8 Jan 2024

#GS2: – 01. Zoonotic Diseases

75% of new infectious diseases that have emerged over past three decades have been zoonotic.

Limited knowl-The ministry edge and skills in identifying zoonotic diseases, coupled with a lack of diagnostic facilities at all levels,has resulted in such diseases being neglected.
– Union Health Ministry

Note : Zoonotic pathogens maybe bacterial, viral or parasitic,and can spread to humans through direct contact or through food, water or the environment.Common zoonotic diseases in India include rabies, anthrax, brucellosis, plague, bovine tuberculos is, leptospiros is and salmonellos is.

Key Terms/Issues : Zoonotic Diseases

#GS3 — 02. Solar Power

Against a target of 40 GW to be achieved by the end of 2022, only 5.87 GW of rooftop solar projects has been installed,less than 15% of the target.
-Parliament’s standing committee on energy

Currently grid-connected solar rooftop capacity stands at 11.08 GW out of the total solar capacity of 72.31 GW.
-MNRE

Note : Under the government’s energy transition plans, solar power is expected make up 292 GW out of a total renewable capacity of 500 GW by 2030. New beneficiaries can get additional financial assistance of ₹10,000 to
₹22,000 under the subsidy scheme through the national solar roof top portal. At15%,the composition of roof top solar power in the total installed solar capacity of India falls well below the global average of 40-50%.

#GS2: – 03. India-Maldives Relations

The Government of Maldives is aware of derogatory remarks on social media platforms against foreign leaders and high-ranking individuals.These opinions are personal and do not represent the views of the Government of Maldives…More over,the relevant authorities of the Government will not hesitate to take action against those who make such derogatory remarks.
– Maldives Govt. Note : President Mohamed Muizzu’s government has asked India to withdraw its military personnel from the country. It has also refused to renew a treaty on hydrographic cooperation between the two countries that was signed in 2019.

#GS1: – 04. Social Barriers to Entrepreneurship

Social opinion is of ten The first entry barrier faced by an aspiring entrepreneur. Only after this leap is Taken do other barriers come into the picture.Social opinion not only shapes individual choices,but also influences the strength of the entrepreneurial support eco-system.This collective mindset can either foster or impede the growth of nascent entrepreneurial ventures.

Leaders are incentivizing entrepreneurial explorations and trying to make them less risky. For example,Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, announced that it will Allow students and faculty members Who want to launch their own ventures to take a break of up to a year. If their ventures fail, students can resume their education and faculty member scan return to their academic positions. Social-opinion-driven barriers for entrepreneurship have been significantly lowered in several places and the results are visible. India has created the world’s third largest start up eco system in a relatively short span of time.

Only 18% of India’s unicorns are founded by women, for example, and about 42% of unicorn founders are IITians. A significant portion of venture capital funding still goes into consumer technology startups, with deep-tech startups surviving largely on other forms and sources of capital.Unique barriers persist for aspiring entrepreneurs from tier- 2and tier-3 cities, villages, less advantaged socio-economic classes and conservative communities.
-IIT Bombay Rohan Chinchwadkar

#GS1: –  05. Women Empowerment

Women represent half the world’s population and are still largely excluded from political decision making. In India’s Lok Sabha elections, The number of women contestants seats increased from 3% of all parliamentary candidates in 1957 to 6% in 2009 and further to 9% in 2019, the last such pollsheld. The representation of women in the Lok Sabha,mean while, has increased from4.5% in 1957 to 10.9% in 2009 and furtherto14.4% in 2019. The numbers make it clear that political representation in the country is dominated by men.It will take a lot more effort to increase the participation of women,which is a very important aspect of women’s empowerment in general.
– SBI Group Chief Economist Soumya Kanti Ghosh

#GS2 –06. Poverty Metrics

Without a rounded way to track poverty worldwide, and with the purely monetary approach proving too obtuse to capture actual levels of deprivation,we are left with a big void in the global poverty-policy discourse.Non-monetary dimensions used to monitor absolute or relative poverty will complement interpretative understandings drawn from monetary metrics. These can be globally bench marked and then contextualized as per the development all ands capes of low-income-countries.To meet its mandate, the World Bank needs a new movement to ensure this—and thereby help enable its member nations to collect, interpret and publicly share good-quality data.