Current Affairs 9 October 2020 – IAS Current Affairs

Current Affairs 9 October 2020 2020 focuses on Prelims-Mains perspective. Major events are :

1. Bio-Medical Waste Management
2. Television Rating Points And BARC
3. Prelims Facts
   • International Barcode Of Life
   • Louise Glück on winning The Nobel Prize for Literature 2020

Bio-Medical Waste Management

Why In News ?

An oversight committee headed by Justice SVS Rathore filed a report before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on non-compliance of the provisions of Bio-Medical Waste Management Rules, 2016 (BMW Rules, 2016) by Uttar Pradesh.

Committee Report

• There was an elaborate track and trace system of bio-medical waste management prescribed in the BMW Rules, 2016, in which all coloured bags are bar-coded.
• The movement of trucks is tracked through a global positioning system (GPS).
• Only a few were introduced tracking or bar-code system that questioning the reliability of data generated is a matter of concern. 
• Large infrastructural gaps in healthcare facilities (HCF) were also noticed, due to which many were not complying with BMW Rules.
  • Around 452 of 530 HCFs with an operating capacity of more than 100 beds did not have sewage treatment plants (STP) / effluent treatment plants (ETP).
  • Even in government facilities, out of 1,027 HCFs comprising district hospitals and community health centrers (CHC), 564 did not have collection sheds where biomedical waste could be collected.
  • Only 628 primary health centers (PHC) out of 3,620 had deep burial pits.
  • The construction of ETPs in district hospitals was very slow and only 40 district hospitals were taken up for ETP construction in 2020
• Another important gap was noticed in the disposal of radioactive materials. 

Bio-Medical Waste Management (BMW Rules)

• What is a Bio-Medical Waste ?
  • Human & animal anatomical waste, treatment apparatus like needles, syringes and other materials used in health care facilities in the process of treatment and research during the diagnosis, treatment and any other process.
  • These health care facility extended to vaccination camps, blood donation camps, surgical camps or any other health-care activity which generates hazardous medical waste.
• Bio Medical Waste in India
  • At present, 484 tonnes per day (TPD) of bio-medical waste is generated from 1,68,869 health-care facilities (HCFs) in the country.
  • Total 447 TPD out of 484 TPD of such waste is treated.
  • There are 198 common bio-medical waste treatment facilities (CBMWF) in operation and 28 are under construction in different parts of the country.
• Bio-Medical Waste Management Rules
  • Bio-medical waste management rules has hence been notified to efficiently manage the generated biowaste in the country.
  • BMW Management Rules, 2016
    • Phase-out the use of chlorinated plastic bags, gloves and blood bags within two years.
    • Provide training to all its health care workers and immunise all health workers regularly.
    • Establish a Bar-Code System for bags or containers containing bio-medical waste for disposal.
    • The new rules prescribe more stringent standards for incinerator to reduce the emission of pollutants in environment.
    • Inclusion of emissions limits for Dioxin and furans.
    • State Government to provide land for setting up common bio-medical waste treatment and disposal facility.
    • Operator of a common bio-medical waste treatment and disposal facility to ensure the timely collection of bio-medical waste from the HCFs and assist the HCFs in conduct of training.
    • Guidelines of Duties of the Health care facilities, Duties of the operator of a common bio-medical waste treatment and disposal facility, Treatment and disposal are provided
    • Advisory Committee : Government of every State/Union Territory shall constitute an advisory committee with the experts in the field of medical and health, animal husbandry and veterinary sciences, environmental management, municipal administration, and any other related department or organisation including non -governmental organisations.
    • Monitoring of implementation at various level and committee to be constituted. 
    • Global positioning system for handling of bio-medical waste in accordance with guidelines issued by the Central Pollution Control Board by March 27, 2019.

Need for Bio Medical Management System

Scientific disposal of biomedical waste through segregation, collection and treatment in an environmentally sound manner is required to minimise the adverse impact on health workers and on the environment.

It should be required because

• Risk of infection outside hospital for waste handlers and scavengers
• Also pose risk to general public living in the vicinity of hospitals
• Risk associated with hazardous chemicals, drugs to persons handling wastes at all levels.

Way Forward

The report recommended that capacity building workshops be organised on a continuous basis for all stakeholders  doctors, paramedics, other hospital staff, laboratory staff, blood bank staff, private practitioners, nursing homes and HCF.

Source : Down To Earth

Topic

GS III : Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment

Television Rating Points And BARC

Why in News ?

Recently Mumbai police busted a racket of fraudulent manipulation of Television Rating Points (TRPs). They have been found to be indulging in malpractices. Television Rating Points And BARC facing issues with the absence of law.

• Issue : Police are looking into a scam about manipulation of TRPs by rigging the devices used by the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India, which has the mandate to measure television audience in India.

What is TRP ?

• TRPs represent how many people, from which socio-economic categories, watched which channels for how much time during a particular period.
• This could be for an hour, a day, or even a week
• India follows the international standard of one minute.
• The data is usually made public every week.

Why it is important and How it is Calculated?

• Better ratings would promote a programme while poor ratings will discourage a programme.
• Incorrect ratings will lead to production of programmes which may not be really popular while good programmes may be left out.
• TRPs are the main currency for advertisers to decide which channel to advertise on by calculating the cost-per-rating-point (CPRP).
• Calculation :
  • A device called People’s Meter is attached to the TV set of some of the randomly selected viewers as sample data.
  • These sample data represent the entire households.
  • BARC uses its advanced BAR-O-meters to calculate the TRP.
  • These devices are installed in the homes of randomly selected audiences(from both rural and urban areas).
  • Through this meter, all information on TV channels or programs (such as time and duration of viewing) is recorded on that particular day.
  • After that, a period of 30 days or 7 days (in case of BARC) is taken on average to know the viewership status.
  • BARC India uses a device called the Watermark embedders that embed the audio content of each program with watermark code.
  • Both the device i.e, BAR-O-meter and Watermark embedder helps to measure TV usage, TV stations, and individual viewing, when and where it is viewed, which age group has viewed, etc

What is BARC ?

• It is an industry body jointly owned by advertisers, ad agencies, and broadcasting companies, represented by
  • The Indian Society of Advertisers
  • Indian Broadcasting Foundation
  • Advertising Agencies Association of India.
• Though it was created in 2010, the I&B Ministry notified the Policy Guidelines for Television Rating Agencies in India on January 10, 2014 and registered BARC in July 2015 under these guidelines, to carry out television ratings in India.

How these TRP can Manipulate ?

• Broadcasters can find the households where devices are installed, they can either bribe them to watch their channels, or ask cable operators or multi-system operators to ensure their channel is available as the landing page when the TV is switched on.
• Broadcasters can target these households where the TRP calculating device installed.

Challenges Raised

• 2018 consultation paper BY TRAI said
  • One of the biggest challenges has been the absence of any specific law through which the agents/ suspects involved in panel tampering/infiltration could be penalised
  • BARC has filed FIRs in various police stations against the agents/ suspects involved in panel tampering/infiltration its efforts to mitigate panel tampering/ infiltration have been hampered due to absence of any legal framework.
• Earlier the I&B Ministry had raised concerns that BARC was under-reporting viewership of Doordarshan, and floated the idea of chip-based activity logs through all set-top boxes. The idea was finally rejected.

Source : The Hindu

Topic

Prelims : TRP

GS III : Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology, bio-technology and issues relating to intellectual property rights

Prelims Facts 9 October 2020

International Barcode Of Life

Why in News ?

The Union Cabinet was on Wednesday apprised of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) and International Barcode of Life (iBOL), a Canadian not-for-profit corporation.

• The MoU will enable ZSI to participate at the global-level programmes like Bioscan and Planetary Biodiversity Mission.

International Barcode Of Life

• A methodology for rapidly and accurately identifying species by sequencing a short segment of standardized gene regions and comparing individual sequences to a reference database.
• iBOL is a research alliance involving nations that have committed both human and financial resources to enable expansion of the global reference database, the development of informatics platforms, and the analytical protocols needed to use the reference library to assess, and describe biodiversity.

Source : PIB

Louise Glück on winning The Nobel Prize for Literature 2020

Why in News ?

American poet and essayist Louise Glück won The Nobel Prize for Literature. She is the fourth woman to win the Nobel Literature Prize in the past decade.

Nobel Prize

• Awarded for Outstanding contributions in literature.
• The Location is Stockholm, Sweden.
• It is Presented by Swedish Academy.

Source : Indian Express

Current Affairs 9 October 2020 : Our major Sources for the Current Affairs are The Hindu, Indian Express, PIB, Down To Earth etc. For more queries and mentor-ship please contact us.