FSSAI bans stapler pins in tea bags from January 2018

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has banned the use of stapler pins in tea bags from January 2018. FSSAI ban order issued under Section (15) FSS Act, 2006 has deemed that any loose staple pin consumed inadvertently with tea may cause a serious health hazard.

Currently, tea bags are either stapled or knotted. According to industry estimates, the tea bag segment contributes 3-4% by value of total tea sales but it is one of the fastest growing segments at 50-60% year-on-year. The FSSAI order directs the concerned food business operators to discontinue the manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import of stapled tea bags by 1 January 2018. It also directs all food safety commissioners to take action to prevent the use of unsafe packaging materials by companies and take up measures for enforcement of its order.

Uttarakhand deploys drones to monitor forest fires

The Uttarakhand Forest Department has deployed three drones for real-time monitoring of the forest fires. This is the first time that drones are used to monitor forest fires in India. Besides monitoring of forest fire, drones are already in use for wildlife conservation for nest status, aviation ethology, crocodile and water birds counting and monitoring.

Uttarakhand is known for human-induced forest fires since a long time. In 2016, the pine forests of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh caught fire. Most of the fires in Uttarakhand happen in the Chir pine (Pinus Rroxburghii) forests because leaves of this conifer tree catch fire easily. The forest fires in Uttarakhand have been predominantly intentional for the purpose of collection of forest resources such as resin, sal seeds, honey, timber etc. To collect resin easily, the surface fires are lit so that pine needles can be removed.

In India, Uttarakhand faces maximum incidents of forest fires. In 2016, about 2,000 incidents of forest fires destroyed 4,500 hectares of forest land in Uttarakhand. Uttarakhand has about 71% of the total geographical area under forest cover. Thus, real time monitoring of forest fires will help in preventing the spread of forest fire. Though, the Forest Department employs both traditional method and modern methods with the help of satellite images, it is difficult to know about the forest fire in the Terai and Bhabar regions. The Terai region consists of fertile lowlands of the southern Himalayan, Shivalik foothills and north of Indo-Gangetic plains and the Bhabar region runs parallel to the north side of Terai.

Emma Morano, the world’s oldest person passes away

Emma Morano, the world’s oldest woman has passed away in Italy at the age of 117. She was the last known person born in the 19th century who was still alive. Emma Morano was born on 29 November 1899 in Italy. She held the Guinness World Record titles for the oldest living person and oldest living woman. 
Morano is five years younger than Jeanne Calment, the 122-year-old  person who held the title for being the oldest person ever. Morano was a solitary person who made her living by working in a factory producing jute sacks. She had been living in her two room apartment for the last 20 years. In her lifetime that spanned three centuries, she has seen two World Wars and more than 90 Italian governments. Morano had admitted that the reason behind her longevity was genetics.

Prime Minister launches BHIM-Aadhaar platform

Prime Minister has launched BHIM-Aadhaar platform from Nagpur. BHIM-Aadhaar platform is the merchant interface of the BHIM App that has been launched for making digital payments using the Aadhaar platform. BHIM App was launched in December 2016 to provide a one-stop solution for all digital payments. 

The App created a new world record by registering 1.9 crore downloads within four months since its launch. the newly launched BHIM-Aadhaar platform will help people to pay digitally using their biometric data like thumb imprint on a merchant’s biometric enabled device like a smart phone or a biometric reader. 

The App needs to be installed only by merchants and they need to connect their smartphones to the biometric scan machine to accept the payments from customers. The customers who want to pay using this app needs to link Aadhaar number and biometic fingerprint to complete a transaction.

• The most significant aspect of this BHIM-Aadhaar platform is that it enables all those citizens without access to smart phones, internet, debit/credit cards to make digital transactions.

• It eliminates the need to pay the fee currently being charged by the private card companies such as ‘MasterCard’ and ‘Visa’.

• For merchants, it would eliminate the need for long waiting period and hassle of procuring a new POS (Point of Sale) machine.

• For customers, it eliminates the hassle of remembering passwords, account numbers, or setting up of virtual payment addresses and using USSD codes to transfer money.

Parliament passes HIV and AIDS (Prevention and Control) Bill

Parliament has passed the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) (Prevention and Control) Bill, 2017. It is the first national HIV law in South Asia. The Bill seeks to safeguard the rights of people living with HIV and affected by HIV. It aims to prevent social stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV (PLHIV).

• Prevention and control the spread of HIV and AIDS. It prohibits discrimination against persons with HIV and AIDS.
• Privacy of PLHIV: No person will be compelled to disclose his HIV status except with his informed consent, and if required by a court order.
• Establishments keeping records of information of PLHIV must adopt data protection measures.
• Prohibits any individual from publishing information or advocating feelings of hatred against HIV positive persons and PLHIV.
• Safeguarding Rights: Obligations on establishments to safeguard rights of persons living with HIV arid create mechanisms for redressing complaints.
• Strengthen legal accountability and establish formal mechanisms for inquiring into complaints and redressing grievances to probe discrimination complaints against those who discriminate against PLHIV.
• It ensures that no HIV test, medical treatment or research is conducted on a person without his informed consent.
• Grounds of discrimination: Lists various grounds on which discrimination against HIV-positive persons and those living with them is prohibited.
• These include the denial, discontinuation, termination or unfair treatment with regard to employment, educational establishments, healthcare services, renting property etc.
• Bans unfair treatment of people living with and affected by HIV with regard to accessing public facilities, such as shops, hotels, restaurants, public entertainment venues, public facilities and burial grounds.
• Pre-requisite HIV testing: Prohibits, the requirement for HIV testing as a pre-requisite for obtaining employment or accessing health care or education. 

There are approximately 21 lakh persons estimated to be living with HIV in India. The prevalence of HIV in India is decreasing since last decade but the percentage of PLHIV receiving Anti-Retroviral therapy (ART) treatment is merely 28.82% against the global percentage of 41%. The Bill will provide essential support to National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) in arresting the new spread of HIV infections and thereby achieving the target of “Ending the epidemic by 2030” to meet goal Sustainable Development Goals.

Government launches URJA MITRA app

The Union Ministry of Power has launched URJA MITRA app for empowering citizens by real time information sharing o the power supply. The app provides a central platform, web-portal (www.urjamitra.com) as well as mobile app for state power Distribution utilities to distribute power outage information to rural/ urban power consumers through SMS/ push/email notifications across the country.

• The Ministry also inaugurated Rural Feeder Monitoring Scheme to monitor the quantity and quality parameters of power supply in rural areas of the country. 

• The entire data under the scheme will be hosted on National Power Portal (NPP) on a real-time basis and may be accessed by various stakeholders through web services.

The Union Government has set December 2017 as the deadline to achieve 100% rural feeder monitoring by installing additional meters and modems on all feeders across the country. The purpose of this move is to facilitate real-time communication of faults appearing in the power supply. These meters will be geo-tagged to pinpoint the location and cause of the fault and address it at the earliest.

India, Bangladesh sign 22 agreements

India and Bangladesh have signed 22 agreements in various fields such as defense, nuclear cooperation, judicial sector, earth sciences, navigation, peaceful uses of outer space, to boost bilateral cooperation. These agreements were signed in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bangladesh Prime Minister Shiekh Hasina in New Delhi after delegation level talks. India also announced concessional Line of Credit (LoC) of $4.5 billion to Bangladesh for projects in priority sectors. Moreover, India also gave LoC of $500 million to Bangladesh for defence purchases.

Some of the agreements signed are :

• MoU on Defence Cooperation Framework
• MoU on Bilateral Judicial Sector Cooperation
• MoU for extending Defence LOC of $500 million.
• MoU on Cooperation in the Field of Mass Media.
• MoU on Cooperation in the area of Cyber Security.
• MoU concerning Cooperation on Aids to Navigation.
• MoU on Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.
• MoU for Extending a 3rd Line of Credit (LoC) by GoI to GoB.
• Agreement on Cooperation in Peaceful uses of Nuclear Energy.
• MoU on Co-operation in the field of Information Technology and Electronics.
• MoU on establishing Border Haats across the border between India and Bangladesh.
• Agreement for the Regulation of Motor Vehicle Passenger Traffic (Khulna-Kolkata route).
• Inter-Agency Agreement on Cooperation regarding Nuclear Power Plant Projects in Bangladesh
• MoU on Mutual Scientific Cooperation in the field of Earth Sciences for Research and Development.