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There is some good news. Blindness and visual impairment (VI) in India reduced by 47.1% and 51.9%, respectively, in 2019, in overall Population as compared to WHOs figures of 2010.

However, India is yet to achieve WHO’s goal of reducing blindness to 0.3% of the total population, as the present figures stand at 0.36%.

According to a recent study for estimating the prevalence of blindness and visual impairment in the Indian population, more than one fourth of people aged 50 years and above are visually impaired in India and the prevalence of blindness among them is 1.99%.

Among the 31 surveyed districts, the highest prevalence was seen in Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh (3.7%), whereas the lowest was in Thrissur, Kerala (1.1%).

The major causes of blindness included cataract (66.2%), followed by corneal opacity (8.2%), cataract surgical complications (7.2%), posterior segment disorders (5.9%), and glaucoma (5.5%).

In the population aged 50 years and above, the prevalence of blindness has declined from 5.3% in 2001 to 3.6% in 2007, and to 1.9% in the current survey.
The study revealed that a higher prevalence was noted in females than in males and participants residing in rural regions had higher prevalence of blindness than those living in urban regions.

MoPSW (Ministry of ,Shipping and Waterways) is working diligently to develop the Maritime Sector as a goal of MIV 2030. In this regard 8th Norway-India Joint Working Group Maritime meeting was held on17th November,2022 in Mumbai. The meeting was Co-Chaired by Mr. Rajesh Kumar Sinha, Additional Secretary, MoPSW in presence of Mr. Amitabh Kumar, Director General of Shipping, Directorate General of Shipping, Mr. Kumar Sanjay Bariar, Addl. Director General of Shipping, Directorate General of Shipping Mr. Ajith Sukumaran, Chief Surveyor (I/c), Directorate General of Shipping Mr. Madhu Nair, Chairman and MD, Cochin Shipyard Limited along with other MoPSW senior officials. The Norwegian delegation was led by Director General Mr. Ottar Ostnes from the Ministry of Trade, Industries and Fisheries.

India Norway is part of Green Voyage 2050 project, both parties agreed on willingness, devotion, PARTNERSHIP and capacity building for achieving common goals.

India is a signatory to Hongkong Convention for Recycling of Ships. In todays meeting India requested that EU regulation should not hinder to recycling non-European countries which is compliant as per International Convention. Norway was requested not to prolong Ship recycling to India as lot of Investment has been made by Indian recyclers.

The central government has issued a report from an expert committee on the Roadmap for Ethanol Blending in India by 2025.

Highlights:

The roadmap proposes a phased rollout of ethanol-blended fuel to achieve E10 fuel supply by April 2022, followed by a phased rollout of E20 from April 2023 to April 2025.

The Indian government has moved the target for 20% ethanol blending in petrol (also known as E20) from 2030 to 2025.

It is produced naturally by yeast Fermentation of sugars or through petrochemical processes such as ethylene hydration.

The has approved a USD 500 million programme to assist in the Growth of India’s MSME sector. The programme is known as the Raising and Accelerating Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise (MSME) Performance (RAMP) Program.

This is the World Bank’s second Investment in this sector. The USD 750 million MSME Emergency Response Program was the first intervention.

The programme aims to improve the performance of 5.5 lakh MSMEs.

It is expected to raise USD 15.5 billion in financing as part of the government’s USD 3.4 billion MSME Competitiveness A Post-COVID Resilience and Recovery Program (MCRRP).

BS Bank has been named with the aid of Forbes in their listing of Worlds Best Banks 2021. DBS was ranked at the position 1 out of 30 domestic and global banks in India for the 2nd consecutive year. This is the 0.33 version of the Worlds Best Banks listing by means of Forbes, carried out in PARTNERSHIP with market research company Statista.

DBS Bank India was regarded as Indias Best International Bank 2021 by means of Asiamoney. DBS was once named Safest Bank in Asia for the twelfth consecutive year via New York-based exchange publication Global Finance in 2020.

The published its June 2021 Global Economic Prospects. It predicts that India’s GDP will grow by 8.3 percent in 2021-22. The Indian economy is expected to grow at a rate of 7.5 percent in 2022-23 and 6.5 percent in 2023-24.

Highlights:

The global economy is expected to grow at a rate of 5.6 percent, the fastest rate of post-Recession Growth in eighty years.

However, global output will still be 2% lower than pre-pandemic projections by the end of the year.
Indias recovery has been hampered by the largest outbreak in any country since the pandemic began

The forecast for FY22 (8.3 percent) accounts for expected economic damage from a massive second Covid-19 wave and localised mobility restrictions beginning in March 2021.

Growth is expected to slow to 7.5 percent in 2022-23 as a result of the pandemic’s effects on the financial position of households, businesses, and banks.

New Zealand and Australian cities dominated the Global Liveability Index 2021 published by using the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). Auckland has been ranked the first-class on liveability rankings due to the capability of New Zealand city to comprise Covid-19 faster. Japanese cities of Osaka and Tokyo grabbed 2nd and fourth area and Adelaide, Australia spot 3rd area on EIUs Global Liveability Index 2021. dwelling prerequisites remained worst in the Syrian capital Damascus.

The BRICS Foreign Ministers recently issued a joint statement on multilateralism. The idea is to form a consensus among the BRICS countries. The process of organising relations between groups of three or more states is known as multilateralism.

Six Principles laid out by BRICS:

To make global Governance more inclusive, representative and participatory.
It should be based on inclusive negotiation and cooperation.
It should make multilateral organizations more action-oriented and solution-oriented.
It should employ creative solutions, such as digital and technological tools..
The capacity of individual countries and international organizations should be strengthened.
Promote people-oriented international cooperation as the core.

There has been a marked increase inlightningand thunderstorms in the year 2021 and they have become deadlier too.

Sharing the details of casualties arising out of extremeweatherevents in 2021, director general of India Meteorological Department (IMD), Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, said out of 1,750 deaths occurring due to different extreme weather events, lightning accounted for 45% casualties corresponding to 787, far above than the casualties caused by cyclonic storms (172), which is otherwise considered more dreadful.

Deaths due to flood, heavy rain and landslide accounted for 43% (759) casualties. Lightning events causing deaths have mostly been reported from the eastern part of the country Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh.

TheIndian coast guard’s auxiliary bargeUrja Prabhawas launched byViraj Sharma, wife of deputy director general of the coast guardDR Sharma.

Urja Prabha is 36.96 metre long with a draft of 1.85 metre. It will enhance the INDIAN COAST GUARD operations by extending support to Indian Coast Guard ships deployed in the sea at far-flung areas.

The barge was launched atShoft Shipyard, Bharuch inGujarat.

Aimed at providing accessible, standardised and affordable generic medicines, the Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP) Kendras, which currently offer a product basket of 1,451 drugs and 240 surgical instruments, have added nutraceuticals products, including protein powder and bar, malt-based food supplements and immunity bar for its customers.

Currently there are about 8,675 PMBJP Kendras that have been opened in districts across the country with three IT enabled warehouses functional at Gurugram, Chennai and Guwahati and fourth one is ready to start operations at Surat.

The government has also set a target to increase the number of PMBJKs to 10,500 by the end of March 2025 along with a total of six warehouses.

Under the PMBJP being implemented by the Department of Pharmaceuticals, a medicine is priced on the principle of maximum of 50% of Average price of the top three brands of the said medicine. Thus, the prices of Jan Aushadhi Medicines are cheaper at least by 50% and in some cases, by 80% to 90% of the of the branded medicines.