12 September 2024, The Hindu
Union Cabinet approves health cover for all aged 70 and above
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GS 2: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation
- The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday (September 11, 2024) approved health coverage to all the senior citizens aged 70 and above irrespective of income under the flagship scheme, Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY). This will benefit approximately 4.5 crore families, with six crore senior citizens, with ₹5 lakh free health insurance cover on a family basis.
Bio-decomposer to be sprayed over farms to prevent bad air
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GS 3: Environmental pollution and degradation
- The Delhi government has started preparations to spray bio-decomposer, billed as an alternative to stubble burning, free of cost over 5,000 acres of farmland in the national capital, Environment Minister Gopal Rai said on Wednesday. He added that the process of spraying the environment-friendly solution over farms will begin in the last week of September.
- Bio-decomposer is a microbial liquid spray which, when sprayed onto paddy stubble, breaks it down in a way that can be easily absorbed into the soil, whereby farmers then have no need to burn the stubble. It has been developed by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI).
Four T.N. fishermen injured as Sri Lankan naval ship rams boat
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GS 2: India and its neighborhood- relations
- A Sri Lankan Naval ship allegedly rammed into a Tamil Nadu fishing boat, causing it to capsize and injuring several fishermen. The injured fishermen have been admitted to the Nagapattinam Government Medical College Hospital for treatment.
- The incident occurred off the southeast coast of Kodiyakkarai when a fibre boat owned by Dharman, a resident of Seruthur fishing village in Nagapattinam district, was out at sea.
Instability and uncertainty stalk Bangladesh
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GS 2: India and its neighbourhood relations
- It is often mentioned that the fate of individuals and nations hang by a slender thread. On August 5 this year, even as Muhammad Yunus (the current head/chief adviser of the interim government in Bangladesh) was to be arraigned before a court of law for certain alleged actions against the state, the then Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, was compelled to resign and flee the country to neighbouring India. This was a sequel to several weeks of protests over a ‘quota system’, reserving a percentage of all government jobs to descendants of ‘freedom’ fighters involved in Bangladesh’s ‘war of independence’.
- The government’s heavy-handed measures to suppress the student demonstrations had led to a groundswell of protest against the government, and Sheikh Hasina herself. Even after the proposal for the ‘quota system’ was withdrawn, massive protests continued, signalling the depth of anger against the government, and Sheikh Hasina personally, compelling her to flee.
Perils of decentralisation with Chinese characteristics
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GS 2: India and its neighbourhood relations
- In his Independence day speech this year, the Prime Minister urged States to compete with each other to attract investors. In sharp contrast, extreme subnational economic competition seems to have run its course in China. Here is why decentralisation, once celebrated as a reason for China’s economic miracle, has turned counter-productive.
- Unlike India, where city-level governments account for less than 3% of total government spending, a staggering 51% of government spending in China happens at sub-provincial levels. Local governments also have a much broader qualitative mandate. They are almost exclusively responsible for unemployment insurance and pensions, subjects Indians generally associate with the national government.
India’s sickle cell challenge
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Prelims: General Science
- Last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the National Sickle Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission to eliminate sickle cell disease as a public health problem by 2047, from Shahdol, Madhya Pradesh. Mr. Modi has seen this debilitating condition from close quarters during his term as Chief Minister of Gujarat, where sickle cell disease is a major public health concern. In this article, we highlight the many opportunities to build on this momentum.
- With over a million people affected with sickle cell disease, India bears the world’s second largest burden of this condition. A majority of the patients are concentrated in the tribal belt running across Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra.
Tackling right-wing resurgence in Germany
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GS 2: Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests
- The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the far-left Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) have massively upended mainstream politics in two German regional elections on September 1. The AfD’s victory in the stronghold state of Thuringia marks the first time in the country’s post-war history that a radical right-wing party has come within touching distance of forming a government in a region. Similarly, in the regional polls in neighbouring Saxony, the AfD, sections of which Germany’s domestic intelligence agency has designated as extremist, stood a close second behind the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
‘Developed border areas act as deterrence to adversary’s claims’
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GS 3: Security challenges and their management in border areas
- Our objective is to transform the villages along the Northern borders, especially in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Arunachal Pradesh, which are suffering from limited connectivity and infrastructure, into a ‘Model Village’, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Wednesday (September 11, 2024). We aim to connect them to the mainstream of development, he stated.
- Describing border area development as a core component of national security, Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi said developed area with a strong economic and tourist activity acts also as a deterrence to the adversary. “It basically discredits adversary claims or who otherwise claim this is theirs or taken away. People are there on ground to confirm what is correct and what is not,” he said speaking at a conclave on border area development.
Madrasas ‘unfit’ for proper education, NCPCR tells SC
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GS 2: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Education
- The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), the top child rights protection body in the country, has told the Supreme Court that madrasas are “unsuitable or unfit” places for children to receive “proper education”. The Commission said the textbooks in madrasas “profess supremacy of Islam”.
- “Merely teaching a few NCERT Books in the curriculum is a mere guise in the name of imparting education and does not ensure that the children are receiving formal and quality education,” it argued.
Centre to nudge banks to fund green energy projects
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GS 3: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment
- To help meet India’s ₹30 trillion funding requirements for installing 500 GW of non-fossil fuel capacity by 2030, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is in talks with financial institutions, public and private sector banks, urging them to commit a portion of their loans to renewable energy projects.
- At the forthcoming Re-Invest summit, scheduled in Gandhinagar next week, all major banks and financial institutions will be giving “shapath patra” (promissory notes) about their proposed loans or funding plans in the renewable energy sector, Pralhad Joshi, Minister for New and Renewable Energy, said at a press briefing on Wednesday (September 10, 2024). Such “shapath patra” would be given by developers, manufacturers and private equity investors, he added.
Will protect interests of 100 million small retailers, says Goyal
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GS 2: Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes
- Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday (September 11, 2024) said that the government will protect the interest of 100 million small retailers, who are facing competition from major e-commerce players.
- Last month, the minister lambasted the e-commerce companies, questioning their business model that has been impacting small retailers in the country.
In southern Sri Lanka, a chant for change in this poll season
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GS 2: India and its neighborhood- relations
- Buddhika Dissanayake says she has never had to think so hard before an election. “Earlier, we voted for the party that our family backed for generations, it was an easy choice,” says the middle-aged voter in Kurunegala district, in Sri Lanka’s North Western Province. With hardly a fortnight left for the island nation’s crucial presidential election, she is undecided.
- Her dilemma is not uncommon among Sri Lankan voters gearing up for the September 21 contest, in which some 17 million voters will have a say. In the five years between 2019, when Gotabaya Rajapaksa was elected President, and now, the country’s political landscape and economic path have altered drastically, making this presidential poll unlike any other the island nation has seen.
U.K. government imposes sanctions on 10 ships from Russia’s ‘shadow fleet’
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GS 2: Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests
- The U.K. government, on Wednesday, announced sanctions on a “shadow fleet” of ten Russian oil tankers that it has alleged were circumventing Western oil sanctions.
- The announcement coincided with a trip to Kyiv by U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is on a trip to the U.K. and continental Europe. The announcement comes on the heels of Tuesday’s sanctions announcement from the U.K, France and Germany, who announced curbs on Iran for supplying missiles to Russia.
Organ-on-chip tech could boost BioE3 objective to personalise medicine
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Prelims: General Science
- On August 24, the Government of India announced the ‘BioE3’ policy to drive innovation in the biotechnology sector by establishing biomanufacturing facilities, bio-AI hubs, and bio-foundries. (‘AI’ stands for artificial intelligence.) A key focus area of the policy is precision therapeutics, which involve developing and administering drugs according to the needs of individual patients. The policy also aims to boost the development of biologics such as gene therapy and cell therapy.
- Recent advancements in human-relevant 3D culture models, also known as ‘new approach methods’ (NAMs), have shown promising results in the field of precision therapeutics. These models include 3D spheroids, organoids, bioprinting, and organ-on-chips.
