Three-fourths of India’s irrigation sources run on electricity: study (GS Paper 3, Economy)
Why in news?
- The latest edition of the Minor Irrigation Census (MIC), a compendium of borewells, tubewells, and other privately owned irrigation sources by farmer was conducted by the Union Jal Shakthi Ministry.
- It finds that electricity is the dominant source of power to extract water, over diesel and wind and solar energy.
- While the use of electricity showed a quantum jump from powering only 56% of sources in 2011 to 70% in 2017, the latest report, shows it as powering 76% of the sources, a slower growth rate.
Past trends:
- The data in the latest, sixth edition of the report reflect irrigation trends in 2017-18. Similarly, the report released in 2017, or the fifth edition, reflect data in 2013-14 and the report of 2011, the situation in 2006-07.
- Collecting granular data down to the block level and making it public takes a few years.
Sources of groundwater extraction:
- This electrification of groundwater withdrawal corresponds to a rise in the use of tubewells and borewells that are capable of extracting water at greater depths.
- While ‘dugwells’ or ponds that can draw water from a maximum depth of 15 metres remain the dominant source of groundwater, their number has declined from 87 lakh to 82 lakh between the fifth and sixth editions.
- The number of ‘shallow’ tubewells, capable of drawing water from up to 35 metres, too have declined from 59 lakh to 55 lakh.
- However ‘medium-sized’ wells grew from 31 lakh to 43 lakh and ‘deep’ wells (beyond 70 m) rose from 26 lakh to 37 lakh.
Causes for the increase of more powerful and deep-reaching tubewells:
- While excessive groundwater withdrawal has been a matter of long-standing concern, the report doesn’t discuss the causes for such increase.
- State governments announce schemes where farmers are incentivised or get access to loans to buy such tubewells, could be an explanation.
- However, the lower growth in electrification is also likely to be a result of greater emphasis on energy efficient water extraction.
Minor Irrigation (MI) schemes:
- Overall, 23.14 million minor irrigation (MI) schemes were reported in the country from 695 districts and 6,47,394 villages. Out of all MI schemes, 21.93 million (94.8%) were for groundwater and 1.21 million (5.2%) for surface-water extraction.
- Uttar Pradesh had the largest number of MI schemes in the country (17.2%) followed by Maharashtra (15.4%), Madhya Pradesh (9.9%) and Tamil Nadu (9.1%).
- Leading States in groundwater schemes are Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana. Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Odisha and Jharkhand have the highest share in surface-water schemes.
- The number of MI schemes increased by about 1.42 million between the fifth and sixth editions.
- Most of the schemes (96.6%) were privately owned and small and marginal farmers having less than two hectares of land owned the majority of them.
Using AI on X-rays can detect more TB cases
(GS Paper 2, Health)
Why in news?
- In AI-assisted chest X-rays, India has a powerful technology to screen for presumptive TB.
- The AI algorithm qXR, developed by Mumbai-based Qure.ai, can help detect people with presumptive TB early and in less than a minute.
Potential:
- The 2019-2021 National TB prevalence survey in India report said nearly 43% of TB cases would have been missed without a chest X-ray.
- When used at scale for population-based screening or for targeted screening, qXR plus molecular tests for TB confirmation can increase detection rates.
qXR:
- Systematic screening for TB for early diagnosis is an important ‘End TB’ strategy. The Indian drug regulator cleared qXR a few months ago. qXR also meets the WHO requirement with >90% sensitivity and >70% specificity in people older than 15 years.
- States are currently waiting on a Central TB Division directive to adopt qXR, which could encourage widespread adoption. The absence of policy guidance has kept adoption thus far.
- India’s ambitious goal of “eliminating” TB by 2025 will remain possible only if early diagnosis and initiation of care for millions of people with TB becomes a reality. Large-scale use of AI-assisted chest X-rays for screening is the first step to achieve this goal.
Global experience:
- In Vietnam, a community-wide screening of people older than 15 years using a molecular test in 2014-2017 resulted in lower prevalence of pulmonary TB in 2018 than standard passive case-detection alone.
- Unlike in Vietnam, the use of qXR to read digital X-rays before molecular testing as part of community screening will reduce TB prevalence and minimise the number of molecular tests required to detect TB.
- The qXR algorithm is already being used in over 50 countries.
Adoption in India:
- In India, 24 States are using qXR at about 150 sites.
- Qure.ai partnered with Mylab Discovery Solutions to use qXR in Mylab’s portable chest X-ray device, MyBeam. This will help screen for presumptive TB cases in rural areas.
- The portable device cuts the amount of X-ray exposure to 1/20th to 1/30th of a normal X-ray even while capturing all the details.
Over half of Sri Lankan people ‘vulnerable’, UNDP
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Why in news?
- The crushing economic crisis in Sri Lanka in 2022 has left more than half of the island’s population “multi-dimensionally vulnerable”, according to a national citizens’ survey led by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Dimensions:
- The study spanning the years 2022 and 2023, and covering 25,000 households across the country, found 55.7 % of the population to be vulnerable across three dimensions; education, health and disaster, living standards and 12 indicators, including school attendance, physical condition, unemployment and indebtedness.
- In effect, the survey showed that 12.34 million people out of Sri Lanka’s 22.16 million-strong population have been badly affected by the crisis and remain vulnerable, amid claims of a recovering economy.
- The findings are in line with earlier research by UN agencies on food insecurity levels, and reaffirm anecdotal accounts of poor families cutting down their food intake and pulling their children out of school to cope with the high living costs.
Key Highlights:
- It said a majority or 82%, of those found to be “multidimensionally vulnerable” lived in rural Sri Lanka and underscored the need for “more policy focus” in those areas.
- Further, a third of the country’s population getting into debt for essential needs like food, medical care, and education, as well as pawning jewellery or selling items.
- Several districts exhibit notable multidimensional vulnerability values, with over 65 % of their populations identified as vulnerable.
- The people living in the island’s Tamil-majority north and east, impacted by the civil war, and the economically-marginalised Malaiyaha Tamil community, are among those facing the highest levels of economic deprivation.
IMF package:
- The 2022 financial meltdown pushed Sri Lanka to bankruptcy and brought its citizens to the streets, as they contended with acute shortages, long power cuts, and a dramatic increase in prices.
- A year after defaulting on its foreign debt in the wake of a stifling balance of payments problem, the government obtained International Monetary Fund (IMF) support in March 2023, by way of a $3 billion package.
- While President Ranil Wickremesinghe has pledged to set the country’s economy on a path of recovery, his government is struggling to reach an agreement with its external creditors.
- It must finalise a debt treatment plan before the IMF’s scheduled review this month, as the second tranche of the IMF loan is contingent on it.
Social security programme:
- The government recently began making cash transfers to 1.5 million families out of the 2 million it has identified as poor and eligible. Many more families are protesting, asking to be included on the list.
- However, women’s groups and government critics argue that a targeted social security programme, amounting to 0.6% of the GDP, will prove grossly inadequate to combat the economic strain.
