Current Affairs – 23rd Feb 2024
Articles Covered
- In 2023, India hit target towards eliminating Kala Azar, first time
- Closure of TN Sterlite plant affects investment: Supreme Court
- Cabinet Committee on Security approves ₹19,000 crore mega Navy deal for BrahMos missiles
- Money to ineligible beneficiaries, SC/STs lower in priority: CAG flags faults in rollout of PM awas yojana in Madhya Pradesh
- In a first, CERN scientists carry out laser cooling of Positronium
- CBI raids places linked to Satya Pal Malik: What is the Kiru Hydel Project, focus of corruption allegations?
- guinea worm disease
- National Board for Wildlife approves Assam Mala project road to Bhutan border
- Union Minister dismisses Kerala govt’s calls for Wildlife Protection Act amendment…
In 2023, India hit target towards eliminating Kala Azar, first time
Data from the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme showed that there were 595 cases and four deaths of Kala Azar reported nationwide last year compared to 891 cases and three deaths in 2022.
Kala-azar Disease
It is also known as Visceral Leishmaniasis or Black Fever or Dumdum Fever.
There are three types of Leishmaniasis:
- Visceral Leishmaniasis, which affects multiple organs and is the most serious form of the disease.
- Cutaneous Leishmaniasis,which causes skin sores and is the most common form.
- Mucocutaneous Leishmaniasis,which causes skin and mucosal lesions.
- It is a deadly parasitic disease caused by the protozoa parasite Leishmania and mainly affects the people living in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
- The disease can cause death, if left untreated.
Global and National Status:
- According to the WHO Kala-azar is the second deadliest parasitic disease in the world, and as of November, 2022, about 89% of global cases are reported from eight countries: Brazil, Eritrea, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan.
- India contributes about 11.5% of total cases of Kala-azar reported globally.
- Over 90% of kala-azar cases in India are reported from Bihar and Jharkhand, while Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal have achieved their elimination targets at the block level.
Transmission: It is transmitted to humans by the bite of an infected female phlebotomine sandfly.
Signs and Symptoms: Fever, weight loss, anemia, and enlargement of the liver and spleen.
Prevention:
- Prevention of kala-azar involves measures to reduce the breeding sites of sandflies and to protect people from sandfly bites.
- This can be achieved through the use of insecticides, bed nets, and repellents, as well as the improvement of housing conditions and access to clean water and sanitation.
- The WHO also recommends Mass Drug Administration (MDA) in areas where the disease is endemic.
Treatment:
- The treatment of kala-azar involves the use of drugs, such as sodium stibogluconate and meglumine antimoniate.
- The WHO recommends a combination of two or more drugs for the treatment of kala-azar, as monotherapy has a higher risk of treatment failure and drug resistance.
Related Initiatives:
Global:
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Indian:
National kala-azar programme
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Closure of TN Sterlite plant affects investment: Supreme Court
TNPCB cannot close an industry on unspecified violations, SC says
- The Supreme Court on Thursday said the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) and the Thoothukudi district administration were “equally responsible” for the piling up of toxins in connection with the functioning of the now-shutdown Vedanta’s copper smelting plant, saying pollution regulators in the country are singularly “slack” in using their powers under the law.
Recently, a new report by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has revealed that most of the State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs) and Pollution Control Committees (PCCs) in India remain non-transparent entities when it comes to sharing information with the public.
CSE is a public interest research and advocacy NGO based in New Delhi.
Pollution Control Boards in India
Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB)
Principal Functions of the CPCB:
State Pollution Control Board (SPCB):
Pollution control committees (PCC):
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Cabinet Committee on Security approves ₹19,000 crore mega Navy deal for BrahMos missiles
The BrahMos Aerospace is a joint venture of India and Russia and produces supersonic cruise missiles that can be launched from submarines, ships, aircraft, or land platforms
- The BrahMos Aerospace is a joint venture of India and Russia and produces supersonic cruise missiles that can be launched from submarines, ships, aircraft, or land platforms
- In a mega boost for the Indian Navy, the Cabinet Committee on Security has cleared the acquisition of over 200 BrahMos extended-range supersonic cruise missiles for deployment on its warships.
Brahmos Missile:
- It is a supersonic cruise missile.
- It is a joint venture between the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) of India and NPOM of Russia.
- It is named after the rivers Brahmaputra and Moskva.
cruise missiles
Cruise missiles are unmanned vehicles that are propelled by jet engines, much like an airplane. They can be launched from ground, air, or sea platforms. Cruise missiles remain within the atmosphere for the duration of their flight and can fly as low as a few meters off the ground. Flying low to the surface of the earth expends more fuel but makes a cruise missile very difficult to detect.
Features:
- It is a two-stage missile with a solid propellant engine in the first stage and a liquid ramjet in the second.
- The system has been designed with two variants for Anti-Ship and Land-Attack roles.
- Brahmos is one of the fastest cruise missiles currently operationally deployed with the speed of Mach 2.8, which is nearly 3 times more than the speed of sound.
- It has a launch weight of 2,200-3,000 kg.
- It operates on the “Fire and Forgets” principle, adopting varieties of flights on its way to the target.
- BrahMos is equipped with stealth technology designed to make it less visible to radar and other detection methods.
- It has an inertial navigation system (INS) for use against ship targets, and an INS/Global Positioning System for use against land targets.
Money to ineligible beneficiaries, SC/STs lower in priority: CAG flags faults in rollout of PM awas yojana in Madhya Pradesh
The report flagged that houses were “sanctioned twice to the same beneficiary in 64 cases. In 98 cases, one house was sanctioned to the actual beneficiary and another to his/her family members who were not identified for the scheme”.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India has flagged irregularities in the implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Gramin (PMAY-G) in Madhya Pradesh – with allegations ranging from the state government handing out Rs 15 crore in assistance to over 1,500 ineligible beneficiaries to more than 8,000 beneficiaries getting priority over more deprived beneficiaries from the SC and ST communities.
PMAY-G:
Although Indira Awas Yojana (started in 1996) addressed the housing needs in the rural areas, certain gaps were identified (lack of transparency in selection of beneficiaries, low quality houses, weak monitoring, etc) by CAG in 2014.
To address these gaps in the rural housing program and in view of the Government’s commitment to providing “Housing for All’’ by 2022, the IAY has been restructured into PMAY-G w.e.f. 1st April 2016.
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Salient Features of the PMAY-G:
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PMAY-G unique
- PMAY-G instead of selecting the beneficiary from among the BPL households, selects them using housing deprivation parametersin the SECC 2011 which is to be verified by the Gram Sabhas.
- Towards better quality of construction, setting up of a Nation Technical Support Agency (NTSA)at the national level is envisaged.
- Also, a pan-India training and certification programme of Masonshas been launched in the States/UTs.
- In PMAY-G, programme implementation and monitoringare to be carried out through an end-to-end e-Governance model – using AwaasSoft and Awaas App.
- Also, the programme implementation is to be monitored through community participation(Social Audit), Member of Parliament (DISHA Committee), etc.
In a first, CERN scientists carry out laser cooling of Positronium
Physicists representing 19 European and one India research group comprising the Antihydrogen Experiment: Gravity, Interferometry, Spectroscopy (AEgIS) collaboration announced this scientific achievement on Thursday.
CERN scientists carry out laser cooling of Positronium
- In a major scientific breakthrough, an international team of researchers has successfully demonstrated laser cooling of Positronium for the first time.
- The breakthrough experiment was carried out by the Antihydrogen Experiment: Gravity, Interferometry, Spectroscopy (AEgIS) collaboration at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).
CERN: –
The name CERN is derived from the acronym for the French “Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire”, or European Council for Nuclear Research.
- CERN was founded in 1954 with the mandate of establishing a world-class fundamental physics research organization in Europe.
- CERN is a scientific research organization that studies fundamental physics.
- It operates the world’s largest particle physics laboratory.
Function
- At CERN physicists and engineers are probing the fundamental structure of the universe.
- They use the world’s largest and most complex scientific instruments to study the basic constituents of matter – the fundamental particles.
- The particles are made to collide together at close to the speed of light.
- The process gives the physicists clues about how the particles interact, and provides insights into the fundamental laws of nature.
Location
CERN is located on the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, Switzerland.
Members
- Now CERN has 22 members.
- India became an Associate Member State of CERN in 2016.
- India was inducted as an Observer at CERN in 2004.
Antihydrogen Experiment: Gravity, Interferometry, Spectroscopy (AEgIS)
- AEgIS is an experiment at CERN that studies the effects of gravity on antimatter.
- The experiment’s primary goal is to directly measure the gravitational acceleration of Earth on antihydrogen.
- Antihydrogen is the antimatter counterpart to hydrogen.
- A hydrogen atom is made up of a positively charged proton and a negatively charged electron.
- An antihydrogen atom is made up of a negatively charged antiproton and a positively charged positron.
- It is a collaboration between physicists from Europe and India.
- The experiment is designed to help explain the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the visible universe.
- Antimatter is stable as long as it doesn’t come into contact with matter.
- However, it only lasts a fraction of a second on Earth without special precautions.
Location
- The experiment is located at the Antiproton Decelerator facility at CERN.
Achievement
- In 2018, AEgIS became the first in the world to demonstrate the pulsed production of antihydrogen atoms.
Positronium
- Positronium, comprising a bound electron (e-) and positron (e+), is a fundamental atomic system.
- The matter, which forms the world around us, consists of atoms, the simplest of which is hydrogen.
- This is made up of a positively-charged proton and a negatively-charged electron.
- Positronium, on the other hand, consists of an electron and its antimatter equivalent, a positron.
- It was first detected by scientists in the US in 1951.
- Due to its very short life, it annihilates with a half-life of 142 nano-seconds.
- Its mass is twice the electron massand enjoys the unique distinction of being a pure leptonic atom.
- This hydrogen-like system, with halved frequencies for excitation, makes it a great contender for attempting laser cooling and thereby performing tests of fundamental theories in physics.
- Cooling the Positronium slows the atoms down, making it easier for scientists to study.
CBI raids places linked to Satya Pal Malik: What is the Kiru Hydel Project, focus of corruption allegations?
- The Kiru Hydel Project is being constructed between the existing Kirthai II and Kwar hydel power projects, at an estimated cost of Rs 4,287 crore.
- J&K ex-Governor Satya Pal Malik cries foul as CBI searches his premises
- While he was the Meghalaya Governor, Mr. Malik had alleged corruption in two J&K schemes, including the Kiru hydel project, stating that it ran to ₹300 crore.
run-of-river project
Run-of-the-river hydroelectric systems are hydroelectric systems that harvest the energy from flowing water to generate electricity in the absence of a large dam and reservoir—which is how they differ from conventional impoundment hydroelectric facilities.
Kiru Hydro-Electric Power Project:
- It is being developed over the Chenab River near the villages of Patharnakki and Kiru in Kishtwar district, Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).
- It is located between Kirthai II hydroelectric project to its upstream and Kwar hydroelectric project to its downstream.
- It is a 624MW run-of-river project.
- The project is being developed by Chenab Valley Power Projects (CVPP), a joint venture between National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC, 49%), Jammu & Kashmir State Power Development Corporation (JKSPDC, 49%) and Power Trading Corporation (PTC, 2%).
- Beneficiary States: J&K, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Rajasthan, Union territories of Chandigarh & Delhi.
Power plant make-up:
- The project involves the construction of a 135m-high concrete gravity dam near Kiru.
- The project will have a catchment area of 10,225km², while the reservoir will be 6.5km-long and 1.03km² in area.
- It will have one 700m-long horse-shoe shaped diversion tunnel with two openings to divert the flow of the river to enable the dam construction.
guinea worm disease
Global efforts have dramatically reduced Guinea worm disease from over 3.5 million cases in the 1980s to just six cases in 2023, marking a significant stride towards eradication.
The declining numbers (WHO data)
- There were more than 3.5 million cases of this disease in the 1980s.
- The cases dwindled to 14 cases in 2021, 13 in 2022, and just six in 2023.
India stands
- India eliminated Guinea worm disease in the late 1990s.
- Measure taken by India: rigorous campaign of surveillance, water safety interventions, and community education.
guinea worm disease
- Guinea worm disease, also called dracunculiasis, is caused by a parasite called guinea worm (Dracunculus medinensis).
- A parasite is an organism that feeds off another organism to survive.
- The worm’s larvae are carried by water fleas found in stagnant water in ponds, open wells, and freshwater lakes.
- When someone drinks contaminated water, the larvae can invade their stomach and intestines.
- Treatment: There is no drug to treat Guinea worm disease and no vaccine to prevent Guinea worm infection.
- By 2021, only five countries remained endemic – Mali, Chad, South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Angola.
National Board for Wildlife approves Assam Mala project road to Bhutan border
The National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) has given its approval for an elevated corridor near Kaziranga National Park in Assam, along with four other projects.
Asom Mala is a road connectivity project that was recently launched by the Prime Minister in Dhekiajuli of Assam.
- The program will interlink national and state highways with major district roads and rural road networks. The project aims to facilitate multi-modal transport in the state. The project is in line with the Bharat Mala Project. In addition to this, the foundation stones of 2 hospitals were laid.
Kaziranga National Park:
- Location:It is located in the Golaghat and Nagaon districts of Assam.
- It was declared a national park in 1974.
- It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Siteand houses two-thirds of the total world population of greater one-horned rhinoceros.
- It is the largest undisturbed area in the Brahmaputra Valley floodplains.
- Vegetation: It is a mix of eastern wet alluvial grasslands, semi evergreen forestsand tropical moist deciduous forests.
Flora:
- It is primarily famous for its dense and tall elephant grassesintermixed with small swamplands.
- It also includes an abundant cover of water lilies, water hyacinths and lotus.
- Rattan Cane, a type of climbing palm, is also found here.
Fauna:
- Important wildlife found are One-horned rhinoceros,Leopard, Fishing Cat, other Lesser cats, royal Bengal tiger, Large Indian Civet, Small Indian Civet, Sambar, Barking deer, Hog deer, Gaur, Hog Badger, Capped Langur, etc.
- It is also one of the last remaining homesof the endangered and endemic western hoolock gibbon, the only species of apes found in India.
- It is home to approximately 478 species of both resident and migratory birds.
- It is one of the last homes of the critically endangered Bengal florican.
Union Minister dismisses Kerala govt’s calls for Wildlife Protection Act amendment…
Wildlife Protection Act 1972 – Salient Features
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Wildlife Protection Act 1972 – Significance
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Various Bodies Constituted under Wild Life Protection Act 1972
National Board for Wildlife (NBWL)
State Board for Wildlife (SBWL)
Central Zoo Authority
National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA)
Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB)
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Protected Areas under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972
According to the Act, there are five categories of protected places.
- Sanctuaries
- National Parks
- Conservation Reserves
- Community Reserves
- Tiger Reserves