ABOUT THE MISSION

• It was announced as part of the Union Budget 2023.
• Objective- To eliminate sickle cell disease (SCD) as a public health problem in India before 2047.
• The overall aim is to enable access to affordable and quality health care for all SCD patients and to lower the prevalence through awareness, change of practices and screening interventions.
• The mission will entail awareness creation, universal screening of seven crore people in the 0-40 years age group in affected tribal areas and counselling through collaborative efforts of central ministries and state governments.
• Initially, the focus shall be on 17 states with higher prevalence of SCD– Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Bihar and Uttarakhand.

SICKLE CELL ANAEMIA

• Sickle cell anaemia is a genetic disease that means it can easily be passed from parents to children.
• This is a type of blood disorder in which the shape of red blood cells changes. They normally look round but, in this disease, they become crescent or C shaped.
• Due to this, the red blood cells are not able to do their work properly and there is a lack of blood in the whole body. Because of this anaemia becomes a disease.
• These sickle cells also become rigid and sticky, which can slow or block blood flow.
• It is caused by a defective gene called a sickle cell gene.
• A person will be born with sickle cell disease only if two genes are inherited—one from the mother and one from the father.
• Symtoms include extreme tiredness or fussiness from anaemia, painfully swollen hands and feet, and jaundice.
  • In advanced stages it can lead to severe pain, anaemia, organ damage, and infections.
• The only cure for this disease is bone marrow or stem cell transplantation.
• However, there are treatments that can help relieve symptoms, lessen complications, and prolong life.

• Global inventory of nuclear warheads has increased over the past year as per SIPRI’s latest ‘State of Armaments, Disarmament and International Security’.

ABOUT STATE OF ARMAMENTS, DISARMAMENT AND INTERNATIONAL SECURITY

• It is an annual assessment of the Sweden-based think tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
• As on January 2023, the world has 9,576 nuclear weapons in military stockpiles for potential use.
  • That is an increase of 86 weapons from January 2022.
• Of this stockpile, an estimated 3,844 warheads were ‘deployed’ with missiles and aircraft.
• Around 2,000 of these ‘deployed’ weapons — nearly all of which belonged to Russia or the USA—were kept in a state of high operational alert.
  • This means that they were fitted to missiles or held at airbases hosting nuclear bombers.
• Nine nuclear-armed states — the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel — continue to modernise their nuclear arsenals and have deployed several new nuclear-armed or nuclear-capable weapon systems in 2022.
• The estimate of the size of China’s nuclear arsenal increased from 350 warheads in January 2022 to 410 in January 2023.
• India was estimated to have a growing stockpile of about 164 nuclear weapons, up from 160 the previous year.
  • These weapons were assigned to a maturing nuclear triad of aircraft, land-based missiles and nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs).
• Pakistan possessed approximately 170 nuclear warheads as of January 2023 — up from 165 from the previous year.

ABOUT SIPRI

• The SIPRI is an independent international institute dedicated to research into conflict, armaments, arms control and disarmament.
• Established in 1966 at Stockholm, Sweden, SIPRI provides data, analysis and recommendations, based on open sources, to policymakers, researchers, media and the interested public.

• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) recently approved the PM-PRANAM (PM Programme for Restoration, Awareness, Generation, Nourishment and Amelioration of Mother Earth) scheme, which was a promise made in the last Budget.

ABOUT THE PM-PRANAM SCHEME

• It aims to reduce the use of chemical fertilisers by incentivising the state.
• Under the scheme, the states which will adopt alternative fertilisers will be incentivised with the subsidy that is saved by reducing the use of chemical fertilisers.
• The main objective of the scheme is to encourage the balanced use of fertilisers in conjunction with bio fertilisers and organic fertilisers.
• It will not have a separate budget.
• It will be financed by the savings of existing fertiliser subsidies under schemes.
• Half of the subsidy savings will be passed on to the state that saves the money as a grant.
• Out of this grant, 70% can be used to create assets related to the technological adoption of alternate fertilisers and alternate fertiliser production units at the village block, and district levels.
• The remaining 30% of grant money can be used to reward and encourage farmers, panchayats, and other stakeholders involved in fertiliser reduction and awareness generation.
• The government will evaluate the utilisation of fertilisers in terms of increase or decrease in overall consumption in a year vis-a-vis consumption over the past three years.
• The Integrated Fertilisers Management System (iFMS) is the platform envisaged to track the use of fertilisers.

• A recent outbreak of algae bloom – commonly known as red tide – has sickened and killed an unknown number of sea lions and dolphins in California.

ABOUT SEA-LION

• It is a marine mammal that belongs to the family Otariidae.
• These are known for their semi-aquatic lifestyle, spending a significant amount of time both on land and in the water.
• They have a streamlined body with a large head and a long, flexible neck.
• They inhabit rocky shorelines, islands, and sandy beaches.
• Globally, they can be found in various regions, including the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, and parts of the Indian Ocean.
• Sea lions are carnivorous and primarily feed on fish, such as herring, anchovies, sardines, and squid.
• Currently, there are six subspecies of sea lions: Australian sea lions, California sea lions, Galapagos sea lions, New Zealand sea lions, South American sea lions, and Steller sea lions.
• Threats- Introduced species, such as dogs, carry diseases that can spread to sea lions. They are vulnerable to the effects of climate change on ocean currents, which impacts their fish prey abundance. They are also victims of bycatch in fisheries.

ABOUT ALGAL BLOOMS

• An algal bloom is the rapid increase of the algae population in aquatic ecosystems, both in fresh and marine waters, where it is known as either water bloom or marine bloom, respectively.
• They thrive where there is an abundance of two nutrients; phosphorus and nitrogen, usually caused by runoff of nutrients (animal waste, fertilizers, sewage) from the land.
• It causes the production of a neurotoxin called domoic acid.
• The colors range from green, red, brown, and yellow. The major types of algal blooms are cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) and red tides (red algal blooms).
• Algal bloom are among the most common forms of eutrophication, which depletes the supply of oxygen, leading to the death of animal life.

• Industries Minister Harshwardhan Chauhan while presiding over the second meeting of the High-Powered Committee of the State Implementing Agency for the project directed that all departments concerned should make efforts for the successful implementation of the bulk drug park project proposed at Haroli in Una district.

• The Burmese peacock softshell turtle eggs have recently hatched in Myanmar.
• Burmese peacock softshell turtles , also known as Nilssonia Formosa, is endemic to Myanmar.
• It is one of five species in the genus Nilssonia.
• It is an oviparous species, meaning it lays eggs externally which then hatch after an incubation period.
• IUCN red list status: Critically Endangered
• Threats: highly sought after in East Asian food markets, habitat loss, accidental captures by fishermen, etc.

General Studies  3

Introduction

• Professor P.C. Mahalanobis, who introduced statistics to India, is a scientist whose absence is felt dearly even today. Mahalanobis’s lifelong courtship with statistics, his unwavering and fearless leadership to advance a statistics and survey culture in India, the founding of the Indian Statistical Institute — “a mighty monument of his handicraft” — and his nurturing of a generation of outstanding academicians have all left behind an enduring legacy.

The age of Big Data

• Over the past 20 years, there has been a global shift in both the nature of data and statistics.
• With the advent of the Internet and virtually everything confined to the Internet of Things, there has been a flood of data, most of it junk.
• We now have much more data than what available technology can leverage. This is widely perceived as the era of Big Data.
• Another significant yet related issue is how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming our lives and lifestyles.
• The state of society is precarious. One can wonder how Mahalanobis, a statistical doyen and a key figure in the early development of Indian democracy, would have responded to the Big Data-related craziness and the AI-driven revolution.
• Historically, data often appears to be Big when the available technology at that time fails to analyse it.
• Mahalanobis also encountered a Big Data problem when his large-scale surveys yielded lots of data that needed to be looked into for effective planning.
• To handle tons of data and tackle the complex mathematical calculations, Mahalanobis persuaded the government and succeeded in procuring the first two digital computers of the country (and South Asia, too) at his Indian Statistical Institute, in 1956 and 1958, and thus ushered in the age of computers in India.

Problems during COVID-19

• Mahalanobis was “a physicist by training, a statistician by instinct and an economist by conviction”. He had an uncanny knack for embracing technology for human welfare, perhaps as a result of his background in physics.
• Thus, one may safely perceive that Mahalanobis would have embraced the power of AI in enhancing human productivity, such as Big Data analyses, and perhaps in a way that is far more effective than how AI is currently applied to that goal.
• One recent Big Data foible, for instance, involved numerous contradictory projections during the COVID-19 era.
• One could argue that if Mahalanobis was alive today, the country’s COVID-19 response could have been much stronger.
• If he was in the lead, our data might be beyond question, and the analyses might be far more accurate.
• And India’s “Plan Man” could be the best person for planning to build optimal health-related infrastructures for combating future disasters.

AI regulation

• Around seven decades ago, from the perspective of the newly independent nation, planning — with the aid of extensive technocratic exercises with democratic participation — moved from the realm of politics, primarily due to Mahalanobis. Now, we are at the crossroads.
• India’s upcoming census will be a digital exercise. The dynamics of other surveys are also bound to change in the new normal setup. That is how statistics is evolving. We would miss the leadership of an expert such as Mahalanobis from this changed statistical perspective.

Conclusion

• As AI is threatening to replace millions of jobs without creating alternatives and is also aiding in spreading disinformation, there is a substantial global attempt to clip its wings.

• National Statistics Day is commemorated annually on June 29 to honor the significant contributions made by Professor Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis (celebrated on his birthday) in the fields of statistics and economic planning.
• He is often hailed as the ‘father of Indian statistics’.
• The theme of National Statistics Day, 2023 is “Alignment of State Indicator Framework with National Indicator Framework for Monitoring Sustainable Development Goals”.
• The first National Statistics Day was celebrated on June 29,

• The 64^th GEF council meeting was recently held in Brasilia, Brazil.
• The GEF Council approved the disbursement of $1.4 billion to accelerate efforts to tackle the climate, biodiversity, and pollution crises.
  • Of this, $653 million has been set aside for biodiversity and this would be used to help countries update their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans, biodiversity programmes and meet the targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).
  • The Framework was adopted at Convention on Biological Diversity COP15 in 2022.

ABOUT GEF

• GEF is a multi stakeholder partnership to tackle various environmental issues established during the 1992 Rio Earth Summit of UNFCCC.
• GEF funding is provided by participating donor countries and is mobilized through a replenishment process every four years.
• It serves as “financial mechanism” to five conventions-
  • Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
  • United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
  • Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs).
  • UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
  • Minamata Convention on Mercury.
• The GEF Assembly is composed of all 185 member countries, or participants including India.
• The GEF Council is the main governing body, with 32 members appointed by constituencies of GEF member countries.
• Secretariat- Washington, D.C.

• With the El Nino phenomenon almost certain to affect the Indian monsoon this year, high hopes are pinned on the development of a positive Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) and its ability to counterbalance the El Nino effect.
• IOD is defined by the difference in sea surface temperature between the eastern and western sides of the Indian Ocean.
  • The IOD was identified as an independent system in 1999.

RELATION BETWEEN EL NIÑO-SOUTHERN OSCILLATION (ENSO) AND IOD

• The air circulation in the Indian Ocean is from west to east, and in opposite directions at the upper level.
• In a normal year warm water from the west Pacific cross over to the Indian Ocean and make the air rise and strengthening the air circulation.
• During EL nino, the western side of the Pacific is cooler than normal because of which the Indian Ocean side also gets cooler and helps in the development of positive IOD.
• Similarly negative IOD is associated with LA-Nina.
• Researchers believe that while external factors such as ENSO can trigger IOD, many times is caused by the local circulations.
• A positive IOD helps rainfall along the African coast, and Indian subcontinent while suppressing it in the eastern Indian Ocean, and the opposite happens during a negative IOD.
• The impact of IODs is much weaker as compared to ENSO but they can subdue the impact of ENSO.