23 April 2024, The Hindu
Restoring earth’s right to ‘good health’
Page 6
GS 3: Environment- Conservation
- In a landmark decision, the European Court of Human Rights found the Government of Switzerland guilty of violating the rights of a group of women senior citizens of a Swiss civil society group called KlimaSeniorinnen, noting that the government’s actions to curb emissions were inadequate and had failed to protect women against the impacts of climate change.
- As a first of its kind decision anywhere in the world, it highlights how the climate crisis is increasingly becoming a human rights crisis.
Political space for disability rights, a sliver of hope
Page 6
GS 2: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources
- The release of manifestos during election season rarely occasions a discussion on the rights of persons with disabilities.
- However, the promise of the Congress and CPI(M) to include disability as a specific ground for discrimination under Article 15 (and Article 16) of the Constitution has sparked optimism within the disability rights movement.
- Currently, the provision prohibits discrimination on grounds of “religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth, or any of them” and does not expressly include disability.
- A constitutional amendment of Article 15 to address this glaring omission has been a long-standing demand of the disability rights movement.
- In 2019, this demand was reaffirmed by the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in its concluding observations while reviewing India’s compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). To this date, no steps have been taken in this direction.
A lesson from Taiwan in quake resilience
Page 7
GS 3: Disaster Management
- In the last two decades, major earthquakes have occurred in many parts of the world including Indonesia, Japan, China, Italy, Nepal, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Ecuador, Mexico, Morocco, and the Turkey-Syria border.
- On April 3, Taiwan was struck by an earthquake of 7.4 magnitude. These earthquakes cannot be treated as random occurrences, as earthquake-prone regions share some tectonic similarities.
- Earthquakes occur in certain regional bands. The spatial distribution is explained by the theory of plate tectonics, which explains how the Earth’s outermost layer, the lithosphere, is broken into 15 major fragments or plates which are constantly moving relative to each other.
- This is why powerful earthquakes are concentrated along convergent plate boundaries like the Himalayas, a tectonic product of the convergence of the Indian and Eurasian plates.
What is the treatment for post-stroke depression?
Page 8
GS 2: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources
- The current World Health Organisation definition of stroke is to rapidly develop clinical signs of focal (or global) disturbance of cerebral function, lasting more than 24 hours or leading to death, with no apparent cause other than that of vascular origin.
Padma awards: Venkaiah Naidu, Mithun Chakraborty, Usha Uthup honoured
Page 10
Prelims syllabus: Current events of national and international importance
- Former Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu, actor-turned-politician Mithun Chakraborty, singer Usha Uthup and tennis player Rohan Bopanna were among a host of prominent personalities who were conferred with Padma awards by President Droupadi Murmu on Monday.
- Along with Mr. Naidu, founder of Sulabh International Bindeshwar Pathak and Bharatanatyam dancer Padma Subrahmanyam were conferred with Padma Vibhushan, India’s second highest civilian award. Pathak was given the award posthumously and it was received by his wife, Amola.
The tools helping scientists up the rate at which they find new drugs
Page 18
GS 3: Science and Technology- Recent developments and their applications and effects in everyday life
- India is one of the world’s leading manufacturers as well as consumers of antimicrobial drugs. However, many of these life-saving drugs are now becoming ineffective against disease-causing bacteria.
- Around 4.9 million people around the world died in 2019 due to ineffective antimicrobial drugs.
- These deaths include those due to the infections as well as the morbidity resulting from antimicrobial resistance. Yet we have also been struggling to find new drugs.
- One way out of this crisis is for researchers to discover new pathways crucial for the survival of pathogens, and disrupt them.
- However, the modern targeted drug-discovery process is a complex process and often requires customised solutions for each target.
Europe is ‘warming faster than any other continent’
Page 18
Prelims syllabus: General issues on Environmental Ecology, Biodiversity and Climate Change
- Europe is the fastest-warming continent and its temperatures are rising at roughly twice the global average, two top climate monitoring organizations reported on April 22, warning of the consequences for human health, glacier melt and economic activity.
- The U.N.'s World Meteorological Organisation and the European Union's climate agency, Copernicus, said in a joint report the continent has the opportunity to develop targeted strategies to speed up the transition to renewable resources like wind, solar, and hydroelectric power in response to the effects of climate change.
