• The septic tank is a hazardous environment, filled with semi-solid and semi-fluid human faeces, which account for roughly two-thirds of the tank’s volume.
• Hundreds of people die each year in India as a result of manual scavenging in septic tanks, despite bans and prohibition orders.
• The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras has developed a robot that can clean septic tanks without the need for humans.
• Ten units are expected to be distributed across Tamil Nadu under the name “HomoSEP,” and researchers would be in contact with sanitation workers to determine where they can be placed.

KEY POINTS:

• According to IIT Madras, Gujarat and Maharashtra are being considered for the deployment of robots that have been designed with the goal of eliminating manual scavenging in the future.
• Through the support of the NGO, Safai Karamchari Andolan, the first two HomoSEP units have been delivered to self-help groups led by Nagamma and Ruth Mary, whose husbands tragically perished during sanitation work.
• The HomoSEP can homogenise stubborn sludge in septic tanks using a custom-developed rotating blade mechanism and pump the tank slurry using an integrated suction mechanism.

About Prithvi-II:

• Prithvi-II is capable of carrying 500-1,000 kilogram of warheads and is powered by liquid propulsion twin engines. The state-of-the-art missile uses advanced inertial guidance system with manoeuvring trajectory to hit its target.
• The missile was randomly chosen from the production stock and the entire launch was carried out by the Strategic Force Command (SFC) of the Army and monitored by the scientists of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) as part of a training exercise.
• The missile trajectory was tracked by radars, electro- optical tracking systems and telemetry stations by the DRDO along the coast of Odisha.

KEY POINTS:

• India has test-launched Short-Range Ballistic Missile, Prithvi-II from an integrated test range in Chandipur, Odisha.
• This missile system is capable of striking targets with a very high degree of precision.
• It is an indigenously developed, surface-to-surface missile. It is powered by liquid propulsion twin engines. Its range is 350 km and can carry one-ton payload.

• The Eighth Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians has been started in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt to address climate change.
• The two-day conference is being jointly organized by the House of Representatives and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). 
• Nagaland’s first woman elected as Member of Parliament to Rajya Sabha, Phangon Konyak is representing India at the Conference.
• She, along with two other young Lok Sabha MPs from India, will be sharing her thoughts on the ‘Young MPs for Climate Actions’.

About the Conference:

• The 8th Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians provides a platform for young MPs from across the world to exchange learn and define common and innovative strategies to advance youth empowerment.
• This year in Egypt, around 200 young MPs, from 60 countries are participating to discuss strategies to mitigate the impact of climate change and ensure that global warming does not exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius in line with the Paris Agreement.
• According to official information shared by IPU, there are 35,177 Parliamentary seats globally but just 2.66 per cent of these are held by young MPs.

• About one in eight people in the world live with a mental disorder as stated by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in a landmark report released calling for urgent action on transforming mental healthcare.
• The lack of awareness and access to care remain the most significant obstacles to mental health care.
• Even before the pandemic, in 2019, the number of people living with a mental disorder was nearly a billion, including 14 per cent of the world’s adolescents, a number that has been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic in the last two years.
• The WHO report revealed that on average, countries dedicate less than 2 per cent of their healthcare budgets to mental health. As a result, just a small fraction of people in need get access to effective, affordable and quality mental health care.
• The report also called to end stigma, discrimination and human rights violations against people with mental health conditions, with 20 countries still criminalising attempted suicide.

• Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, MK Stalin launched the Ennum Ezhuthum scheme to bridge the learning gap that was caused due to the COVID pandemic among students aged below eight.
• The scheme aims to ensure foundational literacy and numeracy by 2025.

Under the programme:

• The education department will distribute workbooks to students from Classes 1 to 3to assess and bridge the learning gap.
• Teachers were advised to opt for interactive learning methods and encourage students to read newspapers and books in the school library.
• The State government has announced a slew of programmes and schemes for the academic year 2022-23, with the motive to improve the quality of education in the State.
• The children will be trained in 3 subjects – Tamil, English, and Mathematics in a classroom suitable for conducting lessons that are designed in the format of dance, songs, storytelling, and puppetry, and also videos.

• Fishing in the Pong Dam reservoir in lower Kangra district was banned for the next two month in view of fish breeding season. The ban which comes into effect every year from June 16 continues up to August 15.
• As per information, the Fisheries Department has deployed one flying squad and 18 patrolling teams to check illegal fishing during the breeding season.
• Apart from this, a power motor boat equipped with the latest techniques will also keep a vigil on illegal fishing in the reservoir.
• The patrolling teams will have its makeshift camps surrounding the Pong reservoir area.
• The department has engaged 24 outsourced workers, most of them fishermen, for undertaking this patrolling. Over 2,000 fishermen through 17 fisheries societies are licence holders and earn their livelihood by fishing.
• Sprawling over 24,000 hectares, the man-made water body, which is 42-km long and 19-km broad, is providing livelihood to nearly 2,800 fishermen.
• As per official information, the Pong reservoir is producing Singhara fish species which is around 60 per cent of the total fish production.
• It fetches the highest price among all species in the market. Apart from this, species of Rahu, Katla, Common Carpe and Mahasheer are also produced here which are in huge demand.
• During fish breeding season each fisherman will be paid Rs 4,500 for two month as off-season allowance-cum- compensatory financial relief in which the beneficiary will contribute Rs 1,500.
• The department is also providing free accidental insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh to every fisherman apart from providing quality fishing nets and boats at subsidized price to them.

• Chief Minister flagged off the second edition of “Rally of Chamba”, a motorsport rally, on the police ground under the ‘Chalo Chamba Campaign-2021’.
• 100 motorists from about 18 states participated in this event.
• Deputy Commissioner DC Rana detailed various events being held under the ‘Chalo Chamba Campaign’.
• This rally would give a boost to the tourism development in the area.

• Nepal is preparing to move its Everest base camp because global warming and human activity are making it unsafe.
• The camp, used by up to 1,500 people in the spring climbing season, is situated on the rapidly thinning Khumbu
• The camp currently sits at an altitude of 5,364m. The new one will be 200m to 400m lower
• Researchers say melt-water destabilises the glacier, and climbers say crevasses are increasingly appearing at base camp while they sleep.

• The United States has announced a funding of USD 122 million to the top three Indian medical research institutions to prevent avoidable epidemics, early detection of disease threats, and rapid and effective response.
• The total funding of USD 122,475,000 will, over a period of five years, be distributed to the three top Indian health research institutions — Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the National Institute of Virology (NIV) and the National Institute of Epidemiology (NIE).
• Announced by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),the fund will accelerate the progress towards an India which is safe and secure from infectious disease threats through ICMR institutions’ focus on emerging and re-emerging pathogens.
• Prominent among these include detecting and controlling zoonotic disease outbreaks through a ‘one health’ approach; evaluating vaccine safety monitoring systems; capacitating the public health workforce in field epidemiology and outbreak response; and combating antimicrobial resistance.
• These institutions are mandated by the Ministry of Health of Family Health and Welfare (MoHFW) to provide oversight for laboratory confirmation of priority pathogens in India in a tiered manner as well as collate and analyze surveillance data for public health actions and work closely with the state governments where these institutes are located.

• According to a senior Health Ministry official, No wild poliovirus but vaccine ­derived poliovirus (VDPV) was detected in the environmental surveillance of sewage samples from Kolkata.
• The genetic sequencing is done at the ICMR ­National Institute of Virology, Mumbai, and this was discussed with the World Health Organization (WHO).
• The Ministry said that the last time such a VDPV was detected was in New Delhi in 2018.
• State health officials detected the presence of VDPV from sewage in Kolkata earlier this week.
• A VDPV is a strain of the weakened poliovirus that was initially included in OPV and that has changed over time and behaves more like the wild or naturally occurring virus.
• According to the WHO, Poliomyelitis (polio) is a highly infectious viral disease that largely affects children under five years.
• The virus is transmitted person ­to ­person and spread mainly through the faecal oral route and multiplies in the intestine, from where it can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis.
• Of the three strains of wild poliovirus, type 2 and 3 strains have been globally eradicated.
• According to the WHO, as on 2020, wild poliovirus type 1 affects two countries — Pakistan and Afghanistan.