POLITY AND GOVERNANCE                                                             

1. Superbug crisis: Are doctors to blame?                                             

2. What is Article 142, invoked by SC to give land for a mosque?           

ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY                                                      

1. ‘Geochemical Baseline Atlas of India’ released                                   

2. Meghalayan rainforests similar to equatorial ones                              

3. What is Pliosaur?                                                                             

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY                                                          

1. How successful is cloud seeding technology                                      

SECURITY                                                                                             

1. Changing the status quo                                                                   

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

Superbug crisis: Are doctors to blame?

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

Context :

• Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is considered one of the most significant challenges the world faces.

• Globally, thousands succumb to untreatable superbug infections on a daily basis.

Major Causes :

• Excessive and irrational usage of antibiotics is one of the leading reasons for rising AMR.

• Over two-thirds of the antibiotics manufactured by the pharmaceutical industry are used as growth promoters for poultry and cattle. Research shows that globally 73% of all antimicrobials sold are used in animals raised for food.

• The remaining one-third is used to treat human ailments. Of this, the common public purchases more than half without a doctor’s prescription, according to WHO.

• Antibiotic stewardship is considered to be the most important intervention to tackle the superbug crisis. A remarkable, though unachievable, 100% success of antibiotic stewardship among doctors to rationalize antibiotic use can still correct only one-tenth of the global antibiotic misuse.

• Antibiotic stewardship efforts by various stakeholders including the Chennai Declaration have significantly raised awareness of the superbug problem among the medical community but it is doubtful whether this awareness translated into rational antibiotic usage.

Need to change priorities:

• Lack of infrastructure and inadequate diagnostic facilities in our health-care sector is one of the major triggers of the irrational antibiotic use by doctors and the public.

• Rational antibiotic use is choosing the right drug at the right dose at the right time.

• Successful antibiotic stewardship programmes may make some impact in countries with good sanitation standards.

•  However, it is doubtful whether this component will make any real difference in the superbug rate in developing countries. Improving cleanliness in hospitals and sanitation in the community is much more important than antibiotic stewardship.

                                                                                                                                                            Source :- The Hindu

What is Article 142, invoked by SC to give land for a mosque?

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Indian Constitution- historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure.

Context :

• The Supreme Court referring to the demolition of the Babri Masjid at the disputed site has said that it was invoking Article 142 to ensure that a wrong committed must be remedied.

More in this news:

• The Supreme Court had used extraordinary powers granted to it by Article 142 of the Constitution to grant five acres of land in Ayodhya to Muslim parties.

• This was the first time that the court invoked this power in a case involving a civil dispute over an immovable property, involving private parties.

Article 142:

• Article 142 provides for the enforcement of decrees and orders of Supreme Court.It consists of two clauses:

• Article 142(1) states that Supreme Court in the exercise of its jurisdiction may pass such decree or make such order as is necessary for doing complete justice in any cause or matter pending before it and the orders shall be enforceable throughout the territory of India.

• Article 142(2) states that Supreme Court shall have the power to make any order for the purpose of

  • securing the attendance of any person,

  • the discovery or production of any documents or

  • the investigation or punishment of any contempt of itself.

Whether Article 142 used earlier?

• The Supreme Court had used Article 142 in 1989 to provide relief to the thousands of people affected by the Bhopal gas tragedy.Applying the provision in the case the court had awarded compensation of $470 million to the victims.

• In 2014, Article 142 was used to cancel allocation of coal blocks granted from 1993 onwards without any specific finding on wrongdoing by those who were allotted these blocks.

• Article 142 has been used for restoring the white marble of the Taj Mahal and for constituting the Justice Mukul Mudgal Committee to probe the 2013 Indian Premier League spot-fixing scandal.

                                                                                                                   Source :- Indian Express

ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

‘Geochemical Baseline Atlas of India’ released

GS PAPER - 03 ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY - Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment

Context :

• To understand and assess the environmental damage and help policy makers to devise a strategy a ‘Geochemical Baseline Atlas of India’ developed by CSIR-National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) was released

Geochemical Baseline Atlas of India :

• The atlas consisting 45 maps of metals, oxides and elements present in top and bottom soils across India.

• It will serve as a reference against which future generations of the country would be able to assess the chemical compositional changes on Earth’s surface.

• These maps help in finding out future contamination caused by industries or other bodies which cause pollution.

How was it developed ?

• It will be given to International Union of Global Sciences (IUGS), which is preparing global maps.

• To develop the maps, the globe was divided into 5,000 cells of 160 km by 160 km each. Of it, India has 122 cells.

• CSIR started this work in 2007 from cell number 1 which is in Kanyakumari. The last cell is in Arunachal Pradesh.

• In one glance, the atleas will help us know regions with high and low concentrations of a metal

                                                                                                                                                          Source :- The Hindu

Meghalayan rainforests similar to equatorial ones

GS PAPER - 03 ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY - Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment

Context :

• A new study discovers that  Meghalaya rainforests the northernmost in the world, is similar in structure and diversity to the other rainforests found near the Equator.

Key Findings of the study :

• The study was conducted in the Namdapha rainforests in Arunachal Pradesh and in the Meghalaya rainforests.

• The study found that the climatic conditions in the region — high rainfall and humidity, and perfect annual mean temperature — were conducive for the survival of the rainforests.

• The biodiversity study noted that tropical Asian species made up 95% of the species diversity in these forests pointing out the similarity in species distribution.

• The region had a high density of 467 trees per hectare. Though this is lower compared with equatorial rainforests, it fell in the intermediate category for rainforests around the Tropic of Cancer.

• Also, the richness of species per hectare was the highest among all lowland rainforests near the Tropic of Cancer.

• These rainforests had fewer species and individuals of liana or woody climbing plants, the levels of beta diversity were high.

• Compared to Equatorial rainforests, these rainforests had a higher proportion of rare species.

• Though the species diversity was similar to the other rainforests, the Meghalaya rainforest trees showed short stature. While the trees in the Equatorial region are known to grow from 45 to 60 m in height, the highest ones in Meghalaya could reach only up to about 30 m. This adaptation might be in order to survive at this higher latitude.

Significance :

• Though the Meghalaya rainforests and Namdhapa rainforests have so many special aspects, this region has been virtually ignored on the world maps of tropical rainforests hence withholding the necessary attention they deserve in the global efforts to conserve the ecologically sensitive rainforests.

• The efforts for the conservation of these rainforests are all the more important given that recent developmental and tourist activities have started to degrade patches of these rainforests.

                                                                                                                                                         Source :- The Hindu

What is Pliosaur?

GS PAPER - 03 ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY - Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment

Context :

• Recently, the bones of pliosaurs were discovered in Poland.

Pliosaur :

• Pliosaurs are the predatory reptiles that lived in seas over 150 million years ago.

• They are one of the largest aquatic carnivorous reptiles that have ever lived and are often referred to as sea monsters.

• They had powerful large skulls and massive jaws with large sharp teeth.

                                                                                                                                Source :- PIB

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

How successful is cloud seeding technology

GS PAPER - 03 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY - Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology, bio-technology

Context :

• Haryana Deputy Chief Minister has written to Prime Minister requesting him to undertake cloud seeding plan to combat air pollution engulfing Delhi and NCR.

Cloud Seeding :

• Cloud seeding is a kind of weather modification technology to create artificial rainfall.It works only when there is enough pre-existing clouds in the atmosphere.

• Rain happens when moisture in the air reaches levels at which it can no longer be held and cloud seeding aims to facilitate and accelerate that process by making available chemical ‘nuclei’ around which the condensation can take place.

• These seeds of rain can be the iodides of silver or potassium, dry ice (solid carbon dioxide) or liquid propane.The seeds can be delivered by plane or simply by spraying from the ground.

Where all has it been tried earlier?

• Cloud seeding is not new to India and it has earlier been attempted in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra to address drought.

• Similar experiments of cloud seeding had earlier been tried in Australia, America, Spain and France.

• In United Arab Emirates,the cloud seeding technique led to creation of 52 storms in Abu Dhabi.

How successful is the cloud seeding technology?

• The Pune-based Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology has been carrying out cloud seeding experiments for several years now.

• The success rate of these experiments in inducing rains is about 60 to 70% depending on local atmospheric conditions, the amount of moisture in the air and cloud characteristics.

                                                                                                                                                    Source :- Indian Express

SECURITY

Changing the status quo

GS PAPER - 03 SECURITY - Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Context :

• The Ministry of Home Affairs has proposed that the Assam Rifles should be merged with the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and serve under the operational control of the MHA.

Present status :

• At present, the Assam Rifles, a Central paramilitary force, is under the administrative control of the MHA and operational control of the Army, i.e. the Ministry of Defence.

  • The Army is opposed to this proposal.

History of Assam Rifles :

• Assam Rifles was formed as a single unit called Cachar Levy in 1835 to assist the British rulers in maintaining peace in the Northeast.

• Later on, this unit was converted into the Assam Military Police Battalion with two additional battalions in 1870.
   

  • It consisted of Lushai Hills Battalion, Lakhimpur Battalion and Naga Hills Battalion.

  • Another battalion-Darrang Battalion was added, just before World War I.

• These battalions after their service to British in World War I, were renamed as the Assam Rifles.

• It was after the Chinese aggression in 1962 that the Assam Rifles battalions were placed under the operational control of the Army.

Opposition to this Move :

• The Army argues that the Assam Rifles should be merged with it.

• Currently, high ranking officers of Assam Rifles are sourced from Army on deputation (as Assam Rifles is presently under the operational control of Ministry of Defense). After the merger of Assam Rifles with ITBP, the former will come under the sole control of MHA. Hence, Army is apprehensive about losing its promotional avenues in Assam rifles, which they presently enjoy.

• Shifting Assam Rifles operational control to MHA may adversely impact vigil along China’s border.

                                                                                                                                            Source :- The Hindu

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