Current Affairs Analysis – 22.February.2020

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Global Health Security (GHS) Index, 2019

Context :

According to the Global Health Security (GHS) Index, 2019, national health security is “fundamentally weak” around the world. The report gains significance in the context of the recent Coronavirus (COVID19) outbreak.

About the Index :

  • The Global Health Security (GHS) Index, a report from the Nuclear Threat Initiative, the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and the Economist Intelligence Unit, was released in October 2019.
  • The GHS Index is the first comprehensive assessment and benchmarking of health security and related capabilities across the 195 countries that make up the States Parties to the International Health Regulations (IHR, 2005).
    • The IHR, 2005 represents an agreement between 196 countries including all the World Health Organization (WHO) Member States to work together for global health security.
  • The GHS Index assesses countries’ health security and capabilities across six categories, 34 indicators, and 85 sub-indicators. The six categories are as follow:
    • Prevention: Prevention of the emergence or release of pathogens.
    • Detection and Reporting: Early detection and reporting for epidemics of potential international concern.
    • Rapid Response: Rapid response to and mitigation of the spread of an epidemic.
    • Health System: Sufficient and robust health system to treat the sick and protect health workers.
    • Compliance with International Norms: Commitments to improving national capacity, financing plans to address gaps, and adhering to global norms.
    • Risk Environment: Overall risk environment and country vulnerability to biological threats.
  • The index measures countries’ capabilities from 0-100, with 100 representing the highest level of preparedness. The GHS Index scoring system includes three tiers.
    • Low Scores: Countries that score between 0 and 33.3 are in the bottom tier.
    • Moderate Scores: Countries that score between 33.4 and 66.6 are in the middle tier and
    • High Scores: Countries that score between 66.7 and 100 are in the upper or “top” tier.

Key Findings :

  • International Preparedness
    • The GHS Index analysis finds that no country is fully prepared for epidemics or pandemics. Collectively, international preparedness is weak.
    • The average overall GHS Index score among all 195 countries assessed is 40.2 of a possible score of 100.
    • Overall, the GHS Index finds severe weaknesses in country abilities to prevent, detect, and respond to health emergencies; severe gaps in health systems; vulnerabilities to political, socioeconomic, and environmental risks that can hamper outbreak preparedness and response; and a lack of adherence to international norms.

Railways launches online Chatbot “ASKDISHA”

Context :

Ministry of Railways upgraded services of Artificial Intelligence (AI) based ASKDISHA chatbot to converse with Railway customers in the Hindi language. It aims to resolve queries of railway passengers over the internet pertaining to various services offered. 

ASKDISHA chatbot :

  • Indian Railways introduced the services of AI-based ASKDISHA chatbot in October 2018.
  • The chatbot will be used for the benefit of the users of Indian Railways Catering & Tourism Corporation Limited’s (IRCTC) ticketing website www.irctc.co.in and tourism website www.irctctourism.com.
  • The Chatbot was initially launched in English. In order to further enhance the customer services rendered and to further strengthen the services of the chatbot, IRCTC has now powered voice-enabled ASKDISHA to converse with customers in the Hindi language. 
  • The customers can now ask queries to ASKDISHA in the Hindi language by voice and text.
  • More than 3,000 inquiries are being handled by ASKDISHA in the Hindi language on a daily basis. 
  • IRCTC also plans to launch ASKDISHA in more languages along with many other additional features in the near future.
  • ASKDISHA is a special computer programme that was designed to simulate conversations with users. 
  • The initiative was aimed to facilitate accessibility by answering users’ queries pertaining to various services offered to railway passengers. More than 150 million passengers have been benefited by ASKDISHA so far. 

DoT launched 5G Hackathon

Context :

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has launched the “5G Hackathon” on 21 February to promote applications relevant to India in the 5G realm. The 5G Hackathon was launched by DoT in association with several governments, academia-industry stakeholders.

Aim :

The hackathon is aimed to shortlist India focussed cutting edge ideas that can be converted into workable 5G products and solutions.

5G Hackathon :

  • The Hackathon will be held in three phases beginning from 21 February. The hackathon will conclude on 16 October 2020 at India Mobile Congress.
  • Winners of the various phases will be awarded a total prize of Rs.2.5 crores. Also, a unique opportunity to scale and implement their 5G applications to make them market-ready with the support of DoT, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and a number of leading industry, academia, Telcos/Original equipment manufacturer (OEM).
  • 5G Hackathon will convert innovating ideas into products and solutions in different verticals and develop India specific Use cases around 5G. 
  • Participants will be asked to develop 5G solutions from across 10 categories namely Education and Governance, AgriTech and Livestock, Healthcare, Environment, Public Safety, and Disaster Management Enterprise, Smart Cities and Infrastructure, Cyber
  • Security, Banking, Finance and Insurance, Logistics & Transportation, Multimedia and Broadcast, among others.
  • Developers, start-ups, students, SMEs, Stakeholders, academic institutions and registered companies in India and NRIs can participate in the event.
  • The details of the Hackathon can be seen on the
  • www.5ghackathon.in.

5G technology :


5G technology will provide over 4G in terms of peak data, rate, speed, latency, spectrum efficiency, and connection density. The special feature of the technology applications in different economic verticals.


Khelo India University Games 2020

Context :

The Prime Minister will launch the first-ever Khelo India University Games in Cuttack (Odisha) on February 22, 2020.

Key Points :

  • The Khelo India University Games are being launched by the Government of India in association with the Government of Odisha.
  • It is an aspirational competition for India’s youngsters with the objective of helping them find the balance between sport and education.
  • It is the largest ever competition held at the university level in India and will have about 3500 athletes from over 150 universities across the country taking part in it.
  • There will be a total of 17 sports namely archery, athletics, boxing, fencing, judo, swimming, weightlifting, wrestling, badminton, basketball, football, hockey, table tennis, tennis, volleyball, rugby and kabaddi.

Khelo India :

  • The Khelo India programme has been introduced to revive the sports culture in India at the grass-root level by building a strong framework for all sports played in our country.
  • It also aims to establish India as a great sporting nation.
  • It is implemented by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.
  • Under the scheme, the talented players identified in priority sports disciplines at various levels (by the High-Powered Committee) will be provided annual financial assistance of INR 5 lakh per annum for 8 years.

Source:PIB


Kiliki language

Context :

On International Mother Language Day (February 21), an official website of KiLiKi language has been launched.

About Kiliki language :

The new speech was invented for the terrifying warrior tribe called Kalakeya in the two-part Baahubali franchise.  It now has evolved into a language with script grammar and more than 3000 words for everyday communication. It is considered as the world’s easiest language. This fictional language was created by popular lyricist and screenwriter Madhan Karky.

About International Mother Language Day :

  • Observed every year on 21st February since 2000 to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism.
  • The idea to celebrate International Mother Language Day was the initiative of Bangladesh.
  • It was approved at the UNESCO General Conference (1999) and has been observed throughout the world since 2000.
  • The United Nations General Assembly had proclaimed 2008 as the International Year of Languages.
  • The Ministry of Human Resource and Development along with educational institutions and language institutions is celebrating the day as the Matribhasha Diwas in the country.

Sources: the Hindu.