ISRO Loses Connection with Vikram Lander

India's attempt to create history by becoming the first nation to land close to the south pole of the Moon might have turned to despair after Chandrayaan 2's lander 'Vikram' lost communication

• The Chandrayaan-2 approached the Moon as normal until an error occurred about 2.1km (1.3 miles) from the surface, seconds before the ship was expected to land.
• The descent hoped to reduce its speed from 6048 km per hour to about 7 km per hour or lower to enable a soft landing.
• India would have been the fourth nation to make a soft landing on the Moon if Chandryaaan-2 mission had gone successfully.
• However, according to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), only 5% of the mission has been lost (Vikram the lander and Pragyan the rover ), as Chandrayaan 2 orbiter - is orbiting the moon successfully.
  
  • The mission life of the Orbiter is one year.
  • The Orbiter is meant to map the lunar terrain, examine the intensity of solar radiation and the presence of major elements such as Magnesium, Aluminium, Silicon, Calcium, Titanium, Iron, and Sodium etc.
  • It will also conduct a quantitative estimation of water-ice in the polar regions of the Moon.
• Chandrayaan-2 is an integrated 3-in-1 spacecraft comprising of an Orbiter of the Moon, Vikram, the lander and Pragyan, the rover, all equipped with scientific instruments to study the moon.

Source: IE

Indoor Air Pollution

According to the Centre for Science & Environment (CSE), the three-year average levels of PM 2.5 atmospheric particulate matter (with a diameter less than 2.5 microns) during 2016-18 were 25% lower than the 2011-14 baseline (three-year average).

• Though the number of days with severe PM 2.5 levels have come down since 2015, Delhi still needs to cut pollution levels by 65% to meet global air quality standards.

Indoor Pollution

• The environmental air pollution and indoor air pollution are inseparably linked, as people spend around 90% of their time staying indoors.
• According to the State Of Global Air Report 2019, an estimated 846 million people in India were exposed to household air pollution in 2017. That forms around 60% of the country’s population.
• Gases and particles in the air can be divided into two categories: primary and secondary sources.
  
  • Primary gases and components are emitted directly from sources that include the building itself, consumer products (e.g. personal care products, cleaning or cooking products, equipment and office products, off-gassing from items brought into the home), microbial and human metabolic emissions, and also the entry of outdoor air into the house through openings, ventilation systems or leaks.
  • Secondary gases are produced through chemical reactions in the air. For e.g, cooking releases a large amount of VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds), CO₂ (Carbon Dioxide), NOx (Nitrogen Oxide) and other particles. VOCs and NOx react in the presence of sunlight to form ozone.
    
    • The ground-level ozone not only has long-term effects on human health but is also a critical pollutant in smog.

Harmful Effects of Indoor Pollution

• Exposure to ground-level ozone increases a person’s likelihood of dying from respiratory disease, specifically cardiovascular diseases.
• In 2017, exposure to PM 2.5 was the third leading risk factor for type 2 diabetes-related deaths and disability.
• Nitrogen oxide (NOx) can cause inflammation of the airways. Long-term exposure can diminish lung function and increase susceptibility to allergens.
• Particulate matter from burning cigarettes, mosquito coils in a closed indoor environment can lead to increased cases of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, following prolonged exposure.

Related Findings

• Cooking, cleaning, and other routine household activities generate significant levels of volatile and particulate chemicals
• The purpose of the experiment HOMEChem (House Observations of Microbial and Environmental Chemistry) conducted by The University of Texas was to identify the sources of chemical oxidants in the indoor environment, and how they were affected by human activities and changes in light conditions.
  
  • There are two main associated issues that were identified are:
    
    • First, the issue of solid fuel use in homes- a problem associated with rural households, and
    • Second, the issue of exposure related to cooking, smoking, use of incense and/or mosquito coils, consumer products, infiltration of outdoor air, etc. This has more relevance in urban households, offices and public spaces.

Way Forward

• Simple measures such as, cooking with appropriate ventilation (especially when frying food), avoiding the use of incense sticks and candles, room fresheners, etc., (whenever possible), and restricting the infiltration of outdoor air, especially on days when pollution levels are high can help to keep a check on indoor air pollution in urban households.
• It is important to note that buildings in India often have natural ventilation and tend to be leaky. Special care is needed to fully seal the building.
• There is a big gap in the lack of a standard to measure indoor air pollution that needs to be resolved. In India, indoor air is as bad as outdoor air.
• Household air pollution needs to remain a focus for policy action, especially in Asia and Africa, where the use of solid fuel for residential cooking and heating is still very high.

Source: Mint

Wetlands Restoration

Recently, the Government has identified 130 wetlands for priority restoration in the next five years and asked states to submit their respective integrated management plan.

• Each of these wetlands will be restored under a comprehensive scheme of the National Plan for Conservation of Aquatic Ecosystems (NPCA) for conservation and restoration of wetlands and lakes.
• This decision came on the sidelines of the ongoing UN conference on combating desertification (COP14) at Greater Noida.
  
  • Apart from this, the government also proposed the concept of 'Wetland Health Card' to be introduced to monitor the entire ecosystem based on multiple parameters.
  • In order to increase community engagement, the government declared to form 'Wetland Mitras' (the group of self-motivated individuals) for taking care of the identified wetlands across the country.
• Importance of Wetlands
  
  • The wetlands are actually land areas covered by water, either temporarily or permanently. Marsh, fen and peatland come under this category.
  • They play a key role in the hydrological cycle and flood control, water supply and providing food, fibre and raw materials.
  • They not only act as a source of water but also as ecosystems that prevent land degradation and desertification.
  • Besides, such land areas also support lakhs of migratory birds from colder regions of the world in summers.
  • Mangroves protect coastlines and filter pollutants, that's why wetland are referred to as kidneys of the ecosystem.
• Wetlands in India
  
  • In 2011, ISRO come out with a national wetlands atlas on the basis of satellite images, mapping over two lakh wetlands covering around 4.63% of the total geographic area of India.
  • India's prominent wetlands include Chilika lake areas (Odisha), Wular lake (J&K), Renuka (Himachal Pradesh), Sambhar Lake (Rajasthan), Deepor Beel (Assam) etc.
    
    • All these falls in the list of 26 wetlands of India under Ramsar Convention.
    • Globally, there are 2,220 wetlands in the Ramsar list.

Source: TOI

Avian Influenza

With effect from 3^rd September 2019, India has been declared free from Avian Influenza (H5N1), which has also been notified to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).

• The declaration is a result of measures taken to control the recent outbreak of the disease at several places in Jharkhand, Bihar and Odisha and hence there is no presence of the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) Virus.
• The status will last only till another outbreak is reported. India was last declared free of the disease in 2017.
• This declaration is important not just from the poultry industry standpoint, but also because humans can contact the disease from animals. Though the pathogen is not capable of sustained human-to-human transmission.

About Avian Influenza

• Avian influenza (AI) is a highly contagious viral disease affecting several species of food-producing birds (chickens, turkeys, quails, guinea fowl, etc.), as well as pet birds and wild birds.
  
  • Occasionally mammals, including humans, may contract avian influenza.
• Influenza A viruses are classified into subtypes based on two surface proteins, Hemagglutinin (HA) and Neuraminidase (NA). For example, a virus that has an HA 7 protein and NA 9 protein is designated as subtype H7N9.
  
  • Avian influenza virus subtypes include A(H5N1), A(H7N9), and A(H9N2).
  • HPAI A(H5N1) virus occurs mainly in birds and is highly contagious among them.
  • HPAI Asian H5N1 is especially deadly for poultry.
• Avian Influenza outbreaks can lead to devastating consequences for the country, particularly the poultry industry.
  
  • Farmers might experience a high level of mortality in their flocks, with rates often around 50%.
• Prevention: Strict biosecurity measures and good hygiene are essential in protecting against disease outbreaks.
• Eradication: If the infection is detected in animals, a policy of culling infected and contact animals is normally used in an effort to rapidly contain, control and eradicate the disease.

Source: IE

Controlling Hepatitis B

Recently, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Thailand became the first four countries in the World Health Organization’s Southeast Asia region to have successfully controlled Hepatitis B.

• When the disease prevalence is reduced to less than 1% among children less than five years of age the Hepatitis B virus is said to be controlled.
• Hepatitis B infection at a young age turns chronic, causing over 1,00,000 premature deaths annually from liver cirrhosis or liver cancer.
• Despite the introduction of hepatitis B vaccine in the Universal Immunisation Programme in 2002 and scaling-up nationwide in 2011, about one million people in India become chronically infected with the virus every year.
• High prevalence among children aged less than five years has not dropped below 1% due to suboptimal coverage of birth dose in all infants within 24 hours of birth.
• Hepatitis B birth dose, given in the first 24 hours, helps to prevent vertical transmission from mother to child.
• Nearly,70-90% newborns infected and 20-30% carriers are the result of Vertical Transmission of Hepatitis B , in India.
• Although the Health Ministry has approved the birth dose in 2008, its coverage remained low — 45% in 2015 and 60% in 2016 — according to a 2019 Health Ministry report.
• Reasons for the low coverage are :
  
  • The fear of wastage of vaccine when a 10-dose vial is used.
  • Unawareness of health-care workers about WHO recommendation that allows Hepatitis B Open-Vial Policy which states that vaccine can be kept for a maximum duration of 28 days for use in other children if the vaccine meets certain conditions.

Source:TH

Girls Drop Out of Higher Education

A recent study titled ‘Educating the Girl Child: Role of Incentivisation and other enablers and disablers’, done by CRY (Child Rights and You - a Non-Government Organization) has highlighted few reasons behind girls dropping out of higher secondary schools.

• The study, across the four States of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat and Haryana, is based on 3,000 interviews in 1,604 households .

Reasons Behind Dropouts

• Early Marriage, owing to fear of elopement/love affair.
• Parents being worried about physical security of girls stepping out for higher education.
• Predetermined gender roles:
  
  • Not having a female teacher in school keeps some of the girls away from the school.
  • Household Chores discourage girls from going to school.
• Poor roads and lack of transport facilities are also disincentives, in some states.
• Menstruation appear as another reason for missing school.
  
  • All schools do not have running water and hand-washing facilities.
• Cost of education and child labour are the other two reasons.
• People being unaware of government schemes such as Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao.
  
  • The study also revealed that many girls have not been able to avail the schemes due to delay in distribution of scheme benefits and other factors like stringent eligibility criteria and conditionalities, complex processes to avail the benefits, and mismatch of the scheme benefits with the requirements of girls and their families.

Suggestions

• An enabling environment, self-motivation or motivation by parents and community inspired the girls to go to school.
• People need to be made aware of different government schemes.

Source: HBL

Indus Valley Civilization’s Independent Origin

According to a study of DNA (DeoxyriboNucleic Acid) from skeletal remains excavated from the Harappan cemetery at Rakhigarhi (the biggest IVC site located in Haryana) , the researchers found that the people in the Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) have an independent origin.

• The study negates the theory of the Harappans having Steppe pastoral or ancient Iranian farmer ancestry. As per the study, the DNA does not contain any genome from either the Steppe region or the ancient Iranian farmers.
• The finding also refuses the hypothesis about mass migration that happened during Harappan times from outside South Asia.
• According to the study, the genetic continuity from hunter-gatherer to modern times is clearly visible in the DNA results. The same hunter-gatherer communities developed into agricultural communities and formed the Harappan civilization.
• The researchers, therefore, concluded that farming in South Asia was not due to the movement of people from the farming cultures of the west to the Indian subcontinent, & people during IVS developed their own farming culture.

Source: TH

India and South Korea Signs Logistics Pact

India and South Korea have concluded a Military Logistics Agreement during the ongoing visit of Defence Minister to Seoul.

• The two countries have also formulated a forward-looking road map to take bilateral defence industry cooperation to the next level.
• The roadmap has also listed other areas of cooperation like Land Systems, Aero Systems, Naval Systems, R&D cooperation and collaboration in Testing, Certification and Quality Assurance.
• The two Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) were signed during the meeting which covers:
  
  • Defence Educational Exchanges,
  • To extend Logistical Support to each other’s Navies.
• The above agreements would help:
  
  • Assured logistic support when India operates in the Indo-Pacific in the ports of South Korea.
  • To extend the reach, presence and sustainability of Indian Navy ships when deployed at great distances.
• The recent meeting has also been considered as an opportunity to combine India’s ‘Act East Policy’ with the Republic of Korea’s ‘New Southern Policy’.

Source:TH

Craniopagus Twins

Recently, India has successfully performed rarest of the rare surgery on Craniopagus Twins.

• This was the first successful craniopagus conjoined twin separation surgery from India wherein both the children had survived.
• Worldwide only 10-15 children have survived after surgical separation of this condition in the last 50 years.
• All modern adjuncts of technology for surgical planning, 3D print model technology for brain and skull model development, venous bypass, staged surgeries and continuous post-operative care is needed for craniopagus surgery.

Source:TH

The Decline in Cotton Exports

According to the Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council the cotton yarn exports declined by 44% in July 2019, compared with the same month in 2018.

• According to it, Cotton yarn exports are at a five-year low.
• Along with this India’s share in global textile and clothing exports has also seen a downfall.
• While India was the second-largest exporter of textile and clothing in 2014-2017, it has come down to the fifth position in 2019.

Cotton Cultivation

• India is believed to be the original home of the cotton plant. Cotton is one of the main raw materials for the cotton textile industry.
• Cotton grows well in drier parts of the black cotton soil of the Deccan plateau.
• It is a Kharif crop (grown with the onset of monsoon and harvested in September-October) and requires 6 to 8 months to mature.
• Major cotton-producing states are– Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
• Conditions required for the cultivation of cotton are:

Temperature

• Cotton grows in the tropical and sub-tropical warm humid climate. Annual temperature requirement is 20°-28°C. Equitable temperature distribution and bright sunshine is desirable.

Rainfall

• Annual rainfall of 55-100 cm is ideal for cotton Cultivation.
• However, the Rainfall during harvesting is harmful.

Frost-free Days

• About 180 frost-free days are the minimum requirement for cotton cultivation. While, 200 frost-free days are desirable for cotton cultivation.

Soil

• Fertile, saline soil with high water-retention capacity is ideal for cotton cultivation. Loamy soil with high calcium carbonate is best for cotton cultivation.

Relief

• The slight slope of the land drains the soil and is good for cotton cultivation.

Source: TH

Swachhata Awards

The President of India presented the Swachhata Awards on 6^th September 2019.

• Indian Railways was awarded the best ministry for implementation of Swachhata Action Plan (SAP) for 2018-19.
• SAP was formally launched on 1^st April 2017 with the active participation of 72 Ministries and Departments. It is one of the flagship initiatives of the Prime Minister towards making Swachh Bharat everyone’s business.
• It aims at engaging all wings of the Government in the Swachh Bharat Mission programme.
• Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, being the nodal agency, has been engaged with the SAP implementing Ministries and Departments to provide actionable ideas, support implementation as needed and reporting and monitoring through the online portal www.swachhataactionplan.com.
• Best Swachh iconic Place award was conferred to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CST), Mumbai under the Swachh Bharat Mission initiative.

Source: PIB