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Daily Prelims Notes 8 April 2023

  • April 8, 2023
  • Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
  • Category: DPN
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Daily Prelims Notes

8 April 2023

Table Of Contents

  1. Non­communicable diseases cause 40% of hospitalization
  2. BRO working on strategic infra projects to aide Bhutan’s growth
  3. Tongyi Qianwen
  4. Canada, Japan, UK, EU question India’s quality control orders at WTO
  5. How short-beaked echidnas beat the heat
  6. LIGO India Project
  7. National Mission for Mapping Culture
  8. MHA to provide financial assistance for prisoners
  9. Genome India Project
  10. Cannabis cultivation
  11. Drug makers get more to time to join ‘track and trace system’
  12. Saudi Oman team to talk to Houthis to end Yemen war
  13. 75 Years of World Health Organisation
  14. Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) Instrument
  15. India decommission ageing dams

 

 

1. Non­communicable diseases cause 40% of hospitalization

Subject: Schemes

What are NCDs?

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), also known as chronic diseases, tend to be of long duration and are the result of a combination of genetic, physiological, environmental and behavioural factors.

The main types of NCD are cardiovascular diseases (such as heart attacks and stroke), cancers, chronic respiratory diseases (such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma) and diabetes.

NCDs disproportionately affect people in low- and middle-income countries, where more than three quarters of global NCD deaths (31.4 million) occur.

National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke (NPCDCS)

  • National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke (NPCDCS) was launched in 2010 in 100 districts across 21 States, in order to prevent and control the major NCDs.
  • The main focus of the programme is on health promotion, early diagnosis, management and referral of cases, besides strengthening the infrastructure and capacity building.

Main strategies of the programme:

  • Health promotion through behavior change with involvement of community, civil society, community-based organizations, media etc.
  • Outreach Camps are envisaged for opportunistic screening at all levels in the health care delivery system from sub-centre and above for early detection of diabetes, hypertension and common cancers.
  • Management of chronic Non-Communicable diseases, especially Cancer, Diabetes, CVDs and Stroke through early diagnosis, treatment and follow up through setting up of NCD clinics.
  • Build capacity at various levels of health care for prevention, early diagnosis, treatment, IEC/BCC, operational research and rehabilitation.
  • Provide support for diagnosis and cost-effective treatment at primary, secondary and tertiary levels of health care.
  • Provide support for development of database of NCDs through a robust Surveillance System and to monitor NCD morbidity, mortality and risk factors.

Funding:

  • The funds are being provided to States under NCD Flexi-Pool through State PIPs of respective States/UTs, with the Centre to State share in ratio of 60:40 (except for North-Eastern and Hilly States, where the share is 90:10).

NCDs:

  • No communicable diseases (NCDs), also known as chronic diseases, tend to be of long duration and are the result of a combination of genetic, physiological, environmental and behaviours factors.
  • The main types of NCDs are cardiovascular diseases (like heart attacks and stroke), cancers, chronic respiratory diseases (such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma) and diabetes.

2. BRO working on strategic infra projects to aide Bhutan’s growth

Subject :Geography

Section: Places in news

After taking up daunting projects in the higher reaches, the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) is executing strategic infrastructure assignments in Bhutan to aid its development.

The initiatives assume importance given that Bhutan and China are also in talks over boundary issues especially near Doklam trijunction point which came up for discussion during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with the visiting Bhutanese King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, earlier this week.

The BRO has commenced three projects in South Eastern Bhutan since last year. These include the rehabilitation of Khothakpa–Tshobaley road, construction of 68-km greenfield Nanglam–Dewathang road, besides development of Motanga industrial park.

3. Tongyi Qianwen

Subject : Science and Technology

Section: Awareness in IT

Context: Alibaba unveils ChatGPT alternative Tongyi Qianwen under cloud services after Baidu’s high-profile Ernie Bot launch

4. Canada, Japan, UK, EU question India’s quality control orders at WTO

Subject: Economy

Section: External Sector

What is the issue?

  • Canada, Japan, the UK and the European Union have raised concerns at the WTO about the increasing number of quality control orders (QCOs) being issued by India across sectors such as toys, tyres, auto parts, chemicals and petrochemical products, many of which seem “protectionist in nature
  • Earlier this week, at a meeting of the WTO Committee on Trade in Goods in Geneva, the four members noted that some of India’s QCOs may not be compliant with WTO norms as they appeared to be tools to protect domestic industry
  • The Department of Policy for Investments and Internal Trade has issued 20 QCOs in the last three years for products such as toys, leather and rubber footwear, safety glass and sewing machines.

5. How short-beaked echidnas beat the heat

Subject :Environment

Section: Species in news

Context: With about 100 mucous secreting glands, this Australian mammal blows snot bubbles to bring down its body temperature.

More on the News:

  • Short-beaked echidnas of the semi-arid Dryandra Woodland in Western Australia face searing hot summers. They can’t pant like dogs to cool off since their long, thin, sticky tongues are useful only to feed. Neither do they sweat as we do. Nor do they lick their arms like kangaroos whose evaporating saliva cools the underlying blood vessels. Vultures squirt watery poop on their naked legs for the same reason.
  • Just as the thorns of cacti reduce heat loss, so do the two-inch-long spines of echidnas. When the quills are slicked back, they trap warmth. When they are raised, heat escapes. Another strategy of the domestic cat-sized animals is to lie flat, pressing their spineless stomachs to the cool soil with their legs and noses stretched out.
  • The pencil-thin, three-inch tubular snout is the egg-laying mammal’s prey detection kit. It is covered with electroreceptors that detect the underground wrigglings of ants, termites, and grubs. These sensors work only when they are moist. For this reason, the echidna’s nose has about 100 mucous secreting glands.
  • Viewed through a thermal camera, the echidna’s pointy nose appears blue, much cooler than the rest of its body, which glows in the warm colours of orange, pink and red. When a hot animal blows mucus balloons that burst over its nose, evaporation cools the blood vessels inside the snout. Circulating this blood through the body brings down the body temperature.

Echidnas:

  • Echidnas, also known as spiny anteaters, are small, egg-laying mammals found in Australia and New Guinea. They are one of only two extant monotremes (the other being the platypus) which are mammals that lay eggs instead of giving birth to live young.
  • Echidnas are covered in spines, which protect them from predators. They use their strong claws to dig into the ground and create burrows where they can rest during the day.
  • They have a long, sticky tongue that they use to capture insects and other small prey. They do not have teeth, so they grind up their food with keratinous pads in their mouths.
  • Female echidnas lay a single leathery egg, which hatches after about 10 days. The young, called puggles, are born without spines and are carried in a pouch on the mother’s belly until they are able to survive on their own.
  • Echidnas are important to the ecosystem because they help to control insect populations.
  • However, echidnas are facing threats from habitat loss and fragmentation, vehicle collisions, and predation by introduced predators such as foxes and cats. Climate change is also a potential threat, as it may affect the availability of insects, which are a major food source for echidnas.
  • Echidnas are listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, but some subspecies are considered to be vulnerable or endangered.

6. LIGO India Project

Subject : Science and technology

Section: Space technology

Concept :

  • The government has given the final go-ahead to India’s Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO, project.

LIGO India Project

  • LIGO is an international network of laboratories that detect the ripples in spacetime produced by the movement of large celestial objects like stars and planets.
  • LIGO-India will be located in Hingoli district of Maharashtra, about 450 km east of Mumbai, and is scheduled to begin scientific runs from 2030.

LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory)

  • It is an international network of laboratories meant to detect gravitational waves.
  • Under this, two large observatories (~ 3000 Km apart) were built in the US (Hanford Site, Washington and Livingston, Louisiana) with the aim of detecting gravitational waves by laser interferometry.
  • Interferometry is a technique which uses the interference of superimposed waves to extract information.
  • Besides the US, such gravitational wave observatories are currently operational in Europe and Japan.
  • LIGO-India will be the fifth, and possibly the final node of the planned network.

Why is a Fifth LIGO Observatory Needed?

  • Extremely low strength of gravitational waves make their detection very difficult.
  • Therefore, LIGO-India is part of the plan to expand the network of gravitational wave observatories in order to increase the chances of detecting these waves from anywhere in the observable universe.
  • This will improve the accuracy and quality of information taken from them.

Gravitational Waves

  • These are the ripples in space-time produced by the movement of large celestial bodies like stars and planets.
  • These were postulated over 100 years ago in Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity that encapsulates the current understanding of how gravitation works.
  • However, they were first discovered in 2015 by two LIGOs based in the United States.
  • In 2017, this experimental verification of the century-old theory received the Nobel Prize in Physics (to Rainer Weiss, Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne).
  • Until now, at least 10 events producing gravitational waves have been detected.

Significance for India

  • For India, LIGO is a momentous milestone. India has been an active collaborator in a number of international science projects.
  • These include the Large Hadron Collider experiments, and ITER, the effort to create a thermonuclear reactor that would enable controlled nuclear fusion reactions.
  • India is also expected to be a partner country in setting up the next space station after the current International Space Station comes to the end of its life later this decade.
  • However, India has not yet built a cutting-edge scientific facility on this scale on its own soil, something that can have huge spin-off benefits for its science and technology sector.
  • The India-based Neutrino Observatory, one such facility that has been planned in India, has been facing delays.
  • LIGO, therefore, is crucial to demonstrating India’s intent and capability to pull-off complex science projects on its own.
  • The new Ligo observatory, in combination with its partners, will let scientists probe deep questions about black holes and neutron stars. “The new detector will improve chances of doing science in India.

7. National Mission for Mapping Culture

Subject :Schemes

Concept :

  • National Mission for Cultural Mapping with the mandate to map rural India’s cultural assets has covered over one lakh villages.

Details

  • The entire exercise has been carried out under the Mera Gaon Meri Dharohar (My Village My Heritage) programme of the National Mission for Cultural Mapping (NMCM).

About the NMCM Mission

  • The NMCM aims to develop a comprehensive database of art forms, artists and other resources across the country.
  • The Culture Ministry had approved the mission in 2017 with a ₹469 crore budget from 2017-2018 to 2019-2020.

Objectives of the Mission

  • Under this Mission, at broad-level, there are three important objectives as follows:
  • National Cultural Awareness Abhiyan: Hamari Sanskriti Hamari Pahchan Abhiyan (Our Culture Our Identity)
  • Nationwide Artist Talent Hunt/Scouting Programme: Sanskritik Pratibha Khoj Abhiyan
  • National Cultural Workplace: Centralised Transactional Web Portal with database and demography of cultural assets and resources including all art forms and artists.

Implementation

  • In this cultural asset mapping, villages have been broadly divided into seven-eight categories based on whether they are important ecologically, developmentally or scholastically, if they produce a famous textile or product, and if they are connected to some historical or mythological events such as the Independence struggle or epics like the Mahabharata.
  • The Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA) has undertaken the cultural asset mapping of these villages through field surveys.
  • The survey documents the cultural identity of the villages by involving citizens to share what makes their village, Block or district unique.
  • The survey process involves a CSC Village Level Entrepreneur (VLE) conducting meetings with locals and then uploading interesting facts about their village, its places of interest, customs and traditions, famous personalities, festivals and beliefs, art and culture, etc., on to a special application.
  • The IGNCA plans to cover all the 6.5 lakh villages in the country.

8. MHA to provide financial assistance for prisoners

Subject : Polity

Concept :

  • Recently, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has launched a scheme which envisages monetary aid to poor inmates who are unable to afford the penalty or the bail amount.

About the initiative:

  • In line with one of the announcements of the Union Budget, ‘Support for Poor Prisoners’, the scheme envisages financial support to poor persons.
  • The scheme will enable underprivileged prisoners, majority of whom belong to socially disadvantaged or marginalised groups with lower education and income levels, to get out of prison.
  • The technology-driven solutions were aimed and put in place to ensure that benefits reach the poor prisoners; reinforcing the E-prisons platform; strengthening of District Legal Services Authority and sensitisation and capacity building of stakeholders to ensure that quality legal aid is made available to needy poor prisoners.

Need of the initiative:

  • According to Prison Statistics India 2021, a report published by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Ministry of Home Affairs, between 2016-2021, the number of convicts in jails decreased by 9.5 percent whereas the number of undertrial inmates increased by 45.8 percent.

E- prisons Project

  • This project aims at computerization of the functioning of prisons in the country. It has been operationalised in all States and Union Territories.
  • e-Prisons data has been integrated with the Police and Court system under the Inter-operable Criminal Justice System.
  • ePrisons application suite has been developed by National Informatics Centre (NIC), Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY).

It has 3 components:

  • e-Prison Management Information System (MIS): It is used at the prisons for their day to day regular activities.
  • National Prisons Information Portal: It is a citizen centric portal showing statistical data of various prisons in the country.
  • Kara Bazaar: Portal for showcasing and selling the products manufactured in various prisons of the country by inmates.

Inter-operable Criminal Justice System:

  • It is a common platform for information exchange and analytics of all the pillars of the criminal justice system comprising Police, Forensics, Prosecution, Courts, Prisons.
  • Purpose: To reduce errors and time taken in sharing of necessary information between the pillars, which often lead to larger challenges like longer duration of trials, poorer convictions, transit losses of documents etc.
  • Some other critical benefits arising out of the ICJS ecosystem are usable analytics products like the National Database on Sexual Offenders (NDSO) to identify & track repeat and habitual sexual offenders.

Other Government Interventions:

  • Modernization of Prisons scheme: The scheme for modernisation of prisons was launched in 2002-03 with the objective of improving the condition of prisons, prisoners and prison personnel.
  • E-Prisons Project: The E-Prisons project aims to introduce efficiency in prison management through digitization.
  • Model Prison Manual 2016: The manual provides detailed information about the legal services (including free services) available to prison inmates.
  • National Legal Services Authority (NALSA ): It was constituted under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 which came into force on 9th November, 1995 to establish a nationwide uniform network for providing free and competent legal services to the weaker sections of the society.

9. Genome India Project

Subject : Science and technology

Section: Biotechnology

Concept :

  • Recently, the secretary of the Department of Biotechnology said that under the Genome India project, close to 7,000 genomes have been sequenced and 3,000 of these are already available for public access.

Genome India Project

  • Taking inspiration from the Human Genome Project, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) initiated the ambitious “Genome India Project” (GIP) on 3rd January 2020. It is a Central Sector Project.
  • The GIP aims to collect 10,000 genetic samples from citizens across India, to build a reference genome.
  • This is a mission-mode, multi-institution consortium project, the first of its kind in India supported by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India.

Goal

  • The goal of the research is to develop predictive diagnostic indicators for several high-priority diseases and other uncommon and genetic disorders.
  • In phase 2, the project would collect genetic samples from patients with three broad categories – cardiovascular diseases, mental illness, and cancer.
  • Through whole-genome sequencing, the plan is to build an exhaustive catalogue of genetic variations for the Indian population.

Targeted areas

  • Some of the priority areas are Precision health, Rare genetic disorders, Mutation spectrum of genetic and complex diseases in the Indian population, Genetic Epidemiology of Multifactorial Lifestyle Diseases, and Translational Research.

What is a genome?

  • Every organism’s genetic code is contained in its Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid (DNA), the building blocks of life.
  • A genome, simply put, is all the genetic matter in an organism.
  • It is defined as “an organism’s complete set of DNA, including all of its genes.
  • Each genome contains all of the information needed to build and maintain that organism.
  • In humans, a copy of the entire genome — more than 3 billion DNA base pairs — is contained in all cells that have a nucleus”.

10. Cannabis cultivation

Subject :Geography

Section: Economy geography

Concept :

  • Recently, a five-member committee of MLAs has been formed by the state government of Himachal Pradesh to conduct a thorough study of cannabis cultivation and submit a report within a month.

About Cannabis Cultivation:

  • Cannabis refers to a group of three plants with psychoactive properties, known as Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderalis.
  • Cannabis is made up of more than 120 components, which are known as cannabinoids but experts have a pretty good understanding of two of them, known as cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
  • The Mexican term ‘marijuana’ is frequently used in referring to cannabis leaves or other crude plant material in many countries.
  • The unpollinated female plants are called hashish. Cannabis oil (hashish oil) is a concentrate of cannabinoids obtained by solvent extraction of the crude plant material or of the resin.
  • In India farming of cannabis has been legalised in Uttarakhand, and controlled cultivation of cannabis is also being done in some districts of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

Legal Provisions in India

  • The central law that deals with cannabis (weed or marijuana) in India is the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, of 1985.
  • The NDPS Act prohibits the sale and production of cannabis resin and flowers, but the use of leaves and seeds of the cannabis plant is permitted
  • The states have the power to regulate and form the state rules for it.

11. Drug makers get more to time to join ‘track and trace system’

Subject : Schemes

Concept :

  • Drug makers have got another extension from DGFT, this time up to August 1, to help implement the Track and Trace system for export of pharmaceuticals consignments.
  • Manufacturers granted time for ensuring that data about maintaining parent-child relationship in packaging levels for export of drug formulations is uploaded on the central portal.

Track and Trace System

  • The pharmaceutical track and trace system is a logistical technology that allows drugs to be tracked and located along the supply chain.
  • To secure the domestic pharmaceutical supply chain, Turkey became the first country in the world to adopt an end-to-end pharmaceutical track and trace system in 2012.
  • Following the successful installation, countries such as Argentina and Saudi Arabia began to implement the drug tracking and tracing system. China, the United States, and European Union member countries are also working to develop an end-to-end pharmaceutical track and trace system. India is also in the process of developing its own system
  • The Indian government has granted drug producers another delay until August 1 to establish the Track and Trace system for pharmaceutical export consignments.
  • The Track and Trace system was developed for at least eight years to address issues such as counterfeit pharmaceuticals and product recalls.
  • The latest extension was granted after the Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil) cited difficulty in adopting the system.
  • The Track and Trace system will first cover secondary and tertiary packaging, with the main packaging coming later.

Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council of India

  • Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil) is a promotion body set up by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India.
  • It was set up to promote the Indian pharmaceutical industry.
  • The roles of the council are
    • To advise the government,
    • To organize seminars and meetings on export-related issues,
    • To organize business meetings in India and abroad
    • To organize trade delegations.

12. Saudi Oman team to talk to Houthis to end Yemen war

Subject : International Relations

Section: Places in news

Concept :

  • A Saudi ­Omani delegation is planning to travel to Yemen’s capital Sanaa next week to hash out a permanent ceasefire deal with Houthi officials and end the country’s eight­ year old conflict.
  • It is also a sign that regional rifts are easing after rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran agreed to restore relations last month after years of hostility and backing opposite sides in Middle Eastern conflicts, including Yemen.

Yemen Conflict:

  • Since 2014, Yemen has been facing a multi-sided conflict involving local, regional, and international actors.
  • The Houthis, who ruled a kingdom there for nearly 1,000 years, used widespread anger against President Hadi’s decision to postpone long-awaited elections and his stalled negotiations over a new constitution.
  • They marched from their stronghold of Saada province to the capital Sanaa and surrounded the presidential palace, placing Hadi under house arrest.

Saudi Arabia’s Intervention:

  • A military coalition led by Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen in March 2015, at Hadi’s request, after the Houthis continued to sweep the south and threatened to conquer the last government stronghold of Aden, prompting one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises ever.

Houthis

  • Yemen is located at the junction of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, its coastline commanding the strategic strait of Bab al-Mandab.
  • The country has been wracked by civil war for more than seven years now, and the Houthis control the western part of the country, including the capital Sana’a.
  • The Houthis are a large clan belonging to the Zaidi Shia sect, with roots in Yemen’s north western Saada province. Zaidis make up around 35 per cent of Yemen’s population.
  • The Zaid is ruled over Yemen for over a thousand years until 1962, when they were overthrown and a civil war followed, which lasted until 1970.
  • The Houthi clan began to revive the Zaidi tradition from the 1980s, resisting the increasing influence of the Salafists, who were funded by the state.
  • In 2004, the Houthis began an insurgent movement against the Yemeni government, naming themselves after the political, military, and religious leader Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi, who was assassinated by Yemeni security forces in September of that year.
  • Several years of conflict between the Houthis and Yemen’s Sunni majority government followed.

Zaydis

  • Zaydis are the oldest branch of the Shia.
  • The Zaydis are named after Zayd Bin Ali, the great grandson of Imam Ali, Prophet Mohammed’s cousin and son-in-law who Shias, Sunnis and Zaydis revere.
  • Zayd Bin Ali had led a revolt against the Ummayad Caliphate in the eighth century. He was killed, but his martyrdom led to the rise of the Zaydi sect. While the Zaydis are seen part of the Shia branch of Islam, both in terms of theology and practice, they are different from the ‘Twelver’ Shias of Iran, Iraq and Lebanon.
  • For centuries, the Zaydis were a powerful sect within Yemen.
  • After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1918, the Zaydis would establish a monarchy (the Mutawakkilite Kingdom) in the country. But their dominance would come to an end in 1962 when the Egypt-backed republicans overthrew the monarchy.

13. 75 Years of World Health Organisation

Subject : International  Relations

Section :International Organizations

Concept :

  • The World Health Organization (WHO) was born when its constitution came into effect on April 7, 1948.

How is the WHO governed?

  • The WHO is headquartered in Geneva and has six regional and 150 country offices.
  • It is controlled by delegates from its 194 member states, who vote on policy and elect the director general.
  • Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, previously Ethiopia’s foreign minister, was elected to a five-year term in 2017 and reelected in 2022.
  • WHO delegates set the agency’s agenda and approve an aspirational budget each year at the World Health Assembly.
  • The director general is responsible for raising the lion’s share of funds from donors.

Success

  • Some of the WHO’s most lauded successes include its child vaccination programs, which contributed to the eradication of smallpox in 1979 and a 99 percent reduction in polio infections in recent decades, and its leadership during the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic.
  • The agency has the exclusive authority to declare global health emergencies, which it has done several times since its members granted it the power in 2007.
  • WHO has undertaken reforms to improve its ability to fight future epidemics and boost the health of the hundreds of millions of people still living in extreme poverty.

Failures

  • The organization’s agreement to give up on trying to eradicate malaria in the 1960s represents another example of what some consider a botched job.
  • Many critics have faulted the WHO for slow and poorly coordinated responses to outbreaks. That includes the 2014 Ebola outbreak, in which it waited five months before declaring a PHEIC, despite pleas from groups such as Doctors Without Borders.
  • WHO is in an uphill battle to loosen its rigid bureaucracy and it faces an increasingly troublesome budget.
  • The COVID-19 pandemic has proved to be another monumental challenge for the health agency, sparking fresh debate over its effectiveness.
  • The WHO has become increasingly dependent on voluntary contributions, which puts pressure on the organization to align its goals with those of its donors.

What reforms has the WHO made?

  • Responding to these criticisms, the organization instituted several reforms intended to improve its responses, including the creation of a reserve force of public health workers and a $100 million emergency fund.
  • The WHO also added an incident management system that allows it to place medical responders, equipment, and supplies such as medicines on the ground right away while it coordinates a broader response.
  • In a rare special session of the WHO’s World Health Assembly in 2021, delegates initiated the drafting of a global treaty on pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response.
  • At the 2022 assembly, countries agreed on a U.S.-led proposal to strengthen the IHR by increasing member states’ accountability around disease outbreaks, though no changes have been formally approved.

For further notes on WHO , refer – https://optimizeias.com/world-health-organization/

14. Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) Instrument

Subject : Science and technology

Section: Space technology

Concept :

About TEMPO

  • The Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) instrument was launched by NASA in a Falcon 9 rocket.
  • The instrument will measure pollution and air quality across greater North America on an hourly basis during the daytime.
  • TEMPO will have multiple applications
  • measuring levels of various pollutants
  • providing air quality forecasts
  • helping the development of emission-control strategies
  • Existing pollution-monitoring satellites are in low Earth orbit (LEO), but TEMPO will be hosted in geostationary orbit.
  • TEMPO will allow scientists to monitor air pollutants and their emission sources from space more comprehensively than before.
  • A geostationary orbit is 36,000 kilometers above the equator, where the orbiting satellite will match the rotation of the Earth. (meaning it will stay over the same location)

Similar Instruments

  • TEMPO will be part of a constellation of instruments measuring air quality over the Northern Hemisphere which includes the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-4 (under development) and South Korea’s Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer.

15. India decommission ageing dams

Subject :Geography

Section: Places in news

Context: Dams have affected new ways of land use and life so much that many societies cannot think of a life beyond them anymore

More on the News:

  • Dams, especially the large ones, are highly controversial in India. But the dependence of urban communities on embankments makes it challenging to decommission the ones that have aged or might cause more damage.
  • Dams have destroyed vast swathes of natural forests, displaced millions of people, fuelled inter-state conflicts, and are methane-emitting culprits and so on. But they have also changed the world order for Indian civilisations by evolving new ways of farming, urbanisation and industrialisation.
  • This is the reason for the poor response from people when the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Water red-flagged dam safety issues in a report on March 20.
  • The Parliamentary Committee has raised concerns over the safety of ageing dams that are more than 100 years old. Of the 5,745 large dams in the country, 5,334 are operational. Of these operational embankments, 234 have outlived their lifespan of 100 years. Some are even older than 300 years.

Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP)

  • Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP) is a project launched by the Government of India in 2012 with the aim of rehabilitating and improving the safety and operational performance of selected dams in India.
  • DRIP Phase II is co-financed by World Bank (WB) and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) with US$250 million each.
  • It is being implemented by the Central Water Commission (CWC) in association with the concerned state governments.
  • The project aims to rehabilitate and improve the safety and operational performance of 223 dams in seven states – Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, and Jharkhand.
  • A web-based tool called Dam Health and Rehabilitation Monitoring Application (DHARMA) has been developed to capture important data for all dams and use it for appropriate monitoring and development of rehabilitation protocols.
  • Based on the success of DRIP, the Ministry of Jal Shakti initiated another externally funded Scheme DRIP Phase II and Phase III.
  • The project includes the rehabilitation and improvement of the dam’s structural and non-structural components, including spillway gates, embankments, and sluices.
  • The project also focuses on the strengthening of institutional capacities and the improvement of dam safety monitoring, emergency management, and community-based disaster risk management.
  • DRIP is a significant step towards ensuring the safety and sustainability of India’s dams, which play a crucial role in the country’s water management and power generation.

Dam Safety Act, 2021:

  • An Act to provide for the surveillance, inspection, operation, and maintenance of the specified dam for prevention of dam failure related disasters and to provide for an institutional mechanism to ensure their safe functioning and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
  • Features of the act:
    • The National Committee on Dam Safety will be constituted and will be chaired by the chairperson, Central Water Commission.
    • Functions of the committee will include formulating policies and regulations regarding dam safety standards and prevention of dam failures, analyzing the causes of major dam failures, and suggesting changes in dam safety practices.
    • National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) to be headed by an officer, not below the rank of an Additional Secretary, to be appointed by the central government.
    • The main task of this authority includes implementing the policies formulated by the National Committee on Dam Safety, resolving issues between State Dam Safety Organisations (SDSOs), or between an SDSO and any dam owner in that state, specifying regulations for inspection and investigation of dams.
    • The NDSA will also provide accreditation to agencies working on construction, design, and alteration of dams.
    • The act also envisages constituting a State Dam Safety Organisation (SDSO) whose functions will be to keep perpetual surveillance, inspection, monitoring the operation and maintenance of dams, keeping a database of all dams, and recommending safety measures to owners of dams.
    • The owners of the specified dams are required to provide
      • A dam safety unit in each dam to inspect the dams before and after the monsoon session, and during and after any calamity or sign of distress.
      • An emergency action plan, and carry out risk assessment studies for each dam at specified regular intervals.
      • A comprehensive dam safety evaluation of each dam, at regular intervals, through a panel of experts.

Facts for Prelims:

  • Oldest Dam in India Kallanai Dam(Tamil Nadu)
  • Highest Dam in India Tehri Dam (Uttarakhand)
  • Longest Dam in India Hirakud Dam (Odisha)
  • India ranks third globally after China and the United States of America, with 5334 large dams in operation.
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