Most Important CA for UPSC Prelims 2021 April-July Set-13

Table of Contents

GLOBAL ENERGY REVIEW 2021

International Energy Agency (IEA) released the annual Global Energy Review which assesses the direction of energy demand and carbon dioxide emissions that are taking in 2021.
The IEA is an autonomous intergovernmental organisation within the OECD framework, headed by its Executive Director.
Governing Board is the main decision-making body of the IEA
It is composed of energy ministers or their senior representatives from each Member country.
created in 1974 to help co-ordinate a collective response to major disruptions in the supply of oil.
focuses on its energy policies which include economic development, energy security and environmental protection.
These policies are also known as the 3 E’S of IEA.

INDIAN RHINO VISION 2020

Indian Rhino Vision 2020 (IRV 2020) has officially come to a close with the
translocation of two rhinos to Manas National Park from Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary in Assam, India.
It was eighth round of rhino translocation under IRV 2020.
It was designed by Rhino Task Force 2005 with a target to achieve rhino population to 3,000 by 2020 in seven protected areas in Assam.
These areas include Kaziranga national park, Pobitora national park, Orang national park, Manas national park, Laokhowa wildlife sanctuary, Burachapori wildlife sanctuary and Dibru Saikhowa wildlife sanctuary.

Success of IRV 2020

Indian rhino numbers have increased from about 2,575 to more than 3,550 – a 38% increase in 9 years.
According to WWF- India data in 2012, more than 91 percent of Assam’s rhinos and about 80 percent of India’s rhinos count are concentrated within Kaziranga national park, with a few in Pobitora wildlife sanctuary.
IRV 2020 re-populate those areas where the habitat is still suitable by translocating animals from other rhino protected areas, such as Pobitora and Kaziranga National Parks.
Manas, which did not have even a single rhino 10 years ago, has now become home to 20 rhinos.
It helped to reduce the death of the rhinos from poaching and sickness.
It helped to move the IUCN status of Indian rhino from endangered (since 1986) to vulnerable in 2008.
National Rhino Conservation Strategy: It is launched by the Ministry for Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) in 2019 on the occasion of World Rhino Day to conserve the greater one-horned rhinoceros.
New Delhi Declaration on Asian Rhinos 2019:
India collaborates with Bhutan, Nepal, Indonesia and Malaysia to increase the population of three species of Asian rhinos,
Including the Greater one-horned rhinoceros found in the Indian sub-continent.

GLOBAL GENDER GAP REPORT

Recently, World Economic Forum (WEF) released Global Gender Gap Report 2021.
Global Gender Gap Index was first introduced by the WEF in 2006 as a framework to benchmark progress on disparities between women and men across countries, and over time.
Global Gender Gap Index measures scores on a 0 to 100 scale and scores can be interpreted as the distance to parity (i.e., the percentage of the gender gap that has been closed).
Global Gender Gap Report 2021 benchmarks 156 countries across four thematic dimensions (in bracket, percentage of the gender gap that has been closed at global level).

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

Recently UNFPA launched the State of World Population Report, 2021 titled My Body Is My Own.
The report measures women’s access to bodily autonomy through their power to make their own decisions about their reproductive health care, contraceptive use and sexual relations.
Despite constitutional guarantees of gender equality in many countries, worldwide, on average, women enjoy just 75 per cent of the legal rights of men.
Global Conventions supporting Reproductive rights
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 1996.
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, 1979
Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the preceding Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) also encompass several goals that directly as well as indirectly recognise reproductive rights.
Target 5.6 of SDG ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

MEDICAL OXYGEN

India has been facing shortage of Medical Oxygen (MO) at several locations amidst a massive surge in Covid-19 infections.
The term ‘medical oxygen’ means high purity oxygen, which is used by hospitals and clinics in the treatment of various illnesses that cause oxygen saturation levels in the body to drop.
It generally comprises of minimum 90% oxygen (O2) with 5% nitrogen and 5% argon.
Medical grade oxygen is highly concentrated and can be obtained in several ways

Liquifying air – cryogenic distillation:

Method Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) with 5% purity, is manufactured in large plants using cryogenic distillation techniques to compress atmospheric air, feed it into distillation columns and get liquid oxygen
This LMO is then supplied to distributors where it undergoes a process of regasification to convert the oxygen into gaseous form and fill it in cylinders.
Oxygen concentrator:
- It is an electrically powered medical device designed to concentrate oxygen from ambient air.
- The device takes in surrounding air, filters it through a sieve (nitrogen-absorbing zeolite membranes), releases the nitrogen back into the air, and works on the remaining oxygen.
- This oxygen, compressed and dispensed is 90-95 per cent pure.
- Concentrators can be attached with multiple tubes to serve two patients at the same time, but experts don’t recommend it due to risk of cross-infection.
- Pressure swing absorption (PSA) plants: A PSA oxygen plant employs a technology that absorbs nitrogen from ambient air to concentrate oxygen for supply to hospitals.
- They help hospitals become self-sufficient in their requirement for medical oxygen while also reducing the burden on the national grid for supply of medical oxygen.
- They operate at near-ambient temperatures and use specific adsorbent materials (that trap a substance on their surface) like zeolites, activated carbon, molecular sieves etc., to trap oxygen at high pressure.
- The oxygen that remains 92-95 per cent pure is compressed and fed into oxygen pipelines.