Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 12 August 2021

::NATIONAL::

Chief Election Commissioner of India and current Chairman, FEMBoSA Shri Sushil Chandra inaugurated the 11th Annual meeting of the Forum of the Election Management Bodies of SouthAsia (FEMBoSA) for the year 2021.

About:

The meeting in Virtual mode was hosted by the Election Commission of Bhutan. Sushil Chandra, CEC, as the outgoing Chair of FEMBoSA, virtually handed over the Chairmanship of FEMBoSA to Dasho Sonam Topgay, Chief Election Commissioner of Bhutan.
The Forum of the Election Management Bodies of South Asia (FEMBoSA) was established at the 3rd Conference of Heads of Election Management Bodies of SAARC Countries held at New Delhi in 2012.
The annual FEMBoSA meeting is held by rotation among the members.
Besides ECI, the other 7 members are EMBs from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
The objectives of the Forum are to promote contact among the EMBs of the SAARC countries; share experiences with a view to learning from each other and cooperate with one another in enhancing the capabilities of the EMBs towards conducting free and fair elections.

The Government has made a provision for opening of Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) in each of the rural districts across the country.
Till date, 725 KVKs have been established across the country.
KVK aims at assessment of location specific technology modules in agriculture and allied enterprises, through technology assessment, refinement and demonstrations.
Lately, KVKs have been strengthened with infrastructural facilities like, pulses seed hubs, soil testing kits, micro-irrigation systems, Integrated Farming Systems units, farm machineries etc.
KVK scheme is 100% financed by the Government.

It is the renamed version of National Security Advisor (NSA) LevelTrilateral on Maritime Security(of 2011) with India, Sri Lanka and Maldives as members and Secretariat at Colombo.
Recently, in Deputy-NSA talks, Bangladesh, Mauritius and Seychelles accepted offer to become full members of the conclave from existing observer members.
It will further help the security conclave in better cooperation and coordination and build capacity to handle common security threats effectively.

Significance of the grouping

According to experts six countries from the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) which are in the immediate neighbourhood of India have come together. And the common thread that ties them is maritime cooperation and security in the region which assumes importance in a wider global context.
With the six countries attending the meeting the focus areas were expanded and now it covers weapons and human trafficking, countering terrorism and violent extremism, protection of maritime environment, capacity building, transnational crimes including narcotics, and HADR, etc.

About Marburg

It is highly virulent disease that causes haemorrhagic fever, with a fatality ratio of up to 88%.
It belongs to same family as Ebola virus.
First outbreak was in 1967 in Germany and Serbia simultaneously.
Humans catch this infection through prolonged exposure to mines or caves inhabited byRousettus bats.
It can spread through human-to-human transmission via direct contact of infected people, and with contaminated surfaces and materials.

Treatment:

Early supportive care with rehydration and symptomatic treatment increases the chances of survival.
There is no licensed treatment to neutralise the virus. But various blood products, immune therapies and drug therapies are currently under development.

Symptoms of Marburg virus disease

The incubation period varies from 2 to 21 days. The initial symptoms of the virus include high fever, severe headache and severe malaise.
Muscle aches and pains are common features. Abdominal cramps, pain, severe watery diarrhoea, nausea might also begin on the third day. Diarrhoea may persist for a week.
In severe cases, death occurs most often between 8 and 9 days after symptoms onset.

Department of Expenditure,Ministry of Finance released 5th monthly installment of Post DevolutionRevenue Deficit(PCRD) Grant of Rs.9,871 crore to 17 States.

About PDRD:

Provided to the States under Article 275 of the Constitution.
It aims to help the states to meet the gap in Revenue Accounts post devolution.
Eligibility of States to receive this grant and the quantum of grant was decided by fifteenthfinance Commission (FFC) based on the gap between assessment of revenue and expenditure of the State.

The Indian Space Research Organisation’s second mission of the year — to place an earth observation satellite by a GSLV rocket — faced a setback as it could not be accomplished fully due to performance anomaly in the cryogenic stage of the rocket.
The GSLV-F10/EOS-03 rocket successfully lifted off from the second launch pad at the spaceport as planned at 05.43 am soon after the 26-hour countdown concluded.

About:

EOS-03 is a state-of-the-art agile Earth observation satellite that was to be placed in a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit by GSLV-F10. After that, the satellite would have reached the final geostationary orbit using its onboard propulsion system.
EOS-03 was launched ahead of EOS-02, which has been delayed. EOS-02 is now scheduled for a launch in September-October.
That launch will try out a new rocket — SSLV, or small satellite launch vehicle. Though India has developed four rockets till now — SLV, ASLV, and different versions of PSLV and GSLV — only two are currently operational.
The SSLV is designed to cater to the increasing demand for launch of small satellites, mainly from businesses and universities; it costs much less and consumes less energy.