DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS ANALYSIS

02 AUGUST 2022

1 – Monkeypox: 

GS II

Topic  – Health related issues

• About:
• The term “monkeypox” refers to a viral zoonotic disease that spreads from animals to people and is recognised as a pox-like illness in monkeys. It is widespread in Nigeria.
• It is brought on by the monkeypox virus, a species of the Orthopoxvirus family.
• The virus’s original host is still unknown. However, several reports of the illness in animals exist.
• Monkeys, apes, a variety of rodents (including rats, mice, squirrels, and prairie dogs), and rabbits are all known to be carriers of the monkeypox virus.
• Outbreaks:
• It was initially discovered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in 1958 in monkeys then in humans there in 1970.
• 40 years after the last confirmed case, Nigeria saw its largest-ever outbreak in 2017.
• The illness has since been documented in other West and Central African nations.
• Symptoms:
• People who are infected develop a rash that resembles chicken pox. However, compared to chicken pox, monkeypox typically causes more severe fever, malaise, and headache symptoms.
• Because the lymph gland enlarges in the early stages of the illness, monkeypox can be recognised from smallpox.
• Transmission:
• Direct contact with an infected animal’s blood, body fluids, or cutaneous or mucosal sores results in primary infection. Eating meat from diseased animals that has not been prepared properly also increases danger.
• Close contact with infectious respiratory tract secretions, an infected person’s skin lesions, or recently contaminated objects with patient fluids or lesion materials can all cause human-to-human transmission.
• Other methods of transmission include vaccination and placental transfer (congenital monkeypox).
• Vulnerability:
• If infected, it spreads quickly and can result in one fatality for every ten people.
• Therapy and vaccination:
• There is no specific medication or vaccine to prevent monkeypox. The effectiveness of the anti-smallpox vaccine in preventing monkeypox has previously been demonstrated to be 85%.
• The vaccine is no longer readily available, though, as smallpox was proclaimed eradicated from the planet in 1980.
• Since there is currently no international system in place to control the spread of monkeypox, every nation struggles to control any outbreaks as they happen.
• Way ahead:
• Increased illness awareness, better surveillance and response, and avoidance of contact with wild animals, particularly monkeys
• Animals that may have interacted with an infected animal need to be confined, handled with regular safety measures, and monitored for signs of monkeypox for 30 days.
• It is critical to shift focus to other illnesses. Due to Covid-19, fewer endemic disease cases are being documented since fewer people are seeking medical attention in hospitals.

Source – The Indian Express

2 – Build Operate Transfer Model:

GS III

Topic – Investment related issues

• Build Operate Transfer (BOT): What is it?
• For significant infrastructure projects created through public-private partnerships, a build-operate-transfer (BOT) contract is a type of financing.
• A public organisation, like a municipal government, making an initial concession to a private company to build and run a project is referred to as a BOT.
• After a predetermined amount of time, typically two or three decades, control of the project is given back to the government agency.
• The PPP Model: What Is It?
• One of the three investment types where a government agency and a private enterprise collaborate to achieve a social or infrastructure growth aim is the public-private partnership.
• India is reportedly one of the nations that is most open to PPPs, according to the World Bank.
• What is the Process of a BOT Model?
• In a build-operate-transfer (BOT) contract, a public organisation (often the government) gives a private corporation the right to fund, develop, and manage a project.
• In order to return its investment, the corporation runs the project for a predetermined amount of time (perhaps 20 or 30 years), after which it turns over management to the government.
• Large-scale greenfield infrastructure projects that would normally be fully funded, constructed, and operated by the government are frequently the subject of BOT projects.
• Just a few examples include a power plant in the Philippines, a wastewater treatment facility in China, and a six-lane national highway in India.
• BOT contractors are typically special-purpose businesses established exclusively for a project.
• When the contractor is running the project it has created, revenues often come from a single source and during the project duration.
• It’s possible that this business is owned by the government or a state.
• Power purchase agreements, in which a public utility functions as an off-taker and buys electricity from a privately held plant, serve as proof of this arrangement.
• In a conventional concession, the business would sell to customers without going through the government.
• The off-taker is frequently required to pay minimum pricing under BOT contracts.
• Build Operate Transfer (BOT) advantages include:
• Governments profit from BOT since it lowers infrastructure and development spending while also shifting risk to the concessionaire.
• The concession firm gains from improved management of a variety of construction hazards as well as the potential to lessen any unfavourable outcomes through advantages during operation.
• BOT offers a structure and incentives for businesses to increase efficiency through performance-based contracts and output-oriented targets.
• Due to a fully competitive bidding process, the projects are finished at the lowest potential cost.
• A portion of the project’s risks are borne by the private sector.
• Build Operate Transfer (BOT) has some restrictions:
• A BOT finance arrangement may take a long time to prepare and close since it involves numerous organisations and necessitates a comprehensive institutional and legal framework.
• Small projects there might not be suited for the BOT.
• Building the institutional capacity necessary for realising the full benefits of BOT, including the creation and enforcement of open and transparent bidding and assessment processes as well as the resolution of possible conflicts during implementation, may take some time.
• By charging fees over an extended period of time, the contractors’ extract money above the profit margin negotiated at the start of the projects.
• Conclusion:
• Public-private partnerships and infrastructure projects both frequently use BOT. A BOT project is often utilised to build a single asset rather than a whole network. Among the nations with a high prevalence of BOT are Pakistan, Thailand, Turkey, Taiwan, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Israel, India, Iran, Croatia, Japan, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, Egypt, Myanmar, and a few US states. However, some nations, like Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Nepal, use the term build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT).

Source – The Indian Express

3 – Intellectual Heritage Project:

Prelims Specific Topic

• Some of the main issues the Union Education Ministry intends to focus on when developing “Intellectual Heritage in Development, include:
• Economic policies like the GST to the National Education Mission, the Digital Mission, and scholarships for athletes; from special IDs for people with disabilities, the heroes and histories of India’s tribal community; from the restoration of “historical sites,” such as the Ram temple and the Somnath temple, and paying tribute to freedom fighters at Jallianwala Bagh Samarak.
• During these three months, it is intended to organise approximately 100 conferences across the nation on 100 different topics, where research papers based on secondary data and sources found in ministries or elsewhere would be presented.

Source – The Indian Express

4 – Right to Repair for Consumers:

Prelims Specific Topic

• Right to Repair: The term “right to repair electronics” refers to government legislation that gives people the freedom to fix and customise their own consumer electronics products, as opposed to being forced by the makers of those products to use only the services they offer.
• The Motor Vehicle Owners’ Right to Fix Act of 2012, which compelled the manufacturers to supply the necessary paperwork and information to enable anyone to repair their vehicles, is where the notion first came from in the USA.
• Benefits:
• Small repair shops, a crucial component of local economies, will benefit from a growth in business.
• It will aid in reducing the enormous mountain of electrical garbage (e-waste) that amasses on the continent each year.
• Money will be saved by the consumers.
• By increasing the lifespan, maintenance, re-use, upgrade, recyclability, and waste treatment of appliances, it will support the goals of the circular economy.
• Motive for Supporting the Movement:
• Manufacturers of electronic products are promoting a “culture of intentional obsolescence.”
• Devices that have a set lifespan and are meant to be replaced are said to have “planned obsolescence.”
• The ecosystem could be put under a lot of stress as a result, and natural resources could be wasted.
• Electronic gadget manufacturing is a very polluting operation. It uses environmentally harmful energy sources like fossil fuels, which have a negative effect on the environment.
• Purpose of Opposition:
• Large tech corporations like Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Tesla have warned that allowing unauthorised repair services or amateur repairers access to their intellectual property might result in exploitation and compromise the safety and security of their gadgets.
• Repair rights Travelling the World:
• The Federal Trade Commission is being urged by the President of the United States to reduce limitations put in place by manufacturers that prevent people from fixing their gadgets as they see fit.
• Right-to-repair laws were also adopted in the UK, which should make it considerably simpler to purchase and maintain everyday appliances like TVs and washing machines.

Source – The Indian Express