India Hosts Global Wildlife Programme to Address Illegal Wildlife Trade
Topic : GS 3 Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.
India is hosting the Global Wildlife Programme (GWP) jointly with World Bank and United Nations Development Programme. Union Minister, Dr. Harsh Vardhan will inaugurate the Programme.
Objective
The programme aims to address illegal wildlife trade across 19 countries of Asia and Africa,
Details
- The Conference will act as a platform for knowledge exchange and coordination on the action taken on the ground to combat illegal poaching of wildlife and improve governance on wildlife conservation.
- The theme of the Conference is – “Peoples’ participation in wildlife conservation”.
- The meeting will bring about strengthened cooperation between India and the 18 GWP countries in better management of wildlife habitats and minimizing human-wildlife conflict situations.
- It will also enable India to strengthen its enforcement mechanism to control illicit trade.
Global Wildlife Program
- The GWP is a World-Bank led global partnership that promotes wildlife conservation and sustainable development by combating illicit trafficking in wildlife.
- This seven-year, $131 million grant program is expected to leverage an additional $704 million in additional co-financing from a wide range of partners to promote investments across Africa and Asia.
- It seeks to reduce both the supply and demand that drives the illegal wildlife trade, and protect species and habitats through integrated landscape planning.
- GWP’s priority and immediate focus is combating wildlife poaching, trafficking, and demand.
- The implementing agencies channeling the funds to the governments or other partners for the national projects are the World Bank Group, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
- The GWP is funded by the GEF and overseen by a steering committee.
Sources : pib Global Wildlife Programme
India registers significant decline in Infant Mortality Rate (IMR)
Topic : GS 2 Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.
India has registered a significant decline in Infant Mortality Rate (IMR). The data is based on the just released SRS bulletin, (sample registration system – Census)
Highlights of the report
- IMR of India has declined by three points (8% decline), from 37 per 1000 live births in 2015 to 34 per 1000 live births in 2016. The total number of estimated infant deaths have come down from 930000 (9.3 Lakhs) in 2015 to 840000 (8.4 lakhs) in 2016.
- India recorded a major drop in birth cohort, which has for the first time come down to below 25 million.
- Gender gap in India for child survival is reducing steadily. The gender difference between female and male IMR has now reduced to <10%.
- Among the EAG States and Assam, all States except Uttarakhand have reported decline in IMR in comparison to 2015. The eight socioeconomically backward states of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttaranchal and Uttar Pradesh, referred to as the Empowered Action Group (EAG) states, lag behind in the demographic transition and have the highest infant mortality rates in the country. (NCBI)
What is Infant mortality rate?
- Infant mortality refers to deaths of young children, typically those less than one year of age.
- It is measured by the infant mortality rate (IMR), which is the number of deaths of children under one year of age per 1000 live births.
- The Under-Five Mortality Rate is also an important statistic considering the Infant Mortality Rate has a strict limit on focusing on children only under one year of age.
EESL to procure 10,000 Electric Vehicles from TATA Motors
Topic : GS 3 Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.
Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), under the administration of Ministry of Power, Government of India (GoI), will procure 10,000 electric vehicles from Tata Motors Limited.
Why Electric vehicle procurement?
- EESL is driven by the objective of facilitating faster adoption of disruptive technology solutions while balancing economic development and environmental sustainability. With this specific initiative EESL seeks to create the market for electric vehicles, through its unique business model of aggregation of demand and bulk procurement.
- EESL is seeking to leverage the immense potential of replacement of existing vehicles in the government departments for initial demand aggregation.
How was Tata Motors selected?
- The company was selected through an international competitive bidding aimed at increased participation.
- Tata Motors won the tender and will now supply the Electric Vehicles (EVs) in two phases – first 500 e-cars will be supplied to EESL in November 2017 and the rest 9,500 EVs will be delivered in the second phase.
About EESL’s EV programme
- EESL’s EV programme is a comprehensive solution to facilitate adoption of the disruptive technology in the country.
- Along with procurement of 10,000 EVs through international competitive bidding, EESL will also identify a service provider agency.
- This agency, also appointed through competitive bidding, will carry out end-to-end fleet management of the procured vehicles for the concerned government customer.
- Apart from continuing to aggregate demand, EESL will also be responsible such as co-ordination between appointed agencies, monitoring and supervision, reporting, complaint redressal and payments.
- These cars will be used to replace the petrol and diesel cars used by Government and its agencies over a 3-4 year period.
Sources : pib
Vice President releases book ‘Securing India: The Modi Way’
The Vice President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu released the book ‘Securing India: The Modi Way’ authored by Shri Nitin Gokhale.
Sources : Business Standard
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