7 September 2024, The Hindu
Health Ministry approves new treatment regimen for multidrug-resistant TB
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Prelims: General Science
- The Union Health Ministry has approved the introduction of a new treatment regimen for drug-resistant tuberculosis in India.
- The BPaLM regimen consisting of four drugs — Bedaquiline, Pretomanid, Linezolid and Moxifloxacin — has proven to be a safe, more effective and quicker treatment option than the previous Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) treatment procedure, the Ministry said on Friday (September 6, 2024).
After SC rap, Delhi govt.’s advt. expenditure comes down by 86%, reveals RTI
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GS 2: Issues and challenges pertaining to the federal structure
- The advertisement expenditure of the Delhi government slumped to ₹26.2 crore in 2023-24 from ₹186.2 crore a year earlier, revealed a response to an RTI application filed by Kanhaiya Kumar, a Bihar-based activist.
- The expenditure fell after the Supreme Court criticised the Delhi government last year for not sparing funds for the Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) project despite allocating a much greater sum for its advertisement budget, a Delhi government official said.
Central team to visit flood-hit Andhra Pradesh, Telangana
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GS 3: Disaster and disaster management
- An Inter-Ministerial Central Team (ICMT) will soon visit the flood-affected areas in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for making an on-the-spot assessment of the damage, said a Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) official on Friday.
- The Centre has been extending all requisite and timely assistance to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for flood relief, Sanjeev Kumar Jindal, Additional Secretary, MHA said.
Yettinahole project will cover more dry areas: Karnataka CM
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GS 2: Issues relating to development and management of Human Resources
- Chief Minister Siddaramaiah inaugurated the first stage of Yettinahole Integrated Drinking Water Project in the presence of Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar and many Cabinet ministers at Hebbanahalli in Sakaleshpur taluk of Hassan on September 6, 2024.
- Water collected by building weirs across west-flowing streams is pumped into the deliver chamber (DC-3) located at Doddanagara village.
- From there, water is again pumped to delivery chamber (DC-4) at Hebbanahalli. From DC-4, as per the plan, water flows by gravity.
Stick to fiscal deficit as the norm for fiscal prudence
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GS 3: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment
- Government expenditures exceeding revenue by a high margin can lead to a difficult situation.
- In the 1980s, rising fiscal deficit accompanied by rising government debt led to a difficult balance of payments situation and a high ratio of interest payment to revenue receipts.
- This forced the government to borrow progressively more to meet developmental expenditures.
- In the final 2024-25 Union Budget, the Finance Minister said, “From 2026-27 onwards, our endeavour will be to keep the fiscal deficit each year such that the Central government debt will be on a declining path as percentage of GDP.”
- The Budget speech also says that the Centre’s fiscal deficit would be reduced to 4.5% of GDP in 2025-26 from its budgeted level of 4.9% in 2024-25.
A tourism policy ill-suited for Jammu and Kashmir
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GS 2: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation
- In the collective consciousness, Kashmir remains an Eden, but time has changed its environment.
- The relentless march of urbanisation and commercialisation has inflicted grievous wounds on this once pristine sanctuary.
- The manifestations of climate change are also evident.
- The influx of tourists is causing great stress to the Valley’s delicate ecological equilibrium.
- The Jammu and Kashmir government’s recent tourism policy efforts, ostensibly to project an image of tranquillity and normalcy after the dilution of the region’s special status, have had significant environmental repercussions.
- According to official data, over four crore tourists have visited Kashmir since the announcement of a new tourism policy in 2020. In the first half of 2024, 1.2 million tourists arrived in Kashmir.
Undoing the undoing
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GS 2: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation
- Education lays the path for progress, but not everything that passes for education is a universal good.
- Immediate corrective measures are needed when it strays from its path, and the government’s decision to withdraw the Competency-Based Medical Education Curriculum guidelines published by the National Medical Commission (NMC) rich with blundering interpretations, jerks a retrograde move back within law, and reason.
- Published on August 31, the curriculum specified that sodomy and lesbianism were “unnatural sexual offences”, including them under the category ‘sexual offences’.
- It also slotted transvestism or cross-dressing under the category of sexual perversion.
- The mandatory seven hours of disability competencies that students earlier had to undergo were excluded from the foundation course too.
- In doing so, the NMC did not merely attempt to take medical students back centuries, but it did so in violation of at least a couple of laws of the land, and overlooked the guidelines it had set earlier.
- In mentioning sodomy, lesbianism and transvestism as offences/perversions, the NMC was in violation of the Transgenderpersons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019.
Quad leaders scheduled to meet in U.S. on September 21
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GS 3: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests
- New Delhi will miss its turn to host the Quad Summit in India this year, sources confirmed, as leaders of U.S.-Australia-Japan and India will meet in the United States instead, at a special summit ahead of UN meetings later this month.
- According to the sources, MEA officials have confirmed participation in the Summit, including U.S. President Joseph Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to be hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 21, when he travels to New York ahead of the UN Summit of the Future, the UN General Assembly, and a diaspora event.
Judicial appointments not the prerogative of a single individual: SC
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Prelims: Judiciary
- The Supreme Court held on Friday (September 6, 2024) that the process of judicial appointments to constitutional courts in the country is not the Chief Justices’ “prerogative” and must be consultative.
- The apex court said the Collegium system of judicial appointments, followed since it was brought into effect in 1993 by the Supreme Court itself, was a “collaborative and participatory process” involving all the members of the Collegium, which includes the senior-most judges of the court concerned.
Bengal Governor sends Aparajita Bill for President’s assent
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GS 2: Issues and challenges pertaining to the federal structure
- West Bengal Governor C.V. Ananda Bose on Friday (September 6, 2024) referred the Aparajita Woman and Child (West Bengal Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill, 2024 for the consideration of the President of India Droupadi Murmu.
- “On receipt of a mandatory technical report from the Govt. of West Bengal, Governor has referred the Aparajita Bill for consideration of the President of India,” the Raj Bhawan said, in a statement.
Shared ownership of protected monuments with Waqf Board causes conflict, says ASI
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GS 2: Separation of powers between various organs dispute redressal mechanisms and institutions
- Quoting the examples of Fatehpur Sikri in Agra and Atala Masjid in Jaunpur, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) told a Parliamentary panel that having protected monuments which are also notified as Waqf property give rise to conflicts and administrative issues.
- The ASI made this argument during its submission to a joint committee holding consultations on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024.
- Contesting this claim, Opposition members of the committee argued that no monument is arbitrarily appropriated by the Waqf Board without historical evidence supporting their ownership, noting that the ASI’s own governing legislation — the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act (AMASR Act) — equips the organisation to deal with such cases.
NTCA letter on relocation from tiger zones draws ire
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GS 2: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation
- A recent letter by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) — the apex body tasked with tiger conservation — asking 19 States to “prioritise” the removal of villagers who are residents in the core tiger zones has drawn the ire of several organisations and activists, who have written to Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav protesting these directions.
- “It has been observed that 591 villages comprising 64,801 families are still residing in the core area (of the tiger zone). The progress of village relocation is very slow and it poses grave concern in the light of tiger conservation,” said the letter written by G.S. Bharadwaj, Additional DGF (Project Tiger) and Member Secretary, NTCA to Subhash Malkede, Chief Wildlife Warden, Karnataka on June 19 this year.
- Though The Hindu has only viewed this letter, similar letters have been sent to other States too. Karnataka has 81 villages in the core zone with 1,175 families having been relocated since the inception of Project Tiger in 1973.
India, EU aim to build stronger ties between their military personnel
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GS 2: Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests, Indian diaspora
- As part of efforts to expand existing defence cooperation, India and the European Union aim to establish more permanent staff-to-staff interactions, including with military personnel, which will boost the joint operational effectiveness in tackling challenges faced at sea, on land and in cyberspace, Ambassador of the EU to India Hervé Delphin said.
- A group of officials from the Defence Ministry and Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) are in Europe on a three-day study visit, facilitated by the EU delegation in India, to learn about the EU’s security and defence mechanisms while exploring potential cooperation in Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) missions and in the Indo-Pacific, the EU Delegation to India and Bhutan said in a statement issued on Thursday (September 5, 2024).
France’s new PM tackles first challenge of forming Cabinet; promises ‘change’
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GS 2: Comparison of the Indian constitutional scheme with that of other countries.
- France's new right-wing Prime Minister Michel Barnier started consulting all sides Friday (September 6, 2024) to cobble together a government capable of mustering a majority in parliament after two months of political deadlock.
- The 73-year-old, a former Foreign Minister who recently acted as the European Union's Brexit negotiator, is the oldest premier in the history of modern France.
