NASA wants to send the first woman and the next man to the Moon by the year 2024, which it plans on doing through the Artemis lunar exploration program. An Indian American astronaut named Raja Chari is set to accompany the crew in this mission.
Artemis Mission
In 2011, NASA began the ARTEMIS (Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence, and Electrodynamics of the Moon’s Interaction with the Sun) mission using a pair of repurposed spacecraft and in 2012 the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft studied the Moon’s gravity.
For the program, NASA’s new rocket called the Space Launch System (SLS) will send astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft a quarter of a million miles away from Earth to the lunar orbit.
The astronauts going for the Artemis program will wear newly designed spacesuits, called Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit, or xEMU.
These spacesuits feature advanced mobility and communications and interchangeable parts that can be configured for spacewalks in microgravity or on a planetary surface.
Kaziranga, home of the world’s most one-horned rhinos, has 96 species of wetland birds — one of the highest for wildlife preserves in India.
Kaziranga National Park
It is a protected area in the northeast state of Assam.
Spread across the floodplains of the Brahmaputra River, its forests, wetlands and grasslands are home to tigers, elephants and the world’s largest population of Indian one-horned rhinoceroses.
Much of the focus of conservation efforts in Kaziranga are focused on the ‘big four’ species— rhino, elephant, Royal Bengal tiger and Asiatic water buffalo.
The 2018 census had yielded 2,413 rhinos and approximately 1,100 elephants.
The tiger census of 2014 said Kaziranga had an estimated 103 tigers, the third highest population of the striped cat in India after Jim Corbett National Park (215) in Uttarakhand and Bandipur National Park (120) in Karnataka.
Kaziranga is also home to nine of the 14 species of primates found in the Indian subcontinent.
PM Modi has renamed the Kolkata Port Trust after Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee, at an event to mark its 150th anniversary.
History of Kolkata’s port
In the early 16th century, the Portuguese first used the present location of the port to anchor their ships, since they found the upper reaches of the Hooghly river beyond Kolkata, unsafe for navigation.
Job Charnock, an employee and administrator of the East India Company, is believed to have founded a trading post at the site in 1690.
Since the area was situated on the river with jungle on three sides, it was considered safe from enemy invasion.
After the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1833, this port was used to ship lakhs of Indians as ‘indentured labourers’ to far-flung territories throughout the Empire.
During World War II, the port was bombed by Japanese forces.
Its administration
As Kolkata grew in size and importance, merchants in the city demanded the setting up of a port trust in 1863.
The colonial government formed a River Trust in 1866, but it soon failed, and administration was again taken up by the government.
Finally, in 1870, the Calcutta Port Act (Act V of 1870) was passed, creating the offices of Calcutta Port Commissioners.
In 1869 and 1870, eight jetties were built on the Strand. A wet dock was set up at Khidirpur in 1892. The Khidirpur Dock II was completed in 1902.
As cargo traffic at the port grew, so did the requirement of more kerosene, leading to the building of a petroleum wharf at Budge Budge in 1896.
In 1925, the Garden Reach jetty was added to accommodate greater cargo traffic. A new dock, named King George’s Dock, was commissioned in 1928 (it was renamed Netaji Subhash Dock in 1973).
In 1975, the Commissioners of the port ceased to control it after the Major Port Trusts Act, 1963, came into force.
Significance
After Independence, the Kolkata Port lost its preeminent position in cargo traffic to ports at Mumbai, Kandla, Chennai, and Visakhapatnam.
The Kolkata port is the only riverine port on R. Hooghly in the country, situated 203 km from the sea.
The Farakka Barrage, built in 1975, reduced some of the port’s woes as Ganga waters were diverted into the Bhagirathi-Hooghly system.
January 12 is the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, the famous spiritual leader and intellectual from the late 19th century. In his honour, the government of India in 1984 declared his birthday as National Youth Day.
Swami Vivekananda early life
Vivekananda was born in Kolkata on January 12, 1863, as Narendra Nath Datta.
From an early age, he nurtured an interest in Western philosophy, history, and theology, and went on to meet the religious leader Ramakrishna Paramhansa, who later became his Guru.
He remained devoted to Ramakrishna until the latter’s death in 1886.
In 1893, he took the name ‘Vivekananda’ after Maharaja Ajit Singh of the Khetri State requested him to do so, changing from ‘Sachidananda’ that he used before.
After Ramakrishna’s death, Vivekananda toured across India, and set after educating the masses about ways to improve their economic condition as well as imparting spiritual knowledge.
The Chicago address
Vivekananda is especially remembered around the world for his speech at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago in 1893.
The speech covered topics including universal acceptance, tolerance and religion, and got him a standing ovation.
He began delivering lectures at various places in the US and UK, and became popular as the ‘messenger of Indian wisdom to the Western world’.
Return to India
After coming back to India, he formed the Ramakrishna Mission in 1897 “to set in motion a machinery which will bring noblest ideas to the doorstep of even the poorest and the meanest.”
In 1899, he established the Belur Math, which became his permanent abode.
His legacy
Through his speeches and lectures, Vivekananda worked to disseminate his religious thought.
He preached ‘neo-Vedanta’, an interpretation of Hinduism through a Western lens, and believed in combining spirituality with material progress.
‘Raja Yoga’, ‘Jnana Yoga’, ‘Karma Yoga’ are some of the books he wrote.
An important religious reformer in India, Swami Vivekananda is known to have introduced the Hindu philosophies of Yoga and Vedanta to the West.
Subhas Chandra Bose had called Vivekananda the “maker of modern India.”
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The human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir following the dilution of Article 370 and the passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) have brought renewed international focus on India’s human rights practice.
Evolution of the modern Human Rights
Classical approach: Countries made agreements on the premise that a sovereign state had the exclusive right to take any action it thought fit to deal with its nationals.
No recognition of individuals’ rights: Classic international law governed the conduct between states and did not recognise the rights of individuals.
The classical notion was challenged in the 19th century.
Modern Human Rights: Slavery Convention adopted by the League of Nations prohibiting the slave trade heralded the first human rights treaty.
It was based on the principle of dignity of a human being.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Adopted in 1948 by the United Nations, was the first comprehensive international human rights document.
The weakening of Unrestricted sovereignty: The evolution of international human rights law is also about the gradual weakening of the concept of unrestricted sovereignty.
India and Human Rights
Unwarranted international scrutiny: The Indian government’s response to its human rights practice has always been that international scrutiny is unwarranted.
Why India claims so?: Since the country is the largest democracy in the world with an independent judiciary, free media, and an active civil society no international scrutiny is required.
Indian has always assured the international community that the judiciary (the SC) would provide adequate remedies to victims of human rights violations.
These claims sound less credible after the recent developments in J&K and the passage of the CAA.
Human rights and Discriminatory nature of CAA: Non–discrimination is a fundamental principle of human rights.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said that CAA is fundamentally discriminatory in nature”.
Role of Civil Society and Media
Media’s questionable role: Responding to international concerns the Indian government also refers to the role of free media and civil society in protecting human rights.
However, the media’s role in J and K and after CAA is questionable.
Weakened Civil Society: The government has imposed various curbs on it since 2014.
It has become difficult for it to receive foreign contribution.
Use of FRCA: Since 2014, the government has canceled the registration of about 14,000 NGOs under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).
Conclusion
It is possible for the Indian government, due to its diplomatic clout, to avoid robust intervention by the UN Human Rights Council and other UN human rights mechanisms.
But it would be difficult to avoid scrutiny by the international community. So, the government must take steps to allay international concerns and avoid situations where it is seen as a violator of human rights.
It is time to get serious with your preparation and we have got your back.
After numerous conversations with so many aspirants, we have started understanding your problems better and standardizing solutions for the same.
These are being incorporated into our Samanvaya program. It is these practices that will make the program more effective.
At the core of Samanvaya lies the fact that each one of you will have a unique journey while preparing for the exam. Some will get through on the first attempt without much effort while others will take both more time and more effort. We want to understand you better to help you optimize your journey so you can focus on the right things and not waste time on the wrong ones. We are asking you to tap into the valuable experiences of mentors who underwent the same grind and realize the pitfalls and understand the shortcuts to make it.
Samanvaya program involves the following –
1. Identifying your weaknesses
Over 80% of students who claimed to have revised NCERTs were unable to answer basic questions. Many were not comfortable with at least 1 GS subject and Optional. Many struggled with ‘What went wrong’ after 2-3 years of hard work.
Our mentors will help you assess your preparedness and suggest accurate strategies.
2. Strategy and study plan discussions
Over 90% of students couldn’t stick to a plan. Study plans and strategies are iterative in nature and we want to help you with that. Many are unable to perform in tests despite preparing hard. This could be due to a variety of factors – lack of adequate prep, jitters in the exam hall, inadequate revision, lack of practice of test series or just a bad day at work. Tell us what you think went wrong and we’ll figure out a way to get you over the line next time.
3. Helping you understand the exam better
Which books to read, different approaches, etc. Over 60% of students we talked to did not find NCERTs relevant and saw no point in being thorough with them.
4. Lack of motivation
We have all had those days when it’s been hard to motivate ourselves to hit the books and just study. It happens to the best of us sometimes and for some of us, it happens more frequently. And it is understandable, Civil Service preparation is a long and often lonely process. Every aspirant, from toppers to those who have quit have been overwhelmed by this process at some point.
Samanvaya Code of Conduct
Be honest with your mentors about your preparation levels and stage.
Follow their advice and participate in tests and assignments that they set for you
Stay active in the telegram groups, ask doubts, don’t hold yourself back.
Don’t expect spoonfeeding. You have to drive the initiative.
The national catastrophe of farmers committing suicide since the 1990s, often by drinking pesticides is attributed to their inability to repay loans mostly taken from landlords and banks.
The recent data released by NCRB show a very marginal decline in the suicide rate compared to last year signifying the sorry state of Indian agriculture.
Farmers distress: Not a decadal phenomenon
Historical records relating to frustration, revolts and high mortality rates among farmers in India, particularly cash crop farmers, date back to the 19th century. However, suicides due to the same were rare.
The high land taxes of the 1870s, payable in cash regardless of the effects of frequent famines on farm output or productivity, combined with colonial protection of money lenders and landowner rights, contributed to widespread frustration among cotton and other farmers.
However, in those days, starvation related deaths far exceeded those by suicide, the latter being officially classified under “injuries”.
NCRB Stats on Farmers Suicide
In 2017, 10,655 people involved in agriculture committed suicide in India, according to data released January 2, 2020, by the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB).
NCRB had released the 2017 crime data last October 2019 but held back information on suicides.
Highlights by NCRB
A total of 10,349 farmers and agricultural labourers committed suicide in 2018, a marginal dip from the 10,655 cases in the year before.
Out of 5,763 farmer/cultivator suicides, a total of 5,457 were male and 306 were female during 2018.
Among those who took their lives, 5,955 were farmers/cultivators and 4,700 agricultural labourers — both lower than in 2016.
The number of women farmers committing suicide, however, jumped to 480 in 2017 from 275 in ’16.
In 2016, 6270 farmers killed themselves, down from 8,007 in 2015, while 5,109 farmhands committed suicide, up from 4,595.
Statewise data
In 2018, Maharashtra accounted for the highest share in farm-related suicides at 34.7%, followed by Karnataka at 23.2%, Telangana 8.8%, Andhra Pradesh 6.4% and Madhya Pradesh at 6.3%.
In 2017, the most number of farm suicides were reportedly in Maharashtra (34.7 per cent), followed by Karnataka (20.3 per cent), Madhya Pradesh (9 per cent), Telangana (8 per cent) and Andhra Pradesh (7.7 per cent).
The trend is quite similar to that of 2016.
In 2015 too Maharashtra tops in farmers suicides followed by Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh in 2016.
West Bengal, Odisha, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Uttarakhand, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Delhi, Lakshadweep and Puducherry reported zero suicides.
Causes of Farmers Suicide
There is no consensus on what the main causes might be but studies show suicide victims are motivated by more than one cause however the primer reasons being the inability to repay loans.
Major causes reportedly are bankruptcy/indebtedness, problems in the families, crop failure, illness and alcohol/substance abuse.
Most of the suicides have occurred in areas of cash crops like cotton and sugarcane, which is high input, high output gambling, not based on the principle of sustained and resilient high yield.
Case of Maharashtra
A 2012 study in rural Vidarbha (Maharashtra) was held to qualitatively rank the expressed causes among farming families who had lost someone to suicide.
The expressed reasons in order of importance behind farmer suicides were – debt, alcohol addiction, environment, low produce prices, stress and family responsibilities, apathy, poor irrigation, increased cost of cultivation, private money lenders, use of chemical fertilizers and crop failure.
In other words, debt to stress and family responsibilities as reasons were significantly higher than fertilizers and crop failure.
Other causes attributed are insufficient or risky credit systems, the difficulty of farming semi-arid regions, poor agricultural income, absence of alternative income opportunities, a downturn in the urban economy which forced non-farmers into farming, and the absence of suitable counselling services.
Other causes
Disguised unemployment on farms remains high. Fragmentation of land holdings has left far too many farmers with farms that are too small to be remunerative.
Low access to credit, irrigation and technology worsens their ability to make a comfortable living. A tenth of our farmers are landless.
They use rented land, but the inadequacies of land-leasing mechanisms make it difficult for them to raise production.
Latent causes of suicide
Since most discussions and parleys on suicides are overtaken by issues of crop failures, rising debts, new farming techniques, the psychological aspect is largely ignored.
One of the major causes behind suicidal intent is depression, found the researchers.
It needs to be understood that at times a farmer under a debt of Rs 2 lakh shows a tendency to end his life, while another under a debt of Rs 10 lakh does not.
Flawed preventive measures
Irrigation reaches less than half of India’s overall farmland, a picture that has not changed much over the past decade, and more than 60% of our farmers are susceptible to rainfall anomalies.
Rain-fed farming yields are typically less than half those of irrigated farmland.
Though India has caught up with global levels of fertilizer use, this is neither efficient nor environmentally sustainable. Both add to the cost of cultivation.
Research on high-yielding crops has plateaued after an initial burst during the Green Revolution and farmers have to resort to patented seeds to draw more out of their scanty acres.
Initiatives like the eNAM are helping integrate the farmers’ produce directly with the market, however, cutting the role of intermediaries is still lagging behind.
Enough with appeasement
Loan waivers instead of restructuring, re-investment measures are disguised pullbacks on govt. initiative to double farmer’s income by 2020.
The subsequent governments have focused only on credit and loan facilitation rather than income, productivity and farmers prosperity.
Our approach of handling farmer indebtedness and farmer suicides has been appeasement politics like the recent move by the Maharashtra, Punjab and UP government to waive off thousands of crore worth of loans.
Surprisingly this comes at a time when agricultural yield is expected to be better in the wake of a good monsoon.
Need of the hour: Psychological assistance
The study suggested roping in psychologists and counsellors on various issues.
They included battling depressive ruminations, suicidal ideations, negative cognitions, hopelessness, helplessness.
It aimed at recognising and managing stressors like financial distress, relationship problems, and enhancing psychological resources through emotional well being, and mindfulness.
Model of 7’s
The researchers developed a ‘7D’ model of triggering and confounding factors and a ‘7R’ model of preventive and protecting factors to deal with the problem of farmer suicides.
‘7D’ model
It encapsulates:
Drugs,
Debt,
Disease,
Disputes,
Depression,
Disrepute and
Death
‘7R’ model
It looks at the prevention of suicides. It consists:
Remunerative agriculture,
Resilience building,
Rational expenditure,
Reassurance through connectivity,
Righteous conduct,
Religious support and
Responsible reporting
Way Forward
With years of policy failures, it can be concluded that there is no single sure-shot method to reduce the burden on our farmers.
Information technology promises to improve weather forecasting, crop identification as well as damage control, soil health monitoring, and mapping of available water resources.
Improvements in marketing and logistics can significantly raise the share that cultivators get of the money people pay for their food.
The govt. is using technology to connect farmers to a nationwide e-market, but the states need to amend their antiquated farm produce marketing laws that have squeezed farmers’ earnings.
An old problem of price signals failing to adjust demand and supply may also need fixing.
For agricultural incomes to rise, reforms, rather than cash transfers, loan waivers and the like, are the way ahead.
Conclusion
The government, in consultation with various stakeholders, should come up with effective and long-term measures to reduce farmer indebtedness, improve crop yield, manage water resources efficiently and make alternate income sources to farmers.
Along with subsidies, increased farm profits, the focus should also be on resilience building and problem-solving skills of farming families.
In suicide-prone states, agricultural institutes and scientists should start distributing seeds of resilience, tolerance and contentment among farmers, suggested researchers.
The advent of a new tetravalent vaccine against the dengue virus has thrown new light into the evidence-based management of dengue.
Why the holistic approach is needed
Apart from promoting the use of the vaccine, gaining control over dengue will also require a holistic approach that has to include within its ambit vector control and proper case management.
Tetravalent vaccine: The vaccine is tetravalent i.e. it provides protection against all the four types of dengue viruses.
The vaccine confers about 80% protection to children vaccinated between 4 and 16 years of age without any major side effects.
Climatic factors: It is essentially a tropical disease that occurs in the countries around the Equator; hot weather and intermittent rainfall favour the sustenance of Aedes aegypti.
Aedes eggs can remain dormant for more than a year and will hatch once they come in contact with water.
Risk factors: Urbanisation, poor town planning, and improper sanitation are the major risk factors for the multiplication of such mosquitoes.
Aedes eggs can remain dormant for more than a year and will hatch once they come in contact with water.
Aedes mosquitoes cannot fly beyond a hundred meters. Hence, keeping the ambiance clean can help prevent their breeding.
Further, these mosquitoes bite during the daytime, so keeping the windows shut in the day hours is also useful.
What needs to be done?
Source reduction activities: Activities like preventing water stagnation and using chemical larvicides and adulticides.
These chemicals need to be applied in periodic cycles to kill the larvae that remain even after the first spray.
Dealing with the manpower shortage: The number of skilled workers available for such measures is low; many posts in government departments remain vacant despite there being a dire public health need.
Due to this deficiency of manpower, active surveillance is not being done in India, says the National Vector Borne Disease Control Program.
Ending the Under-reporting: Dengue cases are often under-reported due to political reasons and also to avoid spreading panic among the common people. Under-reporting needs to be dealt with.
Increasing coordination: There is a lack of coordination between the local bodies and health departments in the delivery of public health measures.
A comprehensive mechanism is required to address these issues.
Need for epidemiological measures: Any communicable disease needs the epidemiological approach. Singapore uses one successful model of mapping and analysing data on dengue, using Geographical Information System (GIS).
The use of GIS involves mapping the streets with dengue cases for vector densities.
Emphasis on the WHO guidelines: Fluid management in the body is the cornerstone in the management of severe diseases like dengue hemorrhagic fever and dengue shock syndrome.
According to the guidelines, coagulation abnormalities are not due to a reduction in the number of platelets alone.
This is why the WHO recommends fresh whole blood or packed cell transfusion in the event of bleeding.
Caution in using alternative medicine drugs: Modern medicine is not against any complementary medicine; when such a medicine is approved after rigorous testing.
However, in the absence of evidence, the efficacy of such medicines remains in the realm of belief instead of science.
So, medicines like Nilavembu kudineer and papaya leaf extract are only belief based.
Conclusion
The communicable nature of Dengue and its asymptomatic nature requires the holistic approach to successfully tackle the disease.
