin, the co-founder of J.K. Rowlings’ fictional Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
- The viper Trimeresurus Salazar has a unique orange to reddish stripe present on the head and body in males.
- The pit vipers belong to the genus Trimeresurus and are distributed widely across East and South-East Asia.
- This is the second species discovered within the course of the expedition to Arunachal Pradesh, which reflects the poor nature of biodiversity documentation across North-East India.
- Dedicated surveys in the future conducted across north-eastern India will help document biodiversity, which is under threat from numerous development activities that include road widening, agriculture, and hydro-electric projects.
Global Report on Food Crises
Context :
Global Network Against Food Crises report officially released by the UN World Food program.
Report highlights :
- The report indicates around 135 million people across 55 countries and territories experienced acute food insecurity. Around 55 food-crisis countries covered by the report and 75 million children were stunted. 183 million people were classified in Stressed (IPC/CH Phase 2) conditions.
- Among 43 million live in the Middle East and Asia and 18.5 million live in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Acute food insecurity when a person’s inability to consume adequate food puts their lives or livelihoods in immediate danger. Each year by the UN’s annual State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report are released.
This report is the result of a consensus-based and multi-partner analytical process involving 16 international humanitarian and development partners (in alphabetical order) and various organisations participated all the way to United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Comité Permanent Inter-Etats de Lutte contre la Sécheresse dans le Sahel (CILSS), the European Union (EU), Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Global Food Security Cluster, Global Nutrition Cluster, Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Global Support Unit, Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Sistema de la Integración Centroamericana (SICA), Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Coronavirus | Humans to blame for pandemic
Context :
According to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), 60% of human infectious diseases originate from animals.
Key Points :
- Zoonoses
- It is the name given to diseases transmitted from animals to humans.
- It is based on the Greek words for “animal” and “sickness”.
- Examples: Rabies (rabid dogs), Ebola (fruit bats), West Nile virus (infected mosquitoes), the Zika virus (infected Aedes species mosquito)–and the most recent – the novel coronavirus Covid-19 (bat/pangolin).
- Changed Ecosystems
- Zoonoses are opportunistic and thrive where there are changes in the environment, changes in animal or human populations that serve as hosts for certain pathogens, or changes in the pathogen (disease causing microorganisms), itself.
- In the last century, a combination of population growth and reduction in ecosystems and biodiversity has culminated in unprecedented opportunities for pathogens to pass between animals and people.
- Humans-led Changes in the Environment
- By altering land use–for settlement, agriculture, logging, extractive or other industries and their associated infrastructure–humans fragment and encroach into animal habitats.
- Destruction of natural buffer zones that would normally separate humans from animals, thus creating opportunities for pathogens to spill over from wild animals to people.
- Climate change– primarily the result of greenhouse gas emissions–exacerbates the situation. Changes in temperature, humidity and seasonality directly affect the survival of microbes in the environment.
- Proximity to different species through wet markets (live animal market) or consumption of wild animals can also facilitate animal to human transmission.
- Resistance to Drugs: One example of this is the emerging resistance of pathogens to antimicrobial drugs–such as antibiotics, antifungals, antiretrovirals and antimalarials–often resulting from the misuse of the drugs, either by people or in veterinary medicine.
- Domesticated animals are often a “bridge” between pathogens from the wild and humans.
Woes of Migrants Amid Covid-19
Context :
The Covid-19 pandemic and the imposition of lockdown in order to curb it has brought the perils of migrant workers into the light.
Challenges :
- Most of the migrant workers are not routed through licensed contractors so a huge number is excluded from getting any benefit out of the Inter-State Migrant Workmen (ISMW) Act, 1979.
- According to ISMW Act, an inter-State migrant worker is any person who is recruited by or through a licensed contractor.
- The ISMW Act was drawn up after repealing the Orissa Dadan Labour Act, 1975.
- According to ISMW Act, an inter-State migrant worker is any person who is recruited by or through a licensed contractor.
- The Act is only applicable to any establishment which has five or more inter-State migrant workers as employees which again leaves a significant number of workers.
- In reality, a small proportion of migrant workmen are placed under such establishments.
- Migrants from establishments with less than five migrant employees also cease to be migrants, legally.
- The ISMW Act is also not legally enforceable.
- Coronavirus crisis has exposed the inadequacy of the ISMW Act highlighting needs for legal safeguards and welfare measures for migrants.
Steps Taken by Government :
- The UWSS Act, 2008: It provides for social security and welfare of unorganised workers.
- The UWSS Act defines unorganised workers as home-based worker, self-employed worker or wage worker in the unorganised sector.
- It has two features:
- Registration of unorganised workers.
- Portable smart I-card with a UWIN.
- Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-dhan Yojana: To ensure old age protection for unorganised workers.
- Atal Pension Yojana: It is a social security scheme launched under the National Pension System (NPS) and aims at providing a steady stream of income after the age of 60 to all citizens of India including the migrants and labourers.
- Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana and Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (under the Gram Swaraj Abhiyan): Both of the schemes provide for life insurance and accident insurance respectively to the migrants and labourers.
- Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (Ayushman Bharat): It aims at providing health cover to protect the migrants among others against the financial risk arising out of catastrophic health episodes.