Today’s Important Prelims Bits

INSACOG Network

What is INSACOG?

• INSACOG (Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium) is a more organised manner for setting up of the multi-laboratory, multi-agency, pan-India network to monitor genomic variations.
• INSACOG is a consortium of 10 labs and 18 satellite labs across India tasked with scanning coronavirus samples from swathes of patients and flagging the presence of variants that were known to have spiked transmission internationally.
• It is also tasked with tracking certain combinations of mutations that become more widespread in India.
• The institutes involved include the laboratories of the Department of Biotechnology, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Indian Council of Medical Research, and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).

Genome Sequencing

• Genome is the genetic material of all living beings.
• The genome of coronavirus is in the form of RNA while most of the others have DNA as their genetic material.
• Complete sequencing is reading the complete detail of the genetic material of the genome is called genome sequencing.
• For genome sequencing, scientists decipher the chemical unit that makes a genome with help of technology and machines. So, they know exactly what those 30,000 letters in this virus are.
• Now, as the virus is changing, those changes get added in the sequence so they can plot the relationship between one infection to another, the way they can plot the relationship among individuals by just reading their DNA sequence.
• By reading the genome of the virus,they can find out how it is spreading, which was the path it followed – whether it was first found in Mumbai, then in Delhi and so on.

Delimitation Commission

• Delimitation literally means the act or process of fixing limits or boundaries of territorial constituencies in a country or a province having a legislative body.
• The job of delimitation is assigned to a high power body. Such a body is known as Delimitation Commission or a Boundary Commission.
• In India, such Delimitation Commissions have been constituted 4 times – in 1952 under the Delimitation Commission Act, 1952, in 1963 under Delimitation Commission Act, 1962, in 1973 under Delimitation Act, 1972 and in 2002 under Delimitation Act, 2002.
• The Delimitation Commission in India is a high power body whose orders have the force of law and cannot be called in question before any court.
• These orders come into force on a date to be specified by the President of India in this behalf.
• The copies of its orders are laid before the House of the People and the State Legislative Assembly concerned, but no modifications are permissible therein by them

Why was the J & K delimitation commission set up?

• Delimitation became necessary when the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 increased the number of seats in the Assembly.
• The erstwhile J&K state had 111 seats — 46 in Kashmir, 37 in Jammu, and four in Ladakh — plus 24 seats reserved for Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
• When Ladakh was carved out as a Union Territory, J&K was left with 107 seats, including the 24 for PoK.
• The Reorganisation Act increased the seats to 114 — 90 for Jammu & Kashmir, besides the 24 reserved for PoK.
  

  Retail Inflation

• To measure inflation, we estimate how much CPI has increased in terms of percentage change over the same period the previous year.
• If prices have fallen, it is known as deflation (negative inflation).
• The Central Bank (RBI) pays very close attention to this figure in its role of maintaining price stability in the economy.
• The CPI monitors retail prices at a certain level for a particular commodity; price movement of goods and services at rural, urban and all-India levels.
• The change in the price index over a period of time is referred to as CPI-based inflation, or retail inflation.
• Generally, CPI is used as a macroeconomic indicator of inflation, as a tool by the central bank and government for inflation targeting and for inspecting price stability, and as deflator in the national accounts.

NDMA

About NDMA

• On 23 December 2005, the Government of India enacted the Disaster Management Act, which envisaged the creation of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
• NDMA is headed by the Prime Minister.
• The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), headed by the Prime Minister of India, is the apex body for Disaster Management in India.

NDMA Vision

“To build a safer and disaster resilient India by a holistic, pro-active, technology driven and sustainable development strategy that involves all stakeholders and fosters a culture of prevention, preparedness and mitigation.”

About SDMA

• State Disaster Management Authorities (SDMAs) headed by respective Chief Ministers.
• Setting up of SDMAs and the creation of an enabling environment for institutional mechanisms at the State and District levels is also mandated by the Disaster Management Act, 2005.

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