GS 1
Category: GEOGRAPHY
- cyclone Nivar
The issue in news
Cyclone Nivar over the southwest Bay of Bengal is likely to intensify into a very severe cyclonic storm and cross the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry coasts.
Tamil Nadu and Puducherry on ‘red’ alert
- The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast the development of a cyclone in the Southwest region of the Bay of Bengal, off the Tamil Nadu coast.
- The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) is working in close coordination with district and local administrations. Awareness programmes are being conducted for all citizens.
Cyclone Nivar:
- Cyclone Nivar is a name proposed by Iran.
- It is the third name to be used from the new list of names for North Indian Ocean cyclones, released in 2020.
- After cyclone Gaja in 2018, this will be the second cyclone to cross Tamil Nadu in the last two years.
Naming Cyclones:
- An important reason why cyclones are named is to help authorities quickly identify storms and keep a track of them because it is easier to remember cyclones by their names than remembering them using technical information like longitude and latitude.
- The earlier list of names for cyclones, formulated by meteorological departments of eight countries in 2004, was exhausted after Amphan, proposed by Thailand.
- In 2018, a new panel was set up to coordinate and decide names for future cyclones.
- The names for tropical cyclones in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea are suggested by Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Yemen as per the formula agreed by World Meteorological Organisation and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific in its 27th session in 2000.
- Each of the 13 countries has proposed 13 names.
- India has proposed names such as Gati (speed), Tej (speed), Marasu (musical instrument in Tamil), Aag (fire) and Neer (water).
GS 2
Category: POLITY AND GOVERNANCE
- Poshan Abhiyaan needs a boost: study
The issue in news
According to a report by NITI Aayog, the Poshan Abhiyaan must be stepped up to meet the targets set by the Centre to reduce stunting, wasting and anaemia by 2022.
POSHAN Abhiyaan:
- POSHAN Abhiyaan is also known as the National Nutrition Mission.
- The term ‘Poshan’ in the name of the programme stands for ‘Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition’.
- It is the world’s largest nutrition programme for children and mothers.
- The mission is a multi-ministerial initiative and aims at removing malnutrition from the country by 2022.
- It aims to reduce stunting and wasting by 2% a year (total 6% until 2022) among children and anaemia by 3% a year (total 9%) among children, adolescent girls and pregnant women and lactating mothers.
POSHAN Abhiyaan.
Issues:
- More than a third of the children under five face stunting and wasting and 40% aged between one and four are anaemic.
- Over 50% of pregnant and other women were found to be anaemic, said the National Family Health Survey 4 released in 2016.
- India’s targets are conservative as compared to the global targets defined by the World Health Assembly (WHA), which is a prevalence rate of 5% of stunting as opposed to India’s goal of reducing stunting levels to 13.3% by 2022.
- The target of reducing prevalence levels of anaemia among pregnant women from 50.3% in 2016 to 34.4% in 2022 and among adolescent girls from 52.9% in 2016 to 39.66%, is also considered conservative.
Way forward:
NITI Aayog’s third progress report on the Nutrition Mission highlights the need to graduate to a POSHAN-plus strategy.
Its suggests continued strengthening of the four pillars of the Abhiyaan and a renewed focus on other social determinants in addition to addressing the governance challenges of National Health Mission (NHM)/Integrated Child Development Service (ICDS) scheme delivery mechanisms.
The report calls for a need to lay as much emphasis on complementary feeding as it does on breastfeeding, which it points out can help avert 60% of the total stunting cases in India.
GS 3
Category: SECURITY
- Govt. bans 43 more apps citing threat to security
The issue In news:
The government has blocked 43 more mobile apps, including major Chinese ones citing threat to national security, integrity and sovereignty.
Main points
- The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) issued an order under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act blocking access to 43 mobile apps.
- It stated that the action was taken based on inputs that these apps were engaging in activities which are prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the state and public order.
- It is based on the comprehensive reports received from the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Center, Ministry of Home Affairs.
Note:
Earlier, in June, the government had blocked access to 59 apps ranging from e-commerce to gaming, social media, browsers, instant messaging and file sharing. In September, another 118 apps were banned.
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