3rd Dec Daily current affairs for UPSC Civil Service Exam 2017

International Maritime Organisation

• In its 30th session of IMO held in London, India has been re-elected to the council of IMO under “Category B”.
• The IMO council consists of 40 members in which category A consists of 10 members, category B – 10 members and category C – 20 members.
• The council plays a crucial role to play in deciding various important matters in relation to the global shipping industry.
• India has had the privilege of being elected to and serving the council of the IMO, ever since it started functioning, except for two years during 1983-1984.
• India is a party to 34 IMO Conventions and protocols.
• It is currently in the advanced stage of ratifying Ballast Water Convention and Bunker Convention.

Ballast Water Convention

• Ballast water management convention was adopted in IMO in 2004.
• It came into force in September, 2017.
• The convention aims to prevent the spread of harmful aquatic organisms from one region to another.
• It establishes standards and procedures for the management and control of ships' ballast water and sediments.
• All ships in international traffic are required to manage their ballast water and sediments to a certain standard according to the management plan.

Bunker Convention

• The convention was adopted in 2001 and came into force in 2008.
• Its aim is to ensure that adequate, prompt, and effective compensation is available to persons who suffer damage caused by spills of oil, when carried as fuel in ships' bunkers.
• It applies to damage caused on the territory, including the territorial sea, and in exclusive economic zones of States Parties.
• It is modeled on the International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage, 1969.
• Upon ratification, it applies to an Indian vessel, wherever it is situated, and to a foreign flag vessel while it is within Indian jurisdiction.

Kapu Reservation Bill

• The Kapu community, with 27 per cent population in the state of Andhra Pradesh, has been demanding reservations for decades.
• In 2016, Manjunath Commission was set up to recommend quota for Kapus and it has submitted its report.
• The Kapu reservation bill was recently passed by the assembly, providing 5% quota in education and employment in the state.
• The kapu, Telaga, Balija and ontari communities would get the quota under the new cateogory ‘F’.
• There will be no political quota, meaning no reservation in political posts or positions.
• With this reservation, it will take the total quota in the state to 55 per cent, which is more than 50 per cent limit restricted by the Supreme Court.
• Thus it makes the central government nod necessary for inclusion in the Schedule IX of the constitution.
• The existing quota for Backward Communities remains unaffected.

Womb Transplant

• The first birth as a result of a womb transplant in the United States has occurred recently.
• A doctor in Sweden, Mats Brannstrom, is the first in the world to deliver a baby as a result of a uterus transplant.
• The transplant helps women who had been born without uterus to bear children.
• Firstly, in vitro fertilization to retrieve and fertilize their eggs will take place to produce embryos.
• Then the embryos will be in frozen condition until they are ready to attempt pregnancy.
• After the uterus transplant, the embryos can be thawed and implanted.

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)

• It is a viral respiratory disease of zoonotic origin caused by the SARS coronavirus.
• It leads to shortness of breath and/or pneumonia.
• The only symptom common to all patients appears to be a fever above 38 °C (100 °F).
• There is no vaccine for SARS and no cases have been reported worldwide since 2004.
• According to WHO, SARS affected regions include China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Canada.
• Recently, Chinese virologists have found the origins of the SARS outbreak in 2003.
• A single population of horseshoe bats in a cave in Yunnan province in China caused the outbreak.

Source: The Hindu, PIB, Indian Express.