Current Affairs 5th August 2019

Current Affairs 5th August 2019 - Important Points

• Journalist Ravish Kumar Secures 2019 Ramon Magsaysay Award on - 2nd August 2019
• World Breastfeeding Week 2019 started from - 1st August 2019 onwards
• NHB to provide liquidity infusion facility to - HFCs 
• Pashmina Testing Centre in Leh set up by - BIS
• India’s 1st large-scale trial of two new TB vaccines launched by - Indian Council of Medical Research 

Current Affairs 5th August 2019 - Details

Journalist Ravish Kumar Secures 2019 Ramon Magsaysay Award on - 2nd August 2019

Renowned journalist Ravish Kumar secures Magsaysay Award- 2019 on August 2nd, 2019. Ramon Magsaysay Award is the highest honour presented to Asian people and organisations. Ravish Kumar has been bestowed for ‘harnessing journalism to give voice to the voiceless’. This award is called as the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Prize.
Ravish Kumar is among the 5 recipients of Ramon Magsaysay Award. The award quote says that Ravish Kumar’s “Prime Time” program deals with real-life, under-reported problems of ordinary people. The award citation explains Ravish Kumar as a sober, well-informed and incisive anchor who has been highly vocal on maintaining that the professional values of balanced, fact-based reporting be upheld in practice.
Winners of Magsaysay Award 2019
Apart from Ravish Kumar, the other winners of the Magsaysay Award 2019 are Myanmar’s Ko Swe Win in Journalist, Thailand’s Angkhana Neelapajit in Human Rights Activist, Philippines’ Raymundo Pujante Cayabyab in Musician, and South Korea’s Kim Jong-Ki in Activist working with violence and mental health issues in youth category.
More about Ramon Magsaysay Award

• Ramon Magsaysay Award was recognized in 1957 by trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
• The award is also called as the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Prize.
• The award is termed following the 3rd president of Republic of Philippines Ramon Magsaysay.
  Awardees are given with a certificate and a medallion with an embossed image of Ramon
  Magsaysay facing right in profile.
  Other Award Winners
• Other Indian winners of Ramon Magsaysay Award are RK Laxman, P Sainath, Arun Shourie,
  Kiran Bedi and Arvind Kejriwal. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal tweeted that he is pleased to see Ravish
  Kumar in the club of Magsaysay awardees and hope to see his valiant journalism go from strength to strength in these problematic times.

World Breastfeeding Week 2019 started from - 1st August 2019 onwards

Every year World Breastfeeding Week is observed from August 1st to 7th with an objective to
encourage breastfeeding and advance the health of babies worldwide. According to the UNICEF
report, about 60 percent of the world’s total infants are missing out of suggested 6 months of
exclusive breastfeeding.
Theme- Empower Parents. Enable Breastfeeding
According to the data released by the World Health Organisation the theme for 2019 World
Breastfeeding Week is “Empower Parents, Enable Breastfeeding”. The aim of this theme is to
mindful parents about the advantages of exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months because it has
many advantages for the infant and the mother. Exclusive breastfeeding is a very significant source
of energy and nutrients in children aged between 6 to 23 months.
Importance of Breastfeeding Week

• According to the data released by the WHO, every new born baby has the right to good nutrition
  according to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
• According to the data composed by the UN Globally in 2016, 41 million children are overweight
  worldwide while 155 million children under 5 age were projected to be too short for age.
• Breastfeeding lessens the risk of developing breast cancer, ovarian cancer, type 2 diabetes and
  heart disease in the mother. 
• It stops infections like early-stage diarrhoea and acute respiratory infections including the infant
  mortality rate.
• According to the World Health Organisation data, it is projected that augmented breastfeeding
  could prevent 20000 maternal deaths each year due to breast cancer.
  Origin of World Breastfeeding week
  It was 1st observed in 1992 by World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action and is now observed in
  above 120 nations by UNICEF, World Health Organisation and their partners including people,
  organizations, and governments.
  Breastfeeding week in India
  The Food and Nutrition Board under the Ministry of Females and Child Development is establishing a
  number of activities in the nation. Activities like Quiz competition on IYCF are being directed in 30
  States and UTs via 43 Community Food and Nutrition Extension Units of Food and Nutrition Board. At
  the ground level, various related departments are also organizing exhibitions on nutrition,
  displaying low-cost nutritious diets for infants and young children.

NHB to provide liquidity infusion facility to - HFCs 

The housing sector regulator National Housing Bank initiated a liquidity infusion facility of Rs10000 crore for Housing Finance Companies to recover liquidity in sector. The initiative is taken to unveil measures to improve lending and accelerate growth.
More about Liquidity Infusion Facility

• This decision by National Housing Bank to fill an extra Rs 10000 crore into Housing Finance
  Companies would enable firms to provide individual loans for affordable housing.
• This new facility is over and above 2 current refinance schemes of National Housing Bank.
• This liquidity infusion initiative comes earlier the meeting of Union Finance Minister Nirmala
  Sitharaman with heads of all public sector banks to assess issues connected to credit growth
  against the backdrop of a slowdown in several sectors.
• These various important sectors of economy include medium and small industries, retail, automobiles, cheap housing, non-banking finance companies, Housing Finance Companies to improve growth.
  National Housing Bank
  It was recognized in 1988, under National Housing Bank Act, 1987. It is an All India Financial
  Institution. It is a top agency that works as a principal agency to encourage housing finance
  institutions both at local and regional levels. It also delivers financial and other sustenance incidental to such institutions and for matters linked therewith.

Pashmina Testing Centre in Leh set up by - BIS

Bureau of Indian Standards has declared formation of Pashmina testing centre in Leh region of JandK to check the quality of pashmina gathered. It will be form in association with lab of Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, Leh. The centre will have standards testing lab, machineries and scientists to check the quality of pashmina gathered. It also unconfined Bureau of Indian Standards of Pashmina. Bureau of Indian Standards will also train the locals, with cooperation of LAHDC in marking of the standards to save the time and money.
More about Pashmina

• It is a fine type of Kashmiri wool which is also called as ‘cashmere’ in the West.
• The word Pashmina in Kashmiri means ‘Soft Gold’. It is utilised to make shawl, scarf and wrap or stole.
• This unique variety of wool is found in 4 distinct breeds of Cashmere goats namely Malra from Kargil area in Kashmir region, Changthangi from Changthang Plateau in Kashmir region, Chegu from Himachal Pradesh and Chyangara/Nepalese Pashmina goat from Nepal.
• Kashmir Pashmina has been given Geographical indication tag under Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999.

India’s 1st large-scale trial of two new TB vaccines launched by - Indian Council of Medical Research 

Indian Council of Medical Research released India’s 1st large-scale trial for 2 new tuberculosis vaccines named IMMUVAC and VPM1002. These vaccines aim to avoid infection as pre-exposure or prevent primary progression/reactivation of latent tuberculosis infection (post-exposure), all of which have serious role to play in India’s big fight against tuberculosis. Both vaccines have been industrialised by Indian pharmaceutical firms.
More about Vaccines
Immuvac is also known as mycobacterium indicus pranii. It has been industrialised by Ahmedabad
based Cadila Pharmaceuticals.
VPM1002 is industrialised by Pune based Serum Institute of India.
Need for new vaccines

Presently Bacille Calmette-Guerin vaccine is widely utilised in routine Expanded Program of Immunisation worldwide. However, this vaccine is over century old and delivers poor protection
against pulmonary disease in adolescents and adults.
More about Trial

• This will be 1st large preventive tuberculosis vaccine trial in the nation involving above 12000
  healthy household contacts of newly diagnosed tuberculosis patients from across 6 states of India.
• These 6 states including Delhi, Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana and Karnataka with 2000
  participants have enrolled for these trials.
• Depending on the results, Indian Council of Medical Research will give references to Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.