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1. The seas provide food, livelihoods and a sense of identity, especially for coastal communities in the Pacific island states. 2. Climate change and unsustainable resource management have degraded ecosystems and diminished biodiversity. 3. Levels of overfishing have exponentially increased, leaving fish stocks and food systems vulnerable. 4. Marine plastic pollution flowing through the region’s rivers has contributed to most of the debris flooding the ocean. Lack of data 1. Data are available for only 2 out of 10 targets for the Sustainable Development Goal 14, ‘Life Below Water’. 2. Due to limitations in methodology and national statistical systems, information gaps have persisted at uneven levels across countries. Plastic pollution 1. Asia and the Pacific produce nearly half of global plastic by volume, of which it consumes 38%. 2. Plastics represent a double burden for the ocean a) Production of plastics generates CO2 absorbed by the ocean and ...

The Rajya Sabha cleared the NMC Bill with a crucial amendment to increase representation of the State Medical Council from 5 members to 9 and State University representation 6 six to 10 in the new body. The Lok Sabha cleared the proposed law on July 29. Salient Features of the bill: The Bill seeks to repeal the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956. National Medical Commission (NMC): The Bill sets up the NMC which will replace the Medical Council of India (MCI). It will consist of 25 members, appointed by the central government. Functions of the NMC include: framing policies for regulating medical institutions and medical professionals, assessing the requirements of healthcare related human resources and infrastructure, ensuring compliance by the State Medical Councils of the regulations, and framing guidelines for determination of fees for up to 50% of the seats in private medical institutions and deemed universities which are regulated under the Bill. State ...

Roots of English English language is made up of four parts GREEK ROOTS, GERMAN ROOTS, FRENCH ROOTS, LATIN ROOTS Now if you learn these roots you can figure out the meaning of hundreds of English language words without even knowing their exact meaning. The first question arises here is  what is a root? A root is the part of the word which gives instructions to a  word.  Now how many parts is a word made of? A word is made up of three parts. For ex – subtracted Sub (prefix) ——–tract (root) ———-ed (suffix) Note:   PREFIX —a word, letter or number placed before another. SUFFIX —a letter or a group of letters added to the end of a word to change its meaning. CASE I  Consider  MACR  as a  ROOT  means  length, large Now with the help of this one root you can come out with conclusion of several other English words. Such as, ACROMACRIA——  Abnormal length of the fingers. BAROMACROMETER—-  An instrument fo...

1. Wipro appoints Abid Neemuchwala as COO i. India's third largest IT services exporter Wipro Ltd. announced the appointment of appointment of former TCS top executive Mr. Abid Ali Neemuchwala as the Group President and Chief Operating Officer of the company.  ii. Mr Neemuchwala was heading the Business Process Services globally.  iii. Apart from this he was also involved in several leadership roles during his 23-year-long career with TCS.   2. Facebook acquires The Find e-commerce search engine i. Facebook has acquired The Find, a nine-year-old company with a search engine that indexes products across thousands of e-commerce sites. ii. That probably means the ads Facebook users see will be more relevant to products they’ve been browsing and buying online, perhaps highlighting local retailers. One of The Find’s features is that it attempts to mix online and local stores and says its results are based on “your social profile.” iii. For Facebook, the technolog...

1. Union Budget 2015 highlights -   No merit in going ahead with Direct tax Code as it exists today. Net impact of tax proposals Rs.15,068 crore. - Yoga to be included under charitable activites. - Indiviual taxpayer can get benefits up to Rs. 4,44,200. - Transport allowance exemption to be increased to Rs. 1,600 per month. - Rs. 50,000 contribution to new pension scheme. "To make India a pensioned society." - Additional deduction of Rs. 25,000 for differently abled persons. - Increase in limit of deduction of health insurance premium of Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 25,000. For senior citizens, limit will be Rs. 30,000. Very senior citizens - Rs. 30,000 deduction on expenses incurred. - 2 per cent cess on services for Swachch Bharat. - 100 per cent deduction for contribution to Swachch Bharat and Clean Ganga schemes. - Service Tax rate increased to 14 per cent.   2. Three-point action plan to realise ‘Make in India’ dream i. The non-controversial response lies in improving th...

1. India presses for automatic exchange of tax information at G20 meet  i. India has called for expeditious implementation of the automatic exchange of tax information saying it would help in tracking illegal money stashed in foreign banks.  ii. Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha advocated "full and fast implementation" of Automatic Exchange of Information within the agreed time-frame.  iii. India called for strengthening the IMF through implementing the 2010 quota and governance reforms and creating an environment for multilateral swaps to overcome such negative impact. iv. The quota reform, if implemented, will increase India's voting share in IMF from the current 2.44 per cent to 2.75 per cent, following which the country will become the eighth largest quota holder at the IMF, up from the 11th position.   2. National Games mascot in Limca Book of Records i. National Games mascot Ammu, the Great Hornbill, has immortalised itself by finding a...

1. Bibek Debroy joins as full time member of NITI Aayog  i.  Noted economist Bibek Debroy today assumed charged as full time member of the NITI Ayog (National Institution for Transforming India). Government had announced the appointment of Debroy and DRDO chief V K Saraswat as full-time members earlier this month.  ii.  An economist by profession, he was educated at the Presidency College (Calcutta), the Delhi School of Economics and the Trinity College (Cambridge). iii.  Debroy worked as a consultant in the Department of Economic Affairs in Finance Ministry.  iv.  Debroy has also authored several books, papers and popular articles, and has been a Consulting Editor of some financial newspapers in the country.    2. India set to overtake China next year: IMF i. International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected that India will grow 6.5 per cent in 2016, overtaking China which, it projected, will slowdown to 6.3 per cent. ii.  I...

1. Bibek Debroy joins as full time member of NITI Aayog  i.  Noted economist Bibek Debroy today assumed charged as full time member of the NITI Ayog (National Institution for Transforming India). Government had announced the appointment of Debroy and DRDO chief V K Saraswat as full-time members earlier this month.  ii.  An economist by profession, he was educated at the Presidency College (Calcutta), the Delhi School of Economics and the Trinity College (Cambridge). iii.  Debroy worked as a consultant in the Department of Economic Affairs in Finance Ministry.  iv.  Debroy has also authored several books, papers and popular articles, and has been a Consulting Editor of some financial newspapers in the country.    2. India set to overtake China next year: IMF i. International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected that India will grow 6.5 per cent in 2016, overtaking China which, it projected, will slowdown to 6.3 per cent. ii.  I...