Daily News

Simplified - DNS
24 01 19
Notes
SL. THE HINDU
TOPICS
NO. PAGE NO.

1 India conducts ‘largest coastal security drill’ 07

2 Monkey fever case confirmed in Wayanad 07

3 Moving away from 1% 08

4 South Africa’s new Indian migrants 09

5 Cabinet decides to strengthen 11

6 An electoral intervention that has clicked (Lead Article) 08

7 A reckless experiment (Editorial) 08

Title 1. India conducts ‘largest coastal security drill’ (The Hindu, Page.07)
Syllabus Mains: GS Paper – III, Security
Theme About the first coastal defence exercise Sea vigil
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Highlights  In news-The first coastal defence Exercise Sea Vigil, conducted by the Navy and
Coast Guard, in close coordination with State Governments and Union Territories
concluded today, 23 Jan 2019.
 Such exercises further strengthen the overall security architecture and enhance
confidence to thwart any misadventure by anti-national elements.
Personal Notes

Title 2. Monkey fever case confirmed in Wayanad (The Hindu, Page.07)

Syllabus Prelims: Science and Technology
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Mains: GS Paper – III, Science and Technology

Theme About Kyasanur forest disease (KFD)
Highlights

In News-Kyasanur forest disease (KFD) is a tick-borne viral haemorrhagic fever

endemic (constant presence of disease) in Karnataka State, India.
 It is also referred as monkey fever by local people. The virus causing the disease:
KFD virus (KFDV) is a member of the genus Flavivirus and family Flaviviridae.

More about the disease

 KFDV was first identified in 1957, when an illness occurred in monkeys (the black
faced langur and the red-faced bonnet monkey) in Kyasanur Forest area of
Shimoga district, Karnataka State.
 Transmission to humans may occur after a tick bite or contact with an infected
animal, most importantly a sick or recently dead monkey.
 No person-to-person transmission has been described.
 Large animals such as goats, cows, and sheep may become infected with KFD
but play a limited role in the transmission of the disease.
 These animals provide the blood meals for ticks and it is possible for infected
animals with viremia to infect other ticks, but transmission of KFDV to humans
from these larger animals is extremely rare.
 Furthermore, there is no evidence of disease transmission via the unpasteurized
milk of any of these animals.
Personal Notes
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Title 3. Moving away from 1% (The Hindu, Page.08)

Syllabus Mains: GS Paper – I, Social Issues
Theme Health Financing
Highlights
Trends required for improved UHC:Health Financing transition:

As countries become richer, they tend to invest more on health, and the share of
health spending that is paid out of the pocket declines, however the health financing
transition is not bound to happen and varies based on each country.

Pooled funding mechanisms:

 Social solidarity for redistribution of resources to the less advantaged is the

key element in pushing for public policies that expand pooled funding to
provide health care.
 Pre-paid financing mechanisms, such as general tax revenue or social health
insurance (not for profit), collect taxes or premium contributions from people
based on their income, but allow them to use health care based on their need
and not on the basis of how much they would be expected to pay in to the
pooled fund.

Problem in India: Less and decreasing govt. spending on Health

 India’s public spending on health continues to hover around 1% of GDP,
accounting for less than 30% of total health expenditure.
 Out-of-pocket payments push millions of people into poverty and deter the
poor from using health services.
 Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana has about₹2,000 crore allocated
 National Health Mission has a budget of less than 0.2% of GDP and which was
again decreased in 2018-19.
Personal Notes
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Title 4. South Africa’s new Indian migrants (The Hindu, Page.09)

Syllabus Mains: GS Paper – II,International relations
Theme India-South Africa Relations
Highlights Recent context:
South African president is visiting India as Chief Guest for Republic Day parade

Article Focus:
India-South Africa relations need to become more comprehensive through outreach
to the 'New Migrants' from India to South Africa

Why?
 South Africa has one of the largest influx of migrants from other African
countries, who interact with Indian migrants.
 This interaction between Indian migrants with other African national can be
utilised to improve India's interaction with other African countries.
 Indians migrating to South Africa reflects Global South-South migration as
against the more dominant Global South to Global North migration.
 India during recent BRICS Summit highlighted the need for smooth movement
of labour worldwide.
Personal Notes
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Title 5. Cabinet decides to strengthen (The Hindu, Page.09)

Syllabus Mains: GS Paper II – Polity & Governance
Theme Cabinet approves increase in power of Autonomous Councils
Highlights  Cabinet has approved amendment to Article 280 of the Constitution to increase
powers of Autonomous Councils in Sixth Schedule areas of North East. 
 The proposed amendment will give more powers to Autonomous District Councils
of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura. 
 State Finance Commissions will be set up in Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura,
Karbi Anglong Autonomous Territorial Council and Dima Hasao Autonomous
Territorial Council. Finance Commission will recommend devolution of financial
resources to ten Autonomous District Councils, and village and municipal councils
in Sixth Schedule areas. 
 The amendment also provides for transfer of additional 30 subjects, including
public works department, forest, public health engineering, health and family
welfare, urban development, and food and civil supply to KAATC and DHATC in
Assam
 The State Election Commissions will hold elections to  Autonomous Councils,
village and municipal councils in the scheduled areas of Assam, Mizoram and
Tripura. 
 One-third of seats will be reserved for women in the village and municipal
councils. At least two nominated members in all autonomous councils will be
women.
Personal Notes
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Title 6. An electoral intervention that has clicked (Lead Article) (The Hindu, Page 8)
Syllabus Mains: GS Paper II – Polity & Governance
Theme Return to paper ballot not tenable
Highlights  The article highlights that there is scope for improvement in Electronic Voting
Machines (EVMs) but return to paper ballot for the upcoming general elections is
an untenable position.
 There has been accusations on EVMs made by several political parties but does
not stand scrutiny. There has been no concrete evidence of electoral frauds so far
with the handling of EVMs by political parties.
 However, despite Election Commission’s repeated assurance on robustness and
safeguards to prevent EVM tampering, the swirl of accusations refuses to die
down.
 The author says that administrative failures on handling and transporting of EVM
have been represented as tampering of EVMs.
 Glitches occurring the recently held assembly elections had specific reason.
 VVPAT has also added a layer of complexity in handling the EVMs. Use of VVPAT
was made as it increased transparency in the voting process and reduces
possibility of EVM hacking.
 In recent elections there were hardware issues with VVPAT due to extreme heat
and failure to handle its technicalities.
 The Election Commission asked the Technical Committee to overcome the
technical glitch in the VVPATs. Accordingly fresh set of EVMs were deployed in the
recently concluded assembly elections in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya
Pradesh.
 Thus, as per the author, the ECI is relatively better prepared to handle VVPAT-
related glitches in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
 EVMs are not networked to any internet or Bluetooth device and hence there is
very less chance of it being tampered.
 Further the Commission employs rigorous checks and safeguards during
deployment of these EVMs at electoral booths.
 So, the author says that with these heavy security, only insider officials or the
manufacturer of EVMs (Bharat Electronics Limited and the Electronics
Corporation of India Limited) can create problems.
 The implementation of the VVPAT as a device has rendered it possible to verify if
at all such schemes have happened to subvert the mandate of voters. VVPATs will
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help find if there is anything malicious that has gone on by comparing machine
tallies with the hand-counted tally of the slips.
 To strengthen people confidence in EVM, Election Commission must allow more
EVMs for cross verification at polling booths than what is being done through
random selection.
 In a recent paper, researchers such as Shamika Ravi et al have shown that the use
of EVMs had led to a significant decline in election fraud such as rigging, booth
capturing, ballot stuffing, etc in many States and even resulted in increased voter
turnout especially of the vulnerable and poorer sections of the Indian electorate. 
 These are reasons enough not to return back to primitive paper ballot process.
Thus, the EVM has served the purpose which was the reason for its deployment
by the ECI in the first place — to assure free and fair elections, and to ease the
process of voting. Improvements to the EVM are certainly possible, but a return to
paper ballots is an untenable proposition.
Personal Notes
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Title 7. A reckless experiment (Editorial) (The Hindu, Page 8)

Syllabus Prelims: Science & Technology

Mains: GS Paper III – Science & Technology

Theme Gene-edited babies - Crispr-Cas9 editing system, tinkering with CCR5gene
Highlights   Chinese scientist who created the world’s first gene-edited babies last November
has forced researchers everywhere to take a hard look at the ethics of gene-
editing.
 Editing DNA to correct disease mutations has been possible for a while now and
this raises various ethical and legal dilemmas for countries across the globe as
promise of such an effort transcends medical conditions and can help in curing
important diseases.
 Over a dozen clinical trials are currently on to treat diseases like HIV, multiple
myeloma and other forms of cancer, using the Crispr-Cas9 editing system. But
these had restricted themselves to fixing genetic flaws in sick adults.
 CRISPR/Cas9 is a bacterial immune system turned into a powerful gene-editing
tool. It consists of a DNA-cutting enzyme called Cas9 and a short piece of RNA that
guides the enzyme to a specific spot that scientists want to edit. Once the editing
machinery reaches its destination, Cas9 cleaves the DNA. Cells can repair the
break by gluing the cut ends back together, or by pasting in another piece of DNA.
It can allow conversion of one DNA base to another.
 However, the scientists has now tried germline editing which means he
deactivated a gene in two human embryos which could be inherited by the next
generation. Germline DNA is the source of DNA for all other cells in the body.
 The scientists in his experiment sought to immunise a pair of twins from HIV by
tinkering with a gene called CCR5. The problem is that while protecting against
HIV, a deactivated CCR5 gene can also make people more susceptible to West-Nile
Fever. 
 However, the scientific community has advised abundant caution while fiddling
with the human germline.
 In doing so, the scientists has violated the widely held ethical consensus that it is
too early for germline editing as we are not entirely sure of its consequences and
risks.
 The gene editing techniques are not very precise and can lead to unwanted
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mutations in a growing child causing cancer.

 Then there is the danger of mosaicism, in which some cells inherit the target
mutation, while others don’t. 
Personal Notes