KERALA

Following severe flooding, 196 leptospirosis (rat fever) cases and nine deaths have been confirmed in Kerala since August 15.

Antibiotics are used to treat leptospirosis, which is a bacterial disease spread to humans through wading or swimming in water contaminated with the urine of infected animals, which inters the body through breaks in the skin, eyes and mucous membrane.

As the flood water started receding, fearing a rise in water and vector borne diseases, the health ministry set up rapid health assessment teams across the state to prevent and control outbreaks.

Dengue has spared Kerala, with only seven cases of the annual cumulative cases of 3,364 being reported in August. There are no chikungunya cases.

INTERNATIONAL

· India and Nepal Sign MoU On Preliminary Survey Of Railway Line Between Raxaul and Kathmandu

Indian Ambassador to Nepal Manjeev Singh Puri and Nepal’s Secretary of Ministry of Physical Planning and Works, Madhusudan Adhikari signed the MoU in Kathmandu.
India and Nepal agreed in April 2018 to construct a new electrified rail line with India’s financial support connecting the border city of Raxaul in India to Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal.

· India Along With 23 Other Nations Participates In Tsunami Mock Drill

The exercise, known as ‘IOWave18’, is being organized by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO, which coordinated the setting up of the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (IOTWMS) in the aftermath of December 2004 tsunami.

A primary objective of IOWave18 exercise is to enhance tsunami preparedness at community level. The purpose of exercise is to increase tsunami preparedness, evaluate response capabilities in each state and improve coordination throughout the region.

Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre (ITEWC), based out of the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad, is an autonomous institution under the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences.

NATIONAL

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will conduct 19 missions, including 10 satellitesand nine launch vehicles, in the next seven months between September and March.
It will include the launch of India’s second moon mission Chandrayaan-2.
ISRO planned to launch two satellites within 30 days consecutively for months.
The services would be resumed on September 15 with the PSLV C42 mission, which will carry UK satellites – Novasar and S1-4– as the main payload.
Then, ISRO will launch GSLV Mk III-D2, also known as ‘Bahubali’.

Ukrainehas launched joint military exercises with the U.S.and a string of other NATO countries. The annual Rapid Trident military exercises are to happen in the western Ukrainian village of Starychi until September 15, involve some 2,200 soldiers from 14 countries. This is because of the rise in tension with Russia remains high over the Kremlin-backed insurgency in the country’s east.
The event will start a week before Russia holds its biggest military exercises, Vostok 2018, since the Cold War, with the participation of China and Mongolia. It is expected that around 350 pieces of military equipment will be used during the exercises.

Taking a cue from global uncertainties, market volatility, and rising interest rates in the US, The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has added 46 tonnes of goldduring the financial year 2017-18, taking the level of gold reserves to 566.23 tonnes as on June 30, 2018.
RBI last purchased 200 tonnesof gold from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in November 2009.

Centre to hold consultations on Western Ghats after NGT order
The Centre is again going to consult six the Western Ghats to form a consensus on the draft notification that has demarcated 56,825 sq.kms as ecologically sensitive area (ESA) across Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala
Alterations in ESA areas would seriously impact the environment and, therefore, should not be allowed, NGT said in view of Kerala floods. This would be the fourth time that the draft notification needs to be republished since 2014.
The Kasturirangan report also speaks on providing incentives to states in lieu of the restrictions it has imposed on certain activities such as mining, constructions and tourism.