Important Current Affairs 5th February 2019

National News

Exercise Rahat
The disaster relief exercise ‘Exercise Rahat’ will be demonstrated in Jaipur, Kota and Alwar in Rajasthan on Feb 11-12.
About the Exercise
The important aspects related to the ‘Exercise Rahat’ are:
•    On behalf of the Indian Army, Jaipur based Sapta Shakti Command will conduct the Joint Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Exercise, Exercise Rahat.
•    Exercise Rahat is being conducted in coordination with NDMA to synergise efforts for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations.
•    The joint exercise will see participation from Armed Forces, National Disaster Management Response Mechanism (NDMRM), State Disaster Management Authority of Rajasthan and District LMAs.
•    The exercise will be conducted simultaneously in three places, beginning at Jaipur in the form of a tabletop exercise and at Kota and Alwar.

Conservation and Promotion of Medicinal Plants 
The National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB) under the Ministry of AYUSH is implementing following schemes to encourage farming/cultivation, conservation, processing and promotion of medicinal plants throughout the country:
National AYUSH Mission (NAM)
The large scale farming/cultivation of medicinal plants is being supported under the ‘Medicinal Plants’ component of the National AYUSH Mission (NAM). The scheme provides support for:
•    Cultivation of prioritized medicinal plants on farmer’s land.
•    Establishment of nurseries for the supply of quality planting material.
•    Post-harvest management.
•    Primary processing, marketing infrastructure etc.

Madras High Court Rules against Negative Marking in Competitive Exams
The Madras High Court has ruled against negative marking in competitive examinations saying they are bad in law.

Observations of the Madras High Court
•    The Madras High Court while hearing a petition filed by an IIT JEE aspirant who failed to clear the Mains due to negative marking has made the following observations:
•    The Madras High Court has accepted the petitioner’s argument that negative marking is not prevailing anywhere else in the world.
•    The court said that negative marking acts only as “a bolt in the brain development” of students and prevents them from making intelligent guesses.
•    Deducting marks for wrong answers would not in any way help in analysing the intelligence, aptitude or knowledge of the candidates.

Haryana government approved new Pharmaceutical Policy
Haryana government approved new Pharmaceutical Policy and Pharmaceutical Policy 2019, which envisages to establish a state-of-the-art pharma park at Karnal. The decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar at Chandigarh, Punjab. The new policy aims to develop Haryana into a hub for pharmaceutical manufacturing by facilitating and creating a holistic industry and academia. The Cabinet also gave its nod for the Haryana Micro Small and Medium Enterprises Policy 2019 with an aim to create globally competitive MSMEs in Haryana.

ICS launched Swasth Naari, Shakti Hamaari campaign
The Indian Cancer Society (ICS) launched Swasth Naari, Shakti Hamaari campaign in Mumbai, Maharashtra to spread awareness of cancer among underprivileged women and enable early detection of the disease.  The campaign was launched on the occasion of World Cancer Day. ICS in collaboration with pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca organized the campaign. It aims to conduct free and specialized cancer-screening camps for women in high-priority districts of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka.

Telangana State approves the creation of Mulugu district
The Telangana State government has approved for the creation of Mulugu as a new district. It is carved out from Bhupalpalli district.  This would be the sixth district to be created from the erstwhile Warangal district.  The State government has issued a notification calling for objections and suggestions from the public on December 31. The one-month period duration expired on January 30.