13 June 2024, The Hindu
An earthquake in 2024, as it was in 1977
Page 8
GS 2: Polity and Governance
- In a demonstration of the power of the vote, India’s voters have collectively achieved in 2024 what their parents and grandparents did in 1977, when Indira Gandhi was defeated at the polls after a 21-month spell of a National Emergency.
- Much like in 1977, it was not the urban voter or the educated or the middle-class who brought the mighty down to earth.
- It were the rural, the marginalised and the unemployed who had been sold illusions for a decade and decided it was time to say, “No more”.
Tackling the fatty liver disease epidemic
Page 9
GS 2: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources
- The theme for International Fatty Liver Day this year, an awareness initiative observed annually in June, is ‘Act Now, Screen Today’.
- This theme resonates more urgently today than ever before. Liver diseases were predominantly associated with excessive alcohol use and this remains an important cause of advanced chronic liver disease.
- However, in recent years, we are seeing the emergence of a silently growing threat to liver health — non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
- As our understanding of this condition has evolved, we now know that fatty liver is closely linked to metabolic health, cardiac health, and a risk for developing cancers.
- This disorder has now been appropriately reclassified and is known as ‘Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease’ (MASLD).
- It has also resulted in a paradigm shift in how we approach liver health. The key is to screen, test, and treat.
India’s retail inflation in May as prices decline marginally
Page 10
GS 3: Indian Economy (Inflation)
- Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty hit their fresh record levels on Thursday after lower inflation numbers raised hopes of an interest rate cut by the RBI.
- Besides, heavy buying in capital goods, consumer durable and industrial stocks also helped the indices, traders said.
PM to attend G-7 outreach in Italy; all eyes on possible interaction with Zelenskyy, Trudeau
Page 13
GS 2: International Relations- Important International institutions, agencies, their structure and mandates
- Just four days after being sworn in for a third term, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will travel to the Apulia region in Italy on Thursday to attend the G-7 outreach meet.
- Mr. Modi will meet Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra announced at a briefing on Wednesday, but declined to comment on specific questions on which other leaders he would hold bilateral meetings with.
Nepal seeks India’s help to set up Jan Aushadhi Kendras
Page 14
GS 2: International Relations- India and its neighbourhood
- After Mauritius, now Nepal has approached India to set up Jan Aushadhi Kendras in that country, which would allow its citizens to benefit from low cost ‘Made in India’ generic medicines.
- Earlier, Mauritius became the first country to adopt the ‘Jan Aushadhi Scheme’, enabling it to source about 250 high quality medicines from the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Bureau of India.
Study ranks India second in nitrous oxide emissions
Page 14
GS 3: Environmental pollution and degradation
- India is the world’s second largest source of nitrous oxide (N2O), a greenhouse gas that heats up the atmosphere far more than carbon dioxide.
- Nearly 11% of such global man-made emissions in 2020 were from India, topped only by China at 16%.
- The major source of these emissions comes from fertiliser usage, according to a global assessment of N2O emissions published in the journal Earth System Science Data on Wednesday.
- The concentration of atmospheric N2O reached 336 parts per billion in 2022, the study notes, or about 25% above the levels seen before the industrial age.
- In comparison, the concentration of carbon dioxide — the predominant greenhouse gas after water vapour — was 417 parts per million in 2022.
Four new studies report progress towards long-awaited HIV vaccine
Page 22
GS 3: Science and Technology- Recent developments and their applications and effects in everyday life
- In early 1981, Michael Gottlieb, an assistant professor at the University of California Los Angeles Medical Centre, wanted to teach some tenets of immunology to a post-doctoral fellow in his laboratory.
- Dr. Gottlieb asked the post-doc to select a patient from the hospital who displayed some immunological features that they might find interesting.
- The post-doc found a patient who had a relatively rare infection called pneumocystis pneumonia and had been admitted after sudden, unexplained weight loss.
- During the course of their discussion, the hospital doctors referred four more patients with the same infection.
- Dr. Gottlieb published a paper detailing these five cases in a small American journal called Morbidity and Mortality Weekly.
- At the time, Dr. Gottlieb had no idea his paper was about to change the field of immunology forever.
